Complex patients' effect on family physicians: high cognitive load and negative emotional impact.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Complex patients present an increasing challenge to the health care system and family physicians play an important role in their care. As part of a larger project exploring family physicians' perceptions of complex patients, we sought to understand how complex patients affect family physicians and if these effects might be related to physician burnout. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study involving interviews with family physicians from various practice settings. We invited the physicians to choose three of their patients between the ages of 18 and 64 whom they considered to have complex medical problems and to have access to their medical records during a telephone interview using a semi-structured interview guide. Interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed and coded. Using qualitative analytical software, research team members worked together to analyse the interview data and determine emerging themes. RESULTS: Eleven family physicians participated in the interviews and described 29 unique complex patients, including challenges and effects on them personally. Analysis of the available 10 family physicians' interviews revealed two themes related to complexity's impact on physicians: (i) high cognitive load and (ii) negative emotional impact. CONCLUSION: Although preliminary, this study offers a previously unconsidered understanding of drivers of physician burnout, including high cognitive load and negative emotional impact on family physicians created by caring for complex patients. Interventions to improve health care, including addressing physician wellness and burnout, should include the provision of resources to assist them with decreasing cognitive load and negative emotional impact when caring for complex patients.

Complex patients present an increasing challenge to the health care system and family physicians play an important role in their care. We interviewed family physicians from various practice settings, inviting them to choose complex patients between the ages of 18 and 64 from their practices and to have access to their medical records during the interview. We then analysed the interviews for recurring themes regarding the care of their complex patients. Ten family physicians described 26 unique complex patients, including challenges and effects on them personally. Two themes related to the complexity's impact on physicians emerged from our analysis: (i) high cognitive load (the total amount of mental effort required) and (ii) negative emotional impact. It is possible that these two effects of complex patients on family physicians may contribute to physician burnout. Interventions to improve health care, including addressing physician wellness and burnout, should include the provision of resources to assist them with decreasing their cognitive load and negative emotional impact when caring for complex patients.

Neighborhood air pollution and household environmental health as it relates to respiratory health and healthcare utilization among elderly persons with asthma.

Objective: The study investigated the associations between fine particulate matter (PM2.5; <2.5 µm in diameter), indoor environment, pulmonary function, and healthcare utilization in a vulnerable group of elderly persons with asthma. We hypothesized that environmental conditions were associated with adverse pulmonary health outcomes. Methods: The study involved elderly (n = 76; mean age 64.6 years; 48 women) vulnerable persons in Detroit, Michigan, USA, with physician-diagnosed asthma. Exposure variables included measured outdoor PM2.5, self-rated outdoor and household environmental pollutants. Outcome variables were self-rated and measured pulmonary function, and asthma-related healthcare utilization. Results: Mean ambient PM2.5 concentrations during the study was 14.14 ± (S.D. 6.36) µg/m3 during the summer and 14.20 (6.33) during the winter (p = 0.95). In multiple regression analyses, adjusting for age and gender, mean 6-month concentration of PM2.5 was related to shortness of breath (SHOB; standardized ß = 0.26, p = 0.02) and inversely with self-rated respiratory health (SRRH; ß = 0.28, p = 0.02). However, PM2.5 did not predict lung function (FEV1% predicted and FEV1/FVC). However, PM2.5 was related to use of asthma controller drugs (ß = 0.38, p = 0.001). Participants' air pollution ratings predicted total healthcare utilization (ß = 0.33, p = 0.01). Conclusions: In elderly persons with asthma, living near heavy industry and busy highways, objective and perceived environmental pollution relate to participants' respiratory health and healthcare utilization. Importantly, air pollution might increase use of asthma controller drugs containing corticosteroids with implication for elderly persons' risk to develop osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Taking a Stand: An Untapped Strategy to Reduce Waterpipe Smoking in Adolescents.

