Maria Caiata Zufferey

University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland · Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care (DEASS)

Simple Summary The study adapted an existing Web-based intervention, the Family Gene Toolkit, for Swiss and Korean families that harbor the genetic changes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome. The Family Gene Toolkit encourages family communication of genetic testing results and cascade genetic testing among at-risk relati...

Health promotion and primary prevention are a priority in a healthcare system characterised by a prevalence of chronic conditions. In this context, motivational interviewing (MI) as provided by family doctors (FDs) seems promising: influential health professionals motivate patients to adopt healthy lifestyles in a patient-centred style that promote...

Objectives: We compared socio-demographic characteristics, health-related variables, vaccination-related beliefs and attitudes, vaccination acceptance, and personality traits of individuals who vaccinated against COVID-19 and who did not vaccinate by December 2021. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data of 10,642 adult participants from the...

Background: Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and Lynch syndrome are associated with increased lifetime risk for common cancers. Offering cascade genetic testing to cancer-free relatives of individuals with HBOC or LS is a public health intervention for cancer prevention. Yet, little is known about the utility and value of information gained fro...

Objectives: The aim of this scoping review was to map out the existing evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on parents of children and adolescents. We sought to: 1) identify parenting domains that were particularly affected by lockdown measures, 2) describe the challenges and opportunities of lockdown measures in these domains, and 3) de...

Unlabelled: Despite the availability of clinical guidelines on the correct symptomatic management of fever in children, several studies have reported inaccurate knowledge about this symptom and inappropriate management behaviours among caregivers. There is evidence that caregivers' management of fever is largely influenced by unrealistic and unwar...

Cascade genetic testing of relatives from families with pathogenic variants associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) or Lynch syndrome (LS) has important implications for cancer prevention. We compared the characteristics of relatives from HBOC or LS families who did not have genetic testing (GT (−) group) with those who had gene...

In January 2021, the Swiss government introduced the first COVID-19 vaccines and prioritized allocation to at-risk individuals and professionals working with them. Despite this opportunity, vaccine uptake among staff employed in retirement homes and institutes for people with disabilities was suboptimal. This study aimed to capture real-time decisi...

Low uptake of genetic services among members of families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) suggests limitations of proband-mediated communication of genetic risk. This study explored how genetic information proceeds from healthcare providers to probands and from probands to relatives, from the probands’ perspectives. Using a grounded...

Background Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) is an alternative to inpatient treatment for acute psychiatric crises management. However, evidence on CRHT effectiveness is still limited. In the Canton of Ticino (Southern Switzerland), in 2016 the regional public psychiatric hospital replaced one acute ward with a CRHT. The current study was des...

BACKGROUND In healthcare research, the value of patient-reported opinions is a critical element of personalized medicine and contributes to optimal healthcare delivery. The importance of integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to extract patient-reported opinions has been gradually acknowledged over the past years. One form of NLP is...

Background In health care research, patient-reported opinions are a critical element of personalized medicine and contribute to optimal health care delivery. The importance of integrating natural language processing (NLP) methods to extract patient-reported opinions has been gradually acknowledged over the past years. One form of NLP is sentiment a...

This exploratory study illustrates the challenges and opportunities of remote qualitative research on sensitive issues. The analysis is based on the experience of fourteen researchers who have lived the digital switchover linked to the covid-19 pandemic as both a constraint and a resource. Based on exchanges in four focus groups, the participants i...

Cascade screening for Tier 1 cancer genetic conditions is a significant public health intervention because it identifies untested relatives of individuals known to carry pathogenic variants associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) and Lynch syndrome (LS). The Swiss CASCADE is a family-based, open-ended cohort, including carriers...

Examining genetic literacy in families concerned with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) helps understand how genetic information is passed on from individuals who had genetic counseling to their at-risk relatives. This cross-study comparison explored genetic literacy both at the individual and the family level using data collected from th...

Background: Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT) teams represent a community-based mental health service offering a valid alternative to hospitalization. CRHT teams have been widely implemented in various mental health systems worldwide, and their goal is to provide care for people with severe acute mental disorders who would be considered f...

Background Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) is an alternative to inpatient treatment for acute psychiatric crises management. However, evidence on CRHT effectiveness is still limited. In the Canton of Ticino (Southern Switzerland), in 2016 the regional public psychiatric hospital replaced one acute ward with a CRHT. The current study was des...

Background and aim Public health measures used to mitigate the COVID-19 epidemic may have unintended, detrimental consequences particularly on older adults, whose voices and perspectives are often silent or silenced. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of individuals aged 64 or older during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Metho...

