The effectiveness of a proactive coping intervention targeting self-management in diabetes patients

Coping with Type 2 diabetes: Commonly used strategies associated with mental wellbeing and treatment engagement

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a common, chronic condition. People with T2D often report poor mental wellbeing and treatment engagement, especially when stressed. Coping mechanisms may help manage stress, but it is crucial to identify which strategies are most common and (mal)adaptive. Using a psychometrically-informed approach and a series of pilot studies (n = 570) to develop and test the structural validity of a final item pool of coping strategies, a final study recruited 503 people with T2D through Prolific. Participants reported on coping, mental wellbeing (stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms), and treatment engagement (adherence, self-efficacy, A1C). All seven coping strategies (humor, self-blame, avoidance, support-seeking, positive mindset, religion/spirituality, and accessing resources) were psychometrically distinct and were associated with at least one indicator of treatment engagement, but fewer with wellbeing. After controlling for other variables, self-blame, avoidance, and positive mindset were the most robust predictors of both wellbeing and treatment engagement.

Proactive coping and social-emotional adjustment among students with and without learning disabilities in Kerala, India

The current study compared the level of proactive coping and social-emotional adjustment of students with and without learning disabilities. In addition to the relationship, influence of proactive coping on social-emotional adjustment of students with and without learning disabilities was also explored. Using a multistage random sampling method researcher selected students with and without learning disabilities in the age group of 15-17 years; each group consists of 150 participants from different high schools in Kerala. The instruments employed in this study were the Proactive Coping Inventory and the Adjustment Inventory for School Students-AISS. Correlation, t-test, and regression analysis were used to analyses the data. The students with learning disabilities have found to have lower levels of proactive coping and social emotional adjustment than those without learning disabilities. Further, a positive correlation between social emotional adjustment and proactive coping was also observed. The regression analysis has revealed that proactive coping of students with and without learning disabilities was significantly predicting their adjustment. As students with learning disabilities showing lower proactive coping skills, the study emphasizes the need to enhance proactive coping among students with learning disabilities. Improving proactive coping in both students with and without learning disabilities may help to mitigate social emotional adjustment issues.

Daily experiences of type 1 diabetes stress across adulthood

AIMS

Daily diabetes stressful events take a toll on individuals with type 1 diabetes, and these experiences may look different across adulthood. The aims of the current study were to understand the nature of daily diabetes stress across adulthood and explore whether these experiences differed by age.

METHODS

In this qualitative study, adults with T1D (N = 199, M_age  = 46.81 years) described the most stressful event related to their diabetes each evening as part of a 14-day diary. Using a grounded theory approach, diabetes stressful events were coded for where they occurred, the source of stress (i.e. interpersonal or not), and content (e.g. sleep; blood glucose checking; frustration).

RESULTS

Participants reported having a diabetes-related stressful event on 58% (M = 0.58, SD = (0.25)) of days. Daily stressful events included issues of diabetes management, diabetes-related interference to or from other areas of life, and negative impact on psychological well-being, but rarely included a social component. Older adults were less likely to report having a diabetes-related stressful event, but were more likely to report that stressful events occurred at home, compared to younger adults.

CONCLUSION

The lived experience of diabetes-related stress appears similar across ages, with individuals continuing to experience generally the same types of diabetes-related events in similar frequencies. Interventions to help improve diabetes outcomes or well-being may benefit from targeting the most commonly experienced areas of stress, which includes reducing the interference of daily activities to and by diabetes management.

Experiences with tailoring of primary diabetes care in well-organised general practices: a mixed-methods study

Background

Dutch standard diabetes care is generally protocol-driven. However, considering that general practices wish to tailor diabetes care to individual patients and encourage self-management, particularly in light of current COVID-19 related constraints, protocols and other barriers may hinder implementation. The impact of dispensing with protocol and implementation of self-management interventions on patient monitoring and experiences are not known. This study aims to evaluate tailoring of care by understanding experiences of well-organised practices 1) when dispensing with protocol; 2) determining the key conditions for successful implementation of self-management interventions; and furthermore exploring patients’ experiences regarding dispensing with protocol and self-management interventions.

Methods

in this mixed-methods prospective study, practices (n = 49) were invited to participate if they met protocol-related quality targets, and their adult patients with well-controlled type 2 diabetes were invited if they had received protocol-based diabetes care for a minimum of 1 year. For practices, study participation consisted of the opportunity to deliver protocol-free diabetes care, with selection and implementation of self-management interventions. For patients, study participation provided exposure to protocol-free diabetes care and self-management interventions.

Qualitative outcomes (practices: 5 focus groups, 2 individual interviews) included experiences of dispensing with protocol and the implementation process of self-management interventions, operationalised as implementation fidelity. Quantitative outcomes (patients: routine registry data, surveys) consisted of diabetes monitoring completeness, satisfaction, wellbeing and health status at baseline and follow-up (24 months).

