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Biomedical subjects

G L Maddox

Publications and source records attributed to G L Maddox.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The quality and quantity of social support: stroke recovery as psycho-social transition.

The impact of various types and amounts of social support is examined in the context of recovery from first stroke. We conceptualize the rehabilitation process as a psychosocial transition. In a longitudinal design, 44 patients were followed for 6 months following first stroke. Growth-curve analysis (repeated measures MANOVA) was utilized to examine the impact of three types of social support on changes in functional status during recovery. While all three types of support (emotional, instrumental and informational) were shown to be significantly related to recovery of functional capacity, substantial differences were found in the nature of those effects. The impact of social support does not appear during the first month of rehabilitation, indicating the importance of longitudinal designs and longer observation. Patients reporting high level of emotional support showed dramatic improvement despite having the lowest baseline functional status. Instrumental support is most closely related to positive outcomes when provided in moderate amounts. Unlike the other two types, the effect of informational support is mediated by disease severity.

Activities of Daily Living

Racial and social correlates of age-related changes in functioning.

Six waves of observations spanning a decade on a panel of 566 Black and 5,196 non-Black survivors were utilized to examine social and racial differences in age-related changes in functioning. An index consisting of three dimensions was used to assess functioning: physical functioning, self-care capacity, and self-rated well-being. Growth curve analysis was used to assess variations in trajectories of functional impairment across Black/non-Black, poor/nonpoor, male/female, and high-school/non-high-school graduate subpanels. Trajectories vary across social groups in the expected manner. However, we note that the trajectories are not linear and that substantial variability exists within both the Black and non-Black subpanels. Moreover, we note that Blacks report poorer functional status than non-Blacks even with income and education controlled. However, age changes do not differ across Black and non-Black subpanels, as predicted by the multiple-jeopardy hypothesis.

Activities of Daily Living

Trajectories of functional impairment in later life.

Functional impairment trajectories in late adulthood over a decade are characterized using the Longitudinal Retirement History Study (LRHS) data set. Non-linear patterns of age-related increase in impairment are documented with longitudinal data. Subsets of panelists from the initial large, nationally representative probability sample of employed males and unmarried employed females (N = 11,000) also exhibit differential non-linear trajectories of impairment by sex, income, and educational attainment. Concurrent analysis of the relationship over a decade among sex, SES, and functional impairment suggests that in health research, both sex and SES are broad proxy variables whose usefulness for understanding health outcomes and for policy analysis would be enhanced by the specification of components.

Activities of Daily Living

Subjective adaptation to loss of the work role: a longitudinal study.

Both social psychologists and social gerontologists have expressed considerable interest in adaptation to the loss of central life roles. The relationship between retirement and morale, where morale is viewed as an indicator of adaptation, is an example of research within this theoretical framework. In this study, longitudinal data for a select sample of 58 male subjects were used to examine intensively the process of adaptation to retirement. The strongest finding was evidence of high levels of adaptation in the sample as reflected in the overwhelming stability of morale over time. Multiple regression analysis indicated that social resources, particularly marital status and socioeconomic status, condition the relationship between adaptation and retirement. In summary, our analysis supports current suggestions that retirement be viewed as an event which occasions a complex social process of adaptation conditioned by a variety of resource and temporal variables.

Adaptation, Psychological