INTRODUCTION: Waterpipe use amongst adolescents is on the rise globally. Thus, there is a need to understand adolescents 'attitudes towards and perceptions of waterpipe use in order to develop specific interventions against this form of tobacco use. METHODS: Focus group interviews were conducted among 37 Swedish adolescents (14 boys and 23 girls) from grades 10 to 12. Waterpipe users and nonusers were interviewed separately, with two groups each for users and nonusers. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and thematically analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: Six themes emerged including taking a stand, weighing the risks, Lack of knowledge, Social context, Waterpipe new and unknown, and Family influence. Taking a stand was about being able to stand up for one's owns views rather than giving in to peer pressure to smoke waterpipe. Participants feared harming others via secondhand smoke and expressed criticism of the tobacco industry. Participants considered the health consequences and feared addiction. Lack of knowledge concerning health effects of waterpipe smoking due to the unavailability of credible information was also reported. Waterpipe smoking was considered a social event carried out in the company of friends. Perceived as novel and fun, waterpipe was smoked out of curiosity. Parents' and siblings' smoking behaviors influenced adolescent waterpipe use. CONCLUSION: Adolescents reported lacking information about the possible health effects of waterpipe smoking and that gaining such knowledge would make it easier for them to take a stand and refuse smoking waterpipe. Prevention strategies should focus on providing adolescents with factual information about the dangers of waterpipe use.

Waterpipe use in adolescents in Northern Sweden: Association with mental well-being and risk and health behaviours.

AIMS: There is a lack of studies examining the association between waterpipe smoking and mental well-being among adolescents. This study sought to determine whether waterpipe smoking is associated with mental well-being and other risk and health behaviours in adolescents. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to 1006 adolescents in grades 9-12 (with a response rate of >95%), containing questions on measures of stress, mental energy and sleep. In addition, the questionnaire assessed risk and health behaviours, including use of a waterpipe, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, snus, alcohol, narcotics, gambling and exercise. Logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with waterpipe use. RESULTS: Thirty-seven per cent ( n=371) of the participants had used a waterpipe at some point. Waterpipe use was associated with lower mental energy (odds ratio [OR] = 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.81-0.99), higher stress (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.02-1.20) and use of cigarettes (OR = 3.82, 95% CI 2.33-6.03), e-cigarettes (OR = 3.26, 95% CI 2.12-4.99), snus (OR = 2.29, 95% CI 2.12-4.99), alcohol (OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.07-3.44) and narcotics (OR = 3.64, 95% CI 1.75-7.58). Waterpipe use was not significantly associated with gambling, exercise or sleep quality. CONCLUSIONS: Waterpipe use in adolescents is associated with worse mental well-being, as well as use of other nicotine products, alcohol and narcotics. Prospective studies are needed to delineate causal and temporal relationships further between waterpipe use and mental well-being and its relationship to other risky behaviours in order to design effective prevention programs.

Patient-reported outcomes of caries prophylaxis among Swedish caries active adults in a long-term perspective.

The aim of this study was to measure patient-reported outcomes of caries prophylaxis and to compare them with previously documented efforts in dental offices. A questionnaire was mailed to 134 caries active (CA) and 40 caries inactive (CI) adult patients treated at a Swedish public dental service clinic. The overall response rate was 69%. The questionnaire included items regarding patient perceived caries prophylaxis in relation to: 1) treatment and recommendations given by the dental personnel, 2) performed self-care and 3) perceived and expected effects.The responses were studied for their association to clinical data, extracted retrospectively from the patients' dental records.The mean follow up time was > 16 years. Information about caries prophylaxis (p = 0.01) and recommendations for self-care (p = 0.04) were given more often to the CA group than to the CI group. Supplementary examinations and recommendations of self-care risk treatments were more frequent in the CA group (p < 0.001). CA patients also made more frequent extra efforts at home to avoid caries by changing their eating habits (p < 0.001), improving their oral hygiene (p = 0.04) and using extra fluoride (p = 0.001). In the CA group, 60% did not considerthat the extra prophylaxis efforts had made them caries inactive, and 40% were not satisfied with the outcome. Most patients (> 90%) hoped that the outcome of caries prophylactics would be a reduced number of cavities.The patient-perceived experiences of caries prophylaxis-were in concordance with dental records. Both the dentists and the caries active middle-aged Swedish adults were aware of the need for extra prophylaxis.The caries active patients perceived having made extra home care efforts, but had not experienced that they had become free from caries.

