Papers by Matthew Bartolo
This is a Scoping Review about the impact of COVID-19 on fibromyalgia patients globally. This rev... more This is a Scoping Review about the impact of COVID-19 on fibromyalgia patients globally. This review investigates the existing literature on the impact of COVID-19 on fibromyalgia patients' mental health from a psychological perspective.
Malta Medical Journal, 2021
BACKGROUND The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought significant changes all over the world, in... more BACKGROUND The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought significant changes all over the world, including Malta. These changes might have impacted people's health and their lifestyle. Such changes might have limited health and fitness behaviours such as frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise and water intake. Therefore, this study aims to examine and explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted fitness behaviours amongst a sample of the Maltese population. METHODS The sample (n=995) was selected through convenience sampling. Data was collected through an online 38-item survey which was dispersed on social media during April and May 2020. The questions measured the frequency of health behaviours to provide a comparison between the participant's health behaviours in November 2019 and April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS The data was analysed through Factor Analysis which was conducted for dimension reduction. Factor analysis resulted in one factor composed of three variables (frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise and water consumption). Further analyses were conducted using a paired samples t-test on SPSS. Following analysis, the results showed that there was an increase in exercise frequency amongst the sample population, whereas there was a decrease in exercise intensity and water consumption. These results confirm that there was a change in health behaviours amongst the study's sample. CONCLUSION This study recommends further investigation as to understand this difference in behaviours and its attributes. This can help inform health behaviours should there be further waves of the pandemic or other lockdowns.
Thesis Chapters by Matthew Bartolo
Female Orgasmic Disorder is the “delay in, marked infrequency of, or absence of orgasm” or “reduc... more Female Orgasmic Disorder is the “delay in, marked infrequency of, or absence of orgasm” or “reduced intensity of orgasmic sensations” experienced during sexual activity for a period of 6 months or more. Female orgasmic disorder can be lifelong or acquired; generalized or situational; primary or secondary (DSM V; Meston, Hull, Levin & Sipski, 2004). This review highlighted the most successful non-pharmacological therapies to female orgasmic disorders. The PICO question is ““How effective are different non-pharmacological therapies (sex therapy & communication therapy, bibliotherapy, contact vs. no - contact with therapist, group vs. individual therapy) in the treatment of female orgasmic disorder?” The inclusion criteria applied in the review included that the studies had to be systemic reviews or randomized controlled trials published from 2005 onwards, had to directly tackle orgasmic problems in females and be written in the English language. The exclusion criteria applied were studies that were published before 2005; were not reviews or RCTs; did not tackle orgasmic problems in females, had an organic basis for the sexual problem and were not written in the English language. The nine studies that were included were critically appraised using the CASP tools, the SIGN guidelines and the PEDro Scale. After thematic analysis was conducted, four major themes emerged, namely “Sex therapy and communication therapy”; “Bibliotherapy”; “Contact vs. No contact with therapist” and “Group vs. individual therapy”. The result suggests that the first theme is the most prominent in the studies included. The recommendations suggested are the need for further studies with larger samples so as to get a more comprehensive view of using non-pharmocological therapies. Pereira et al. (2013) underline the fact that Masters and Johnson (1970); and Heiman and LoPiccolo (1988) practices are still the most commonly used when treating sexual problems. Thus, this questions whether enough effort and research was put into understanding FOD, as these protocols should be reviewed and updated if necessary.
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Papers by Matthew Bartolo
Thesis Chapters by Matthew Bartolo