Ambulatory blood pressure in hypertension with particular reference to the kidney

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between individual health beliefs and risk factors for coronary heart disease. DESIGN: Health beliefs indices, formed by factorial analysis of ratings of statements on health related matters in a questionnaire, were related to risk factors for coronary heart disease, assessed with physical examinations and self reports of medical history and habits. SETTING: An urban primary care district in Malm?, Sweden. SUBJECTS: A random sample of middle-aged men, invited to a health check-up. RESULTS: The participation rate was 453/705 (64%). "Perceived threat to health caused by illness" was positively related to previous information on high blood pressure, high plasma cholesterol, and/or diabetes (p = 0.01). In a model of logistic regression, adjusted for age, cohabitation, and previous medical history, health belief index on "threat to health" was related to low exercise habits (RR = 1.06, CI 1.01, 1.12). "Perceived control over illness" was related to high alcohol consumption (RR = 0.86, CI 0.75, 0.97), smoking (RR = 0.89, CI 0.79, 0.99), and high diastolic blood pressure (RR = 0.84, CI 0.75, 0.95). CONCLUSION: This cross-sectional study demonstrates relations between health beliefs, previous health-related experiences, and risk behaviour. To explore the causality of the former, longitudinal studies of changes in health beliefs after medical information are required.     

Role of health locus of control beliefs in cancer screening of elderly Hispanic women.

Examined the health locus of control beliefs of elderly Hispanic women and relation between the frequency of breast self-examination (BSE), attention to health-related information, and recency of Pap smear and physician breast examination. As hypothesized, holding a belief that health outcomes are controlled by oneself (internal control) was positively related to screening behaviors over which one has a high degree of personal control, such as frequency of BSE and attention to health-related information. Belief that medical professionals control health outcomes was positively related to physician-dependent screening activities, such as recency of Pap smear and physician breast exam. The findings confirm the specificity of association between health control beliefs and preventive behaviors and demonstrate the importance of these beliefs in medical screening by Hispanic women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and validation of the Health Locus of Control (HLC) Scale.

Describes the Health Locus of Control (HLC) Scale, an area-specific measure of expectancies regarding locus of control developed for prediction of health-related behavior. Two validation studies, one with 44 male and 44 female college students and the other with 34 overweight women, demonstrated the discriminant validity of the HLC in contrast with Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale. In Study 1, HLC internals who value health highly sought more information than other Ss. In Study 2, Ss in weight reduction programs consistent with their locus of control beliefs (as assessed by the HLC scale) were more satisfied with the programs than were "mismatched" Ss. Normative data on the HLC are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

World benevolence beliefs and well-being across the life span.

Do people's worldviews change across the life course? Beliefs in the benevolence (goodness) of the world and their relations with age and well-being were examined in a 2-year study of a nationally representative sample (N = 2,138) ranging in age from 18 to 101 years. Multilevel modeling analyses controlling for demographics, mental health history, prior experience with stressful life events, and other key beliefs indicated that benevolence beliefs were positively associated with well-being and that these associations were stronger with increasing age. Analyses also demonstrated that individuals' benevolence beliefs increased during the study, were positively associated with age, and increased with the experience of bereavement, although they declined with the experience of other negative events. Age-related worldview change may be a part of life-span adaptation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

History of the public health policy in Chad 1900-1995

Public health policy in Chad began after colonization in 1899 and remained under the control of French Army Medical Corps for a long time. Military doctors shared their time between treating service personnel and indigenous people entitled Medical Assistance and making rounds in their sector. Since independence public health in the country has been based on a two-pronged association including fixed facilities (hospitals and dispensaries) and mobile services such as the Endemic Disease Unit whose most notable success was control of sleeping sickness in the southern part of the country. Over the years Chad has built up a national medical staff comprising 150 physicians. A medical school was opened in N'Djamena in 1990 and paramedical personnel are now trained at the National School for Public Health. War and lack of funds interrupted mobile services and there is presently a recrudescence of sleeping sickness. Since 1990 the World Health Organization has imposed its views and primary care is now available for all. However, it is now too early to judge the efficacity of this program in Chad.     

Interactional aspects of self-efficacy and control in older people with leg ulcers

1. Interventions that increase the sense of self-efficacy or competence of the client may have positive health outcomes. 2. Health professional (powerful other) interaction is proposed to have beneficial effects upon health beliefs and health outcomes in the elderly with chronic disease. 3. Beliefs about the ability to perform the required behavior (self-efficacy) are associated with beliefs about a positive health outcome being contingent upon behavior performance (response efficacy).     

HIV-AIDS Patients' Evaluation of Health Information on the Internet: The Digital Divide and Vulnerability to Fraudulent Claims.

Access to health information on the Internet has revolutionized how medical patients learn about their illnesses. Valuable information can be found online; however, many health Web sites contain inaccurate or misleading information. The authors surveyed 324 adults with HIV concerning their Internet use for obtaining health information. Health information found online was then rated for quality by participants and by medical professionals. Participants were less critical of health information found online than medical professionals and made smaller distinctions between high-quality and low-quality information. Assigning credibility to low-quality information was predicted by lower incomes and educational attainment, poorer reading comprehension, lower literacy levels, and irrational health beliefs. Results suggest that patients do not always evaluate online information critically and may be vulnerable to misinformation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment style and affect regulation: Relationships with health behavior and family experiences of illness in a student sample.

