Wildfire, deforestation and health in tropical rainforest areas: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Wildfires and deforestation potentially have direct effects on multiple health outcomes as well as indirect consequences for climate change. Tropical rainforest areas are characterised by high rainfall, humidity and temperature, and they are predominantly found in low-income and middle-income countries. This study aims to synthesise the methods, data and health outcomes reported in scientific papers on wildfires and deforestation in these locations.

Examining Moderation of Dignity Therapy Effects by Symptom Burden or Religious/Spiritual Struggles.

Context: Dignity therapy (DT) is a well-researched psychotherapeutic intervention but it remains unclear whether symptom burden or religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles moderate DT outcomes.

Objective: To explore the effects of symptom burden and R/S struggles on DT outcomes.

Methods: This analysis was the secondary aim of a randomized controlled trial that employed a stepped-wedge design and included 579 participants with cancer, recruited from six sites across the United States.

Existential Matters and Quality of Dying: A Model of Maturation Processes.

How people face mortality is a crucial matter for medicine. Yet, there is not a coherent and comprehensive understanding of how people can process the experience such that it is not traumatic. This article offers a "logic model" of how existential maturation occurs, using analogies from cell biology to explain the process.

Engaging Mortality: Effective Implementation of Dignity Therapy.

Patients consider the life review intervention, Dignity Therapy (DT), beneficial to themselves and their families. However, DT has inconsistent effects on symptoms and lacks evidence of effects on spiritual/existential outcomes. To compare usual outpatient palliative care and chaplain-led or nurse-led DT for effects on a quality-of-life outcome, dignity impact.

Cost considerations for implementing dignity therapy in palliative care: Insights and implications.

Objectives: Despite the clinical use of dignity therapy (DT) to enhance end-of-life experiences and promote an increased sense of meaning and purpose, little is known about the cost in practice settings. The aim is to examine the costs of implementing DT, including transcriptions, editing of legacy document, and dignity-therapists' time for interviews/patient's validation.

Methods: Analysis of a prior six-site, randomized controlled trial with a stepped-wedge design and chaplains or nurses delivering the DT.

Malignancy risk of indeterminate mammographic calcification in symptomatic breast clinics.

Background: To explore the potential risk factors predicting malignancy in patients with indeterminate incidental mammographic microcalcification and to evaluate the short-term risk of developing malignancy.

Methods: Between January 2011 and December 2015, one hundred and fifty (150) consecutive patients with indeterminate mammographic microcalcifications who had undergone stereotactic biopsy were evaluated. Clinical and mammographic features were recorded and compared with histopathological biopsy results.

Death Anxiety and Correlates in Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Care.

Death anxiety is powerful, potentially contributes to suffering, and yet has to date not been extensively studied in the context of palliative care. Availability of a validated Death Anxiety and Distress Scale (DADDS) opens the opportunity to better assess and redress death anxiety in serious illness. We explored death anxiety/distress for associations with physical and psychosocial factors.

Precription Digita Thraputic for atients with nsomnia ( a protocol for a pragmatic randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is effective at treating chronic insomnia, yet in-person CBT-I can often be challenging to access. Prior studies have used technology to bridge barriers but have been unable to extensively assess the impact of the digital therapeutic on real-world patient experience and multidimensional outcomes. Among patients with insomnia, our aim is to determine the impact of a prescription digital therapeutic (PDT) (PEAR-003b, FDA-authorised as Somryst; herein called PDT) that provides mobile-delivered CBT-I on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and healthcare utilisation.

Empathic communication in dignity therapy: Feasibility of measurement and descriptive findings.

Objective: Dignity therapy (DT) is a guided process conducted by a health professional for reviewing one's life to promote dignity through the illness process. Empathic communication has been shown to be important in clinical interactions but has yet to be examined in the DT interview session. The Empathic Communication Coding System (ECCS) is a validated, reliable coding system used in clinical interactions.