Correlation between perceived experience of caries disease and recorded caries activity among adult patients at a Swedish Public Dental Clinic: A longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare patients' perceived experiences of caries activity with recorded longitudinal caries prevalence, consequences of caries and length of recall intervals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to 134 caries active (CA) and 40 caries inactive (CI) adult patients at a Swedish Public Dental Clinic. The overall response rate was 69%. The questionnaire included items regarding perceived caries activity, general health, dietary and oral hygiene habits, level of education and socioeconomic status. Questionnaire responses were studied for their association to clinical data extracted from patient dental records. RESULTS: There was a correlation between patient-perceived and documented caries activity for all respondents (rho = 0.65; p < 0.001). CA patients had significantly more perceived caries activity (p < 0.001), decayed teeth (p < 0.001), root fillings (p = 0.001) and extractions (p < 0.001) than CI patients. The mean recall interval was 1.5 years for CA and 2.1 years for CI (p < 0.001). In multiple logistic regression analysis, CA patients were at increased risk for xerostomia (OR = 22.66, p = 0.003), sleep disturbances (OR = 4.36, p = 0.04) and more frequent use of daily extra fluoride (OR = 3.58, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Patient-perceived experience of caries correlated well with recorded caries activity in this group of middle-aged Swedish adults. Individuals with active caries were aware of their disease and made more frequent attempts to reduce caries activity by use of daily extra fluoride. Individual risk-based recall intervals did not seem to eliminate consequences of disease activity such as root fillings and extractions during the follow-up period.

IL-10: A possible immunobiological component of positive mental health in refugees.

Objective: As the number of refugees continues to rise, there is growing concern about the impact from trauma exposures on their mental health. However, there is a limited understanding of possible biological mechanisms contributing to the substantial inter-individual differences in trauma-related outcomes, especially as it relates to positive mental health. Only sparse work has focused on the biology of positive mental health, including energy and sleep, in trauma-exposed persons. In this study, we analyzed cytokines in blood from newly arrived refugees with differential trauma exposures in relationship to self-reported energy, as a key marker of positive mental health. Methods: Within the first month of arrival in the USA, 64 refugees from Iraq and Syria were interviewed. Refugees completed the clinical DSM-IV PTSD-Checklist Civilian Version (PCL-C), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Ten psychiatrically healthy non-refugee persons were used as healthy controls to compare levels of cytokines. Blood samples were collected at the time of the interview and subsequently analyzed for IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-α concentrations. Results: Energy correlated positively with current concentration ability and sleep quality, and negatively with stress, PCL-C, BAI and HADS scores (Spearman correlations, all p<0.05). Refugees had lower levels of IL-10 compared to controls (p<0.05). IL-10 levels in refugees correlated with higher energy levels (p<0.01). Conclusions: Results suggest that self-reported energy is a key component of positive mental health in newly arrived traumatized refugees. Additionally, the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 could be a marker of, or causally associated with positive mental health. A better understanding of the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory states in highly traumatized individuals has the potential to create more targeted and effective treatments with implications for long-term health outcomes.

The association between attendings' feedback and residents' reporting of near-misses.

