Tag: nevin manimala

Acta Med Philipp. 2026 Jan 30;60(2):66-72. doi: 10.47895/amp.vi0.11821. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Humans need constant interaction for a better well-being. It is advisable to actively participate socially to acquire psychological support and elicit satisfaction. In fact, social participation is a key driver of life satisfaction among the elderly. This study aims to describe social participation and life satisfaction among employees of a premier university in Manila, Philippines and infer their relationship through activity theory.

METHODS: Seventy-one participants ages fifty years and older as of June 30, 2020 representing various employee categories participated in the online survey: a) faculty; b) research extension and professional staff; and c) administrative staff. Ten key informant interviews (KIIs) were likewise conducted to determine their opinions and perceptions on social participation in campus.

RESULTS: Social media usage and “malling” ranked the highest, contributing to 76% and 48% of the activities for indoor and outdoor activities, respectively. In terms of membership, professional organizations comprised 69%. On the other hand, 68% of organization members were elected officers. The relationship between social participation and life satisfaction were observable as indicated by the high rate of social participation and low percentage of participants who reported life dissatisfaction (4%).

CONCLUSIONS: High levels of social participation in terms of indoor and outdoor activities; membership including activeness in organizations; as well as positions held in organizations may indicate high levels of life satisfaction. Further research on a large sample size may explore statistical analysis on the longitudinal effects of social participation and life satisfaction.

PMID:41835905 | PMC:PMC12982903 | DOI:10.47895/amp.vi0.11821

Acta Med Philipp. 2026 Jan 30;60(2):22-32. doi: 10.47895/amp.vi0.11548. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Clinical pathways (CPs) ensure adherence to heart failure (HF) management guidelines. To optimize quality care in a low resource setting, an evidence-based care pathway for the management of acute HF was implemented at the emergency department (ED) of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), the designated national tertiary hospital and referral center. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of adults with acute HF admitted at the ED and evaluate the quality of care they received, measured using physician adherence to the hospital’s acute heart failure CP.

METHODS: This was a retrospective, descriptive cohort study. We reviewed the inpatient charts of all adult patients with acute HF admitted to the ED of the PGH and referred to the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine between December 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023. Quality of care was assessed based on adherence to quality indicators adapted from routine and conditional order sets detailed in the pathway. Descriptive statistics was utilized to describe patient characteristics, quality of care, and outcomes.

RESULTS: Two hundred thirty-six (236) patients were included, with a mean age of 51.8 years. Majority were male (53.4%); hypertension (61.4%) and ischemic heart disease (53.8%) were the most common comorbidities, and infection the most common precipitant of decompensation (60.6%). There were optimal adherence rates to routine orders, which included referrals to Internal Medicine and Cardiology, baseline vital signs monitoring, fluid intake and output monitoring, chest radiograph, complete blood count, blood urea nitrogen, sodium, potassium, prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin time, arterial blood gas, urinalysis, and N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide. Conditional orders, such as oxygen support, focused echocardiography, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and the use of vasopressors, diuretics, and venous thromboembolism prophylactic agents, were optimally performed when warranted. However, we noted suboptimal adherence to certain resource-intensive conditional orders, such as hourly monitoring of urine output (61.4%), hooking to cardiac monitor (53.8%), and performance of 12-lead ECG within 10 minutes (56.8%). Further, only 43.9% of patients were referred to the intensive care unit. Troponin I, calcium, magnesium, and albumin were ordered in excess.

CONCLUSION: Overall adherence rate of physicians to the hospital’s Acute Heart Failure Pathway was satisfactory. Work is needed to improve adherence to hourly urine output monitoring, consistent hooking to cardiac monitor, and timely performance of 12-lead ECG – an effort that begins with expanding in-hospital diagnostic equipment and human resource supply. We recommend continuous pathway implementation with periodic evaluation and stakeholder feedback to further improve quality of care.

PMID:41835902 | PMC:PMC12982906 | DOI:10.47895/amp.vi0.11548

Acta Med Philipp. 2026 Jan 30;60(2):59-65. doi: 10.47895/amp.vi0.10060. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was initially known to affect the respiratory system and has been reported to also involve the cardiovascular system leading to myocardial damage. Remdesivir is one of the approved treatments for COVID-19, wherein viral replication is inhibited by terminating the RNA transcription prematurely. According to studies, the primary electrocardiographic effect of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients are sinus bradycardia and QT prolongation. The use of electrocardiogram (ECG) is an essential diagnostic tool in assessing the electrical conditions of the heart. The objective of this study is to describe the electrocardiographic profile of adult patients with COVID-19 who were given remdesivir and admitted in the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH). To this date, this is the only study done locally identifying the electrocardiographic profiles of adult patients with COVID-19 who were given remdesivir.

METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive study involving adult patients with COVID-19 who were given remdesivir and admitted in UP-PGH from June 2021 to June 2022. Demographic profiles and 12-lead ECG done during the hospital admission were gathered. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the clinical characteristics and the electrocardiographic findings of the patients.

RESULTS: There were 412 confirmed COVID-19 patients who were given remdesivir (mean age 56 years old; female 52%) included in this study. The most common comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and stroke. Majority of the patients had severe (58%) to critical (22%) COVID-19 infection. Most of the patients had sinus rhythm (94%), normal rate (72%), and normal axis (93%). The most common baseline ECG findings were non-specific ST-T wave changes (42%). Some patients had atrioventricular blocks (3.4%), bundle branch blocks (3.6%), prolonged QT interval (1.9%). Among those with repeat 12-L ECG (136 patients) during admission, ECG changes observed were sinus bradycardia (6%), prolonged QT interval (4%), and both (1.5%).

CONCLUSION: Based on this retrospective review, which to our knowledge is the only study done locally investigating the effects of remdesivir on ECG of adult Filipino patients with COVID-19 infection, majority of the patients had sinus rhythm, normal rate, and axis. The most common ECG finding was non-specific ST-T wave changes. This study demonstrated a low incidence of adverse ECG changes that would preclude the administration of remdesivir when indicated. These include sinus bradycardia and QT interval prolongation which did not require further interventions. ECG remains to be useful, low-cost noninvasive tool that can help monitor electrophysiologic adverse events of remdesivir.

PMID:41835901 | PMC:PMC12982897 | DOI:10.47895/amp.vi0.10060

Front Psychol. 2026 Feb 26;17:1791041. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1791041. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Earthquakes are frequently associated with elevated levels of psychological trauma, particularly among vulnerable groups. In this context, understanding the conceptual pathways and relational processes through which individuals cope becomes an important focus for research.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the serial mediation role of life engagement and coping humor in the link between psychological resilience and trauma among physical education and sport teachers affected by the earthquake, aiming to clarify how individual and psychosocial resources contribute to post-trauma adaptation.

METHODS: The study was conducted with 689 physical education and sport teachers affected by the earthquake. Data were collected using the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Life Engagement Scale (LES), the Coping Humor Scale (CHS), and the Post Earthquake Trauma Level Determination Scale (PETLDS). Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS v22. The relationships among the variables were examined using Pearson correlation and regression analyses, and serial mediation associations were tested using the PROCESS Macro v3.5 (Model 6) with 5,000 bootstrap samples.

RESULTS: Psychological resilience was negatively associated with post-earthquake trauma in the serial mediation model (β = -0.736, p = 0.030). Life engagement and coping humor were associated with this relationship through statistically significant indirect pathways, as indicated by bootstrap confidence intervals that did not include zero [a1b1 = -0.110, 95% CI (-0.231, -0.018); a2b2 = -0.077, 95% CI (-0.183, -0.004); a1d1b2 = -0.033, 95% CI (-0.082, -0.003)]. These findings indicate that resilience, life engagement, and coping humor are related through theoretically consistent indirect associations within the proposed serial mediation framework.

CONCLUSION: Psychological resilience, life engagement, and coping humor were associated with individuals’ trauma experiences following the earthquake. The findings indicate that these factors constitute relevant psychosocial resources in post-disaster contexts; however, their potential implications should be interpreted cautiously, given the study’s cross-sectional design.

PMID:41835898 | PMC:PMC12979233 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1791041

Front Psychol. 2026 Feb 27;17:1748385. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1748385. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Social-Emotional Competence is regarded as a core ability necessary for individual development in the 21st century, playing a significant role in improving students’ academic performance and promoting social development. As key guides to student development, teachers play an important role in cultivating children’s social-emotional competence. This study aims to explore the impact of teacher care on students’ social-emotional competence and its underlying mechanism.

METHODS: A moderated mediation model was constructed based on the 2013-2014 data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), the most recent nationally representative dataset available for this type of analysis. Using data on teacher care, teacher-student relationship, social-emotional competence, migration status, and relevant covariates, a total of 12,319 valid samples were analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, mediation effect test, and moderated mediation analysis.

