Patients' and clinicians' perspectives on item importance, scoring, and clinically meaningful differences for the Endometriosis Symptom Diary (ESD) and Endometriosis Impact Scale (EIS).

Background: The Endometriosis Symptom Diary (ESD) and Endometriosis Impact Scale (EIS) are patient-reported outcome measures developed to evaluate efficacy in clinical trials and clinical practice. The ESD is a daily electronic diary assessing symptom severity; the EIS is a weekly electronic diary assessing symptom impact. This study explored the importance of symptoms (ESD items) and impacts (EIS domains), perspectives on scoring algorithms, and clinically important difference (CID) thresholds to inform clinical trial score interpretation.

Development of a patient-centered conceptual model of the impact of living with autism spectrum disorder.

The aim of this study was to generate a patient-centered conceptual model of the impact of living with autism spectrum disorder, which can be used to support the selection of outcome measures for clinical trials. Following an initial literature review to identify preliminary concepts and inform an interview guide, in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (IQ ⩾ 70) (n = 10), as well as parents of children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorder (IQ ⩾ 70) (n = 26). Data were analyzed using established qualitative research methods.

A comparison of three methods to generate a conceptual understanding of a disease based on the patients' perspective.

Background: The Food and Drug Administration patient-reported outcome (PRO) guidance provides standards for PRO development, but these standards bring scientific and logistical challenges which can result in a lengthy and expensive instrument development process. Thus, more pragmatic methods are needed alongside traditional approaches.

Methods: Partnering with the National Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) Society, we compared three methods for eliciting patient experiences: 1) concept elicitation (CE) interviews with 12 individuals with AS, 2) "group concept mapping" (GCM) with 16 individuals with AS, 3) a social media review (SMR) of AS online chatrooms.

The effect of medical device dose-memory functions on patients' adherence to treatment, confidence, and disease self-management.

Background: Adherence to treatment is an important issue in chronic disease management and an indicator of patients' ability to self-manage their condition and treatment. Some drug-dispensing and drug-delivery devices have been designed to support patients' medication-taking behavior by including dose-memory and combined dose-memory and dose-reminder functions, which electronically store, and visually display dose-history information, enabling the patient to review, monitor, and/or be actively reminded about their medication doses.

Purpose: This literature review explored the role and impact of these devices on patients' treatment adherence, confidence with, and self-management of their condition and treatment.

The development and validation of the anxiety inventory for respiratory disease.

Background: Anxiety is a common comorbidity in patients with COPD, yet it remains underrecognized. Existing anxiety measures contain somatic items that can overlap with symptoms of COPD and side effects of medications. There is a need for a disease-specific nonsomatic anxiety scale to screen and measure anxiety in patients with COPD.

Should I stay or should I go? A study exploring why healthcare students consider leaving their programme.

Background: Attrition in healthcare programmes is a growing concern internationally. Students leave for a variety of reasons but it is difficult to understand the complex interactions that eventually lead to attrition.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to identify the factors that prompted students to consider leaving their programme, and to make recommendations regarding strategies to reduce attrition.

"Everything was spiraling out of control": experiences of anxiety in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objective: This study sought to elicit and describe the first-hand experiences of anxiety in community patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Anxiety is common among patients with COPD. Clinical anxiety affects up to two thirds of patients, leading to reduced quality of life and physical functioning.

Anxiety disorders in patients with COPD: a systematic review.

Background: There is a growing interest in the role of comorbid anxiety in patients with COPD. Comorbid anxiety has a major impact on physical functioning, health-related quality of life, and healthcare utilization. However, the prevalence of clinical anxiety, particularly specific anxiety diagnoses, in patients with COPD remains unclear.

What are reasonable expectations? Healthcare student perceptions of their programmes in the North West of England.

Background: Concerns about current levels of attrition from some healthcare programmes have emphasised the need to gain a greater insight into students' expectations and experiences.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine how students in the North West of England perceived their studies and to identify the factors that could contribute to students' dissatisfaction.

Design: A mixed methods sequential exploratory study.

'The placement was probably the tipping point' - the narratives of recently discontinued students.

Much has been written on student attrition from healthcare programmes and we know that it is often multifactorial. However in order to reduce attrition we need to gain a greater understanding of how multiple factors impact upon and compound one another to prompt a student to decide to leave. The purpose of this study was to explore healthcare students' experiences of university and the circumstances that initiated their decision to leave their programme.

Relationship between anxiety, depression, and quality of life in adult patients with cystic fibrosis.

Background: The impact of anxiety and depression on quality of life (QOL) in adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is fully unknown. We investigated the prevalence and factors associated with anxiety and depression, including QOL, in adult CF patients.

Methods: One hundred twenty-one adult CF subjects, age ≥ 18 years were recruited from our out-patient clinic.

COPD and anxiety: its impact on patients' lives.

Background: Anxiety is a common comorbidity in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but its identification and management are often insufficient.

Aim: To explore the experience of living with and managing comorbid anxiety and COPD from a patient's perspective.

Method: The study followed a qualitative approach.

Tiotropium for treatment of stable COPD: a meta-analysis of clinically relevant outcomes.

Objective: To systematically review recent evidence on the effectiveness of tiotropium versus placebo, ipratropium, and long-acting β(2) agonists on outcomes relevant to patients with stable COPD, including health-related quality of life, dyspnea, exacerbations and hospitalizations.

Methods: Our inclusion criteria for trials were: ≥ 12 weeks; compared tiotropium to placebo, ipratropium, or long-acting β agonists; patients ≥ 40 y old and with stable COPD. Sixteen trials (16,301 patients) met the inclusion criteria.

Falls in people with learning disabilities: what are the risk factors and prevention strategies?

There is a high prevalence of falls and related injuries in adults with learning disabilities. This article highlights the latest evidence on the diverse risk factors for falls among this group. Research into effective falls management strategies is sparse, but there is some evidence to indicate that environmental management, strength and balance training, and careful management of medications may help to reduce falls.

Review of risk factors and preventative strategies for fall-related injuries in people with intellectual disabilities.

Aims: To explore the risk factors and management of falls in people with intellectual disabilities and develop evidence-based recommendations.

Background: Falling is a common cause of physical injury and impaired quality of life in people with intellectual disability. Risk factors for falls and falls prevention have been extensively researched in the general population but there is a paucity of evidence specific to people with intellectual disabilities.