Distancing, self-esteem, and subjective well-being in head and neck cancer.

Background: Distancing (i.e. construing oneself as dissimilar to a negatively-stereotyped group) preserves self-esteem and may benefit other domains of subjective well-being.

Negative cancer stereotypes and disease-specific self-concept in head and neck cancer.

Background: Life-threatening diseases, such as head and neck cancer (HNCa), can stimulate the emergence of a new disease-specific self-concept. We hypothesized that (i) negative cancer-stereotypes invoke distancing, which inhibits the adoption of a disease-specific self-concept and (ii) patient characteristics, disease and treatment factors, and cancer-related stressors moderate the phenomenon.

Methods: Head and neck cancer outpatients (N = 522) completed a semantic-differential measure of disease-specific self-concept (perceived similarity to the 'cancer patient') and other self-report measures in structured interviews.

The burden of stress in head and neck cancer.

Background: Head and neck cancer (HNCa) introduces numerous stressors. We developed the Cancer-Related Stressors Checklist (CRSC), which documents exposure to seven categories of common stressors and emotional distress. We surveyed HNCa survivors and examined associations among exposure to cancer-related stressors, illness intrusiveness (i.

Assessment of two culturally competent diabetes education methods: individual versus individual plus group education in Canadian Portuguese adults with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To examine the impact of two culturally competent diabetes education methods, individual counselling and individual counselling in conjunction with group education, on nutrition adherence and glycemic control in Portuguese Canadian adults with type 2 diabetes over a three-month period.

Design: The Diabetes Education Centre is located in the urban multicultural city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We used a three-month randomized controlled trial design.