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At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Town-level characteristics and smoking policy adoption in Massachusetts: are local restaurant smoking regulations fostering disparities in health protection?

OBJECTIVES: We identified and quantified differences in sociodemographic characteristics of communities relative to the strength of local restaurant smoking regulations in Massachusetts. METHODS: We examined the relationship between the strength of the 351 local restaurant smoking regulations in Massachusetts and a number of town-level characteristics, using a multinomial logistic regression model. RESULTS: Characteristics important to the adoption of stronger restaurant smoking regulations included higher education and per capita income, geographic region, voter support for a state cigarette tax initiative, board of health funding to promote clean indoor air policy making, and the presence of a bordering town with a strong regulation. CONCLUSIONS: The current pattern of smoke-free restaurant policy enactment fosters socioeconomic and geographic disparities in health protection, undermining an important national health goal.

Financing, Government↗
PubMed1989

Discouraged older workers: an exploratory study.

The research literature has documented the social and psychological consequences of unemployment for individuals in our country. Unfortunately, few studies have examined the impact of unemployment on the older worker. This exploratory study examined the characteristics and experiences of seventy-three older unemployed workers, age fifty and above, who were discouraged and had stopped searching for a full-time job. The findings portray the discouraged older worker as potentially at risk of both economic and psychological difficulties. Participants reported feeling mildly depressed about their current unemployment situation, socially isolated and embarrassed, and were experiencing low life satisfaction generally. They also tended to use a low number of social and employment-related community services. Younger participants in the sample under age sixty, those with higher levels of education, and those suffering longer periods of unemployment tended to report having the greatest adjustment difficulties. These results reflect the challenges faced by the discouraged older worker and the need for targeted employment and supportive services to aid this population group.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

Physical activity and quality of life: assessing the influence of activity frequency, intensity, volume, and motives.

In the present study, the authors investigated the impact of exercise frequency, intensity, and volume along with exercise motives on quality of life (QOL) reports. The authors assessed exercise habits with the Godin Leisure Time Activity Scale and measured exercise motives with the Reasons for Exercise Inventory. The Quality of Life Inventory assessed satisfaction in 16 domains including health, work, and recreation. High-frequency exercisers reported significantly higher health, helping, and community-related QOL than those who exercised less frequently. The authors noted significantly higher health-related QOL in the heavy volume group compared with the other volume groups. Multiple regression tests revealed that activity intensity and exercise motives significantly predicted QOL reports. The strongest bivariate correlations with QOL existed for mild activity and exercising for fitness and health reasons. Thus, high-frequency activity of mild intensity that produces high kcal utilization and is performed to improve health and fitness has the strongest influence on QOL reports.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A phenomenological study exploring the meaning of a seminar on spirituality for occupational therapy students.

There are many unanswered questions about the concept of spirituality and its relationship to occupational performance. The role of occupational therapists in addressing clients' spiritual needs is unclear, and the inclusion of spirituality as a topic in the educational curricula of occupational therapy students requires further attention. Focus groups and surveys were used in this phenomenological study to explore the lived experiences of 11 occupational therapy students participating in a 3-month graduate seminar entitled "Spirituality in Occupational Therapy Practice." The study was designed to help occupational therapy faculty better understand how students experience the relationship between occupational therapy and spirituality, and how educational programs can better prepare students to translate theoretical frameworks into practice. Findings explored the students' evolving belief systems, and began to reveal a diversity of beliefs and practices in the occupational therapy community related to spirituality. Implications for theory and practice are offered.

Occupational Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Risk factors and behaviors associated with adolescent violence and aggression.

OBJECTIVE: To explore risk factors and behaviors associated with aggressive and violent behaviors among adolescents. METHODS: A comprehensive review of research literature from various disciplines associated with improving the health and well-being of adolescents. RESULTS: Risk factors and behaviors associated with adolescent aggression and violence are discussed via 6 major factor categories: individual, family, school/academic, peer-related, community and neighborhood, and situational. CONCLUSION: Adolescent aggression and violence develops and manifests within a complex constellation of factors. Prevention intervention efforts should be theory based, multicomponent, and multisystem; they should begin in middle school and continue into high school with a comprehensive evaluation design.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Doctors, patients and the search for the truth on the Internet.

The overnight availability of huge amounts of medical information from the internet has dramatically affected patients and doctors, and has swiftly highlighted a pressing need to deal with the problem of assessing the validity of such information. A number of further issues arise from this, most notably the questionable practice of selling supposed 'miracle cures' via the Internet. The introduction of measures that ensure the regulation of health-related websites has to be a priority for the health care profession. It is important not only to protect patients, and reduce the amount of doctors' time that is wasted, but also to allow confidence to develop in the reputable sites that exist. Such sites can provide accurate and useful information and can help to assemble supportive health-related communities on-line; facets that could be of great benefit to both patients and doctors alike.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

Competency gradient for child-parent centers.

