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BackgroundTotal knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most frequently performed joint replacement surgery in North America. Patient perspectives on TKA have been investigated in various ways, including finding as many as 20% of TKA patients are dissatisfied with their surgical outcomes. Understanding the patient experience with TKA broadly and in relation to patient satisfaction is a key gap in existing literature.MethodsWe report on the qualitative component of a mixed methods prospective cohort study examining patient experience and satisfaction post-TKA for adults in British Columbia, Canada. Data collection consisted of 45 in-depth interviews about individuals’ knee surgery experiences conducted eight months after surgery. Analysis consisted of thematic coding by multiple coders.ResultsParticipants’ descriptions of their TKA experiences were primarily concerned with support, or the provision of aid and assistance. Support was insufficient when their expectations of support were not met; unmet support expectations led to an overall negative TKA experience. Support operated in three key domains: (1) informational support, (2) clinical support, and (3) personal support. Key sources of informational and clinical support included pre-optimisation clinics, surgeons, and physiotherapists. Key topics for informational support included pain, pain management, and recovery trajectories. Personal support was provided by family, friends, other TKA patients, employers, and themselves.ConclusionsPatient needs and expectations for support are shaped both before and after TKA surgery. Patients with an overall positive TKA experience had improvement in their knee pain, stiffness or functioning post-TKA, had their major expectations and needs for support met during their TKA recovery, and believed that any significant future expectations or needs for ongoing support would be adequately met. In contrast, patients with an overall negative TKA experience had at least one major expectation or need for support not met during their TKA recovery, even in cases where they had good TKA outcomes. Suggested interventions to improve the experience of persons receiving TKA include an expanded patient navigator model, revised pre-surgery educational materials, particularly around pain expectations and management, and comprehensive sharing of other patients’ TKA experience.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major source of morbidity and mortality, with the disease burden expected to rise as the population ages. No disease-modifying agent is currently available, but recent research suggests that nutritional and lifestyle modifications can delay or prevent the onset of AD. However, preventive nutritional interventions are not universally applicable and depend on the clinical profile of the individual patient. This article reviews existing nutritional modalities for AD prevention that act through improvement of insulin resistance, correction of dyslipidemia, and reduction of oxidative stress, and discusses how they may be modified on the basis of individual biomarkers, genetics, and behavior. In addition, we report preliminary results of clinical application of these personalized interventions at the first AD prevention clinic in the United States. The use of these personalized interventions represents an important application of precision medicine techniques for the prevention of AD that can be adopted by clinicians across disciplines.

ObjectivesWe aimed to conduct culturally-based participatory research to assess cultural and belief contexts for smoking behaviours within Mandarin and Cantonese communities. Outcome variables were smoking-related knowledge, smoking patterns, attitudes and beliefs, and perceived barriers and facilitators to successful cessation.DesignA community-based approach was applied involving smokers, community key-informants and professionals in study design and implementation. Initially, focus groups were conducted and findings were used to develop study instrument. Participants responded once to study questionnaire after informed consent.SettingCommunity based in the Greater Vancouver Area, Canada.Participants16 Chinese smokers participated in focus groups and subsequently, 167 current Chinese immigrant (137 males and 30 females) smokers from Mandarin and Cantonese communities, recruited with the help of community agencies and collaborating physicians, were enrolled in a cross-sectional study.ResultsWe found that a majority believed smoking was harmful on their health. Younger smokers (<35 years of age) did not mind smoking in front of young children compared to older smokers (≥35 years of age) (p<0.001). People with high school or lower levels of education believed that they would benefit more from smoking than suffering from withdrawal symptoms compared to better educated smokers (p<0.05). Mandarin smokers were significantly more likely to encourage others to quit than Cantonese smokers (p<0.05). Many indicated not receiving adequate support from care providers and lack of access to culturally and linguistically appropriate cessation programmes impacted on their ability to quit smoking.ConclusionsOur study highlighted the importance of tobacco beliefs and perceptions among Mandarin and Cantonese speaking immigrants with limited access to healthcare information and for younger smokers whose attention to health consequences of smoking may be limited as well. Study participants were generally aware of the health risks and were willing to quit. Access to appropriate cessation programmes would fulfil their willingness.

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Background: Health literacy (HL) is a person's ability to practically apply a wide range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills in health-related decisions. HL includes five domains: navigate/ access, understand, communicate, evaluate, and use of health information and services. Currently, no tool accurately captures and measures HL in adult patients with asthma and COPD, while utilizing all 5-HL domains. Objective: Develop a comprehensive functional-based measurement tool for adult asthma and/or COPD patients, while assessing HL on routine actions required to manage their chronic respiratory condition(s). Methods: We developed our HL tool based on a conceptualization of the link between HL and asthma and COPD management, during needs assessment stage including; a systematic review, which was followed by patient-oriented focus groups, and key-informant and respirologist interviews. Preliminary face and content validation were obtained by patients' and health professionals' input prior to the pretesting stage. The needs assessment information enabled us to develop passages in scenario-format and corresponding items to assess HL core domains, in addition to numeracy skills, across nine self-management topics: peak flow meters, prednisone use, pulmonary rehabilitation, action plans, flu shots, inhaler technique, lifestyle (nutrition and exercise), trigger control, and map navigation. The tool was pretested with asthma and COPD patients to assess its relevance, clarity, and difficulty. Results: Our systematic review identified the deficiencies of existing HL tools that assessed the HL skills of asthma and COPD patients. The patient-oriented focus groups (n=93) enabled us to identify self-management topics and develop items for our proposed HL tool, which were enriched by input from 45 key informants (eg, policy makers, clinicians, etc.) and 17 respiratory physicians. Preliminary pretesting with a new cohort of participants (36 asthma and COPD patients and 39 key informants) aided in the refinement and finalized our tool. The modified tool included passages and corresponding items related to asthma and COPD management was pretested with 75 asthma/COPD patients who completed the questionnaire and provided their feedback on the clarity, relevance, and difficulty of the tool. The main barrier to self-management pertained to "communication" skills. The flu shot was the most relevant topic (91.2%), while map navigation was the least relevant (63.9%). Action plans were the most difficult topic, where only 55% knew when to utilize their action plans. Numeracy items challenged COPD patients the most. Conclusion: We summarized findings from the development and preliminary testing stages of a new asthma/COPD HL tool. This tool will now be validated with a new cohort of patients.

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The educational interventions developed were successful in behavioral modification and beneficial beyond usual care in terms of improving proper use of inhalers and understanding of physicians' instructions. The findings can be translated to health education practice, promoting the development of short, simple, and culturally linguistically appropriate learning materials for patients. Such interventions that draw on patients' life experiences and socio-cultural context can overcome certain limitations of conventional patient education approaches. (ClinicalTrials.gov registration NCT01474928.).