Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R A Hicks

Publications and source records attributed to R A Hicks.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

Consistency of hand use and accidents with injury.

In this study, we examined the relationship between the consistency of hand use and the self-reported incidence of accidents with injuries which required medical care in groups of university students (n = 23 for each group). To do this, we adopted a scoring procedure for the Briggs-Nebes Handedness Scale that permitted us to classify individuals as consistent or inconsistent in the use of their hands. We observed that the inconsistent group was 6.12 times more likely to have experienced accidents with injury that required medical care than the consistent group. These data have implications for the literature on handedness classification and accidents. Collectively, these limited data underscore the need to pay attention to the consistency of hand use in research on handedness, health, and longevity.

Accidents↗
PubMed1998

Cigarette smoking and bruxism.

Responses of 18 smokers and 165 nonsmokers to two items which assessed experience with symptoms of bruxism were compared. Smokers were about three times more likely to experience symptoms of bruxism but not over-all stressful experience.

Bruxism↗
PubMed1997

Ethnicity, sex and snoring.

The associations of the incidence of snoring with ethnicity and sex were measured using self-report data collected from 1098 university undergraduates. Both the relationships were significant. The unique feature of these data is that for the first time, a significant relationship between ethnicity and snoring has been reported.

California↗
PubMed1995

Understanding fatal child abuse.

Medical, social service and coroner reports were reviewed for 14 cases of fatal child abuse and neglect identified at a children's hospital from 1988-1992. Twelve cases involved physical abuse and two neglect. The median age was 6.5 months (range 24 days to 3 years). Six families (43%) had prior protective service involvement; however, four of the referrals involved a sibling. Only two of 12 physical abuse victims had a history of a prior suspicious injury. Clinical and postmortem findings are presented. The cause of death in all physically abused patients was blunt impact head injury; one also had contributing intraabdominal injuries. Ten cases were ruled due to homicide; 12 have come to legal closure resulting in nine felony convictions. These findings emphasize the role of blunt impact brain injury in fatal child abuse cases. Two findings have significant implications for prevention: (a) the paucity of injuries recognized prior to the fatal event, and (b) among families known to child protection agencies the focus was not the fatally injured child.

Battered Child Syndrome↗
PubMed1995

Stress, coping, and injuries in male and female high school basketball players.

Past research has identified a positive relationship between life-event stress and football injuries, but research in other sports has yielded more ambiguous results. It seems, then, that the relation of life stress and injury may be sport-specific and that different sports must be studied separately before such a relationship is assumed. The present investigation examined the relationships among life-event stress, coping skills, social support, and injuries of male and female high school basketball players. Contrary to the hypothesis, the number of days missed due to injury was not significantly related to life-event stress. As expected, the injury measure was negatively correlated with both the coping-skills and social-support variables, but these correlations did not reach statistical significance. Recommendations for research are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

Type A-B behavior and nightmare types among college students.

To consider the relationships among Type A-B behavior, gender, and specific types of nightmares, 780 university undergraduates were tested with Glass' version of the Jenkins Activity Survey and the Spadafora and Hunt Dream Types Survey which included the critical nightmares (fantastic nightmares, posttraumatic nightmares, and night terrors). Relative to students classified as Type B, those classified as Type A were significantly more likely to report experiencing certain types of nightmares, i.e., fantastic and posttraumatic nightmares. We also observed that women reported significantly greater frequencies of all types of nightmares than men. Possible reasons for these differences were discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Relationship of response-set differences on Beck Depression Inventory scores of undergraduate students.

The relationship of a ruminating and a distracting response style upon severity of depression and on gender were investigated. The Ways of Coping Questionnaire was modified to include ruminating and distracting scales and administered to 91 undergraduate students who also completed the Beck Depression Inventory. It was hypothesized that (a) regardless of gender, people who ruminate would have greater rated severity of depression than people who distract themselves; (b) women ruminators would show higher rated severity of depression than women distractors; and (c) female and male ruminators would show the same ratings on severity of depression. A set of t ratios was computed for mean differences between the groups. An analysis of variance for response style x gender was also done with the women and men classified as ruminators. The results conformed to the predictions for women but not for men.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

Snoring may be linked to culture.

