Valuing health properly

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL M. HAUSMAN

AbstractThis comment on Paul Dolan's essay, ‘Developing methods that really do value the “Q” in the QALY,’ seconds his critique of current preference-based methods of valuing health states but disputes both his assumption that health states should be appraised by their bearing on well-being and his conclusion that the bearing of health states on well-being should be measured in terms of subjective experience. This comment defends instead the view that health states should be valued in terms of the range of activities that they permit.

2021 ◽  
pp. 089202062110038
Author(s):  
Lucy Lindley

This study aimed to explore how educational leaders in England experience and promote their own well-being. To address this, five semi-structured interviews were carried out with educational leaders who expressed that they had personally experienced high levels of well-being. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), four themes were identified, which highlighted that well-being is a subjective experience (‘there’s no blueprint’); that high levels of well-being are commonly described as feeling balanced (‘maintain a balance’); that well-being is perceived as a personal responsibility (‘you’ve got to find ways to manage that’); and that participants were leading by example in relation to well-being (‘be a well-being supermodel’). Overall, this study emphasised that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to well-being, so educational leaders (and their colleagues) should be given space and personal autonomy to work out what works for them.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Schüz ◽  
Susanne Wurm ◽  
Lisa M. Warner ◽  
Clemens Tesch-Römer

Assessment is one of the most complex nursing activities. It involves interpersonal and communication skills and decision-making skills. The purpose of assessment can be related to the diagnosis of specific conditions; however, assessment is often focused on the assessment of needs or health-related goals. The context and timing of assessment are important. Assessment as a process involves both non-verbal observation and verbal exchange of information, or conversation. Holistic needs assessment and care planning are an important aspect of care, particularly as patients rebuild their lives after treatment. In assessment, it is necessary to achieve a balance between objective evaluation of the patient’s problems and their subjective experience of illness or symptoms. Among the many assessment tools available, Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) measure outcomes of treatment or care, as they are reported by the patients themselves, and may assess health needs, monitor patient progress, or evaluate services. Quality of life (QoL) is a key element of assessment. It is a complex, multifactoral concept in the context of cancer and involves the individual’s appraisal of their position in life, relative to their expectations. It includes physical (symptoms such as fatigue, pain, and side effects of treatment), functional (activities of living, including eating, sleeping, and washing), emotional (positive and negative emotional reactions to cancer), social (social support, family relationships, and sexuality), and spiritual (sense of meaning and purpose in life, faith) well-being.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052090802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netanel Gemara ◽  
Yochay Nadan

Based on the findings of substantial research, Western professionals today perceive corporal punishment as a threat to child well-being. They also view it as a violation of children’s rights. Nonetheless, many minority groups in Western societies still consider it to be a legitimate child-rearing practice. In response to this gap, this article presents qualitative findings from an exploratory context-informed study of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish fathers in Israel, regarding their perceptions and ascribed meanings of corporal punishment. Our exploration was guided by the following research question: What are the constructions, perceptions, beliefs, and meanings associated with corporal punishment among Ultra-Orthodox Litvak fathers in Israel? The thematic analysis of 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews yielded two central themes. The first is the view of corporal punishment as an educational tool with legitimacy based on religious sources and emotion-focused rationales. The second theme deals with different limitations on and guidelines regarding this legitimacy. Children were struck as a result of behavior that parents experienced as extreme, and striking the child in response to religious wrongdoing was viewed as problematic. The fathers interviewed stressed the need to suit the punishment to the child, in terms of the intensity of the blow, frequency, and the age of the child. The fathers also emphasized the importance of the child’s subjective experience being one of education as opposed to humiliation. Implications from these findings illustrate the gaps between the Ultra-Orthodox community and professionals who espouse the Western view that prohibits corporal punishment; at the same time, they portray the fathers as expressing an intricate approach toward corporal punishment, with conditions and limitations, as opposed to absolute approval. This article advocates a context-informed approach toward dealing with corporal punishment in minority groups that legitimize the practice. Adopting such an approach may contribute to better cooperation between professionals and their clients from minority groups, and advance child well-being.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (s1) ◽  
pp. 55-56
Author(s):  
Agnes Meave Otieno