Background In hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC), family communication of genetic test results is essential for cascade genetic screening, that is, identifying and testing blood relatives of known mutation carriers to determine whether they also carry the pathogenic variant, and to propose preventive and clinical management options. Howeve...

BACKGROUND Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT) teams represent a community-based mental health service offering a valid alternative to hospitalisation. CRHT teams have been widely implemented in various mental health systems worldwide and their goal is to take care of people with severe acute mental disorders that would be considered for ad...

Background Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT) teams represent a community-based mental health service offering a valid alternative to hospitalization. CRHT teams have been widely implemented in various mental health systems worldwide, and their goal is to provide care for people with severe acute mental disorders who would be considered fo...

I consumatori di oppioidi in trattamento sostitutivo sono una popolazione difficile da accudire in contesti tradizionali. Infermieri e OSS si trovano a confrontarsi con nuove necessità e spesso in assenza di una formazione specifica. Obiettivo dello studio è quello di conoscere la popolazione di consumatori di oppioidi che si ammalano, in Canton Ti...

BACKGROUND In hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC), family communication of genetic test results is essential for cascade genetic screening, that is, identifying and testing blood relatives of known mutation carriers to determine whether they also carry the pathogenic variant, and to propose preventive and clinical management options. Howeve...

Background In hereditary cancers, disclosure of genetic testing and communication of genetic information to family members is crucial to manage their potential cancer risk. In Switzerland, according to privacy law, genetic information can be passed on to at-risk relatives only through the individual identified with the pathogenic mutation but 20-40...

Background: An international workshop on cancer predisposition cascade genetic screening for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) and Lynch syndrome (LS) took place in Switzerland, with leading researchers and clinicians in cascade screening and hereditary cancer from different disciplines. The purpose of the workshop was to enhance the imp...

Qualitative analysis requires intuition, imagination, sensitivity, the creative linking of ideas, and a certain degree of luck. Interpreting and making sense of qualitative data have thus often been seen more as an art than a systematic activity. Because of its unstandardized character, the process of interpreting qualitative data has remained insu...

Background: Breast, colorectal, ovarian, and endometrial cancers constitute approximately 30% of newly diagnosed cancer cases in Switzerland, affecting more than 12,000 individuals annually. Hundreds of these patients are likely to carry germline pathogenic variants associated with hereditary breast ovarian cancer (HBOC) or Lynch syndrome (LS). Ge...

Aims. Asymptomatic women carrying BRCA1/2 germline mutations have an increased risk of developing breast/ovarian cancer. To minimize this risk, international guidelines recommend lifelong surveillance and preventive measures. This qualitative study explores the process of adherence of a group of women to these guidelines, with a specific focus on t...

There is strong empirical evidence that the support that chronic patients receive from their environment is fundamental for the way they cope with physical and psychological suffering. Nevertheless, in the case of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), providing the appropriate social support is still a challenge, and such support has often proven to be elusiv...

For the last 20 years, genetic tests have allowed unaffected women to determine whether they are predisposed to developing breast/ovarian cancer due to BRCA1/2 gene mutations. In the event of adverse results, women receive a specific label associated with a set of medical recommendations: the genetically at-risk status. This qualitative study adopt...

Purpose: Women carrying BRCA1/BRCA2 germ-line mutations have an increased risk of developing breast/ovarian cancer. To minimize this risk, international guidelines recommend lifelong surveillance and preventive measures. This study explores the challenges that unaffected women genetically predisposed to breast/ovarian cancer face in managing their...

For the last fifteen years, genetic tests have been available to asymptomatic individuals for identifying cancer predisposition due to gene mutations. In case of adverse results, these individuals receive a specific and enigmatic health status, which is in-between health and illness : the genetically at-risk status. This paper aims to describe how...

Abstract Acceptance is an important component of pain management, being associated with improved quality of life and lower levels of pain and depression. In enabling patients with chronic diseases to accept unpleasant consequences and to establish a new way of living, the support they receive from their social environment may play a decisive role....

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, painful disease with many injurious psychological effects. Acceptance is an important component of pain management and is associated with improved quality of life, and lower levels of pain and depression. While studies have begun to identify the stages of acceptance, little is known about factors influencing...

2 Résumé Cet article développe un regard réflexif et rétrospectif sur les procédures de découverte dans l'analyse qualitative des données. Le cadre est une étude sur la gestion du risque génétique de cancer du sein/ovaire de la part de femmes avec la prédisposition à la maladie. A partir d'exemples d'analyse, sont identifiés et explicités les raiso...

A good collaboration between health professionals is considered to have benefits for patients, healthcare staff, and organizations. Nevertheless, effective interprofessional collaboration is difficult to achieve. This is particularly true for collaboration between Medical Residents (MRs) and the immediate colleagues they interact with, as Senior Do...

