Risk models for predicting the health-related quality of life of caregivers of youth with gastrointestinal concerns.

Purpose: To determine the usefulness of cumulative and additive risk models in predicting the healthy-related quality of life (HRQOL) of caregivers of youth with chronic gastrointestinal conditions.

Methods: 203 caregivers (82.8% mothers; 77.

Everyday Discrimination in Adults with Knee Pain: The Role of Perceived Stress and Pain Catastrophizing.

Purpose: Research indicates pain-related disparities in the impact of knee osteoarthritis (OA) across both sex and ethnicity/race. While several factors likely contribute to these disparities, experiences of discrimination are associated with poor OA-related pain, disability, and functional performance. However, the mechanisms that mediate experiences of discrimination and OA-related outcomes are unclear.

A Systematic Review of Somatic Symptoms in Children With a Chronically Ill Family Member.

Objective: Somatization and functional somatic symptoms reflect conditions in which physical symptoms are not sufficiently explained by medical conditions. Literature suggests that these somatic symptoms may be related to illness exposure in the family. Children with a parent or sibling with a chronic illness may be particularly vulnerable to developing somatic symptoms.

Race/Ethnicity Moderates the Association Between Psychosocial Resilience and Movement-Evoked Pain in Knee Osteoarthritis.

Objective: Racial/ethnic disparities in pain are well-recognized, with non-Hispanic blacks (NHBs) experiencing greater pain severity and pain-related disability than non-Hispanic whites (NHWs). Although numerous risk factors are posited as contributors to these disparities, there is limited research addressing how resilience differentially influences pain and functioning across race/ethnicity. Therefore, this study examined associations between measures of psychosocial resilience, clinical pain, and functional performance among adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA), and assessed the moderating role of race/ethnicity on these relationships.

At the Intersection of Ethnicity/Race and Poverty: Knee Pain and Physical Function.

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities. Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) report a higher prevalence and severity of knee OA symptoms than their non-Hispanic White (NHW) counterparts. The role of poverty in explaining this disparity remains unclear.

Neuropathic-Like Pain Symptoms in a Community-Dwelling Sample with or at Risk for Knee Osteoarthritis.

Objective: To characterize neuropathic-like pain among individuals with or at risk for knee osteoarthritis.

Subjects: One hundred eighty-four individuals who self-identified as non-Hispanic black or non-Hispanic white and presented with unilateral or bilateral knee pain.

Design: Neuropathic-like pain was assessed using the painDETECT, and those with high vs low neuropathic-like pain were compared on clinical pain, psychological symptoms, physical function, and quantitative sensory testing.

Sensory, Affective, and Catastrophizing Reactions to Multiple Stimulus Modalities: Results from the Oklahoma Study of Native American Pain Risk.

Native Americans (NAs) have a higher prevalence of chronic pain than any other U.S. racial/ethnic group; however, little is known about the mechanisms for this pain disparity.

Optimism and Psychological Resilience are Beneficially Associated With Measures of Clinical and Experimental Pain in Adults With or at Risk for Knee Osteoarthritis.

Objectives: This cross-sectional study examined the associations among optimism, psychological resilience, endogenous pain inhibition, and clinical knee pain severity. Two hypotheses were tested. First, we hypothesized that experimentally tested endogenous pain inhibition would mediate the relationship between optimism and clinical knee pain severity.

Does pain catastrophizing contribute to threat-evoked amplification of pain and spinal nociception?

Unpredictable threat amplifies pain and spinal nociception (as measured by the nociceptive flexion reflex, NFR), but it is unknown whether pain catastrophizing mediates this threat-related amplification. To examine this, the present study experimentally reduced catastrophizing and examined the effect on threat-evoked pain/NFR facilitation. Healthy pain-free participants (N = 113) were randomly assigned to a brief 30-minute intervention designed to reduce catastrophic thoughts or a control intervention that involved education about pain neurobiology.

Experimental reduction of pain catastrophizing modulates pain report but not spinal nociception as verified by mediation analyses.

Pain catastrophizing is associated with enhanced pain; however, the mechanisms by which it modulates pain are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that catastrophizing modulates supraspinal processing of pain but does not modulate spinal nociception (as assessed by nociceptive flexion reflex [NFR]). Unfortunately, most NFR studies have been correlational.

Documenting diabetes care: the diabetes nurse specialists' perspective.

Diabetes Nurse Specialists (DNSs) are often the hub of the communications network for the entire diabetes multiprofessional health care team, patients and their families. Frequently they liaise between primary and secondary care and have a key role in the provision of a 'seamless service'. To work effectively and efficiently they need a foolproof system of documentation and communication.