This report describes an implementation of the Rasch model during the longitudinal evaluation of a federally-funded early childhood preschool intervention program. An item bank is described for operationally defining a psychosocial construct called community life-skills competency, an expected teenage outcome of the preschool intervention. This analysis examined the position of teenage students on this scale structure, and investigated a pattern of cognitive operations necessary for students to pass community life-skills test items. Then this scale structure was correlated with nationally standardized reading and math achievement scores, teacher ratings, and school records to assess its validity as a measure of the community-related outcome goal for this intervention. The results show a functional relationship between years of early intervention and magnitude of effect on the life-skills competency variable.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hospitals dispose of destructive waste habits. Recycling protects the environment, but facilities are finding it can pay off in numerous ways.

Across the country, hospitals are setting up recycling programs. While protecting the environment is their first concern, they've also found that recycling offers other benefits, such as lower landfill fees, reduced energy and supply costs, less cluttered work areas, better employee morale and improved community relations.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1991

Improving subjective decision making in health care administration.

Managing a health care institution typically requires the consideration of many nonquantifiable factors, such as community relations, quality of service, and employee morale. As a result, subjective judgments are an inevitable, and often major, part of decision making in health care financial management. A large body of scientific research has shown that people's subjective, or intuitive, judgments tend to be biased and inaccurate. This article reviews the major types of errors typically found in four phases of decision making: defining the problem, estimating the effects of different alternatives, choosing an alternative, and evaluating the outcomes as the basis for subsequent action. In addition to alerting health care administrators to these potential judgment errors, several methods to improve subjective decision making are explained.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed1993

CEO turnover in rural northwest hospitals.

This study examines rates of and reasons for turnover among administrators from 148 rural hospitals in four northwestern states. Data were obtained from a survey of CEOs who left their positions between 1987 and 1990 and from a survey of board members from those same hospitals. During the study period, 85 CEO turnovers occurred at 78 hospitals. High-turnover hospitals were generally smaller than those facilities with fewer turnovers. The annual rate of CEO turnover was 15 percent in 1988 and 16 percent in 1989. The reasons for turnover most often cited by those in their positions for less than four years were due to: seeking a better position elsewhere, an unstable health care system, conflict with hospital board members or with medical staff, and inadequate salary. High levels of self-reported job satisfaction and job performance by turnover CEOs contrasted to the much lower performance evaluations reported by hospital board members. Nearly three out of four board members indicated they would not rehire their departed CEOs. CEOs perceived their professional weaknesses to center on deficiencies in leadership and financial skills as well as problems with physician, hospital board, and community relations.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

How Hermann Hospital is saving resources through enterprise-wide reengineering.

Hermann Hospital, a 650-bed tertiary care facility and teaching hospital (Houston, TX), recognized the need for institution wide reengineering if they were to remain viable in a changing healthcare environment. Having already implemented total quality management (TQM) programs in various departments, Hermann wanted to provide a comprehensive line of healthcare services that worked cohesively with other areas, such as business development, community relations, and finance, and to do it competitively. Management knew that anticipated changes would require a holistic understanding of their system, so that reengineering efforts in one area didn't ¿break things¿ in another.

Cost Savings↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cost containment through a hospital-based blood donor center.

Hospitals must find ways to decrease costs in the face of decreasing reimbursements. The cost of blood products and special testing services provided by a regional blood center may be a source of excessive expense. Our facility has had its own blood donor program since June of 1950 and has achieved significant cost savings by collecting and processing blood for the facility rather than buying it from an outside agency. This article describes the benefits and disadvantages of having a hospital-based blood donor program. Benefits include cost savings, safety, better customer service for patients, meeting special physician needs, and enhanced community relations. Disadvantages include difficulty in meeting blood inventory and special testing needs, extra inspections by the Food and Drug Administration, and start-up costs. With proper research, planning, and management, a hospital-based blood donor program can be effective in containing costs in a laboratory.

Blood Banks↗
PubMed1983

Project health care at Bellevue Hospital.

Project Health Care is a program which uses college students considering careers in health care, as summer volunteers in the Emergency Department of a large, municipal hospital. It began with a small group in 1981, and was expanded the following year to include 16 students. The program was designed to provide opportunities for service and observation in various out-patient settings, seminars, lectures and individual and group projects. The project benefitted all participants. For the Emergency Department staff it stimulated better communication with non-professionals; for the hospital it provided intelligent, enthusiastic volunteer help while aiding community relations, and for the volunteers it provided an opportunity to make educated career decisions.

