Bodily Changes Research Articles

Experiences and Perceptions in Dyads about Ostomy Care. Meta-synthesis of Qualitative Studies.

To understand the experiences and perceptions of care dyads (person and caregiver) when having a permanent discharge ostomy. Meta-synthesis that followed the ENTREQ standards and was registered in PROSPERO CRD42020221755; It was developed in three phases: (i). Search for studies in academic search engines, with MeSH terms: [(Patients) AND (Ostomy)) AND (Caregivers)], including qualitative primary studies published between 2000 and 2020; (ii). Assessment of the methodological quality with the CORE-Q instrument and the credibility of qualitative findings under the guidelines of the Johanna Briggs Institute; and (iii). Comparative analysis according to the guidelines by Sandelowski and Barroso. The work identified 664 studies; in screening, 35 passed to full-text analysis; 22 to methodological quality evaluation; and 10 to meta-synthesis. The study found 43 qualitative findings that constituted four categories: dyads perform instrumental and emotional care; ambivalent family caregiving feelings and actions; assertive and effective family care; and rejection of bodily changes and sexual dysfunction. These categories constitute the central meta-theme: "The dyads experience a life rupture, which is restored in a sea of ambivalent emotions and learning; at the same time, affective, instrumental and assertive care is constructed". People who experience having a permanent discharge ostomy express their rejection to the change in bodily image, alterations in sexual life and as a couple. Caregivers and families are the main source of support by being facilitators in self-care, through relationships of mutuality and reciprocity.

Body image experience of women with breast cancer: A meta-synthesis.

Body image is a multidimensional concept that involves the mental image of the human body and the feeling of being oneself throughout existence. Treatment for breast cancer causes several bodily changes that affect women's body image. This meta-synthesis aims to synthesise and interpret primary qualitative studies on the experience of body image in women undergoing treatment for breast cancer. A qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted employing systematic searches in six databases (PubMed, CINAHL, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and LILACS). Data analysis was performed according to thematic synthesis. Forty studies were included. Five descriptive themes were identified: (1) actively saying goodbye to body image; (2) the rupture of body image; (3) the sacrifice of body image in exchange for life; (4) body image as a vehicle for social expression; and (5) resignation of the alterated body image. These themes were understood through one analytical theme: Half-woman: body image of the woman with breast cancer. The experience of body image in the context of breast cancer is a dynamic phenomenon, which involves dismissal, rupture, and resignation and occurs mediated by interpersonal contact.

Brief, structured, group art therapy for women with breast and/or gynaecological cancer

ABSTRACT Background This paper describes a structured group approach for women vulnerable to psychological distress following treatment for breast and/or gynaecological cancer. Aims Set in Hong Kong, the aim was to develop and pilot a brief art therapy intervention sensitive to local concerns and the specific needs of service-users. Methods A mixed methods study was developed and piloted in two phases over six-years in collaboration with female service-users recovering from breast and/or gynaecological cancer treatment. Key therapeutic goals and core themes were identified in phase 1 leading to the piloting of a six-session structured intervention with six groups in phase 2. This was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative methods: through service-user feedback and reflections; informal feedback captured through the art therapy process; and pre and post assessment of emotional distress (Distress Thermometer) and mental wellness (C-SWEMWBS). Results A consistent six-session structure was developed addressing four therapeutic goals: stress release and relaxation; amelioration of psychological and emotional distress; exploration of self-image; promotion of self-acceptance and awareness. Six core themes relating to loss and readjustment were established through the art therapy process. Participants experienced statistically significant reductions in psychological distress and increased mental well-being. Conclusion A new brief, structured, group art therapy approach was developed for women recovering from breast and/or gynaecological cancer treatment. Implications for practice/policy/future research The study contributes to the evidence base for the efficacy of art therapy in psycho-oncology and highlights the importance of service-user involvement in the design of a tailored, culturally sensitive, intervention responsive to local concerns. Plain-language summary This paper describes a brief art therapy group approach for women in recovery from treatment for breast and/or gynaecological cancer who are finding it difficult to adjust to changes in their bodies and the way they see themselves in the world. The aim of the project was to explore the use of a participatory approach to develop and test a brief art therapy intervention designed to meet the specific needs of such women. The project took place in Hong Kong, in a community cancer service offering support with the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis and treatment. The theme-based group model was developed in two phases over six years in collaboration with female participants, all of whom were over the age of eighteen and had received treatment for breast and/or gynaecological cancer in the previous two years. Four therapeutic goals were identified: relaxation, reduction of emotional distress; exploration of feelings about oneself in the world, and awareness and acceptance of various aspects of oneself and one’s situation. Common issues relating to feelings of loss and difficulties adjusting to bodily changes led to the further identification of six core themes. These were creatively explored through the art therapy process leading to the development of a consistent six-session structure. The themed group approach was evaluated through service-user feedback and reflections, informal feedback during the art therapy process, and established measurement tools for assessing emotional distress and mental wellness. Results suggest an overall reduction in emotional distress with improvements in mental wellbeing. This contributes to the evidence base for the efficacy of art therapy in cancer care. Positive outcomes also reflect the participants’ involvement in the design of a culturally sensitive intervention responsive to local needs.

