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At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

HIV-related behaviors and perceptions among adults in 25 states: 1997 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the level of HIV-related risk behavior among the general US adult population, we analyzed data from the first sexual behavior questions available for states to use with the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. METHODS: The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System is a state-specific, population-based, random telephone survey. In 1997, 25 states collected sexual behavior data. Annual prevalence estimates for selected behaviors were calculated and examined by sociodemographic characteristics. The correlation between actual and perceived HIV risk also was determined. RESULTS: Most (77.1%) of the respondents reported just 1 sexual partner in the past year; 26.0% reported using a condom at last intercourse. Males, persons who were younger, and Blacks were more likely to report 2 or more partners but also more likely to report using a condom at last intercourse. Only 4.1% of the respondents reported a risk factor for HIV infection; 7.7% reported that they were at medium or high risk for HIV. Actual and perceived HIV risk were positively associated. CONCLUSIONS: Most US adults do not engage in HIV-related risk behavior; those that do are more likely to report protective behavior.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2005

Evaluation of a behavioral assessment questionnaire for use in the characterization of behavioral problems of dogs relinquished to animal shelters.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a behavioral intake questionnaire in animal shelters for the presence of biased results and assess its use in the characterization of behavioral problems of dogs relinquished to shelters. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Animals-54 dogs being relinquished to a shelter and 784 dogs belonging to veterinary clients. Procedure-Owners who were relinquishing their dogs and agreed to complete the behavioral questionnaire were alternately assigned to 1 of 2 groups; participants were aware that information provided would be confidential or nonconfidential (i.e., likely used for adoption purposes). Data from confidential and nonconfidential information groups were compared, and the former were compared with data (collected via the questionnaire) regarding a population of client-owned dogs. RESULTS: Analyses revealed significant differences in 2 areas of reported problem behavior between the confidential and nonconfidential information groups: owner-directed aggression and stranger-directed fear. Compared with client-owned-group data, significantly more relinquished shelter dogs in the confidential information group were reported to have owner-directed aggression, stranger-directed aggression, dog-directed aggression or fear, stranger-directed fear, nonsocial fear, and separation-related behaviors. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Among persons relinquishing dogs to a shelter, those who believed questionnaire responses were confidential reported owner-directed aggression and fear of strangers in their pets more frequently than relinquishers who believed responses were nonconfidential. Confidentiality had no apparent effect on the reporting of other assessed behavioral problems. Results suggest that behavioral questionnaires may sometimes provide inaccurate information in a shelter setting, but the information may still be useful when evaluating behavior of relinquished dogs.

Aggression↗
PubMed2002

Applying the theory of planned behavior: nursing students' intention to seek clinical experiences using the essential clinical behavior database.

This study examined the antecedents and determinants predictive of whether nursing students (N = 92) intend to ask for assignments to perform nursing behaviors after using a database to record essential clinical behaviors. The results of applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to behavioral intention using multivariant path analysis suggested that the endogenous variables, attitude and subjective norms, had a significant effect on the intention to ask for assignments to perform nursing behaviors. In addition, it was primarily through attitudes and subjective norms that the respective antecedents or exogenous variables, behavioral beliefs and normative beliefs, affected the intention to ask for assignments to perform nursing behaviors. The lack of direct influence of perceived behavioral control on intention and the direct negative impact of control belief on intention were contrary to expectations, given the tenets of the TPB.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Normative beliefs of health behavior professionals regarding the psychosocial and environmental factors that influence health behavior change related to smoking cessation, regular exercise, and weight loss.

PURPOSE: To examine the degree of consensus among health behavior change professionals regarding the personal and environmental factors they believe most strongly influence health behavior decisions related to smoking cessation, regular exercise, and weight loss. DESIGN: A factorial survey design was implemented. This method combines the positive elements from simple sample surveys and factorial experiment designs. A total of 44 independent psychosocial and environmental variables are used to randomly construct vignettes, or short stories, to collect dependent variable data. SUBJECTS: A probability sample of 311 health behavior change professionals was selected from the Society for Public Health Education, Inc., the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and faculty from the 1986 Harvard University Symposium on Health Promotion in the Work Place. MEASURES: Judgment ratings on the probability that the person described in each vignette would initiate the behavior in question. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis indicates that the multidimensional model explained approximately one half of the variance in the judgments across the three health behaviors (smoking cessation, R2 = .52; weight loss, R2 = .49; and regular exercise, R2 = .49). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest a high degree of consensus among the sample regarding the personal and environmental factors that influence health behavior judgments. Here, the subjects perceive both behavioral intentions and self-efficacy as the most powerful determinants of judgments to initiate weight loss, regular exercise, and smoking cessation.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Efficacy of amitriptyline as a pharmacological adjunct to behavioral modification in the management of aggressive behaviors in dogs.

