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PubMed2004

Intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, and attitudes toward spiritual care: a comparison of israeli jewish oncology nurses' scores.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine the differences among secular, traditional, and religious Israeli oncology nurses' intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, and attitudes toward spiritual care. DESIGN: A comparative, descriptive study. SAMPLE: 148 Israeli Jewish nurses drawn from the membership of the Israeli Oncology Nursing Association. METHODS: Nurses completed mailed questionnaires. The four scales used were intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity portions of the Revised Age Universal Intrinsic-Extrinsic Scale, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and the Spiritual Care Perspective Scale. FINDINGS: Secular, traditional, and religious Jewish respondents differed significantly in intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, and religious well-being. No significant differences were found in existential well-being and attitudes toward spiritual care. Although not significant, an interesting trend was that secular nurses demonstrated more positive attitudes toward spiritual care than religious nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Jewish nurses' religiosity, spiritual well-being, and perhaps their attitudes toward spiritual care may be influenced by whether they are secular, traditional, or religious nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Israeli Jewish oncology nurses need self-awareness of their intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, and attitudes toward spiritual care when they are administering holistic care to their patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Arranged marriages, unlikely partners. How will their offspring look?

In the new era of managed care, many religious healthcare providers are making "arranged marriages"--permanent partnerships with secular organizations. As they do so, the religious partners naturally ponder how best to ensure that their values permeate the new entity and thus prevail in later organizational "offspring." The organizations most likely to perpetuate their values are those with ethical corporate cultures and climates. These include religiously based healthcare providers, but such providers seem to lack confidence today in their ability to maintain culture and climate in newly formed partnerships. That may be fortunate because it prevents them from trying to impose their values on secular partners. Nevertheless, such values are often attractive to a prospective partner. A religious healthcare provider will need market leverage, as well as attractive values, to make a good "marriage." Even so, religious providers and secular investor-owned organizations are unlikely partners, because their motives and incentives differ radically. But religious providers can form solid relationships with secular, not-for-profit healthcare organizations if they take care to negotiate a binding commitment to maintain an ethical culture and climate. However, Catholic providers are at a disadvantage in such negotiations because Catholic religious congregations are unlikely to continue as owner-sponsors much beyond another decade. It is crucial that a stable source of influence develop to ensure a religious presence in the offspring of new partnerships.

Ethics, Institutional↗
PubMed2002

Germline engineering: the moral challenges.

Not only is the use of germline genetic engineering likely in the long run to be inevitable, there are also no convincing secular moral grounds to forbid this technology in principle. Instead, the general secular moral constraints on the use of germline genetic engineering are either procedural or without predetermined content. Nor can one develop a coherent distinction between eliminating disease and enhancing human abilities. At best, in secular morality one can establish the principle to proceed with care, though the invocation of the precautionary principle argues as much in favor of the development of germline genetic engineering as against its use. Because germline genetic engineering, by eliminating certain genetic defects, offers the prospect of decreasing human suffering and decreasing the use of prenatal diagnosis and abortion, there is an obligation, all else being equal, to change the human genome. In a post-modern world, humans face the challenge of directing their own evolution, although they share no common understanding of human destiny and purpose. Such understandings, though available within religious contexts, are not available to secular bioethics.

Bioethics↗
PubMed2005

Between morality and repentance: recapturing "sin" for bioethics.

Distinguishing within "sin" the dimensions of anomia, hamartia, and asthenia makes it possible to analyze in greater detail the contrary manners in which traditional and post-traditional Christianities in this issue of Christian Bioethics endeavor to recapture what was lost when secular bioethics reconstructed the specifically spiritual-context-oriented normative commitments of Christianity in one-dimensionally moral terms. Various post-traditional attempts at securing moral orientation and resources for forgiveness, both of which secular bioethics finds increasingly difficult to provide, are critically reviewed. Their engagement of secular moral concepts and concerns, and even their adoption of an academically philosophical posture and language, is presented as responsible for their failure to adequately preserve what in traditional Christianity would count as prohibited vs. permitted, and advisable vs. non-advisable, or what would allow to resolve "tragic conflicts." The deeper reason for this failure lies in post-traditional Christianity's restricting the Christian life (with its central tension between love and the law) to what can be captured by cognitive categories. As the survey of several traditionally Christian accounts of sin in bioethics makes clear, both moral orientation (along with the resolution of "tragic" conflicts) and the sources of forgiveness are available, once that Christian life is framed in terms of persons' spirit-supported practical involvement in ascesis and liturgy, and once bioethical reflections are situated in the experiential context of such involvement.

