Connected and supported: a scoping review of how online communities provide social support for breast cancer survivors.

Purpose: To (i) assess how and to what extent online communities are used among breast cancer survivors (BCS) as a source of social support, (ii) describe the kind of support BCS access through online communities, and (iii) explore how these communities foster social support for BCS that promotes well-being and reduces the challenges of survivorship.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review. A professional librarian performed a comprehensive search in multiple databases from January 2010 to May 2023.

Financial Toxicity Among Patients With Metastatic Prostate Cancer: A Mixed Methods Approach to Identify Effective Interventions.

Introduction: Financial toxicity associated with treatments for metastatic prostate cancer remains poorly defined. We sought to understand aspects of financial toxicity not captured in a commonly employed financial toxicity questionnaire and identify potential interventions to help alleviate financial toxicity through a convergent mixed methods approach.

Methods: Patients seen at our institution's advanced prostate cancer clinic were approached for completion of the Comprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity (COST-FACIT) questionnaire (quantitative analysis).

Development and experimental validation of a dynamic numerical model for human articular cartilage.

The purpose of this study was to create a preliminary set of experimentally validated Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models, in order to predict the dynamic mechanical behaviour of human articular cartilage (AC). Current models consider static loading with limited independent experimental validation, while the models for this study assess dynamic loading of AC, with direct comparison and validation to physical testing. Three different FEA models of AC were constructed, which considered both linear elastic and hyperelastic models; Neo-Hookean and Ogden.

ABLE to support patient financial capacity: A qualitative analysis of cost conversations in clinical encounters.

Objective: To explore how costs of care are discussed in real clinical encounters and what humanistic elements support them.

Methods: A qualitative thematic analysis of 41 purposively selected transcripts of video-recorded clinical encounters from trials run between 2007 and 2015. Videos were obtained from a corpus of 220 randomly selected videos from 8 practice-based randomized trials and 1 pre-post prospective study comparing care with and without shared decision making (SDM) tools.

Impact of Cost Conversations During Clinical Encounters Aided by Shared Decision-Making Tools on Medication Adherence.

Objective: To investigate the impact of cost conversations occurring with or without the use of encounter shared decision-making (SDM) tools in medication adherence.

Patients And Methods: Using a coding scheme that included the occurrence and characteristics of cost conversation, we analyzed a randomly selected sample of 169 video recordings of clinical encounters. These videos were obtained during the conduct of practice-based randomized clinical trials comparing care with and without SDM tools for patients with diabetes, osteoporosis, and depression.

Rural Patient Experiences of Accessing Care for Chronic Conditions: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Studies.

Purpose: Access to health care is a long-standing concern for rural patients; however, administrative measures fail to capture the subjective patient experience of accessing health care. The purpose of this review was to synthesize the qualitative literature on patient and caregiver experiences of accessing health care services for chronic disease management among US residents of rural areas.

Methods: We searched Embase, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Scopus to identify qualitative studies published during 2010-2019.

Do patients with high versus low treatment and illness burden have different needs? A mixed-methods study of patients living on dialysis.

Background: Approximately 750,000 people in the U.S. live with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD); the majority receive dialysis.

Co-creating sensible care plans using shared decision making: Patients' reflections and observations of encounters.

Objective: To evaluate how the use of a within-encounter SDM tool (compared to usual care in a randomized trial) contributes to care plans that make sense to patients with atrial fibrillation considering anticoagulation.

Methods: In a planned subgroup of the trial, 123 patients rated post-encounter how much sense their decided-upon care plan made to them and explained why. We explored how sense ratings related to observed patient involvement (OPTION12), patient's decisional conflict, and adherence to their plan based on pharmacy records.

Impact of Cost Conversation on Decision-Making Outcomes.

Objective: To understand the impact of cost conversations on the following decision-making outcomes: patients' knowledge about their conditions and treatment options, decisional conflict, and patient involvement.