The efficacy of amitriptyline as a pharmacological adjunct to behavioral modification in the clinical management of aggressive behaviors in dogs was evaluated in two phases. Twelve dogs presenting for aggressive behaviors were treated sequentially with amitriptyline (2 mg/kg body weight, per os [PO] bid) and a placebo for 4 weeks in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Standardized protocols for behavior modification were implemented throughout the trial. Owners maintained behavioral records and reported on the number of aggressive incidents as well as the dog's overall improvement at the end of each 4-week period. In the second phase, 27 cases of dogs presenting for aggressive behaviors and treated with amitriptyline were reviewed, and clients were contacted to record each dog's response to treatment. Reports were compared to those for dogs receiving behavior modification alone (i.e., placebo phase of prospective study). No significant difference was observed in the patients' responses to adjunctive amitriptyline versus behavior modification alone.

Aggression↗
PubMed1999

[Domesticated behavior in sheep. Role of behavioral polymorphism in the regulation of stress reactions in sheep].

The relationship between behavioral polymorphism and the variation for the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPAA) was studied in the meat-and-wool (n = 447) and Altaian fine-fleece (n = 45) sheep breeds under production farm conditions. The behavior studied included negatively associated reactions: feeding reactions and defensive reactions in relation to human. In sheep, the intrapopulation variation for the stress level of corticosteroids depended on the effect of behavior, the type of stimulus, and the interaction between these two factors and correlated with the behavior phenotype (r varied from -0.551 to -0.226). In the stress responses to either 24-h starvation or lamb weaning, hormonal reactions were similar in wild-type sheep that have clearly marked defensive reactions and in the sheep of the domestic phenotype that was contrasted to the wild type. In the stress responses to isolation from the herd, transportation, and competition for food, hormonal reactions were stronger in the wild type than in the domestic phenotype; alternatively, in the stress response to being kept in cages in pairs, hormonal reaction was stronger in the domestic phenotype than in the wild type. In the sheep that were placed in cages, a single playing of tape-recorded anxiety signals caused the motivational or emotional stress that was characterized by an unusually long latent period of the progressive HPAA reaction and its subsequent chronic course (up to 9 days). Animals of contrasted behavioral phenotypes differed in the course of the HPAA reaction. Heritable behavioral polymorphism and interaction between behavior and the type of stimulus are the regulation factors in the expression and variability of stimulus-specific reactions of HPAA. Behavior can serve as the genetic marker for individual features of HPAA functioning in the stress response of sheep.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed2002

Behavioral phenotypes in genetic syndromes: genetic clues to human behavior.

A behavioral phenotype is the characteristic cognitive, personality, behavioral, and psychiatric pattern that typifies a disorder. A number of genetic syndromes have been identified as having this type of distinctive and consistent behavior pattern. It may act as an important diagnostic sign, like a malformation or characteristic facial appearance. Such patterns are also useful for the physician's anticipatory guidance from an educational, rehabilitative, and parenting perspective. In addition, because they are the consequences of known genetic alterations, behavioral phenotypes can be potentially highly valuable clues to the identification of genes in the population that are important to determination of cognitive skills or deficits, personality determinants, behavioral abnormalities, or psychiatric disorders. The nature of a behavioral phenotype and its potential for genetic insight can be appreciated through the examples of Williams syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and Angelman syndrome. The cognitive and behavioral characteristics of these disorders are distinctive. Williams syndrome is known for its association with remarkable conversational verbal abilities and excessive empathy, whereas Prader-Willi syndrome is known for temper tantrums and obsessive-compulsive features, and Angelman syndrome is associated with a constantly happy affect and hyperactivity. The genetic basis for each of these disorders is known, and the pathophysiology and genotype-phenotype correlations are beginning to provide insight into genes responsible for personality characteristics and behavioral abnormalities.

