Purpose: This study examined Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer patients’ experiences with friends and cancer friends (peers) throughout their cancer journey. Research approach: Qualitative, thematic analysis. Participants: Twelve AYA diagnosed with cancer, treated within the past five years. Methodological approach: Individual semi-structured interviews, focusing on friend and peer experiences pre-/post-diagnosis, during and after treatment. Findings: Overarching themes of ‘valued’ vs. ‘challenging’ aspects with friends and peers. Interpretation: Friend and peer relationships were both valuable, but in different ways. Friends provided general support and helped AYA feel like a normal teenager, while peers provided targeted support and helped AYA feel like a normal teenager with cancer. Peers had an intimate understanding of cancer, whereas poor understanding by friends led to further challenges such as avoidance and being dismissive. Peer relations were notably challenged by a premature confrontation with mortality. Friendships evolved and changed throughout the cancer journey.

Objectives: As there is no objective test for pain, sufferers rely on language to communicate their pain experience. Pain description frequently takes the form of metaphor; however, there has been limited research in this area. This study thus sought to extend previous findings on metaphor use in specific pain subgroups to a larger, heterogeneous chronic pain sample, utilizing a systematic method of metaphor analysis. Design: Conceptual metaphor theory was utilized to explore the metaphors used by those with chronic pain via qualitative methodology. Methods: An anonymous online survey was conducted which asked for the descriptions and metaphors people use to describe their pain. Systematic metaphor analysis was used to classify and analyse the metaphors used into specific metaphor source domains. Results: Participants who reported chronic pain completed the survey ( N = 247, age 19–78, M = 43.69). Seven overarching metaphor source domains were found. These were coded as Causes of Physical Damage , Common Pain Experiences , Electricity , Insects , Rigidity , Bodily Misperception , and Death and Mortality . Conclusions: Participants utilized a wide variety of metaphors to describe their pain. The most common descriptions couched chronic pain in terms of physical damage. A better understanding of pain metaphors may have implications for improved health care communication and provide targets for clinical interventions.

HIV is a manageable chronic illness, due to advances in biomedical management. However, many people living with HIV (PLHIV) continue to experience psychosocial challenges, which have been associated with poorer quality of life (QoL). This study aimed to explore how psychosocial factors contributed to the QoL of PLHIV in Australia; specifically, the relationship between HIV-related stigma, social connectedness, mental health, and QoL. Participants were 122 PLHIV attending The Albion Centre (a tertiary HIV clinic in Sydney, Australia), who completed questionnaires which measured HIV-related stigma, social support, mental health symptomology and QoL. Results indicated that HIV-related stigma predicted poorer QoL, as did mental health symptomology. Conversely, social connectedness improved QoL. Additionally, social connectedness was found to mediate the relationship between HIV-related stigma and QoL, whereas the hypothesized moderating role of mental health symptomology on this model was not significant. These findings provide insight into the impact of psychosocial factors on QoL, offering practitioners various points of clinical intervention.