bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Living with vitiligo: Dealing with difference
Authors: Thompson Andrew R. , Kent Gerry , Smith Jonathan A. 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: Individuals with a disfigurement are at risk of experiencing psychological distress, but the level of this distress is only marginally associated with clinical severity. This study examinesthe experience of living with the skin condition vitiligo with a view towards understanding its impact and the ways in which participants deal with this chronic and disfiguring disease.Design: The qualitative method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used.Methods: In a semi‐structured interview, seven white female vitiligo sufferers were asked to describe their experiences from the time the vitiligo first became apparent to the time of the interview. They were encouraged to elaborate on their own reactions and how they dealt with the reactions of others.Results: Initially, participants felt overwhelmed by their illness but over time they developed several strategies in order to ‘contain’ their difference in appearance within manageable limits. The behavioural strategies of avoidance and concealment had several disadvantages, whereas cognitive strategies were less problematic but difficult to sustain consistently. Social support served to facilitate the development of coping methods associated with acceptance of difference. However, maintaining this acceptance was a struggle and the process fragile.Conclusions: Living with vitiligo was a continuous struggle. The results are consistent with Leventhal's (1970) notion that coping is a problem‐solving process and with Moos and Schaefer's (1984) contention that dealing with a chronic disease involves the development of a variety of strategies in order to regain equilibrium. Further research is needed to examine whether the experiences described here are common to other disfiguring conditions.
Do health promotion messages target cognitive and behavioural correlates of condom use? A content analysis of safer sex promotion leaflets in two countries
Authors: Abraham Charles , Krahé Barbara , Dominic Robert , Fritsche Immo 
Published: February 2003

Objective: To categorize and quantify the content of publicly available safer sex promotion leaflets in the UK and Germany and to assess the extent to which this content corresponds to the cognitiveand behavioural correlates of condom use identified by theory‐based research.Methods: A content analysis using a 45 category coding manual was undertaken. The manual included 20‘correlate‐representative’ categories identifying text promoting the strongest cognitive and behavioural correlates of condom use.Results: Overall inter‐coder reliability was high. Few content differences were observed between the German and UK samples. Leaflets from both countries highlighted information on how people become infected with HIV and advice to contact health care professionals. Few mentioned delaying or abstaining from sexual intercourse. Only 25% of leaflets included text that referred to more than 10 of the 20 correlate‐representative categories. Moreover, using one standard deviation above the meanas an indication of frequent inclusion, two‐thirds of leafets failed to target frequently more than two of the 20 correlate‐representative categories.Conclusions: Some safer sex promotion leaflets frequently promote the strongest cognitive and behavioural correlates of condom use. In general, however, the recommendations of researchers investigating psychological correlates of condom use have not shaped the content of safer sex promotion leaflets.
The effect of pre‐operative psychological interventions on post‐operative outcomes in Chinese women having an elective hysterectomy
Authors: Callaghan Patrick , Li Ho Cheung 
Published: February 2003

Objective: To test the effect of cognitive interventions with information given pre‐operatively on post‐operative outcomes in Chinese women undergoing elective hysterectomies.Design: An experimental design. The experimental group (n=48) received cognitive distraction and cognitive reappraisal with information, the control group (n=48) received information only.Outcome measures: Post‐operative anxiety (Chinese State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory and mean arterial blood pressure), post‐operative requests for analgesia (drug record), post‐operative pain (visual analogue scale) and satisfaction (Chinese Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire).Results: Cognitive distraction and reappraisal with information produced lower post‐operative anxiety and pain scores and higher levels of satisfaction than information only. Post‐operative analgesic requests did not differ between groups.Conclusions: Cognitive distraction and reappraisal with information, when used with women undergoing a hysterectomy may have significant clinical benefits.
Illness representation, coping and outcome in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Authors: Rutter Claire L. , Rutter Derek R. 
