This study examines the illness narratives of female cancer survivors living in Southern Central Appalachia. Stories of 29 female Appalachian cancer survivors from northeastern Tennessee and southwcstmn Virginia were collected via a mixed methods approach in either a day-long story circle (n=26) or an in-depth interview (n=3), Qualitative content analysis was used to guide an inductive analysis of the tTanscript<;, What emerged was that as participants survived cancer, they also survived other health conditions, their intorsccting stories yielding an omnibus survivorship narrative.

Objective. To describe an interprofessional communication course in an academic health sciences center and to evaluate and compare interpersonal and interprofessional communication self-efficacy beliefs of medical, nursing, and pharmacy students before and after course participation, using Bandura’s self-efficacy theory as a guiding framework. Design. First-year nursing (n=36), first-year medical (n=73), and second-year pharmacy students (n=83) enrolled in an interprofessional communication skills development course voluntarily completed a 33-item survey instrument based on Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies prior to and upon completion of the course during the fall semester of 2012. Assessment. Nursing students entered the course with higher interpersonal and interprofessional communication self-efficacy beliefs compared to medical and pharmacy students. Pharmacy students, in particular, noted significant improvements in communication self-efficacy beliefs across multiple domains postcourse. Conclusion. Completion of an interprofessional communications course was associated with a positive impact on health professions students’ interpersonal and interprofessional communication self-efficacy beliefs.

In a multiphasic study, the stories of 29 female Appalachian cancer survivors were collected through either a day-long modified story circle event (n=26) or an in-depth interview (n=3). Qualitative content analysis was used to identify emergent themes in the data. The analysis revealed 5 types of family cancer communication including both pre-diagnosis and postdiagnosis cancer communication strategies

This article examines mothering rhetorics as they relate to feeding the family. The analysis is grounded in public, popular, and institutional texts about family meals and focus-group data from 31 mothers talking about their experiences and perceptions of family meals. The author demonstrates how family meal discourses work as a reproducing rhetoric that moralizes maternal feeding work. The author argues that family meal discourse is problematic because it obscures the ways in which it is mother-targeted and mother-blaming; suppresses maternal voice and misrepresents family food labor; and regulates maternal activity, and thus identity.

This presentation describes (1) the role of communication in prescription drug abuse prevention and treatment and (2) the outcomes of 5 focus groups conducted in the Appalachian Region.

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Establishing healthy eating behaviors is vital in the early years to help combat the development of obesity and other chronic diseases. Mothers play an invaluable role in shaping their children's eating habits through controlling what and when children eat as well as the overall food environment, which is why a better understanding of what influences mothers’ decisions about these behaviors is important. The purpose of the dissertation was to gain a better understanding of what impacts maternal feeding decisions regarding toddler nutrition behaviors. This was a two-phased mixed methods study. The aim of the initial study was to explore, using a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework, the influences on mothers’ toddler feeding decisions. These included attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. These constructs were derived from discussions about what sources of nutrition information mothers use and trust. The aim of the subsequent study was to use the TPB to assess factors affecting a mother’s behavioral intention to provide their toddler with a healthy diet and to see if the addition of the parental role construction variable strengthened the TPB’s ability to significantly predict the mother’s behavioral intention. The first study used a qualitative approach to gather data from three focus groups that consisted of mothers of toddlers (N = 15). Qualitative thematic analysis was used to define prominent themes. Four major themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) attitudes (subthemes: positive towards maternal role of feeding and negative towards the maternal role of feeding); (2) subjective norms positively accepted (subthemes: social media, pediatricians, and registered dietitians); (3) subjective norms negatively accepted (subthemes: pediatricians and registered dietitians); (4) perceived behavioral control (subthemes: acceptance, scarcity of time and outside influences). An online survey was created using data gathered from the focus groups and a previously validated survey that fit the theoretical basis of the study. The survey utilized the TPB to assess the connections between the constructs and the mothers’ behavioral intentions surrounding toddler feeding. The final sample consisted of 148 mothers. The mean age was 32.83 (SD = 6.16) years. The majority of participants were married (87.2%), had earned a college degree or higher (79.7%), held part-time or fulltime employment, (60.8%), and were White (90.3%). The TPB model predicted 53% of the variance in mother’s behavioral intention surrounding the behavior of providing meals that include a wide variety of the five food groups in appropriate amounts. The addition of the parental role construction variable added 6% more predictive power to the model. The most salient predictors included attitude, perceived behavioral control, and parental role construction. Mothers positively and negatively receive information from a variety of sources, they have many strong emotions associated with feeding that are deeply rooted in their roles as mothers, and their feeding decisions were strongly influenced by the TPB constructs. Health promotion efforts should aim to increase the mother’s sense of behavioral control and parental responsibility rather than focusing on the benefits of healthy eating. Programs should provide tangible ways to help mothers overcome perceived barriers and, in turn, increase mothers’ beliefs in their ability to provide toddlers with a balanced diet.

Both smoking addiction and illicit substance abuse are prevalent issues in the United States today. Furthermore, these are issues that have significant impact on women’s health and mental state. Despite research that shows that smoking cessation coupled with substance abuse recovery can decrease likelihood of relapse post-recovery, few substance abuse recovery facilities today offer smoking cessation programming options. To address the issue of smoking addiction on top of substance abuse recovery, formative research was conducted through this study to determine the underlying causes of smoking habits coupled with recovery efforts and the attitudes. Through focus group sessions with women in a residential treatment facility in the southeastern US, a determination of the specific audience’s motivations to smoke and perceived self-efficacy to quit smoking was made. Based on the findings of this formative research, a full social marketing plan was then developed to offer an intervention program option for smoking cessation among a target audience of women undergoing residential treatment for substance abuse. The study conducted and the social marketing developed from it proposes a pilot program that may be implemented in other similar settings with similar populations in the future.

The expansion of YouTube into the mainstream media and its place as the second most-used website in the world makes it a prime place for health information seeking. However, content can be created and uploaded by anyone and thus, the threat of misinformation on YouTube is high. Medical researchers have established that videos created by health professionals on YouTube promote accurate information whereas videos by non-professionals promote generally inaccurate or misleading information. Yet, videos created by non-professionals have more views and higher relevance rankings on YouTube. To begin to understand this phenomenon, a descriptive study is used to lay a foundation for this area of health communication This study focused on the ostomy community of non-professional content creators on YouTube to. The goal of this study was to thoroughly describe the innate features of the videos using media richness theory, and to describe social support and illness narrative using the framework of social presence theory. The results from the study provide deep description into this particular community of non-professional health influencers and make way for a new line of research in the communication of health information.

Female breast cancer patients are often confused, frustrated, and devastated by changes occurring in their bodies and the treatment process. Many women express frustration and concern with the inability to know what the next phases of their life will bring. Previous research also states that many women struggle to communicate with others about treatment as well as side effects. This research examined how woman are use metaphors to describe their experience with breast cancer, specifically throughout the treatment period related to body image struggles. I qualitatively conducted interviews with women who were either currently in treatment or just finishing. My interview questions related to their uncertainties, as well as the changes occurring to their bodies. After conducting the interviews I transcribed the conversations and coded for specific metaphors. The results were consistent with previous research, in that that the interviewees used at least four major metaphors to describe what they are going through. The four most prominent metaphors were (1) journey, (2) game, (3) struggle/fight, (4) grasping. The findings could benefit patients, nurses, physicians as well as family and friends to reduce stress and help with coping. The findings may also help female patients struggling with identity issues due to lumpectomies or mastectomies. Understanding how patients comprehend the disease can ultimately help others to understand and hopefully reduce some of the concerns of all those involved in such situations.