Psychology, health & medicine
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Patients awaiting coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) need support from their partners or family caregivers to manage their self care successfully and to maximise quality of life. Partners need social support to help overcome the stressful tasks of an unexpected caregiving role. It is not known whether the individual's perceived social support contributes to their own, as well as their partner's quality of life. ⋯ There was a partner effect of the patients' informational/emotional support on their partner's mental health (ß = 0.14, p = 0.024), indicating the patients' informational/emotional support was associated with the partner's mental health. None of the other types of social support exhibited an actor effect or a partner effect on the patient's or the partner's mental or physical health. More research into the relationship between social support and mental health is needed to help inform the design of interventions that target the dyad.
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Participation in screening mammography remains suboptimal. This research aimed to improve understanding of ways to facilitate screening mammography attendance. One hundred and forty-two women from Gold Coast, Australia, aged 50-75, participated in the study. ⋯ Greater knowledge of breast cancer was the strongest predictor of decisional balance in favor of attending screening. Women who had relapsed from screening had significantly lower breast cancer worry than those contemplating attending for the first time. The results were consistent with previous research and point to factors screening services could consider to increase uptake.
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The main objective of this study was to identify how bereaved mothers describe their coping strategies in their own words. The literature on parental bereavement is sparse, and the present study aims to add to existing knowledge by eliciting the mothers' experiences covering a wide range of child ages including infants, younger children and adults. Semi-structured interviews were held with 13 bereaved mothers in the UK. ⋯ All mothers talked openly about their own mortality, either demonstrating ambivalence about their own death, or expressing clear suicidal ideation. Death was seen as a release from living with the pain of loss. The presence of surviving siblings appeared to moderate suicidal ideation, but mothers expressed concerns about their ability to care adequately for other family members during times of intense grief.
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Non-pharmacological breathlessness interventions in lung cancer have proven beneficial. Breathlessness is also a major symptom in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study measured the effectiveness of a non-exercise-based four-week cognitive-behavioural breathlessness intervention, delivered in a group setting for elderly patients with severe COPD. ⋯ The results showed significant improvements in depression and health status. There was a non-significant improvement in anxiety. There was a significant reduction in A&E attendance and a non-significant reduction in length of hospital stay in the intervention group, compared to comparative increases in the control group, highlighting the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.
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Within a national quality improvement programme for self-management of long-term conditions, we surveyed clinicians working with patients with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, musculoskeletal pain and depression. We applied the Self-Determination Theory framework to explore what factors can facilitate and impede the clinicians' engagement in clinical self-management support (SMS), patient centredness and organizational support for self-management. We also investigated whether attending professional training for clinicians in the practice of self-management (SM) increases motivation to support SM and reported use of SM practices. ⋯ We confirmed that attending the training had a significant, positive impact on clinicians' engagement in clinical SMS and patient centredness, as well as their overall confidence to support SM. We conclude that to facilitate clinicians to practice SMS it is very important to provide relevant professional training, professional support and incentives to foster clinicians' perceptions of their competence in relation to these practices. Organizations should develop a culture that values SMS, offer training to clinicians to enhance their sense of competence to effectively deliver SMS and support clinicians in finding their own way of supporting SM; in other words to create an optimal context to internalize regulation to support SM.