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Biomedical subjects

A Cull

Publications and source records attributed to A Cull.

61 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Waikato Women's Hospital newborn transport service: the first years's experience.

A transport service is an essential component of modern neonatal care. A regional service based on Waikato Women's Hospital is described and the first twelve months experience is reviewed. Sixty-six babies were transported of whom twenty-six were emergency retrievals. All twenty six babies were transported safely and all but two were eventually returned home. Some problems are discussed and recommendations made.

Aircraft↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Psychosocial effects of living with an increased risk of breast cancer: an exploratory study using telephone focus groups.

Research to date has mainly focused on the short-term psychological impact of genetic risk counselling for breast cancer. This study aimed to explore the long-term consequences for women of being informed about an increased risk of breast cancer in terms of: the effect on their everyday lives, their coping strategies and their unmet needs in terms of the current service. The participants were 25 women with a family history of breast cancer who had received genetic risk counselling and had consequently been receiving clinical surveillance for at least 2 years. They took part in one of seven telephone focus groups and subsequently completed a feedback questionnaire. Transcripts of the focus groups were qualitatively analysed by three independent researchers with inter-rater agreement between pairs of raters ranging from Kappa = 0.61-0.79. Six key issues emerged from the data, which provide an important insight into the long-term consequences of living with an increased risk of breast cancer concerning: (1) psychological adaptation, (2) behavioural adaptation, (3) family issues, (4) clinical surveillance, (5) provision of information, and (6) peer support. These findings, together with the quantitative results of the feedback questionnaire, have clinical implications that require further investigation in larger scale quantitative research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prophylactic oophorectomy versus screening: psychosocial outcomes in women at increased risk of ovarian cancer.

This study investigated the psychosocial outcome of prophylactic oophorectomy versus regular screening in women at increased risk of ovarian cancer. Women who had undergone prophylactic oophorectomy (n=29) were compared with women who remained on the ovarian screening programme (n=28). Assessments were made retrospectively by postal questionnaire. The surgical group showed significantly poorer functioning on two sub-scales of the Short Form (SF)-36 Health Status Questionnaire (role-emotional (p=0.04) and social functioning (p=0.01)), and there was a trend (p=0.06) for them to report more menopausal symptoms. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) scores were significantly higher (p=0.03) in the surgical group. There were no significant differences between the groups for cancer worry or sexual functioning. Experience of the operation was better (p=0.01) and incidence of self-reported post-operative problems was lower (p=0.02) for women who had undergone the 'keyhole' rather than an 'open' procedure. Being pre-menopausal at the time of surgery predicted higher GHQ (p=0.04) and longer subjective recovery time (p=0.04). Women who have undergone prophylactic oophorectomy may have more physical and emotional symptoms than women who remain on an ovarian cancer screening programme, and may report equivalent levels of cancer worry. Those who are pre-menopausal at the time of the operation may be particularly vulnerable to psychological distress and take longer to recover post-operatively. A larger prospective study is needed to evaluate the casual versus causal role of oophorectomy in these findings, and the extent to which it allays patients' fear of cancer.

Body Image↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Detecting social problems in cancer patients.

Diagnosis of and treatment for cancer may not only create physical and emotional difficulties for patients but may also have an impact on social aspects of patients' lives. Screening for social problems has not become part of routine oncology practice. This may be due to lack of a suitable questionnaire. This paper presents a psychometric analysis of the Problems Checklist with a view to assessing its usefulness as a screening tool for social problems in oncology. Evaluation was undertaken using data from an earlier study of 505 patients who completed the checklist. Frequency of endorsement, missing values, factor analysis and reliability and validity analysis of the summated scales were carried out. Missing data rates ranged from 4 to 18% over the 16 items. Fourteen items were well endorsed. Factor analysis produced a four-factor structure with components labelled daily living, relationships, economics and emotions. Reliability and validity tests endorsed the factor structure with the components on economics and emotions being particularly credible. Difficulties with relationships are harder to measure and results from the analysis suggest that this is an area that warrants further investigation. The checklist is a useful tool for highlighting problems. As a tool for screening for social problems it has some limitations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