Publications by authors named "Michelle Balla"

Background: Quantitative studies show people living with a lower-grade glioma (LGG) often report low health-related quality of life. However, it is unclear how this impact is experienced; resulting supportive care needs are also poorly understood. We explored how people experience the impact of living long-term with an LGG, to help identify potential supportive care needs.

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Background: Supported self-management can improve clinical and psychosocial outcomes in people with cancer; the considerations required to implement self-management support (SMS) for people living with a lower-grade glioma (LGG)-who often have complex support needs-are not known. We aimed to identify and understand these implementation considerations through the lens of normalisation process theory (NPT), from the perspectives of healthcare professionals (HCP) and people with LGG.

Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with HCPs who support adults with brain tumours (n = 25; 12 different healthcare professions), and people with LGG who had completed primary treatment (n = 28; male n = 16, mean age 54.

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Purpose: Self-management can have clinical and quality-of-life benefits. However, people with lower-grade gliomas (LGG) may face chronic tumour- and/or treatment-related symptoms and impairments (e.g.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A systematic review of 53 papers revealed varying study quality, with most focusing on breast and prostate cancer, and a mix of individual and group delivery methods showing the best results.
  • * There is a need for clearer definitions and evaluations of interventions to better implement self-management strategies in practice, as current economic assessments remain limited and inconclusive.
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Those closest to people with lower-grade gliomas (LGGs) often assume the role of informal caregiver (IC). The additional responsibilities mean ICs of people with cancer can experience adverse impacts on their own lives. We explored the emotional impact of informal caregiving for people with LGGs.

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Purpose: Lower-grade gliomas (LGG) are mostly diagnosed in working-aged adults and rarely cured. LGG patients may face chronic impairments (e.g.

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Background & Aims: Esophageal retention is typically evaluated by timed-barium esophagram in patients treated for achalasia. Esophageal bolus clearance can also be evaluated using high-resolution impedance manometry. We evaluated the associations of conventional and novel high-resolution impedance manometry metrics, esophagram, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in achalasia.

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Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the value of novel high-resolution impedance manometry (HRIM) metrics, bolus flow time (BFT), and esophagogastric junction (EGJ) contractile integral (CI), as well as EGJ pressure (EGJP) and the integrated relaxation pressure (IRP), as indicators of treatment response in achalasia.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated 75 patients (ages 19-81, 32 female) with achalasia during follow-up after pneumatic dilation or myotomy with Eckardt score (ES), timed-barium esophagram (TBE), and HRIM. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves for good symptomatic outcome (ES≤3) and good radiographic outcome (TBE column height at 5 min<5 cm) were generated for each potential predictor of treatment response (EGJP, IRP, BFT, and EGJ-CI).

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