4 results
Recovering function and surviving treatments are primary motivators for health behavior change in patients with head and neck cancer: Qualitative focus group study
- Melissa Henry, Ala Bdira, Maria Cherba, Sylvie Lambert, Franco A. Carnevale, Christina MacDonald, Michael Hier, Anthony Zeitouni, Karen Kost, Alex Mlynarek, Martin Black, Zeev Rosberger, Saul Frenkiel
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- Journal:
- Palliative & Supportive Care / Volume 14 / Issue 4 / August 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 23 November 2015, pp. 364-375
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Objective:
Against medical advice, head and neck cancer (HNC) patients have been shown to continue to smoke and misuse alcohol post-diagnosis and treatment. This study aimed to better understand the barriers to and facilitators of health behavior change (HBC) in HNC patients.
Method:We conducted nine focus groups following a standard protocol. Eligible patients were diagnosed less than three years previously with a primary HNC and selected using maximum variability sampling (gender, age, cancer stage, smoking, and alcohol misuse). Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 10 software.
Results:Participants were mostly men (79%), 65 years of age (SD = 10.1), and married/common-law (52%, n = 15). Mean time from diagnosis was 19 months (SD = 12.3, range = 5.0–44.5), and most had advanced cancer (65.5%, n = 19). Participants provided a larger than anticipated definition of health behaviors, encompassing both traditional (smoking, drinking, diet, exercise, UV protection) and HNC-related (e.g., dental hygiene, skin care, speech exercises, using a PEG, gaining weight). The main emerging theme was patient engagement, that is, being proactive in rehabilitation, informed by the medical team, optimistic, flexible, and seeking support when needed. Patients were primarily motivated to stay proactive and engage in positive health behaviors in order to return to normal life and reclaim function, rather than to prevent a cancer recurrence. Barriers to patient engagement included emotional aspects (e.g., anxiety, depression, trauma, demoralization), symptoms (e.g., fatigue, pain), lack of information about HBC, and healthcare providers' authoritarian approach in counseling on HBC. We found some commonalities in barriers and facilitators according to behavior type (i.e., smoking/drinking/UV protection vs. diet/exercise).
Significance of Results:This study underlines the key challenges in addressing health behaviors in head and neck oncology, including treatment-related functional impairments, symptom burden, and the disease's emotional toll. This delicate context requires health promotion strategies involving close rehabilitative support from a multidisciplinary team attentive to the many struggles of patients both during treatments and in the longer-term recovery period. Health promotion in HNC should be integrated into routine clinical care and target both traditional and HNC-related behaviors, emphasizing emotional and functional rehabilitation as key components.
Head and neck cancer patients want us to support them psychologically in the posttreatment period: Survey results
- Melissa Henry, Laura-Anne Habib, Matthew Morrison, Ji Wei Yang, Xuejiao Joanna Li, Shiru Lin, Anthony Zeitouni, Richard Payne, Christina MacDonald, Alexander Mlynarek, Karen Kost, Martin Black, Michael Hier
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- Journal:
- Palliative & Supportive Care / Volume 12 / Issue 6 / December 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 October 2013, pp. 481-493
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Objectives:
No study systematically has investigated the supportive care needs of general head and neck cancer patients using validated measures. These needs include physical and daily living needs, health system and information needs, patient care and support needs, psychological needs, and sexuality needs. Identifying the unmet needs of head and neck cancer patients is a necessary first step to improving the care we provide to patients seen in our head and neck oncology clinics. It is recommended as the first step in intervention development in the Pan-Canadian Clinical Practice Guideline of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (see Howell, 2009). This study aimed to identify: (1) met and unmet supportive care needs of head and neck cancer patients, and (2) variability in needs according to demographics, disease variables, level of distress, and quality-of-life domains.
Methods:Participants were recruited from the otolaryngology–head and neck surgery clinics of two university teaching hospitals. Self-administered questionnaires included sociodemographic and medical questions, as well as validated measures such as the Supportive Care Needs Survey–Short Form (SCNS-SF34), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General (FACT-G) and Head and Neck Module (FACT-H&N) (quality of life measures).