Angelman Syndrome↗
PubMed2002

Assessment of long-term effects of exposure to toluene based on the analysis of selected behavioral responses with particular reference to the ability to trigger behavioral hypersensitivity in rats.

Toluene is a major component of numerous commercial organic solvent formulations. It is often listed among the chemicals capable of producing the organic solvent syndrome and a neurobehavioral hypersensitivity condition. The hypersensitivity condition (continued long-term intensification of some behavioral reactions in response to pharmacological or environmental stressors) is usually associated with the increased tonus of the functional dopaminergic system. The aim of our current research was to determine whether, under conditions of inhalation exposure, toluene can produce long-term behavioral changes or modify the intensity of the behavioral response to apomorphine, a dopaminergic receptor agonist. In our experiment, male rats were exposed to 25, 100 and 250 ppm toluene for 4 weeks (5 days/week, 6h/day). The following behaviors were tested: finding water in a radial maze; open field motor activity, acquiring the conditional response of passive avoidance; sensitivity to a thermal pain stimulus (hot plate test) and changes in this sensitivity caused by stress; and acquiring the conditional response of two-directional active avoidance. The behavioral response to apomorphine, i.e. the increased spontaneous locomotor activity, was assessed on day 10 after the termination of the exposure in the rotary drum test. In the behavioral experiment, significant differences between groups were recorded only for the hot plate test; in the 100 and 250 ppm rats, electric-shock-related anxiety response was stronger than in the control group. In the experiment using pharmacological provocation, the behavioral response to apomorphine in the rats exposed to 100 ppm or 250 ppm toluene was significantly lower. Our results indicate that low concentrations of toluene may produce long-term behavioral changes in rats. However, these changes seem to be linked with reduced rather than increased functional tonus of the dopaminergic system.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Behavioral science education in family medicine: a survey of behavioral science educators and family physicians.

A mailed questionnaire was used to provide a profile of behavioral science educators in family practice residency programs, to examine some aspects of behavioral science curriculum development, and to compare the attitudes of behavioral science educators and family physicians regarding the proper level of involvement of family physicians in a variety of psychosocial problems. The study populations consisted of all 383 behavioral science coordinators of US family practice programs and a national sample of 400 residency-trained family physicians. Eighty percent of the behavioral science educators were familiar with the Core Competency Objectives in Behavioral Science Education, published by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and 61% had used this document to aid in curriculum development. Both behavioral science educators and family physicians perceived that the training provided in the areas of physician-patient relationships, family awareness, and personal and professional relationships was quite effective. The physicians felt significantly less effectively trained in the areas of biopsychosocial assessment and management. A high level of concordance was found between the responses of physicians and educators regarding the appropriate level of involvement of family physicians in various psychosocial problems. One exception between the two groups involved the problems of family and social functioning, for which family physicians advocated a more active level of involvement than did behavioral science educators.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Behavior therapy as a new procedure in health education--recommendation for introducing behavior science into personal health services].

Recent efforts to integrate biomedical and behavioral science perspectives and techniques have revealed the creativity and efficacy of behavioral health approaches to health enhancement and disease prevention. There are expectations that behavioral medicine and behavioral health will be significant in approaches toward changing life style, improving patient's compliance with medical advice, and in rehabilitation. Three examples of actual practice of behavioral procedures in a public health center are studied-behavior therapies for obesity and hypercholesterolemia, and prompting of patient clinic utilization behavior by a letter of introduction. The importance of proper selection of target problems, staff training is emphasized. In conclusion, it is recommended that behavioral science and its techniques of assessment and treatment are incorporated into public health activities, especially in the field of health education.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2006

Oral behaviors checklist: reliability of performance in targeted waking-state behaviors.

