Lymphedema Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnosis in Women Who Are in Minority and Low-Income Groups and Have Survived Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a well-known side effect of cancer and its treatment with wide-ranging prevalence estimates. OBJECTIVE: This study describes associations between breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) signs, symptoms, and diagnosis for women who were African American, white, or had a low income and survived breast cancer. DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional, observational study that used a computer-assisted telephone interview. METHODS: Women who had survived breast cancer were queried on the presence of 5 lymphedema signs and symptoms (edema in the breast, axilla, arm, and/or hand; tissue fibrosis; pitting; hemosiderin staining; heaviness) and whether they had a diagnosis of BCRL. Relationships between signs/symptoms and diagnosis for each group were evaluated with kappa and chi-square statistics. RESULTS: The study sample included 528 women who had survived breast cancer (266 white and 262 African American), with 514 reporting complete data on household income; 45% of the latter reported an annual household income of ≤$20,000. Women who were African American or had a low income were nearly twice as likely as women who were white to have any of 8 signs/symptoms of BCRL. Regardless of race and income, >50% of women with all BCRL signs and symptoms reported that they were not diagnosed with BCRL. LIMITATIONS: The main limitations of our study are the lack of medical chart data and longitudinal design. CONCLUSIONS: Women who were African American or had a low income and had survived breast cancer had a greater burden of BCRL signs and symptoms than women who were white. The lack of a strong association between BCRL signs, symptoms, and diagnosis suggests that BCRL may be underdiagnosed. These findings suggest that more rigorous screening and detection of BCRL-especially for women who are African American or have a low income-may be warranted. Cancer rehabilitation programs may be able to fill this gap.

Application of a contextual instructional framework in a continuing professional development training program for physiotherapists in Rwanda.

BACKGROUND: Continuing professional development is an important component of capacity building in low resource countries. The purpose of this case study is to describe the use of a contextual instructional framework to guide the processes and instructional design choices for a series of continuing professional development courses for physiotherapists in Rwanda. METHODS: Four phases of the project are described: (1) program proposal, needs assessment and planning, (2) organization of the program and instructional design, (3) instructional delivery and (4) evaluation. Contextual facilitating factors and needs informed choices in each phase. OUTCOMES: The model resulted in delivery of continuing professional development to the majority of physiotherapists in Rwanda (n = 168, 0.48 rural/0.52 urban) with participants reporting improvement in skills and perceived benefit for their patients. Environmental and healthcare system factors resulted in offering the courses in rural and urban areas. Content was developed and delivered in partnership with Rwandan coinstructors. Based on the domestic needs identified in early courses, the program included advocacy and leadership activities, in addition to practical and clinical instruction. CONCLUSIONS: The contextual factors (environment, healthcare service organization, need for rehabilitation and status and history of the physiotherapy profession) were essential for project and instructional choices. Facilitating factors included the established professional degree and association, continuing professional development requirements, a core group of active professionals and an existing foundation from other projects. The processes and contextual considerations may be useful in countries with established professional-level education but without established postentry-level training. Implications for Rehabilitation Organizations planning continuing professional development programs may benefit from considering the context surrounding training when planning, designing and developing instruction. The surrounding context including the environment, the organization of healthcare services, the population defined need for rehabilitation, and the domestic status and history of the physiotherapy profession, is important for physiotherapy projects in countries with lower resources. Facilitating factors in low resource countries such as an established professional degree and association, continuing professional development requirements, a core group of active professionals and an existing foundation from other projects impact the success of projects. Methods that may be useful for relevance, dissemination and consistency include involvement of in-country leaders and instructors and attendance in multiple courses with consistent themes. Rehabilitation professionals in low resource countries may benefit from continuing professional development courses that emphasize practical skills, and clinical reasoning, accompanied by clinical mentoring and directed coaching that encourages knowledge transfer to the clinical setting. Active learning approaches and multiple progressive courses provide opportunities to develop peer support through professional communities of practice.

