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Improving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations: Development and evaluation of an intervention to reduce movement in scanners and facilitate scan completion

Powell R, Ahmad M, Gilbert FJ, Brian D, Johnston M

Br J Health Psychol, 2015 Sep;20(3):449-65.
PMID: 25639980 DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12132

The movement of patients in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners results in motion artefacts which impair image quality. Non-completion of scans leads to delay in diagnosis and increased costs. This study aimed to develop and evaluate an intervention to enable patients to stay still in MRI scanners (reducing motion artefacts) and to enhance scan completion. Successful scan outcome was deemed to be completing the scan with no motion artefacts.
Lay perceptions of current and future health, the causes of illness, and the nature of recovery: explaining health and illness in Malaysia

Swami V, Arteche A, Chamorro-Premuzic T, Maakip I, Stanistreet D, Furnham A

Br J Health Psychol, 2009 Sep;14(Pt 3):519-40.
PMID: 18922210 DOI: 10.1348/135910708X370781

This study examined beliefs about the causes and determinants of health, illness, and recovery in an opportunistic sample from Malaysia. In all, 371 women and 350 men completed the Health and Illness Scale, a 124-item scale that examined beliefs about current and future health, and beliefs about the causes of illness and recovery. Each of the four subscales of the Health Illness Scale were factor analysed to reveal the underlying structure. Results showed the emergence of a number of distinct factors in the case of each subscale, of which environmental, life-style, psychological, religious, and fate-related factors were fairly stable across subscales. Results also showed a number of differences in beliefs between religious groups, and that religiosity and sex were the strongest predictors of beliefs across the four subscales. The results are discussed in terms of the available cross-cultural literature on lay beliefs about health.
Social support as a comfort or an encouragement: A systematic review on the contrasting effects of social support on cardiovascular reactivity

Teoh AN, Hilmert C

Br J Health Psychol, 2018 11;23(4):1040-1065.
PMID: 30084181 DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12337

PURPOSE: The stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, 1984, Handbook of psychology and health IV: Social psychological aspects of health (pp. 253-256). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) suggests that one way social support enhances health is by attenuating cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress. Research that has tested this hypothesis has reported inconsistent findings. In this review, we systematically reviewed those findings and proposed a dual-effect model of social support and CVR as a potential explanation for the inconsistency in the literature. Specifically, we proposed that when participants are more engaged during a stressor, social support acts primarily as social comfort, attenuating CVR; and when participants are not engaged, social support acts primarily as social encouragement, elevating CVR.
METHODS: We reviewed 22 previous studies that (1) empirically manipulated social support in a stressful situation, (2) measured CVR, and (3) tested a moderator of social support effects on CVR.
RESULTS: Although a majority of studies reported a CVR-mitigating effect of social support resulting in an overall significant combined p-value, we found that there were different effects of social support on CVR when we considered high- and low-engagement contexts. That is, compared to control conditions, social support lowered CVR in more engaging situations but had no significant effect on CVR in less engaging situations.
CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a dual-effect model of social support effects on CVR may better capture the nature of social support, CVR, and health associations than the buffering hypothesis and emphasize a need to better understand the health implications of physiological reactivity in various contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? According to the stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, ), one pathway social support benefits health is through mitigating the physiological arousal caused by stress. However, previous studies that examined the effects of social support on blood pressure and heart rate changes were not consistently supporting the hypothesis. Some studies reported that social support causes elevations in cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress (Anthony & O'Brien, ; Hilmert, Christenfeld, & Kulik, ; Hilmert, Kulik, & Christenfeld, ) and others showed no effect of social support on CVR (Christian & Stoney, ; Craig & Deichert, ; Gallo, Smith, & Kircher, ). What does this study add? When participants were in more engaging conditions, social support decreased CVR relative to no support. When participants were in less engaging conditions, social support did not have a significant effect on CVR. Provide an alternative way to explain the ways social support affects cardiac health.

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