To obtain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences, values, and beliefs of Taiwanese women with breast cancer who withdrew from cancer treatment.
Fear of side effects, negative experiences and personal beliefs were identified as reasons for withdrawing from cancer treatments. Body–mind consciousness and body autonomy play a crucial role in cancer treatment decisions.
Descriptive phenomenological approach.
We conducted semi-structured, face-to-face and in-depth interviews with 16 women diagnosed with breast cancer. Participants were purposefully selected from the Cancer Registry database. Employing a phenomenological approach, our aim was to explore the lived experiences of these individuals. Data analysis followed Giorgi's five-step process. To ensure a comprehensive report the COREQ checklist was applied.
‘The Determination to Preserve Me’ is the essence of treatment withdrawal, identified by three themes and seven sub-themes. ‘Raising Body-Mind Consciousness’ was generated using body autonomy and preventing repeated psychological trauma from the participant's view. Their lifestyles, maintaining the family role, and returning to a normal trajectory help develop ‘Maintaining Stability for Being a Patient and a Family Carer’. ‘Self-Defending Against the Body Harm’ was generated by concerns about maintaining health and preventing harm.
Women's behaviours became transformed by suffering. Actions were influenced by physical and psychological distress, misconceptions about treatments, and appearance changes by self-determination through self-protection.
Healthcare professionals should respect women's autonomy and work collaboratively to ensure their decision-making with accurate information and awareness of the potential risks and benefits of treatment withdrawal need to concern.
In 2015, the term ‘intrinsic capacity’ (IC) was proposed by the World Health Organisation to promote healthy aging. However, the factors associated with IC are still discrepant and uncertain.
We aim to synthesise the factors connected with IC.
This scoping review followed the five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley and was reported using PRISMA-ScR guidelines.
In all, 29 articles were included. IC of older adults is associated with demographic characteristics, socioeconomic factors, disease conditions, behavioural factors, and biomarkers. Age, sex, marital status, occupation status, education, income/wealth, chronic diseases, hypertension, diabetes, disability, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and physical activity were emerged as important factors related to the IC of older adults.
This review shows that IC is related to multiple factors. Understanding these factors can provide the healthcare personnel with the theoretical basis for intervening and managing IC in older adults.
The influencing factors identified in the review help to guide older adults to maintain their own intrinsic capacity, thereby promoting their health and well-being. The modifiable factors also provide evidence for healthcare personnel to develop targeted intervention strategies to delay IC decline.
As this is a scoping review, no patient or public contributions are required.
This study explores the situation of workload, work–family conflict and job burnout among primary health workers in China in the context of COVID-19 and identifies the mediating effect of work–family conflict between workload and job burnout.
Since the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic, primary health workers have been working on the frontline of the epidemic and may experience increasing workload, work–family conflict and job burnout. It is important to focus on the issue of how to alleviate job burnout of primary health workers.
A cross-sectional study (STROBE) was used.
Data were collected from 785 primary health workers in China. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the mediating effect of work–family conflict between workload and job burnout.
18.7%, 10.4% and 39.5% of respondents had high job burnout in the dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment, respectively. 34.6% of the respondents had high or very high workload, and 12.8% of the respondents had high or very high work–family conflict. Results of multiple regression analysis indicated that work–family conflict mediated the relationship between workload and job burnout. Workload (β = .163, CI = .207–.549) and work–family conflict (β = .211, CI = .311–.640) positively influenced job burnout, and workload (β = .428, CI = .375–.508) positively influenced work–family conflict.
The study indicated that primary health workers experienced a high level of job burnout, especially in the personal accomplishment dimension. Furthermore, this study verified the mediating effect of work–family conflict between workload and job burnout.
Some interventions for alleviating workload, work–family conflict and job burnout should be taken, including workplace assistance programmes, family-friendly policies and a well-integrated healthcare system.
This study does not involve patient or public contribution in any part.
Nurses and other primary health workers are health gatekeepers of residents and play a vital role in the healthcare system. Due to the breakout of COVID-19, they have taken more work and are more vulnerable to work overload, work–family conflict and the consequent job burnout. Some interventions should be taken to effectively alleviate their job burnout and improve their health and performance.
In this study, we aimed to characterize the impact of long COVID on quality of life and approaches to symptom management among Black American adults.
As a novel condition, qualitative evidence concerning long COVID symptoms and their impact on quality of life can inform the refinement of diagnostic criteria and care plans. However, the underrepresentation of Black Americans in long COVID research is a barrier to achieving equitable care for all long COVID patients.
We employed an interpretive description study design.
We recruited a convenience sample of 15 Black American adults with long COVID. We analysed the anonymized transcripts from race-concordant, semi-structured interviews using an inductive, thematic analysis approach. We followed the SRQR reporting guidelines.
We identified four themes: (1) The impact of long COVID symptoms on personal identity and pre-existing conditions; (2) Self-management strategies for long COVID symptoms; (3) Social determinants of health and symptom management; and (4) Effects on interpersonal relationships.
Findings demonstrate the comprehensive ramifications of long COVID on the lives of Black American adults. Results also articulate how pre-existing conditions, social risk factors, distrust due to systemic racism, and the nature of interpersonal relationships can complicate symptom management.
Care approaches that support access to and implementation of integrative therapies may be best suited to meet the needs of long COVID patients. Clinicians should also prioritize eliminating patient exposure to discrimination, implicit bias, and microaggressions. This is of particular concern for long COVID patients who have symptoms that are difficult to objectively quantify, such as pain and fatigue.
While patient perspectives and experiences were the focus of this study, patients were not involved with the design or conduct of the study, data analysis or interpretation, or writing the manuscript.
While previous research has established that resilience is affected by various factors, these studies have primarily focussed on individual variables associated with resilience, without providing insights into how to influence the rate of change in resilience.
To examine the trajectory of resilience and identify the factors associated with changes in resilience among spousal caregivers of patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer receiving treatment during the first 6 months.
An observational longitudinal study.
A total of 312 spousal caregivers of patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer were recruited from January 2022 to December 2022 in Yancheng, China. Three data collection points were established, spanning from the first month to 6 months after initial cancer treatment. A latent growth model was employed to depict the resilience trajectory at various time points. A latent growth model with time-invariant covariates was adopted to determine the factors influencing resilience trajectory. The study adhered to the STROBE checklist for proper reporting.
Throughout the follow-up period, the participants experienced a significant increase in resilience. Gender, family income, the patient's health status, spirituality and belief in familism were significantly associated with the baseline resilience level. Moreover, family income, the patient's health status, spirituality, caregiver burden and belief in familism were significantly associated with the rate of resilience change over time.
Spousal caregivers demonstrated a linear increase in resilience during the first 6 months after initial treatment. Meanwhile, changes in resilience were influenced by multiple factors during the early phase of cancer treatment. Thus, more attention should be paid to early identification and implementation of targeted interventions.
Healthcare professionals should understand the change in resilience among spousal caregivers and conduct timely mental health interventions to enhance the resilience of families affected by cancer.
The Guidance for Reporting Involvement of Patients and the Public-Short Form reporting checklists were used to improve patient and public involvement.