Recent research findings from selected publications focusing on links between social support and physical health are summarized.
Current research is extending our understanding of the influences of ...social support on health. Many epidemiological studies have concentrated on further linking measures of social support to physical health outcomes. A few studies are now moving into newer areas, such as emphasizing health links with support receipt and provision. Researchers are also interested in outlining relevant pathways, including potential biological (i.e. inflammation) and behavioral (i.e. health behaviors) mechanisms. Interventions attempting to apply basic research on the positive effects of social support are also widespread. Although the longer term effects of such interventions on physical health remain to be determined, such interventions show promise in influencing the quality of life in many chronic disease populations.
Recent findings often show a robust relationship in which social and emotional support from others can be protective for health. The next generation of studies must explain, however, why this relationship exists and the specificity of such links. This research is in its infancy but will be crucial in order to better tailor support interventions that can impact on physical health outcomes.
Palliative care aims to improve quality of life for people with serious illness and their families. One potential barrier to palliative care uptake is inaccurate knowledge and/or negative beliefs ...among the general population, which may inhibit early interest in, communication about, and integration of palliative care following subsequent illness diagnosis. We explored knowledge and beliefs about palliative care among the general public using nationally-representative data collected in 2018 as part of the cross-sectional Health Information National Trends Survey. Only individuals who had heard of palliative care (n = 1,162, Mage = 51.8, 64% female) were queried on knowledge and beliefs. We examined whether self-assessed level of awareness of palliative care (i.e., knowing a little vs. enough to explain it) was associated with the relative likelihood of having accurate/positive beliefs, inaccurate/negative beliefs, or responding "don't know" to questions about palliative care. Respondents who indicated knowing a lot about palliative care had more accurate versus inaccurate knowledge than those who knew a little on only two of six items and more positive attitudes on only one of three items. In particular, respondents with greater awareness were equally likely to report that palliative care is the same as hospice and requires stopping other treatments, and equally likely to believe that palliative care means giving up and to associate palliative care with death. Those with higher awareness were less likely than those with lower awareness to respond "don't know," but greater awareness was not necessarily associated with having accurate or positive beliefs about palliative care as opposed to inaccurate or negative beliefs. Thus, even members of the general public who perceived themselves to know a lot about palliative care were often no less likely to report inaccurate knowledge or negative beliefs (versus accurate and positive, respectively). Findings suggest a need to improve awareness and attitudes about palliative care.
Most caregiving literature has focused on women, who have traditionally taken on caregiving roles. However, more research is needed to clarify the mixed evidence regarding the impact of gender on ...caregiver/patient psychological outcomes, especially in an advanced cancer context. In this paper, we examine gender differences in caregiver stress, burden, anxiety, depression, and coping styles, as well as how caregiver gender impacts patient outcomes in the context of advanced cancer. Eighty-eight patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers completed psychosocial surveys. All couples were heterosexual and most caregivers were women (71.6%). Female caregivers reported significantly higher levels of perceived stress, depression, anxiety, and social strain compared with male caregivers, and female patients of male caregivers were more likely to use social support as a coping style compared with male patients of female caregivers. These findings highlight the potential differences between male and female caregivers’ needs and psychological health.
•Hospice nurses perceive themselves as effective communicators.•Most hospice nurses want addition communication skills training.•Self-perceived communication effectiveness is associated with burnout ...and stress.•Challenging communication topics such as Denial can be identified by hospice nurses.•Addressing self-identified communication challenges may optimize end-of-life care.
To assess hospice nurses’ self-perceived communication effectiveness, identify comfortable and difficult discussion topics, and explore associations between self-perceived communication effectiveness, burnout, nursing stress, and life events.
181 nurses completed self-report measures, then listed comfortable and/or difficult patient and caregiver discussion topics.
Nurses were generally experienced (median 9 years, range <1–46 as a registered nurse; median 3 years, range <1–23 as a hospice nurse), reporting overall Effective/Very Effective communication skills (85.6%); 70% desired more communication training. As nursing stress increased perceived overall communication effectiveness decreased (rs = −0.198; p 0.012). As burnout increased overall effectiveness (rs = −0.233; p 0.002) and effectiveness with difficult topics (rs = −0.225; p 0.003) decreased. Content analysis revealed 9 categories considered both comfortable and difficult to discuss; contextual comments provided fuller explanation (e.g. providing general information on the Dying Process was comfortable, discussing Dying process during patient death was difficult). Seven additional categories (e.g. Denial) were deemed uniquely difficult.
Hospice nurses perceive themselves as effective communicators, yet want additional training. Perceived communication effectiveness is associated with burnout and stress.
Communication training that focuses on contextually grounded topics identified by participants may optimize communication between hospice nurses, patients and caregivers.
Our goal was to identify specific types of services desired by caregivers and determine subgroups most interested in each service type.
Caregiving questions were added to a state-wide poll conducted ...in a majority-rural state. Those who identified as caregivers (n = 428) were asked to report on the helpfulness of 6 domains of services. Descriptive analysis and logistic regressions were conducted.
Top resources caregivers identified as potentially helpful included hands-on services (33.9%), help coordinating care from multiple providers (21.5%), help with finances (18.9%), and help managing emotional stress (17.8%). Only 15% indicated no caregiver resources would be helpful. Younger caregivers endorsed several service domains as more helpful than older caregivers; caregivers reporting higher stress were more likely to endorse most domains as helpful.
Data reinforces the overwhelming need to offer caregiver services. Navigation and integrated and tailored service models may be beneficial to help caregivers identify and access appropriate services within healthcare systems.
