Biomedical subjects
C M Olson
Publications and source records attributed to C M Olson.
Impact of the Nutrition for Life program on junior high students in New York State.
School-based nutrition education represents an important component in a national strategy for health promotion. This study evaluated the impact of a school-based nutrition teaching program, Nutrition For Life, on the nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behavior of seventh and eighth grade students from New York State. Some 1,863 students in 103 randomly selected classes completed a paper and pencil test covering nutrition attitudes, behavior, and knowledge. Modest use of the teaching program (median use = 3 hours) was associated with modest but significant differences in nutrition attitude, behavior, and knowledge scores. Interactions among teacher assignment, nutrition teaching, and Nutrition For Life use explained significant variations in nutrition test scores. Additional exposure to the program was associated with significantly higher nutrition attitude and behavior scores in schools with a higher proportion of low-income students.
Women's perceptions about the way social roles promote or constrain personal nutrition care.
Research suggests that roles may affect women's health promoting behavior. This study was designed to discover, understand and develop hypotheses about the ways in which women's social roles influence their attitudes and beliefs about personal nutrition care. In-depth interviews were conducted with 36 married mothers, both employed and homemakers, at three different life stages. Interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis. These data suggest that social roles influence women's attitudes about personal nutrition care in both positive and negative ways; this influence is modified by women's changing interpretations of their family roles at different life stages. The results have important implications for the prevention of chronic disease among women.
Peer review of the biomedical literature.
Peer review is the assessment by experts of material submitted for publication. The peer reviewer serves the editor by substantiating the quality of the manuscript, and serves the author by giving constructive criticism. This system has benefits and drawbacks, including the tendency to select against novel work. Reviewers, whose work is generally unpaid, tend to be academicians who review for several journals and are authors and editors themselves. Editors often blind reviewers to authors to reduce bias, but reviewers frequently recognize the author anyhow. Blinding authors to reviewers may protect the reviewer. Manuscripts rejected by one journal because of peer review are usually published in another. Since peer review serves to validate the quality of the biomedical literature, the process should be valid itself.
Development of indicators to assess hunger.
Despite widespread concern about hunger in America, efforts to monitor and assess the extent of hunger have been hampered by lack of consensus on an appropriate meaning for the term hunger and by the lack of valid indicators to assess it. The first phase of the research used qualitative methods to derive a socially-appropriate definition of hunger. Thirty-two women in Upstate New York were interviewed regarding their experience with food problems and hunger. The interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results indicated that women had a narrow and a broad concept of hunger. The narrow concept focused on going without food for a specified period of time and the physical sensation of hunger. The broad one included two dimensions: household and individual hunger. Each had quantitative, qualitative, psychological, and social components. The second phase of the research used survey methodology to examine the validity and reliability of items designed to measure the conceptual definition of hunger. The survey was administered to 189 women in Upstate New York who participated in programs designed for low-income households or households in need of food. The second phase confirmed the conceptualization of hunger developed in the first phase. A subset of valid and reliable items that represented each of the major dimensions and components of hunger was identified as being useful for monitoring and assessing hunger.
Vision-related problems may offer clues for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
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Increased outdoor recreation, diminished ozone layer pose ultraviolet radiation threat to eye.
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In herpes or chlamydial infections, immune response may be key factor in lost vision.
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Artificial lenses under development to focus on near, as well as more distant, objects.
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Increasing use of contact lenses prompts issuing of infection-prevention guidelines.
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Health educators turn to black community's leaders, organizations, other strengths.
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If rabbits can regenerate the eye's lens, will science find a way for humans to do it?
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Childhood nutrition education in health promotion and disease prevention.
In the last 10 to 15 years, nutrition has become a major component of health promotion and chronic disease prevention. Two widely recommended strategies for incorporating nutrition education directed toward children and youth into health promotion and disease prevention efforts are school-based nutrition education and the integration of nutritional care into health care. School-based nutrition education programs targeted toward very specific eating behaviors are showing very promising results in regard to behavior and attitude change of children and adolescents. Substantial changes in health care providers' attitudes and practices and in the funding and financing of health care will be needed if nutrition education delivered in the context of routine health care is to be a major force in health promotion and disease prevention for youth.
Stabilization of patients prior to interhospital transfer.
With regionalization of specialized health care services, some patients must be transferred between hospital to receive needed care. The authors evaluated 100 transfers to their emergency department as to the adequacy of stabilization prior to transport. Problems were identified in the areas of communication (nine cases), oxygenation (two cases), cardiac monitoring (one case), intravenous lines (eight cases), airway (two cases), ventilation (one case), equipment and personnel accompanying the patient (one case), bladder catheterization (four cases), nasogastric suctioning (one case), radiographs (nine cases), and spinal immobilization (seven cases). Because more than one error occurred in some patients, the total number of patients having problems with stabilization was 28. The authors also compared the reimbursement status of transferred patients with that of the region's and emergency department's patient populations. No evidence was found that financially undesirable patients were being preferentially transferred. Thus, even when transfers are not made because of unfavorable reimbursement status, many errors in stabilization occur. A review of the literature shows that inadequacies in stabilization for transfer are widespread. This may be improved through physician education, use of transport teams, and judicious use of interhospital transport. The indications and responsibilities of transfer are discussed.
The effect of intravenous verapamil on acute migraine headache.
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Economic triage: emergency physicians should say "no".
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External cardiac pacing for out-of-hospital bradyasystolic arrest.
Cardiac pacing has been used successfully in patients with asystole or bradycardia compromising hemodynamics when it was applied soon after the onset of the event. An external cardiac pacemaker was used as part of initial resuscitative efforts for patients in primary, out-of-hospital, cardiac arrest who arrived in the emergency department in asystole, agonal rhythm, pulseless idioventricular rhythm, or bradycardia with hemodynamic compromise. A pulse was successfully generated in only one of twelve patients. That patient developed complete atrioventricular dissociation while in the emergency department. The nonresponding patients were in asystole or pulseless idioventricular rhythm when the pacemaker was applied. Pacing was initiated 1-13 minutes (mean 7 minutes) after arrival in the emergency department, but 27-90 minutes (mean 59 minutes) after arrest. The interval between arrest and application of the pacemaker was prolonged because of long periods for ambulance response, field resuscitation, and transport. It is concluded that the external cardiac pacemaker is a useful instrument for the treatment of bradyarrhythmias. While it may also be useful in the first few minutes after development of asystole, pulseless idioventricular rhythm, or agonal rhythm, it is of no benefit if applied long after the event.
Shift work.
Emergency medicine, by its nature, requires shift work. Shift work has a long history and has generated many studies and regulations. It affects physiologic rhythms, sleep patterns, health, social interaction, family life, and job performance. People of certain personality types or those having certain circadian patterns may be more suited to shift work than others. The shift worker's well-being may increase if he understands how his schedule affects him; if consumer services are made available to him at all times; and if his work is scheduled carefully.