Bioethics↗
PubMed1995

Moral content, tradition, and grace: rethinking the possibility of a Christian bioethics.

Birth, suffering, disability, disease and death were by medicine's successes placed within a context of seemingly novel challenges that cried out for new responses. Secular bioethics rose in response to the demands of these new biomedical technologies in the context of culture fragmented in moral pluralism. While secular bioethics promised to unite persons separated by diverse religious and moral assumption, this is a promise that could not be fulfilled. Reason alone cannot provide canonical, content-full moral guidance or justify a moral community capable of binding all persons. Christian bioethics, as part of a way of life enbedded in authentic worship, offers content, meaning and understanding where secular bioethics has failed. For Christians, resolution of bioethical controversies will not be found through appeals to foundational rational arguments or isolated scriptural quotations, but only in a Christian community united in authentic faith.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMed1997

Holiness, virtue, and social justice: contrasting understandings of the moral life.

Being a Christian involves metaphysical, epistemological, and social commitments that set Christians at variance with the dominant secular culture. Because Christianity is not syncretical, but proclaims the unique truth of its revelations, Christians will inevitably be placed in some degree of conflict with secular health care institutions. Because being Christian involves a life of holiness, not merely living justly or morally, Christians will also be in conflict with the ethos of many contemporary Christian health care institutions which have abandoned a commitment to Christian spirituality. In this regard, managed care raises the special question of how Christian institutions can act morally under financial constraints and maintain their character while under the control of secular managers. This question itself raises the further question as to why health care institutions need even pose this query when there are Christian physicians and nurses who could work for less, or Christian men and women who could become sisters and brothers and work for nothing. Contemporary challenges to Christians to maintain their integrity in a post-Christian world have much of their force because Christians have failed to maintain traditional Christian sprituality. In the face of that failure, Christian physicans and nurses will find themselves in greater conflict with health care institutions, because few will any longer understand the requirements of traditional Christianity. In its place, they will have put a generic spirituality, a value-neutral understanding of the role of the health professional, and an anonymous commitment to social justice.

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMed2004

Intergroup conflict management strategies as related to perceptions of dual identity and separate groups.

The authors examined the relations between (a) the perceptions of dual identity and separate groups and (b) intergroup conflict management strategies, in two contexts: the conflict between the secular and religious sectors in Israel and the allocation of resources among organizational subunits. In both contexts, contention (i.e., forcing one's will on the other party) was associated with the perception of separate groups. Only in the organizational context, avoidance (i.e., doing nothing or discontinuing participation in the conflict) was associated with the perception of dual identity. Problem solving (i.e., finding a solution that is acceptable to both parties) was related to the perception of dual identity in the secular-religious context. In the organizational context, this relation appeared only under a low perception of separate groups. Yielding (i.e., satisfying the other party's needs at the expense of one's own) was related to the perception of dual identity in the organizational context. In the secular-religious context, this relation appeared only under a high perception of separate groups. The authors discussed the varying pattern of the associations between (a) the perceptions of dual identity and separate groups and (b) the conflict management strategies in the two contexts in terms of the Dual Concern Model and the perceived feasibility of the strategies.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Time trends in autism and in MMR immunization coverage in California.

