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Biomedical subjects

M W Linn

Publications and source records attributed to M W Linn.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Health beliefs, compliance, and control of diabetes mellitus.

The problem of compliance and control in the treatment of diabetic patients is widely recognized. However, compliance research is contradictory and impractical as a basis for intervention to improve the patient's adherence to his medical regimen. Health beliefs may provide an opportunity to intervene to improve compliance and control of the disease. In this study we examined the health beliefs of 93 male diabetic patients and correlated their beliefs with behavioral and physiologic measures of compliance gathered at a follow-up interview. The belief in severity of illness related to compliance. Health beliefs were better predictors of metabolic control than compliance itself. The study suggests that improving attitudes about care may be a means of directly influencing control of the disease.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1985

Geriatric sweet tooth. A problem with tricyclics.

Ninety-three consecutive outpatients receiving tricyclic antidepressants for at least one month were asked about medication side effects, including excessive appetite and craving for sweets. Prevalence of these side effects and their relationship (Pearson r) to type of medication, dosage, patient characteristics, diagnoses, weight gain, and clinical improvement were examined. More than one-third (38%) reported excessive appetite, 34% had a craving for sweets, and about one-half (48%) had either one or the other of these reactions. These adverse side effects were related significantly to weight gain (P less than .001) and a higher dose of medication, but not to clinical improvement. Clinical improvement was in the moderate-to-good range but was not related to medication dose. Because increasing degrees of overweight can pose serious health risks, especially for the elderly, it is critical for future research to examine ways of maintaining therapeutic benefit while minimizing food craving side effects. Methods of dealing with these issues clinically are suggested.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1985

Effects of unemployment on mental and physical health.

From a prospective study of the impact of stress on health in 300 men assessed every six months, men who became unemployed after entering the study were compared with an equal number, matched for age and race, who continued to work. Psychological and health data after unemployment were compared between the two groups by multivariate analysis of variance and covariance. After unemployment, symptoms of somatization, depression, and anxiety were significantly greater in the unemployed than employed. Large standard deviations on self-esteem scores in the unemployed group suggested that some men coped better than others with job-loss stress. Further analysis showed those with higher esteem had more support from family and friends than did those with low self-esteem. Furthermore, unemployed men made significantly more visits to their physicians, took more medications, and spent more days in bed sick than did employed individuals even though the number of diagnoses in the two groups were similar.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Self-evaluation of life function (self) scale: a short, comprehensive self-report of health for elderly adults.

The development of a 54-item, multidimensional, self-report scale to measure physical, emotional, and social function is described in regard to reliability, validity, and factor structure. The scale appears to measure the following dimensions: physical disability, symptoms of aging, self-esteem, social satisfaction, depression, and personal control. The scale was derived from two studies of 826 persons age 60 and older. The scale is recommended when a comprehensive, relatively short, self-report assessment is needed for screening or research purposes.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1984

Future concerns and recent life events of elderly community residents.

Fifty-eight elderly community residents completed a 37-item inventory that measured their level of concern about potentially stressful events or emotions. Afterwards, they indicated whether selected life events had actually occurred in the last six months. All data were intercorrelated to determine if there were relationships between total scores, personal characteristics, and recent life events. Results showed elderly persons in this sample to be most worried about immediate economic survival and disability. Those in poorer health who had less education, were living with their children, and had less tenure in the neighborhood evidenced greater total concern.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

Relationship between health beliefs and psychological variables in diabetic patients.

The present paper is focused on the relationship between psychological variables and health beliefs in 93 diabetic men. A Diabetes Health Belief Scale was used to assess general health motivation, treatment beneficial, severity, susceptibility, psychological barriers, cues to action, and structural elements. The psychological variables included two measures of locus of control, depression, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsiveness, anxiety, self-esteem, and attitudes toward diabetes, doctor, and medical care. Ten of the 11 psychological variables were correlated with various aspects of health beliefs. This indicates the extent to which the health beliefs are enmeshed with the psychological dynamics of the person. It would seem important to take such a psychological profile into consideration when attempting to understand and even alter the health beliefs.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1983

Impact on nursing home staff of training about death and dying.

The aim of the study was to test an educational program for nursing home personnel concerning working with dying patients. Ten community nursing homes were randomly assigned to experimental (training) or control (no training) conditions. Staff members in all homes were pretested on their anxieties about death, attitudes, knowledge, and skill in working with the dying. After training, experimental staff members (N = 296) had more fear of their own deaths and less fear of the dying of others than control subjects (N = 290). Also, trained staff had better attitudes toward caring for the dying patient and dealing with the family, as well as improved knowledge and skill. Data support the value of training, even though sessions may temporarily increase anxiety of staff members about their own deaths.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1983

Stress and immune function in diabetes mellitus.

Type I diabetic men were found to have a greater number of stresses, more perceived stress per episode, greater anxiety, poorer immune function, and less metabolic control than Type II diabetic men. Degree of family support and compliance with the medical regimen did not differ. Correlation of perceived stress with immune function and metabolic control showed that Type I had more correlates than Type II, with more perceived stress associated with more depressed immune responses.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Surgical stress in the healthy elderly.

