Patient education in dental medicine: A review of the literature.

Introduction: In dental medicine, chronic diseases and chronic conditions (such as chronic periodontitis, temporomandibular disorders, chronic orofacial pain) justify patient education to self-care. This strategy of secondary or tertiary prevention, even if officially recognised, is still less known compared to health education, a form of primary prevention. The aim of the study was to make the point of recent studies devoted to patient education.

[Haemophilia: how sentinel patients have developed a warning semiotics].

Haemophilia: how sentinel patients have developed warning semiotics. The experience of the disease may help the patient to develop effective actions to manage every day, if it is accompanied by a personal reflection. Following a process that sometimes can be long, some people with hemophilia, called sentinel patients have developed a personal semiology of early and subclinical signs of hemarthrose, complementary to medical semiology.

What do we mean by multimorbidity? An analysis of the literature on multimorbidity measures, associated factors, and impact on health services organization.

Background: Multimorbidity is a consequence of both epidemiological and demographic transition. Unlike comorbidity, it currently has no consensus definition, making it difficult to assess its epidemiological and socioeconomic burden, to organize healthcare services rationally, and to determine the skills needed for patient self-reliance. The aim of this study is to define the spectrum of multimorbidity and to discuss current implications for the organization of care.

Therapeutic patient education in heart failure: do studies provide sufficient information about the educational programme?

Therapeutic patient education programmes on heart failure have been widely proposed for many years for heart failure patients, but their efficiency remains questionable, partly because most articles lack a precise programme description, which makes comparative analysis of the studies difficult. To analyse the degree of precision in describing therapeutic patient education programmes in recent randomized controlled trials. Three major recent recommendations on therapeutic patient education in heart failure inspired us to compile a list of 23 relevant items that an 'ideal' description of a therapeutic patient education programme should contain.

Characteristics and development of therapeutic patient education in rheumatoid arthritis: analysis of the 2003-2008 literature.

Objective: The aim of this study is to point out the recent characteristics and developments of therapeutic patient education (TPE) in rheumatoid arthritis through an analysis of the international articles published from 2003 to 2008.

Method: Studies were selected from major databases, using the following keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, patient education, self-management, programs. Three authors independently reviewed each study and selected the data using the patient education research categories (PERC).

Analysis of the 2004-2007 literature on therapeutic patient education in diabetes: results and trends.

The purpose of this study is to identify the recent characteristics and the developments of therapeutic education in diabetes through an analysis of the international articles published from 2004 to 2007. Studies were selected from several databases: Medline, Embase, Eric, Cochrane central database, using the following keywords: diabetes, patient education, self management, programs. Two authors independently reviewed each study and selected the data using the same categories of analysis.

Cognitive structures of obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery: a concept mapping analysis.

Background: The preparation of patients for bariatric surgery includes education concerning the intervention and its after-effects, and training on the health behaviors that they must put into practice after surgery. In this descriptive study, we have analyzed the cognitive structures of obese patients who have participated in a series of education sessions given by a medical team.

Methods: 30 severely obese patients participated in an interview during which a concept map was drawn up.

[A concept mapping study of nutritional knowledge in diabetic children and their parents].

This study describes, using concept mapping, the nature, organization of knowledge on nutrition and its evolution following therapeutic patient education program in 5 diabetic children (8 to 9 years old) and their mothers. Before the education session, mothers and children are highly knowledgeable about food. The organization of knowledge in children is conceptual and differs from that found in mothers which is based on problems solving.

[Knowledges and beliefs related to nutrition of obese and overweight patients subjects: a study in Southern Italy].

303 obese and overweight south Italian patients (240 women and 63 men), volunteers to participate in a patient education programme delivered by the university hospital of Foggia, have fullfiled a 50 items true/false test exploring the knowledges and the beliefs on obesity, nutrition, physical activities. The majority of the subjects has both low socio economical status and education level. Women have better performed than men (p<0.

Assessment of a therapeutic education programme for asthma patients: "un souffle nouveau".

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a new patient education programme on adults with asthma. This self-management programme included an individual assessment of patient's needs and two educational group sessions. Teaching methods and session content are described as well as caregivers training programme.