CONTEXT: Considerable concern has been generated in the lay and medical communities by a theory that increased measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) immunization among young children may be the cause of an apparent marked increase in autism occurrence. OBJECTIVE: To determine if a correlation exists in secular trends of MMR immunization coverage among young children and autism occurrence. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective analyses of MMR immunization coverage rates among children born in 1980-1994 who were enrolled in California kindergartens (survey samples of 600-1900 children each year) and whose school immunization records were reviewed to retrospectively determine the age at which they first received MMR immunization; and of autism caseloads among children born in these years who were diagnosed with autism and were enrolled in the California Department of Developmental Services regional service center system. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Measles-mumps-rubella immunization coverage rates as of ages 17 months and 24 months and numbers of Department of Developmental Services system enrollees diagnosed with autism, grouped by year of birth. RESULTS: Essentially no correlation was observed between the secular trend of early childhood MMR immunization rates in California and the secular trend in numbers of children with autism enrolled in California's regional service center system. For the 1980-1994 birth cohorts, a marked, sustained increase in autism case numbers was noted, from 44 cases per 100 000 live births in the 1980 cohort to 208 cases per 100 000 live births in the 1994 cohort (a 373% relative increase), but changes in early childhood MMR immunization coverage over the same time period were much smaller and of shorter duration. Immunization coverage by the age of 24 months increased from 72% to 82%, a relative increase of only 14%, over the same time period. CONCLUSIONS: These data do not suggest an association between MMR immunization among young children and an increase in autism occurrence.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1995

Socioeconomic change and patterns of growth in the Andes.

Changes in the pattern of growth over a 20-year period are described for a combined rural and semi-urban population in the District of Nuñoa (Puno) in southern Peruvian Andes. Over the past two decades, Andean regions have experienced many socioeconomic changes, including the implementation of agrarian reform policies and increased integration into a market economy. Local changes in Nuñoa have included improved transportation networks, new markets, an expanded public school system, and improved health care facilities. Secular trends in stature and weight have been found to be associated with social and economic development throughout the developing world, including Peru. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a re-study of growth in the Nuñoan population, and to assess whether changing conditions in Nuñoa have resulted in secular increases in growth. A cross-sectional sample of 1,466 children and adults and mixed-longitudinal sample of 404 children (age 3-22), measured between 1983 and 1984, are compared to similar samples collected from the same location between 1964 and 1966. Adolescents are taller, heavier, and somewhat fatter in the present population, although these differences diminish or disappear in adulthood. Age of maturation, peak growth velocities, and cessation of growth may come 1 to 2 years earlier than in the 1960s. As was found in earlier studies, growth velocities are low, the adolescent growth spurt is small, and sexual dimorphism is delayed. No secular trends in adult stature were found. Thus, the effects of social and economic change on nutrition, health, and growth in the population are uneven and generally unclear. This points to inequalities in access to the benefits of change throughout the region.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Transverse relaxation of solvent protons induced by magnetized spheres: application to ferritin, erythrocytes, and magnetite.

Since 1/T2 of protons of tissue water is generally much greater than 1/T1 at typical imaging fields, small single-ion contrast agents--such as Gd(DTPA), which make comparable incremental contributions and therefore smaller fractional contributions to 1/T2 compared to 1/T1--are not as desirable for contrast-enhancement as agents that could enhance 1/T2 preferentially. In principle, such specialized agents will only be effective at higher fields because the field dependence (dispersion) of 1/T1 is such that it approaches zero at high fields whereas 1/T2 approaches a constant value. The residual 1/T2 is called the "secular" contribution and arises from fluctuations in time--as sensed by the protons of diffusing solvent or tissue water molecules--of the component of the magnetic field parallel to the static applied field. For solutions or suspensions of sufficiently large paramagnetic or ferromagnetic particles (greater than or equal to 250 A diameter), the paramagnetic contributions to the relaxation rates satisfy 1/T2 much greater than 1/T1 at typical imaging fields. We examine the theory of secular relaxation in some detail, particularly as it applies to systems relevant to magnetic resonance imaging, and then analyze the data for solutions, suspensions, or tissue containing ferritin, erythrocytes, agar-bound magnetite particles, and liver with low-density composite polymer-coated magnetite. In most cases we can explain the relaxation data, often quantitatively, in terms of the theory of relaxation of protons (water molecules) diffusing in the outer sphere environments of magnetized particles. The dipolar field produced by these particles has a strong spatial dependence, and its apparent fluctuations in time as seen by the diffusing protons produce spin transitions that contribute to both 1/T1 and /T2 comparably at low fields; for the larger particles, because of dispersion, the secular term dominates at fields of interest. On the basis of the agreement of theory with data for solutions of small paramagnetic complexes, large magnetite particles, and liver containing low-density polymer-coated magnetite agglomerates, it is argued that the theory is sufficiently reliable so that, e.g., for ferritin--for which 1/T2 is unexpectedly large--the source of its large relaxivity must reside in nonideal chemistry of the ferritin core. For blood, it appears that diffusion through intracellular gradients determines 1/T2.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Double resonance ejection in a micro ion trap mass spectrometer.

