Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Rombouts

Publications and source records attributed to R Rombouts.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Service attributes and the choice for STD health services in persons seeking a medical examination for an STD.

This article examines choice for STD health services among patients suspecting a STD. A total of 825 patients who sought medical treatment at an STD clinic, a Family Planning Clinic or a General Practitioner participated in this study. Special STD clinics are not well known among patients visiting their GP or a Family Planning Clinic. Both perceived unprofessionality and embarrassment were reasons for not asking a GP for medical treatment and for not being loyal to their GP after a first visit. Most respondents evaluate the 16 service attributes as important and/or annoying. Differences in beliefs and evaluations about the separate service attributes existed between the three choice behavior groups. The results of this study may be useful in making persuasive arguments for the existence of special STD clinics, especially when competing for limited resources. However, attitudes to service attributes and social norms explained only 24% of the variance in scores between the three choice behavior groups. This means that other factors (have to) play a role in actual choice behavior. Future research should take into account factors, such as: personality traits, perceived behavioral control and confidentiality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Feasibility of computerized psychological testing with psychiatric outpatients.

The feasibility of computerized psychological testing was investigated in a sample of 452 consecutive psychiatric outpatients. Forty-six percent of the solicited patients agreed to participate in the computerized assessment. Tested patients were significantly younger and better educated than those who refused. In general, patients reacted favorably to the computerized assessment. Education level, previous experience with computers, and attitude toward computers were related to successful patient-computer interaction. It is concluded that computerized assessment is not feasible for all psychiatric outpatients and that a pre- (computer) assessment interview may be helpful in order to familiarize older and less educated patients with the nature and functions of computerized psychological assessment.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1988

Smoking cessation studies: a methodological comparison.

A wide variety in outcome criteria hinders comparison of results between smoking cessation studies. Three important methodological issues are discussed: analysis of data of participants who drop out of therapy, treatment of missing data, and repeated use of significance tests. These issues determine to a great extent the results of evaluation studies. In general, they are of interest to all researchers of addiction who study the effects of interventions. Several ways to decide on these issues and the consequences of these decisions are considered. Little consensus exists about the criterion for dropout. It is concluded that a dropout criterion is a burden rather than a help. A better criterion would be the number of sessions present. Few satisfying techniques exist to handle the problem of missing data. Evaluation studies need to set a priori standards to counter the increased risk of a Type I error, caused by the repeated use of significance tests. Reviewers need to be aware of the variety in data treatment before comparing results.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1982

The reproducibility of cardiovascular reactions during cognitive tasks.

Psychophysiological applications have been proposed for and have been found in diagnostic procedures, in therapeutic processes as well as in therapy evaluation studies. Many studies in this area have been done on cardiovascular parameters like heart rate, blood pressure and peripheral resistance. Unfortunately there is still little evidence whether physiological reactivity in these test situations are reproducible. We investigated the stability of heart rate (HR) and pulse transit time (PTT) reactions during simple and complex cognitive tasks, in two sessions with some days in between. The data showed that with simple cognitive tasks the subjects showed a strong habituation on both measures within one session. This habituation did not take place with complex stressors. We also found significant lower reactivity in the second session. Heart rate showed significant test retest reliabilities for males and females with simple stressors and for females only with complex stressors. PTT never showed significant test retest reliabilities. So heart rate proved to be the more reliable indication for cardiovascular reactivity. However, it still seems premature to use psychophysiological paradigms in standard diagnostics.

Adult↗