Results

Qualitative:

In participating practices (n = 4), dispensing with protocol encouraged reflection on tailored care and selection of various self-management interventions

A focus on patient preferences, team collaboration and intervention feasibility was associated with high implementation fidelity

Quantitative:

In patients (n = 126), likelihood of complete monitoring decreased significantly after two years (OR 0.2 (95% CI 0.1–0.5), p < 0.001)

Satisfaction decreased slightly (− 1.6 (95% CI -2.6;-0.6), p = 0.001)

Non-significant declines were found in wellbeing (− 1.3 (95% CI -5.4; 2.9), p = 0.55) and health status (− 3.0 (95% CI -7.1; 1.2), p = 0.16).

Conclusions

To tailor diabetes care to individual patients within well-organised practices, we recommend dispensing with protocol while maintaining one structural annual monitoring consultation, combined with the well-supported implementation of feasible self-management interventions. Interventions should be selected and delivered with the involvement of patients and should involve population preferences and solid team collaborations.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-07198-2.

Coping, social support, and anxiety in people with mast cell disorders

BACKGROUND

Mast cell disorders (MCDs) are rare, chronic, debilitating diseases with a varied and complex clinical trajectory that creates challenges to physical and mental health. Reliable estimates of the prevalence of anxiety in this population are largely nonexistent. Furthermore, very little is known on how sufferers' coping efforts affect their emotions and adjustment. Because a person with an MCD cannot eliminate the stressors associated with their chronic illness, it is important to understand what helps them adjust.

OBJECTIVE

To document the magnitude of anxiety in those with MCD, their physical symptoms, levels of social support, and ways of coping with the stress of the disease and to evaluate the extent to which symptoms, social support, and coping are associated with anxiety.

METHODS

Individuals with MCDs completed an anonymous Internet-based survey (N = 157).

RESULTS

More than half of individuals with MCDs in this study found their illness to be very stressful, and nearly a third were experiencing moderate levels of anxiety. Participants who had more frequent and severe physical symptoms reported higher levels of anxiety. Those who reported coping with their problems by using planning strategies and those who felt they had more social support available to them were less anxious; those who used more avoidant strategies to cope were more anxious.

CONCLUSION

Based on the current results, and intervention work in other chronic illness groups, it seems likely that coping behaviors are a fruitful target of intervention for patients with MCD to reduce their emotional distress.

A TASMAN Expedition: Development of a Questionnaire to Assess Specific Self-Management Abilities

Introduction

Self-management (SM) is a core component of well-being and perceived health for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Most theories on SM share that self-efficacy, illness-perception and coping are determinants of SM behavior. Optimal support to improve SM should be tailored to the individual patient’s level of these determinants as SM abilities vary between patients. To tailor SM support, it is therefore necessary to assess the scores on these determinants. Unfortunately, no such instrument exists for clinical use. Therefore, the first goal of this study was to verify presumed correlations between SM and the determinants thereof. The second goal was to develop an instrument to assess the SM abilities.

Methods

In this cross-sectional, observational study, COPD patients completed the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) and the Utrecht Proactive Coping Competence measure (UPCC) as well as the Self-Management Ability Scale (SMAS-30). Correlations between the questionnaires were assessed and a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the best-fitting items in the three independent variables related to SM. These items were used to create an instrument to assess SM abilities.

Results

Hundred COPD patients (58 males, 41 females, 1 unknown) were included. The correlation between SM and self-efficacy, illness perception on concerns and proactive coping was moderate and significant (r=0.318, p<0.01; r=−.230, p<0.05; r=.426, p<0.01, respectively). PCA identified six UPCC items and nine GSES items that met the predefined criteria. These items were supplemented with the B-IPQ concerns item to establish the new instrument to assess SM abilities.

Effectiveness of theory-based diabetes self-care training interventions; a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Permanent compliance of self-care behaviors is a challenging issue in managing chronic diseases like diabetes. The evidence supports theory-based intervention in promoting self-care behaviors. However, no systematic review was done to monitor these interventions and compare more effective constructs. This study was conducted to investigate the studies using self-care theories and introducing the most effective theories.

METHODS

This is a systematic review study during which some scientific databases including Scopus, Elsevier, Google scholar and PubMed were searched by using some key words like self-care or self-management, diabetes, theory or model. English articles from the start of 2013 up to the end of November 2020 were monitored.

RESULTS

20 articles were selected and studied based on eight theories which they used. These theories were: Social support theory, Health Belief Model, Heath Belief Model and Empowerment Theory, Empowerment Theory, Self-efficacy Theory, precede-proceed model, Self-regulation Theory, behavioral theory and Social Cognitive Theory.

