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The effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes is unclear. A systematic review was developed in accordance with PRISMA. Relevant databases (Pubmed, Cochrane, PsycINFO, and PsyARTICLES) were analyzed. Articles of the last decade with type 1 diabetes population between 6 and 18 years participating in psychoeducational interventions were the inclusion criteria. Twenty studies were reviewed, and improvements were found in glycosylated hemoglobin, diabetes knowledge, and psychosocial variables. The results support the positive effect of these interventions. The characteristics that seem to be behind the success of these interventions are the design appropriate to the characteristics of the population, the participation of psychologist and educators, the continuity of the program over time, and the use of digital tools and interaction strategies. Further studies need to be carried out and replicated in different groups of children and adolescents.

Anxiety and stress influence the onset and prognosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but little is known about what CVD patients do when experiencing stress/anxiety. This study aimed to identify the behavioral strategies CVD patients use to regulate these emotions.Instrumental and longitudinal.A theoretically-guided scale, the Stress and Anxiety Regulation Strategies (STARTS), was developed considering the target population's characteristics. CVD patients were recruited at three different points (At T1 exploratory factor analysis was conducted (random sample 1). The validity of the most parsimonious three-factor solution was subsequently found via confirmatory factor analysis at T1 (random sample 2), T2, and T3, revealing good and stable model fit. The factors represented strategies differentiated by the type and level of activity required (passive, intellectual, and physical strategies). The scale showed good test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Correlation and regression analyses with positive and negative affect, psychological wellbeing (stress, anxiety, depression), and cardiac self-efficacy provided evidence for the validity of STARTS score. Physical and passive strategies showed opposite patterns.The scale shows adequate psychometric properties for assessing the strategies used by CVD patients to regulate stress and anxiety.

Objectives:The chronic restrictions to mitigate the new SARS-CoV-2 virus may result in pandemic fatigue. This study set out to develop a short, reliable, valid, and gender-invariant instrument—the Pandemic Fatigue Scale (PFS).Methods:In the first phase, 300 students responded to a pilot questionnaire that allowed the reduction and refinement of the items. In the second phase, the validity, reliability, and invariance of the scale were explored among a sample of 596 participants.Results:Factor exploratory and confirmatory analyses confirmed a robust adjustment for the bifactorial structure that explained 79,36% of the variance. The two factors identified were 1) people’s demotivation in continuing to follow the recommended protective behaviors (neglect) and 2) people’s boredom regarding the pandemic-related information (boredom). The pattern of relations between the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and other variables—find through correlation, mediation, and path analyses—and the gender differences—find in the ANOVA analyses—provided strong evidence of the construct validity. Moreover, the PFS was shown to be invariant regarding gender in a multigroup factor confirmatory analysis.Conclusion:The instrument can be of utility for professionals and researchers to assess pandemic fatigue, a variable that can affect the adoption of protective measure to avoid catching and spreading the virus.

ObjectivesPsychological well-being and sociodemographic factors have been associated with cardiovascular health. Positive psychological well-being research is limited in the literature; as such, this study aimed to investigate how patients with cardiovascular disease could be classified according to their perceived mental and physical health, and to identify positive psychological profiles based on this classification and test their stability over time.Design and settingLongitudinal study with patients from a public hospital located in Córdoba (Spain).ParticipantsThis study comprised 379 cardiovascular patients (87.3% men) tested at three measurement points.Outcome measuresParticipants reported their sociodemographic variables (age, sex, educational level, employment and socioeconomic status) at phase 1, while their perceived health and variables relating to positive psychological well-being were tested at this and two subsequent time points (average interval time: 9 months).ResultsThe two-step cluster analysis classified participants into three groups according to their mental and physical health levels, pConclusionCardiovascular patients may differ in terms of their perceived health and, accordingly, in terms of other relevant variables. Perceived health clusters generated varying and generally stable psychological profiles based on positive psychological well-being variables. Psychological interventions should be adapted to patients’ requirements.

One of the challenges of aging is the increase of people with chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Men and women experience the disease differently. Therefore, it has an impact on how CVD is treated and its outcomes. This research analyzed the relationship between psychosocial variables and health promotion among cardiovascular patients, paying special attention to sex differences. A longitudinal study with cardiovascular patients (747 in phase 1 (122 women) and 586 in phase 2 (83 women)) was carried out. Participants were evaluated based on their sociodemographic characteristics, affective balance, regulatory negative affect self-efficacy, stress and anxiety regulation strategies, and perceived global health. Results showed that men presented significantly higher scores in positive affect, affective balance, and self-efficacy to regulate negative emotions, while women presented significantly higher scores in negative affect and the use of passive strategies to cope with stressful situations. Regression analyses showed that all psychological variables studied in phase 1 were significant predictors of health perception in phase 2. According to the results, it is necessary to include strategies to improve cardiovascular health through education and emotional regulation, with a gender focus. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PSI2014–58609-R Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PDI2019-107304RB-I00

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world’s most prevalent chronic disease and the leading chronic cause of morbidity. There are several psychosocial factors associated with quality of life during CVD. Our main objectives were to analyze the roles of conscientiousness, subjective wellbeing and self-efficacy beliefs. The sample comprised 514 patients (mean age 63.57 years) who were assessed twice over a nine-month interval. At Time 1, participants answered a questionnaire assessing conscientiousness, perceived subjective wellbeing (positive and negative affect, life satisfaction), cardiac self-efficacy and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The same variables (except for conscientiousness) were re-assessed at Time 2. Results showed that conscientiousness had a positive relation with subjective wellbeing, cardiac self-efficacy, and HRQoL at Time 1. Moreover, cardiac self-efficacy at Time 1 had a positive longitudinal effect on HRQoL at Time 2, while controlling for autoregressive effects. Mediation analyses indicated that the relationship between conscientiousness and HRQoL was mediated by positive affect and cardiac self-efficacy. These results suggest the usefulness of psychosocial interventions aimed at promoting positive affect and self-efficacy beliefs among CVD patients.

