The wild broccoli πŸ₯¦

 Current mood: feeling The current mood of oleracea at www.imood.com

Some light reading

Publications

  1. Storandt MH, et al. β€œSymptom Burden in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer”. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Aug.1

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer report higher rates of moderate and severe anxiety and depression compared to older adults (over age 40). Screening may help link this population to interventions focused on mental health during their treatment for cancer, especially as the rate of suicide in AYAs with cancer has increased in recent years. Tumor site and metastatic disease status were not associated with severe symptomology, but women, people living in micropolitan commuter areas, divorced/separated people, those unable to work due to disability, and unemployed AYAs (including students and military) were more likely to report severe SPPADE2 symptoms.

  1. Lee M, et al. β€œCrosswalk between PROMIS computer adaptive tests and numerical rating scales in cancer patients: Anxiety, Depression, Pain interference, Physical function”. Advances in Patient-Reported Outcomes. 2025 Aug.3

The 0-10 numeric rating scale (NRS), which is commonly used in clinic settings to evaluate symptom burden, can be linked to the more complex PROMIS4 computerized adaptive test (CAT) system. Although PROMIS CATs can provide more precise estimates of symptom severity, they are burdensome for the patient to fill out. This study evaluates the interchangeability of these tools and provides a framework for creating a crosswalk between the two tests using an equipercentile linking method.

  1. Kroenke K, et al. β€œUsing Electronic Health Records to Classify Cancer Site and Metastasis”. Appl Clin Inform. 2025 May.5

Although cancer center registries are considered the gold standard for determining site, patients seen at tertiary centers may not be added to the registry and staging is often not updated as cancer progresses. Multi-source algorithms beat single-most-prevalent site heuristics when determining cancer site abstracted from electronic health record (EHR) diagnosis databases. There was high agreement between a natural language processing (NLP) method and an ICD-10-CM-based method for ascertaining metastatic status in a large cancer cohort.

  1. Kroenke K, et al. β€œPrevalence, Severity, and Co-Occurrence of SPPADE Symptoms in 31,866 Patients with Cancer”. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 Feb.6

The SPPADE2 hexad can be used to evaluate symptom burden in six of the most common symptoms in oncology practice. Anxiety and depression were strongly correlated with one another, but all symptoms were correlated at least moderately. Moderate to severe symptoms were prevalent and co-occurred regularly in the oncology population across all types of cancer and sociodemographic subgroups. Due to frequent co-occurrence of these symptoms, integrated or sequenced treatment is often more effective than single-symptom interventions.

  1. Riley C, et al. β€œTrends and Variation in the Gap Between Current and Anticipated Life Satisfaction in the United States, 2008-2020”. Am J Public Health. 2022 Mar.7

The gap between current and anticipated life satisfaction as measured by the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale in a large, nationally representative multiyear survey remained steady between 2008 to 2019 and increased in 2020, which was driven by a pandemic-related drop in current life satisfaction, while anticipated life satisfaction remained steady.

  1. Duarte-GarcΓ­a A, et al. β€œAssociation Between Payments by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Prescribing Behavior in Rheumatology”. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2022 Feb.8

Industry payments to rheumatologists associate consistently with higher probability of prescribing sponsor drugs and subsequent higher Medicare spending, with high rate of return from food and beverage payments. For every $100 in food and beverage payments made to physicians, probability of prescribing increased from 1.5% to 14%.

  1. Riley C, et al. β€œCan a collective-impact initiative improve well-being in three US communities? Findings from a prospective repeated cross-sectional study”. BMJ Open. 2021 Dec.9

A repeated cross-sectional study found that three counties engaging in a “Blue Zones” community-focused intervention had wellbeing gains in life evaluation and optimism compared to sociodemographically-matched control counties and the United States in general.

  1. Dyrbye LN, et al. β€œA Longitudinal Study Exploring Learning Environment Culture and Subsequent Risk of Burnout Among Resident Physicians Overall and by Gender”. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2021 Aug.10

In a national resident cohort, a poorer learning-environment culture predicts subsequent burnout overall and especially in women, indicating that program climate contributes greatly to patient and physician safety. However, the factors contributing to burnout did not have differential impacts on men versus women, and the gendered difference in burnout was at least partially due to differing levels of exposure to those factors.

  1. Riley C, et al. β€œTrends and geographical variation in population thriving, struggling and suffering across the USA, 2008–2017: a retrospective repeated cross-sectional study”. BMJ Open. 2021 Jul.11

From 2008 to 2017, “thriving” (current life satisfaction >= 7 and future life optimism >=8) rose nationally while “suffering” (CLS <=4 and FLO <=4) stayed fairly constant. Geographical variation in life satisfaction highlights priority areas for wellbeing interventions.

More papers

  1. Onyeador IN, et al. β€œThe Value of Interracial Contact for Reducing Anti-Black Bias among Non-Black Physicians: A CHANGE Study Report”. Psychological Science. 2020 Jan.12

In a longitudinal study on medical residents, more interracial contact during training was linked to lower explicit anti-Black bias among non-Black physicians. Environment and positive contact were more impactful than one-off trainings.

  1. King HH, et al. β€œThermography Examination of Abdominal Area Skin Temperatures in Individuals With and Without Focal-Onset Epilepsy”. Explore (NY). 2017 Jan.13

Abdominal skin-temperature patterns differ in people with focal-onset epilepsy versus controls, which could be used in the future as a potential screening method.

  1. Herrin J, et al. β€œCommunity factors and hospital readmission rates”. Health Serv Res. 2015 Feb.14

Community context, such as poverty, education, and access to primary care, explains meaningful variation in Medicare readmission rates beyond just the hospital-focused context.

  1. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.27421 ↩︎

  2. Sleep disturbance, Pain, Physical function impairment, Anxiety, Depression, Energy deficit ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. doi:10.1016/j.apro.2025.100195 ↩︎

  4. Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Information System ↩︎

  5. doi:10.1055/a-2544-3117 ↩︎

  6. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2023.01.020 ↩︎

  7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2021.306589 ↩︎

  8. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.08.026 ↩︎

  9. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048378 ↩︎

  10. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2020.12.036 ↩︎

  11. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043375 ↩︎

  12. doi:10.1177/0956797619879139 ↩︎

  13. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2016.10.003 ↩︎

  14. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.12177 ↩︎