Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A J Gijsbers

Publications and source records attributed to A J Gijsbers.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Comparison of alcohol consumption patterns and social problems between women and men drink-drivers.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the sociodemographic characteristics, patterns of alcohol consumption and driving histories of women and men drink-drivers. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: All 156 women who attended the Drink-Drive Program at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, between January 1990 and December 1993, and an age-matched sample of 298 men attending in the same period. All had been disqualified from driving after a conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol. OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported weekly alcohol consumption and expenditure on alcohol at apprehension and during the program; blood alcohol level (BAL) at apprehension; demographic characteristics; number of previous drink-drive and other traffic convictions; and score on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST). RESULTS: Women had a higher educational level than men, and were more likely to be managers or professionals and to live in areas of high socioeconomic status. Women reported lower levels of weekly alcohol consumption at both apprehension (women: 15.2 standard drinks; men: 31.6 standard drinks) and during the program (women: 7.1 standard drinks; men: 12.0 standard drinks) but had similar BALs to men at apprehension (mean, 0.12% [26 mmol/L]). Sixty percent of women drank wine, or wine, beer and spirits, while 75% of men drank beer. Women had lower MAST scores than men (mean [standard deviation]: women, 5.8 [5.2]; men, 8.9 [8.2]). Women were less likely than men to have prior convictions for drink-driving or other traffic offences. CONCLUSION: Although women presented with similar blood alcohol levels to men, their drinking patterns and sociodemographic characteristics differ greatly. Health education for women drink-drivers needs to have a different strategy to that for men.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1997

The GP-hospital interface: attitudes of general practitioners to tertiary teaching hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To assess general practitioner (GP) perceptions of liaison with two local tertiary teaching hospitals. DESIGN: Questionnaire-based survey of GP attitudes. SETTING: Melbourne and North West Melbourne Divisions of General Practice, in July and September 1994. PARTICIPANTS: All GPs (587) practising in the Divisions (identified from Health Insurance Commission lists of consultations charged at GP rates). OUTCOME MEASURES: Degree of agreement on a 5-point Likert scale to statements about GP-hospital liaison, and relevant open comments. RESULTS: 350 GPs (60%) responded, including 84% of vocationally registered GPs; 68% of the 350 were in full-time practice and 70% had been in practice for over 10 years. GPs had no clear strategy for obtaining admission of semi-urgent patients to public hospitals. For patients needing urgent admission, almost a third of GPs sometimes resorted to sending them to the emergency department without first telephoning. Most GPs agreed that hospitals did not notify them of patient admission (84%), major changes in patient condition, including death (87%), and patient discharge (75%). Most would interrupt a consultation to discuss a patient with hospital staff (92%). About half agreed they had poor access to outstanding results, and 65% were concerned that proposed early-discharge practices would be detrimental to patient care. CONCLUSIONS: The survey identified considerable GP dissatisfaction with hospital-GP communication and GP willingness to be more involved in liaison and communication with hospitals about patient care. Changes in hospital organisation and hospital staff attitudes are needed to allow this.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1994

Identification of at-risk drinkers in an orthopaedic inpatient population.

The prevalence of hazardous drinking of alcohol in orthopaedic inpatients and its impact on patient management was determined. A prospective survey was performed on acute and arranged admissions in the orthopaedic wards at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, over a 3 month period. At-risk drinking was measured by the AUDIT questionnaire, a score of eight or more suggesting hazardous drinking and a score of 20 or more suggesting dependence. A separate questionnaire recorded relevant details of the admission, complications during hospital stay, degree of difficulty nursing the patient and any past history of alcohol problems. Thirty-four (36%) of 94 patients were drinking at hazardous levels. Of these, 62% gave no prior history of problems with alcohol. Thirty-four per cent of 53 acute admissions and 39% of 41 arranged admissions were harmful drinkers suggesting that trauma may not be the only contribution to problem drinking in the orthopaedic setting. Hazardous drinking occurred in both male and female groups aged less than 55 years and in males greater than 55 years. Hazardous drinking was associated with more inpatient complications (chi 2 = 6.6, d.f. = 1, P = 0.01) and greater nursing difficulty (chi 2 = 5.5, d.f. = 1, P = 0.02). A third of the patients in the orthopaedic wards drink alcohol at hazardous levels, whether they are acute or arranged admissions. Hazardous drinking is associated with more complications and greater difficulty in nursing patients.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1993

