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Biomedical subjects

J Deady

Publications and source records attributed to J Deady.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Parents' knowledge of and attitude towards the primary childhood immunisations.

Parental knowledge of immunisation is essential to assist public health initiatives to increase the uptake rates. A cross-sectional survey design was employed to ascertain the knowledge and attitude of the primary childhood immunisations in randomly selected parents in a deprived inner-city area; 82% of 93 responded. Parents' reported uptake of immunisation was compared with general practitioner and official health board records. Respondents with a low standard of education (70% of respondents without a Leaving Certificate versus 44% with the Leaving Certificate p=0.06) and parenting alone (69% versus 49% of two-parent families p=0.07) were less aware of the severity of the diseases. Older parents (58%) questioned immunisation safety more than younger parents (28%), p=0.06. Full immunisation was reported by 91% of parents compared to 81% from the general practitioners records and 70% from health board figures. The poor correlation between parents' reported immunisation uptake and official immunisation sources could be improved through the use of personal identification numbers.

Adolescent↗

Prediction of visual function behind cataract using displacement threshold hyperacuity.

Visual acuity and displacement threshold hyperacuity were measured in a group of patients awaiting cataract extraction, and this was repeated several weeks subsequent to surgery. In addition, measurements were made on a group of patients with various ocular pathologies but without the presence of cataract. Displacement thresholds in the cataract group increased only slightly with the severity of the opacity. On the other hand, displacement thresholds for the pathology group showed a marked dependence upon visual acuity--the worse the acuity, the higher the threshold. This results in a clear distinction between vision loss due to optical factors (cataract) and retinal/neural factors. There was a good correlation between pre- and post-operative displacement thresholds in the cataract group, with post-operative thresholds being slightly better than pre-operative thresholds. The results suggest that this technique may offer patients a good indication of the likely quality of vision achieved following cataract extraction.

Aged↗