Patients And Methods: In 2020 we performed a secondary analysis of a randomly selected set of 220 video recordings of clinical encounters from trials run between 2007 and 2015. Videos were obtained from eight practice-based randomized trials and one pre-post-prospective study comparing care with and without shared decision-making (SDM) tools.

Values informing the development of an indicator of appropriate diabetes therapy: qualitative study.

Objectives: Despite increasing focus on individualised diabetes management, current diabetes quality measures are based on meeting generic haemoglobin A thresholds and do not reflect considerations of clinical complexity, hypoglycaemic susceptibility or treatment burden. Our team observed a multidisciplinary stakeholder panel tasked with informing an appropriate diabetes therapy indicator (ADTI) and analysed their deliberations, seeking to understand what constitutes appropriate diabetes therapy and how it can be captured using an operational quality indicator. We focused specifically on factors the panel in an ideal indicator, how they appropriateness and how they thought an indicator of appropriateness could be .

Using Shared Decision-Making Tools and Patient-Clinician Conversations About Costs.

Objective: To determine how shared decision-making (SDM) tools used during clinical encounters that raise cost as an issue impact the incidence of cost conversations between patients and clinicians.

Patients And Methods: A randomly selected set of 220 video recordings of clinical encounters were analyzed. Videos were obtained from eight practice-based randomized clinical trials and one quasi-randomized clinical trial (pre- and post-) comparing care with and without SDM tools.

Once-daily, single-inhaler mometasone-indacaterol-glycopyrronium versus mometasone-indacaterol or twice-daily fluticasone-salmeterol in patients with inadequately controlled asthma (IRIDIUM): a randomised, double-blind, controlled phase 3 study.

Background: Patients with asthma who are inadequately controlled on inhaled corticosteroid-long-acting β-adrenoceptor agonist (ICS-LABA) combinations might benefit from the addition of a long-acting muscarinic receptor antagonist. The aim of the IRIDIUM study was to assess the efficacy and safety of a once-daily, single-inhaler combination of mometasone furoate, indacaterol acetate, and glycopyrronium bromide (MF-IND-GLY) versus ICS-LABA in patients with inadequately controlled asthma.

Methods: In this 52-week, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel-group, active-controlled phase 3 study, patients were recruited from 415 sites across 41 countries.

Dynamic viscoelastic characterisation of human osteochondral tissue: understanding the effect of the cartilage-bone interface.

Background: Despite it being known that subchondral bone affects the viscoelasticity of cartilage, there has been little research into the mechanical properties of osteochondral tissue as a whole system. This study aims to unearth new knowledge concerning the dynamic behaviour of human subchondral bone and how energy is transferred through the cartilage-bone interface.

Methods: Dynamic mechanical analysis was used to determine the frequency-dependent (1-90 Hz) viscoelastic properties of the osteochondral unit (cartilage-bone system) as well as isolated cartilage and bone specimens extracted from human femoral heads obtained from patients undergoing total hip replacement surgery, with a mean age of 78 years (N = 5, n = 22).

Reflecting on shared decision making: A reflection-quantification study.

Background: Reflecting ("stop-and-think") before rating may help patients consider the quality of shared decision making (SDM) and mitigate ceiling/halo effects that limit the performance of self-reported SDM measures.

Methods: We asked a diverse patient sample from the United States to reflect on their care before completing the 3-item CollaboRATE SDM measure. Study 1 focused on rephrasing CollaboRATE items to promote reflection before each item.

Purposeful SDM: A problem-based approach to caring for patients with shared decision making.

Objective: Patient involvement focused the growth of Shared Decision Making (SDM) in contemporary healthcare practice, research, and education. Whilst important, securing appropriate patient involvement or equipping patients to choose is not necessarily the principal purpose of SDM. The purpose of SDM like all medical decision making is to act well in response to a patient's problem, broadly conceived.

Lumbar model generator: a tool for the automated generation of a parametric scalable model of the lumbar spine.

Low back pain is a major cause of disability and requires the development of new devices to treat pathologies and improve prognosis following surgery. Understanding the effects of new devices on the biomechanics of the spine is crucial in the development of new effective and functional devices. The aim of this study was to develop a preliminary parametric, scalable and anatomically accurate finite-element model of the lumbar spine allowing for the evaluation of the performance of spinal devices.

