Aggressive cancers are devastating diseases that leave fractured lives in their wake. Many of these cancers are treated with bone marrow transplantation (BMT), an option that can potentially cure one's cancer but may leave the patient with reduced functioning years after the cancer diagnosis ceases to be a threat. Most BMT research attention is focused on keeping the cancer patient alive. When the focus shifts to psychosocial inquiry, the patient remains at the center of studies as researchers work to determine how one recovers from life-threatening illnesses and how to reduce the long-term complications. When social supports are discussed, family and spouses tend to be viewed as a resource of support. Few studies have examined how the patient's treatment and recovery influence the life satisfaction of spouses and family members. This study addresses this gap by focusing on the quality of life of transplant spouses.
Over the past few decades, cancer-related research has begun to focus on the psychological and social costs of disease. Quality of life has become an important issue, judged not only by absence of disease, but also by how satisfied the patient is with their day-to-day living. Despite this growing body of literature, there remains a considerable gap in understanding how far-reaching the social costs of cancer actually are. This study was designed to address the needs, behaviors, and social expenditures of groups that are yet to be fully acknowledged in the research body; adult siblings, extended family, and friendship networks and co-workers. The diagnosis of cancer creates change and potential conflict in the lives of these caregivers. It was hypothesized that an extended social network would be profoundly affected by the diagnosis of cancer and that individuals in this network would have needs that were not likely being met as most support and research focuses on the patient and his/her spouse/intimate partner.
Disproportional arrests and conviction rates between blacks and whites in the US criminal justice system is well documented in social research. Many studies have examined the various social explanations for the disproportional arrest rates by race, varying from structural explanations of institutionalized racism and differential poverty outcomes to micro-level analyses of culturally prescribed behaviors. Research that focuses on culturally motivated behaviors may increase the sense of otherness associated with blacks and may minimize the effects of discriminatory criminal justice practices and unequal opportunities. Studies that focus on describing disproportional distributions without also including individual behaviors may also mask successful strategies by blacks avoiding re-arrest as they manage to reintegrate into society. This study analyzes racial differences in recidivism patterns for a cohort of prisoners in the Ohio prison system. Recidivism was tracked for approximately 14 years (through 2006). These ex-prisoners were compared using survival analysis and Cox Regression analysis.
Few works have looked at the social impact of surviving bone marrow transplantation, a highly invasive treatment that challenges social roles and relationships with social institutions. No work to date has looked at how gender role might affect recovery between men and women. Identifying how these factors influence recovery is essential if the medical community is to address all of the needs of the patient in the postrecovery setting. This article discusses findings of a longitudinal assessment of fifty-two long-term survivors of bone marrow transplantation. As was expected, satisfaction with life following transplant was more strongly associated with gender roles, with women more likely to be influenced by family support and emotional recovery and men more likely to be influenced by physical recovery and, to a lesser extent, emotional recovery.
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