The role of annual personal health visits (APHV) on patients' with cancer knowledge and perceptions of the harms of continued smoking.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (8_suppl) ◽  
pp. 152-152
Author(s):  
Delaram Farzanfar ◽  
Lin Lu ◽  
Jie Su ◽  
Devon Alton ◽  
Rahul Mohan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Smoking History ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Increase Risk

152 Background: With improvements in cancer detection and therapies, important secondary prevention measures in survivorship include smoking cessation. Primary care providers have an opportunity to discuss these measures with cancer survivors at APHV. We evaluated whether having a recent APHV is associated with cancer patients’ awareness and perceptions of the harms of continued smoking. Methods: Cancer survivors were surveyed from April 2014 to May 2016 with respect to their smoking history, knowledge and perceptions of the harms of continued smoking along with the date of their most recent APHV (term changed from annual health physical examination in 2013). Multivariable logistic regression analyses assessed the association of having an APHV with knowledge and perceptions of the harms of continued smoking. Results: Of 985 cancer patients, 23% smoked at diagnosis; 34% quit > 1 year prior to diagnosis; 55% had tobacco-related cancers; 77% received curative therapy. From a knowledge viewpoint, over 52% reported being unaware that smoking negatively impacts cancer outcomes; despite this, most perceived smoking to negatively influence quality of life (75%), survival (76%), and fatigue (73%). Within the last year, 48% had an APHV, while 84% had an APHV at any time in the past; 18 (2%) reported not having a family doctor. Patients who had an APHV in the last year were more likely to be aware that continued smoking can increase risk of death (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=1.49, 95% CI [1.13-1.96], P=0.004), and more likely to perceive smoking to negatively impact quality of life (aOR=1.37 [0.94-1.99], P=0.10), survival (aOR=1.60 [0.95-2.71], P=0.08), and fatigue (aOR=1.63 [1.11-2.39], P=0.01). Those ever having an APHV were more likely aware that smoking can increase risk of death (aOR=1.61 [1.07-2.43], P=0.02) and second primaries (aOR=1.53 [1.02-2.33], P=0.04). Conclusions: Having a recent APHV was associated with improved awareness and perceptions of the harms of continued smoking, but it is unclear whether this is related to provider counseling or a healthy bias effect. APHV may be an appropriate time for primary care providers to treat tobacco addiction in their cancer survivors.

scholarly journals The Role of Primary Care in Asthma Control and Severity

Spectrum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Agarwal ◽  
Monette Dimitrov ◽  
Kerri MacKay ◽  
Alan Kaplan ◽  
Donald Cockcroft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Asthma Control ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Care Utilization ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Ed Visits

Background: Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways affecting 3 millionCanadians. Primary Care Providers (PCPs) are integral to care coordination, enhanced through thedevelopment of a strong patient-PCP relationship with Continuity of Care (COC). A recent CIHI studynoted that 40% of Albertans do not have a COC model for primary care.Objectives: We aim to evaluate how primary care for adults with asthma impacts different measures ofcontrol.Methods: Prospective population-based recruitment of adults through various community venuesacross Alberta. Those who had self-reported asthma and were willing to participate completed a surveywhich included demographics, comorbidities, medication use (including biologics, allergy medications,steroids), Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ-5), Asthma Control Test (ACT), Quality of Life (QoL)measured through the mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ) and health care utilization(including Emergency Department (ED) visits, hospitalizations and ICU stays for asthma).Results: Of the 1685 individuals approached, 61 (3.6%) reported having asthma, of which 47 lived inAlberta. Most (41, 87%) had a PCP, with 30 (64%) visiting their PCP at least twice a year. Uncontrolledasthma was noted in 21 (45%) with either the ACQ-5 or ACT. The mini-AQLQ indicated 5 (11%) withreduced QoL. Mean lifetime hospitalizations, lifetime Emergency Department (ED) visits, and ICU staysrelated to asthma were 1.52, 4.55 and 0.25 respectively. Further, mean hospitalizations and ED visits inthe past 12 months related to asthma were 0.05 and 0.30 respectively.Conclusions: Asthma control was poor in 21 (45%) surveyed individuals, suggesting sub-optimal asthmamanagement in Alberta. Knowledge of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) was low, while ED and hospitalusage was high.

scholarly journals Assessment and management: Primary hypothyroidism in women

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia S. Watson ◽  
Janis Guilbeau
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Primary Hypothyroidism ◽  
Pharmacologic Treatment ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Endocrine Disorder ◽  
Euthyroid State

Hypothyroidism is a common endocrine disorder affecting nearly 2 in 100 women. Primary hypothyroidism can be diagnosed and effectively managed by primary care providers. Pharmacologic treatment is essential and lifelong, with most patients achieving euthyroid state and enjoying good quality of life.