RESULTS: Teacher care positively predicted social-emotional competence, teacher-student relationship partially mediated the relationship between teacher care and social-emotional competence. Analysis of simple moderation effects suggests that students’ migration status moderated the relationship between teacher care and teacher-student relationship.

DISCUSSION: These findings highlight the critical role of enhancing teachers’ caring behaviors and fostering positive teacher-student relationships in improving adolescents’ social-emotional competence. This study holds significant practical implications for promoting the harmonious physical and mental health development of middle school students.

PMID:41835893 | PMC:PMC12982437 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1748385

Front Psychol. 2026 Feb 26;17:1656208. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1656208. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: This randomized controlled trial aimed to compare the effects of HIIT-30S protocols (30 s work/30 s rest) and Tabata protocols (20 s work/10 s rest) protocols on physical fitness and cognitive function in sedentary college students.

METHODS: Eighty-four undergraduates (19.07 ± 0.76 years; 34 males and 60 females) were stratified into HIIT-30S, Tabata, or moderate-intensity training (MICT) groups and completed 24 supervised sessions over 8 weeks. Physical outcomes included an 800-m run (cardiorespiratory endurance), push-ups/sit-ups (muscular endurance), 50-m sprint (speed), the Sitting Reach Test (flexibility), and heart rate recovery (cardiovascular recovery ability). Cognitive assessments encompassed the WAIS-IV core cognition (general intelligence), letter-number sequencing test (working memory), time management questionnaire (TMQ), emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ), reaction time testing, and a 12 weeks follow-up comprehensive cognition questionnaire. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

RESULTS: HIIT-30S and Tabata outperformed MICT in all domains (P < 0.05). HIIT-30S elicited superior physical adaptations: 800-m run time decreased by -11.78 s, push-ups increased +9.29 reps, sit-ups increased +11.39 reps, 50-m sprint decreased -0.37 s, and HRR improved +12.66%. Tabata showed greater neurocognitive enhancements: WAIS-IV core cognition scores rose +10.47 points, letter-number sequencing scores rose +1.68 points, TMA scores rose +10.97 points, EMA scores rose +16.79 points, simple reaction time decreased -40.61 ms, choice reaction time decreased -65.15 ms, and Continuous Reaction time decreased -51.14 ms. At the 12-week follow-up, HIIT-30S maintained cognitive gains (+3.05%) with the greatest improvement compared to Tabata (+1.97%).

DISCUSSION: These findings indicate that the work-to-rest ratio is a key determinant of training effects, enabling protocol customization for specific individual fitness and cognitive aims.

PMID:41835882 | PMC:PMC12979124 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1656208

Front Psychol. 2026 Feb 27;17:1720303. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1720303. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy students often struggle with accurate self-assessment of learning outcomes. Many students overestimate exam performance, reflecting poor metacognitive awareness and overconfidence. This study examined the relationships between metacognitive awareness, self-confidence in grade predictions, and academic performance in pharmacy education, thus addressing how these factors interact without inferring causation.

METHODS: Pharmacy students (n = 151) at King Saud University participated in this study while enrolled in a Pathophysiology, Drug Action, and Therapeutics course. Surveys were pre-tested and post-tested twice at two midterm examinations to determine their self-reported metacognitive awareness and confidence. Students made predictions for future course grades. These self-tests were then contrasted to actual exam scores. Statistical analysis was performed using R software version 4.3.1, and students were categorized by metacognitive and confidence ability.

RESULTS: Despite underperforming on the first exam, students’ confidence in their grade predictions remained high. Students with better metacognitive awareness and well-calibrated confidence scored significantly higher on exams (p < 0.01). Metacognitive cognition and confidence were positively associated with academic performance (r = 0.467 and 0.361, p < 0.01), and with each other (r = 0.251, p < 0.01). Gender differences showed higher overall confidence and metacognitive cognition scores in males.

DISCUSSION: The results indicate that metacognition and confidence are critical for academic performance. These findings suggest that educational programs targeting self-evaluation warrant further investigation.

PMID:41835871 | PMC:PMC12982428 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1720303

Front Psychol. 2026 Feb 27;17:1744494. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1744494. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

L2 vocabulary learning of late bilinguals is characterized by the mediation of their L1, which may lead to differences in access efficiency and activation pathway among learners with different representational preferences. In the experiment, we used statistical methods to compare the importance of representational preferences with the well-investigated factors, i.e., L2 proficiency and cognitive style, on late bilinguals’ L2 lexical access. The results showed that representational preference was a more effective variable for subject classification. Furthermore, participants with different representational preferences were compared in response time to word translation judgment tasks. The results showed that participants with different representational preferences showed differences in lexical access efficiency, and those with imagistic preference also implied shifts in the access pathway between unfamiliar and familiar words.