The Mediterranean diet has several beneficial impacts on health. Self-efficacy may be crucial for adhering to the diet. This study set out to develop a reliable and valid instrument that would enable measurement of the extent to which people are confident about their ability to adhere to the Mediterranean diet: the Self-Efficacy Scale for Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (SESAMeD). The study was carried out in two stages. In Stage 1, a pilot questionnaire was administrated to 170 students to reduce and refine items. In Stage 2, the validity and reliability of the scale were evaluated among a sample of 348 patients who have suffered from cardiovascular disease. After items reduction, the scale consisted of 22 items. The factor structure of SESAMeD was tested across exploratory factorial analysis and confirmatory factorial analysis, with both analyses confirming a robust adjustment for the bi-factorial structure. The two factors identified were (a) self-efficacy for the avoidance of determined unhealthy foods not recommended in the Mediterranean diet and (b) self-efficacy for the consumption of determined healthy foods recommended in this diet. The pattern of relations between the SESAMeD and the SESAMeD subscales and other different psychological variables (outcome expectancies, motivation, affective balance, and life satisfaction) supported the validity of the bi-factorial structure and provided strong evidence of construct validity. The instrument can help health professionals and researchers to assess patients' confidence of their ability to adhere to the Mediterranean diet, a psychological variable that may affect adherence to this healthy food consumption pattern.

Cancer may influence personality in patients and survivors. However, the possible relations between the treatments that the patients have undergone and the personality in survivors are not clear. This study aimed to establish the differences in personality between a group of breast cancer survivors and a control group, and to test the predictive utility of the treatments on the personality traits in survivors. Thirty breast cancer survivors and thirty participants from the general population completed the Eysenck personality questionnaire-revised (EPQ-R) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Survivors had lower scores on extraversion and higher scores on neuroticism than the control group, but these differences were not significant. However, differences in psychoticism were significant, with higher scores in the survivor group. Breast-conserving therapy predicted extraversion while breast reconstruction predicted psychoticism. These results suggest that the physical consequences of surgery may lead to social and psychological impairments in this group of patients.

Objetivo: El consumo de alcohol se ha establecido como un factor de riesgo para el desarrollo del cáncer de forma consistente a lo largo de los años. En los supervivientes al cáncer el consumo de alcohol después del tratamiento alcanza valores significativos y además el alcohol se ha asociado con aspectos relevantes de la supervivencia, como una mayor depresión y una peor calidad de vida. Sin embargo, no hay una gran variedad de intervenciones cuyo objetivo sea reducir el consumo de alcohol en este grupo de pacientes. Método: Se llevó a cabo una revisión sobre el consumo de alcohol en los pacientes y supervivientes al cáncer y las intervenciones psicológicas disponibles para reducir el consumo, en los últimos 10 años, del año 2007 al 2017. Las bases de datos consultadas fueron PubMed, Web of Science (WOS) y PsycInfo. Se utilizaron los siguientes descriptores: alcohol, cancer patients, survivors, psychological treatment. Resultados: no se observan intervenciones psicológicas diseñadas específicamente para reducir el consumo de alcohol en los supervivientes al cáncer en la literatura previa. La mayoría tienen como objetivo el aumento de las conductas de salud utilizando intervenciones de tipo psicosocial o proporcionando información sobre el alcohol. Solamente una intervención mostró resultados significativos para reducir el consumo de alcohol, en una intervención diseñada para reducir el peso en supervivientes al cáncer de mama. Conclusiones: la relevancia del consumo de alcohol en este grupo de pacientes sugiere la necesidad de que se desarrollen una mayor variedad de intervenciones psicológicas que tengan como objetivo específico la reducción del consumo de alcohol en los pacientes que han superado la enfermedad. Objective: Alcohol consumption has been established as a risk factor for cancer development consistently over the years. In cancer survivors alcohol consumption after treatment achieves significant values, and furthermore alcohol has been associated with relevant aspects of survival, such as a high depression and a lower quality of life. There is no a great variety of interventions, however, whose objective be reduce alcohol consumption in this group of patients. Method: A review of the alcohol consumption in cancer patients and survivors and the available psychological interventions to reduce consumption in the last 10 years were carried out, from 2007 to 2017. The consulted databases were PubMed, Web of Science (WOS) and PsycInfo. The following descriptors were used: alcohol, cancer patients, survivors, psychological treatment. Results: Psychological interventions specifically designed to reduce alcohol consumption in cancer survivors are not observed in previous literature. Most of them focused in enhance health behaviors using psychosocial interventions or information about alcohol. Only one intervention showed significant results to reduce alcohol consumption in an intervention designed to reduce weight in breast cancer survivors. Conclusions: the relevance of alcohol consumption in this patients group suggest the need of develop a greater variability of psychological interventions that aim to control alcohol consumption in patients who have overcome the disease.