Predictors of cancer patients' utilization of psychooncological support: Examining patient´s attitude and physician´s recommendation.

Purpose: Patients with cancer suffer from a wide range of psychological distress. Nevertheless, in the literature low utilization rates of psychooncological services are reported. Various factors may influence the utilization of professional support during inpatient care.

Patients' perceived challenges, competencies, and supportive care needs during acute clinical treatment of breast or gynecological cancer.

Objective: This study aimed to examine challenges, competencies, and supportive care needs (SCN) of women with breast or gynecological cancer during acute cancer treatment and associations to other health-related variables.

Methods: We surveyed 120 patients with breast or gynecological cancer at the end of acute cancer treatment, either directly after surgery or during adjuvant chemotherapy. We assessed challenges, subjective competencies, and SCN using a self-developed measure comprising 25 items referring to coping tasks assigned to six domains.

Longer-Term Effects of Remote Patient Management Following Hospital Discharge After Acute Systolic Heart Failure: The Randomized E-INH Trial.

Background: The randomized INH (Interdisciplinary Network Heart Failure) trial (N = 715) reported that 6 months' remote patient management (RPM) (HeartNetCare-HF) did not reduce the primary outcome (time to all-cause death/rehospitalization) vs usual care (UC) in patients discharged after admission for acute heart failure, but suggested lower mortality and better quality of life in the RPM group.

Objectives: The Extended (E)-INH trial investigated the effects of 18 months' HeartNetCare-HF on the same primary outcome in an expanded population (N = 1,022) and followed survivors up to 60 months (primary outcome events) or up to 120 months (mortality) after RPM termination.

Methods: Eligible patients aged ≥18 years, hospitalized for acute heart failure, and with predischarge ejection fraction ≤40% were randomized to RPM (RPM+UC; n = 509) or control (UC; n = 513).

[Patient Competence for Coping with Disease - A Qualitative Analysis in Women with Breast and Gynaecological Cancer].

Objective: The study explores challenges, competencies, and helpful support in coping with the disease of patients with breast cancer and gynaecological cancer and how patient competence as an interaction of these factors might be promoted.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 patients in acute care, 20 patients undergoing rehabilitation, and 16 participants in a self-help group and evaluated using qualitative content analysis.

Results: The challenges are summarised in the main categories - diagnosis processing, treatment/recurrence fears, illness processing and adaptation, worries about relatives, reactions of the social environment, and worries about the workplace.

Patients' challenges, competencies, and perceived support in dealing with information needs - A qualitative analysis in patients with breast and gynecological cancer.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate challenges, competencies, and support in breast and gynecological cancer patients when dealing with information needs and how health literacy as an interplay of these factors might be improved.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients in acute care (n = 19), undergoing rehabilitation (n = 20) or attending self-help groups (n = 16). Interviews were analyzed using content analysis.

Decreased mental health, quality of life, and utilization of professional help in cancer patients with unexpressed needs: A longitudinal analysis.

Background: Cancer patients' mental health and quality of life can be improved through professional support according to their needs. In previous analyses of the UNSAID study, we showed that a relevant proportion of cancer patients did not express their needs during the admission interview of inpatient rehabilitation. We now examine trajectories of mental health, quality of life, and utilization of professional help in cancer patients with unexpressed needs.

[The Impact of Health literacy on Health Outcomes in Cancer Patients Attending Inpatient Rehabilitation].

Purpose: Health literacy (HL) entails people's knowledge, motivation, and competences to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information. Lower HL is associated with poorer psychosocial health. However, there are no studies so far evaluating the impact of HL within oncological rehabilitation in Germany.

Endurance and avoidance response patterns in pain patients: Application of action control theory in pain research.

Background: Identifying pain-related response patterns and understanding functional mechanisms of symptom formation and recovery are important for improving treatment.

Objectives: We aimed to replicate pain-related avoidance-endurance response patterns associated with the Fear-Avoidance Model, and its extension, the Avoidance-Endurance Model, and examined their differences in secondary measures of stress, action control (i.e.

In-Patient Pulmonary Rehabilitation to Improve Asthma Control–A Randomized Controlled Study (EPRA, Effectiveness of Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Patients with Asthma).

Background: Despite the availability of effective pharmaceutical treatment options, many patients with asthma do not manage to control their illness. This randomized trial with a waiting-list control group examined whether a 3-week course of inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves asthma control (primary endpoint) and other secondary endpoints (e.g.

A Self-administered Version of the Functioning Assessment Short Test for Use in Population-based Studies: A Pilot Study.

Background: The Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST) is an interviewer-administered scale assessing functional impairment originally developed for psychiatric patients.

Objectives: To adapt the FAST for the general population, we developed a self-administered version of the scale and assessed its properties in a pilot study.

Methods: The original FAST scale was translated into German forward and backward translation.

Unexpressed psychosocial needs in cancer patients at the beginning of inpatient rehabilitation: a qualitative analysis.

Objective: Cancer patients often need professional help to alleviate their psychosocial distress. However, not all patients express their needs. In this study, we explored possible barriers to patients' expressing needs, contents of needs difficult to express, and conditions facilitating expressing needs.

