Medication health literacy measure: development and psychometric properties.

Background And Purpose: Low levels of health literacy are prevalent worldwide. This report details development and psychometric properties of a health literacy measure for oral medications based on design of the Newest Vital Sign.

Methods: The measure was completed during the baseline interview.

Complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of pain in fibromyalgia: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature for randomized trials of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions for fibromyalgia (FM).

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted. Databases included the Cochrane library, PubMed, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Manual, Alternative and Natural Therapy Index System (MANTIS), Index for Chiropractic Literature, and Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED).

Pathways of psychosocial factors, stress, and health outcomes after liver transplantation.

The impact of stress and individual factors on health outcomes in general medicine and transplantation are well documented. Few researchers have investigated the complex relationships between these constructs. This longitudinal study assessed coping style, self-regulatory ability, hostility, and social support at baseline among a cohort of 130 adult liver transplant recipients at the Starzl Transplant Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and followed those subjects with interview and medical records data about personal and transplant-related stress, physical and mental health outcomes throughout the first post-transplant year.

A family-centered educational program to promote independence in pediatric heart transplant recipients.

Context: Characteristic adolescent risk-taking behavior, including nonadherence with prescribed medications, can be life-threatening for transplant recipients. Suggestions for managing nonadherence in teen recipients include providing them and their parents with adequate information about medications, talking with and listening to pediatric recipients about problems with the comprehensive regimen, and encouraging age-appropriate responsibility for maintaining health.

Objective: The clinical goal of this project was to develop a structured age-appropriate educational program to prepare pediatric transplant recipients and their families for the patient's life as a responsible, independent individual.

Factors influencing the outcomes of patients with both coronary artery disease and diabetes enrolled in standard cardiac rehabilitation programs: a literature review.

Currently 23.5 million working-age adults 20 years or older have had a diagnosis of both coronary artery disease (CAD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with estimates that an additional 9% of the total US population will have a diagnosis of this chronic disease combination by the year 2025. Current annual health care costs for this working-age population including medical costs, functional disability, work loss, and premature mortality currently exceed $620 billion.

Personality traits and chronic illness: a comparison of individuals with psychiatric, coronary heart disease, and HIV/AIDS diagnoses.

This secondary analysis used the five-factor model of personality to examine personality traits in four samples of patients with chronic disorders. Profiles of personality traits differed across disorders. Although participants with psychiatric disorders and participants with HIV/AIDS had similar patterns of personality traits, patients with psychiatric disorders were more extreme on all traits except agreeableness.

Liver transplant recipients: individual, social, and environmental resources.

Context: Patient characteristics are important in the liver transplant population because of proven associations between individual and environmental factors, treatment adherence, and health outcomes in general medical and other transplant populations.

Objective: To determine generalizability of the sample to other liver transplant populations and to establish reliability of measures used to assess individual and environmental resources.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data in a longitudinal study of adherence and health outcomes.

Individual and environmental correlates and predictors of early adherence and outcomes after liver transplantation.

Context: Little is known about patients' contribution to health outcomes after liver transplantation. Yet, in other transplant recipients, nonadherent behavior is directly related to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in liver transplant recipients.

Objective: To examine patient and environmental factors in relation to all aspects of adherence to the posttransplantation regimen and health outcomes in the first 6 months after transplantation.

The impact of cognitive function on medication management: three studies.

Objective: Medication nonadherence has been a persistent problem over the past three decades; forgetting and being distracted from regular routines are the barriers most frequently cited by patients. Prior research on cognitive function and medication adherence has yielded mixed results.

Design: This report compares findings of three studies: All were longitudinal, two were randomized controlled intervention trials, and one was descriptive.

Research participation among older adults with mobility limitation.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine reasons for participation in clinical research among older adults with mobility limitation. A purposive sample of 20 men and 20 women aged 70 years or older was recruited. Data were collected by audiotaped telephone interviews using a semistructured interview guide and transcribed verbatim.

Further exploration: maturity and adherence in adolescent and young adult heart transplant recipients.

Context: Pediatric transplant clinicians note high rates of nonadherence with medications, appointment keeping, and laboratory tests and high rates of engagement in high-risk behaviors among older adolescents and young adult recipients. The caregivers also report symptoms of identity confusion, social immaturity, and failure to appreciate consequences of risky behavior among recipients.

Objective: To build on an earlier study that identified developmental characteristics that distinguish poor from good adherers.

Maturity and adherence in adolescent and young adult heart recipients.

Background: Pediatric transplant (txp) teams note high rates of non-adherence and risky behaviors linked to morbidity and mortality among adolescent and young adult recipients. Clinicians and parents alike report symptoms of social immaturity and failure to appreciate consequences of risky behavior; relationships between the two have not been studied in this population.

Method: This two-phase mixed method study examined adherence, high-risk behaviors, and maturity in a sample of 27 heart recipients, aged 15-31, who underwent transplantation in childhood or adolescence at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Cognitive function in adult cardiothoracic transplant candidates and recipients.

Innovative surgical and medical techniques have prolonged the life span of cardiothoracic (CT) transplant recipients and made transplantation an option for many older patients. Cognitive function is a key determinant of the CT transplant recipient's ability to manage the complex treatment regimen and experience optimum benefit of the procedure. As the CT population ages, risk of cognitive dysfunction due to normal aging is compounded by the physical and mental changes associated with end-stage organ disease, comorbid conditions, and transplant-related complications.

Personality characteristics among cardiothoracic transplant recipients.

Personality characteristics are clinically believed to predict posttransplant adherence and outcome; however, data, as to the prevalence and type of personality disorders (PDs) and distribution of personality traits among transplant (txp) populations, are sparse and inconclusive. This paper reports on the prevalence and type of PD and range of personality traits, according to the Five-Factor model, among 73 adult cardiothoracic txp recipients. It represents the first systematic assessment of PDs and traits in a sample of txp recipients.

Psychological and cognitive function: predictors of adherence with cholesterol lowering treatment.

Background: Failure to adhere to medication regimes is a significant problem in clinical and research settings yet reliable, consistent identification of key psychosocial predictors remains elusive. Studies of mood and personality related to adherence show mixed results-compliance and objectively measured cognitive function are intuitively related but empirical support is lacking.

Purpose: This study is a secondary analysis to examine the relations between adherence with a medication regime for lowering serum cholesterol and several domains of psychological and cognitive functioning.

Psychosocial vulnerability, physical symptoms and physical impairment after lung and heart-lung transplantation.

Background: Many lung and heart-lung transplant recipients experience distressing physical symptoms and elevated physical impairment levels. Although post-transplant complications and secondary illnesses may largely account for these health limitations, patients' psychosocial well-being may influence them as well. We examined the contribution of psychosocial variables to patients' experience of physical symptoms and physical impairment.