OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to disentangle the impact of age and that of cancer diagnosis and treatment on functional status (FS) decline in older patients with cancer.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with breast and colorectal cancer aged 50-69years and aged ≥70years who had undergone surgery, and older patients without cancer aged ≥70years were included. FS was assessed at baseline and after 12months follow-up, using the Katz index for activities of daily living (ADL) and the Lawton scale for instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). FS decline was defined as ≥1 point decrease on the ADL or IADL scale from baseline to 12months follow-up.RESULTS: In total, 179 older patients with cancer (≥ 70years), 341 younger patients with cancer (50-69years) and 317 older patients without cancer (≥ 70years) were included. FS decline was found in 43.6%, 24.6% and 28.1% of the groups, respectively. FS decline was significantly worse in older compared to younger patients with cancer receiving no chemotherapy (44.5% versus 17.6%, p<0.001), but not for those who did receive chemotherapy (39.4% versus 30.8%, p=0.33). Among the patients with cancer, FS decline was significantly associated with older age (OR 2.63), female sex (OR 3.72), colorectal cancer (OR 2.81), polypharmacy (OR 2.10) and, inversely, with baseline ADL dependency (OR 0.44).CONCLUSION: Cancer treatment, and older age are important predictors of FS decline. The relation of baseline ADL dependency and chemotherapy with FS decline suggest that the fittest of the older patients with cancer were selected for chemotherapy.
A growing number of older patients undergo cardiac surgery. Some of these patients are at increased risk of post-operative functional decline, potentially leading to reduced quality of life and autonomy, and other negative health outcomes. First step in prevention is to identify patients at risk of functional decline. There are no current published tools available to predict functional decline following cardiac surgery. The objective was to validate the identification of seniors at risk—hospitalised patients (ISAR-HP), in older patients undergoing cardiac surgery. A multicenter cohort study was performed in cardiac surgery wards of two university hospitals with follow-up 3 months after hospital admission. Inclusion criteria: consecutive cardiac surgery patients, aged ≥65. Functional decline was defined as a decline of at least one point on the Katz ADL Index at follow-up compared with preadmission status.
BACKGROUND: Generalized Joint Hypermobility (GJH) has been found to be associated with musculoskeletal complaints and disability. For others GJH is seen as a prerequisite in order to excel in certain sports like dance. However, it remains unclear what the role is of GJH in human performance. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to establish the association between GJH and functional status and to explore the contribution of physical fitness and musculoskeletal complaints to this association.METHODS: A total of 72 female participants (mean age (SD; range): 19.6 (2.2; 17-24)) were recruited among students from the Amsterdam School of Health Professions (ASHP) (n = 36) and the Amsterdam School of Arts (ASA), Academy for dance and theater (n = 36) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From each participant the following data was collected: Functional status performance (self-reported Physical activity level) and capacity (walking distance and jumping capacity: side hop (SH) and square hop (SQH)), presence of GJH (Beighton score ≥4), muscle strength, musculoskeletal complaints (pain and fatigue) and demographic characteristics (age and BMI).RESULTS: GJH was negatively associated with all capacity measures of functional status. Subjects with GJH had a reduced walking distance (B(SE):-75.5(10.5), p = <.0001) and jumping capacity (SH: B(SE):-10.10(5.0), p = .048, and SQH: B(SE):-11.2(5.1), p = .024) in comparison to subjects without GJH, when controlling for confounding: age, BMI and musculoskeletal complaints. In participants with GJH, functional status was not associated with performance measures.CONCLUSION: GJH was independently associated with lower walking and jumping capacity, potentially due to the compromised structural integrity of connective tissue. However, pain, fatigue and muscle strength were also important contributors to functional status.