Ketorolac.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Analgesics↗
PubMed1991

Does a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or more identify accurately problem drinkers in a drink-driver population?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.15 or more identifies accurately problem drinking in an apprehended drinking driver. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analytic study of 86 drink drivers ("diagnostic test study"). SETTING: St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, drink-driver education programme. SUBJECTS: Men aged between 18-25 years, applying for relicensing after disqualification, who were participants at 10 consecutive drink-driver education courses conducted in early 1987. OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reports of the amount of alcohol consumed and the amount of money spent on alcohol per week, the standard Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) score and the blood alcohol level at apprehension. The first three measures were used as reference standards for alcohol-related problems, against which the blood alcohol level was compared. MAJOR RESULTS: Scatter plots of BAC against amount consumed, amount spent and the MAST scores showed that a large proportion of the heaviest drinkers were not identified by the BAC. Log-transformed correlation coefficients were: for amount spent v. amount consumed, r = 0.73; for MAST score v. amount consumed, r = 0.52, and for MAST score v. amount spent r = 0.53. Correlating the BAC with the log of the MAST score gave r = 0.21, BAC with log of the amount consumed, r = 0.20, and BAC with log of the amount spent, r = 0.15. Comparing a BAC of 0.15 or more with a MAST score of greater than or equal to 5, we obtained a sensitivity of 0.36, a specificity of 0.76, a positive predictive value of 0.86, and a negative predictive value of 0.23. The prevalence of heavy drinking as measured by the MAST score was 0.80. CONCLUSION: A blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or more identifies only a third of the problem drinkers in this sample of drink drivers. Although it selected a group of drinkers with alcohol-related problems, it missed most of the problem drinkers and did not reliably identify the heaviest drinkers.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

The effects of age and chronic liver disease on the elimination of temazepam.

The pharmacokinetics of the newer 1, 4 benzodiazepine temazepam were evaluated in 16 healthy subjects aged 18-92 years and in 15 cirrhotic patients, to ascertain the effect of ageing and liver disease. The data were analysed both by classic two compartment and by non-compartmental methods. The mean elimination half-life in the control subjects was 15.5 h, considerably longer than previous estimates. No correlation was found between age and pharmacokinetic parameters. The cirrhotic group showed no statistically significant difference in the pharmacokinetic parameters nor in the urinary recovery of the dose from the control group. Temazepam plasma protein binding was assessed in a second group of 9 cirrhotics of similar severity to the main group and in matched controls. When these binding data were applied to the mean clearance data, a modest although not statistically significant, reduction in free drug clearance was observed in the cirrhotic group. This study adds further support to the observation that drugs which undergo ether glucuronidation have normal elimination patterns in patients with liver disease. Temazepam may prove to be a useful hypnotic sedative in patients with liver disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Training in sigmoidoscopy. An assessment in three teaching hospitals.

To assess the standard of training in postgraduate sigmoidoscopy in Melbourne, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to resident medical officers (RMOs) in three teaching hospitals. The survey showed that practical instruction in technique is inadequate, and that most individuals perform too few sigmoidoscopies to become competent at either examining or recognizing lesions. A substantial number of RMOs had never seen common and important lesions such as polyps or colorectal cancer. Most RMOs considered their training to be poor and stated that they lacked confidence in their ability to perform sigmoidoscopy. The current training programme needs detailed reassessment and improvement.

Australia↗