Parental Burnout and the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Portuguese Parents Experienced Lockdown Measures

OBJECTIVE

This work aimed to analyze parental burnout (PB) and establish a comparison between the times before (Wave 1) and during (Wave 2) the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional stress to families. The pandemic could be particularly difficult for parents experiencing parental burnout, a condition that involves four dimensions: an overwhelming sense of exhaustion, emotional distancing from the child, saturation or a loss of fulfillment with the parental role, and a sharp contrast between how parents used to be and how they see themselves now.

METHOD

A quasi-longitudinal research design was adopted, comparing two cross-sectional studies among Portuguese parents (N = 995), with an interval of 2 years between each wave of data collection. Participants were surveyed voluntarily through an online questionnaire located on the institutional web platform of the universities involved in the study. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to take into account the associations among variables, alongside controlling the possible confounding effects.

RESULTS

Parents have overall higher parental burnout scores in Wave 2 than Wave 1, with increased exhaustion, emotional distancing, and contrast, but decreased saturation. Although parental burnout levels remain higher for mothers across the two Waves, the growth is greater for fathers than for mothers.

CONCLUSION

Reconciling childcare with paid work is a stressful and new experience for many fathers. However, results suggest that even amid a crisis, some parents had the opportunity to deeply bond with their children.

IMPLICATIONS

We expect this work to encourage stakeholders to consider proper intervention strategies to address potential parental burnout. Also, initiatives that strengthen gender equity within parenting context are needed.

Preditores das Crenças de Autoeficácia de Jovens Frente aos Papéis de Adulto

Resumo O objetivo do estudo foi testar um modelo de predição para as crenças de autoeficácia de jovens face aos papéis de adulto, identificando seus recursos e de seus contextos. Participaram 434 jovens de ambos os sexos (idade entre 18 e 29 anos), provenientes majoritariamente do estado do Rio de Janeiro. Os instrumentos utilizados foram: Escala de Autoeficácia face aos Papéis de Adulto; Inventário de Habilidades Sociais; Índice de Solidariedade Intergeracional; Inventário de Dimensões da Adultez Emergente; Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil. Resultados indicaram que as variáveis sexo, foco em si, instabilidade, valores familiarese habilidades sociais de expressão de sentimentos positivospredisseram as crenças de autoeficácia dos jovens.São discutidas as implicações desses resultados para pesquisas de avaliação e intervenção.

Quality of life and aortobifemoral bypass: The importance of hypogastric arteries

INTRODUCTION

The aortobifemoral bypass (AFB) is one of the best options to revascularize patients with Aortoiliac Occlusive Disease (AIOD). The impact of this procedure in sexual function (SF) is unpredictable, with 0 to 80% of the patients reporting sexual dysfunction (SD) after surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate SD after AFB and to assess the importance of patent hypogastric arteries before the procedure.

METHODS

The study includes only male population submitted to AFB due to AIOD from between January 2013 and March 2016 in Centro Hospital São João (CHSJ). Patients with major amputations after the surgery or dead were excluded. The development of SD was evaluated by phone call. The quality of life before and after the procedure was evaluated by a standardized index score questionnaire (15D). Pre-operative patency of hypogastric arteries was appraised by assessing the patients imaging file. The arteries with direct anterograde flow were considered patent.

RESULTS

Of a total of 53 patients, 40 were included in the study - 37% reported worsening, 26% improved and 37% didn't notice any change in SF after surgery. Exclusion causes were intrahospital death (5.7%), natural cause death (9.4%) and major amputation (11.3%). If at least one of the hypogastric arteries was patent before surgery, 51.1% described worsening in SF compared to only 7.1% in the group with no sustained anterograde flow to the hypogastric arteries (p<0.001). The majority of the group (92.1%), wasn't warned of the possibility of SD after surgery, being that 26.3% of these would have refused the procedure if they knew.

CONCLUSION

SD is a prevalent and often overlooked complication after open aortoiliac revascularization and it remains a major taboo in the surgeon/patient relation. The existence of at least one hypogastric artery with preserved anterograde flow before surgery can strongly predict a higher risk of SD after surgery.

Acid-base balance following Tityus serrulatus scorpion envenoming in anaesthetized rats

In the present work the pH and arterial blood gases were measured in fasted and fed male albino rats, weighing 297 +/- 13 g, anaesthetized with urethane (1.4 g/kg, i.p.) before and after injection of T1 fraction from Titys serrulatus scorpion venom, during 60 min. Arterial blood samples were collected at 0, 5, 15, 30 and 60 min for pH, pCO2, pO2, bicarbonate and base-excess analysis. The data showed that the scorpion toxin induced a continuous drop in the blood pH along the time. Hypercapnia and hypoxemia peaking at 30 min and followed by a recovery towards normal values at 60 min were also observed. A pronounced decrease in the blood bicarbonate levels at 60 min and negative base-excess values along with time were evident at 60 min. The comparisons between fasted and fed animals have shown that in the last group the effects of scorpion toxin on the arterial blood gases were less pronounced. We conclude that T1 fraction of Tityus serrulatus scorpion venom induces in anaesthetized rats an acute respiratory acidosis followed by metabolic acidosis.