Dignity in fragile older women receiving daily municipality care.

Background:Dignity is an important ideal in the nursing of older women who need municipal care. Dignity can be challenged when health is impaired by feeling grief and suffering associated with bodily changes and impaired functions.Aim and research questions:The study aimed to deepen the understanding of the meaning of dignity in the life of fragile older women who daily needed help from municipal care service. The research questions are: What is older women's experience of dignity, and what is it not to be met with dignity when needing service from municipality care?Research design: The study has a qualitative design, and the methodology is based on Gadamer's ontological hermeneutics. Ten women receiving municipal care, aged from 66 to 91 were interviewed in their home environments. Kvale and Brinkmanns' three levels of interpretation were applied in the analysis of the interviews: self-understanding, a critical understanding based on common sense, and theoretical understanding.Ethical considerations: The study follows the guidelines for good scientific practice according to the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data.Results: The interviews revealed fragments of the women's unique life history. Two themes emerged from the interpretation: Confirming encounters provide human dignity; and Not being confirmed as a human being violates human dignity.Conclusions:For the women, dignity is about feeling seen and understood by the individual nurse and this takes place both in conversation and in bodily care. Not being seen or confirmed gives rise to suffering. The reason for this seems to be lack of competence on the part of the staff or little continuity.

The Embodiment of Contempt: Ontario Provincial Prison Food.

Prison food is central to the prison experience and is a physically invasive manifestation of carceral power. This article draws on 61 interviews with individuals with lived experience of provincial prisons in Ontario, Canada. Participants reported that the food was unhealthy, small-portioned, bland, and steamed to the point that they could not discern what they were eating. Others reported living in fear of the food, whether because it was molding, spoiled, or had been tampered with. For many participants, their experience of incarceration was that of hunger and unwanted bodily changes. Poor quality prison food bolstered an underground food economy in which trading, gambling, or intimidation were used by prisoners to access more and/or better foods. Overall, prison food was a means through which social, political, and institutional contempt for prisoners was communicated to and embodied by prisoners.

Gender, loss, and the erosion of bodily capital: A study with women diagnosed with late stage breast cancer

ABSTRACT To learn about the gendered experience of bodily loss, this paper analyzes interviews with women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (N = 32). Across the interviews, we find that specific bodily sites – hair, breast(s), thinness – and the gender norms associated with these sites do not loosen their grip near the end of life, but rather constitute meaningful sites of loss. Interviews demonstrate that when women lose a valued physical characteristic they also feel the loss of gendered statuses associated with that aspect of the body. We theorize the resulting emotional experience as positionality grief, or sorrow over an injured sense of self and that is tied to a sense of lowered place on social hierarchies. For feminist scholars, our study links women’s complex desires with their particular forms of embodiment that delimit spaces of possibility in the social world. For Bourdieusian scholars, our study calls attention to the importance of focusing not just on the acquisition, but the loss of embodied capital in social life. The implications of these bodily changes, therefore, structure how women grapple with gender and sexuality over the course of their lives.