Published: February 2003

Objective: Irritable bowel syndrome has no observable symptom markers and there is little that the medical profession can do to help sufferers. Psychotherapy, antidepressants and drugs aimed at the most problematic symptoms have been shown to have limited efficacy. Inan attempt to help understand the illness better, and to suggest alternative forms of intervention, the study tested whether outcome might be influenced by patients' representation of their illness and by their coping strategies.Method: All members of the IBS Network (an independent charitable support network based in the UK) were invited to participate via their quarterly newsletter, and 209 completed questionnaires were returned. Participants completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ), the COPE, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and rated their quality of life and their satisfaction with their health.Results: The reporting of serious consequences was associated with lower quality of life and lower satisfaction with health, and with higher scores for anxiety and depression (p < .001). Weaker control beliefs were related to lower quality of life, lower satisfaction with health, and higher depression scores (p < .01). Lower illness scores were associated with more satisfaction with health (p < .01), but not with quality of life (p > .05). Psychological causal attribution of IBS was positively correlated with anxiety (p < .001) and depression (p < .01). Path analyses based on multiple linear regression demonstrated that (1) the reporting of serious consequences was a strong independent predictor of outcome; (2) coping mediated the link between representation and outcome; and (3) when predicting depression, coping strategies predicted coping independently of representation dimensions.Conclusions: The findings indicate that the illness representations of IBS sufferers can have significant implications for outcome. Therapeutic interventions based on illness representations may prove useful for treatment.
The Transplant Effects Questionnaire (TxEQ): The development of a questionnaire for assessing the multidimensional outcome of organ transplantation — example of end stage renal disease (ESRD)
Authors: Ziegelmann J. P. , Griva K. , Hankins M. , Harrison M. , Davenport A. , Thompson D. , Newman S. P. 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: To develop a questionnaire to assess the responses of transplant recipients to the receipt of an organ, including their self‐care behaviour.Design: Following a literature review, open‐ended interviews and a focus group, a transplant questionnaire was developed. Two studies (Study 1: N = 231, Study 2: N = 105) were conducted to evaluate its psychometric properties.Methods: A pool of 51 items was derived from themes identified in published studies and from interviews and a focus group discussion with renal transplant recipients. These were constructed into a questionnaire and were then administered to two renal transplant out‐patients populations. Item responses of study sample 1 were subjected to principal components analysis (PCA) using varimax rotation to examine the structure of responses. In order to investigate the stability of the factor structure found in Study 1, item responses of the second sample were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using structural equation modelling.Results: PCA indicated six factors that accounted for 64.2% of the variance. With extraneous items omitted, the final questionnaire derived from Study 1 has 24 items clustered around five conceptual coherent factors: worry about transplant (22.1%), guilt regarding donor (11.9%), disclosure (9.58%), medication adherence (8.73%), and responsibility (6.63%). CFA on the final 24‐item version of the TxEQ revealed that the resulting model was a good fit for the Study 2 data (RMSEA = 0.08, pclose = .005).Conclusions: The TxEQ has potential application as a measure in the area of transplantation research. CFA demonstrated that the factor structure of the TxEQ is consistent across different renal transplant out‐patients populations. Further research is currently in progress to assess other groups of transplant recipients and to examine its relationship to other measures.
Optimism and adaptation to chronic disease: The role of optimism in relation to self‐care options of type 1 diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis
Authors: Fournier Marijda , de Ridder Denise , Bensing Jozien 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: To determine the role of optimistic beliefs in adaptation processes of three chronic diseases different in controllability by self‐care. It was expected that optimism towards the future would relate to adaptation independently of the controllability of disease. Optimism regarding one's coping ability should be beneficial in controllable diseases. Unrealistic optimism was expected to be beneficial in uncontrollable disease.Design: The cross‐sectional design involved 104 patients with type 1 diabetes, 95 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 98 patients with multiple sclerosis, recruited via their physician at the out‐patient department of five hospitals.Method: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (LISREL) was employed to confirm a three‐dimensional approach of optimism: outcome expectancies, efficacy expectancies and unrealistic thinking. Multi‐sample analysis by path modelling was used to examine whether the relationship of the three optimistic beliefs with coping (CISS‐21), depression and anxiety (HADS), and physical functioning (SF‐36) differs with the controllability based on the self‐care options of chronic disease.Results: These show that when chronic disease must be controlled by self‐care, physical health depends more strongly on positive efficacy expectancies. In contrast, when self‐care options for controlling chronic disease are limited, physical health depends more strongly on positive unrealistic thinking and relates negatively to positive efficacy expectancies. The impact of the three optimistic beliefs on mental health is independent of the controllability by self‐care.Conclusion: Optimistic beliefs are differently beneficial for physical health dependent on the controllability of chronic disease. Unrealistic beliefs are helpful when patients are confronted with moderately to largely uncontrollable disease where self‐care options are limited, in contrast to positive efficacy expectancies that are helpful when patients deal with largely controllable disease where self‐care is required.
Cholesterol control, medication adherence and illness cognition
Authors: Brewer Noel T. , Chapman Gretchen B. , Brownlee Susan , Leventhal Elaine A. 
