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Biomedical subjects

E A Leventhal

Publications and source records attributed to E A Leventhal.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Age, symptom interpretation, and health behavior.

The role of symptom perceptions and utilization of health promoting practices in illness behavior were explored across the adult lifespan. The first study (N = 396) assessed the health practices and perceptions about illnesses in well adults (ages 20 to 89) as well as perceptions about symptoms associated with a group of six specific illnesses. The second community study (N = 614) examined how symptom qualities (symptom severity, duration, and illness label) affect attributions of symptoms to aging and coping strategies in response to the symptoms. The findings revealed that while the elderly report more frequent performance of health promoting activities, perceptions about illnesses and how to prevent them are comparable across adulthood. Symptoms used to identify illnesses are also equivalent across adulthood (and aging) except for the reduced usage of mild ambiguous symptoms in identifying illnesses by the elderly. The frequency with which mild, short-term symptoms are attributed to aging increases with age of the subjects and leads to greater acceptance of the illness symptoms and more passive coping strategies. Clinical implications and policy recommendations are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

Health practices and illness cognition in young, middle aged, and elderly adults.

The present paper examines reported frequencies of 21 health practices, beliefs that these health practices can prevent six different illnesses, and beliefs about those illnesses in a community sample of 396 people: 173 young (20 to 39 years), 111 middle-aged (40 to 59 years), and 112 elderly adults (60 to 89 years). Elderly respondents report higher frequencies of health-promoting actions (e.g., regular medical check-ups, avoidance of salt, regular sleep, and eating a balanced diet) than younger respondents. Health practices aimed at reinterpreting stress and controlling emotions (e.g., avoiding emotional stress, staying mentally alert and active) also increased with age. Belief that these 21 practices prevent specific illnesses was consistent across the three age groups. Beliefs about the six illnesses were consistent across age with three exceptions: Elderly people considered themselves more vulnerable to disease, saw it as more serious for them, and were less likely to use chronic mild symptoms, like weakness and aches, as illness warnings.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Materials management in multi-facility systems: a case study.

Although the problems of managing materials in a health care institution are formidable, these problems increase when the institution is part of a multi-facility system. There are many issues of organization, standardization, centralization (or decentralization) of authority, reporting, and monitoring faced by the multi-facility system, which are not issues relevant to the single institution. The state of New York operates a centralized supply purchasing, warehousing, and distribution system through its Office of General Services. This system serves a number of state organizations, including the focus of this report, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD), which is responsible for 20 residential facilities as well as day programs and community residences. Faced with the recognition that the cost of supplies ("commodities" in the official nomenclature) was becoming a significant and vulnerable part of the operating budget, OMRDD engaged Friesen International, Inc. to assist in analyzing and improving its commodity distribution system, with the object of holding the line on operating costs. This article describes the methods and results of the ensuing study, which began as a review of the procedures in place, and ended with on-site assistance in implementing changes at each of the component facilities. Neither HPM nor the authors suggest that any other system could, or should, proceed in exactly the same manner; however, apart from the specific information about particular commodities which can be gleaned from this report, there may be value for others in seeing how the task proceeded, and the authors' self-critical analysis of how well the employed methods worked.

Materials Management, Hospital↗
PubMed1978

Evaluation of a computer-directed pneumatic-tube system for pneumatic transport of blood specimens.

The results of sending specimens through a computerized pneumatic airtransport system and manually delivering specimens were compared for 15 chemical tests and six hematologic procedures. All specimens were collected from inpatients and outpatients into evacuated glass containers. The specimens traversed a maximum of 829 feet (253 meters) involving 16 bends and eight transfer units at 25 feet/second (7.6 meters/second). Only the activity of lactate dehydrogenase exceeded the precision of the test in pneumatically transported specimens. Ruptured erythrocytes in incompletely filled vacuum tubes were the likely source of the increased lactate dehydrogenase activity. Neither the serum sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon dioxide, total protein, albumin, calcium, glucose, creatinine, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate transaminase, acid phosphatase, uric acid, leukocyte count, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, nor the prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time were affected by pneumatic transport. It is concluded that the pneumatic system tested provides a safe, efficient method of transporting the blood specimens tested.

Blood Specimen Collection↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Seeking medical care in response to symptoms and life stress.

Analyses tested the following contrasting hypotheses: a) The occurrence of a new symptom in the presence of ongoing life stress increases the attribution of symptoms to illness and increases the use of health care; b) new symptoms occurring in the presence of ongoing life stress are attributed to stressors if they are ambiguous indicators of illness, and they are unlikely to motivate care-seeking if the stressor, i.e., the perceived cause, is of recent onset. The 43-to-92-year old subjects in this longitudinal study were less likely to seek care for the ambiguous symptoms they experienced during the previous week if there was a concurrent life stressor that began during the previous 3 weeks; these symptoms were attributed to stress rather than to illness, and subjects tolerated the emotional distress caused by the combination of a stressor and an ambiguous symptom. Subjects were less willing to tolerate the combined distress of an ambiguous symptom and a concurrent life stressor if the stressor onset was not recent; under such conditions, subjects were more likely to seek health care. Current life stressors did not affect care-seeking for symptoms that were clear signs of disease; these symptoms were readily identified as health threats in need of medical attention. The findings contribute to a better theoretical understanding of how individuals perceive their physical states and how they cope with stress. Practical implications of these findings for increasing efficient use of health care services are also discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Gender differences in processing information for making self-assessments of health.

OBJECTIVE: This study proposes that women's greater inclusiveness of various sources of information when making self-assessed health (SAH) judgments accounts for the finding that SAH is a weaker predictor of mortality in women than in men. METHODS: Data from a sample of 830 elderly residents of a retirement community and a 5-year mortality follow-up study were used to examine the bases for women's and men's reports of negative affect (NA) and judgments of SAH. The degree to which each health-related measure accounts for the SAH-mortality association in each gender group was examined. RESULTS: The findings support two possible explanations for the lower accuracy of SAH as a predictor of mortality among women: 1) In both men and women, NA is associated with poorer SAH, but in men, NA is more closely linked to serious disease in conjunction with other negative life events, whereas in women, NA reflects a wider range of factors not specific to serious disease. 2) Men's SAH judgments reflect mainly serious, life-threatening disease (eg, heart disease), whereas women's SAH judgments reflect both life-threatening and non-life-threatening disease (eg, joint diseases). CONCLUSIONS: Women's SAH judgments and NAs are based on a wider range of health-related and non-health-related factors than are men's. This difference can explain gender differences in the accuracy of SAH judgments and may be related to other documented differences in women's physical and mental health and illness behavior. The findings emphasize the need to study the bases of NA and other self-evaluations separately for women and men.

Affect↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Aging, immunity, and cancer.

BACKGROUND: The prime function of the immune system is to protect the entire organism from a variety of insults and illnesses, including the development of cancer. The question of how age-related declines in immune function contribute to an increasing incidence of malignancies continues to be a focus of discussion and speculation. METHODS: The recent literature from the National Library of Medicine database (1990 through the present) was searched for articles using the medical subject headings (MeSH terms) of aging, immunity, cancer, senescence, and apoptosis. Bibliographies of articles retrieved were also scanned. RESULTS: Data from in vitro and in vivo animal and human studies demonstrate clear age-related alterations in both the cellular and humoral components of the immune system, but there is little evidence supporting direct causal links between immune senescence and most malignancies. CONCLUSIONS: Senescent decline in immune surveillance leads to the accumulation of cellular and DNA mutations that could be a significant factor in the development of malignancy and programmed cell death or apoptosis observed in the elderly.

Aged↗