OBJECTIVE: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's Clinical Learning Environment Review report suggests that residents in clinical learning environments underreport their near-misses, an indicator of patient safety. Furthermore, when the residents report these events, they receive little feedback from their attendings. Although, various studies emphasize the importance of feedback given to the residents, the association between feedback and patient safety has not been explored. This study was conducted in 28 emergency medicine residents in a level 1 trauma center. A recent study in the same cohort found that residents' stress biomarker levels and patient acuity were positively related to their near-misses reports. The current study hypothesizes that residents that receive constructive feedback on their performance from their attendings would report more near-misses. RESULTS: Linear regression was used to determine whether ratings of attendings' feedback predicted residents' reports of near-misses. Feedback was positively related to residents' near-misses reports even after controlling for patient acuity and stress biomarker levels. This may be due to the residents becoming more aware of what a near miss is or it may also be that constructive feedback encourages them to report more near-misses as they may view this as a learning opportunity.

Examining self-reported and biological stress and near misses among Emergency Medicine residents: a single-centre cross-sectional assessment in the USA.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between perceived and biological stress and near misses among Emergency Medicine residents. DESIGN: Self-rated stress and stress biomarkers were assessed in residents in Emergency Medicine before and after a day shift. The supervising physicians and residents reported numbers of near misses. SETTING: The study took place in the Emergency Department of a large trauma 1 centre, located in Detroit, USA. PARTICIPANTS: Residents in Emergency Medicine volunteered to participate. The sample consisted of 32 residents, with complete data on 28 subjects. Residents' supervising physicians assessed the clinical performance of each resident. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants' preshift and postshift stress, biological stress (salivary cortisol, plasma interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein), residents' and supervisors' reports of near misses, number of critically ill and patients with trauma seen during the shift. RESULTS: Residents' self-reported stress increased from an average preshift level of 2.79 of 10 (SD 1.81) to a postshift level of 5.82 (2.13) (p<0.001). Residents cared for an average of 2.32 (1.52) critically ill patients and 0.68 (1.06) patients with trauma. Residents reported a total of 7 near misses, compared with 11 reported by the supervising physicians. After controlling for baseline work-related exhaustion, residents that cared for more patients with trauma and had higher levels of TNF-α reported a higher frequency of near misses (R2=0.72; p=0.001). Residents' preshift ratings of how stressful they expected the shift to be were related to the supervising physicians' ratings of residents' near misses during the shift. CONCLUSION: Residents' own ratings of near misses were associated with residents' TNF-α, a biomarker of systemic inflammation and the number of patients with trauma seen during the shift. In contrast, supervisor reports on residents' near misses were related only to the residents' preshift expectations of how stressful the shift would be.

Chronic pain disrupts ability to work by interfering with social function: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Some 100 million adults in the United States suffer from chronic pain. While research to date has focused primarily on pain interference with physical and psychological function and its effects on employment, few studies have examined the impact of pain interference on social functioning and its effects on employment. The aims of our study were to (1) evaluate the association between pain interference with ability to work and actual employment status among working age adults with chronic pain; and (2) evaluate pain interference with four types of functioning - cognitive, physical, psychological, and social - as possible mediators of pain interference with the ability to work. METHODS: Data were collected via a self-selected sample of individuals visiting the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA) website. The final dataset included 966 respondents. We examined the association between pain interference with the ability to work and employment in a population with chronic pain. We then analyzed pain interference with four types of functioning, physical, psychological, cognitive, and social, for their impact on the ability to work. RESULTS: Pain interference with ability to work was significantly inversely associated with employment status, i.e., the less that pain interfered with one's ability to work, the greater the likelihood of being employed. Moreover, pain interference with ability to work was a stronger predictor of employment status than an individual's rating of their pain intensity. Pain interference with social functioning partially mediated the effects of pain interference with cognitive and physical functioning and fully mediated the effects of pain intensity and pain interference with psychological functioning on pain interference with the ability to work. Results suggest that pain interference with social function may be a significant contributor to pain interference with ability to work in working age adults with chronic pain. CONCLUSIONS: In the development of effective solutions to address the economic and societal burden of chronic pain, this paper highlights the role of social function as an important, yet frequently overlooked, contributor to chronic pain's effect on the ability to work. Our findings underscore the importance of an integrated biopsychosocial approach to managing chronic pain, especially when addressing ability to work. From a clinical standpoint, assessing and managing pain intensity is necessary but not sufficient in addressing the far-reaching negative consequences of chronic pain. IMPLICATIONS: The development of interventions that improve social function may improve the ability to work in adults with chronic pain. Likewise, sick leave should be prescribed restrictively in the management of chronic pain since it may further interfere with social functioning. PERSPECTIVE: This study highlights the importance of the assessment of pain interference with social function as a part of a comprehensive biopsychosocial approach to the evaluation and management of patients with chronic pain. Interventions that improve social function may improve the ability to work in this population. In addition, sick leave should be prescribed restrictively in the management of chronic pain since it by itself interferes with social functioning.

