Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
related that would occur in the general population in any case.
Additional benefits of their inclusion would allow the impact of time
in relation to symptoms in the experimental group to be assessed
more accurately, strengthening of the research design and
contributions to the body of knowledge in the area which was
previously lacking.
The researcher was mindful that completing psychological
questionnaires concerning psycho-physiological symptoms might be
distressing for some respondents given their severity and distress at
the time when they were experienced (O’Donohue and Ferguson,
2003). In these cases participants would be offered the opportunity
to opt out of the study and in the case of men with pregnant
partners, referral to an antenatal councillor if they so wished.
Data Collection
Men’s Health during Partner’s Pregnancy Questionnaire
The first questionnaire was developed from the interviews in the
first qualitative phase of the study (Brennan et al 2007b). It
measured the specific physical and psychological symptoms of the
syndrome across the trimesters of pregnancy as well as their
severity and distress and time course. The same questionnaire was
also used for the control group and entitled ‘Men’s Health
Questionnaire’. The study instrument contains a total of 44 items
covering physical symptoms including gastrointestinal (10),
respiratory (5), genitourinary (2), dental/oral (3), musculo-skeletal
(2), miscellaneous (5). Psychological symptoms included those
relating to sleep (3), mood (2), emotional affect (6), cognition (3),
miscellaneous (3). No reversal of scores was required for the study
instrument. The questionnaire is scored nominally for the presence
(yes) or absence (no) for each symptom and numerically on a scale
of 1-9 for the three descriptors of levels of symptom severity and
distress (1-3 not at all severe/distressing; 4-6 moderately
severe/distressing and 7-9 extremely severe/distressing). The term
“distress” in this context is defined by the American Psychiatric
Association (2004, p.9) as “a state of discomfort resulting from an
inability to adapt to internal or external stressors or conditions
experienced, resulting in negative affects on the health of the
individual”. The duration of each symptom is rated on a sub-scale
ranging from 1 day to more than 28 days. The questionnaire was
administered to men in the experimental group during the 1 st and 3 rd
trimesters of gestation and four weeks postpartum. For the control
group it was administered at 3 and 6-month comparative time
periods which matched those in the experimental group during the
1 st and 3 rd trimesters of pregnancy.
This questionnaire was piloted among a sample of 23 male partners
of pregnant women and subjected to a test of internal consistency
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