Questionnaire measures of attachment style and health behavior were completed by 287 university students on 2 occasions, 10 wks apart. At Time 1, Ss also provided reports of emotionality and early family experiences of illness. Reports of early family illness showed theoretically meaningful relationships with attachment style. Symptom reporting was predicted most strongly by anxious/ambivalent attachment and negative emotionality, with the link between anxious/ambivalent attachment and symptom reporting partially mediated by negative emotionality. Visits to health professionals at Time 2 were directly related to reports of chronic illness in the family but inversely related to paternal illness and avoidant attachment, controlling for symptom reporting. The results are discussed in terms of theories of attachment and affect regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control and patient role adjustment of the elderly in acute-care hospitals.

Felton and Kahana's (1974) conclusion that patients with external locus of control beliefs were better adjusted in institutions was reexamined in a high-constraint acute-care hospital. Subjects were 105 patients aged 60–93. The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) scales were used to measure locus of control, and eight staff-rating items measured hospital adjustment. Also, the Loss of Independence subscale of the Hospital Stress Rating Scale was used to indicate perceived institutional constraint. The three MHLC scales correlated weakly with adjustment, and each contributed significantly in multiple regression. Those patients who perceived greater constraint were more poorly adjusted. Those with stronger beliefs that powerful others control health outcomes perceived less constraint in the hospital situation, whereas those with stronger internal control beliefs perceived greater constraint. Beliefs in chance were unrelated. Findings are related to concepts of primary and secondary control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health habits of health professionals

The conduct of medical professionals is an important educational point of reference for the many people who see and know them. Nurses and other medical workers are often role models in which their daily health habits may be imitated by their patients, family of friends. With this in mind a study, based on a previously published work in the United States (Health Practices of Nursing Students), was performed to determine, first, if the daily habits of nurses are indeed healthy and adequate to communicate a salubrious lifestyle; second, to see if this group considers themselves capable and responsible for changing those unsanitary habits that they do have. Results of the surveys of 125 subject nurses from the University of Navarra indicate that there is a great amount of consciousness regarding the danger of most unsanitary habits and the need to avoid them, although many of them remain firmly entrenched in their daily lives. The percentage of nurses who felt capable or responsible for changing unhealthy practices was low (67.5%).     

Health dietary practices among European students.

Predictors of 5 healthy dietary habits were examined in data from the European Health and Behaviour Survey (A. Steptoe & J. Wardle, 1996), a study of over 16,000 students from 21 European countries. The level of practice of these healthy dietary habits was low. Significant univariate associations with healthy dietary habits were identified for gender, weight, dieting status, dietary health beliefs, nutrition knowledge, and health locus of control. In multivariate analyses, only gender, dieting status, and dietary health beliefs were significant predictors of healthy dietary habits. The practical implications of these results for dietary health promotion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeking professional help: Etiology beliefs about mental illness across cultures.

In the present study, the authors examined the contributions of cultural beliefs about the etiology of mental illness to the seeking of help from mental health professionals among college students in 4 cultural groups, European Americans, Chinese Americans, Hong Kong Chinese, and Mainland Chinese. Group differences were found in help-seeking history and likelihood, with European and Chinese Americans being more likely to seek help than Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese. Multiple-group path analysis showed that lay beliefs about causes of mental illness and prior help-seeking history significantly predicted help-seeking likelihood, which was related positively to environmental/hereditary causes but negatively to social-personal causes. Our findings demonstrate the importance of understanding help-seeking patterns within specific cultural contexts and the effects of Western influences on shaping help-seeking propensities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimism and Pessimism as Predictors of Change in Health After Death or Onset of Severe Illness in Family.

The authors prospectively examined changes in health after a major life event (death or onset of severe illness in family) among 5,007 employees (mean age=44.8 years) whose optimism and pessimism levels were assessed in 1997 and major life events in 2000. Health was indicated by sickness absence days during a period covering 36 months prior to the event and 18 months after the event. Increase in sick days after the event was smaller and returned to the preevent level more quickly among highly optimistic individuals than among their counterparts with low optimism. Parallel changes were not observed in relation to pessimism. These findings suggest that optimism may reduce the risk of health problems and may be related to a faster recovery after a major life event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and sex differences in health habits and beliefs of schoolchildren.

