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Biomedical subjects

H Leventhal

Publications and source records attributed to H Leventhal.

80 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
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Type A assessment and interaction in the behavior pattern interview.

Speech characteristics of both an interviewer and respondents were scored from recorded interviews that were conducted to assess Type A behavior. A stepwise regression analysis indicated that the expressive speech characteristics were the best discriminators of behavior typing by the interview. A similar analysis employing the Jenkins Activity Survey as the criterion for typing showed that only the content of the respondents' answers predicted typing. The Activity Survey and the interview assessment appeared to classify individuals on independent aspects of Type A behavior. Correlations of the interviewer's speech characteristics with the respondents' feeling reports and speech characteristics show stronger associations among these variables for Type A than for Type B subjects. The analysis of speech characteristics id discussed as a method of refining the assessment of behavior type and of identifying the psychological predictors of coronary heart disease.

Coronary Disease↗
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

Use of physician services following participation in a cardiac screening program.

Cardiac screening programs are ineffective when participants with abnormal findings fail to seek treatment and, to a lesser extent, when participants with normal findings use medical facilities unnecessarily because of continuing concern about heart disease. Age, sex, measure of concern about cardiac symptoms and life stress, and abnormal test results were used to predict the use of physician services in the 3 months following screening. Abnormal test results predicted the use of physician services after screening, as did being older, and having life stress and concern about cardiac symptoms. Being older, male, and concerned about cardiac symptoms predicted having at least one abnormal test result. Participants with normal findings and high levels of concern about cardiac symptoms were as likely to see a physician after the screening as were persons with abnormal findings and low levels of concern about cardiac symptoms. Emphasizing participants' concern about symptoms of heart disease or feelings of stress failed to produce an increase in followup for persons who had abnormal screening outcomes.

Adolescent↗