Instruments for assessing sexual dysfunction in Arabic: A systematic literature review

Sexual health is relevant throughout a person's life; however, studying human sexuality is complex and requires particular care when working with individuals from different cultural and social backgrounds. Much of the research addressing this subject has been conducted in Western countries, and that in non-Western countries is generally based on small sample sizes. The biopsychosocial nature of sexuality and its dysfunctions should be taken into consideration given that it is indispensable when conducting and assessing sexual studies in different countries and cultures. Therefore, culturally sensitive studies that consider cultural contexts and determinants as well as social markers are needed. The topic of sexuality in Arab culture is still enigmatic. This enigma has impacted the advancement of sexual science and limited researchers, health care practitioners, and patients. Thus, the aim of this systematic literature review was to find and assemble all scales and questionnaires regarding human sexual health that have been translated into Arabic and validated in order to promote a critical analysis of the methods used in each instrument and to inform readers and researchers of the limits and potential of each scale. Electronic databases were systematically searched, and eight instruments were selected for inclusion: the Arabic Index of Premature Ejaculation (AIPE), the Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM), the Arabic Female Sexual Function Index (ArFSFI), the Female Genital Self-Image Scale (AVFGSIS), the Arabic Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX), the Egyptian Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-IR), the Saudi Arabian Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire in Arabic (PSIQ-IR), and the Arabic Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS). All included instruments showed good validity and reliability for the target population. Future studies are needed to develop culturally sensitive instruments.

Listening to and Believing Derogatory and Threatening Voices

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS

A plausible cause of distress for voice hearers is listening to and believing the threats and criticisms heard. Qualitative research indicates that patients have understandable reasons to listen. This study aimed to develop the understanding of distress using this listening and believing framework. Measures were developed of listening and believing voices and the reasons, and associations with distress tested.

STUDY DESIGN

A cross-sectional study of patients hearing derogatory and threatening voices (N = 591). Listening and Believing-Assessment and Listening and Believing-Reasons item pools were completed, and assessments of distress. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted.

STUDY RESULTS

52% (n = 307) of participants believed their voices most or all the time. Listening and believing had 4 factors: active listening, passive listening, believing, and disregarding. Higher levels of believing, active listening, and particularly passive listening were associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and voice distress. Reasons for listening and believing formed 7 factors: to better understand the threat; being too worn down to resist; to learn something insightful; being alone with time to listen; voices trying to capture attention; voices sounding like real people; and voices sounding like known people. Each type of reason was associated with active listening, passive listening, and believing. SEM showed that feeling worn down in particular accounted for listening and believing. Test-retest reliability of measures was excellent.

CONCLUSIONS

A framework of listening and believing negative voices has the potential to inform the understanding and treatment of voice distress.

Assessing the need of young people using online counselling services: how useful are standardised measures?

BACKGROUND

Clinical assessments for children and young people entering a mental health service help to identify the prevalence of need within that population, support intervention recommendations, and enable service evaluation. Evidence related to the use of standardised measures in an ever-expanding online environment, for the purpose of identifying need, is limited.

METHODS

This study explores the reliability of using a standardised measure to detect clinical need in an online therapeutic environment, and the measures assessed are as follows: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Young Person's CORE (YP-CORE) and the Short Warwick and Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS). A deep-dive approach is used to inform practitioner assessment of young people, followed by a Weighted Cohen's Kappa (Κw) to measure the interrater reliability between this and the individuals' self-rated outcome. Composite case studies represent the complexities of presentation among the sample population.

RESULTS

The interrater reliability between self-rated and practitioner rated assessment varied between Κw = .222 and Κw = 0.446 depending on the measure. High levels of need and low levels of well-being were found among the sample (YP-CORE Avg. = 26.9, SDQ Avg. = 19.56, SWEMWBS Avg. = 18.1).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings demonstrate a fair to moderate reliability when assessing concordance between service users and practitioners, which suggests standardised measures are a reliable indicator of need. Higher levels of need were present than those seen previously in general or face-to-face clinical populations, which suggests using such measures in an online therapeutic environment influences the way in which assessments are responded to.

[Parenting capacity: Definitions, indicators, and assessment]

Parenting capacity: Definitions, indicators, and assessment Abstract. Parenting capacity is a broadly defined term that refers to the ability of parents to meet their children's needs. The assessment of parenting capacity is crucial to child-protection concerns and often an essential task in psychological evaluations for family law proceedings. Despite the relevance of the construct as a factor influencing child development and its frequent use in normative legal decisions, there is little consensus in the psychological literature regarding the definition of the construct. This literature review identifies, analyzes, and systemizes the national and international definitions of parenting capacity and the associated indicators. Following a comprehensive literature search, we included the work of 12 authors in this analysis. After checking for overlaps in content, we were able to categorize 58 indicators of parenting capacity into 29 different groups of indicators. The literature review also identifies German instruments that assess the construct of parenting capacity and its limitation. No instrument exists in the German literature which explicitly measures the parenting capacity as a construct. We did, however, identify five instruments that measure related constructs. We evaluated these instruments for their psychometric quality and their applicability in the context of psychological evaluation in family law. We discuss the diagnostic relevance of the identified definitions and indicators of parenting capacity as well as the practicality of the assessment instruments for psychological evaluations in family law proceedings.

