Relations between upper limb soft tissue disorders and repetitive movements at work

To make a preliminary assessment of whether upper limb soft tissue disorders might be associated with activities at work, we have conducted a case-control study of subjects attending orthopedic clinics in three cities. All subjects between the ages of 16 and 65 years, in whom defined soft tissue conditions of the upper limb were diagnosed by the participating orthopedic surgeons, were invited to take part. Controls were subjects attending the same clinics within the same age range whose clinical diagnosis did not include disease of the upper limb, cervical or thoracic spine. Information concerning repetitive movements of the upper limbs at work was elicited by questionnaire. Five hundred eighty cases and 996 controls were studied, representing 96% and 93%, respectively, of those invited to participate. The diagnoses of the cases included soft tissue conditions affecting the shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist, thumb, hand, and fingers. The diagnoses of the controls included traumatic, degenerative, and inflammatory conditions, mostly of the legs and lower back. Women predominated among the cases (70%) and men among the controls (56%). Of 221 female cases with injury to the wrist and forearm, 32 were cleaner/domestics (14.5%) compared to 35 of 439 controls (8%), a difference statistically significant at the 2 1/2% level. Other jobs significantly overrepresented (5% level) among female cases with injuries at various anatomical sites included hairdressers, secretary/temps, assembly line workers, and machine operators (type unspecified). Among male cases, electricians were significantly overrepresented (5% level). Jobs for which there was a suggestion (p < 0.1) of overrepresentation among cases included butchers and teacher/ lecturers (both males only) and the combined job groups (chosen a priori for analysis) of keyboard operators, machine operators, and music teachers (all three jobs, females only).     

Academic Study,College Examinations,and Stress: Issues in the Interpretation of Cardiovascular Reactivity Assessments With Student Participants1

Stress arising from academic performance affects many college students. Moreover, students account for the majority of participants in cardiovascular reactivity research. The current research comprised three brief experiments investigating different aspects of student samples. In Experiment 1, students' (n = 30) academic fear of failure was found to be negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure reactivity. In Experiment 2, students' (n= 13) blood pressure was found to be significantly elevated 2 weeks before college examinations, compared with postexamination levels. Finally, in Experiment 3, students' (n = 19) examination performance was positively correlated with preexamination cardiovascular reactivity. These findings suggest specific college‐related factors that influence the cardiovascular stress response in students and, therefore, should aid the interpretation of much research conducted in cardiovascular health psychology.     

Psychometric evaluation of a squestionnaire to document side-effects of chemotherapy

This paper reports the psychometric testing of the Worthing Chemotherapy Questionnaire(WCQ). The WCQ is a patient self-report instrument to document side-effects of chemotherapy. Literature review of relevant studies shows that psychometric testing of similar instruments is rarely rigorous. Content validity for the WCQ was established in five ways: literature review, Delphi review among oncology staff, pre-pilot unstructured interviews, pilot study and amendment of the instrument and items for spontaneous reporting of problems on the questionnaire. A three-stage approach to construct validity was used. The hypothesis adopted was that as certain cytotoxic agents cause stomatitis, incidence and severity of stomatitis will decrease following cessation of treatment. Stage 1: factor analysis confirmed the presence of a sole factor, with an eigenvalue of 5.3, for mouth problems which explained 65.5% of the variance. Stage 2: the hypothesis was confirmed using research findings. Stage 3: the Wilcoxon test showed highly significant results for during and post chemotherapy stomatitis scores. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using the test-retest method. Weighted Kappa was chosen as the test statistic. A median value of _wK=0.87 was obtained. The results indicate that the WCQ is a reliable and valid instrument.     

Carers, ethics and dementia: a survey and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Much has been written on ethical issues in dementia, but usually from the point of view of the various professionals involved. Whilst there has been an increasing amount of interest in the psychosocial problems that face the carers of people with dementia, the ethical nature of some of these problems has largely been ignored. OBJECTIVE: To review the literature on ethical issues in dementia from the perspective of the main, non-professional carers of people with dementia. METHOD: A systematic literature search using Medline, Clinpsych and CINAHL databases between 1982 and 2000. A pilot study of carers. RESULTS: The lay perspective provides both a wide variety of issues and unique approaches. Although in the literature quantitative research answers some questions, it is qualitative research that deepens our understanding of the issues from the perspective of carers. CONCLUSION: It is particularly qualitative research that brings out the ethical issues for carers, which tend to be more varied than the ethical issues raised in the professional literature. Awareness of such issues could inform and shape the support given to carers.     

Para-ileostomy hernia: failure of a local repair technique

Different techniques of local repair of para-ileostomy herniae have been recommended by a number of authors, but without report of long-term outcome. Two patients presenting electively with symptomatic para-ileostomy herniae are reported. A local repair technique was used in each case because of severe (coexisting) medical disease, but both herniae recurred within 2 years. It is considered that local repair without stomal transposition cannot be recommended. The literature is reviewed.     

Visual and psychomotor performance of elite,intermediate and novice table tennis competitors

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether measures on a selected groups of visual and psychomotor variables distinguished between groups of elite, intermediate and novice table tennis players. The variables included commonly of Melbourne measured clinical functions such as static visual acuity, extent of visual field and oculomotor balance and more experimental visual tasks such as recognition of, peripheral targets, saccadic latency and dynamic visual acuity. Psychomotor performance was assessed by measures of simple reaction time, choice response time and hand movement time. Although elite level competitors had significantly better dynamic visual acuity, a wider visual field and superior recognition of peripheral targets compared to less skilled competitors, the magnitude, or practical significance of these differences was not great and individually accounted for less than 5 per cent of population variance. Elite competitors had significantly faster psychomotor responses than novice players with die skill variables individually accounting for between 21 per cent and 62 per cent of population variance in psychomotor performance. These results indicate that the psychomotor parameters could be a useful part of a test battery for talent identification amongst table tennis players.