Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Stress Management App Intervention For Cancer Survivors: Design, Development, And Usability Testing, Elin Børøsund, Jelena Mirkovic, Matthew M. Clark, Shawna L. Ehlers, Michael A. Andrykowski, Anne Bergland, Marianne Westeng, Lise Solberg Nes

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Background: Distress is prevalent in cancer survivors. Stress management interventions can reduce distress and improve quality of life for cancer patients, but many people with cancer are unfortunately not offered or able to attend such in-person stress management interventions.

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop an evidence-based stress management intervention for patients living with cancer that can be delivered electronically with wide reach and dissemination. This paper describes the design and development process of a technology-based stress management intervention for cancer survivors, including the exploration phase, intervention content development, iterative software development (including design, development, and formative …

Emotion Regulation And Positive Affect In The Context Of Salivary Alpha-Amylase Response To Pain In Children With Cancer, Brooke N. Jenkins, Douglas A. Granger, Ryan J. Roemer, Ariana Martinez, Tara K. Torres, Michelle A. Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Children with cancer routinely undergo painful medical procedures invoking strong physiological stress responses. Resilience to this pain may be conferred through resources such as emotion regulation strategies and positive affect.

Procedure

This study measured dispositional positive affect in children with cancer (N = 73) and randomly assigned participants to one of three emotion regulation strategy conditions (distraction, reappraisal, or reassurance). Children applied their assigned strategy during an experimental pain procedure (the cold pressor task [CPT]) and provided saliva samples before, immediately after, and 15 min after the CPT. Saliva samples were later assayed for salivary alpha amylase (sAA)—a surrogate …

Analysis Of Ptprk Polymorphisms In Association With Risk And Age At Onset Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Cancer Risk, And Cholesterol, Yang Chen, Chun Xu, Sam Harirforoosh, Xingguang Luo, Ke-Sheng Wang

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The human receptor-type protein-tyrosine phosphatase kappa (PTPRK) gene is highly expressed in human brain and is previously associated with neuropsychiatric disorders and cancer. This study investigated the association of 52 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PTPRK with the risk and age at onset (AAO) of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in 791 AD patients and 782 controls. Five SNPs (top SNP rs4895829 with p=0.0125) were associated with the risk of AD based on a multiple logistic regression (p<0.05); while 6 SNPs (top SNP rs1891150 with p=8.02×10−6) were associated with AAO by using a multiple linear regression analysis. Interestingly, rs2326681 was associated with both the risk and AAO of AD (p=4.65×10−2 and 5.18×10−3, respectively). In a replication study, the results from family-based association test - generalized estimating equation (GEE) statistics and Wilcoxon test showed that seven SNPs were associated with the risk of AD (top SNP rs11756545 with p=1.02×10−2) and 12 SNPs were associated with the AAO (top SNP rs11966128 with p=1.39×10−4), respectively. One additional sample showed that four SNPs were associated with risk of cancer (top SNP rs1339197 with p=4.1×10−3), 12 SNPs associated with LDL-cholesterol (top SNP rs4544930 with p=3.47×10−3), and 8 SNPs associated with total cholesterol (top SNP rs1012049 with p=6.09×10−3). In addition, the AD associated rs4895829 was associated with the gene expression level in the cerebellum (p=7.3×10−5). The present study is the first study providing evidence of several genetic variants within the PTPRK gene associated with the risk and AAO of AD, risk of cancer, LDL and total cholesterol levels.