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Objective To explore barriers to planned dental visiting, investigating how barriers interlink, how they accumulate and change, and how individuals envisage overcoming their combination of barriers through personal strategies. Methods An ethnographic study was conducted of adult urgent dental care attenders who did not have a dentist, including 155 hours of nonparticipant observations, 97 interviews and 19 follow‐up interviews in six urgent dental care settings. Data were analysed using constant comparison, first identifying barriers and personal strategies to overcome them, and subsequently analysing interlinks between barriers and personal strategies. Results Accounts of barriers to planned dental visiting encompassed multiple barriers, which related to socioeconomic circumstances as well as experiences of oral health care. Barriers were multi‐layered and more difficult to overcome when occurring together. Personal strategies to overcome diverse barriers often hinged on increasing importance of oral health to individuals, yet this was not always sufficient. The combination of barriers participants experience was dynamic, changing due to personal, family, or employment circumstances, and with increasing severity of barriers over time. Over time, this could lead to higher cost, and additional barriers, particularly embarrassment. Conclusion Barriers to planned dental visiting are complex, multi‐layered and change over time, constituting a ‘web of causation’. This adds a novel perspective to the literature on barriers to dental visiting, and requires that researchers, dental practitioners and policy makers remain open to barriers’ interlinked effects, changes in primacy among individual patients’ barriers, and their accumulation over time to better support uptake of planned dental visiting.

Background and Objectives A systematic review was conducted to explore the use of smartphones and tablet computers as cognitive and memory aids by older adults with and without cognitive impairment, specifically the effects of smartphone and tablet use on participants’ cognition and memory, and the barriers to facilitators to smartphone and tablet use for cognitive and memory support. Research Design and Methods A systematic search of six key databases found 11,895 citations published between 2010 and 2021. Studies were included if they involved community-dwelling older adults with or without cognitive impairment arising from acquired brain injury, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia, and if they evaluated everyday smartphone or tablet device use for cognition, memory, or activities of daily living. Results A total of 28 papers were included in the narrative synthesis. There was some evidence that the use of smartphones and tablets could aid cognitive function in older adults without cognitive impairment, particularly executive function and processing speed. There was modest evidence that smartphone and tablet use could support memory in both older adults without cognitive impairment and those with acquired bran injury and dementia. Discussion and Implications Smartphones and tablets were seen by users as acceptable, enjoyable, and non-stigmatising alternatives to conventional assistive technology devices; however, current use of smartphone and tablet devices is hindered by the digital literacy of older adults, a lack of accommodation for older adult users’ motor and sensory impairments, and a lack of input from clinicians and researchers. Much of the evidence presented in this review derives from case studies and small-scale trials of smartphone and tablet training interventions. Further research is needed into older adults’ use of smartphones and tablets for cognitive support before and after the onset of cognitive impairment in order to develop effective evidence-based smart technology cognition and memory aids.

Purpose This descriptive, hypothesis-generating study sought to obtain input from rectal cancer survivors regarding key features of their long-term experience. Methods We administered a 12-question internet-based survey to self-identified rectal cancer survivors to assess 1) how neuropathy, fatigue, trouble with ostomy/bowel movements, and trouble with sexual function affect daily life; and 2) whether knowing about these symptoms a priori would have changed their treatment decision. Responses are presented descriptively. Qualitative analysis assessed themes reported in response to an open-ended question. Results Responses from 116 rectal cancer survivors, 55 of whom provided open-ended responses, were obtained. Respondents were predominantly young (62% <50 years at diagnosis) and several years from treatment (53% ≥ 2 years). They reported their lives were affected “A lot” by bowel/ostomy trouble (49%), trouble with sexual function (45%), fatigue (34%), and nerve toxicity (24%). Between 24-50% of survivors reporting a symptom affected their life “A lot” would have changed their treatment decisions with a priori knowledge of these lasting effects. Key qualitative themes were the lack of information about and support for negative effects. Conclusions Rectal cancer survivors report substantial symptom burden, decisional regret, and inadequate support. Interventions should target patients with high distress during their survivorship transition.

Objective: Over-evaluation of food, shape and weight is a multi-faceted component of cognitive-behavioral models of eating disorders. One specific aspect of over-evaluation of food is a cognitive distortion known as thought-shape fusion (TSF). TSF is purported to be specific to eating pathology; however, research has not yet elucidated whether individuals across the subtypes of eating disorders are differentially susceptible to this phenomenon. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether susceptibility to TSF decreases over the course of treatment.Method: TSF, eating pathology, and generalized psychopathology were assessed in 76 individuals with eating disorders. Changes in TSF from pre-to posttreatment were assessed in a subset of participants (n 5 24).Results: Individuals with the binge/ purge subtype of anorexia nervosa were more susceptible to TSF than were individuals with bulimia nervosa or the restrictive subtype of anorexia nervosa. Increased TSF corresponded with higher levels of eating pathology, depression, and impulsivity. In addition, there were decreases in TSF over the course of treatment.Discussion: The observed differences in TSF susceptibility across eating disorder subtypes suggests that subtypes may be differentially prone to overevaluation of thoughts about food, which represents a facet of one of the core maintenance mechanisms in cognitive-behavioral models of eating disorders. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.