Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R R West

Publications and source records attributed to R R West.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

Regional variations in need for and provision and use of child health services in England and Wales.

An analysis of indicators of the need for and provision and use of child health services in the 15 pre- 1974 hospital board regions in England and Wales showed that need and provisions were badly matched. There was a high degree of correlation between the indices within each of the three groups, indicating that a region with a small provision in one area of child health services would tend to have few resources in other areas also. Statistics on the use of services relate more to the provision of those services than to the need for them. Regions with large resources will justify these resources by claiming that their use statistics indicate needs, whereas they really indicate met demands. It is more important to identify demands and needs that are not being met.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1976

Randomised controlled trial of antibiotics in patients with cough and purulent sputum.

Two hundred and twelve adults with cough and purulent sputum of up to one week's duration were allocated randomly to treatment with doxycycline or placebo capsules for up to 10 days. Cough, purulent sputum, feeling "off colour," and time off work lasted as long in treatment and control groups, but running nose persisted for a shorter time in the doxycycline group. The number of new episodes of lower respiratory tract infections, vaginal infections, gastrointestinal upsets, and otitis media over the next six months were the same in both groups, but fewer new upper respiratory infections were experienced by the doxycycline-treated patients. There is no consensus among doctors about using antibiotics in patients with cough and purulent sputum, and these results indicate that otherwise healthy people with these symptoms will usually get better without antibiotic treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Mortality from ischaemic heart disease--inter-town variation and its association with climate in England and Wales.

In both seasonal and inter-town variation, the mortality from ischaemic heart disease in England and Wales in 1969-71 is very highly correlated with temperature. Also in the inter-town variation, IHD mortality is highly correlated with rainfall and with socio-economic index. It is postulated that the same mechanism of body cooling underlies seasonal, inter-town and socio-economic variations in IHD mortality. The first law of thermodynamics states the heat and energy are equivalent. Therefore to maintain body temperature against an increased thermal gradient (caused by a lower environmental temperature as in seasonal variation, or a temperature-rainfall interaction as in inter-town variation) more energy must be expended by the body or, alternatively, the body must reduce heat loss by increasing thermal insulation. It is to be expected that there will be many accompanying changes in physiological parameters and several of these are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

Accuracy of cancer registration.

In South Wales cancer registration is done principally by means of the Hospital Activity Analysis. Altogether 1460 hospital records of cancer patients (19% of the 1972 registrations received by May 1973) were studied and the principal items of information required for cancer registrations by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys were copied and subsequently compared with the corresponding registrations at the Welsh Hospital Board's cancer bureau. Differences between these 're-registrations' and the original registrations were analysed item by item. There were 234 registrations with errors in the diagnostic summary (although 110 of these would cause misclassification only under the fourth digit of the ICD code), 164 with errors in date of birth (36 of which would cause classification in the wrong WHO age group) and 198 with errors in the date of registration (112 of which were wrongly ascribed to the year 1972). Error and omission rates were particularly high for NHS number, occupation, place of birth, and histology.

Diagnostic Errors↗
PubMed1975

Cost-benefit analysis of long-term haemodialysis for chronic renal failure.

A cost-benefit analysis of long-term maintenance haemodialysis indicates that there is a large gulf between the cost of the service and "economic" benefit. The difference may be considered to represent one estimate of the price society is prepared to pay to maintain life. Using "best estimates" from available data we found the implicit social value of maintaining a patient on haemodialysis to be approximately pounds 4720 per annum in hospital or pounds 2600 at home. The analysis would suggest that society must look carefully at alternative uses for health expenditure before extending indiscriminately to large sections of the population these treatment programmes or other similarly expensive.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1971

Availability of cadaveric kidneys for transplantation.

The availability of cadaveric donor kidneys for transplantation has been estimated from a retrospective survey of hospital deaths in Wales during 1969. Seventy-six "probable donors" and 167 "possible donors" were identified, indicating that the potential supply of donor kidneys is sufficient to meet the present demands of patients needing kidney transplantation.

Adolescent↗