Published: February 2003

Objective: To examine the relation between illness cognitions and two measures of adherence in patients with hypercholesterolaemia, a disease marked by chronically high cholesterol.Design: Cross‐sectional. Based on the self‐regulation model (Leventhal, Diefenbach, & Leventhal, 1992), patients' illness cognitions were predicted to be related to cholesterol control and medication adherence. Patients with illness cognitions consonant with an experts' mental model of hypercholesterolaemia were expected to show better control and adherence.Method: Hypercholesterolaemic patients (N= 169) were recruited at a university‐based general medicine clinic. Patients completed a survey that assessed beliefs about hypercholesterolaemia and medication‐taking behaviour. Cholesterol levels were obtained from patients' medical charts.Results: Low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol control was related to believing that hypercholesterolaemia is a stable, asymptomatic disease with severe coronary consequences, and self‐report of medication adherence was related to believing that the disease has severe coronary consequences (ps < .05). LDL cholesterol differences between groups low and high in various illness beliefs ranged between 0.04 and 0.24 mmol/l (2 and 9 mg/dl) which translated to between 1% and 18% lower LDL cholesterol levels.Conclusion: The present study shows several relations that have not been previously demonstrated between better LDL cholesterol control and illness cognition, cognitions that were similar to an expert or physician's mental model of hypercholesterolaemia. The magnitude of differences in patient cholesterol levels was small but may be clinically important.
Living with Huntington's disease: Illness perceptions, coping mechanisms, and patients' well‐being
Authors: Helder Desirée I. , Kaptein Ad A. , Van Kempen Godfried M. J. , Weinman John , Van Houwelingen Hans C. , Roos Raymund A. C. 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: To describe the illness perceptions and coping mechanisms of patients with Huntington's disease (HD), and to assess their role in the well‐being of these individuals.Design: A single group, cross‐sectional study.Methods: In 77 individuals with a clinically confirmed diagnosis of HD, illness perceptions, coping mechanisms, motor and cognitive performance, and well‐being were assessed by means of questionnaire‐guided interviews, and subjected to correlational analyses, t‐tests and two‐stage regression analyses.Results: HD patients' illness perceptions were characterized by a strong illness identity, combined with beliefs about a long duration of HD, perceived negative consequences for their daily lives, and little hope for cure or improvement of their symptoms. In turn, the coping strategies that HD patients reported adopting to deal with their disease were comparable with those adopted by reference individuals dealing with everyday life stressful situations.Where the well‐being of HD patients is concerned, compared with Dutch community sample, HD patients scored significantly lower on measures of physical well‐being and general health. Both illness perceptions and coping mechanisms were significant predictors of patients' well‐being.Conclusions: More systematic research within a health psychology framework is justified in order to assess the role of illness perceptions and coping mechanisms in the well‐being of HD patients.
The structure of beliefs about the causes of heart attacks: A network analysis
Authors: French David P. , Marteau Theresa M. , Senior Victoria , Weinman John 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: To explore the structure of causal beliefs about heart attack, using network analysis, in particular to determine whether there is a consensual representation and, if so, which putative causes of heart attacks were perceived as being proximal or distal causes and which were perceived to mediate the effects of other causes.Methods: A total of 107 adult respondents completed questionnaires, indicating the extent to which they perceived each of eight agents as causes of a heart attack, as well as whether they perceived that each of these eight causal agents, in turn, causally affects each of the other seven causal agents.Results: A consensual representation was produced, indicating how these eight agents were perceived as causally relating to each other, and to heart attack. Three key features were evident. First, the type of work a person does was perceived to be a distal cause of heart attack, operating mainly through stress and high blood pressure. Second, the causal impact of stress on heart attack was not seen as mediated by behaviour, but mediated via blood pressure. Third, the causal impact of genes on heart attack was perceived as unmediated by behaviour or physiological processes.Conclusions: The general public appears to share a reasonably complex view of how different agents lead to heart attack. This complexity would not be elicited by standard methods, suggesting that the network analysis method may be usefully employed as either a process or an outcome measure in health‐promotion research.