Acceptance and potential clinical added value of biocueing in forensic psychiatric patients with autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) are prevalent in forensic psychiatric samples. People with ASD and/or ID often experience difficulties in emotion processing which can lead to aggressive or self-harming behavior. The use of biocueing (using wearable technology to constantly monitor and provide feedback on bodily changes) shows promise for improving emotion processing and, thus, potentially reducing aggressive behavior in this population. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to examine the feasibility and acceptance of Sense-IT, a biocueing application, in a sample of forensic psychiatric patients with ASD and/or ID and their forensic psychiatric nurses. To our knowledge, the current study is the first to examine first-person experiences with biocueing in forensic psychiatric patients with ASD and/or ID. Results show that, in general, participants experienced the biocueing application as positive and are willing to use biocueing. This is an important finding since forensic patients are often unmotivated to engage with therapeutic techniques. An exploration of trends in aggression and self-harm prior to and during the use of biocueing showed no significant changes. Future research should focus on the way biocueing can be implemented in clinical practice.

The renovation of the self by the other in Iris Murdoch’s carnivalesque The Italian Girl (1964)

Bakhtin (1895-1975), who was a Russian literary critic and philosopher, has made significant contributions to the terminology of literary theory, such as dialogism, polyphony and carnavalism.He examined the works of Dostoevsky to unpack the difference between Dostoevsky’s oeuvre and the other homophonic, that is single voiced novels. In these novels, characters are set and fixed whereas Dostoevsky’s characters are unfinalizable and they are defined ‘by the word of the other, so that the plot is drawn within the interaction between the characters not by the authorial ideal. In his Rabelais and His World (1965), Bakhtin underlines two important terms, ‘carnival’ as a social institution and grotesque realism as a literary mode. Carnivalism is used to refer to the collectivity of the society, that is people forming a unity coming from different socioeconomic or racial backgrounds. Throughout a carnival, an individual is renewed by exchanging bodies through wearing masks and costumes. Here, the focus seems to be on the awareness of one’s sensual, material, bodily unity and community. By focusing on the body, Bakhtin combines the carnival with the grotesque which determines the carnival’s stress on the bodily changes through eating, evacuation and sexuality. Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), who has unpredictable plots with characters from different layers of society and undermines the ideal civilized upper-class communities, has presented her reader with the themes of morality, good and evil in her novels. The aim of this paper is to read The Italian Girl (1964) using Baktinian criticism to interpret the renewal of her characters after they have connected the characters stigmatised as ‘the Other’ in the society, like the Jewish siblings who come from Russia and the Italian Girl, the governess of the family.

Plastic Bodies: Women Workers and Emerging Body Rules in Service Work in Urban India

Drawing on the narratives of young lower-middle-class women employed in cafés, call centers, shopping malls, and offices in Delhi, India, in this paper I identify malleability or “plasticity” of the body as an important feature of contemporary service work. As neophyte service professionals, young women mold themselves to the middle-/upper-class milieu of their workplaces through clothes, makeup, and body language. Such body plasticity can be experienced as enabling: Identifying with the image of the “New Indian Woman,” young women enter the bourgeoning service economy. However, they also experience this body plasticity as threatening; bodily changes to meet the requirements of work can, at times, feel inauthentic as well as be read as promiscuous by others. I draw attention to how women appraise plastic bodies as both generative of change and a site of labor discipline, thus offering insights into the relationship among bodies, social inequalities, and contemporary service work.

