Empirical relationships between health literacy and treatment decision making : A scoping review of the literature

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Acknowledgements This research was supported by a Joseph Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship awarded to Leslie J. Malloy-Weir by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The authors would like to thank Maureen Rice for her help with the literature search strategy and Dr. Malcolm Weir for his help with the relevance screening.Peer reviewedPostprin

Primary goals, information-giving and men\u27s understanding: A qualitative study of Australian and UK doctors\u27 varied communication about PSA screening

Objectives: (1) To characterise variation in general practitioners’ (GPs’) accounts of communicating with men about prostate cancer screening using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, (2) to characterise GPs’ reasons for communicating as they do and (3) to explain why and under what conditions GP communication approaches vary. Study design and setting: A grounded theory study. We interviewed 69 GPs consulting in primary care practices in Australia (n=40) and the UK (n=29). Results: GPs explained their communication practices in relation to their primary goals. In Australia, three different communication goals were reported: to encourage asymptomatic men to either have a PSA test, or not test, or alternatively, to support men to make their own decision. As well as having different primary goals, GPs aimed to provide different information (from comprehensive to strongly filtered) and to support men to develop different kinds of understanding, from population-level to ‘gist’ understanding. Taking into account these three dimensions (goals, information, understanding) and building on Entwistle et al’s Consider an Offer framework, we derived four overarching approaches to communication: Be screened, Do not be screened, Analyse and choose, and As you wish. We also describe ways in which situational and relational factors influenced GPs’ preferred communication approach. Conclusion: GPs’ reported approach to communicating about prostate cancer screening varies according to three dimensions—their primary goal, information provision preference and understanding sought—and in response to specific practice situations. If GP communication about PSA screening is to become more standardized in Australia, it is likely that each of these dimensions will require attention in policy and practice support interventions

Ethical Justifications for Access to Unapproved Medical Interventions : An Argument for (Limited) Patient Obligations

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General Practitioners’ Experiences of, and Responses to, Uncertainty in Prostate Cancer Screening : Insights from a Qualitative Study

Acknowledgments We thank the General Practitioners for their participation in this research. The project was funded by NHMRC grant 1023197. Stacy Carter is supported by NHMRC Career Development Fellowship 1032963. Funding: The project was funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council grant 1023197 (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/). SMC and LR obtained funding and are CIs on the NHMRC funded project grant. SMC is supported by NHMRC Career Development Fellowship 1032963. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Modelling water diffusion in plasticizers: development and optimization of a force field for 2,4-dinitroethylbenzene and 2,4,6-trinitroethylbenzene

A classical all-atom force field has been developed for 2,4,6-trinitroethylbenzene and 2,4-dinitroethylbenzene and applied in molecular dynamics simulations of the two pure and two mixed plasticizer systems. Bonding parameters and partial charges were derived through electronic and geometry optimization of the single molecules. The other required parameters were derived from values already available in the literature for generic nitro aromatic compounds, which were adjusted to reproduce to a high level of accuracy the densities of 2,4-dinitroethylbenzene, 2,4,6-trinitroethylbenzene and the energetic plasticizers K10 and R8002. This force field has been applied to both K10 and R8002, which when used as plasticizers form an energetic binder with nitrocellulose. Nitrocellulose decomposes in storage, under varying conditions, but in particular where it may become increasingly dry. Following the derivation of the force field, we have therefore applied it to calculate water diffusion coefficients for each of the different materials at 298 K and 338 K, thereby providing a starting point for understanding water behaviour in a nitrocellulose binder

Textiles as Material Gestalt: Cloth as a Catalyst in the Co-designing Process

Textiles is the common language within Emotional Fit, a collaborative research project investigating a person-centred, sustainable approach to fashion for an ageing female demographic (55+). Through the co-designing of a collection of research tools, textiles have acted as a material gestalt for exploring our research participants' identities by tracing their embodied knowledge of fashionable dress. The methodology merges Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, co-design and a simultaneous approach to textile and garment design. Based on an enhanced understanding of our participants textile preferences, particular fabric qualities have catalysed silhouettes, through live draping and geometric pattern cutting to accommodate multiple body shapes and customisation. Printedtextiles have also been digitally crafted in response to the contours of the garment and body and personal narratives of wear. Sensorial and tactile interactions have informed the engineering and scaling of patterns within zero-waste volumes. The article considers the functional and aesthetic role of textiles

Vaginal birth after caesarean section : why is uptake so low? Insights from a meta-ethnographic synthesis of women’s accounts of their birth choices

Funding MB is a research training fellow funded by The Wellcome Trust.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A protocol for co-creating research project lay summaries with stakeholders:Guideline development for Canada's AGE-WELL Network

Background: Funding bodies increasingly require researchers to write lay summaries to communicate projects’ real-world relevance to the public in an accessible way. However, research proposals and findings are generally not easily readable or understandable by non-specialist readers. Many researchers find writing lay summaries difficult because they typically write for fellow subject specialists or academics rather than the general public or a non-specialist audience. The primary objective of our project is to develop guidelines for researchers in Canada’s AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence, and ultimately various other disciplines, sectors, and institutions, to co-create lay summaries of research projects with stakeholders. To begin, we produced a protocol for co-creating a lay summary based on workshops we organized and facilitated for an AGE-WELL researcher. This paper presents the lay summary co-creation protocol that AGE-WELL researchers will be invited to use.Methods: Eligible participants in this project will be 24 AgeTech project researchers who are funded by the AGE-WELL network in its Core Research Program 2020. If they agree to participate in this project, we will invite them to use our protocol to co-produce a lay summary of their respective projects with stakeholders. The protocol comprises six steps: Investigate principles of writing a good lay summary, identify the target readership, identify stakeholders to collaborate with, recruit the identified stakeholders to work on a lay summary, prepare for workshop sessions, and execute the sessions. To help participants through the process, we will provide them with a guide to developing an accessible, readable research lay summary, help them make decisions, and host, and facilitate if needed, their lay summary co-creation workshops.Discussion: Public-facing research outputs, including lay summaries, are increasingly important knowledge translation strategies to promote the impact of research on real-world issues. To produce lay summaries that include information that will interest a non-specialist readership and that are written in accessible language, stakeholder engagement is key. Furthermore, both researchers and stakeholders benefit by participating in the co-creation process. We hope the protocol helps researchers collaborate with stakeholders effectively to co-produce lay summaries that meet the needs of both the public and project funders

Treating patients as persons : a capabilities approach to support delivery of person-centered care

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