Do restrained eaters show increased BMI, food craving and disinhibited eating? A comparison of the Restraint Scale and the Restrained Eating scale of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire

Despite being used interchangeably, different measures of restrained eating have been associated with different dietary behaviours. These differences have impeded replicability across the restraint literature and have made it difficult for researchers to interpret results and use the most appropriate measure for their research. Across a total sample of 1731 participants, this study compared the Restraint Scale (RS), and its subscales, to the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) across several traits related to overeating. The aim was to explore potential differences between these two questionnaires so that we could help to identify the most suitable measure as a prescreening tool for eating-related interventions. Results revealed that although the two measures are highly correlated with one another (rs = 0.73-0.79), the RS was more strongly associated with external (rs = -0.07 to 0.11 versus -0.18 to -0.01) and disinhibited eating (rs = 0.46 versus 0.31), food craving (rs = 0.12-0.27 versus 0.02-0.13 and 0.22 versus -0.06) and body mass index (rs = 0.25-0.34 versus -0.13 to 0.15). The results suggest that, compared to the DEBQ, the RS is a more appropriate measure for identifying individuals who struggle the most to control their food intake.

Objective outcome measures: Collecting meaningful data on alopecia areata

BACKGROUND

Although alopecia areata is a common disorder, it has no US Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment and evidence-based therapeutic data are lacking.

OBJECTIVE

To develop guidelines for the diagnosis, evaluation, assessment, response criteria, and end points for alopecia areata.

METHODS

Literature review and expert opinion of a group of dermatologists specializing in hair disorders.

RESULTS

Standardized methods of assessing and tracking hair loss and growth, including new scoring techniques, response criteria, and end points in alopecia areata are presented.

LIMITATIONS

The additional time to perform the assessments is the primary limitation to use of the methodology in clinical practice.

CONCLUSION

Use of these measures will facilitate collection of standardized outcome data on therapeutic agents used in alopecia areata both in clinical practice and in clinical trials.

The assessment of anxiety in aged care residents: a systematic review of the psychometric properties of commonly used measures

ABSTRACTBackground:Assessing anxiety among residential aged care facility (RACF) residents is challenging, and it cannot be assumed that valid and reliable measures used within the community are also appropriate for this setting. This review systematically examined the literature to identify which anxiety measures were most commonly used with older adults in RACFs, and determine whether psychometric data support their use within this population.

METHODS

Using the PRISMA guidelines, five electronic databases were searched using key terms and subject headings. The search was limited to literature published in English. Eligible studies utilized an anxiety measure to assess anxiety symptoms among RACF residents. Based on the findings of this search, a critical review of the research into the reliability, validity, and administrative and respondent burden of the most commonly used measures (i.e. used in four or more studies) was conducted.

RESULTS

In total, 1,771 articles were identified, with 50 studies included in this review. Overall, 22 measures were used, with the majority of studies utilizing a clinician-administered or self-report measure. The RAID, HADS, STAI, and GAI were the most commonly used measures. While overall there is a lack of research and consensus into the psychometric properties of these measures within RACFs, strongest evidence of reliability and validity was found for the GAI.

CONCLUSION

Commonly used measures of anxiety within aged care populations are not well validated for this complex subsample of older adults. Strengths and weaknesses of each measure with regards to their usefulness in aged care settings are discussed, with future research areas highlighted.

Longitudinal declines in instrumental activities of daily living in stable and progressive mild cognitive impairment

BACKGROUND

Previous cross-sectional studies suggest that assessments of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) may be useful for operationalizing the differences in functional deficits seen in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. However, their utility for longitudinal changes in IADLs in the transition between MCI and dementia remains unclear.

METHODS

We analyzed longitudinal IADL data with the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) in stable (MCI-S; n = 1,318) or progressive (MCI-P; n = 1,108) MCI patients.

RESULTS

Larger increases in FAQ scores were seen in the MCI-P group across a 14.5-month interval, but overlapping distributions in the two groups yielded poorer discriminatory power than prior cross-sectional reports.

CONCLUSION

Our findings emphasize the difficulties in operationalizing the criterion of 'essentially intact' IADLs in MCI, which may complicate the interpretation of disease progression in MCI treatment trials.

New trends in assessing the outcomes of mental health interventions

Assessing the outcomes of interventions in mental health care is both important and challenging. The aim of this paper is to advance the field of outcomes research by proposing a taxonomy of the decisions that clinicians and researchers need to consider when evaluating outcomes. Our taxonomy has eight components, framed as decisions: Whose outcome will be considered? Which scientific stage is being investigated? What outcome domain(s) matter? What level of assessment will be used? Will clinical and/or recovery outcomes be assessed? Whose perspective will be considered? Will deficits and/or strengths be the focus? Will invariant or individualized measures be preferred? We propose a future focus on understanding what matters most to people using mental health services, and on the use of measures rated by service users as the primary approach to evaluating outcome.

Measurement of dietary restraint: validity tests of four questionnaires

This study tested the validity of four measures of dietary restraint: Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Eating Inventory (EI), Revised Restraint Scale (RS), and the Current Dieting Questionnaire. Dietary restraint has been implicated as a determinant of overeating and binge eating. Conflicting findings have been attributed to different methods for measuring dietary restraint. The validity of four self-report measures of dietary restraint and dieting behavior was tested using: (1) factor analysis, (2) changes in dietary restraint in a randomized controlled trial of different methods to achieve calorie restriction, and (3) correlation of changes in dietary restraint with an objective measure of energy balance, calculated from the changes in fat mass and fat-free mass over a six-month dietary intervention. Scores from all four questionnaires, measured at baseline, formed a dietary restraint factor, but the RS also loaded on a binge eating factor. Based on change scores, the EI Restraint Scale was the only measure that correlated significantly with energy balance expressed as a percentage of energy required for weight maintenance. These findings suggest that, of the four questionnaires tested, the EI Restraint Scale was the most valid measure of the intent to diet and actual caloric restriction.