Determinants of waterpipe use amongst adolescents in Northern Sweden: a survey of use pattern, risk perception, and environmental factors.

BACKGROUND: Determinants of waterpipe use in adolescents are believed to differ from those for other tobacco products, but there is a lack of studies of possible social, cultural, or psychological aspects of waterpipe use in this population. This study applied a socioecological model to explore waterpipe use, and its relationship to other tobacco use in Swedish adolescents. METHODS: A total of 106 adolescents who attended an urban high-school in northern Sweden responded to an anonymous questionnaire. Prevalence rates for waterpipe use were examined in relation to socio-demographics, peer pressure, sensation seeking behavior, harm perception, environmental factors, and depression. RESULTS: Thirty-three percent reported ever having smoked waterpipe (ever use), with 30% having done so during the last 30 days (current use). Among waterpipe ever users, 60% had ever smoked cigarettes in comparison to 32% of non-waterpipe smokers (95% confidence interval 1.4-7.9). The odds of having ever smoked waterpipe were three times higher among male high school seniors as well as students with lower grades. Waterpipe ever users had three times higher odds of having higher levels of sensation-seeking (95% confidence interval 1.2-9.5) and scored high on the depression scales (95% confidence interval 1.6-6.8) than non-users. The odds of waterpipe ever use were four times higher for those who perceived waterpipe products to have pleasant smell compared to cigarettes (95% confidence interval 1.7-9.8). Waterpipe ever users were twice as likely to have seen waterpipe use on television compared to non-users (95% confidence interval 1.1-5.7). The odds of having friends who smoked regularly was eight times higher for waterpipe ever users than non-users (95% confidence interval 2.1-31.2). CONCLUSION: The current study reports a high use of waterpipe in a select group of students in northern Sweden. The study adds the importance of looking at socioecological determinants of use, including peer pressure and exposure to media marketing, as well as mental health among users.

Knowledge and attitudes toward seeking medical care for AMI-symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Time is crucial when an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) occurs, but patients often wait before seeking medical care. AIM: To investigate and compare patients' and relatives' knowledge of AMI, attitudes toward seeking medical care, and intended behaviour if AMI-symptoms occur. METHODS: The present study was a descriptive, multicentre study. Participants were AMI-patients ≤ 75 years (n = 364) and relatives to AMI-patients (n = 319). Questionnaires were used to explore the participants' knowledge of AMI and attitudes toward seeking medical care. RESULTS: Both patients and relatives appeared to act more appropriate to someone else's chest pain than to their own. Patients did not have better knowledge of AMI-symptoms than relatives. Women would more often contact someone else before seeking medical care. A greater percentage of elderly (65-75 years), compared to younger individuals, reported that they would call for an ambulance if chest pain occurred. CONCLUSIONS: There were only minor differences between patients and relatives, regarding both knowledge and attitudes. It seems easier to act correctly as a bystander than as a patient. Therefore, in order to decrease patients' delay time it is important to educate relatives as well as patients on how to respond to symptoms of an AMI.