Results:One hundred and twenty-seven patients participated in the survey. 68% of them experienced unmet needs, and 25% revealed a clinically significant distress level on the HADS. The highest unmet needs were psychological (7 of top 10 needs). A multiple linear regression indicated a higher level of overall unmet needs when patients were divorced, had a high level of anxiety (HADS subscale), were in poor physical condition, or had a diminished emotional quality of life (FACT-G subscales).
Significance of results:The results of this study highlight the overwhelming presence of unmet psychological needs in head and neck cancer patients and underline the importance of implementing interventions to address these areas perceived by patients as important. In line with hospital resource allocation and cost-effectiveness, one may also contemplate screening patients for high levels of anxiety, as well as target patients who are divorced and present low levels of physical well-being, as these patients may have more overall needs to be met.
List of Contributors
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- By Harold P. Adams, Colum F. Amory, Anne Angelillo-Scherrer, Irena Anselm, Marcel Arnold, Robert W. Baloh, Ralf W. Baumgartner, José Biller, Valérie Biousse, Matthias Bischof, Julien Bogousslavsky, Natan M. Bornstein, Marie Germaine Bousser, Robin L. Brey, John C. M. Brust, Alan Bryer, Olivier Calvetti, Louis R. Caplan, José Castillo, Hugues Chabriat, Chin-Sang Chung, Charlotte Cordonnier, Steven C. Cramer, Luís Cunha, Rima M. Dafer, John F. Dashe, Cyrus K. Dastur, Antonio Dávalos, Larry E. Davis, Patricia Davis, Stephen M. Davis, Jan L. De Bleecker, Michael A. De Georgia, Amir R. Dehdashti, Oscar H. Del Brutto, Jacques L. De Reuck, Hans-Christoph Diener, Kathleen B. Digre, Vivian U. Fritz, Nancy Futrell, Bhuwan P. Garg, Philip B. Gorelick, Glenn D. Graham, Alexander Y. Gur, John J. Halperin, Michael Hennerici, Isabel Lestro Henriques, Roberto C. Heros, Daniel B. Hier, Lorenz Hirt, Joanna C. Jen, Taro Kaibara, Sumit Kapoor, Sarosh M. Katrak, Siddharth Kharkar, Walter J. Koroshetz, Monisha Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Emre Kumral, Tobias Kurth, Rogelio Leira, Steven R. Levine, Didier Leys, Doris Lin, Jonathan Lipton, Alfredo M. Lopez-Yunez, Betsy B. Love, Ayrton Roberto Massaro, Heinrich P. Mattle, Manu Mehdiratta, John H. Menkes, Philippe Metellus, Reto Meuli, Patrik Michel, Panayiotis Mitsias, Jorge Moncayo-Gaete, Julien Morier, Krassen Nedeltchev, Bernhard Neundörfer, Olukemi A. Olugemo, Nikolaos I. H. Papamitsakis, Stephen D. Reck, Luca Regli, Marc D. Reichhart, Daniele Rigamonti, Michael J. Rivkin, E. Steve Roach, Jose F. Roldan, David Z. Rose, Daniel M. Rosenbaum, N. Paul Rosman, Elayna O. Rubens, Sean I. Savitz, Marc Schapira, Robert J. Schwartzman, Magdy Selim, Yukito Shinohara, Aneesh B. Singhal, Michael A. Sloan, Barney J. Stern, Mathias Sturzenegger, Oriana Thompson, A. Wesley Thevathasan, Jonathan D. Trobe, Michael Varner, Dana Védy, Jorge Vidaurre, Engin Y. Yilmaz, Khaled Zamel, Mathieu Zuber
- Edited by Louis R. Caplan, Julien Bogousslavsky
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- Book:
- Uncommon Causes of Stroke
- Published online:
- 06 January 2010
- Print publication:
- 09 October 2008, pp ix-xiv
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Fibromatosis
- Adi Yoskovitch, Michael P. Hier, Louis R. Bégin, Dan Nachtigal, Martin J. Black
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- Journal:
- The Journal of Laryngology & Otology / Volume 113 / Issue 5 / May 1999
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 June 2007, pp. 486-488
- Print publication:
- May 1999
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Fibromatosis represents a diverse group of fibroproliferative tumours. Their behaviour and pathological qualities are situated in an intermediate position between benign and malignant disease. The following represents the pathological and radiological presentation of a 29-year-old female with fibromatosis.