Purpose: This study aims to capture the complex clinical reasoning process during tailoring of exercise and dietary interventions to adverse effects and comorbidities of patients with ovarian cancer receiving chemotherapy. Methods: Clinical vignettes were presented to expert physical therapists (n = 4) and dietitians (n = 3). Using the think aloud method, these experts were asked to verbalize their clinical reasoning on how they would tailor the intervention to adverse effects of ovarian cancer and its treatment and comorbidities. Clinical reasoning steps were categorized in questions raised to obtain additional information; anticipated answers; and actions to be taken. Questions and actions were labeled according to the evidence-based practice model. Results: Questions to obtain additional information were frequently related to the patients’ capacities, safety or the etiology of health issues. Various hypothetical answers were proposed which led to different actions. Suggested actions by the experts included extensive monitoring of symptoms and parameters, specific adaptations to the exercise protocol and dietary-related patient education. Conclusions: Our study obtained insight into the complex process of clinical reasoning, in which a variety of patient-related variables are used to tailor interventions. This insight can be useful for description and fidelity assessment of interventions and training of healthcare professionals.
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Bedrijven hebben risicomanagement de afgelopen jaren veel aandacht gegeven, ook in hun jaarverslag. Toch blijft het een worsteling, zo blijkt volgens de auteur uit een analyse van de jaarverslagen van 2012 door studenten van de hogeschool van Amsterdam.
Already at diagnosis, head and neck cancer patients are atrisk for malnutrition. Local symptoms such as swallowingproblems are a major cause of malnutrition in thesepatients.1 Additionally, malnutrition may result fromchanges in smell and taste/aversion and loss of appetite.Presence of these systemic symptoms at diagnosis may beindicative for the cachexia syndrome. Therefore, we testedthe hypothesis that head and neck cancer patients to betreated with primary or postoperative (chemo)radiationsuffer from cachexia.
While the creation of an energy deficit (ED) is required for weight loss, it is well documented that actual weight loss is generally lower than what expected based on the initially imposed ED, a result of adaptive mechanisms that are oppose to initial ED to result in energy balance at a lower set-point. In addition to leading to plateauing weight loss, these adaptive responses have also been implicated in weight regain and weight cycling (add consequences). Adaptions occur both on the intake side, leading to a hyperphagic state in which food intake is favored (elevated levels of hunger, appetite, cravings etc.), as well as on the expenditure side, as adaptive thermogenesis reduces energy expenditure through compensatory reductions in resting metabolic rate (RMR), non-exercise activity expenditure (NEAT) and the thermic effect of food (TEF). Two strategies that have been utilized to improve weight loss outcomes include increasing dietary protein content and increasing energy flux during weight loss. Preliminary data from our group and others demonstrate that both approaches - especially when combined - have the capacity to reduce the hyperphagic response and attenuate reductions in energy expenditure, thereby minimizing the adaptive mechanisms implicated in plateauing weight loss, weight regain and weight cycling. Past research has largely focused on one specific component of energy balance (e.g. hunger or RMR) rather than assessing the impact of these strategies on all components of energy balance. Given that all components of energy balance are strongly connected with each other and therefore can potentially negate beneficial impacts on one specific component, the primary objective of this application is to use a comprehensive approach that integrates all components of energy balance to quantify the changes in response to a high protein and high energy flux, alone and in combination, during weight loss (Fig 1). Our central hypothesis is that a combination of high protein intake and high energy flux will be most effective at minimizing both metabolic and behavioral adaptations in several components of energy balance such that the hyperphagic state and adaptive thermogenesis are attenuated to lead to superior weight loss results and long-term weight maintenance.