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Biomedical subjects

R Renger

Publications and source records attributed to R Renger.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Development and evaluation of the McKnight Risk Factor Survey for assessing potential risk and protective factors for disordered eating in preadolescent and adolescent girls.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the development, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent validity of the McKnight Risk Factor Survey-III (MRFS-III). The MRFS-III was designed to assess a number of potential risk and protective factors for the development of disordered eating in preadolescent and adolescent girls. METHOD: Several versions of the MRFS were pilot tested before the MRFS-III was administered to a sample of 651 4th through 12th- grade girls to establish its psychometric properties. RESULTS: Most of the test-retest reliability coefficients of individual items on the MRFS-III were r > .40. Alpha coefficients for each risk and protective factor domain on the MRFS-III were also computed. The majority of these coefficients were r > .60. High convergent validity coefficients were obtained for specific items on the MRFS-III and measures of self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and weight concerns (Weight Concerns Scale). CONCLUSIONS: The test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent validity of the MRFS-III suggest that it is a useful new instrument to assess potential risk and protective factors for the development of disordered eating in preadolescent and adolescent girls.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Prevalence and incidence of stenosing flexor tenosynovitis (trigger finger) in a meat-packing plant.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and incidence of trigger finger (TF) in a meat-packing plant and explore the relationship between hand-tool use and the development of TF. A cross-sectional study was competed wherein 665 workers were interviewed and examined to determine the point prevalence. Subsequently, 454 TF-negative workers were followed up and examined twice at a median interval of 225 days. The point prevalence of TF was 14%. The person-year incidence rate was 12.4% and 2.6% for tool use and non-tool use workers, respectively. Forty-three cases of TF (75.2%) in the incidence arm of the study used a hand tool, for a relative risk of 4.7 (P < 0.002; 95% confidence interval, 1.5-23.9). Although a significant relationship was found between ethnicity and the presence of TF in the prevalence data, this was not confirmed in the incidence study. There is an increased prevalence of TF in this meat-packing plant and high worker turnover may underestimate the true prevalence rates. Hand-tool use increases the risk of developing TF.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Rural Alberta thrombolysis study. Survey of practice patterns for managing acute myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVE: To determine current practice patterns for managing acute myocardial infarction in rural Alberta, particularly to examine the availability of thrombolytic therapy. DESIGN: Mailed questionnaire based on a clinical vignette. SETTING: All 104 acute care hospitals in rural Alberta with fewer than 100 beds. PARTICIPANTS: The Chief of Staff at each hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of hospitals providing thrombolytic therapy, choice of thrombolytic agent, rates of elective transfer after thrombolysis, and barriers preventing universal use of thrombolytic therapy. RESULTS: Questionnaires were completed by 101 physicians. Three hospitals had no medical staff. Thrombolytic therapy was available in 80.8% of the hospitals. Hospitals that did not offer thrombolysis were smaller (average bed capacity 21.9 versus 37.7, P < 0.001), had fewer medical staff (average number 2.4 versus 5.5, P < 0.001), and had fewer nurses holding Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification (P = 0.015) than hospitals providing thrombolysis. Physicians identified inadequate nursing resources as the greatest barrier to providing thrombolysis. Of physicians using thrombolysis, 71.4% chose streptokinase. Half of the physicians preferred elective transfer after the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction is standard practice in small hospitals in Alberta.

Alberta↗
PubMed1994

Testing for predictive validity in health care education research: a critical review.

BACKGROUND: The assessment of predictive validity is the essential core from which a sound model of prediction is built. METHOD: Three methods for assessing predictive validity in health care education research were reviewed: longitudinal profile development, cross-validation, and inspection of the adjusted R2. A total of 47 articles published between 1973 and 1993 in nine health care disciplines were critically reviewed to determine whether the studies tested for predictive validity by using these methods. RESULTS: Very few of the 47 studies used at least one of the three methods for assessing predictive validity. Furthermore, the proportion of variance explained that is reported in the articles is typically small even before assessment of predictive validity. It is sobering to note that these small values may be inflated, since shrinkage is likely to occur when assessing predictive validity on a second, or cross-validation, sample. CONCLUSION: The scarcity of testing of predictive validity in the studies reviewed highlights the necessity of future research to establish the degree of predictive validity, if improvements in predicting success in health care education research are to be realized.

Education↗
PubMed1990

Embedded blank trials: their influence on error recognition ability.

On some occasions, mixing knowledge of results (KR) and Blank trials (No-KR) during acquisition has increased retention relative to when Blanks were absent. The proposal that Blank trials improve retention because they encourage the development of the internalized error recognition system was not supported.

Adult↗