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A Year in Their Lives: Trajectories of Well-Being Among Patients Diagnosed with Advanced Stage Cancer

Kypriotakis, Georgios
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1354853720

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Sociology.
Research on the well-being of older adults can increase the knowledge and information of care-providers and patients to better respond to needs pertaining to psychological, physical, spiritual, social and functional dimensions. In oncology there is a considerable amount of material of interventions aiming to improving the patient's well-being. However, in the literature there is a gap on empirical models that provide support of those interventions. The purpose of this study is to analyze longitudinal data on patients with advanced-stage cancer in order to describe multiple dimensions of their experience. Specifically the aims are: to identify trajectories and model the patterns of change of different domains of well-being; to capture variation in well-being outcomes attributed to modifiers such as demographics and utilization; to examine how the different domains of well-being relate overtime. Five hundred seventy six patients analyzed at baseline, who have data until death or for up to one year. In this study,six quality of life domains will be analyzed exploring the development in time and the interplay among them. All domains are assessed at baseline (on average 8 weeks after diagnosis) at 3 months, at 6 months, and at 12 months. Results of the study reinforce the strong presence of linkage among dimensions of well-being, as well as, individual characteristics. Moreover, the illness experience of the patients is been shown to be heterogeneous based on both survival time and personal characteristics, and thus not summarized by a single theory. Indeed, the study found that the illness trajectories are not reflected in the disease trajectory of the patients. From a methodological standpoint the need for complex models that better capture the reality of the patients' experiences is suggested. Findings also revealed important aspects of the patient's experiences relative to policy. Finally, the findings show that short-term survivors have both different patterns of change of well-being and different effects of covariates on their experience. This diverse type of experience must be acknowledged when caring for the advanced-stage cancer patient.
Jessica Kelley-Moore (Committee Chair)
Gary Deimling (Committee Member)
Brian Gran (Committee Member)
Julia Rose (Committee Member)
167 p.
Health; Health Care; Health Care Management; Sociology
cancer; quality of life; well-being; longitudinal; social constructionism

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kypriotakis, G. (2013). A Year in Their Lives: Trajectories of Well-Being Among Patients Diagnosed with Advanced Stage Cancer [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1354853720

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kypriotakis, Georgios. A Year in Their Lives: Trajectories of Well-Being Among Patients Diagnosed with Advanced Stage Cancer. 2013. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1354853720.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kypriotakis, Georgios. "A Year in Their Lives: Trajectories of Well-Being Among Patients Diagnosed with Advanced Stage Cancer." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1354853720

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1354853720
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© 2012, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License A Year in Their Lives: Trajectories of Well-Being Among Patients Diagnosed with Advanced Stage Cancer by Georgios Kypriotakis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.