Surgery has sometimes been studied as a stressful event. The aim here was to determine the relationship between degrees of anxiety before surgery and postoperative outcomes in healthy old and young men. Old and young men were selected if they had no illnesses or prior surgery and were scheduled for elective hernia repair. Levels of anxiety were measured preoperatively along with other physiologic, psychologic, and immunologic modalities. Operative data and follow-up data for 30 days were obtained. Old and young men did not differ significantly before surgery. When age groups were divided by preoperative anxiety and their postoperative outcomes compared, more anxiety was associated with more pain-relieving medications and more disability days in each age group. Furthermore, the old anxious had even more disability days and complications than did other groups. The study points to the need to prepare the old, even those essentially in very good health, for even a minor surgical stress in order to improve their overall health outcomes.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Liver damage, alcohol use, and diagnosis.

This study examined the degree of liver damage, reflected by standard laboratory tests, in a group of male veterans in regard to their self-reported histories and diagnosis of alcoholism. Fifty-two percent of the patients were diagnosed as alcoholic. The correlation between liver damage, judged by a physician reviewing the tests, and diagnosis of alcoholism was r =.33. Although liver damage does not develop in some alcoholics, this minimal correlation suggests the need to look for other nutritional and genetic factors that may interact with alcoholism in development of liver damage.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The effects of family disruption on adolescent males and females.

Given the rapidly increasing rate of marital dissolution, a staggering number of children are experiencing family disruption. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the possible effects of separation and divorce on the formation of adolescents' self-image. Additionally, this study sought to determine if adolescents from disrupted homes differed from those from intact homes with regard to anxiety levels, locus of control, and perception of their family. A total of 217 subjects participated in the study by completing a battery of questionnaires. Results indicated that males from disrupted homes had better self-concepts and better perceptions of their family environment than those from intact homes. The opposite results were found among females, emphasizing the difference between the sexes in adjusting to family disruption.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1982

Effects of counseling for late stage cancer patients.

Much has been written about working with the dying. Few, if any, controlled studies have examined the application of principles set forth. The authors evaluate the effectiveness of working with dying cancer patients by assessing changes in quality of life, physical functioning, and survival. One-hundred twenty men with end-stage cancer were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups; the 62 experimental group patients were seen regularly by a counselor. Patients were assessed before random assignment and at one, three, six, nine, and 12 months on quality of live and functional status. Experimental group patients improved significantly more than the control group on quality of life within three months. Functional status and survival did not differ between groups. A subsample of lung cancer patients provided cross-validation of findings. Although survival was not expected to differ, it was predicted that functioning would be enhanced if quality of life improved. One interpretation is that little can be done to alter physical function and survival when intervention occurs late in the progression of a fatal disease. This in no way reduces the value of improving overall quality of life, since enhancing the quality of survival for end-stage cancer patients is a high priority medical goal.

Counseling↗
PubMed1982

Patient symptoms and physician prescribing patterns in the elderly.

The aim was to determine if different doctors prescribed differently for older patients with the same diagnoses as patients who were younger. Five ambulatory-care physicians were selected randomly from a staff of 15. Over age 65 male patients (N = 329) were compared with 889 younger patients in regard to symptoms and medications. Patient-rated symptoms differed by age of patients but not by the five physicians. Comparison of 20 types of medications showed seven differed by patient age but none by physician. Analysis of data in an age x physician grouping, however, showed that certain physicians treated older patients differently in regard to use of digitalis, tranquilizers and pain medications. The findings suggest remarkable similarity in symptoms for older patients seen by different physicians. While use of the medications did not differ between physicians for patients as a total group, they did differ when age of the patient was taken into account. The inconsistent use of certain medications for the old without support of symptoms and diagnoses raises questions about how the old are viewed as a group by some physicians.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1982

Beliefs about causes of cancer in cancer patients.

Beliefs about causes of cancer were studied in 120 patients with late-stage cancer and compared with beliefs of non-cancer patients matched for age, sex, and hospitalization. Cancer patients consistently had less strong beliefs about causes of cancer than did the other groups, even when causes such as smoking and having pulmonary cancer were probably associated with the development of their disease. Although some correlates of beliefs were found in cancer patients' personal and social background, these were generally of minimal levels of statistical significance. Those who had been diagnosed longer believed cancer was more often inherited. The non-cancer patients' beliefs were similar to those found in a large survey of the general population. It is likely that cancer patients need to defend themselves against self-blame as a means of coping with a terminal illness.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1982

Evaluation of results of surgical procedures in the elderly.

Authorities are not in full agreement in regard to risk of surgery in the elderly. One hundred eight studies of surgery in the elderly over the past 40 years were reviewed. The purpose was not merely to tabulate results, but to identify differences existing between reports with regard to data reported that could affect results independent of the surgical management itself. Sources of variance that need to be taken into account in comparing mortality rates between studies, such as whether mortality was computed by number of patients or operations, differing lengths of follow-up for recording mortality, proportions of emergency versus elective operations, and types of surgical procedures, were documented. A nine-item confidence in results scale was used to classify studies into high and low confidence groups. Surgical specialties scored substantially higher than general surgical studies. More recent studies received higher scores than earlier studies. Although mortality rates varied widely depending on methods of their calculation, there appeared to be a trend toward increases in elective, but not emergency, mortality rates in general surgery since 1941 that should be examined more closely. One thing that cannot be answered clearly from these studies is the relative risk of surgery with age. Some control of variations between studies and standardization of reporting surgical deaths are required before risk of surgery in the elderly can be assessed more accurately.

Aged↗