Factors that affect decisions about physical activity and exercise in survivors of breast cancer: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Exercise has many benefits for survivors of breast cancer, yet only half of this population regularly exercise. Fear has been identified as a barrier to exercise for people with neuromusculoskeletal conditions but has been minimally explored in women with breast cancer. OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate factors that affected decisions about physical activity and exercise in survivors of breast cancer and (2) to determine whether fear was a factor. DESIGN: This investigation was a grounded-theory qualitative study. Qualitative data were triangulated with data from 2 quantitative scales that measured participants' beliefs about exercise and their activity levels. METHODS: Thirty-four survivors of breast cancer in 8 focus groups participated in semistructured interviews that were recorded, transcribed, and coded. Concept maps created for each group were merged to develop themes. Beliefs about physical activity and exercise were assessed with the Decisional Balance Scale. The Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity was used to assess behaviors regarding physical activity and exercise before and after the breast cancer diagnosis. RESULTS: Participants generally believed that exercise was beneficial (Decisional Balance Scale score: X=28.1 [of a maximum score of 44], SD=7.6, range=10-43). Participants decreased the amount of physical activity or exercise during treatment but increased the amount of exercise beyond prediagnosis levels after treatment (Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity score: median=6, range=2-7). Three prominent themes described participants' behaviors regarding physical activity or exercise: values and beliefs about exercise, facilitators and barriers that were both similar to those affecting the general population and cancer specific, and lack of or inaccurate information about safe exercise. CONCLUSIONS: Survivors who were active were not afraid to exercise. However, concern about lymphedema and knowledge about safe and effective exercise programs influenced choices regarding physical activity and exercise.

Exploring the cultural adaptability of doctoral entry-level physical therapist students during clinical education experiences.

Cultural competence is an essential component of health care education. The aim of this study was to explore the development of cultural competence in 14 physical therapist students during their final, 23 weeks of clinical education (CE) experiences. A mixed methods design was used to quantitatively measure and qualitatively describe cultural adaptability as an indicator of cultural competence. Subjects completed the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) at the end of their didactic curriculum and again at the end of their CE experiences. Constant comparative methods were used to analyze written narrative summaries of how students made meaning of their cultural encounters. The students exhibited statistically significant changes in the total CCAI score (paired t-test: p < 0.001), and three CCAI subscales: emotional resilience (paired t-test: p < 0.002), flexibility/openness (paired t-test: p < 0.003), and perceptual acuity (paired t-test: p < 0.001). There was not a statistically significant change in the fourth CCAI subscale, personal autonomy. Qualitatively, four themes emerged that described students' cultural encounters with patients, families, and co-workers: recognizing cultural descriptors; consideration of feelings, values, attitudes and beliefs; effective communication to breakdown barriers; and awareness of strategies for current and future cross-cultural practice. Clinical cultural encounters are important in the progression toward cultural competence in physical therapist students. Changes in attitude appear to be key in effective cultural encounters as students learn to communicate and connect with anyone perceived to be different from them.

Upper-extremity volume measurements in women with lymphedema: a comparison of measurements obtained via water displacement with geometrically determined volume.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Upper-extremity (UE) swelling following breast cancer treatment is a frequent manifestation of lymphedema. In order to document outcomes from lymphedema treatments, reliable, valid, and practical measurements of UE swelling are necessary. The purpose of this study was to compare geometric methods of determining UE volumes with water displacement methods. SUBJECTS: The edematous hand, forearm, and upper arm of 50 women with UE swelling secondary to lymphedema were measured. METHODS: Upper-extremity volumes were determined by water displacement using arm and hand volumeters. Displaced water was weighed to determine volume. Circumferential girth measurements were taken. Width and depth measurements of the hand were taken with a tension-controlled caliper. Geometric volume formulas for a cylinder, frustum, rectangular solid, and trapezoidal solid were used to calculate volumes of the arm and hand at different measurement intervals. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients [2,1] for interrater and intrarater reliability of all water and geometric measurements of the arm and hand were.91 to.99 and.92 to.99, respectively. Water displacement correlated with geometric measurements in the arm (r=.97-.98) and in the hand (r=.81-.91). The limits of agreement (LOA) indicated that water and geometric measurements of arm volume differed by 479 to 655 mL. Scatterplots of the LOA data indicated in that geometric volumes were either larger or smaller than water volumes. The smallest standard error of measurement for the arm measurements was for the 6-cm frustum method at 115 mL; for the hand measurements, the smallest standard error of measurement was for the frustum method at 16 mL. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Volume of an edematous UE calculated by geometric formulas correlated strongly with volume determined by water displacement. Although strongly correlated, the measurements obtained by the 2 methods did not agree.