In het postdoc-onderzoek gaat Dr. Machteld van Lieshout, hogeschooldocent bij de opleiding Voeding en Diëtetiek en onderzoeker in het lectoraat Gezonde Leefstijl in een Stimulerende Omgeving (GLSO) en het onderzoekscentrum van Voeding en Diëtetiek van De Haagse Hogeschool (HHs), kennis ontwikkelen over de wijze waarop persoonsgerichte mHealth ingezet kan worden ter bevordering van een gezonde(re) leefstijl van kwetsbare groepen. Dit is zeer belangrijk omdat mensen met een lage sociaaleconomische status en/of een niet-Nederlandse achtergrond een veel groter risico hebben op leefstijl-gerelateerde aandoeningen als hart- en vaatziekten, diabetes en kanker. De huidige mHealth leefstijl-activatie-tools sluiten onvoldoende aan op de wensen, behoeften en mogelijkheden van kwetsbare groepen (hier: jonge moeders en Hindoestanen) om het risico te verlagen. Het project bestaat uit vier, deels in de tijd overlappende, fasen gericht op de volgende onderzoeksvraag: Hoe kunnen kwetsbare doelgroepen gemotiveerd worden tot een gezonde(re) leefstijl middels een in co-creatie ontwikkelde mHealth leefstijl-activatie-tool? Binnen het project is een grote verwevenheid tussen onderzoek en onderwijs. Het project draagt bij aan de kennisagenda’s van het platform Kwaliteit van Leven: Mens en Technologie van de HHs, SPRONG Vitale Delta, alsmede aan de NWA-route Gezondheidszorgonderzoek, preventie en behandeling. De opgedane kennis vloeit rechtstreeks terug naar het onderwijs en werkveld. Deelonderzoeken zullen aangeboden worden als praktijkopdrachten in het reguliere curriculum. De ontwikkelde mHealth tool zal tevens ter beschikking worden gesteld aan de kwetsbare doelgroepen en het werkveld. Met haar achtergrond als voedingswetenschapper, haar ruime multidisciplinaire project- en onderzoekservaring en netwerk in binnen- en buitenland is Machteld de juiste kandidaat voor dit postdoc-onderzoek. Machteld wordt in dit onderzoek bijgestaan door de lector GLSO en het hoofd van het onderzoekscentrum van Voeding & Diëtetiek en de hierbij aangesloten onderzoeksgroepen. Daarnaast is een groot netwerk beschikbaar van samenwerkingspartners betrokken bij de thematiek van deze aanvraag.
HET 'POST INTENSIVE CARE SYNDROOM'; LANGDURIGE GEVOLGEN VAN EEN INTENSIVE CARE OPNAME Dankzij verbeteringen in de zorg overleven steeds meer patiënten de behandeling op een intensive care (IC). Keerzijde hiervan zijn de lichamelijke en mentale klachten (Post Intensive Care Syndroom - PICS) waarvoor patiënten vaak langdurige revalidatie nodig hebben i.v.m. verminderde belastbaarheid en vermoeidheid. Tijdens de Covid-19 pandemie blijkt dat relatief veel IC-patiënten een migratieachtergrond en/of lage sociaaleconomische status hebben en dat een grote groep geen nazorg ontvangt. E-HEALTH ALS ONDERSTEUNING VAN DE ZORGVERLENER: HOE ZET JE HET IN? Om de Juiste Zorg op de Juiste Plek te geven wordt eHealth met coaching en telemonitoring steeds vaker ingezet bij revalidatie in de thuissituatie. Atris is een voorbeeld van een toepassing waarbij via sensoren het activiteitenniveau en hartslag gemeten worden. Atris is een veelbelovende toepassing voor patiënten met PICS maar fysiotherapeuten hebben nog beperkt ervaring met het integreren van eHealth in de behandelaanpak en beschikken over onvoldoende kennis en vaardigheden om de applicaties optimaal in te zetten en zorg op afstand te verlenen. E-HEALTH ALS ONDERSTEUNING VAN DE PATIËNT: JUISTE ZORG OP DE JUISTE PLEK VOOR IEDEREEN? eHealth applicaties dienen de zelfredzaamheid, zelfstandigheid en eigen regie van patiënten te bevorderen. Bij patiënten die thuis herstellen na een IC opname kan eHealth door gebruik van continue monitoring van vitale parameters, patiënten ondersteunen door het gevoel van veiligheid te vergroten en inzicht te verschaffen in belasting en belastbaarheid. Echter, bestaande applicaties zijn momenteel niet voor iedereen toegankelijk zoals mensen met een migratieachtergrond of beperkte gezondheidsvaardigheden. Het doel van het Lifeline project is om, in een consortium met professionals vanuit de technologie, revalidatie en maatschappelijke organisaties, de bestaande Atris applicatie door te ontwikkelen richting een slimme, gebruiksvriendelijke en toegankelijke app en toe te passen in de fysiotherapeutische behandeling van patiënten met PICS.
