Publications by authors named "Daan Brandenbarg"

In decision making for cancer treatment, information is crucial for patients and health care professionals. Although conversations about treatment decisions take place in hospitals, many patients also appreciate the insights of their general practitioner (GP). GPs indicated that, in order to have meaningful conversations about treatment decisions with their patients, they need additional information about treatment options and considerations, such as expected benefits and side effects.

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Purpose: This study aimed to gain insight into the experiences of, and reasons for, cancer survivors participating in a primary care PA program.

Methods: We interviewed 17 patients from 11 Dutch GP practices. Patients were selected by purposive sampling based on their general practice, gender, educational level, motivation for PA, and change in PA.

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Objective: Increased cancer survival leads to more patients requiring oncological follow-up. Debate about how best to coordinate this care has led to the proposed involvement of general practitioners (GPs) rather than continued reliance on hospital care. However, we still require patient opinions to inform this debate.

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Objectives: Guidelines recommend upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopic evaluation for patients without a clear physiological explanation for iron deficiency anemia (IDA). However, the consequences of watchful waiting in older patients with unexplained IDA in general practice are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate characteristics and survival of patients with an unexplained IDA in general practice who refrain from medical specialist evaluation.

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Background: Experiences with organizational changes in daytime general practices and out-of-hours (OOH) services during the COVID-19 pandemic may help to address the challenges in general practice care that were already a concern before the crisis. This study aimed to describe these experiences and the potential usefulness of the organizational changes for future general practice care and any future pandemics.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were performed among 11 directors of OOH services, and 19 (locum) general practitioners (GPs) or practice managers, who were purposively sampled.

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The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak impacted health care. We investigated its impact on the time to referral and diagnosis for symptomatic cancer patients in The Netherlands. We performed a national retrospective cohort study utilizing primary care records linked to The Netherlands Cancer Registry.

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Background: To describe general practitioners (GPs) experiences with the impact COVID-19 on the duration of cancer detection.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey study among Dutch GPs.

Results: Fifty-eight GPs participated.

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In the Netherlands, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic saw shifts in primary health service provision away from physical consultations, cancer-screening programs were temporarily halted, and government messaging focused on remaining at home. In March and April 2020, weekly cancer diagnoses decreased to 73% of their pre-COVID levels, and 39% for skin cancer. This study aims to explore the effect of the COVID pandemic on patient presentations for cancer-related symptoms in primary care in The Netherlands.

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Background: Changes in primary care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic could have affected patient experience of primary care both positively and negatively.

Aim: To assess the experiences of patients in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design & Setting: A qualitative study of patients from regions with high and low COVID-19 prevalence in the Netherlands.

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Background: Follow-up for cancer typically occurs in secondary care, and improved survival has increased demands on these services. Other care models may alleviate this burden, such as moving (parts of) follow-up care for curatively treated patients from secondary to primary care (care substitution).

Aim: To explore the opinions of GPs regarding the potential benefits, barriers, and requirements of care substitution for breast and colorectal cancer.

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Introduction: Physical activity (PA) favourably affects various health outcomes in cancer survivors, but little is known about how to implement a PA programme in primary care. We therefore aim to implement and evaluate such a programme for cancer survivors in general practice.

Methods And Analyses: The Stimulation of Daily Activity study is an implementation study with a single-arm longitudinal design in 15 Dutch general practices.

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Objective: To identify the preferences of women regarding management of urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Design: A discrete choice experiment of the preferences for certain treatment attributes was conducted by survey. Attributes included treatment duration, time to complaint resolution, complication risk, side effect risk and contribution to antimicrobial resistance.

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Purpose: Physical activity (PA) affects fatigue and mental health in cancer survivors favorably, but participation in PA interventions tends to be low. More participants may be reached by home-based PA owing to greater accessibility and self-monitoring. This systematic review therefore evaluated the effects of home-based PA of low to moderate intensity on symptoms of fatigue, depression, and anxiety among cancer survivors.

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Cancer is associated with sometimes strong emotions. However, emotions are mostly adaptive - they help people adapt to cancer. Adaptive emotions do not need to be treated; instead, emotional support is key.

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Article Synopsis
  • More patients with cancer can’t be cured but can live longer with it nowadays.
  • These patients often get ignored in research and treatments, even though they have many physical and mental challenges.
  • To help these patients better, doctors need to work together on their care and do more research on their needs.
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Background: Fatigue is the most common and persistent symptom among women in the first five years after a breast cancer diagnosis. However, long-term prevalence of fatigue, among breast cancer survivors, needs further investigation.

Aim: To compare fatigue experienced by long-term breast cancer survivors with that in a reference population and to evaluate the determinants of that fatigue.

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Introduction: Traditionally, follow-up of colorectal cancer (CRC) is performed in secondary care. In new models of care, the screening part care could be replaced to primary care. We aimed to synthesise evidence on the diagnostic accuracy of commonly used screeners in CRC follow-up applicable in primary care: carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), ultrasound and physical examination.

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Objectives: For shared decision making, it is crucial to identify patients' priorities regarding health outcomes. Our aim was to study whether healthcare professionals know these priorities.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study we included older patients who had to make a treatment decision, their general practitioners (GPs) and their medical specialists.

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Background: Older patients with cancer often find it difficult to take part in shared decision making.

Aim: To assess the utility of the Outcome Prioritisation Tool (OPT), designed to aid discussion with a patient in regards to their treatment goals, to empower patients with cancer through structured conversations about generic treatment goals with GPs.

Design And Setting: A randomised controlled trial of 114 Dutch participants recruited between November 2015 and January 2019, aged ≥60 years with non-curable cancer who had to make a treatment decision with an oncologist.

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Shared decision making can guide patients facing difficult treatment decisions, with a trade-off between risks and benefits, taking patient goals and preferences into account. The Outcome Prioritization Tool (OPT) was developed to facilitate the discussion of goals and preferences with older patients in an encompassing, non-disease-specific way. The OPT is used in both primary and secondary healthcare for several treatment decisions, but data regarding the tool are limited.

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Article Synopsis
  • Many people who survive cancer can still feel sad, anxious, or stressed, even many years later.
  • In a study of 20 different pieces of research, they found that about 21% of long-term cancer survivors experience symptoms of depression and anxiety, while around 7% feel distressed.
  • This means that these feelings among long-term cancer survivors are similar to those in people who haven’t had cancer, which is good news for doctors taking care of them.
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Context: Lung cancer is associated with significant distress, poor quality of life, and a median prognosis of less than one year. Benefits of shared decision making (SDM) have been described for multiple diseases, either by the use of decisions aids or as part of supportive care interventions.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to summarize the effects of interventions facilitating SDM on distress and health care utilization among patients with lung cancer.

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Background: Early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) is important to achieve better survival. Discriminating symptoms suggestive of CRC from benign conditions is a challenge for GPs because most known 'alarm symptoms' have low predictive values.

Aim: To further understand the diagnostic process of CRC in general practice in terms of healthcare use and by analysing factors related to diagnostic intervals.

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Purpose: To clarify experiences and preferences of patients regarding the current and future role of GPs during treatment and follow-up care of colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods: Qualitative semi-structured, audio-recorded, face-to-face interviews in patients' homes in the north of the Netherlands were performed. Patients were sampled purposively on age, gender, time since diagnoses and primary health care use.

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Objective: The view that the general practitioner (GP) should be more involved during the curative treatment of cancer is gaining support. This study aimed to assess the current role of the GP during treatment of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Design: Historical prospective study, using primary care data from two cohorts.

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