Antifracture efficacy and reduction of mortality in relation to timing of the first dose of zoledronic acid after hip fracture.

Annual infusions of zoledronic acid (5 mg) significantly reduced the risk of vertebral, hip, and nonvertebral fractures in a study of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and significantly reduced clinical fractures and all-cause mortality in another study of women and men who had recently undergone surgical repair of hip fracture. In this analysis, we examined whether timing of the first infusion of zoledronic acid study drug after hip fracture repair influenced the antifracture efficacy and mortality benefit observed in the study. A total of 2127 patients (1065 on active treatment and 1062 on placebo; mean age, 75 yr; 76% women and 24% men) were administered zoledronic acid or placebo within 90 days after surgical repair of an osteoporotic hip fracture and annually thereafter, with a median follow-up time of 1.

Zoledronic acid and clinical fractures and mortality after hip fracture.

Background: Mortality is increased after a hip fracture, and strategies that improve outcomes are needed.

Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 1065 patients were assigned to receive yearly intravenous zoledronic acid (at a dose of 5 mg), and 1062 patients were assigned to receive placebo. The infusions were first administered within 90 days after surgical repair of a hip fracture.

Flavonoids and the risk of renal cell carcinoma.

Intake of flavonoids has been inversely related to the risk of various common neoplasms, but limited data exist on renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We used data from a case-control study conducted between 1994 and 2002 in four Italian areas to study the relation between major flavonoid classes and RCC. The study included 767 cases with incident, histologically confirmed RCC and 1,534 hospital controls admitted for acute, nonneoplastic conditions and matched with cases by study center, sex, and quinquennia of age.

Efficacy and safety of formoterol delivered via a new multidose dry powder inhaler (Certihaler) in adolescents and adults with persistent asthma.

Our objective was to compare the efficacy and safety of formoterol (Foradil) delivered via a novel multidose dry powder inhaler (Certihaler) with placebo and albuterol [pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI)], in patients with persistent asthma. After a 2-week run-in phase, 265 patients (13-81 years) previously treated with regular/PRN bronchodilators for persistent asthma were randomized to 12 weeks' double-blind treatment with formoterol 10 microg BID via Certihaler (n = 86), albuterol 180 microg QID via pMDI (n = 88) or placebo (n = 91). The primary efficacy variable was 12-hour AUC of FEV1 after 12 weeks' treatment.

Efficacy, tolerability, and effect on asthma-related quality of life of formoterol bid via multidose dry powder inhaler and albuterol QID via metered dose inhaler in patients with persistent asthma: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study.

Background: Inhaled beta(2)-agonists are widely used in asthma treatment. The design limitations of pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) have prompted the development of dry powder inhalers (DPIs) for the delivery of asthma medications.

Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability, and effect on asthma-related quality of life (QOL) of a long-acting beta(2)-adrenoreceptor agonist, formoterol, delivered via multidose DPI, compared with albuterol delivered via pMDI or placebo in adolescents and adults with persistent asthma.

Risk indicators of organic diseases in uninvestigated dyspepsia: a one-week survey in 246 Italian endoscopy units.

Objective: To evaluate the predictive value of demographic and clinical features and of the results of an office-based test for Helicobacter pylori antibodies, in the presence of organic dyspepsia.

Design: Over a 1-week period, 2206 consecutive patients first referred for endoscopy in 246 Italian centres were included.

Methods: Demographic and clinical features, endoscopy findings, and histological diagnosis of H.

[Air pollution and daily mortality among Milan residents, 1980-89. Preliminary results].

Short term effects of air pollutant levels on daily mortality were studied, using time series approach, in Milan from the year 1980 to 1989. The Poisson regression with autocorrelated residuals was applied. This paper reports preliminary results of the analyses on the association between total daily number of deaths and the 24h mean concentrations, on the same day, for two air pollutants: sulphur dioxide and total suspended particulate.