In leaving the more traditional territories of the concert performance for broader societal contexts, professional musicians increasingly devise music in closer collaboration with their audience rather than present it on a stage. Although the interest for such forms of devising co-creative musicking within the (elderly) health care sector is growing, the work can be considered relatively new. In terms of research, multiple studies have sought to understand the impact of such work on musicians and participants, however little is known about what underpins the musicians’ actions in these settings. With this study, I sought to address this gap by investigating professional musicians’ emerging practices when devising co-creative musicking with elderly people. Three broad concepts were used as a theoretical background to the study: Theory of Practice, co-creative musicking, and Praxialism. Firstly, I used Theory of Practice to help understand the nature of emerging practices in a wider context of change in the field of music and habitus of musicians and participants. Theory of Practice enabled me to consider a practice as “a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion, and motivational knowledge” (Reckwitz, 2002, p. 249). Secondly, I drew the knowledge from co-creative musicking, which is a concept I gathered from two existing concepts: co-creation and musicking. Musicking (Small, 1998), which considers music as something we do (including any mode of engagement with music), provided a holistic and inclusive way of looking at participation in music-making. The co-creation paradigm encompasses a view on enterprise that consists of bringing together parties to jointly create an outcome that is meaningful to all (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2014). The concept served as a lens to specify the jointness of the musicking and challenge issues of power in the engagement of participants in the creative-productive process. Thirdly, Praxialism considers musicking as an activity that encompasses “musical doers, musical doing, something done and contexts in which the former take place” (Elliott, 1995). Praxialism sets out a vision on music that goes beyond the musical work and includes the meanings and values of those involved (Silverman, Davis & Elliott, 2014). The concept allowed me to examine the work and emerging relationships as a result of devising co-creative musicking from an ethical perspective. Given the subject’s relative newness and rather unexplored status, I examined existing work empirically through an ethnographic approach (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). Four cases were selected where data was gathered through episodic interviewing (Flick, 2009) and participant observation. Elements of a constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) were used for performing an abductive analysis. The analysis included initial coding, focused coding, the use of sensitizing concepts (Blumer 1969 in Hammersley, 2013) and memoing. I wrote a thick description (Geertz, 1973) for each case portraying the work from my personal experience. The descriptions are included in the dissertation as one separate chapter and foreshadow the exposition of the analysis in a next chapter. In-depth study of the creative-productive processes of the cases showed the involvement of multiple co-creative elements, such as a dialogical interaction between musicians and audience. However, participants’ contributions were often adopted implicitly, through the musicians interpreting behaviour and situations. This created a particular power dynamic and challenges as to what extent the negotiation can be considered co-creative. The implicitness of ‘making use’ of another person’s behaviour with the other not (always) being aware of this also triggered an ethical perspective, especially because some of the cases involved participants that were vulnerable. The imbalance in power made me examine the relationship that emerges between musicians and participants. As a result of a closer contact in the co-creative negotiation, I witnessed a contact of a highly personal, sometimes intimate, nature. I recognized elements of two types of connections. One type could be called ‘humanistic’, as a friendship in which there is reciprocal care and interest for the other. The other could be seen as ‘functional’, which means that the relationship is used as a resource for providing input for the creative musicking process. From this angle, I have compared the relationship with that of a relationship of an artist with a muse. After having examined the co-creative and relational sides of the interaction in the four cases, I tuned in to the musicians’ contribution to these processes and relationships. I discovered that their devising in practice consisted of a continuous double balancing act on two axes: one axis considers the other and oneself as its two ends. Another axis concerns the preparedness and unpredictability at its ends. Situated at the intersection of the two axes are the musicians’ intentionality, which is fed by their intentions, values and ethics. The implicitness of the co-creation, the two-sided relationship, the potential vulnerability of participants, and the musicians’ freedom in navigating and negotiation, together, make the devising of co-creative musicking with elderly people an activity that involves ethical challenges that are centred around a tension between prioritizing doing good for the other, associated with a eudaimonic intention, and prioritizing values of the musical art form, resembling a musicianist intention. The results therefore call for a musicianship that involves acting reflectively from an ethical perspective. Doctoral study by Karolien Dons
