Publications by authors named "Kandis Smith"
Breast cancer survivors are at lifetime risk for the development of breast cancer-related lymphedema, a chronic, potentially debilitating condition that requires life-long symptom management. Suboptimal self-management rates suggest that health care providers may not be offering educative-support options that are customized to patient-perceived needs. An Institutional Review Board-approved focus group ( N = 9) and mailed surveys ( N = 15) were used to identify (a) barriers to lymphedema self-management, (b) how breast cancer survivors with lymphedema defined education and support, (c) what type of education and support they had received, and (d) what kind of education and support they wanted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Complementary health approaches (CHAs) have been widely used by patients with cancer for many reasons. However, some patients choose not to disclose their use of CHAs to their nurses, fearing that this use will be viewed as unacceptable. Nurses may be uncomfortable talking about CHAs because of a lack of evidence-based research on the subject.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Psychoneuroimmunological theory connects stress and psychosocial factors with immune system responses, but there's been limited evidence on this.
- The pilot study aimed to assess how feasible and acceptable it is for breast cancer survivors to collect their own salivary cortisol samples via mail, while also exploring the links between their religious/spiritual beliefs, health perceptions, and cortisol levels.
- Results showed that self-collection is doable and valid; positive spiritual beliefs correlated with higher cortisol awakening responses, while poorer health was linked to less favorable spiritual practices, indicating the need for further research and better measures in future studies.
Objective: To critically analyze the contemporary published research that pertains to the individual components of complete decongestive therapy (CDT), as well as CDT as a bundled intervention in the treatment of lymphedema.
Data Sources: Publications were retrieved from 11 major medical indices for articles published from 2004-2010 by using search terms for lymphedema and management approaches. Literature archives of the authors and reference lists were examined through 2011.