Associations of Eczema Severity and Parent Knowledge With Child Quality of Life in a Pediatric Primary Care Population

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (13) ◽  
pp. 1506-1514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna J. Rea ◽  
Katherine D. Tran ◽  
Maria Jorina ◽  
Larissa M. Wenren ◽  
Elena B. Hawryluk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Treatment Plan ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Individual Treatment ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Large Hospital ◽  
Cross Sectional

We investigated factors associated with quality of life (QOL) in children with eczema. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of survey data from 224 parents of children with eczema attending a large, hospital-based pediatric clinic. Parents completed a validated eczema severity scale (Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure), a QOL scale (Infants’ Dermatitis QOL Index or Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index), and a knowledge and understanding questionnaire. In adjusted multivariate analyses, worse eczema severity was associated with worse overall QOL (β = 0.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.5, 0.6]), while a higher knowledge score was associated with better QOL (β = −3.4; 95% CI = [−6.6, −0.2]). Similarly, even after adjustment for eczema severity, greater understanding of a child’s individual treatment plan was associated with better QOL (β = −0.7; 95% CI = [−1.4, −0.08]), while increased frequency of worrying about a child’s eczema was associated with worse QOL (β = 0.7; 95% CI = [0.03, 1.1]). These results suggest primary care providers may be able to influence QOL through optimal eczema management and family education.

Implementation of a novel primary care-centered clinic for survivorship care.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. 41-41
Author(s):  
Archana Radhakrishnan ◽  
Youngjee Choi ◽  
Zackary Berger ◽  
Craig Evan Pollack ◽  
Sydney Morss Dy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Psychosocial Support ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Comprehensive Cancer Center ◽  
Cancer Center ◽  
Survivorship Care ◽  
Care Providers

41 Background: Patients often face challenges in transitioning to the survivorship stage of cancer care and coordinating with primary care. Prior research has highlighted the uncertainty in who provides survivorship care, leaving patients “lost in transition”. Integrating primary care providers (PCP) into cancer care offers one potential solution. Expanding traditional PCP roles to participating throughout the cancer continuum and familiarizing PCPs with cancer patients’ needs can address this gap. We describe an innovative model of incorporating PCPs to delivering primary care to cancer survivors at a large academic institution. Methods: As one part of a plan to address an identified need for improving survivorship care for cancer patients at Johns Hopkins, PCPs and cancer survivorship care experts developed the Primary Care for Cancer Survivors clinic (PCCS) in 11/2015. The clinic receives referrals from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and patients are seen for either a one-time consultation or can transition their primary care to the clinic. We also are creating a database of internal and external referrals to meet the specific needs identified by patients. We descriptively analyzed the utilization of PCCS from 11/2015 through 9/2016. Results: A total of 35 patients have been seen at PCCS. The average age of patients was 56.8 (SD 12.4) and 32 were female and 3 were male. 24 patients identified as white, 8 black, 1 Asian, and 2 others. Most patients transitioned their PC to the clinic (n = 30). The majority of patients had breast (n = 19) and colorectal cancer (n = 5); 10 patients had metastatic disease (3 have deceased). Commonly, referrals were made to physical therapy, including pelvic rehabilitation and lymphedema management, and nutrition counseling. Conclusions: Patients with a wide variety of cancers and at all stages of disease were seen for survivorship care in the PCCS clinic. Integrating nutrition care, psychosocial support, exercise programs, and palliative care were key early factors in meeting patients’ needs. Continuing to assess and meet survivors’ individual needs and build referral networks are important next steps in the development of the clinic.

scholarly journals Patient Suffering in Chronic Digestive Diseases: Will Primary Care-Specialist Collaboration With Effective Interactive Communication and Integrative Medicine in the Plan of Care Improve Quality of Life?