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: This study considered how threat appraisal and religious social support associate with subjective well-being and subjective experience of pain. Appraisal in this study refers to the individual’s perception and interpretation of the significance of learning of his/her HIV status. The study incorporated the stress-buffering model to propose that the beneficial effects of religious social support will modify the association between threat appraisal and well-being for PLHIV in a palliative care setting. Well-being was assessed both as the participant’s subjective report of their well-being, and their subjective report of their experience with bodily pain. Participants’ subjective report of well-being was hypothesized to be inversely associated with threat appraisal, and positively associated with religious social support. Subjective experience with bodily pain was hypothesized to be directly associated with threat appraisal, and inversely associated with religious social support. It was further also hypothesized that religious social support modifies the impact of threat-appraisal on well-being such that higher levels of religious social support reduce the observed effect of threat appraisal. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: This was a cross-sectional study using baseline data from a randomized clinical trial–the FACE palliative care study in Washington, DC (FACE: FAmily CEntered Advance Care Planning). Participants were PLHIV who received their HIV care from 5 Washington, DC hospital-based HIV-specialty clinics. The FACE 3000 study paired participants into dyads of patient and surrogate decision-maker. The patient is a PLHIV for whom the advanced care planning care study is geared. The surrogate decision-maker is considered the patient’s healthcare proxy who agrees to honor and advocate for the patient’s treatment preferences, if the patient were unable to communicate with the health care team directly. Some surrogates are HIV positive, however due to their role as the patient’s healthcare proxy, some of their surveys contain different content from those of the patient’s. Potentially eligible participants in the FACE study received a secondary screening to determine eligibility to ensure competency to participate in end-of-life decision making. For this analysis, only the patient data was used. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Subjective well-being showed significant associations with total threat appraisal, and four threat appraisal sub-constructs. Those with lower threat appraisals reported higher values of well-being compared to those with higher threat appraisals. Results from the regression analysis indicated that only one of the threat appraisal sub-constructs was significantly associated with a participant’s subjective experience of pain. Overall, religious social support did not seem to buffer the effect of threat appraisal on well-being or subjective experience of pain. Findings from this study suggest that subjective well-being is associated with cognitive threat appraisal and this finding could assist PLHIV and their caregivers in understanding the coping processes of HIV-infected people. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Due to stigmatization, an HIV diagnosis can influence a person’s physical, behavioral, psychological, and even spiritual health (McIntosh & Rosselli, 2012). As a stressor, it can compromise immune function to worsen the effects of the infection, while mentally depressing an individual and contributing to adverse coping mechanisms (e.g. alcohol consumption, drug use) (McIntosh & Rosselli, 2012). How someone copes with stress (threat appraisal) may contribute to health-promoting or health-damaging behaviors (Fife, Scott, Fineberg, & Zwickl, 2008). Hence, the quality of life of those managing HIV/AIDS remains a pressing concern. Findings from this study suggest that Lazarus and Folkman’s theoretical framework on the cognitive appraisal of threat could assist PLHIV and their caregivers in understanding the coping processes in PLHIV. For service providers, recognizing early threat appraisals and damaging coping mechanisms can be useful, especially for patients receiving an initial HIV diagnosis. For example, an understanding of the patient’s HIV appraisal can provide insight into the barriers to optimal care and adherence to ART and, potentially, help to reduce these barriers (Anderson, 1995). Furthermore, with the advancements of HIV medication, living with HIV has become a chronic condition, though as a stressor, it also poses long-term effects on the psychopathology of an individual living with HIV(McIntosh & Rosselli, 2012). Studies such as this study can help illuminate interventions aimed at reducing the psychological impact of HIV on a person’s life. For example, support groups have been developed and structured to provide social support and have been demonstrated to increase the perceived well-being among PLHIV (Hyde, Appleby, Weiss, Bailey, & Morgan, 2005). This has further expanded into the consideration of online-based support groups for PLHIV (Blackstock, Shah, Haughton, & Horvath, 2015). In another light, but still within psychosocial interventions for managing HIV infection, mindfulness meditation has been used pervasively in studies assessing its use as an intervention to reduce depression and perceived stress in people living with HIV in order to increase both physical and psychological health (Moskowitz etal., 2015). Interventions, such as mindful meditation, have risen as we understand more about appraisal pathways and coping strategies (such as seeking social support), and how they influence both physiological and psychological responses (Moskowitz etal., 2015) to affect the health of a person. Therefore, longitudinal research aimed toward management of the psychological and social consequences of HIV is central to promoting an accurate understanding of the quality of life for PLWH (Anderson, 1995).


