Peter J. Schulz

BACKGROUND: Current health policies emphasize the need for an equitable doctor-patient relationship, and this requires a certain level of patient empowerment. However, a systematic review of the empirical evidence on how empowerment affects medication adherence-the extent to which patients follow the physician's prescription of medication intake-is still missing. The goal of this systematic review is to sum up current state-of-the-art knowledge concerning the relationship between patient empower

The present study investigated the association between chronic stress and cortisol changes during the first hour after awakening in the morning. According to results of a pilot study, it was hypothesized that chronically stressed subjects would show a more enhanced and prolonged increase of cortisol level after awakening compared to non-stressed subjects. In 100 subjects, chronic stress was assessed twice with a 1-week interval between measures and cortisol was repeatedly measured during the fir

Zusammenfassung. Angeregt durch Befunde der Streßforschung, wonach chronischer Streß und nicht akute Belastungen mit klinisch relevanten Beeinträchtigungen der Gesundheit in Zusammenhang steht, wurde das Trierer Inventar zur Erfassung von chronischem Streß (TICS) entwickelt. Der Fragebogen erfaßt sechs Aspekte von chronischem Streß: Arbeitsüberlastung, Arbeitsunzufriedenheit, soziale Belastung, Fehlen sozialer Anerkennung, Sorgen/Besorgnis und belastende Erinnerungen. Die Chronizität der Belastu

BACKGROUND: Limited Health Literacy (HL) is an obstacle to accessing and receiving optimal health care and negatively impacts patients' quality of life, thus making it an urgent issue in the health care system. Visual-based interventions are a promising strategy to improve HL through the use of visual aids and pictorial materials to explain health-related concepts. However, a comprehensive summary of the literature on the topic is still scarce. METHODS: To fill this gap, we carried out a systema

Zusammenfassung. Das Konstrukt Stressreaktivität bezieht sich auf die Disposition einer Person, Belastungen mit schnellen, intensiven und lang andauernden Stressreaktionen zu beantworten. Als Determinanten der Stressreaktivität werden ungünstige Ausprägungen von vier Personmerkmalen angenommen: hohe Besorgnisneigung, negatives Selbstkonzept eigener Fähigkeiten, hohe Erregbarkeit des ZNS und hohe Negative Affektivität. Die hier vorzustellende Stress-Reaktivitäts-Skala (SRS) erhebt neben der gener

BACKGROUND: Interpreting health information and acquiring health knowledge have become more important with the accumulation of scientific medical knowledge and ideals of patient autonomy. Health literacy and its tremendous success as a concept can be considered an admission that not all is well in the distribution of health knowledge. The internet makes health information much more easily accessible than ever, but it introduces its own problems, of which health disinformation is a major one. OBJ

The indirect paths from health literacy via information seeking and empowerment to GP consultations can be interpreted as a dynamic process and an expression of the ability to find, process, and understand relevant information when that is necessary.