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 989-993
Author(s):  
Andrew Thomas ◽  
Annie Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Physician Visits ◽  
Digestive Diseases ◽  
Care Specialist

Acute and chronic digestive diseases are causing increased burden to patients and are increasing the United States health care spending. The purpose of this case report was to present how nonconfirmatory and conflicting diagnoses led to increased burden and suffering for a patient thus affecting quality of life. There were many physician visits and multiple tests performed on the patient. However, the primary care physician and specialists could not reach a confirmatory diagnosis. The treatment plans did not offer relief of symptoms, and the patient continues to experience digestive symptoms, enduring this burden for over 2 years. The central theme of this paper is to inform health care providers the importance of utilizing evidence-based primary care specialist collaboration models for better digestive disease outcomes. Consistent with patient’s experience, the authors propose to pilot/adopt the integrative health care approaches that are proven effective for treating digestive diseases.

Feasibility of a telemedicine lifestyle-based rehabilitation program (HEAL) for gynecologic cancer patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e24033-e24033
Author(s):  
Nathalie Dauphin McKenzie ◽  
Nnamdi Ifekandu Gwacham ◽  
Julie W. Pepe ◽  
Sarfraz Ahmad ◽  
James Erasmus Kendrick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Stress Management ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Gynecologic Cancer ◽  
Lifestyle Medicine ◽  
Rehabilitation Team

e24033 Background: General health related factors such as obesity, unhealthy diets disproportionate with sugary and highly processed foods, inactivity, and smoking have repeatedly been shown to negatively impact survival and quality of life outcomes in cancer survivors. The Healthy Eating Active Lifestyle (HEAL) – GYN “rehabilitation” cancer program was developed to provide intensive group lifestyle training on exercise, nutrition, sleep, social integration, and stress management via a telemedicine platform. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of such an intervention and its tolerability, in addition to its impact on short-term quality of life for gynecologic cancer patients. Methods: HEAL – GYN consists of 8 weekly group sessions offering experiential instruction and personalized goal setting for patients with diagnosis of gynecologic cancer. Components are drawn from the tenets of lifestyle medicine. An oncologist certified in lifestyle medicine along with a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team addressed diet, physical activity, strategies for sleep and stress management, smoking cessation, and alcohol intake. The intervention included training to address unmet psychologic, emotional, physical, sexual, social, and spiritual needs common to cancer survivors. American College of Lifestyle Medicine questionnaires were administered, utilizing Likert scales (1-5) in a pre- and post- fashion to assess improvements in physical activity levels, dietary habits, sleep hygiene, and quality of life. Medical records were reviewed including anthropometric data. Results: 26 patients have enrolled thus far, and we report outcomes on the first 20 participants. The mean age was 58.8 years; 22 were Caucasian, and 7 were on maintenance therapies for gynecologic cancers. Average total severity of reported symptoms (scale = 100 points) on a general medical symptom questionnaire (MSQ) decreased by 22% (61 vs 48). Eight patients reported increased perceived levels of health and 6 had stable perception of health. There were also notable improvements from baseline in item assessments of eating behavior (34%), perceived stress (20%), and resilience (21%). Patients also reported a notable trend towards improvement in anxiety (35%) and depression (34%), as well as social integration and connectedness (30%). 100% of participants would “highly recommend the program” and none complained of stress or altered mood associated with online instruction. Conclusions: The telemedicine HEAL – GYN peri-habilitation program is feasible and well tolerated. In addition, the program may improve quality of life and may prevent further decline for those on treatment or maintenance therapy. These preliminary findings support continued investigation of a telemedicine healthy lifestyle peri-habilitative program.

scholarly journals Private ownership of primary care providers associated with patient perceived quality of care

Medicine ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. e5755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolin Wei ◽  
Jia Yin ◽  
Samuel Y.S. Wong ◽  
Sian M. Griffiths ◽  
Guanyang Zou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Perceived Quality ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Perceived Quality Of Care

scholarly journals Spirituality and Gratitude as Predictors of the Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Patients