This paper examines the role of an interactive website--named Oneself--on patients' chronic low back pain self-management in the Italian part of Switzerland. As part of a qualitative evaluation, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 18 Oneself users. Results confirm that the Internet may promote attitudes and behaviors...

This article examines how former drug addicts who now feel that they can safely use heroin and cocaine recreationally distinguish between problematic and non-problematic drug-taking. This is a crucial question in current Western societies. After having been linked for most of the twentieth century to deviance and illness, the concept of drug use ha...

Gitelman disease presents with musculoskeletal complaints and fatigue. Surprisingly, there is no clear-cut correlation between biochemical abnormalities and symptoms. Starting from the hypothesis that the way patients comprehend their illness within their sociocultural frameworks reflects on their way of adapting to it, this study investigated how...

This article describes the strategies used by physicians to interact with Internet-informed patients, alongside illustrating the motives underlying such strategies. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a sample of 17 physicians from primary care and medical specialist practices in the Italian part of Switzerland. The sample was diversified...

First check the Internet, then see the Doctor: How many Patients do it, and who are they? This study reports results from a survey of patients in physicians' practices in two different Swiss metropolitan areas, Berne and Lugano. The main focus of the survey was health information behavior, especially with regard to the Inter-net, and patients' use...

Recent data demonstrate that patients affected with hypokalemic salt-losing tubulopathies are prone to acute cardiac arrhythmias and rhabdomyolysis. The tendency to these potentially fatal complications is especially high if chronic hypokalemia is severe, in patients with diarrhea, vomiting or a prolonged QT interval on standard electrocardiography...

A website was designed in order to help patients with chronic lower back pain (cLBP) to cope with their condition, relying on the concept of health literacy. A sample of 748 chronic or potentially chronic LBP patients were asked to regularly visit the site for a period of 12 months. The intervention was evaluated quantitatively (both preuse and pos...

A growing number of patients search for medical information on the Internet. Understanding how they use the Internet is important, as this might impact their health, patient-practitioner roles, and general health care provision. In this article, we illustrate the motives of online health information seeking in the context of the doctor-patient rela...

This article explores people's use of the interactive sections of a patient-centred website called Oneself, specifically designed to provide information and support for enhancing the self-management of chronic low back pain. Oneself includes several synchronous and asynchronous tools to interact with health professionals and lay people. The analysi...

Many patients use the Internet to obtain health-related information. It is assumed that health-related Internet information (HRII) will change the consultation practice of physicians. This article explores the strategies, benefits and difficulties from the patients' and physicians' perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted independentl...

This paper examines from a qualitative approach the role of a patient-centered website - named "Oneself" - on patients' chronic low back pain self-management attitudes and behaviors in the Italian part of Switzerland. In-depth interviews have been conducted with a purposive and convenient sample of 18 chronic low back pain sufferers who had used On...

The threshold between illness and health has been variable throughout the centuries, but in the actual context this frontier has changed quickly and significantly. Some conditions which were once considered normal have now become pathological, while some situations which were previously considered pathological are no longer considered as such. The...

Swiss drug policy emphasises harm reduction. In this model of fight against drug abuse, the main objective is the social and professional reintegration of the drug dependent into society. As the norm of abstinence is questioned, other relationships to drugs have become acceptable, especially methadone maintenance and occasional use. In this context...

Thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Fribourg (Switzerland), 2004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-310)

The article examines the contributions of the literature on the recovery from drug addiction. It also looks at the limits of these approaches in Switzerland’s changing socio-political context in relation to drug use and addiction. The existing literature is founded on a conception of recovery as a passage from consumption to abstinence. In a contex...

To recover from drug addiction, the drug addict must go through a process of normative transformation. He has to abandon drugs as the main organizational principle of his life, to adhere to a referential structure that is in conformity with the dominant social order. However, this process of normative transformation has nowadays become more complex...

Qu'est-ce que s'en sortir ? Une première réponse, évidente, est que s'en sortir renvoie à quitter une position fragilisée, marginale, voire déviante. Derrière cette dynamique de l'abandon, toutefois, se cache une logique de l'inclusion : sortir de la marginalité signifie aussi, à l'inverse et simultanément, entrer dans la conventionnalité. L'affran...

Au cours des dernières années, le thème des consommateurs de drogues «intégrés» a plusieurs fois été l'objet de mes préoccupations scientifiques : en 1994 je me suis interrogée à propos des usagers intégrés d'héroïne et de cocaïne (Caiata, 1994) ; par la suite j'ai participé à une recherche concernant la consommation non problématique de drogues du...