Failing in spousal caregiving: The ‘identity‐relevant stress’ hypothesis to explain sex differences in caregiver distress
Authors: Hagedoorn Mariët , Sanderman Robbert , Buunk Bram P. , Wobbes Theo 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: This study examined a possible explanation for the frequently reported finding that female caregivers perceive more psychological distress than do male caregivers. Our ‘identity‐relevant stress’ hypothesis asserts that feelings of incompetence with respect to caregiving are more strongly associated with psychological distress in women than in men. Women who feel competent with respect to caregiving may report levels of distress as low as that of male caregivers.Design: This study has a cross‐sectional design.Methods: Psychological distress (CES‐D) was measured in 32 female and 36 male partners of patients suffering from various types of cancer. Furthermore, partners' perceptions of caregiving performance and patients' perceptions of partners' supportive and unsupportive behaviour were assessed.Results: Only among female partners were self‐efficacy and personal accomplishment regarding caregiving found to be positively linked to distress. Also, in contrast to male partners, female partners reported more distress when they acted less supportively.Conclusion: The difference in psychological distress between female and male caregivers seems to be carried by a subgroup of partners who feel that they are not doing a very good job at caregiving.
Judgments of the rule‐related behaviour of health care professionals: An experimental study
Authors: Lawton Rebecca , Parker Dianne 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: To explore the judgments of rule‐related behaviour by health care professionals and the general public in the UK, against a background in which clinical guidelines and protocols are proliferating.Design: A questionnaire survey was used in which short scenarios describing medical practice were presented to a sample of health care professionals and members of the general public.Methods: The health care sample consisted of 315 nurses, doctors and midwives from three English National Health Service (NHS) Trusts who volunteered to take part in the study. A stratified sample of members of the general public (N = 350) was recruited via a market research organizatiofn. Three types of behaviour (compliance with a protocol, violation of a protocol, and improvization, where no protocol exists) and three types of outcome for the patient (good, bad, poor) were manipulated within nine scenarios. Respondents were asked to make judgments about (1) the inappropriateness of behaviour (2) likelihood that they would take further action and (3) responsibility for the outcome.Results: Findings suggest that the process of care has a greater effect on judgments of the behaviour of health care professionals than does the outcome of that behaviour. This was equally true of the professional and public samples.Conclusions: The study has both theoretical and practical implications. First, information about a behaviour's relationship to existing rules has a stronger influence than the consequence of the behaviour on attributions of responsibility. Secondly, using clinical protocols as a way of managing risk in the NHS may be counterproductive unless full compliance is achieved.
Applying the Transtheoretical Model of Change to exercise in young Chinese people
Authors: Callaghan Patrick , Eves Frank F. , Norman Paul , Chang Anne M. , Lung Cheung Yuk 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: The objective of the present study was to test the application of the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) in relation to exercise behaviour of 298 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduates.Design and methods: A cross‐sectional design was used. Respondents completed measures of stages of change, self‐efficacy, processes of change, decisional balance, exercise and demographic data.Results: Significant effects for stage of change were found for self‐efficacy, pros, exercise and nine of the 10 processes of change. In general, scores on these variables were found to increase across the stages although post hoc tests revealed slightly different patterns of significant differences. Cons were not found to differ significantly across stages of change. The relationship between self‐efficacy and processes of change was dependent on stage of change.Conclusions: The results support some of the assumptions of the TTM but raise questions about the predicted relationships between stages of change and processes of change and between self‐efficacy and processes of change at each stage of change. The practical implications of the findings for the development of interventions to improve young people's exercise levels are discussed.
The influence of autonomous and controlling motives on physical activity intentions within the Theory of Planned Behaviour
Authors: Hagger Martin S. , Chatzisarantis Nikos L. D. , Biddle Stuart J. H. 
Published: February 2003

Objectives: This study aimed to examine how general motives from self‐determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) influence intentions to engage in physical activity within the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1985). It was hypothesized that the general motives will influence intentions only when mediated by the specific cognitions of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) from the TPB.Design: A cross‐sectional study assessing psychological variables from two theoretical perspectives.Method: Self‐report questionnaires were administered to 1088 children aged 12‐14 years. The children's intentions, attitudes, subjective norms and PBC towards participating in physical activity were assessed using a TPB questionnaire. A modified verson of Ryan and Connell's (1989) perceived locus of causality (PLOC) inventory was used to measure controlling and autonomous motives for participating in physical activity.Results: These data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The resulting well‐fitting model demonstrated that attitude and PBC mediated the influence of autonomous motives to perform physical activity on physical activity intentions. The presence of autonomous motives resulted in the effects of the controlling motives being attenuated to zero.Conclusions: The present results indicate that general autonomous motives to participate in physical activity act as sources of information when childen make their judgments regarding their specific attitudes and PBC. Attitudes and PBC are necessary to translate these general motives from SDT into intentions in the TPB. In terms of targets for intervention, practitioners may positively influence intentions by providing a choice of physical activities to foster increased autonomy in children.