Jennifer Mallow

A Systematic Review of Loneliness and Common Chronic Physical Conditions in Adults

Loneliness is a prevalent and global problem for adult populations and has been linked to multiple chronic conditions in quantitative studies. This paper presents a systematic review of quantitative studies that examined the links between loneliness and common chronic conditions including: heart disease, hypertension, stroke, lung disease, and metabolic disorders. A comprehensive literature search process guided by the PRISMA statement led to the inclusion of 33 articles that measure loneliness in chronic illness populations. Loneliness is a significant biopsychosocial stressor that is prevalent in adults with heart disease, hypertension, stroke, and lung disease. The relationships among loneliness, obesity, and metabolic disorders are understudied but current research indicates that loneliness is associated with obesity and with psychological stress in obese persons. Limited interventions have demonstrated long-term effectiveness for reducing loneliness in adults with these same chronic conditions. Future longitudinal randomized trials that enhance knowledge of how diminishing loneliness can lead to improved health outcomes in persons with common chronic conditions would continue to build evidence to support the translation of findings to recommendations for clinical care.

Original Research: Loneliness and Quality of Life in Chronically Ill Rural Older Adults

The nursing literature has long recognized loneliness as a health priority. In 1955, Hildegard Peplau wrote about loneliness for this journal, calling it an “unbearable” condition and describing it as a psychological problem that results from deprivation of some social or emotional need.1 She also noted that being alone, often a chosen and useful state, isn’t the same as being lonely, which is not a chosen state; a distinction that is now well established. Historically, loneliness was first thought of as primarily a social phenomenon, and many of the instruments developed and used to measure it have been based on its social components. More recently, loneliness has been conceptualized in psychological terms, albeit at first as a construct embedded within depression. Currently the health and social sciences literature recognizes loneliness as a unique phenomenon, separate from depression, with emotional and social components.2, 3 This view of loneliness calls for a transdisciplinary approach, one that acknowledges that loneliness can be a significant biopsychosocial stressor and may adversely affect health.BackgroundLoneliness is a contributing factor to various health problems in older adults, including complex chronic illness, functional decline, and increased risk of mortality. ObjectivesA pilot study was conducted to learn more about the prevalence of loneliness in rural older adults with chronic illness and how it affects their quality of life. The purposes of the data analysis reported here were twofold: to describe loneliness, chronic illness diagnoses, chronic illness control measures, prescription medication use, and quality of life in a sample of rural older adults; and to examine the relationships among these elements. MethodsA convenience sample of 60 chronically ill older adults who were community dwelling and living in Appalachia was assessed during face-to-face interviews for loneliness and quality of life, using the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale (version 3) and the CASP-12 quality of life scale. Chronic illness diagnoses, chronic illness control measures, and medication use data were collected through review of participants’ electronic medical records. ResultsOverall mean loneliness scores indicated significant loneliness. Participants with a mood disorder such as anxiety or depression had the highest mean loneliness scores, followed by those with lung disease and those with heart disease. Furthermore, participants with mood disorders, lung disease, or heart disease had significantly higher loneliness scores than those without these conditions. Loneliness was significantly related to total number of chronic illnesses and use of benzodiazepines. Use of benzodiazepines, diuretics, nitrates, and bronchodilators were each associated with a lower quality of life. ConclusionsNurses should assess for loneliness as part of their comprehensive assessment of patients with chronic illness. Further research is needed to design and test interventions for loneliness.

Quality of life and loneliness in stroke survivors living in Appalachia.

ABSTRACT Background and Purpose: Negative outcomes of stroke are associated with poorer quality of life (QoL) and impact stroke recovery. The purpose of this study was to characterize QoL and loneliness in a sample of rural Appalachian stroke survivors within 1 year of stroke. Methods: Using mail survey methodology, survey data were collected from 121 ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke survivors living in West Virginia using 13 subscales from the Neuro-QOL survey and the three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale. Statistical Package for Social Sciences v. 20 was used to conduct descriptive, comparative, and predictive analyses. Multiple linear regression models were used to assess explanatory value of loneliness for QoL domains while controlling for comorbidities. Results: Participants who were discharged to a nursing home had poorer QoL when compared with those who were discharged to home. Stroke survivors who continued to smoke were less satisfied with social roles and reported higher mean loneliness and depression scores. History of psychological problems negatively correlated with all QoL domains and loneliness scores. Loneliness predicted poorer QoL even when controlling for age, gender, and significant comorbidities. Conclusion: Nurses need to assess for loneliness, include loneliness in care planning, and implement smoking cessation and cognitive behavioral interventions. Interventions that target loneliness for stroke survivors could potentially diminish psychological sequelae after stroke and enhance QoL.