PMID:41835864 | PMC:PMC12982423 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1744494

Front Psychol. 2026 Feb 26;17:1654996. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1654996. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Reliable and accurate measurement is fundamental to scientific progress; however, the dominant measurement practices in psychology, clinical psychology, and prediction research often lack rigor. Improving measures using Rasch Measurement Theory (RMT) offers advantages by fulfilling the key psychometric properties of unidimensionality, local independence of items, ordering of response categories, and invariance. Ordinal-level sum scores can be transformed into interval-level latent trait scores, thereby improving the measurement precision. However, the impact of using psychometrically advanced questionnaires with latent trait scores, as opposed to traditional sum scores, in predictive models is still unclear. This study evaluates whether using latent trait scores as predictors and outcomes, in accordance with RMT, improves predictive performance compared to using traditional sum scores when predicting treatment outcomes during psychological treatment.

METHODS: Self-rated symptom data from three different questionnaires, collected over the first 4 weeks of psychological treatment from 6,464 patients undergoing a 12-week treatment program, were used to predict post-treatment outcomes on the same questionnaires. This was done in two ways: (1) using sum scores as the questionnaires were originally developed and (2) using a reformulated, more psychometrically robust version of the questionnaires based on Rasch analysis, which was also shorter. The prediction models used were linear regression, Bayesian ridge regression, and random forest. Multiple imputations were used to address missing data, and nested cross-validation was employed for hyperparameter tuning and scoring.

RESULTS: Latent scores calculated using the psychometrically optimized shorter version, which comprises 23% of the full scale, showed similar predictive performance compared to the sum score of the full scale. Overall, there was a statistically significant but practically negligible difference of 0.007-0.008 in the root mean squared error (RMSE) when comparing the original sum score to the latent trait scores.

CONCLUSION: Initial findings comparing psychometrically improved questionnaires with the original ordinal sum scores within a predictive framework indicate that using latent trait scores derived from these improvements showed the predictive performance similar to the sum score of the full scale. The small differences suggest that the improved versions remain valuable owing to their enhanced psychometric qualities and the reduction in response burden by using considerably fewer items. Further research is needed to explore the use of latent trait scores compared to ordinal sum scores in predictive research.

PMID:41835861 | PMC:PMC12979473 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1654996

Int J Womens Health. 2026 Mar 10;18:588653. doi: 10.2147/IJWH.S588653. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe surgical outcomes after different types of colorectal surgery for bowel endometriosis and to present the feasibility of LscPR in bowel endometriosis.

DESIGN: Retrospective analysis.

SETTING: Gynecological department at the Jinhua Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital.

INTERVENTIONS AND MEASUREMENTS: From January 2014 to November 2024, we recruited 320 patients with bowel endometriosis who underwent LscShR (n=108), LscDR (n=70), LscSgR (n=73), or LscPR (n=69).

MAIN RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 4.6 years (range: 1-10 years), one patient rejected subsequent treatment in the LscShR and LscSgR groups, respectively, and two patients were lost to follow-up in the LscDR group; a total of 316 women completed the follow-up questionnaire. The total complication rate was highest in the LscSgR group (16.67%), followed by the LscDR (5.88%), LscPR (4.35%), and LscShR (1.87%) groups, with a statistically significant difference (P = 0.002). BE recurrence was seen only in the LscShR (12.15%) and LscDR (7.35%) groups (P < 0.001). DIE recurrence rates were low and similar across all groups (P = 0.810), ranging from 1.45% (LscPR) to 4.41% (LscDR). The incidence of low anterior rectal resection syndrome in the LscPR group was similar to that of the LscShR and LscDR (P > 0.05) groups, and the parameter was significantly lower than that in the LscSgR group (P < 0.05);.The LscPR surgical method was associated with the most comprehensive postoperative symptom improvement, achieving the best overall BENS scores. The rectal sensory parameters (FRS, CRS, MRTS) and the operation time of the balloon extraction test in the LscPR group were similar to those in the LscDR and LscShR groups (P > 0.05), and significantly lower than those in the LscSgR group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of a retrospective study, our data suggest that LscPR is an effective approach for bowel endometriosis, associated with significant symptom improvement and fewer complications.

PMID:41835853 | PMC:PMC12988806 | DOI:10.2147/IJWH.S588653