Articles: caregivers.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2024
Review Meta AnalysisEffectiveness of dyadic advance care planning: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Making decisions regarding end-of-life care is particularly challenging for patients and their family caregivers. Studies have advocated that family involvement in advance care planning is important to provide goal-concordant care and to increase family caregivers' preparation for surrogate decision-making. However, there is a lack of evidence to examine the effectiveness of advance care planning using the patient-caregiver dyadic approach. ⋯ This review supports that dyadic advance care planning is a promising approach to preparing patients and their family caregivers for end-of-life communication and decision-making. Given that this multifaceted process is influenced by multiple factors within the socio-cultural context, future studies are warranted to identify the barriers and facilitators to implement dyadic advance care planning in real-world settings.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2024
Randomized Controlled TrialDyadic Yoga for Head and Neck Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemoradiation and their Family Caregivers.
Concurrent chemoradiation to treat head and neck cancer (HNC) may result in debilitating toxicities. Targeted exercise such as yoga therapy may buffer against treatment-related sequelae; thus, this pilot RCT examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a yoga intervention. Because family caregivers report low caregiving efficacy and elevated levels of distress, we included them in this trial as active study participants. ⋯ Yoga therapy appears to be a feasible, acceptable, and possibly efficacious behavioral supportive care strategy for HNC patients undergoing chemoradiation. A larger efficacy trial is warranted.
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Elder abuse (EA) is a serious public health issue recognized as a healthcare priority. Personality traits can influence social behaviors. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of self-reported domestic EA and its relationship with personality traits of older people and their family caregivers. ⋯ Policymakers and health experts should prepare training and screening programs to consider these factors so that older people exposed to EA can be identified more quickly and early interventions can be used to improve their health status and increase their quality of life.
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Although emergency medical service is focused on providing acute prehospital treatment, it is often used by terminally ill patients and their informal caregivers during the last days of patient's life. Little is known about why they decide to use the emergency medical services. ⋯ For informal caregivers, emergency medical services represented an important source of support while caring for their terminally ill loved ones due to the limited availability of other sources of help, including a lack of specialist palliative care providers. Additionally, informal caregivers had limited knowledge of the dying process and used emergency medical services for professional advice.