Free Care Is Not Enough: Barriers to Attending Free Clinic Visits in a Sample of Uninsured Individuals with Diabetes

Free care does not always lead to improved outcomes. Attendance at free clinic appointments is unpredictable. Understanding barriers to care could identify innovative interventions. The purpose of this study was to examine patient characteristics, biophysical outcomes, and health care utilization in uninsured persons with diabetes at a free clinic. A sample of 3139 patients with at least one chronic condition was identified and comparisons were made between two groups: those who attended all scheduled appointments and those who did not. Geographic distance to clinic and multiple chronic conditions were identified as barriers to attendance. After one year, missing more than one visit had a positive correlation with increased weight, A1C, and lipids. Additionally, patients who missed visits had higher blood pressure, depression scores, and numbers of medications. Future research should further enhance understanding of barriers to care, build knowledge of how social and behavioral determinants contribute to negative outcomes in the context of rurality. Innovative methods to deliver more frequent and intensive interventions will not be successful if they are not accessible to patients.

Study protocol: mobile improvement of self-management ability through rural technology (mI SMART)

AbstractBackgroundThere are 62 million Americans currently residing in rural areas who are more likely to have multiple chronic conditions and be economically disadvantaged, and in poor health, receive less recommended preventive services and attend fewer visits to health care providers. Recent advances in mobile healthcare (mHealth) offer a promising new approach to solving health disparities and improving chronic illness care. It is now possible and affordable to transmit health information, including values from glucometers, automated blood pressure monitors, and scales, through Bluetooth-enabled devices. Additionally, audio and video communications technologies can allow healthcare providers to conduct many parts of a physical exam remotely from varied settings. These technologies could remove geographical distance as a barrier to care and diminish the access to care issues faced by patients who live rurally. However, currently there is lack of studies that provide evidence of feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of mHealth initiatives on improved outcomes of care, a needed step to make the translation to implementation studies in healthcare systems. The purpose of this paper is to present the protocol for the first study of mI SMART (mobile Improvement of Self-Management Ability through Rural Technology), a new integrated mHealth intervention.MethodsOur objective is to provide evidence of feasibility and acceptability for the use of mI SMART in an underserved population and establish evidence for the refinement of mI SMART. The proposed study will take place at Milan Puskar Health Right, a free primary care clinic in the state of West Virginia. The clinic provides health care at no cost to uninsured, low income; adults aged 18–64 living in West Virginia. We will enroll 30 participants into this feasibility study with plans of implementing a longitudinal randomized, comparative effectiveness design in the future. Data collection will include tracking of barriers and facilitators to using mI SMART on patient and provider feedback surveys, tracking of patient-provider communications, self-reports from patients on quality of life, adherence, and self-management ability, and capture of health record data on chronic illness measures.DiscussionWe expect that the mI SMART intervention, refined from participant and provider feedback, will be acceptable and feasible. We anticipate high patient-provider satisfaction, enhanced patient-provider communication, and improved health related quality of life, adherence to treatment, and self-management ability. In addition, we hypothesize that patients who use mI SMART will demonstrate improved physical outcomes such as blood glucose, blood pressure, and weight.

Impact of the Provider and Healthcare team Adherence to Treatment Guidelines (PHAT-G) intervention on adherence to national obesity clinical practice guidelines in a primary care centre

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Obesity is significantly underdiagnosed and undertreated in primary care settings. The purpose of this clinical practice change project was to increase provider adherence to national clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of obesity in adults. METHODS Based upon the National Institutes of Health guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of obesity, a clinical change project was implemented. Guided by the theory of planned behaviour, the Provider and Healthcare team Adherence to Treatment Guidelines (PHAT-G) intervention includes education sessions, additional provider resources for patient education, a provider reminder system and provider feedback. RESULTS Primary care providers did not significantly increase on documentation of diagnosis and planned management of obesity for patients with body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30. Medical assistants increased recording of height, weight and BMI in the patient record by 13%, which was significant. CONCLUSIONS Documentation of accurate BMI should lead to diagnosis of appropriate weight category and subsequent care planning. Future studies will examine barriers to adherence to clinical practice guidelines for obesity. Interventions are needed that include inter-professional team members and may be more successful if delivered separately from routine primary care visits.

