Peer mentorship to promote effective pain management in adolescents: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Feeling better on hemodialysis: user-centered design requirements for promoting patient involvement in the prevention of treatment complications

OBJECTIVE

Hemodialysis patients frequently experience dialysis therapy sessions complicated by intradialytic hypotension (IDH), a major patient safety concern. We investigate user-centered design requirements for a theory-informed, peer mentoring-based, informatics intervention to activate patients toward IDH prevention.

METHODS

We conducted observations (156 hours) and interviews (n = 28) with patients in 3 hemodialysis clinics, followed by 9 focus groups (including participatory design activities) with patients (n = 17). Inductive and deductive analyses resulted in themes and design principles linked to constructs from social, cognitive, and self-determination theories.

RESULTS

Hemodialysis patients want an informatics intervention for IDH prevention that collapses distance between patients, peers, and family; harnesses patients' strength of character and resolve in all parts of their life; respects and supports patients' individual needs, preferences, and choices; and links "feeling better on dialysis" to becoming more involved in IDH prevention. Related design principles included designing for: depth of interpersonal connections; positivity; individual choice and initiative; and comprehension of connections and possible actions.

DISCUSSION

Findings advance the design of informatics interventions by presenting design requirements for outpatient safety and addressing key design opportunities for informatics to support patient involvement; these include incorporation of behavior change theories. Results also demonstrate the meaning of design choices for hemodialysis patients in the context of their experiences; this may have applicability to other populations with serious illnesses.

CONCLUSION

The resulting patient-facing informatics intervention will be evaluated in a pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial in 28 hemodialysis facilities in 4 US regions.

Peer Support in the Treatment of Chronic Pain in Adolescents: A Review of the Literature and Available Resources

Peer support has found applications beyond the mental health field and is useful for managing several chronic disorders and supporting healthy lifestyle choices. Communication through telephone and the Internet allows for greater access to those who cannot meet in person. Adolescent chronic pain would seem ideally suited to benefit from online peer support groups. Research is lacking, however, to characterize benefit in terms of pain and function, despite a clear desire among adolescents for access to such programs. More rapid development of online applications is needed for peer support, and research into the associated outcomes will be necessary to optimally design such programs.

Peer approaches to self-management (PALS): comparing a peer mentoring approach for disease self-management in African American women with lupus with a social support control: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus) is a chronic autoimmune disease that is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, healthcare costs and decreased quality of life. African Americans in the USA have three to four times greater prevalence of SLE, risk of developing SLE at an earlier age, and SLE-related disease activity, damage, and mortality compared with Caucasians, with the highest rates experienced by African American women. There is strong evidence that patient-level factors are associated with outcomes, which justifies targeting them with intervention. While evidence-based self-management interventions that incorporate both social support and health education have reduced pain, improved function, and delayed disability among patients with SLE, African Americans and women are still disproportionately impacted by SLE. Peer mentoring interventions are effective in other chronic conditions that disproportionately affect minorities, such as diabetes mellitus, HIV, and kidney disease, but there is currently no empirically tested peer mentoring intervention developed for patients with SLE. Preliminary data from our group suggest that peer mentoring improves self-management, reduces disease activity, and improves health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in African American women with SLE.

METHODS

This study will test an innovative, manualized peer mentorship program designed to provide modeling and reinforcement by peers (mentors) to other African American women with SLE (mentees) to encourage them to engage in activities that promote disease self-management. Through a randomized, "mentored" or "support group" controlled design, we will assess the efficacy and mechanism(s) of this intervention in self-management, disease activity, and HRQOL.

DISCUSSION

This is the first study to test peer mentorship as an alternative strategy to improve outcomes in African American women with SLE. This could result in a model for other programs that aim to improve disease self-management, disease activity, and HRQOL in African American women suffering from chronic illness. The peer mentoring approach is uniquely fitted to African Americans, and this intervention has the potential to lead to health improvements for African American women with SLE that have not been attainable with other interventions. This would significantly reduce disparities and have considerable public health impact.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03734055 . Registered on 27 November 2018.

Supported self-care for children and adolescents with chronic disease and their families

ABSTRACT Objective: analyze the scientific production between 2006 and 2015 on strategies for supported self-care by children and adolescents with chronic disease and their families. Method: integrative review of the literature conducted July and August 2016 in the databases: BDENF, LILACS, IBECS, ADOLEC, MEDLINE/PubMed and SCIELO. The 27 selected studies were analyzed and categorized into the five pillars of supported self-care: evaluation, counseling, agreement, care and accompaniment. Results: only two studies covered all five pillars, evaluation was considered most, but accompaniment was essential for adherence to the therapeutics of the goal plan. There was a prevalence of actions to evaluate the emotional state of the child/adolescent/family and technological interventions to empower the individual in self-care. Final considerations: these actions are concentrated in countries with health systems directed to the health needs of people with chronic disease. In Brazil, this is still incipient, since the actions are focused on exacerbation.

Scientometric analysis of psychological interventions based upon the use of Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a therapeutic technique that has developed for centuries, and every time with greater clinical and scientific weight. Currently, hypnosis constitutes a solid support method for treatments against chronic pain and for emotion control under situations that generate fear and anxiety -such as surgery or other type of phobias-, so it is presented as an alternative to the use of medicine/drugs by health specialists. On the other hand within the field of behavioral sciences, apart from controlling fear and anxiety responses, hypnosis serves as support to the various cognitive behavioral techniques by facilitating their assimilation and development. This work presents a scientometric study of the research done on hypnosis over the last fifteen years, from publications -in Spanish and English- in specialized journals, indexed in SCOPUS (a specialized international bibliometric database). The contemporary applications of hypnosis are presented and critically discussed; as well as the fields in which its application has proven successful; its limitations; the research networks generated within the time of the study; plus, probable projections for future research are also mentioned. 

Pediatric headache: associated psychosocial factors and psychological treatment

All relevant databases (i.e., Pubmed, PsycINFO) were searched for studies published in 2011-2013 focusing on the association of behavioral, cognitive-emotional, and psychosocial factors with recurrent headache in children and adolescents. Only 3 studies were found dealing with psychological intervention for headache; only 2 of them presented empirical data but were not conducted as a RCT. Eleven studies (clinical and population) were concerned with the association of psychosocial factors, dysfunctional psychological traits, and symptoms and headache or examined certain pain features (triggers, course over time, disability). Most studies were interested in the association of cognitive-emotional symptoms (e.g., internalizing symptoms, anxiety) and their relation to headache, including a meta-analysis. In nearly all studies, a close bond between negative affectivity and headache, especially migraine, was revealed.