CONCLUSION

Four theories appeared to be more effective for the target behavior of present research: Social Support Theory and the combination of Empowerment Theory and Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory and Self Efficacy Theory. Taken together, the findings of this systematic review suggest that interventions that go beyond individual determinants (such as changing knowledge and attitudes) to determinants of upper cognitive, motor, and social levels (such as the development of skills and competencies) they have led to raised self-care outcomes.

The Effects of a Theory-Based Patient Portal e-Learning Program for Older Adults with Chronic Illnesses

Introduction: The high prevalence of chronic illnesses is a serious public health problem in the United States, and more than 70 million older adults have at least one chronic illness. Patient portals (PPs) have an excellent potential to assist older adults in managing chronic illnesses; however, older adults' PP adoption rates have been low. Lack of support for older adults using PPs remains a critical gap in most implementation processes. The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of an older adult friendly Theory-based Patient portal e-Learning Program (T-PeP) on PP knowledge, selected health outcomes (health decision-making self-efficacy [SE] and health communication), PP SE and use, and e-health literacy in older adults. Materials and Methods: A two-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted with older adults (N = 272) who had chronic conditions. Participants were recruited online, and data were collected at baseline, 3 weeks, and 4 months. The main intervention effects were tested using linear mixed models. Results: The average age of participants was 70.0 ± 8.5 years, and 78.3% (n = 213) were white. At 3 weeks, the intervention group showed significantly greater improvement than the control group in all outcomes except PP use. At 4 months, the intervention effects decreased, but PP SE remained significant (p = 0.015), and the intervention group showed higher frequency of PP use than the control group (p = 0.029). Conclusion: The study findings showed that the T-PeP was effective in improving selected health and PP usage outcomes. Further studies are needed to test the long-term effects of T-PeP using more diverse samples.

Disentangling self-management goal setting and action planning: A scoping review

INTRODUCTION

The ongoing rise in the numbers of chronically ill people necessitates efforts for effective self-management. Goal setting and action planning are frequently used, as they are thought to support patients in changing their behavior. However, it remains unclear how goal setting and action planning in the context of self-management are defined in the scientific literature. This study aimed to achieve a better understanding of the various definitions used.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted, searching PubMed, Cinahl, PsychINFO and Cochrane. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were formulated to ensure the focus on goal setting/action planning and self-management. The literature was updated to December 2015; data selection and charting was done by two reviewers. A qualitative content analysis approach was used.

RESULTS

Out of 9115 retrieved articles, 58 met the inclusion criteria. We created an overview of goal setting phases that were applied (preparation, formulation of goals, formulation of action plan, coping planning and follow-up). Although the phases we found are in accordance with commonly known frameworks for goal setting, it was striking that the majority of studies (n = 39, 67%) did not include all phases. We also prepared an overview of components and strategies for each goal setting phase. Interestingly, few strategies were found for the communication between patients and professionals about goals/action plans. Most studies (n = 35, 60%) focused goal setting on one single disease and on a predefined lifestyle behavior; nearly half of the articles (n = 27, 47%) reported a theoretical framework.

DISCUSSION

The results might provide practical support for developers of interventions. Moreover, our results might encourage professionals to become more aware of the phases of the goal setting process and of strategies emphasizing on patient reflection. However, more research might be useful to examine strategies to facilitate communication about goals/action plans. It might also be worthwhile to develop and evaluate goal setting/action planning strategies for people with different and multiple chronic conditions.

Differences in change in coping styles between good responders, moderate responders and non-responders to pulmonary rehabilitation

INTRODUCTION

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves exercise tolerance and health status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Data on the effects of PR on coping styles are limited. Aim of the present study was to compare changes in coping styles between patients who had a good, moderate and no improvement in either exercise tolerance or health status after PR.

METHODS

Coping styles of 439 COPD patients undergoing PR were assessed by the Utrecht Coping List (UCL) at baseline and after PR. Patients' pulmonary function, six-minute walking distance (6MWD), St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-A and HADS-D) were recorded. Good, moderate and non-responders were defined on the basis of minimally clinically important difference (MCID) for SGRQ total score and/or 6MWD.

RESULTS

Overall, 54.0% of the patients fulfilled the criteria for good responders, while 22.1% were moderate responders. Change in passive reaction pattern coping style differed significantly between good responders and non-responders following PR (p < 0.001). Moreover, within the groups, changes in coping styles after PR occurred among the good responders, whereas the majority of moderate responders' and non-responders' coping styles were not significantly influenced by PR.

CONCLUSION

Good responders decreased their passive reaction pattern coping style in contrast to non-responders after PR. In general, PR did not change the coping among moderate and non-responders. Further research is warranted to determine whether including interventions targeting coping styles may modify coping behaviour of COPD patients, as well as improvement in exercise tolerance or health status after PR.