AIMS: To assess the consistency of intentional behavioral performance as an index of whether individuals understood the meanings of the behavioral terms of the Oral Behaviors Checklist, which is a self-report scale for identifying and quantifying the frequency of jaw overuse behaviors. METHODS: Surface electromyography was used to measure bilaterally the activity of the masseter, temporalis, and suprahyoid muscles (for assessment of oral behaviors) and the biceps muscles (reference task of biceps curl) in 27 temporomandibular disorder (TMD) cases and 27 controls. Subjects were asked to perform (1) biceps curls to lift 5 weights, with explanation, and (2) 10 oral behaviors (e.g., "clench", "yawn") without explanation. RESULTS: Biceps-curl performance resulted in assignments of excellent or very good for linearity-reliability based on inspection and correlation. Test-retest reliability of the 10 performed oral behaviors generally ranged from 0.6 to 0.98 for all 3 muscle groups, and many tasks had reliability coefficients comparable to those for the biceps curl. Across tasks, elevator muscle reliability of cases was 0.87, compared to 0.75 for controls; group values for opening muscles were similar. CONCLUSION: Individual subjects performed each task at a high level of consistency. Performance was not appreciably altered by being a TMD case versus a control and was not significantly different from the performance level of a reference task, indicating that each individual understood well the meaning of each oral behavior-related word.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Association between children's dental behavior and play behavior.

The results of this study showed that clinical distinctions can be made regarding the behavior of children in the dental setting and that these distinctions are reflected in the behavior of these children in an easily-arranged play situation. The existence of such associations of behavior presents the possibility that play behavior may be a reliable predictor of maladaptive dental behavior. If so, the incorporation of a play dental area into a dental office would be an inexpensive and convenient method of intercepting potential problem dental patients. If the results of this study can be replicated, they would support the initiation of a study to predict the behavior of children in the dental setting by means of easily scorable aspects of their play behavior in a simulated dental environment. Special management considerations could then be made to prevent disruptive behavior at subsequent appointments. The results also point up the tendency of problem patients to avoid certain aspects of the play dental experience. This suggests a possible treatment potential for the dental play area, using it as an instrument to desensitize appropriate patients to those aspects of dental treatment which distress them, and thereby reduce their anxieties, prior to actual dental treatment.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed1978

The application of behavior modification to behavior management: guidelines for the family physician.

Treatment in ambulatory care settings depends on the patient's behavior to implement the regimen prescribed by the family physician. Behavior modification offers a means for developing behavioral programs that will improve the physician's ability to effectively influence the patient's behavior. This article outlines some of the principles of behavior modification as they can be applied in office settings to diverse behavioral problems. Some specific suggestions are made for identifying behaviors, setting goals, delineating the steps to reach these goals, monitoring progress, and developing treatment contracts that will aid the physician in the management of the behavioral aspects of treatment.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1994

[Health behavior model based analysis of factors affecting alcohol behavior of company employees].

Factors affecting alcohol behavior were studied using, as a conceptual framework, a Health Behavior Model on Alcohol (Alcohol Behavior Model), adapted from Munakata's Health Behavior Model. Under this model alcohol behavior is restricted or promoted by the levels of self-initiative ability, which influences both health promotion factors and health hindrance factors. How these factors influence alcoholic behavior in company employees was studied. Employees were asked to complete questionnaires when they came to health centers for their regular health examination between August to September 1990. Two hundred and ninety-two of the three hundred subjects answered the questionnaire. Results indicate that the major factor for restricting alcoholic behavior was self-efficacy regarding drinking alcohol. The self-efficacy level was increased by the persons' perceived vulnerability to alcohol and was decreased when alcohol functioned as an aid to recover from fatigue or to lower stress. As a conclusion, empowering clients to enhance self-efficacy appears to be effective as a health objective for coping with alcoholic behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Variability in "spontaneous" maternal behavior is associated with anxiety-like behavior and affiliation in naïve juvenile and adult female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster).