Delivering telemedicine interventions in chronic respiratory disease.

Educational Aims To explain the basic principles of telemedicine applicable to chronic respiratory diseases To review telemedicine interventions for patients with chronic respiratory diseases To outline the advantages and limitations (including cost and barriers to implementation) of telemedicine for patients with chronic respiratory diseases To propose recommendations for clinical management of patients receiving telemedicine for chronic respiratory diseases

The use of teledermoscopy in the accurate identification of cancerous skin lesions in the adult population: a systematic review.

Background The use of teledermoscopy in the diagnostic management of pre-cancerous and cancerous skin lesions involves digital dermoscopic images transmitted over telecommunication networks via email or web applications. Teledermoscopy may improve the accuracy in clinical diagnoses of melanoma skin cancer if integrated into electronic medical records and made available to rural communities, potentially leading to decreased morbidity and mortality. Objective and method The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of evidence on the use of teledermoscopy to improve the accuracy of skin lesion identification in adult populations. The PRISMA method guided the development of this systematic review. A total of seven scholarly databases were searched for articles published between the years of 2000 and 2015. All studies were critically appraised using the Rosswurm and Larrabee critique worksheet, placed in a matrix for comparison evaluating internal and external validity and inspected for homogeneity of findings. Results Sixteen articles met inclusion criteria for this review. A majority of the studies were cross-sectional and non-experimental. Ten of the 16 focused on interobserver concordance and diagnostic agreement between teledermoscopy and another comparator. Instrumentation in conducting the studies showed inconsistency with reported results. Discussion Higher level evidence is needed to support clinical application of teledermoscopy for accuracy of diagnostic measurement in the treatment of pre-cancerous and cancerous skin lesions in adults. Future research is needed to develop a standardized, reliable and valid measurement tool for implementation in clinical practice.

Effectiveness of LISTEN on loneliness, neuroimmunological stress response, psychosocial functioning, quality of life, and physical health measures of chronic illness

Objectives Loneliness is a biopsychosocial determinant of health and contributes to physical and psychological chronic illnesses, functional decline, and mortality in older adults. This paper presents the results of the first randomized trial of LISTEN, which is a new cognitive behavioral intervention for loneliness, on loneliness, neuroimmunological stress response, psychosocial functioning, quality of life, and measures of physical health. Methods The effectiveness of LISTEN was evaluated in a sample population comprising 27 lonely, chronically ill, older adults living in Appalachia. Participants were randomized into LISTEN or educational attention control groups. Outcome measures included salivary cortisol and DHEA, interleukin-6, interleukin-2, depressive symptoms, loneliness, perceived social support, functional ability, quality of life, fasting glucose, blood pressure, and body mass index. Results At 12 weeks after the last intervention session, participants of the LISTEN group reported reduced loneliness (p = 0.03), enhanced overall social support (p = 0.05), and decreased systolic blood pressure (p = 0.02). The attention control group reported decreased functional ability (p = 0.10) and reduced quality of life (p = 0.13). Conclusions LISTEN can effectively diminish loneliness and decrease the systolic blood pressure in community-dwelling, chronically ill, older adults. Results indicate that this population, if left with untreated loneliness, may experience functional impairment over a period as short as 4 months. Further studies on LISTEN are needed with larger samples, in varied populations, and over longer periods of time to assess the long-term effects of diminishing loneliness in multiple chronic conditions.

Examining Dose of Diabetes Group Medical Visits and Characteristics of the Uninsured

Type 2 diabetes is a significant problem for the uninsured. Diabetes Group Medical Visits (DGMVs) have been reported to improve outcomes. However, it is not known if the increased workload of the health care team to treat and educate patients at multiple visits has an impact on patient functioning and well-being. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of dose of DGMVs on biophysical outcomes of care in uninsured persons with diabetes. No significant correlations were found between number of DGMVs attended and biophysical outcomes of care. However, the majority of patients attended two or less DGMVs in 1 year. Dose of DGMVs did not impact outcomes and may not be enough to assure attendance. Involving patients to construct patient-centered interventions may decrease the treatment burden faced by both patients and providers. In addition, such interventions should be aimed at understanding reasons for low attendance, particularly in rural impoverished adults.