The experience of lived body as expressed by people with dementia: A systematic meta-synthesis

People with dementia undergo extensive bodily changes during the course of dementia. Even though this is largely unrecognised in the literature, these changes greatly impact on the persons' experiences of living with dementia. Consequently, health care professionals and family caregivers need to be aware of the implications this has for delivering care to people with dementia. Hence, a systematic review that synthesises the knowledge on this topic is called for. This article presents a qualitative systematic meta-synthesis of interview studies with people with dementia. The theoretical framework of lifeworlds by van Manen provided the context for the study. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program criteria for qualitative studies were used to appraise the studies. Thirty-nine qualitative research studies were included in the review. The analysis followed the principles of interpretive synthesis. When exploring people's experiences of their body when living with dementia, four categories emerge: (1) My body works; (2) My body betrays me; (3) Understanding and adapting to my body's changes; and (4) My body in relation to others. Every individual has their own personal experience of living with dementia; however, if health professionals fail to regard the body as more than an object, this may lead to the person's alienation both from the relation and from the body. The lived body experience has relational aspects as people with dementia are aware that others observe them, and they also observe others. Others' behaviour may affect the person's experience of body; one can perceive oneself as approved or denounced. People with dementia describe that a body that is capable and strong gives access to the world and to participation.

SINTOMAS ANSIOSOS EM GESTANTES: análise temática

Pregnancy can be considered a unique situation in a woman's life, with many meanings, a developmental process that will lead to several organic transformations and expressive changes at the biopsychosocial and emotional level. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anxiety symptoms in pregnant women accompanied by the primary care network, in a city in the Northwest of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This is a study with qualitative, exploratory and transversal approach. The research participants were 10 pregnant women, aged between 18 and 35 years. For data collection, a semi-structured interview was used. Data analysis revealed that there are several reasons that lead women to present anxiety symptoms during pregnancy. It can be called multidimensional anxiety, as it is characterized by fears and concerns specific to that period. Anxiety symptoms were presented by all pregnant women, whether related to bodily changes, emotional imbalance, lack of family support and/or trauma. The fact that they are going through the stressor of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been an important factor for the increase in these symptoms. These, associated with fear and insecurities about the future and risk of contamination. It is suggested that all pregnant women, when starting their prenatal care, are already accompanied by a psychologist. So that they have the ideal space to bring up their feelings, expectations, fears and the anxiety experienced during this period.

What Do People Think Is an Emotion?

In emotion research, both conceptual analyses and empirical studies commonly rely on emotion reports. But what do people mean when they say that they are angry, afraid, joyful, etc.? Building on extant theories of emotion, this paper presents four new studies (including a preregistered replication) measuring the weight of cognitive evaluations, bodily changes, and action tendencies in people's use of emotion concepts. The results of these studies suggest that the presence orabsence of cognitive evaluations has the largest impact on people's emotion attributions, and bodily changes and action tendencies are considered to depend on cognitive evaluations. Implications for theories of emotion (concepts) and the interpretation of emotion reports are discussed.

Biological Rhythms- An Ayurvedic Perspective

A daily routine is essential to maintain health by bringing the fundamental changes required in body, mind, and spirit. An appropriate routine helps to establish the necessary structure for Human beings to maintain the equilibrium of Tridoshas. Biological rhythms like Circadian, Ultradian, and Infradian rhythms maintain the bodily functions regulating with an internal clock in a rhythmic way. Each Dosha exhibits diurnal variations. It also varies according to digestion phase and age. Age of the individual, Circadian rhythm and food intake are the basic factors that influence the physiology of the human body. Certain Environmental factors and bodily changes cause the Circadian rhythm to be out of sync, leading to many unhealthy conditions and are termed as Circadian rhythm disorder. A befitting routine has been described elaborately in the classical texts of Ayurveda in the form of Dinacharya, Ruucharya etc, which specifies out a daily, also as seasonal routine, for people to follow in order to enjoy optimal health and harmonious existence. The concepts mentioned in Ayurveda make us understand the best time for daily routines by keeping Doshic rhythms at an optimal level. Understanding the circadian rhythm in Ayurveda, causes for its derangement, its pathogenesis and ways to reset the circadian rhythm as mentioned in Ayurveda is needed to maintain health and to avoid present-day lifestyle disorders.

