Mitsunori Miyashita

..The results were used to finalize the feeling of care burden scale (BIC: burden index of caregivers), and verify its reliability and validity...

..The aims of this study are to describe the care burden on caregivers of individuals with intractable neurological diseases and to clarify the prevalence of depression in caregivers and factors related to the presence of depression...

..Furthermore, we investigated Japanese medical practitioners' attitudes toward disease and prognosis disclosure for patients and decision making...

..We conducted a nationwide survey of the current status of PCTs in all (123) Japanese university hospitals...

..We investigated the barriers to referral to inpatient palliative care units (PCUs) through a qualitative study across various sources of information, including terminal cancer patients, their families, physicians, and nurses...

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..We carried out a survey to identify existing barriers from the point of view of palliative care experts in Japan and determine the priorities for future actions to overcome these barriers...

..Medical practitioners caring for terminal cancer patients should consider a broader range of views on hydration therapy, with a focus on effective hydration techniques and alternative interventions...

..Medical practitioners caring for terminally ill cancer patients should engage in greater discussion among patient-centered teams and facilitate individualized decision making...

..In conclusion, nursing autonomy plays an important role in the attitudes of Japanese nurses who care for dying patients. Educational and administrative efforts to strengthen nursing autonomy are necessary...

..The aim of this study was to explore factors contributing to a good death from the bereaved family members' perspectives, including patient and family demographics and medical variables...

..In addition, the authors describe available treatments at the Japanese inpatient palliative care units and home hospices...

..The QIs are feasible for use in any clinical setting and cover a comprehensive area in accordance with the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of palliative care including physical, psychosocial, and spiritual concerns...

..38-0.72). Finally, we developed a short version of the GDI. The GDI is a valid scale to measure end-of-life care comprehensive outcomes from the bereaved family member's perspective in Japan...

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..This population-based educational intervention was effective in changing beliefs regarding the feasibility of home care, preference for life-prolonging treatment and attitudes toward end-of-life care...

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..The perfect or +/-1 concordance rates were 71-97% at referral and 73-100% at 7 days after. In conclusion, the symptom item of the STAS-J had high inter-rater reliability...

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..In Japan, it would be appropriate to extract QIs from medical charts. However, many items suggested as QIs in a previous study were found to be different from the opinions expressed by bereaved family members in this study...

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..The aims of this study were to validate an instrument for measuring bereaved family members' perceptions of caregiving consequences and to examine the association between caregiving consequences and psychological distress...

..The purpose of this study was to clarify administrators' perspectives on availability of recommended strategies for end-of-life (EOL) care for cancer patients at long-term care (LTC) facilities in Japan...

..The aim of this study was to validate the Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA) among caregivers of community-dwelling advanced cancer patients in Japan...

..The aim of this study was to clarify factors related to the preference of place for end-of-life cancer care and death, from the perspective of the bereaved family...

..In Japan, most cancer patients die in the hospital. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of end-of-life treatment for dying cancer patients in general wards and palliative care unit (PCU)...

..The OPTIM study will contribute to improve patients' quality of life by proposing a regional palliative care model suitable for Japan...

..Participants were asked to provide background data and to evaluate their experience of caregiving and of the patient's response throughout the period of home palliative care, up to the time of death...

..In addition, the role of PCUs might be reconsidered in terms of the continuum of cancer care...

..The specialized home palliative care service could contribute to patients' symptom and families' psychosocial status...

..Anorexia is one of the most common symptoms in terminally ill cancer patients and causes considerable distress for both patients and their families...

..It was concluded that this study was useful in determining the specific areas where nursing education and research should be focused...

..To assess the reliability of quality indicators of end-of-life cancer care (QI-EOL) and evaluate the quality of end-of-life cancer care in general wards by using QI-EOL...

..The aim of this project was to develop an appropriate and valid instrument for assessment by medical professionals in Japanese palliative care settings...

..To identify the factors associated with difficulties encountered by nurses working in general wards in hospitals in Japan...

..Prognosis is difficult to discuss with patients who have advanced cancer and their families...

..The DT score may be highly influenced by coexisting physical symptoms, and future studies to develop an appropriate system to identify patients with psychiatric comorbidity are necessary...

..The present study aimed to establish an accurate representation of the actual use of opioid analgesics for palliative care in regional cancer centers...

..The aim of this study was to clarify the state of pain management in Japanese patients with advanced cancer who initiated opioid therapy in an outpatient setting...

..Approximately 80% of participants were anxious about adverse reactions of analgesics. These findings suggest that medical staffs should provide appropriate information and educate their patients...

..The development of palliative care educational programs is ongoing in Japan. To assess the effectiveness of educational programs for general nurses, it is necessary to develop scales for evaluating them...

..Our findings suggest that communication among health professionals, utilization of hospital resources, and palliative care education for staff were important in palliative care for leukemia patients during the incurable phase...

..The aim of this study was to examine how social support and self-efficacy mediate the relationship between social distress and emotional distress in head and neck cancer patients...

..Therefore, other approaches are needed to achieve substantial long-term effects...

..Having a sense of security about the availability of care is important for cancer patients and their families...

..054). To promote team care in the Japanese palliative care setting, it is necessary to consider a practical standard of team care, and to conduct effective care meetings...

..The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Diabetes Diet-Related Quality-of-Life (DDRQOL) scale, which is a measure of the influence of diet therapy on patients' quality of life (QOL)...

..Furthermore, seven factors comprising 27 items with high internal consistency were incorporated into NAS-J-HIP. This scale can be used to assess the psychological adaptation of hip osteoarthritis patients...

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..The aims of this study were to clarify end-of-life cancer care preferences and associations with good-death concepts...

..Although investigations with help-seeking samples suggest that the BGQ is valid and reliable, it has not been validated in a broader population...

..The purpose of the study was to evaluate changes in medical and nursing care for patients just after admission to a palliative care unit (PCU) from general wards in one city...

..The evaluation of educational programmes and the clarification of actual knowledge acquired are possible using this instrument...

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..07). Preoperative chemotherapy reduced the number of metastatic lymph nodes and may contribute to improving the outcome of the patients who have undergone esophagectomy for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus...

..Frequent examination in these cancer patients, using fiberoptic esophagogastric endoscopy for example, may be helpful in the early diagnosis of esophageal cancer...

..05). Responders had a significantly better prognosis than non-responders by Log-rank test (P < 0.01). This suggests that preoperative chemotherapy may contribute to better prognosis when the tumor is sensitive to chemotherapy...

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..To clarify physician- and nurse-reported effects of intravenous hydration therapy on symptoms of terminally ill patients with cancer...

..As their experiences in specialized palliative care significantly influenced their belief, systematic efforts to spread quality palliative care activity are of value to lessen these barriers and achieve quality end-of-life care...

..The primary aims of this study were 1) to clarify the levels of nurses' emotional burden related to sedation, and 2) to identify the factors contributing to the burden levels...

..quot; This study identified important components of a good death in Japan. A future quantitative survey is planned to clarify the generalizability of these findings as the primary endpoint of palliative care in Japan...

..Calculated fluid balance is not an appropriate alternative to direct monitoring of patient symptoms. More studies are needed to determine the clinical efficacy of artificial hydration for terminally ill cancer patients...

..8 +/- 8.3 mg/dL and -2.9 +/- 7.0 mg/dL (P = 0.051); that in insulin was -4.5 +/- 7.5 microU/dL and -0.6 +/- 4.3 microU/dL (P = 0.046), respectively. These results show that systematic walking increases EEE and improves blood profiles...