Surveyed 1,981 boys and 1,952 girls in Grades 3–12 about health habits and beliefs, including smoking and eating habits, perceptions of exercise, weight, and parental involvement in health. Factors that emerged were smoking habits, family discussion of health, family thinking about health, nutritional habits, and health locus of control. Girls generally reported healthier food habits than did boys. However, adolescent girls reported more cigarette smoking than did adolescent boys. Also, boys consistently reported higher levels of exercise. There were also changes in habits and belief with age; trends that emerged in junior high school continued through high school. Adolescence also seems to be a transitional time for health habits, as suggested by personal experimentation and individual variation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prion protein immunohistochemical staining in the brains of monkeys with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy

BACKGROUND: Spirituality is receiving greater attention in the medical literature, especially in the family practice journals. A widely applicable instrument to assess spirituality has been lacking, however, and this has hampered research on the relationship between spirituality and health in the clinical setting. METHODS: A new instrument, called the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale, was designed to be widely applicable across religious traditions, to assess actions as well as beliefs to address key components not assessed in other available measures, and to be easily administered and scored. The instrument is a questionnaire containing 26 items in a modified Likert-type format. Following careful pretesting, the instrument was administered to 50 family practice patients and 33 family practice educators. The validity and reliability of the instrument were then evaluated. RESULTS: By several measures, instrument reliability and validity are very good, with high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .92); strong test-retest reliability (r = .92); a clear four-factor structure; and a high correlation (r = .80) with another established measure of spirituality, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. CONCLUSIONS: The Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale (SIBS) appears to have good reliability and validity. Compared with other instruments that assess spirituality, the SIBS has several theoretical advantages, including broader scope, use of terms that avoid cultural-religious bias, and assessment of both beliefs and actions. More testing is underway to further assess its usefulness.     

Health behavior, knowledge and attitudes among Swedish university students

A range of health behaviors was related to beliefs concerning health practices and health knowledge. A questionnaire dealing with health-related practices, health beliefs and knowledge of health risk factors was answered by 166 male and 179 female students aged 18-30 years at Stockholm University. Female students reported engaging in better health behavior than males. Beliefs about the importance of health behaviors were closely related to their frequency of occurrence. There was only a weak relationship between health behaviors and knowledge of specific health matters. It is concluded that health attitudes rather than health knowledge determine health behavior.     

Relation of attributional beliefs to memory strategy use in children and adolescents with mental retardation

Attributional beliefs of African American 11- and 17-year-old students with mental retardation were assessed with an open-ended interview and the Students' Perception of Control Questionnaire. Results from the questionnaire indicated that strategy ratings were intercorrelated as were capacity ratings. Yet, the constructs of strategy and capacity were differentiated by both age groups. Beliefs in the importance of internal strategies were positively related to recall and strategy use, and beliefs in the importance of external strategies were negatively related to memory strategy use and recall. Findings suggest that attributional beliefs vary among students with mental retardation and have the potential to either energize or inhibit achievement-related behavior.     

The morphological assessment of bone marrow infiltration in neuroblastoma]

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between breastfeeding intention among socioeconomically disadvantaged pregnant women and maternal demographics, previous breastfeeding experience, and social support. METHODS: A cross-sectional, convenience sampling strategy was employed for data collection. Low-income women (n = 1001) in a public hospital completed a six-page questionnaire about their infant feeding plans, demographics, and social support. Simple regression analyses were conducted to compare maternal breastfeeding intention with the hypothesized correlates. RESULTS: Breastfeeding intention was positively correlated with older maternal age, higher education, more breastfeeding experience, Hispanic ethnicity, and hearing about breastfeeding benefits from family members, the baby's father, and lactation consultants, but not from other health professionals. Health professionals' attitudes were less influential on women's infant feeding decisions than the attitudes and beliefs of members of women's social support networks. When controlling for breastfeeding experience (none vs any), some findings, varied, indicating a need for breastfeeding interventions tailored to women's level of experience. CONCLUSION: Use of peer counselors and lactation consultants, inclusion of a woman's family members in breastfeeding educational contacts, and creation of breastfeeding classes tailored to influential members of women's social support networks may improve breastfeeding rates among low-income women, especially those with no breastfeeding experience, more effectively than breastfeeding education to pregnant women that is solely conducted by health professionals.     

Relationships between the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality and health outcomes for a heterogeneous rehabilitation population.

Purpose: To determine relationships between the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS; i.e., positive/negative spirituality, forgiveness, religious practices, positive/negative congregational support) and physical and mental health (Medical Outcomes Scale-Short Form 36; SF-36) for individuals with chronic disabilities. Research Method: A cross-sectional analysis of 118 individuals evaluated in outpatient settings, including 61 with traumatic brain injury (TBI), 32 with cerebral vascular accidents (CVA), and 25 with spinal cord injury (SCI). Results: Three of 6 BMMRS factor scores (i.e., positive spiritual experience, forgiveness, negative spiritual experience) were significantly correlated with the SF-36 General Health Perception (GHP) scale, and only 1 of 6 BMMRS factor scores (i.e., negative spiritual experience) was significantly and negatively correlated with the SF-36 General Mental Health (GMH) scale. BMMRS scales did not significantly predict either physical or mental health in hierarchical multiple regressions. Conclusions: Positive spiritual experiences and willingness to forgive are related to better physical health, while negative spiritual experiences are related to worse physical and mental health for individuals with chronic disabilities. Future research using the BMMRS will benefit from using a 6-factor model that evaluates positive/negative spiritual experiences, religious practices, and positive/negative congregational support. Interventions to accentuate positive spiritual beliefs (e.g., forgiveness protocols, etc.) and reduce negative spiritual beliefs for individuals with chronic disabilities are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)