Measuring Self-Care in Persons With Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review

This systematic review examines the characteristics and psychometric properties of the instruments used to assess self-care behaviors among persons with type 2 diabetes. Electronic databases were searched for relevant studies published in English within the past 20 years. Thirty different instruments were identified in 75 articles: 18 original instruments on type 2 diabetes mellitus self-care, 8 translated or revised version, and 4 not specific but relevant to diabetes. Twenty-one instruments were multidimensional and addressed multiple dimensions of self-care behavior. Nine were unidimensional: three focusing exclusively on medication taking, three on diet, one on physical activity, one on self-monitoring of blood glucose, and one on oral care. Most instruments (22 of 30) were developed during the last decade. Only 10 were repeated more than once. Nineteen of the 30 instruments reported both reliability and validity information but with varying degrees of rigor. In conclusion, most instruments used to measure self-care were relatively new and had been applied to only a limited number of studies with incomplete psychometric profiles. Rigorous psychometric testing, operational definition of self-care, and sufficient explanation of scoring need to be considered for further instrument development.

Effectiveness, Mediators, and Effect Predictors of Internet Interventions for Chronic Cancer-Related Fatigue: The Design and an Analysis Plan of a 3-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial

Background

Internet interventions offer advantages that especially cancer survivors who suffer from fatigue could benefit from. Given the growing number of such patients, Internet interventions could supplement and strengthen currently available health care.

Objective

This paper describes the design and analysis plan that will be used to study 2 Internet interventions aimed at reducing severe fatigue in cancer survivors: a mobile ambulant activity feedback therapy supported through a weekly email by a physiotherapist and a weekly Web- and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy supported online by a psychologist. The data resulting from this trial will be used to (1) investigate the effectiveness, (2) investigate potential mediators of these interventions, and (3) explore participant characteristics that can predict the effect of these interventions.

Methods

A 3-armed randomized controlled trial is proposed that compares both Internet interventions with an active control condition that solely consists of receiving psycho-educational emails. The intervention period is 9 weeks for all 3 conditions. Six months after baseline, participants in the control condition can choose to follow 1 of the 2 experimental Internet interventions. Outcomes are measured in terms of fatigue severity, mental health, and self-perceived work ability. All are Web-assessed at baseline, 2 weeks after the intervention period, and at 6 and 12 months after baseline. Fatigue severity, mindfulness, physical activity, expectations and credibility of the intervention, therapeutic working alliance, sleep quality, and sense of control over fatigue are assessed 3 times during the intervention period for identifying mediators of the interventions. Recruitment is performed nationally throughout the Netherlands through patient organizations and their websites, newspapers, and by informing various types of health professionals. All participants register at an open-access website. We aim at including 330 cancer survivors who have finished curative-intent cancer treatment at least 3 months previously, and have been suffering from severe fatigue ever since. All cancer types are included. A detailed analysis plan is described to address the research questions, which allows for individual variation, and fully exploits the longitudinal design.

Results

Recruitment started in April 2013 and will proceed until April 2015.

Conclusions

This paper describes a systematic trial design for studying 2 different interventions for chronic cancer-related fatigue in order to gain insight into the effectiveness and mediators of the interventions. This design will also be used to identify predictors for the interventions’ effect on fatigue. By publishing our hypotheses and analysis plan before completion of data collection, this paper is a first step in reporting on this trial comprehensively.

Trial Registration

The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR3483). (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6NWZqon3o).

It's my party and I eat if I want to. Reasons for unhealthy snacking

Investigating the reasons that people give for unhealthy snacking behavior is important for developing effective health interventions. Little research, however, has identified reasons that apply to a large audience and most studies do not integrate multiple factors, precluding any conclusions regarding their relative importance. The present study explored reasons for unhealthy snacking among a representative community sample. Participants (N = 1544) filled out the newly developed Reasons to Snack inventory assessing an elaborate range of motives at baseline and 1-month follow-up. Exploratory and replication factor analyses identified six categories: opportunity induced eating, coping with negative emotions, enjoying a special occasion, rewarding oneself, social pressure, and gaining energy. The highest mean scores were obtained for enjoying a special occasion and opportunity induced eating. Regression analyses with participant characteristics as independent variables and each category of reasons as dependent variables showed differences for age. For all reasons except to enjoy a special occasion, younger people reported a higher score. Women indicated a higher score than men on coping with negative emotions, enjoying a special occasion and gaining energy. People who diet to a stronger extent reported a higher score for snacking because of social pressure, to reward oneself and to cope with negative emotions, with the latter also being related to a higher BMI. Finally, a higher education was associated with enjoying a special occasion. Future health interventions could allocate more attention to diminishing unhealthy snacking with regard to the six identified categories, specifically focusing on enjoying a special occasion and opportunity induced eating.