J Pain Symptom Manage
Interdisciplinary Center for Palliative Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Published: October 2010
Context: The construct "meaning in life" (MiL) has recently raised the interest of clinicians working in psycho-oncology and end-of-life care and has become a topic of scientific investigation.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare MiL in palliative care (PC) patients with a representative sample of the German population.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all PC patients treated in the PC inpatient unit and through the PC consult service at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital, Munich, from May 2005 to July 2007 were eligible to participate. Patients were interviewed by a doctoral student, psychologist, or physician, all previously trained to administer the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE) in a standardized way. In the SMiLE, respondents first list individual areas that provide meaning to their life before rating their current level of importance and satisfaction with each area. Overall indices of weighting (IoW, range 20-100), satisfaction (IoS, range 0-100), and weighted satisfaction (IoWS, range 0-100) are calculated.
Results: One hundred PC patients completed the SMiLE: the IoS was 70.2 ± 19.7, the IoW was 84.7 ± 11.5, and the IoWS was 72.0 ± 19.4. The representative sample (n=977) scored significantly higher in the IoS (82.8 ± 14.7) and IoWS (83.3 ± 14.8) but not in the IoW (85.6 ± 12.3). Compared with healthy individuals, PC patients are more likely to list partner, friends, leisure, spirituality, well-being, nature/animals, and pleasure as meaningful areas. Examining the satisfaction ratings, it is noteworthy that PC patients' satisfaction scores are fairly high (and not lower than their healthy counterparts') in a number of domains: family, partner, home/garden, spirituality, and finances. On the other hand, they score significantly lower in nature/animals, leisure, friends, well-being, altruism, work, pleasure, and health.
Conclusion: These findings underscore the potential of the SMiLE for identifying areas that are particularly important to individuals, and that can be targeted by the PC team to improve overall life satisfaction at the end of life.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2010.02.010 | DOI Listing |
Biomark Res
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Laboratory of Cellular Therapy, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences for Children and Adults, University Hospital of Modena, Modena, 41124, Italy.
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School of Nursing and Health, Zhengzhou University, 101 Science Avenue, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
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January 2025
GAP Center, Graduate School, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China; International Advanced Functional Omics Platform, Scientific Experiment Center, Hainan Engineering Research Center for Biological Sample Resources of Major Diseases, Key Laboratory of Tropical Cardiovascular Diseases Research of Hainan Province, Hainan Medical University, Xueyuan Road 3, Haikou 571199, China. Electronic address:
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School of Exact, Chemical and Life Sciences, Misiones National University, Félix de Azara 1552, N3300LQH, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina.
The objective of the present study was to optimize an enzymatic starch extraction process from cassava roots using a polyglacturonase (PGase) from a wild yeast strain (Wickerhanomyces anomalus). The supernatant of W. anomalus culture, with PGase activity, was used as source of enzyme (enzymatic extract, EE).
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Luzhou LaoJiao Co., Ltd, Luzhou 646699 China.
Solid-state fermentation of lignocellulosic waste to produce feed protein is a means of realising solid waste. However, low efficiency and susceptibility to microbial contamination remain significant challenges in feed protein production through room-temperature solid-state fermentation. In this study, thermophilic microbiomes were enriched.
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