Psychology & health
-
Psychology & health · Jan 2014
'See it doesn't look pretty does it?' Young adults' airbrushed drinking practices on Facebook.
A range of negative health outcomes are associated with young adults' drinking practices. One key arena where images of, and interaction about, drinking practices occurs is social networking sites, particularly Facebook. This study investigated the ways in which young adults' talked about and understood their uses of Facebook within their drinking practices. ⋯ Positive photos prompted discussion of negative drinking events which were not explicitly represented. Together these understandings of drinking photos function to delimit socially appropriate online drinking displays, effectively 'airbrushing' these visual depictions of young adults' drinking as always pleasurable and without negative consequences. We consider the implications of these findings for ways alcohol health initiatives may intervene to reframe 'airbrushed' drinking representations on Facebook and provoke a deeper awareness among young people of drinking practices and their online displays.
-
Psychology & health · Jan 2014
Illness representations, psychological distress and non-cardiac chest pain in patients attending an emergency department.
Many patients who attend an emergency department (ED) with chest pain receive a diagnosis of non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP), and often suffer poor psychological outcomes and continued pain. This study assessed the role of illness representations in explaining psychological distress and continued chest pain in patients attending an ED. ⋯ The findings suggest that (i) continued chest pain is related to psychological distress and poor QoL, (ii) interventions should be aimed at reducing psychological distress and improving QoL and (iii) given the associations between perceived psychological causes and psychological distress/QoL, NCCP patients in the ED might benefit from psychological therapies to manage their chest pain.
-
Psychology & health · Jan 2014
Profiling patient attitudes to phosphate binding medication: a route to personalising treatment and adherence support.
Nonadherence to phosphate binding medication (PBM) compromises the efficacy of treatment for chronic kidney disease, but its causes are poorly understood. This study sought to explore patient attitudes towards PBM and to evaluate the utility of the necessity-concerns framework for understanding adherence to PBM. ⋯ Strategies to improve adherence to PBM should aim to elicit and address patients' beliefs about their personal need for PBM and their concerns about this medication.
-
Psychology & health · Jan 2014
The relative importance of patients' decisional control preferences and experiences.
Patients' role in treatment decision-making can influence psychosocial and health-related outcomes (i.e. satisfaction, felt respect, adherence). We examined decisional control in a surgical context, identifying correlates of patients' preferences and experiences. ⋯ Decisional control predicts better outcomes for patients, regardless of their preferences for control over treatment decisions. These findings suggest that interventions should aim to increase patients' degree of decisional control when feasible and appropriate.
-
Psychology & health · Jan 2014
Developmental trajectories of multisite musculoskeletal pain and depressive symptoms: the effects of job demands and resources and individual factors.
To investigate developmental paths in multisite musculoskeletal pain (MPS) and depressive symptoms (DPS) and the effects of job demands (JD), job resources (JR), optimism and health-related lifestyle on these paths. We expected to find four trajectories--Low Symptoms, High Pain, High Depression and High Symptoms--and hypothesised that high JDs, low JRs, low optimism and adverse lifestyle predict belonging to trajectories with high symptom levels. ⋯ Different developmental paths in MPS and DPS are possible. Partly different factors predict the development of pain and depressive symptoms.