Juvenile female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are spontaneously maternal, while virgin adult females show significant variability in their response to first pup exposure, ranging from infanticidal to full maternal behavior. In the present study, we investigated whether differences in anxiety-like behavior and affiliation are associated with juvenile-adult and adult individual differences in the response to pups. Forty juvenile (19-20 days) and 42 adult (60-90 days) female prairie voles were exposed to pups for the first time and tested for maternal behavior, anxiety-like behavior (elevated plus maze, open field), and affiliation toward age-matched, same sex conspecifics. Juveniles displayed less anxiety-like behavior, were more affiliative to unfamiliar conspecifics, and interacted with pups more positively than adults. Adults that displayed maternal behavior spent less time immobile, made more crosses through the center of the open field arena, and were more affiliative than adults that attacked the pups. This suggests that lower locomotion or exploration in a novel environment and poor affiliative behavior are negatively associated with maternal responsiveness in female prairie voles.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1980

Behavioral effects of hashish in mice. I. Social interactions and nest-building behavior of males.

The acute and subchronic effects of hashish extract (20 mg delta 9-THC/kg) on the behavior of male mice encountering a control partner was studied by ethological methods. A single administration of the extract resulted in general sedation, suppressing all the individual and social activities with the exception of some submissive elements. The locomotive and the overall activity of drugged males was drastically reduced and immobility occurred frequently. After four applications, tolerance to the sedative effects had developed and behavioral drug effects were recognizable. Drugged males showed an increase in nonsocial activities as well as in submissive behavior and flight, whereas social investigation was less frequent. Sexual and aggressive behavior was not significantly affected by the drug and immobility no longer occurred. In spite of behavioral changes after a single or repeated drug treatment, drugged males became dominant in about half the experiments. The nest-building behavior of males was disturbed in the same way after one or four drug applications. Drugged males generally refrained from carrying and working up the nesting material. The acute behavioral effects of hashish extract are compared to those described in previous papers and the difference between acute and subchronic drug effects is discussed.

Aggression↗
PubMed2005

Amines and motivated behaviors: a simpler systems approach to complex behavioral phenomena.

Recent investigations in invertebrate neurobiology have opened up new lines of research into the basic roles of behavioral, neurochemical, and physiological effects in complex behavioral phenomena, such as aggression and drug-sensitive reward. This review summarizes a body of quantitative work, which identifies biogenic amines as a pharmacological substrate for motivated behaviors in the crayfish, Orconectes rusticus. Specifically, this paper details progress that has (1) explored links between serotonin and an individual's aggressive state, and (2) demonstrated the existence of crayfish reward systems that are sensitive to human drugs of abuse, such as psychostimulants. First, we summarize a set of experimental approaches that explore aggression in crayfish and the significance of aminergic systems in its control. Agonistic behavior in crustaceans can be characterized within a quantitative framework; different types of behavioral plasticity in aggressive behavior are in need of physiological explanation, and pharmacological intervention involving serotonergic systems bring about characteristic changes in behavior. A second set of experiments demonstrates that psychostimulants (cocaine and D: -amphetamine) serve as rewards when an intra-circulatory infusion is coupled to a distinct visual environment. Work in novel model systems such as crayfish constitutes a useful comparative approach to the study of aggression and drug addiction.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMed2006

The association between self-reported lifetime history of forced sexual intercourse and recent health-risk behaviors: findings from the 2003 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

PURPOSE: To expand the understanding of the association between recent health-risk behaviors and a history of forced sexual intercourse, using a nationally representative sample of female and male high school students. METHODS: Data were from the 2003 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a nationally representative biennial survey of U.S. high school students. Lifetime history of forced sex, recent physical dating violence, and health-risk behaviors (substance use, diet-related behaviors, violence-related behaviors, and health promoting behaviors) were assessed. Analyses were stratified by gender and controlled for grade and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Of students surveyed, 8.9% reported ever being forced to have sex. One in eight females and one in 16 males experienced forced sex in their lifetime. For females and males, a history of forced sex was associated with experiencing physical dating violence and suicidal ideation in the 12 months preceding the survey and with substance use in the previous 30 days. Female victims were not as likely as female nonvictims to have participated in team sports during the previous 12 months. Male victims were more likely than male nonvictims to have fasted for more than 24 hours to lose weight during the previous 30 days. CONCLUSIONS: A lifetime history of forced sex is associated with recent dating violence and participation in unhealthy behaviors. Services and intervention programs for victimized youth should address health concerns that have been linked to sexual assault. Such programs would provide opportunities for early intervention with lasting implications for improved health.

Adolescent↗