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Biomedical subjects

D F Duncan

Publications and source records attributed to D F Duncan.

61 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
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Reflections: health promotion--what is it?

The term health promotion has gained wide popularity in recent years. This widespread usage has been accompanied by a wide diversity of definitions. Some of this diversity may be seen in the articles which made up this theme issue on health promotion. In many cases health promotion seems to have become an all-inclusive umbrella term under which any health service may find coverage. Health services have become health promotion services; outpatient clinics have become health-promotion centers. In these cases, "health promotion" has become a fad or a gimmick--as meaningless as labelling certain cereals and other foods as "natural." Others use health promotion as an umbrella term but of more limited scope. Perhaps the most popular of these is Green's definition of health promotion as, "any combination of educational, organizational, economic and environmental supports for behavior conducive to health." Much that is to be found in this theme issue derives from this conceptualization of health promotion as all of the means by which healthy behavior may be encouraged.

Health Promotion↗
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Physical abuse of children as a public health problem.

This review of the physical abuse of children by their parents or other adults is an attempt to present the epidemiological data on this subject in terms of a model which will facilitate public health intervention. Child abuse is a public health problem of sizable proportions in many nations. Studies of the problem have been largely concentrated in the United States, but the problem has also been of concern in many other nations throughout the world. Epidemiological findings are summarized, and a number of the major sociological and psychiatric theories of child abuse are discussed. A model of child abuse is proposed in the traditional public health terms of host, agent, vector, and environment.

Child↗
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The Peckham experiment: a pioneering exploration of wellness.

The Peckham Experiment, under the direction of Williamson and Pearse, was an attempt to study health rather than disease. This study was conducted through the mechanism of the Pioneer Health Centre which provided recreational opportunities and annual physical examinations to a large membership of apparently healthy individuals. In many ways, both the wellness movement and the family practice movement were foreshadowed by their family-centered approach and their finding that most of the apparently well individuals actually suffered from some detectable disorder.

Community Health Centers↗
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Life crisis as a precursor to child abuse.

A number of theories have been proposed on the causation of child abuse, and many of these theories assign some role to stress. Stress is variously conceptualized as a continuous state resulting from poverty, poor housing, and the like, or as an immediate crisis such as an argument or the breakdown of an appliance. An alternate perspective on stress identifies it with life change events which require readjustment in the lifestyle of a person. When an excessive number or magnitude of such life change events occur, the person affected may be said to be in a state of life crisis. Such states of life crisis have been found to be associated with the onset of physical illness and with the occurrence of accidents and injuries. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to 35 abusing parents and 35 matched controls who had experienced problems with their children but had not been abusive. The two groups were compared for their life change scores on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale for the year before their abuse or problems began with their children. The mean score of the nonabusers was 124, which does not indicate a life crisis. For the abusers, the mean score was 234, which indicates a moderate life crisis. These means are significantly different at the .001 level by the t test. The role of symbiosis, an emotiontional attachment in which a person seeks to be taken care of by another person, was also explored. It is argued that abusive parents are competing with each other and with their children for the role of being cared for. This kind of behavior seems to make the person particularly vulnerable to life changes, which in turn produce stress. Support for this view was found in the responses to the questionnaire. Prevention strategies aimed at reducing change and stress might include better provision of crisis-intervention services, measures aimed at reducing unemployment or lack of opportunity, effective health maintenance services, and greater provision of counseling and mental health services. Use of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale in a preventive program of early intervention is also possible.

Child↗