This study uses an innovative approach to identifying needs of caregivers, who are often invisible within the healthcare system. Our findings suggest a paradigm shift is needed to broaden the scope and depth of services offered to caregivers.
•Caregivers report interest in services, but desired services vary widely.•Integrated and tailored services may be most beneficial for caregivers.•Younger caregivers may have particular support service needs.
•Seeking a new primary care provider was seen as challenging.•Significant differences exist in referral sources for primary versus gender-affirming care.•Personal connections are key but may not ...accommodate referrals to all provider types.•Inclusivity and privacy are important for gender-affirming care referrals.
Barriers exist in access to primary care as well as specialty healthcare such as gender-affirming care. Understanding the referral sources used to identify new providers for these types of care can help healthcare systems facilitate access.
Using data from a community-based survey, demographics and information relevant to finding new healthcare providers were assessed.
Data from 165 participants suggest that seeking a new primary care provider was perceived as challenging. The most common referral sources for primary care providers were family/friends, a doctor, or a medical center website. The most common referral sources for gender-affirming care providers were a doctor, family/friends, or social media. There were significant differences in the types of referral sources most likely to be utilized for primary versus gender-affirming care.
Personal connections, including trusted doctors, can be important sources of provider referrals. Additional resources may be needed to facilitate their ability to make quality connections. Community resources and social media can be important sources when existing social networks may not have knowledge about the needs of particular communities, especially those who may be at risk of discrimination. More inclusive and secure referral sources may be needed to ensure gender-affirming care referrals are made.
Background
Racial and ethnic minorities experience well-documented disparities across the cancer trajectory. However, factors underlying these disparities may vary regionally. The Health Belief Model ...(HBM) was developed to explain and predict health-related prevention and early detection behaviors, particularly uptake of health services. Our goal was to use the HBM to guide an exploration of factors that contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities in the catchment area of a large National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Southeastern United States.
Methods
We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected by the cancer center for its triennial Community Health Needs Assessment, which sampled adults from the center’s 15-county catchment area. White non-Hispanics (WNHs;
n
= 887), Black non-Hispanics (BNHs;
n
= 78), Hispanics/Latinxs (H/Ls;
n
= 185), and those identifying as another race/ethnicity (“Others”;
n
= 39) were compared across key HBM variables, including demographic/psychosocial information, perceived benefits and barriers to preventive health behaviors, risk perception, and health behavior outcomes.
Results
Controlling for annual household income, relationship status, and age (for certain screening behaviors), significant differences were seen in information-seeking behaviors, risk perception, community attributes, discrimination, and distress. Non-WNH groups reported worse community attributes, higher everyday discrimination, lower health literacy, less confidence in their ability to get health information, and lower perceived risk of cancer.
Conclusion
This analysis presents a better understanding of how HBM factors may influence health disparities in the cancer center’s catchment area. Results describe the needs of community members from racial and ethnic minority groups, which will inform future research, education, outreach, and service activities.
Informal caregivers are key to oncology care, but often have unmet needs, leading to poor psychological and physical health outcomes. Comprehensive, proactive caregiver support programs are needed. ...We describe the development of a support intervention for caregivers of persons with brain tumors. The intervention uses a caregiver navigator to help participants identify and capitalize on existing social support resources captured using a web-based tool (eSNAP) and connects participants to existing formal services. We describe the iterative development process of the manualized intervention with particular focus on the caregiver navigator sessions. The process included review of the literature and published patient navigation programs, expert and stakeholder review, and study team member review. Quantitative and qualitative data were captured from the first 15 participants randomized to receive the intervention, enrolled from February 2020 to December 2020. Four participants dropped from the study, 9 completed at least 7 modules, and 8 participants completed all 8. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected primarily from those who completed the intervention; data suggest caregivers were satisfied with the intervention and found it helpful. Our intervention is one of the first theory-based caregiver support interventions to include caregiver navigation in neuro-oncology. We use best-practice guidelines for design, including extensive stakeholder feedback. COVID-19 may have impacted recruitment and participation, but some preliminary data suggest that those able to engage with the intervention find it helpful. Data collection is ongoing in a larger trial. If effective, caregiver navigation could be a model for future interventions to ensure caregiver support.
Optimal end-of-life care requires effective communication between hospice nurses, caregivers, and patients, yet defining and evaluating effective communication are challenging. Latent semantic ...analysis (LSA) measures the degree of communication similarity (talking about the same topic) without relying on specific word choices or matching of communication behaviors (question-answer), thus more comprehensively evaluating communication interactions.
Guided by the Communication Accommodation Theory, we evaluated communication similarity, indicating theoretical convergence, between hospice nurses and caregivers of cancer patients, identifying nurse attributes and communication skills that were associated with greater communication similarity.
A descriptive secondary analysis of self-reported nurse data and 31 audio-recorded cancer patient home hospice nursing visits across 2 states and 7 hospices.
The average LSA score was 0.83 (possible range, 0-1). A nurse preference for greater patient-oriented visits, use of more Nurse Partnering statements, and less Conversation Dominance (ratio of total nurse to total caregiver talk) were associated with higher LSA scores.
Effective communication is essential to optimal end-of-life care. Latent semantic analysis is a feasible and promising approach for assessing communication similarity during home hospice care.
Hospice nurses are at the forefront of family caregiver communication, playing a vital role in empowering caregivers to assume required patient care tasks. Communication strategies such as the use of partnering statements that increase LSA scores can be taught to hospice nurses and other members of the hospice interdisciplinary team as a way to enrich communication skills and improve communication confidence and can be translated into other oncology nursing contexts.
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