Establishing clinical cut-offs on FCR screening measures is crucial to tailoring individual care and conducting rigorous research. Our results suggest using a higher cut-off on the FCRI-SF than previously reported to identify clinically significant FCR. Continued evaluation and validation of the FCRI-SF cut-off is required across diverse cancer populations.
While features of clinical FCR found in this analysis such as intrusive thoughts, distress and impact on functioning confirmed previous FCR research, other features spontaneously emerged from the interviews including "death-related thoughts," "feeling alone," and "belief that the cancer will return." The participants' descriptions of cancer-specific fear and worry suggest that FCR is a distinct phenomenon related to cancer survivorship, despite similarities with psychological disorders (e.g., Anxiety Disorders). Future research investigating the construct of FCR, and the distinguishing features of clinical FCR across a range of cancer types and gender is required.
Background Patients with chronic diseases commonly report fears of illness or symptoms recurring or worsening. These fears have been addressed from an illness-specific perspective (e.g., fear of cancer recurrence), a generic illness perspective (e.g., fear of progression), and a psychiatric perspective (DSM-5 illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder). The broader concept of health anxiety (HA) can also be applied to patients with a chronic disease. This review was conducted to investigate the conceptual, theoretical, measurementoverlap, and differences between these distinct perspectives. We also aimed to summarize prevalence, course, and correlates of these fears in different chronic illnesses.
Background. Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is the highest unmet need amongst cancer survivors. The Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO) has developed guidelines to guide screening, assessment, and intervention of CRF; however, they are not consistently applied in practice due to patient, healthcare provider (HCP), and systemic barriers. Notably, previous studies identify lack of knowledge of CRF guidelines as an impediment to their implementation. Methods. This pilot study tested preliminary outcomes, the acceptability, and the feasibility of a training session and a knowledge-translation (KT) tool designed to increase HCP and community support providers’ (CSP) knowledge of CAPO CRF guidelines. A one-time in-person training session was offered to a diverse sample of HCPs and CSPs (n = 18). Outcomes (i.e., CAPO CRF guidelines knowledge, intentions and self-efficacy to apply guidelines in practice) were assessed pre- and post-training. Acceptability and feasibility were also assessed post-training to guide future testing and/or implementation of the training. Results. At post-training, participants reported increased CAPO CRF guidelines knowledge, self-efficacy, and intent to apply guidelines in practice. Participant satisfaction with the training session and the KT tool was high and recruitment time, participation, and retention rates indicate that the training was acceptable and feasible. Conclusions. The provided training is both acceptable to HCPs/CSPs and feasible. It may increase knowledge of CAPO CRF guidelines and participants’ intentions and self-efficacy to implement evidence-based recommendations. Future studies should investigate actual changes in practice and how to optimize follow-up assessments. KT strategies should be paired with guideline development to promote practice uptake.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.