Ion ejection from a cylindrical micro ion trap by resonance excitation of the secular motion is observed to be strongly dependent on the frequency of the secular motion at resonance. Both the intensity of the ion signal and the mass resolution of the resulting mass spectrum are increased when the ion secular frequency is approximately that of a nonlinear resonance of the trap. The resonances are attributed to electrical as well as geometrical considerations.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1986

Head injuries in a population study.

In a population study of altogether 1,112: 60-, 50-, and 30-year-old men performed in Göteborg, Sweden, data on head injuries suffered during life were obtained by personal interview. Two head injury concepts were used, one wide definition to cover all sorts of head injuries (HI-w) and one restricted only to delineate head injuries with evidence of presumed brain involvement (HI-r). 24% of the 60-year-old men, 21% of the 50-year-old men and 23% of the 30-year-old men reported at least one head injury with unconsciousness. When taking only the 3 first decades of life into account a significantly higher proportion of men in the youngest cohort had been unconscious than in the older ones, and the youngest men also had a significantly higher incidence of both HI-w and HI-r than the older men. Accidents at home, in roads and in sports/recreational areas dominated in childhood, place of work in adult age. HI-r accidents occurred somewhat more often in roads and sports/recreational areas than HI-w accidents. Falls, traffic and blows/impacts were the most common causes. Falls dominated in childhood. Motor vehicles were more often involved in childhood accidents in the youngest cohort than in the two older ones. The proportion of self-care decreased due to a strong secular trend. Out-patient care increased due to both a secular trend and to the age of the victim. The proportion of in-patient care increased with the age of the victim but showed no evident secular trend. 1/5 to 1/3 of all head injuries with unconsciousness were not medically attended.

Accidents, Home↗
PubMed2001

Hip fracture incidence in east and west germany: reassessement ten years after unification.

The rising incidence of hip fractures is of world wide concern. In addition to the demographically aging populations world wide a secular trend of hip fracture incidence has been reported for various populations. The objective of the current study was to reassess hip fracture incidence ten years following German reunification and compare incidence rates in former East and West Germany. Data from the German hospital discharge diagnosis registry were used to compare rates in former East and West Germany. A reassessment of a secular trend was done with directly age-standardized rates of the population 60 years old and over. Significant differences were found between incidence rates in the East and West German states with higher rates in the West. Compared to earlier studies for East Germany, rate in East Germany have increased by on average annually 6% since reunification. This is a steep increase compared to the annual rise by about 3% between 1974 and 1989. Hip fracture incidence in East Germany thereby has doubled during the 25-year period from 1971 to 1996. Although the observed acceleration of a secular trend in East Germany probably has multiple causes, evidence suggests a significant influence of Western life style on hip fracture incidence.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed2004

Paget's disease of bone in New Zealand: continued decline in disease severity.

We have reported previously that severe Paget's disease of bone had become less common at our center between 1973 and 1993. Data from several countries support the view that there are important secular trends in the prevalence and severity of Paget's disease. In this paper we describe recent trends in the demography of newly referred patients with Paget's disease to determine if the secular trend toward milder disease has continued. A database of all newly referred patients (n = 1487) with Paget's disease (1973 to 2002 inclusive, 30 years) was examined. Of these, 832 subjects (56%) had scintiscans. Plasma total alkaline phosphatase (total ALP) activity, disease extent on scintiscan, and a derived index of average ALP activity of pagetic bone were used as indices of severity. The number of new referrals with Paget's disease declined sharply from 1994 onward and is currently at half the rate seen 20 years earlier, while the mean age at presentation has progressively increased by 4 years per decade (P < 0.0001). Total ALP at diagnosis, disease extent on scintiscan, and the number of bones involved were all negatively correlated with both date of birth (P < 0.0001) and year of presentation (P < 0.0001), indicating that more recently born and presenting subjects had substantially less severe bone disease. The average activity of pagetic bone was only weakly correlated with year of presentation, but not with year of birth or age at presentation. Although there are a number of potential biases, these data are consistent with a continued secular trend to presentation in older subjects with less extensive skeletal involvement, and a declining prevalence of Paget's disease.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗
PubMed2006

Preembryo Personhood: an assessment of the President's Council arguments.

