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Biomedical subjects

T Hickey

Publications and source records attributed to T Hickey.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Ethical dimensions of intergenerational reciprocity: implications for practice.

This paper reviews the moral and ethical context of family relationships and caregiver stress, with an emphasis on the implications for professional interventions. Three views of filial responsibility are presented: parental reverence, a debt of gratitude, and caregiving as an expression of friendship and love. Case studies are presented to illustrate how an exploration of ethically defensible limits to caregiving might proceed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Health promotion for older people: all is not well.

The changing nature of disease risks and functional health status with aging suggests the need to focus health promotion efforts in the older population where they will be most effective in reducing morbidity, mortality, and disability. However, there is little consensus in the literature regarding the efficacy of various health promotion practices and the appropriate target groups within a diverse older population. Careful research on and thoughtful application of findings to this older population are needed to ensure the effective use of limited health promotion resources.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

Daily illness characteristics and health care decisions of older people.

Although investigations of health care decision making typically deal with patterns of health service use, increasing attention has focused on lay- and self-care actions in response to illness symptoms. This study examined the health care actions of a community sample of 142 older adults, who recorded illness symptoms and corresponding health care actions in daily health diaries for a 14-day period. Self-treatment and no-action decisions were found to be the most frequent response to illness symptoms. Professional-care decisions were associated with greater health care need, such as multiple symptoms and increased pain. Lay-care decisions were significantly related to symptoms of shorter duration. Women were also more likely than men to self-treat their illness symptoms. Results suggest that older people deal with a greater number of recurrent chronic symptoms than previously thought and that they make most treatment decisions without consulting their doctors or other health care providers. This investigation underscores the importance of a prospective diary methodology for studying the daily complexities of chronic illness experiences and for validating and conducting useful interventions.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

The acquisition of Irish: a study of word order development.

This study examines the development of word order patterns in Irish, a strict VSO language. It was found that the three children studied used subject-initial utterances considerably more frequently than adults in input, and that in both adult and child the elision of the verb 'to be' played a significant role. Another significant factor was found to be the different restrictions on main verbs and verbal nouns with regard to the subject: in neutral sentences the main verb always precedes the subject, while the verbal noun always follows it. The Bates & MacWhinney (1979) hypothesis that early verb initialization results from a tendency to place new information before given information was also investigated.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1988

Satisfaction with clinical encounters among residents and geriatric patients.

A total of 69 clinical encounters between 15 internal medicine residents and 69 geriatric patients were examined to determine the residents' attitudes toward specific patients and to assess their mutual satisfaction with the clinical encounter. The residents rated their attitudes toward each patient and indicated their beliefs about the patients' health status, adjustment to medical care, and expected benefits of health education activities. In general, both the residents and the patients expressed satisfaction with their clinical encounters. Little similarity in the satisfaction ratings of the residents and patients was found. The patients tended to express higher levels of satisfaction than the residents. The residents' perceptions of the expected benefits of health education and attitudes toward the patient were found to be statistically significant predictors of the residents' satisfaction. These findings suggest that specific attitudes and beliefs of residents toward their geriatric patients are linked to the residents' satisfaction and hold important implications for medical training.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Daily symptoms and behavioral responses. Results of a health diary with older adults.

Research on the health care behavior of older adults in response to symptoms will benefit from having data collection methods that can monitor health actions as they occur on a daily basis. In the present study, symptom experiences over a 2-week period and the actions taken in response to them were studied with a self-kept daily diary. Participants were 142 community-resident older persons, aged 62-94. Diary information about number of daily symptoms and the accompanying pain/discomfort was correlated with health perceptions and psychosocial indices obtained in an interview prior to the diary period. Women tended to take a more active response to symptoms than men, particularly in the area of personal care actions. Preventive health behaviors were not strongly related to symptom-related actions. Satisfaction with one's income was the only predictor of seeking professional assistance. Overall, the diary method is feasible to use with older adults, although certain groups may require special consideration (e.g., the visually impaired, persons with multiple symptoms per day, or those with a limitation on writing ability).

Age Factors↗
PubMed1987

Congruence of health and treatment perceptions among older patients and providers of primary care.

