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Background: Emerging evidence suggests that people with arthritis are reporting increased physical pain and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, Twitter's daily usage has surged by 23% throughout the pandemic period, presenting a unique opportunity to assess the content and sentiment of tweets. Individuals with arthritis use Twitter to communicate with peers, and to receive up-to-date information from health professionals and services about novel therapies and management techniques. Objective: The aim of this research was to identify proxy topics of importance for individuals with arthritis during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the emotional context of tweets by people with arthritis during the early phase of the pandemic. Methods: From March 20 to April 20, 2020, publicly available tweets posted in English and with hashtag combinations related to arthritis and COVID-19 were extracted retrospectively from Twitter. Content analysis was used to identify common themes within tweets, and sentiment analysis was used to examine positive and negative emotions in themes to understand the COVID-19 experiences of people with arthritis. Results: In total, 149 tweets were analyzed. The majority of tweeters were female and were from the United States. Tweeters reported a range of arthritis conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and psoriatic arthritis. Seven themes were identified: health care experiences, personal stories, links to relevant blogs, discussion of arthritis-related symptoms, advice sharing, messages of positivity, and stay-at-home messaging. Sentiment analysis demonstrated marked anxiety around medication shortages, increased physical symptom burden, and strong desire for trustworthy information and emotional connection. Conclusions: Tweets by people with arthritis highlight the multitude of concurrent concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding these concerns, which include heightened physical and psychological symptoms in the context of treatment misinformation, may assist clinicians to provide person-centered care during this time of great health uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cancer diagnosis can have significant financial impacts for patients, often resulting from unexpected out-of-pocket expenses and a reduced capacity to work. These financial implications have been well characterised quantitatively in common cancers. However, less is known about the lived experience of financial stress, particularly outside the United States and in rarer cancers. This study aimed to explore the perceived financial impact of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)-a rare haematological malignancy where patients may be particularly vulnerable to financial stress due to the lengthy, specialised and centralised care. The findings provide insight into the patients' lived experience of the personal financial impact of the disease. This Australian qualitative study was undertaken with 11 adults in remission from AML and recruited from their treating hospital. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed, and data were managed using NVivo. Themes were identified through inductive and deductive analysis using open, axial and thematic coding. Four themes were identified: burden of AML-attributable costs (e.g. out-of-pocket parking and medication expenses); accommodating the AML-impact on paid work (e.g. early retirement and modifying job tasks); the consequence of financial strain from AML (e.g. using savings and accessing Government welfare) and concerns about the future and future familial financial burden (e.g. securing finances and worry about depleting financial resources). A reduction in or stopping work was perceived as the most burdensome to their current and future finances. The findings demonstrate people with AML experience financial difficulty even within a publically funded healthcare system. Opportunities exist for health services to alleviate some financial burden through reducing or abolishing parking fees for oncology patients and ensuring adequate access to social workers to facilitate access to Government welfare. Improving patients' financial difficulties contributes to improved quality of life, which is congruent to cancer survivorship., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a common cardiac procedure used to treat obstructive coronary artery disease. Patient-centred care is a priority in cardiovascular health having been shown to increase patient satisfaction, engagement with rehabilitation activities and reduce anxiety. Evidence indicates that patient-centred care is best achieved by routine collection of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). However, existing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have limited the patient involvement in their development., Aims: To identify and explore outcomes, patients perceive as important following PCI., Methods: A qualitative design was adopted. Eight focus groups and five semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 patients who had undergone PCI in the previous 6 months. Outcomes were identified and mapped under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) patient-reported outcome (PROs) domains of feeling (physical and psychological outcomes), function and evaluation. Inductive and deductive analysis methods were used with open, axial and thematic coding., Results: Consistent with prior studies, patients identified feeling and function outcomes such as reductions in physical and psychological symptoms and the ability to perform usual activities as important. Participants also identified a range of new outcomes, including confidence to return to usual activities and evaluation domains such as adverse effects of medications and the importance of patient communication., Conclusion: The findings of this research should be considered in the design of a cardiac PROM for PCI patients. A PROM which adequately assesses these outcomes can provide clinicians and hospital staff with a foundation in which to address these concerns or symptoms., (© 2017 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)