The President's Council on Bioethics has addressed the moral status of human preembryos in its reports on stem cell research and human therapeutic cloning. Although the Council has been criticized for being hand-picked to favor the right-to-life viewpoint concerning human preembryos, it has embraced the idea that the right-to-life position should be defended in secular terms. This is an important feature of the Council's work, and it demonstrates a recognition of the need for genuine engagement between opposing sides in the debate over stem cell research. To promote this engagement, the Council has stated in secular terms several arguments for the personhood of human preembryos. This essay presents and critiques those arguments, and it concludes that they are unsuccessful. If the best arguments in support of the personhood of human preembryos have been presented by the Council, then there are no reasonable secular arguments in support of that view.

Advisory Committees↗
PubMed1987

Religious observance and plasma lipids and lipoproteins among 17-year-old Jewish residents of Jerusalem.

The association of religious observance and plasma lipids and lipoproteins was studied in a sample of 673 Jewish residents of Jerusalem ages 17-18 years. Religious observance was classified according to the parents' ranking of their perceived degree of religiosity. The study group included children whose parents were orthodox Jews who pedantically observed religious commandments, children of traditional parents who observed some of the rules, and children of nonobservant secular parents. Plasma levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, and low-density lipoprotein were higher in secular children than in the orthodox group. These associations were independent of sex, origin, social class, body mass, and season. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol was somewhat higher in the orthodox group than in the secular children although this difference was not statistically significant. Regression analysis showed that offspring's environment and parental phenotype were the most important predictors of lipid concentrations in adolescents. The association of religious observance with plasma lipids and lipoproteins, however, was independent of parental phenotype lipid values and the contribution of offspring and parents' environment. These findings are consistent with similar differences in plasma lipids described previously among the parents, as well as the lower incidence of myocardial infarction in the orthodox religious group, which has been shown in the Israeli adult population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Seven-year trends in plasma low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol in young adults: the CARDIA Study.

To identify determinants of recent secular trends in lipids and characterize their influence on age-related increases in LDL-cholesterol, we examined a cohort of black and white men and women aged 18-30 in 1985-1986. Secular trends were determined by comparing participants aged 25-30 at baseline with those aged 25-30 at year 7 (2788 and 1395 participants, respectively). LDL-cholesterol was lower among those 25-30 at year 7 (5.9 to 10.2 mg/dL, depending on race-sex group; P < 0.001); weight was higher (8.3 to 12.5 lb; P < 0.001); Keys score was lower (-4.2 to -7.3 units; P < 0.001); and use of oral contraceptives was greater (white women only, P < 0.01). Among 4086 participants followed for 7 years, LDL-cholesterol changed little or decreased, despite substantial weight increases in all groups (11.6 to 19.0 lb; P < 0.001). Keys scores decreased by 6.1 to 8.0 units, and use of oral contraceptives decreased (P < 0.001). Declining secular trends in LDL-cholesterol occurred despite upward trends in weight; the decline was associated with lower dietary fat and cholesterol and offset expected age-related increases in LDL-cholesterol.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

On the accuracy of perceived parental height in a native Amazonian society.

Studies of secular trends in adult height in rural pre-literate societies are likely to show no change owing to random measurement error in age. In such societies, adults lack birth certificates and guess when estimating their age. We assess the accuracy of perceived height of the same-sex parent to estimate secular trends. We tested the method among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of farmers and foragers in Bolivia. Subjects included 268 women and 287 men >20 years of age. Over half the sample reported inaccurately the height of their same-sex living parent, with a tendency to report no difference when, in fact, differences existed. Results highlight the pitfalls of using perceived parental height to examine secular trends in adult height among the Tsimane', though the method might yield accurate information in other societies. We discuss possible reasons for the low accuracy of Tsimane' estimates.

Adult↗