Emergency Service, Hospital↗
PubMed1986

Identifying incremental cost in HMO/PPO bid evaluation.

While hospitals are implementing case-mix accounting systems, they also may be negotiating prices with health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs). To aid decision makers in their evaluation of HMO/PPO bids, a matrix that projects the bottom-line effect of various rate and volume options may be useful. Identifying incremental cost--the additional cost incurred if one patient day were added--is the key to this type of matrix analysis. Knowing incremental cost, financial managers can project the effect of a potential loss of current patient volume if a bid is rejected, as well as the effect of a potential shift of patients to HMO/PPO status if a bid is accepted. Although the incremental per diem cost is of chief importance in evaluating bid alternatives, other factors, such as the hospital's potential for growth, opportunity to increase its competitive position, and the impact on community relations and on the medical staff, also must be considered.

Accounting↗
PubMedDate not supplied

New roles for philanthropy in hospitals.

Today, private contributions are "above the cap" of prospective budgets, signalling their increased value to not-for-profit hospitals. Fund raising is a cost-effective source of revenue that adds operating cash as well as new endowment. Five proven methods to raise gifts are available; how many are in use in your hospital? Investing in resource development also benefits hospital marketing, community relations, and public affairs programs. The future suggests that philanthropy will increase in importance for financial planning and may provide the edge for success in not-for-profit hospitals.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2002

The IRS and the Internet: new issues for tax-exempt organizations.

Tax-exempt healthcare organizations increasingly are using the Internet to provide an inexpensive, easily accessible forum for information exchange, organization publicity, and community-relations programs. A tax-exempt organization that engages in certain activities on its Web site, however, risks losing its tax-exempt status. Such activities may include political messages and lobbying, substantial advertising and other revenue-generating programs, and inappropriate solicitation of charitable contributions. Therefore, providers should carefully monitor all information on their Web sites, including hyperlinks to other Web sites, chat-room and bulletin-board content, and advertisements, to make certain they comply with IRS rules.

Advertising↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Chronic alcoholics' knowledge regarding tuberculosis.

INTRODUCTION: CA are under high risk of developing active TB, very extended forms of TB (with possible lethal outcome) etc. AIM: To investigate CA's KN and social stigmatization (ST) regarding TB. METHOD: A questionnaire with 22 items (general KN, ST) completed by 115 CA treated for chronic alcoholism on the ward of psychiatry during the year 2000: 97% male, 74% aged 26-45 years, 62% urban, education level (low-35%, middle-59%, high-6%), 8% refugees, 79% smokers. RESULTS: 72% know that TB mainly affects the lungs, 75% that TB can be cured, 79% that there is a vaccine against TB, 57% that blood in the sputum is not the only symptom of TB, 22% that there is a connection between TB and AIDS, 33% that there are forms of TB which cannot be cured by standard anti-TB treatment (rural, lower educated/urban, middle educated CA: p = 0.03). 19% would not visit a close friend suffering from TB, 26% would prevent their child from marrying someone who suffered from TB, only 80% would not divorce their spouse if he/she suffered from TB (rural, lower educated/urban, middle educated CA: p = 0.005). Only 35% of the sample know that CAs are under higher risk of developing TB than the general population. CONCLUSIONS: 1. KN on TB is not sufficient among CAs. 2. ST of TB is high among CAs. 3. Health education of CAs during hospital treatment must include: information on the danger of tobacco, on the natural history of TB, on high risk of developing TB, on the importance of early self referral when suspected TB symptoms appear, on personal and community related responsibility of each human being regarding TB.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Georgia's Cancer Awareness and Education Campaign: combining public health models and private sector communications strategies.

The Georgia Cancer Awareness and Education Campaign was launched in September 2002 with the goals of supporting cancer prevention and early detection efforts, heightening awareness of and understanding about the five leading cancers among Georgia residents, and enhancing awareness and education about the importance of proper nutrition, exercise, and healthy lifestyles. The inaugural year of the campaign is outlined, beginning with adherence to the public health principles of surveillance, risk factor identification, intervention evaluation, and implementation. A strategic and integrated communications campaign, using tactics such as paid advertising, public service announcements, local community relations, media releases, a documentary film, special events, and other components, is described in detail with links to multimedia samples. With an estimated budget of 3.1 million dollars, the first year of the campaign focuses on breast and cervical cancer screening and early detection.

Aged↗