Risk and associated factors of depression and anxiety in men with prostate cancer: Results from a German multicenter study.

Objective: In order to optimize psycho-oncological care, studies that quantify the extent of distress and identify certain risk groups are needed. Among patients with prostate cancer (PCa), findings on depression and anxiety are limited.

Methods: We analyzed data of PCa patients selected from a German multi-center study.

Prevalence and predictors of cancer patients' unexpressed needs in the admission interview of inpatient rehabilitation.

Objective: The admission interview in oncological inpatient rehabilitation might be a good opportunity to identify cancer patients' needs present after acute treatment. However, a relevant number of patients may not express their needs. In this study, we examined (a) the proportion of cancer patients with unexpressed needs, (b) topics of unexpressed needs and reasons for not expressing needs, (c) correlations of not expressing needs with several patient characteristics, and (d) predictors of not expressing needs.

Cancer patients' preferred and perceived level of involvement in treatment decision-making: an epidemiological study.

We aimed to analyze preferred and perceived levels of patients' involvement in treatment decision-making in a representative sample of cancer patients. We conducted a multicenter, epidemiological cross-sectional study with a stratified random sample based on the incidence of cancer diagnoses in Germany. Data were collected between January 2008 and December 2010.

Development and proof-of-concept of a multicenter, patient-centered cancer registry for breast cancer patients with metastatic disease-the "Breast cancer care for patients with metastatic disease" (BRE-4-MED) registry.

Background: Patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are treated with a palliative approach with focus on controlling for disease symptoms and maintaining high quality of life. Information on individual needs of patients and their relatives as well as on treatment patterns in clinical routine care for this specific patient group are lacking or are not routinely documented in established Cancer Registries. Thus, we developed a registry concept specifically adapted for these incurable patients comprising primary and secondary data as well as mobile-health (m-health) data.

Information needs in cancer patients across the disease trajectory. A prospective study.

Objective: As satisfaction with information received is an important precondition of adherence to treatment in cancer patients, we aimed to examine the level of perceived information, information satisfaction and information needs, and examine the prospective association between information satisfaction and anxiety.

Methods: In a multicenter study in Germany, 1398 cancer patients were evaluated in terms of this at baseline, after 6 and 12 months.

Results: At baseline, the majority of patients reported to feel well-informed.

Impact of Patient Beliefs on Blood Pressure Control in the General Population: Findings from the Population-Based STAAB Cohort Study.

Effective antihypertensive treatment depends on patient compliance regarding prescribed medications. We assessed the impact of beliefs related towards antihypertensive medication on blood pressure control in a population-based sample treated for hypertension. We used data from the Characteristics and Course of Heart Failure Stages A-B and Determinants of Progression (STAAB) study investigating 5000 inhabitants aged 30 to 79 years from the general population of Würzburg, Germany.

Age and gender differences in anxiety and depression in cancer patients compared with the general population.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the levels of anxiety and depression in cancer patients with those of the general population, to examine age and gender differences in anxiety and depression, to analyse the impact of several socio-demographic and clinical parameters on anxiety and depression, and to test the age and gender measurement invariance of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Methods: A sample of 3,785 German patients with cancer and a sample of 2,747 people of the German general population were examined using the HADS.

Results: Patients with cancer were more anxious but slightly less depressed than age- and gender-matched individuals of the general population.

Impact of social support on psychosocial symptoms and quality of life in cancer patients: results of a multilevel model approach from a longitudinal multicenter study.

This prospective multicenter study aimed to investigate the courses of positive support (PS) and detrimental interaction (DI), two different aspects of social support, and the relation between social support and psychosocial distress and/or health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a large sample of patients with different cancers. For this observational study, we enrolled adult patients with cancer from 13 comprehensive cancer centers (CCCs) in Germany. We included a total of 1087 patients in our analysis.

Pre-post changes in main outcomes of medical rehabilitation in Germany: protocol of a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant and aggregated data.

Introduction: Multidisciplinary, complex rehabilitation interventions are an important part of the treatment of chronic diseases. However, little is known about the effectiveness of routine rehabilitation interventions within the German healthcare system. Due to the nature of the social insurance system in Germany, randomised controlled trials examining the effects of rehabilitation interventions are challenging to implement and scarcely accessible.

Posttraumatic stress disorder among cancer patients-Findings from a large and representative interview-based study in Germany.

Objective: In order to optimize psycho-oncologic care for patients with severe stressor-related symptomatology, we aimed to provide (a) valid and generalizable prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in oncological patients and (b) the percentage of PTSD cases elicited by cancer-related events.

Methods: This multi-center study was based on a representative sample of patients across cancer types. A diagnostic interview (CIDI-O) was used to assess PTSD according to DSM-IV.

Supportive care needs and quality of life in patients with breast and gynecological cancer attending inpatient rehabilitation. A prospective study.

Background: Among patients with breast or gynecological cancer, supportive care needs are both highly prevalent and enduring. However, little is known about whether meeting patients' needs is accompanied by increased quality of life (QoL). We aimed to explore patients' supportive care needs reported at the beginning of inpatient rehabilitation and examined whether meeting these needs resulted in improved QoL.