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Purpose: To determine the extent to which personal characteristics and "person factors" predict symptom distress during the first cycle of chemotherapy., Design: Prospective, longitudinal, correlational., Sample and Setting: 120 women with Stage I and II breast cancer starting their first cycle of chemotherapy were recruited from six diverse oncology settings., Methods: Self-report questionnaires were completed prior to the beginning, the nadir, and the end of the first chemotherapy cycles., Main Research Variables: Personal characteristics, "person factors", and symptom distress., Findings: Optimism and external locus of control predicted low symptom distress levels at the both the nadir and at the end of the first cycle. Fatigue, appearance, and insomnia caused the greatest distress with higher symptom distress scores reported at the nadir with a mean item score of 1.98 on a five-point Likert scale., Conclusions: Women who maintained a positive outlook, and trusted their health care providers experienced lower levels of symptom distress. Findings suggest that most women experienced some symptom distress, particularly during the middle of the first cycle of chemotherapy.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether self-reported height or arm span is the more accurate alternative measure of height. A sample of 409 people between the ages of 19 and 67 (M = 35.0) participated in this anthropometric study. Height, self-reported height, and arm span were measured by 82 nursing research students. Mean differences from criterion measures were 0.17 cm for the measuring rules, 0.47 cm for arm span, and 0.85 cm and 0.87 cm for heights. Test-retest reliability was r = .997 for both height and arm span. The relationships of height to self-reported height and arm span were r = .97 and .90, respectively. Mean absolute differences were 1.80 cm and 4.29 cm, respectively. These findings support the practice of using self-reported height as an alternative measure of measured height in clinical settings, but arm span is an accurate alternative when neither measured height nor self-reported height is obtainable.

Several researchers have claimed that a connection exists between deathdays and birthdays or other special occasions. Some people, especially women, appear to postpone death until after their birthdays or other special occasions to celebrate these events one more time. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine if a deathday-birthday or deathday-Christmas connection was evident in cancer-related deaths. Data were obtained from the Rochester (New York) Regional Tumor Registry (N = 2566), the New York State Cancer Registry (N = 50,562), and the Ohio State Department of Health (N = 73,907) for three samples of individuals who died from cancer. Only a few deathday-birthday connections were evident. However, these connections were not replicated across states and years.