The estimates of the incidence of snoring in adults that have been provided by four epidemiological studies vary from 16-89% of the population. Collectively, these data are completely confounded by country of origin and thus may reflect cultural differences that contribute to snoring. While the etiology of snoring is not fully known, speculation has focused on gender and age as primary factors that contribute to this behavior. Within the limitations imposed by the designs of these four studies, we compared the relative strength of the relationships between snoring and gender, age, and culture. These analyses suggest that certain variables associated with cultures appear to be more salient than both gender and age, as determinants of snoring.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Do right-handers live longer? An updated assessment of baseball player data.

In support of the argument that left-handedness is a marker for decreased survival fitness, in 1991 Coren and Halpern gave considerable weight to the results of their 1988 study in which right-handed baseball players were described as having lived about eight months longer than their left-handed peers. In their 1993 unsuccessful attempt to replicate this study, Fudin and colleagues cited certain difficulties with the sources of these data that led them to recommend a comprehensive third study which included only reliable data from the two current editions of the major sources of information on Major League baseball players, i.e., the 1993 editions of The Baseball Encyclopedia and Total Baseball. Following this suggestion, we measured the life spans of all baseball players, i.e., right-, left-, and mixed-handed players, for whom reliable data were available (N = 5441) and found that the relationship between handedness and longevity was not significant. Unlike Halpern and Coren we noted that right-handed players could be described as having lived about eight months less than their left-handed peers.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Empiric therapy of perianal lesions in a sexually abused child: medical and forensic implications.

A two-year, eight-month-old boy was diagnosed clinically with perianal warts and treated with topical 5-Fluorouracil, with subsequent resolution of the lesions. The child disclosed sexual abuse, and subsequent physical abuse was also documented. Attempts to identify the perpetrator have been hampered by the child's young age and resolution of the skin lesions. The forensic implications of this case are discussed.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMed1993

Does cigarette smoking increase sleep problems.

Cigarette smoking has been associated with delayed sleep onset and diminished sleep duration, primarily on the bases of responses to one-shot questionnaires. This study used a survey format of daily diaries to observe sleep quality. 29 smokers were matched for age, ethnicity, and gender with 29 nonsmokers. Both groups recorded information on cigarette, alcohol, caffeine consumption, daily stress, and sleep quality. While the results showed that smokers were more likely to experience poor sleep than nonsmokers, these data are difficult to interpret because smokers also used significantly greater amounts of alcohol and caffeine.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Snoring and nightmares.

To test the conclusion of a recent study that snoring and disturbing dreams are strongly associated, 199 university undergraduates responded to a questionnaire that assessed their level of snoring and the frequency with which they experienced fantastic nightmares. Contrary to data provided by this recent study, we did not find a significant relationship between snoring and disturbing dreams. Some possible reasons for the discrepancy between these data sets were considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Handedness and accidents with injury.

As evidence for the hypothesis on the claim of reduced longevity for left-handers, Coren in 1989 reported data which suggested that left-handers were 1.89 times more likely to report injuries which required medical attention. This left-handed group included both left- and mixed-handed individuals. To clarify the results of his study, we repeated in part Coren's study but defined handedness so that groups of right-, mixed-, and left-handed individuals were considered. In contrast to Coren's data, we found that right- and left-handers did not differ significantly in the frequency with which they reported having experienced accidents with injury and that mixed-handers reported being significantly more likely to have had an injury-accident than either right- or left-handers. These data underscore the need to consider mixed-handedness as a separate group in studies of this type.

Accident Proneness↗
PubMed1993

Type A-B scores and insomnia among college students: a replication and extension of earlier studies.

In an attempt to rationalize conflicting sets of data from earlier studies, groups of Type A- and Type B-classified university students were asked to respond to a sleep habits questionnaire that included the items of the Coren Insomnia Scale. As was the case in two earlier studies, we found significant but weak evidence from the Coren scale only that Type A-scoring students experience more sleep problems than Type B scorers. We also found, as in a recent study, a sharp increase in sleep problems among all the students sampled from the frequencies reported by similar groups in 1982.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Arousability and stress-related physical symptoms: a validation study of Coren's arousal predisposition scale.

Coren's Arousal Predisposition Scale was validated against 249 college students' self-ratings of stress-related physical symptoms and an item that assessed general level of health. As we predicted, the 126 high-arousability subjects were substantially higher in mean stress-related symptoms score and lower in general health than the 123 peers low in arousability. These data suggest that the Arousal Predisposition Scale may be a useful instrument in the study of human stress.

Adult↗