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rinat Nissim ◽  
Carmine Malfitano ◽  
Mark Coleman ◽  
Gary Rodin ◽  
Mary Elliott

The well-being of health care providers may be challenged by their work, with evidence that oncology health care providers are a high-risk group for burnout. The present qualitative pilot study evaluated a mindfulness-based group intervention, referred to as Compassion, Presence, and Resilience Training (CPR-T), for oncology interprofessional teams. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the subjective experience of oncology health care providers receiving CPR-T and their perceptions of its benefits, risks, or challenges. The CPR-T was delivered to providers from two oncology teams in a large cancer center in Canada. Ten of these providers participated in semistructured interviews 1 to 5 months after completing the CPR-T. The interview transcripts were coded using a thematic analysis strategy. Five benefits of the CPR-T were identified: learning to pause, acquiring a working definition of stress and self-care, becoming fully present, building self-compassion, and receiving organizational acknowledgment and recognition of stress. In addition, two participant-identified challenges were recognized: sharing vulnerability within interprofessional teams and committing to a sitting meditation practice. These findings demonstrate positive transformations as a result of the CPR-T, as well as important challenges, and have important implications for holistic health care practice in oncology. Further research is necessary to validate the findings of this explorative study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Dora ◽  
Simone Conforti ◽  
Angelika Güsewell

Results from recent research have demonstrated positive effects of somatic approaches, such as the Feldenkrais Method, somaesthetics, and body mapping in the field of music. However, the direct impact of such approaches on instrumental sound has not been studied so far. The present pilot study was thus designed to investigate the influence of non-judgmental body awareness on the sound of high string instruments. Eleven students of the music universities of Neuchâtel and Lausanne were requested to sense specific parts of their body while playing one long note. The analysis of audio recordings and interviews conducted post hoc show a positive correlation between the subjective experience of ease participants reported, and objective sound volume or stability. The largest effects were observed when participants were aware of their pelvis, rib cage or head region. Increases of sound volume or stability were often accompanied by non-voluntary changes in body-weight distribution, indicating that body awareness had a direct influence on the musculoskeletal system. In view of the reportedly high numbers of playing-related health problems in professional orchestra players, more research should be carried out to examine in detail possible effects of body awareness on instrumental sound and on psychological and physical well-being.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-221
Author(s):  
Viktor Pacholík

This list deals with the impact of the Halliwick Swimming Concept on subjective experience and psychical states of people with physical impairment. By means of the Halliwick Swimming Concept, that consisted of 10 swimming lessons, we observed the psychical response of the tested persons to individual lessons as well as to the whole programme within a frame of a case study. The acquired data indicate a positive impact of the swimming programme in the field of elimination of negative psychical state in water environment such as anxiety, discomfort and despondency and gradual increase of psychical well-being, activity and feelings of power and energy connected with positive expectations. Most of these changes proved not only in individual lessons, but also from the point of view of the whole programme evaluation. This paper has been written within a project OP VK CZ.1.07/2.4.00/17.0037 „Development of Pedagogical and Research Activities within the Department of Social Sciences in Sport at the FSpS MU“.


2020 ◽  
pp. 314-334
Author(s):  
Anna I. Akhmetzyanova ◽  
T.V. Artemieva ◽  
L.V. Artischiva

Relevance. The ability of children with hearing impairments to recognize and determine their own conditions and those around them, to build adequate forecasts determines the success in socializing, in their interaction with others, both adults and peers, and in establishing relationships with them, which determines the relevance of the study. The objective of the study is to determine the specifics of the relationship between the processes of identifying mental states, predicting and criteria for the success of interaction between children and other people measured by communication skills and emotional well-being / distress. The following methods were used: “Emotional faces” (N.Y. Semago), “Ugadayka” (L.I. Peresleni and V.L. Podobed), “Methodology for determining the level of development of the communicative abilities of preschool children” (N.E. Veraksa), “Scale of emotional distress and atypical behavior” (A.M. Kazmin, N.A. Konovko, O.G. Salnikova, E.K. Tupitsina, E.V. Fedina). Sample. The study involved 15 preschoolers with hearing impairment , 100 preschoolers without hearing impairment, 16 children of primary school age with hearing impairment, and 40 - without hearing impairment. Results. It was found that the processes of predicting and identifying mental states are interrelated; the relationship is mediated by other variables (emotional well-being, communication skills), the structure of the relationship is deteriorating with age in children with and without hearing impairments. The following conclusions were drawn: the structure of prognosis for children with normotypical development and hearing impairment has a general tendency in dynamics ( secondary variables fallout) and specific signs, manifested in the level of complexity and completeness of the structure; having a common foundation (subjective experience) identification and forecasting processes are interconnected only in preschool age; with time their relationship is mediated by additional variables (emotional well-being and communication skills); children with hearing impairments have a less complex structure of the relationship between predicting and identifying mental states against emotional well-being and communication skills.


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