The use of concept mapping to enlighten the knowledge networks of diabetic children: a pilot study.

Objective: The value of concept mapping in enlightening nature and organization of knowledge was shown with adult diabetic or obese patients. Our objectives were to ascertain the relevance and feasability of concept mapping in diabetic children during an educational program.

Method: This qualitative research was performed in 5 children from 8 to 13 years.

Adjusting insulin doses: from knowledge to decision.

The aim of this study was to analyze the absence of adjustment of insulin doses in type 1 diabetic patients with poorly controlled diabetes. Twenty-eight patients (HbA(1)c higher than 8.5% during the last 6 months, performing at least three capillary blood glucose determinations per day), completed a questionnaire on the degree of confidence in their own knowledge, the nature of their health beliefs, their fear of hypoglycemia, their own appreciation on how they adjust their insulin doses (subjective score).

[Nursing practice in the context of geographic isolation: implications for training].

A survey on the characteristics of the unique working context of nursing practice in remote areas of French Polynesia and semi-remote areas of northern Quebec demonstrates the importance of a specific training to best prepare the professionals who find themselves in this type of setting. Twenty professionals were interviewed: six nurses practicing in isolated stations in French Polynesia (Tuamotu Archipelago, Marquesas Islands and Austral Islands), six nurses practicing in semi-remote areas within northern Quebec (namely among the Algonquins, the Crees and the Attikameks), four officials of the French Polynesian Health Directorate and four training programme designers from Quebec who were encountered during an expedition to Montreal, Mistissini and Trois-Rivieres. The authors identified ten characteristics which were then regrouped into two categories for both of the practice contexts: first, those inherently linked to professional practice in an isolated context (including the characteristics of nursing practice, the working conditions, the community's health problems, their forms of socio-professional relations, their way of life, and their perception and responses to isolation); and second, those pertaining to the social and natural environment, the economic conditions and the community's cultural specificities.

Evaluation of nutritional education using concept mapping.

Unlabelled: The concept mapping method is presented in the current study as a new tool to assess the learning process taking part in the hallmark of a nutritional education program addressed to obese diabetic patients.

Population: eight patients were interviewed prior to and after completion of 1-week in-hospital stay during which concept maps were designed. Concept maps quantitative and qualitative analysis disclose both (i) the importance of previous knowledge among patients prior to nutritional education and (ii) the maintenance of misconceptions after it.

Patients' and physicians' perceptions and experience of hypercholesterolaemia: a qualitative study.

Background: A better understanding of patients' and physicians' perceptions and experience of hypercholesterolaemia will help to improve cardiovascular disease prevention and aid the development of appropriate educational strategies.

Aim: To identify perceptions, experience, educational needs, and barriers to learning in hypercholesterolaemic patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

Design Of Study: A qualitative study involving interviews with 27 hypercholesterolaemic outpatients and 21 physicians.

The use of degrees of certainty to evaluate knowledge.

In patients with chronic diseases education should improve knowledge about the disease and increase certainty in knowledge. We present here a technique to measure changes in certainty after an educational intervention. For this purpose, before and after a course, patients answer a questionnaire in which answers are accompanied by an estimate of the degree of certainty.

[Role of patient associations in the development of therapeutic education in France].

The aim of this survey conducted among patient associations is to define the role and the position that they have with regard to the development of therapeutic education in France. 124 associations were solicited (out of over 500 existing), and 68 replied. 17 indicated that the survey was not relevant for them.

Application of "Concept Mapping" in obese subjects: a pilot study in normo and underreporters.

Background: One important step in nutritional education consists in identifying the patient prior knowledge in order to better educate him. The objectives of this pilot study, on twelve obese patients (6 underreporting patients - UR - and 6 normoreporting patients - NR) were to point out advantages and limits of a method: "concept mapping", a graphic representation of the nature and organization of knowledge, and to show eventual cognitive differences between the two groups of patients.

Methods: Concept maps were drawed during interviews and analysed, considering the concepts, the links between them, their regrouping in knowledge fields.