Understanding How Malaysian Women Appraise their Breast Cancer Symptoms: A Narrative Approach

INTRODUCTION: Awareness of breast cancer symptoms has made a positive impact on recognition and screening, however there is little research describing how women interpret their bodily changes. This study was conducted to explore how Malaysian women with breast cancer appraise their symptoms and how their interpretation of the symptoms had been shaped by the social norms, knowledge and previous experiences. Materials and Methods: 14 women with breast cancer were recruited using purposeful sampling. The participants took part in in-depth, one-time, face-to-face, and audio-recorded interviews. All the interviews were subsequently transcribed verbatim and analysed using structure and content of a narrative approach. Results: Women interpreted their symptoms based on the physical presentation of the symptoms, previous experiences, and societal norms and beliefs. Some women immediately understood the potential meaning of their breast changes and sought medical opinion, while others waited from one week up to until one year to observe symptoms or normalised them in terms of previous and current experiences. The use of narrative enabled these women to recapitulate particular experiences that had special meaning in order to make sense of their action. Conclusions: The way women interpreted their symptoms reflected their understanding on the significant meaning of the symptoms. Acknowledging this symptom appraisal information may assist healthcare professionals in providing appropriate information that can challenge misconceptions, myths, and negative beliefs about breast cancer to improve breast cancer awareness and early detection among the community.

White Skin and the Black Mask™

White Skin and the Black Mask™

The Sexual and Emotional Life Experiences Reported by Brazilian Men with Head and Neck Cancer at a Public University Hospital: A Qualitative Study

This study explored the sexual and emotional experiences of male patients with head and neck cancer. This study utilized a clinical-qualitative method. Twelve patients with head and neck cancer were recruited to participate in the research through in-depth semi-directed interviews with open-ended questions recorded. Data was collected at the radiotherapy of a Brazilian hospital. All patients demonstrated negative impacts on the dynamics of affective and sexual relationships caused by a serious disease. Data revealed that impacts mainly affect “The felt/lived body”, and “The affective-sexual body”. Requiring, then, an “Elaboration of the grief of the bodily and sexual changes”. Considering, evaluating and proposing care for a sexual and emotional aspects of patients with head and neck cancer is essential for the creation and implementation of comprehensive health measures, especially in terms of quality of life for patients.

(Overcoming) Maternity Bias in the Workplace: A Systematic Review

Maternity, a period of transition beginning with prenatal bodily changes and progressing through postnatal lactation, is experienced by up to 66% of working women. Over the past several decades, research on maternity in the workplace has grown exponentially to reveal salient maternity biases that plague women as they navigate their employee and motherhood identities. With the aim of providing information that aids scholars and practitioners in better understanding the experiences of working mothers, we conducted a systematic review of 239 papers on maternity bias (i.e., formal, interpersonal, and internalized). Our interdisciplinary review discusses these three forms of bias and how they might present across different career stages for working mothers. Additionally, we review the antecedents that may drive maternity bias and the outcomes that result for working mothers who perceive or anticipate bias at work. Finally, we discuss areas of previous research aimed at overcoming maternity bias from the perspective of working mothers, their colleagues, and their organization. We conclude by discussing the trends brought to light in our review, the collective strengths and weaknesses of commonly adopted theoretical perspectives of the research reviewed, implications for combating maternity bias for women and their organizations, and recommendations for future research. Our model of maternity bias comprehensively reviews past work to provide insights into the bias that working mothers endure at work but also provides a path forward, as better understanding these biases empower organizations, coworkers, and employees to remediate maternity bias.

Embodiment, tailoring, and trust are important for co-construction of meaning in physiotherapy after stroke: Aqualitative study.

