0000000000140427
AUTHOR
Marja Mikkelsson
I´m tired of being tired - Fatigue as experienced by women with fibromyalgia
AbstractThe aim of the study was to explore how fatigue was experienced and explained in life stories of women with a long history of fibromyalgia to gain a deeper understanding of fatigue as a phenomenon. The data was drawn from the narrative interviews of 20 purposively chosen women with fibromyalgia. In the analysis, the ideas of episodic reading and paradigmatic analysis of narratives were used to find recurrent and repeated experiences of fatigue from the data. Five main themes emerged from the data: sleepless nights, physical weakness, loss of mental energy, social withdrawal and overwhelming exhaustion. The narratives indicated that in fibromyalgia, fatigue is a transient, extreme an…
The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and use of painkillers among adolescent male ice hockey players in Finland
Participating in competitive sport increases the risk for injuries and musculoskeletal pain among adolescent athletes. There is also evidence that the use of prescription drugs has increased among sport club athletes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of painkillers among young male ice hockey players (IHP) in comparison to schoolboys (controls) and its relation to the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and problems during activities and sleeping. Information was gathered through a questionnaire, completed by 121 IHP and compared to the responses of 618 age-matched controls. Results showed that monthly existing pain was at 82% for IHP, and 72% for controls, though IHP had st…
School fitness tests as predictors of adult health-related fitness.
Relationships between adolescent physical fitness and adult health-related fitness were investigated. Forty-five subjects (20 males, 25 females) participated in physical fitness tests in 1976 and again in 2001. The adolescent physical fitness tests were distance running (2,000 m for boys or 1,500 m for girls), 50 m run, pull-ups (boys) or flexed arm hangs (girls), shuttle run, a 30-sec sit-up test, standing broad jump, hand grip-test, and sit-and-reach test. The adult health-related physical fitness index (APFI), stratified by sex, was formed by summing the z-scores of a bicycle ergometer test, sit-up test, hand-grip test, and sit-and-reach test. Height- and weight-adjusted correlations bet…
Widespread pain among 11-year-old Finnish twin pairs
Objective To examine the prevalence of widespread musculoskeletal pain (WSP) symptoms in 11-year-old Finnish twins and to determine the relative role of genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of WSP. Methods Data on current pain items were collected from 1995 to 1998 from a national sample of Finnish families with 11-year-old twins born between 1984 and 1987. The presence of WSP was determined using a validated questionnaire method. Pairwise similarity was computed for 583 monozygotic (MZ) pairs, 588 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) pairs, and 618 opposite-sex DZ twin pairs. Variance components for genetic and environmental factors were estimated using biometric structural equation modeli…
Fatigue, Worry, and Fear—Life Events in the Narratives of Women With Fibromyalgia
In this article we explored narrated life stories of 20 women with a long history of fibromyalgia to reach a deeper understanding of how people interpret the causes and consequences of different life events and illness experiences. Based on narrative analysis, we identified three model narratives that illustrate the different life courses of women with fibromyalgia. In addition, we described a counternarrative that questions fibromyalgia as a chronic disease. In this narrative study, we give insights to the invisible symptoms and unheard experiences that are associated with fibromyalgia and to the ongoing discussion on the etiology and maintenance of fibromyalgia.
Is diversity of leisure-time sport activities associated with low back and neck–shoulder region pain? A Finnish twin cohort study
This study investigates cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the diversity of leisure-time sport activities and the frequencies of low back pain (LBP) and neck-shoulder region pain (NSP) in twins, including a cross-sectional within-pair design to adjust for potential familial confounding. Finnish twins born in 1975–79 (FinnTwin16 study) reported participation in leisure-time sport activities at the mean ages of 17 (1992–96) (n = 5096, 54% females) and 34 years (2010−12) (n = 3731, 57% females). Diversity assessed as the number of sport activities was categorized as 1, 2, 3, 4, and ≥ 5, excluding inactive individuals. The frequencies of LBP (n = 3201) and NSP (n = 3207), rep…
Lung function after acute and repeated exposures to extremely cold air (-110 degrees C) during whole-body cryotherapy.
Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) is one mode of cold therapy, during which rheumatic patients are exposed to very cold air (-110 degrees C) in minimal clothing. It is also proposed to have a bronchodilatory effect. The aim was to examine the effects of WBC on lung function in healthy humans after acute and repeated exposures. Twenty-five healthy, non-smoking subjects participated in the study. They were exposed to WBC for 2 min three times per week for 12 weeks. The peak expiratory flow rate (PEF) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were measured before and after (at 2 and 30 min) the first WBC, and then similarly at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. At all time points, after 30 min of the WBC the PEF …
Genetic and environmental influences on non-specific neck pain in early adolescence: A classical twin study
Background Prevalence of neck pain has increased among adolescents. The origins of adult chronic neck pain may lie in late childhood, but for early prevention, more information is needed about its aetiology. We investigated the relative roles of genetic and environmental factors in early adolescent neck pain with a classic twin study. Methods Frequency of neck pain was assessed with a validated pain questionnaire in a population-based sample of nearly 1800 pairs of 11–12-year-old Finnish twins. Twin pair similarity for neck pain was quantified by polychoric correlations, and variance components were estimated with biometric structural equation modelling. Results Prevalence of neck pain repo…