Patient preferences on the use of technology in cancer surveillance after curative surgery: A cross-sectional analysis

Background

Advances in communication technology have enabled new methods of delivering test results to cancer survivors. We sought to determine patient preferences regarding the use of newer technology in delivering test results during cancer surveillance.

Transplantation of viral-positive hepatitis C-positive kidneys into uninfected recipients offers an opportunity to increase organ access

The advent of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) has provided the impetus to transplant kidneys from hepatitis C virus-positive donors into uninfected recipients (D+/R−). Thirty D+/R− patients received DAA treatment. Sustained virologic response (SVR12) was defined as an undetectable viral load in 12 weeks after treatment. An age-matched cohort of uninfected donor and recipient pairs (D−/R−) transplanted during same time period was used for comparison. The median day of viral detection was postoperative day (POD) 2. The detection of viremia in D+/R− patients was 100%. The initial median viral load was 531 copies/μL (range: 10-1 × 10⁸ copies/μL) with a median peak viral load of 3.4 × 10⁵ copies/μL (range: 804-1.0 × 10⁸ copies/μL). DAAs were initiated on median POD 9 (range: 5-41 days). All 30 patients had confirmed SVR12. During a median follow-up of 10 months, patient and graft survival was 100%, and acute rejection was 6.6% with no major adverse events related to DAA treatment. Delayed graft function was significantly decreased in D+/R− patients as compared to the age-matched cohort (27% vs 60%; P = .01). D+/R− transplantation offers patients an alternative strategy to increase access.     

Exploring talk about sexuality and living gay social lives among Chinese and South Asian gay and bisexual men in Auckland,New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Objective: To identify ways Chinese and South Asian gay and bisexual men living in Auckland talk about issues related to sexuality and experiences of living ‘gay social lives.’ Results will be available to inform health policy and practice.

Design: A qualitative design with individual interviews and thematic analysis was used. Semi-structured digitally recorded interviews were undertaken with 27 Chinese and 17 South Asian gay and bisexual men living in Auckland.

Results: Four themes in the data related to talk about sexuality and living gay social lives are reported: (a) ‘Happy in my skin’: Being gay is Ok! (b) ‘To come out or not’: Managing sexual identity, (c) ‘Places to go, people to see’: Connecting with others, and (d) ‘What's wrong with being Asian’: Tolerating discrimination.

Conclusion: There are many similarities in the ways these men talked about their identity and sexuality that can be usefully considered by health policy makers and service planners. The concept of gay (and bisexual) sexuality had some salience for the men interviewed, despite the adoption and acknowledgement of same-sex identity being a relatively new phenomenon in some Asian countries. This supports the use of these terms in local health interventions. However, as these men closely managed their gay identity and typically had not disclosed their sexuality to others, including healthcare professionals, interventions to address the skills and comfort of healthcare providers in addressing sexuality in clinical settings appear warranted to facilitate optimal healthcare. These men are not well connected with others and this has implications for HIV health promotion that is based on creating cultural norms among networks to encourage safe sex. Discrimination results in many Chinese and South Asian gay and bisexual men disengaging from connecting with others and should be addressed.     

Space within the Scientific Discourse for the Voice of the Other? Expressions of Community Voice in the Scientific Discourse of Community-Based Participatory Research

ABSTRACT

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has captured public health attention and support because it is positioned as an approach that involves researchers and communities as equitable partners in addressing health disparities. However, it is unknown the extent to which CBPR creates a participatory space in the scientific discourse to signal “community voice,” which we define as textual expression of community-centered perspectives on collective roles, interests, and worldviews. In this study, we utilized the culture-centered approach to examine the expression of community voice in the abstracts and public health relevance statements of 253 extramural CBPR projects in the U.S. that received funding from the National Institute of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009. We found that project abstracts and public health relevance statements contain four textual domains, or potential sites of contest to signal the articulation of community agency and voice within the CBPR projects. These domains include: 1) the rationale for the community health issue, 2) the roles of community partners, 3) community-centered outcomes of the partnership, and 4) elements of participatory research process. The degree of culture-centeredness of the texts is suggested in the extent to which articulations of community agency and voice are signaled across the four domains. We conclude that the dynamics of CBPR may shape culture-centered expressions of problem identification, solution configuration, structural transformations, reflexivity, values, and agency in the project abstracts and public health relevance statements.