Factors related to self-rated health and life satisfaction one year after radical prostatectomy for localised prostate cancer: a cross-sectional survey.
Localised prostate cancer affects patient's quality of life in many ways. The aim of this study was to explore factors related to self-rated health and life satisfaction for patients treated for prostate cancer, and to compare the results of these generic quality-of-life measures to the prostate cancer-specific quality-of-life measure (UCLA Prostate Cancer Index), which focuses on physical functioning.
This cross-sectional survey was carried out among 183 men who underwent radical prostatectomy in 2012-2015 at a university hospital in Finland and were seen 1 year postsurgery. Approval from an ethics committee and written consents from participants were received. A questionnaire was used to evaluate patients' perceived quality of life. Logistic regression model, Spearman's correlation, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to analyse factors related to quality of life.
Of the 183 men in the study, 63% rated their health status as good, and 70% were satisfied with their lives after prostatectomy. Older age and better urinary function were the only factors that explained both better self-rated health and better satisfaction with life. The patients seemed not to interpret problems with sexual function as health-related problems. In our sample, sexual dysfunction was relatively severe, but patients considered them to be less harmful than urinary or bowel symptoms. Interestingly, 24% of the men with low sexual function did not find that dysfunction bothersome.
Objectively measured physical functioning is not necessarily in line with patients' experienced satisfaction with life and their self-ratings of health. More longitudinal and qualitative research is needed about the meanings that patients attach to physical treatment side effects and the extent to which they can adapt to them over time. With a bigger sample and longer follow-up time, it would be possible to identify men who particularly benefited from pretreatment counselling.
Despite long-term, conceptually and theoretically refined discussions, the phenomenon of ageism still remains empirically under-developed. To better understand the diversity of ageism, its contextual variations and gender-specific dynamics in people's daily lives, this study focuses on how different interactional contexts shape men's perceptions of ageism. Using data from 67 thematic personal interviews with 23 middle and working class men aged 50-70, this study contributes to the sorely lacking, empirically based and nuanced understanding of how ageism is experienced, and adds to the research on the internalization of ageism which to date has primarily focused on older women's experiences. Key findings are as follows: 1) men are not totally immune to ageism, but rather, 2) the experiences and interpretations of ageism are structured by the interactional context in question, 3) acts and expressions interpreted as discriminative in one context become defused in others, and that 4) in family contexts positive ageism represents a naturalized order of things within intergenerational relations. The study contributes to the existing body of work on age negotiations and on the ways in which chronological age as a cultural resource functions in interaction. It also underlines that adopting a gender and context sensitive approach into ageism opens up promising avenues for further conceptual development.
To conduct an intersectional analysis of relations between gender and age in the health behaviors of middle-aged men, informed by cross-national comparison between Finland and the United States.
Thematic and discourse analysis of data from interviews conducted among professional and working-class, middle-aged men in the U.S. and Finland.
Respondents report that middle age inspires them to regard many bodily changes as more than transitory; and they assume a sense of responsibility that can lead to greater self-care. Men reported using such strategies as discipline, routine, and monitoring in their attempts to forestall aging.
The men face contradictions: While they may adopt ideologies of masculinity and control and accept responsibility for influencing their health, their bodies may also present them with age-based limitations to their abilities to do so. How men respond to these changes varies by context, including their aging and these nations' different systems of health care.
