Journal of health psychology
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The relationship between health and happiness was explored using a cross-sectional survey of 383 community-dwelling older adults. As a function of self-reported health, median happiness was increasing at a decreasing rate; happiness variability was decreasing at a decreasing rate. In multivariable logistic regression, lowest-quartile happiness was associated with poverty, unfavorable subjective health, debilitating pain and urinary incontinence, but not with the comorbidity count or other comorbidities. The results, robust to common method bias, suggest that subjective health measures are better predictors of happiness than objective measures are, except for conditions that disrupt daily functioning or are associated with social stigma.
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Although theories on meta-cognition and self-monitoring imply the importance of meta-cognition in patient-physician interactions, there is no evidence to support this hypothesis. Thus, we evaluated patient and physician perceptions of the level of a physician's explanation and explored the possible influence of patient meta-cognition on patient responses to physicians. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 579 internist-patient pairs in Japan. The findings show that patient meta-cognition, and not perception, of the sufficiency of a physician's explanation plays a critical role in determining extreme patient responses to a physician, such as ignoring the physician's advice and doctor-shopping, whereas patient perception is a predictor of milder patient responses such as patient understanding and satisfaction.
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Fifty-seven studies were reviewed to identify the prevalence of compassion fatigue among cancer-care providers, instruments used to detect it and means of prevention and treatment. Conclusions were limited by an ambiguous definition of compassion fatigue that fails to adequately differentiate it from related constructs (e.g. burnout, secondary traumatic stress) and the modest number of cancer-related studies found. However, evidence suggests that compassion fatigue takes a toll not only on cancer-care providers but also on the workplace. These findings highlight the need to understand more clearly the link between the empathic sensitivity of healthcare professionals and their vulnerability to compassion fatigue.
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Pennebaker's expressive writing paradigm has helped to introduce the benefits of writing to health care. However, research in expressive writing has been largely dominated by an experimental and quantitative approach that does not take into account critical methodologies and approaches in health psychology, the increasingly complex ways in which creative writing is now being used in health care settings or recent research in the broader field of creative writing and personal development, health and well-being (developmental creative writing). This article contrasts expressive writing theories and methodologies with those evolving in the relatively new field of developmental creative writing. It investigates a number of theoretical and methodological problems with the expressive writing model and argues for a more critical approach to future research.
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Older adults completed questionnaires of religiosity, spirituality and health, as well as of the potential mediators of healthy behaviors and social support. Church membership related to potential mediators and positive health; given membership, frequency of attendance contributed less to health. ⋯ Regression analyses indicated that spiritual wellbeing and prayer contributed to the prediction of psychological wellbeing, subjective well-being, physical symptoms and depression, even when the contributions of age, gender, healthy behaviors and social support were included. Healthy behaviors and social support operated only as partial mediators of the existential-health effects.