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ms. Alvita de Souza ◽  
Dr. Shanmukh V. Kamble
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Adult Cancer Survivors ◽  
Stage 1

The present study was designed to: (a) determine whether there is empirical support for a relationship between Gratitude and Spirituality in Quality of Life, (b) provide an estimate of the strength of this relationship, and (c) examine whether Spirituality and Gratitude is a predictor of quality of life. Stage 1 and Stage 2 Cancer patients were employed for this study. The sample for the study consisted of 397 Cancer patients aged between 36 to 67 years. The Spirituality Scale, Gratitude Scale and the Quality of Life for Adult Cancer Survivors were administered on the participants. Results supported previous research that Spirituality and Gratitude were positively correlated to Quality of life. It was also was a significant predictor in Quality of Life in Cancer Patients. The implication of this study is that Spirituality and Gratitude as a paradigm can be used to improve the Quality of life particularly for those who report very poor health while suffering from Cancer or are at the end of their life with disease.

scholarly journals Shifting Palliative Care Paradigm in Primary Care From Better Death to Better End-of-Life : A Swiss Pilot Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Sommer ◽  
Christopher Chung ◽  
Dagmar M. Haller ◽  
Sophie Pautex
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Advanced Cancer ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Advanced Cancer Patients

Abstract Background: Patients suffering from advanced cancer often loose contact with their primary care physician (PCP) during oncologic treatment and palliative care is introduced very late.The aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and procedures for a randomized trial of an intervention to teach PCPs a palliative care approach and communication skills to improve advanced cancer patients’ quality of life. Methods: Observational pilot study in 5 steps. 1) Recruitment of PCPs. 2) Intervention: training on palliative care competencies and communication skills addressing end-of-life issues.3) Recruitment of advanced cancer patients by PCPs. 4) Patients follow-up by PCPs, and assessment of their quality of life by a research assistant 5) Feedback from PCPs using a semi-structured focus group and three individual interviews with qualitative deductive theme analysis.Results: 8 PCPs were trained. PCPs failed to recruit patients for fear of imposing additional loads on their patients. PCPs changed their approach of advanced cancer patients. They became more conscious of their role and responsibility during oncologic treatments and felt empowered to take a more active role picking up patient’s cues and addressing advance directives. They developed interprofessional collaborations for advance care planning. Overall, they discovered the role to help patients to make decisions for a better end-of-life.Conclusions: PCPs failed to recruit advanced cancer patients, but reported a change in paradigm about palliative care. They moved from a focus on helping patients to die better, to a new role helping patients to define the conditions for a better end-of-life.Trial registration : The ethics committee of the canton of Geneva approved the study (2018-00077 Pilot Study) in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki

Improving diagnosis and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
Larry D. McIntire ◽  
Kindall Martin ◽  
Kunal Shah ◽  
Lauren Malinowski ◽  
John Paulson
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Healthcare Costs ◽  
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo ◽  
Primary Care Providers ◽  
Diagnosis And Treatment ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Positional Vertigo ◽  
Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

Background: Vertigo is defined as an illusion of motion caused by a mismatch of information between the visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems. The most common diagnosis associated with whirling vertigo is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), which affects approximately 3.4% of patients older than 60 years of age. Objective: This paper aims to educate primary care providers on how to diagnose BPPV by performing canalith repositioning maneuvers at the initial point of care. Timely treatment of BPPV in the primary care office is believed to reduce healthcare costs by way of limiting unnecessary diagnostic testing and lowering referrals for specialty care. Immediate treatment is also believed to improve the quality of healthcare delivery for the vertigo patient by reducing morbidity and resolving the condition without the need for referrals or imaging. Population Health: A review of the literature finds that delayed diagnosis and treatment of BPPV is associated with a host of deleterious effects on patients. Population health impacts include increased rates of anxiety and depression; loss of work and/or change of career paths; inappropriate use of medications or emergency care resources; decreased access to healthcare services; increased healthcare costs; and reduced quality of care. Diagnosis: A history of positional vertigo and evidence of nystagmus with Dix-Hallpike positioning confirms the diagnosis. A detailed description of the performance of this test is elucidated. Treatment: The observed nystagmus is analyzed and classified based on directionality. Treatment can be initiated immediately with canalith repositioning maneuvers.

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