My Glorious Opportunity: How My Dementia Has Been a Gift

This article is a personal reflection on the experience of living with dementia. Jennifer Bute is a former family practitioner who has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The article presents some basic principles for living well with dementia and offers some deep and personal reflections on what it means, how it can be understood theologically, and how all of us together can help one another to live well with dementia.     

Exploring gender differences in body image,eating pathology,and sexual harassment

This study examines the relationship between body image (weight/shape concerns), eating pathology, and sexual harassment among men and women (N = 2446). Hierarchical regressions controlling for depression revealed main effects of gender such that women reported greater weight/shape concerns, eating pathology, dietary restraint, eating concerns, and binge eating compared to men. Main effects for sexual harassment indicated that as harassment increased, participants reported increased weight/shape concerns, eating pathology, dietary restraint, eating concerns, binge eating, and compensatory behaviors. There were small but significant interactions between gender and harassment for eating pathology total score (which included each of the domains listed above), weight/shape concerns, dietary restraint, and eating concerns such that the relationship between increased harassment and increased pathology was stronger for women compared to men. The largest interaction was found for compensatory behaviors, such that while women and men's scores both increased as harassment increased, the relationship was stronger for men.     

Cancer survivors’ and partners’ key concerns and quality of life

Objective: Understanding the concerns of cancer survivors is essential for effective interventions. This study was designed to identify the primary concerns of dyads coping with cancer, how concerns differed by role and sex, and whether concerns expressed during counselling were associated with survivors’ psychosocial well-being and adjustment.

Design: Forty-three dyads with breast and prostate cancer (N = 86 participants) were enrolled in an interpersonal telephone counselling intervention. Audio recordings of 228 counselling sessions were transcribed and content analysed qualitatively to identify major themes and key concerns. A total of three 30-min sessions were coded for each study participant. Quantitative data and statistical analyses were used to predict changes in survivors’ quality of life.

Main Outcome Measures: Participants completed psychosocial well-being measures (depression, positive/negative affect, and relationship satisfaction), pre- and post-counselling.

Results: Survivors’ concerns focused on cancer- and treatment-related issues, whereas partners’ concerns centred on the well-being of their spouse/partner with cancer, and what they were doing to help their loved one cope with his/her illness. Key concerns for all consisted of relationship maintenance and communication issues. Further, discussion of these concerns was predictive of significant improvements in adjustment post-counselling for women with breast cancer.

Conclusion: Discussion of interpersonal concerns may play a more important role in the well-being of women, than men, coping with cancer.     

Fear of crime and community concerns: Mediating effect of risk and pragmatic fear

This study investigates the relationship between community concerns (i.e., perceived crime, incivilities, and infrastructure) and fear of crime (FOC) while examining the mediating role of risk of victimisation and pragmatic fear. Gender and ethnic differences were also explored. Data were collected using a proportionate multistage random sample of 3,003 participants from a southern Caribbean island in 2015. The following self‐reported measures were used: risk of victimisation and FOC scales, a general (noncrime) fear scale measuring pragmatic fear, and a community concern scale. Data were analysed using path analysis, Sobel tests, and multiple group analysis. Findings revealed that perceived crime and incivilities significantly predicted FOC, whereas infrastructure was insignificant as a direct predictor. Females had higher FOC, and among ethnic groups, Indo‐Trinidadians had the highest FOC than Afro‐Trinidadians and Mixed participants. Risk of victimisation and pragmatic fear had significant mediating effects on community concerns and FOC. Findings are discussed in the context of the social psychology of social disorganisation and previous research.     

The company you keep: Fear of rejection in intergroup interaction

People use many cues to infer the likelihood of acceptance or rejection in intergroup interactions. Nearly all prior research has focused on personal cues directly given off by the potential interaction partner (e.g., eye contact and smiling). However, we argue that in the context of intergroup interactions, individuals may be especially sensitive to broader social cues, such as an interaction partner's social network. Across three experiments we explored differences in White participants' evaluations of a smiling Black man presented with a Black or White friend. When this Black man was featured with a Black friend, White participants reported greater rejection concerns and a greater inclination to reject this Black man compared to when he was featured with a White friend (Experiments 1-3) or featured alone (Experiment 2). Furthermore, when participants received a simple intervention designed to buffer against social rejection, the race of the Black man's friend no longer influenced participants' interests in befriending the Black man (Experiment 3). This research demonstrates the power of friendships in interracial interactions and provides evidence for a simple intervention to reduce the weight of rejection concerns in interracial interactions.     

浅谈医生人文阅读的迫切性——非职业阅读

医学人文精神与医学科学精神的整合,是医学走向成熟的标志。人文阅读是富有人文精神的阅读,它使人理解并重视人生的意义,并给社会多一份人文关怀,对增进医患关系的和谐,减少医患纠纷显得尤为重要。运用博大精深,源远流长的中华优秀传统美德教育、引导当代医生,增强其社会责任感、民族自尊心与自强精神,从而做符合时代需要的、具有和谐人格的优秀医生。     

医学人文教育困境之根源研究

医学人文教育必须奠基于人文教育的基础之上,通过对人文教育和医学人文教育根本要义的解析提出造成我国医学人文教育今天的困境原因有三:文化断层使得我国大学教育丧失人文教育之根;实利原则严重侵蚀我国教育制度,医学院校难以独善其身;文理分科和医学教育专业化使我国医学人文教育难有立足之居。     

浅谈产科镇痛与人文关怀

实施无痛分娩是对每位产妇最贴切的人文关怀,每位产妇都有享受这种关怀的权利,而在我国分娩镇痛仍未普遍采用.通过实际案例及产科镇痛发展史,论证了当今实施产科镇痛的必要性及技术条件的成熟性,剖析了当今实施此技术的人为及社会障碍,并提出了解决这一问题的方法和途径.     

口腔疾病诊治中的人文关怀

随着现代医学模式的转变,在口腔科疾病的诊治过程中,根据从儿童到老年不同年龄阶段患者的心理特点,给予更多的人文关怀。主要表现在：牙病治疗的无痛、无菌,良好的医患沟通,优质的服务等几方面。     

儿童牙病诊疗中的人文关怀

通过对儿童心理特点和引起儿童牙科畏惧症原因的分析,提出儿童牙病治疗过程中人文关怀的措施,体现在诊疗环境的改善,无痛技术的应用,患儿诊疗前、中、后的心理干预以及医务人员综合能力和素质的培养等方面,将对患儿身心健康的关爱,渗透于口腔疾病诊治的全过程。