Background: Holistic health is important to life, perhaps especially for elders. Focus should not only be placed on illness or the physical part of their lives, but the whole person should also be considered, emphasizing the connection of their mind, body, and the environment. Objective: The aims of this research were to study the factors of the holistic health status (HHS) of the Thai elderly in the 21st century, and to predict the factors affecting the development of HHS in 3 aspects; physical health status, mental and emotional health status, and the social and environmental health status. Method: The data were collected from 928 Thai elderly aged 60 and over in the central part of Thailand. The research instrument was a questionnaire whose reliability was confirmed using a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .904. Multiple regression analysis was used for predicting the factors of HHS. Results: The results indicated that stress, increased age, gender, and social participation can predict the HHS of Thai elders, and stress can predict each 3 aspects. Therefore, stress prevention activities are very important for enhancing the HHS of Thai elders. Conclusion: The findings of this research can be used to improve the quality of life of elders in the 21st century.

Background: Stress can physically effect patients with cancer undergoing palliative care and should be targeted for prevention. Aim: To examine the effects of the biofeedback and music training programme (BMT programme) in decreasing stress among patients living with cancer receiving palliative care. Methods: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) repeated measure study was used to investigate the effects of the BMT programme. Findings: The participants in the BMT programme had the lowest mean stress recorded before, during and after the experiment, while the control group had a higher mean of stress in every measurement period. There were significant differences among groups across the time periods (Wilks' lambda =0.269, F=7.081, p<0.01). Conclusion: Use of the BMT programme resulted in a significant reduction in patient stress. This confirms that the BMT programme plays an important role in helping patients living with cancer that experience high volumes of stress.

Background: Cancer is a progressive illness that often has a prolonged treatment time and that severely impacts a person’s quality of life. In Thailand, approximately 113,000 new cancer patients are diagnosed each year. Furthermore, cancer patients also have a high mortality rate of 90%, indicating that cancer is a major health problem both in Thailand and around the world. Physical manifestations of cancer include pain in the organs where cancer has already spread and side effects of treatment, such as chemotherapy and radiation, which adversely impact the mental state of cancer patients. Increased stress often results in other subsequent health conditions. Thus, identifying stress quickly and promptly in cancer patients through proper stress management is important. Objective: To develop and monitor accurate stress evaluation according to the self-perceptions (Thai version of the Modified Symptoms of Stress Inventory, Modified SOSI) of cancer patients in Thailand. Research Methodology: This study consists of three steps according to the research guidelines of Wongwiwatthananukit, Newton, and Popovich (2002): (1) the process of creating and developing tools; (2) the process of reviewing questions concerning the tools by experts; and (3) testing procedures for the use of the tools. Results: Content consistency using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient from 30 samples were determined to be .906. Investigation of the construct validity of the SOSI found that the relationships indicated in stress consisted of physical, mental, and behavioral. Significant relationships between these three aspects were determined by the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling as adequacy = 0.80, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity gave statistical significance at 0.05. The most important indicator was the physical, followed by the mental, while the behavioral had the least weight importance. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm that the Thai version of the Modified Symptoms of Stress Inventory (Modified SOSI), comprising 30 questions, was able to evaluate stress, including physical, mental and behavioral responses to stress. This inventory was considered concise and appropriate for cancer patients and can be used with other populations.

Background: Patients with cancer suffer from the physical impacts of the disease, including pain in organs where cancer has spread to and treatment side effects. Many factors affect the mental state of cancer patients, especially stress which can cause muscle tension around the affected area and create a higher degree of pain. Stress impacts physical conditions and results in a worse quality of life. Thus, an appropriate approach to cope with, evaluate, and manage stress in cancer patients is considered crucial. Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to determine and evaluate non-drug stress management guidelines for cancer patients. Methods: A systematic review was undertaken to synthesize knowledge concerning stress and non-drug stress management for cancer patients. Information was sourced from documents and articles published by related institutions in relevant electronic databases, including PubMed, PsycINFO, Dynamed, and ScienceDirect between 2013 and 2019. No limitations were imposed regarding the type of study design previously used. Conference abstracts were not accepted. The quality of all included studies was independently appraised by two review writers. Results: The search generated 129 studies, of which only 20 met the inclusion criteria. The 20 studies cover 11 studies of music for cancer prevention and 6 studies of mindfulness-based stress reduction in cancer patients. The studies utilized both quantitative and qualitative approaches, while three studies of biofeedback in cancer patients only collected quantitative data. For the outcome from the reviews, 6 studies found that music therapy, biofeedback, and mindfulness greatly impact physical alterations such as insomnia, nausea or vomiting, and pain. Furthermore, 17 studies found that non-drug management techniques had a positive impact on psychological adjustments such as stress and anxiety reduction and relaxation promotion. Non-drug stress management such as music, biofeedback, and mindfulness was found to reduce stress among patients. Conclusion: This review confirms that non-drug stress management approaches can reduce suffering, lead to a better quality of life, reduce mortality rates, minimize treatment costs, and prevent and mitigate unwanted symptoms in cancer patients. This approach can be adapted and applied to patients with other diseases in the future. However, because several of the reviewed studies did not have a follow-up period, the present study was unable to collect evidence suggesting how long the observed benefits will remain.

Background: Mental health disorders can affect physical and psychological behaviors. The people of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) have a high risk of mental health disorders, such as depression, stress, and substance abuse be-cause the people in this region are trafficked for forced sex work and various forms of forced labor. In these situations, vic-tims often endure violence and abuse from trafficking recruiters, employers, and other individuals. The purposes of this study were to identify the elements characterizing mental health disorders, especially in terms of depression, stress, and sub-stance abuse, and to identify the treatment modalities for mental health disorders in the GMS.Methods: The researcher undertook a comparative analysis of the literature, reviews of epidemiological studies and mental disorder therapies, and overviews of previous research studies, were used to generate a synthesis of the existing knowledge of the mental disorder therapeutic modalities. Regarding the search methods, the data from the electronic databases PubMed, PsycINFO, Dynamed and ScienceDirect were supplemented with a manual reference search covering relevant studies from 2005 to 2016.Results: Thirty-one papers were included in the review of elements characterizing mental health disorders, especially in terms of depression, stress, and substance abuse, and to identify the treatment modalities for mental health disorders in the GMS. Nine papers defined characterizing mental health disorders, in terms of depression, stress, and substance abuse. Twenty-two papers showed the treatment modalities for mental health disorders that the treatment was effective, these in-cluded pharmacological treatments and psychological treatments, such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, biofeedback, and music therapy. Useful guidance can be provided for the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders, and for the care of people in the Greater Mekong Subregion.Conclusion: The finding of this review confirms the therapeutic modalities can provide useful guidance for the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders and the care of the people in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. In addition, the effective interventions should be tested regarding their suitability for the socio-cultural context in the Greater Mekong Subregion.