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E Falkum

Publications and source records attributed to E Falkum.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Attitudes toward informing the cancer patient--a survey of Norwegian physicians.

To examine Norwegian physicians' attitudes to informing patients of a diagnosis of cancer, a random sample of 1467 were surveyed. The respondents rated their level of agreement to 14 statements, and the responses were analysed by chi-squared statistics. 990 physicians responded (67%). Only 30.5% of the responding physicians had treated more than 10 cancer patients the previous year, which included 7.8% who had treated more than 50. 40.4% had treated none. The great majority (81%) preferred full information of the diagnosis. Physicians with increasing age preferred relatives not being present and gave priority to factual information and informing patients with the same diagnosis identically. Hospital physicians (39.5%) more often preferred other health professionals being present than physicians in private practice (18%) (P < 0.001). Number of cancer patients treated was not associated with attitudes toward the disclosure of information. Norwegian physicians prefer revealing the cancer diagnosis to patients, but have divergent opinions about how to do so. Some of these indicate suboptimal information-giving.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[A study of the medical society. The response to questionnaire survey].

In 1992, the Norwegian Medical Association started a comprehensive research programme on doctors' health and welfare. More than 30 studies are planned, based on a variety of data sets and methodologies. The core of the programme is the 1993 questionnaire survey. 9,266 active doctors received comprehensive questionnaires about their health, level of living and working conditions. The response rate was 72%. The response rate was higher for females than for males, 80% as against 69%. Of the categories of doctors, specialists in private practice showed the lowest response, 50%. In the main study a "question overlap" was applied, where each doctor received four out of 16 thematically different questionnaires. One questionnaire was common to all, the three others were randomly distributed among the recipients. The purpose of this design was to increase the potential for multivariate models in the analysis. We find the 72% response rate among the active doctors satisfactory, and feel confident that we have a reliable data base for further analyses.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[The concept of health in the perspective between description and evaluation].

Discourse on the concepts of health and disease is characterized by the differences between two main perspectives: the biostatistic and the holistic. This paper describes some of these differences and aims at showing how they can illuminate the ongoing debate on criterions for deciding priorities in the health services. It is argued that the basic perspective of The Lønning Committee (a Government appointed committee to consider criterions for making priorities in the medical sector) is holistic, and that its report illustrates how a society forms its own practical and evaluative concept of health. This concept seems to be based on a complex medical, social and cultural fundament rather than on a strictly biomedical one.

Biometry↗
PubMed1992

[How are we today? On physicians' health, well-being and job satisfaction].

The authors present a review of Scandinavian and English literature on physicians' health and well-being. A simple model with three groups of effect variables (health, well-being and job satisfaction) and 16 groups of possible affect variables (gender, age, personality, family background, childhood conditions, student years, house officer period, working conditions, specialty, conditions and attitudes in society, patients, colleagues, lifestyle, living conditions, social network and family) are used as a framework for the review. Suicide mortality is higher among physicians than in other occupations. Female and young physicians seem to be most at risk of experiencing stress and psychosocial problems. There may be an inherent personality incongruence between the ideal doctor and the good spouse and parent. Having an "instrumental" specialty and working style, and not having to cope with too much professional uncertainty, seem to protect against stress and burnout. The review shows that greater consideration should be given to factors like these when carrying out a comprehensive study of physicians' health, well-being and job satisfaction. The forthcoming survey of Norwegian physicians' health, well-being and job satisfaction (Legekårsundersøkelsen) will include all the areas reviewed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Attitude to psychiatric patients. How do people look upon alcoholics, drug addicts and psychiatric patients without addictive problems?].

This study examines the public's attitudes towards the rights of alcoholics, drug addicts and psychiatric patients without addiction problems. Positive and negative statements about these patient groups were presented to 806 Norwegian employees. The public's attitudes are far more restrictive towards alcoholics and drug addicts than towards psychiatric patients without addiction problems. The attitudes towards the latter seem to to be quite tolerant, and not very different from the attitudes concerning the rights of somatic patients. While the views on alcoholics and drug addicts are stereotyped, the attitudes towards psychiatric patients without addiction problems seem to be formed more openly, not necessarily on a group basis. Attitudes of acceptance towards alcoholics and drug addicts are more prevalent among younger than among older people.

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Survey of Norwegian doctors' cultural activities.

BACKGROUND: During the past few decades the need for humanities in medical education has been increasingly emphasised. We sought to find out how doctors meet their cultural needs during their spare time, in comparison with other university graduates. We also aimed, in this Norwegian survey, to analyse differences between doctors according to various professional characteristics. METHODS: 1041 Norwegian doctors (71% of those approached) reported their cultural activities through a postal survey. Their replies were compared with those of 224 university graduates who had taken part in a similar survey by Statistics Norway in 1991. FINDINGS: The doctors spent less time than the other graduates on reading newspapers and watching television, though they were more musically active and 18% play at least one instrument regularly. No other differences were apparent. The more time doctors spent on medical reading, the more time they also devoted to non-medical reading. No systematic differences in cultural activity according to medical specialty were found, but women were more culturally active than men. INTERPRETATION: The high work-load and demands of medical practice do not limit doctors' cultural life. Spare-time cultural activities among doctors seem to be determined more by personal than by professional characteristics.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Self-criticism, dependency and depressive symptoms in a nationwide sample of Norwegian physicians.

This cross-sectional study examines the associations between dysfunctional beliefs concerning self-criticism and dependency and self-reported depressive symptoms in a nationwide representative sample of Norwegian physicians (N = 836). The dysfunctional beliefs were measured by the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and depressive symptoms by the "severe depression" subscale of the General Health Questionnaire. Women reported more depressive symptoms than men, whereas men reported more dysfunctional attitudes, especially concerning self-criticism. Both self-criticism and dependency were significantly associated with level of depressive symptoms in male doctors when age and their medical speciality were controlled, whereas no such relationship was demonstrated in female doctors, except for a bivariate association between depressive symptoms and two single indicators of dependency.

Adult↗