High utilization of primary health care services by older adults, and factors which promote discrepancies between personal and professional health judgments, create a need for effective communication between providers and patients. The present study was designed to extend existing reports on the congruence of health ratings among older adult patients and their primary care physicians and nurses. Congruence ranged from 29 to 69 percent across fourteen health and treatment questions (N = 108 patient/provider pairs). Patients appeared to be more favorable on most questions, and questions with a present orientation exhibited greater congruence than those with a future orientation. Few variables predicted congruence. Providers' ratings were associated with congruence more strongly than were patients' ratings. Further research should examine the uniformity of content and structure in patient/provider communication both across providers, and with their individual patients.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Emerging trends in gerontology and geriatrics: implications for the self-care of the elderly.

Increases in the world's older population have posed a significant challenge to available health care resources. For many older people, informal initiatives represent a necessary, rather than an optional health care strategy in the absence of alternatives. Those individuals with the greatest health and economic dependencies are often held responsible for their reliance on subsidized long-term care services. This tendency to blame the victim appears to transcend fundamental philosophic differences which have traditionally distinguished some collectivist and individualist societies. Although health care has been viewed traditionally by health professionals as their domain, self-care and lay initiatives have recently been recognized by professionals as important to the health care of different population groups including older people. The concept of self-care has been used in various ways by different people to describe a wide range of personal health behaviors encompassing lay care, self-help, enlightened consumerism, and various preventive measures as antidotes to the impairments of old age. This paper reports some of the outcomes of an international project which reviewed geriatric self-care in different countries and health care systems. Various influences on the evolution of interest in geriatric self-care were identified including: similarities and differences in health care systems: demographic changes; cohort differences; the emergence of professionals with specialized training in geriatric health care; and, the salience of biomedical models in addressing the health problems of aging. The role of professionals, especially those trained in geriatrics, is examined with an acknowledgment of the importance of a self-care strategy that is independent of professional dominance.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗
PubMed1984

Retinoic acid enhances the displacement of newly synthesized hyaluronate from cell layer to culture medium during early phases of chondrogenesis.

Chondrogenic differentiation in mouse limb bud mesenchymal cells cultured at high density was suppressed by supplementation of the medium with retinoic acid (1 microgram/ml or 3.3 X 10(-6) M). Since in control medium overt chondrogenesis begins on day 3, retinoic acid was introduced on day 2 so that the relationship between initial biosynthetic changes and inhibition of chondrogenesis could be studied. During the first 24 h of exposure the treated cells remained viable but suffered 10% inhibition in growth and synthesized [3H]glucosamine-labeled glycosaminoglycan at a level 24% below untreated cells. The amount of labeled hyaluronic acid released into the culture medium by the treated cells was, however, 2-fold greater, on a per cell basis, than that in the untreated cultures. It is suggested that the displacement of hyaluronate may play a role in the disruption of mesenchymal cell differentiation and of limb morphogenesis as observed in other systems.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

A brief life-graft technique for work with geriatric patients.

Patients aged over 60 or older from the practice of a private physician (n = 32) and from a geriatric outpatient clinic (n = 132) responded to a questionnaire designed to assess perceived present and future health, treatment expectations, and general future projection. Of interest was the extent to which present health, as measured by a brief life-graft technique, might be predictive of perceptions in these other areas. Results from two samples were consistent in suggesting that present health ratings were related to anticipated future health, general future projection, and certain treatment expectations. However, expectations of when benefits from treatment would begin, and of the probable duration of treatment, were not predicted in either sample. The life-graft technique seems useful for practitioners' interactions with older patients and for understanding these patients' extended view of their health.

Aged↗
PubMed1981

Consistency in patients' health and treatment expectations at a geriatric clinic.

This study focused on predictors of consistency and inconsistency in health and treatment expectations among 77 new patients (mean age, 73) at a geriatric outpatient clinic. Just before their first appointment, and again one week afterward, the patients were asked about their overall health status, their specific illness complaints, their reasons for visiting the clinic, and their expectations regarding treatment and the future outlook. Few predictors of consistency were found for such outcome measures as the number of health problems reported, present and future health status, and the duration, difficulty and benefits of treatment. Inconsistency and uncertainty were more evident in these geriatric outpatients' perceptions, especially among those with self-rated poor health and mobility. This study emphasizes: 1) the importance to the treatment context of geriatric patients' inconsistencies about their health, and 2) the additional burden clinicians must bear in dealing with such discrepancies.

Aged↗