Background and PurposePhysiotherapy, with an emphasis on high intensity, individually tailored, and person‐centered treatment, is an effective route for recovery after a stroke. No single approach, however, has been deemed paramount, and there is limited knowledge about the patient experience of assessment, goal‐setting, and treatment in physiotherapy. In this study, we seek to report patient experiences of I‐CoreDIST—a new physiotherapy intervention that targets recovery—and those of usual care. The purpose is to investigate how individuals with stroke experience the bodily and interactive course of physiotherapy during their recovery process.MethodsA qualitative study, nested within a randomized controlled trial, consisting of in‐depth interviews with 19 stroke survivors who received either I‐CoreDIST or usual care. Data were analyzed using systematic text condensation, and this analysis was informed by enactive theory.ResultsInteraction with the physiotherapist, which was guided by perceived bodily changes, fluctuated between being, on the one hand, formal/explicit and, on the other, tacit/implicit. The experiences of participants in the intervention group and the usual care group differed predominantly with regards to the content of therapy sessions and the means of measuring progress; divergences in levels of satisfaction with the treatment were less pronounced. The perception of positive bodily changes, as well as the tailoring of difficulty and intensity, were common and essential features in generating meaning and motivation. An embodied approach seemed to facilitate sense‐making in therapy situations. In the interaction between the participants and their physiotherapists, trust and engagement were important but also multifaceted, involving both interpersonal skills and professional expertise.ConclusionThe embodied nature of physiotherapy practice is a source for sense‐making and meaning‐construction for patients after a stroke. Trust in the physiotherapist, along with emotional support, is considered essential. Experiencing progress and individualizing approaches are decisive motivators.

Reading Your Emotions in My Physiology? Reliable Emotion Interpretations in Absence of a Robust Physiological Resonance.

Affective states are expressed in an individual’s physical appearance, ranging from facial expressions and body postures, to indicators of physiological arousal (e.g., a blush). Confirming the claimed communicative function of these markers, humans are capable of distinguishing between a variety of discrete emotion displays. In an attempt to explain the underlying mechanism, characteristic bodily changes within the observer, including physiological arousal and mimicry, have been suggested to facilitate the interpretation of an expression. The current study aims to create a holistic picture of emotion perception by (1) using three different sources of emotional information (prototypical facial expressions, bodily expressions, and subtle facial cues) and (2) measuring changes in multiple physiological signals (facial electromyography, skin conductance level, skin temperature, and pupil size). While participants clearly discriminated between perceived emotional expressions, there was no overall 1–1 correspondence with their physiological responses. Some specific but robust effects were observed. Angry facial expressions were consistently responded to with a peak in skin conductance level. Furthermore, sad body expressions were associated with a drop in skin temperature. In addition to being the best recognized expression, viewing happy faces elicited congruent facial muscle responses, which supports the potential role of embodied simulation in emotion recognition. Lastly, tears were not only rated as highly emotional intense but also evoked a peak in skin conductance level in the observer. The absence of distinct physiological responses to other expressions could be explained by the lacking functionality of affect sharing in a non-interactive experimental context. Consequentially, emotional alignment in body and mind might especially take place in real social situations, which should be considered in future research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00083-5.

Trait Body Shame Predicts Menstrual-Related Symptoms: Evidence for Extending the Menstrual Reactivity Hypothesis

Reports of menstrual-related symptoms vary greatly among individuals, suggesting that individual differences may influence symptom reports. The menstrual reactivity hypothesis describes how the personality trait anxiety sensitivity may heighten women’s negative perceptions of symptoms that accompany menstruation. Similarly, trait body shame may increase negative focus on menstrual-related symptoms, thus increasing menstrual-related symptom reports. Moreover, this relationship may be explained by distress about bodily changes. These ideas were tested cross-sectionally in undergraduate women (N = 126). Trait body shame predicted increased menstrual-related symptoms regardless of menstrual cycle phase, and distress about bodily changes mediated this relationship. Findings support the extension of the menstrual reactivity hypothesis to include trait body shame.