Heart Watch Study: protocol for a pragmatic randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Personal digital devices that provide health information, such as the Apple Watch, have developed an increasing array of cardiopulmonary tracking features which have received regulatory clearance and are directly marketed to consumers. Despite their widespread and increasing use, data about the impact of personal digital device use on patient-reported outcomes and healthcare utilisation are sparse. Among a population of patients with atrial fibrillation and/or atrial flutter undergoing cardioversion, our primary aim is to determine the impact of the heart rate measurement, irregular rhythm notification, and ECG features of the Apple Watch on quality of life and healthcare utilisation.

Psychological Dimensions of Palliative Care Consultation: Approaches to Seriously Ill Patients at the End of Life.

Mental health clinicians often hear seriously ill patients ask the unanswerable: Why did this happen? What is the meaning of my suffering? In the inpatient setting, general medical ward, or oncology unit, patients are confronted with their mortality in new, urgent ways. Palliative medicine, or the specialized, comprehensive care of patients facing a life-limiting illness, occupies a unique and liminal space. Although often practiced by clinicians with non-mental health training backgrounds, there exists ample psychological content to be explored in the palliative care encounter.

Referral Relationship: Illuminating the Ways Palliative Care Creates a Holding Environment for Referring Clinicians.

Palliative care supports referring colleagues in multiples ways. This support to referring colleagues is not often explored in the literature, yet the psychological concept that best describes it is the holding environment. The holding environment is the relational space palliative care offers referring clinicians for processing emotions and information.

Dignity therapy intervention fidelity: a cross-sectional descriptive study with older adult outpatients with cancer.

Objectives: Intervention fidelity is imperative to ensure confidence in study results and intervention replication in research and clinical settings. Like many brief protocol psychotherapies, Dignity Therapy lacks sufficient evidence of intervention fidelity. To overcome this gap, our study purpose was to examine intervention fidelity among therapists trained with a systematized training protocol.

Malignancy risk of indeterminate mammographic calcification in symptomatic breast clinics.

Background: To explore the potential risk factors predicting malignancy in patients with indeterminate incidental mammographic microcalcification and to evaluate the short-term risk of developing malignancy.

Methods: Between January 2011 and December 2015, one hundred and fifty (150) consecutive patients with indeterminate mammographic microcalcifications who had undergone stereotactic biopsy were evaluated. Clinical and mammographic features were recorded and compared with histopathological biopsy results.

Existential Quality of Life and Associated Factors in Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Care.

Context: Enhancing quality of life (QoL) is a goal of palliative care. Existential QoL is an important aspect of this.

Objectives: This study sought to advance our understanding of existential QoL at the end of life through examining levels of Preparation and Completion, subscales of the QUAL-E, and their associated factors.

Prevalence, Predictors and Correlates of Religious and Spiritual Struggles in Palliative Cancer Patients.

Context: Religion and spirituality (r/s) are important resources in coping with cancer. However, there are aspects of r/s, such as religious and spiritual struggles, found to be associated with poorer outcomes. A new measure has been adapted from the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS) to assess r/s struggles: the RSS-14.

Higher risk of death from COVID-19 in low-income and non-White populations of São Paulo, Brazil.

Introduction: Little evidence exists on the differential health effects of COVID-19 on disadvantaged population groups. Here we characterise the differential risk of hospitalisation and death in São Paulo state, Brazil, and show how vulnerability to COVID-19 is shaped by socioeconomic inequalities.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using hospitalised severe acute respiratory infections notified from March to August 2020 in the database.

Quality of Life for Older Cancer Patients: Relation of Psychospiritual Distress to Meaning-Making During Dignity Therapy.

Background: Nearly 500,000 older Americans die a cancer-related death annually. Best practices for seriously ill patients include palliative care that aids in promoting personal dignity. Dignity Therapy is an internationally recognized therapeutic intervention designed to enhance dignity for the seriously ill.

Association of Race with End-of-Life Treatment Preferences in Older Adults with Cancer Receiving Outpatient Palliative Care.

End-of-life discussions and documentation of preferences are especially important for older cancer patients who are at high risk of morbidity and mortality. To evaluate influence of demographic factors such as religiosity, education, income, race, and ethnicity on treatment preferences for end-of-life care. A retrospective observational study was performed on baseline data from a multisite randomized clinical trial of Dignity Therapy in 308 older cancer patients who were receiving outpatient palliative care (PC).