Improving residents’ confidence in using psychosocial skills

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an intensive training program’s effects on residents’ confidence in their ability in, anticipation of positive outcomes from, and personal commitment to psychosocial behaviors. DESIGN: Controlled randomized study. SETTING: A university- and community-based primary care residency training program. PARTICIPANTS: 26 first-year residents in internal medicine and family practice. INTERVENTION: The residents were randomly assigned to a control group or to one-month intensive training centered on psychosocial skills needed in primary care. MEASUREMENTS: Questionnaires measuring knowledge of psychosocial medicine, and self-confidence in, anticipation of positive outcomes from, and personal commitment to five skill areas: psychological sensitivity, emotional sensitivity, management of somatization, and directive and nondirective facilitation of patient communication. RESULTS: The trained residents expressed higher self-confidence in all five areas of psychosocial skill (p<0.03 for all tests), anticipated more positive outcomes for emotional sensitivity (p=0.05), managing somatization (p=0.03), and nondirectively facilitating patient communication (p=0.02), and were more strongly committed to being emotionally sensitive (p=0.055) and managing somatization (p=0.056), compared with the untrained residents. The trained residents also evidenced more knowledge of psychosocial medicine than did the untrained residents (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Intensive psychosocial training improves residents’ self-confidence in their ability regarding key psychosocial behaviors and increases their knowledge of psychosocial medicine. Training also increases anticipation of positive outcomes from and personal commitment to some, but not all, psychosocial skills. Presented at the annual meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine, Washington, DC, April 27–29, 1994. Supported by the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, MI.     

The impact of cigarette smoking on healthcare utilization among rural residents in China

Objectives: To assess how cigarette smoking affects health care utilization among rural residents in China and to analyze the choice of health facility among current and former smokers in rural China.

Methods: This study employed three waves (2010–2014) of the China Family Panel Studies. The data set included 10,330 adults in each wave. Fixed effect and random effect logistic models and multinomial logistic model were used for data analysis.

Results: First, according to the fixed effect logistic model, the results showed that current and former smokers are positively (ORs > 1) and significantly associated with outpatient care. Moreover, former smokers are positively (ORs > 1) and significantly associated with inpatient utilization. Second, based on the random effect logistic model, the results illustrated that heavy smokers and long-term quitters are positively (ORs > 1) and significantly related to outpatient care, and former smokers are positively (ORs > 1) and significantly associated with inpatient utilization.

Conclusions: Firstly, the present study found that current and former smokers use more outpatient care than non-smokers. Moreover, former smokers use more inpatient care than non-smokers. Secondly, former smokers use more inpatient care than non-smokers, long-term quitters decrease the probability of using inpatient care compared with recent and moderate-term quitters.     

‘Underclassism’ and access to healthcare in urban centres

In this article, we draw on findings from an ethnographic study that explored experiences of healthcare access from the perspectives of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous patients seeking services at the non‐urgent division of an urban emergency department (ED) in Canada. Our aim is to critically examine the notion of ‘underclassism’ within the context of healthcare in urban centres. Specifically, we discuss some of the processes by which patients experiencing poverty and racialisation are constructed as ‘underclass’ patients, and how assumptions of those patients as social and economic Other (including being seen as ‘drug users’ and ‘welfare dependents’) subject them to marginalisation, discrimination, and inequitable treatment within the healthcare system. We contend that healthcare is not only a clinical space; it is also a social space in which unequal power relations along the intersecting axes of ‘race’ and class are negotiated. Given the largely invisible roles that healthcare plays in controlling access to resources and power for people who are marginalised, we argue that there is an urgent need to improve healthcare inequities by challenging the taken‐for‐granted assumption that healthcare is equally accessible for all Canadians irrespective of differences in social and economic positioning.     

上海市某社区老年居民代谢异常情况分析

目的 分析上海市某社区老年居民的代谢异常情况。方法 2013年3月至2013年10月对上海市宜川社区60岁以上常住2588位老年人建立健康档案,测量身高、体重、体质指数(body mass index, BMI)、腰围、血压,检测空腹血糖、总胆固醇(total cholesterol, TC)、三酰甘油(triglyceride, TG)、高密度脂蛋白胆固醇(high density lipoprotein cholesterol, HDL-C)、低密度脂蛋白胆固醇(low density lipoprotein cholesterol, LDL-C)、心电图等。结果超重和肥胖检出率为55.72%,中心性肥胖检出率为23.03%,高血压的检出率为53.40%,高血糖检出率为11.31%,高TC检出率为10.56%,高TG检出率为20.21%,低HDL-C检出率为23.87%,高LDL-C检出率为12.45%,心肌缺血及心律失常的检出率为49.55%。BMI与收缩压、舒张压、空腹血糖、TG、HDL-C的相关系数分别为0.119、0.111、0.109、0.191、-0.356(P＜0.01)。腰围与收缩压、舒张压、空腹血糖、TG、HDL-C的相关系数分别为0.203、0.108、0.140、0.159、-0.323(P＜0.01)。空腹血糖与收缩压、TC、TG、HDL-C的相关系数分别为0.094、0.040、0.126、-0.138(P＜0.05)。空腹血糖与心肌缺血、心律失常之间有一定的相关性(P＜0.01)。结论体质指数、腰围、空腹血糖以及血脂的各项指标密切相关,空腹血糖与心肌缺血及心率失常密切相关。     

Talking about end-of-life care: Perspectives of nursing home residents

The purpose of the paper is to describe how residents express preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care. For this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews and completed conventional content analysis to describe how residents’ expressed their preferences for care at the end of life. Sixteen residents from four nursing homes (NH) in southeastern Pennsylvania participated in this study. Residents were on average 88 years old, primarily non White, and widowed. Three key domains emerged from the analyses: Preferences for Today, Anticipating the End of My Life, and Preferences for Final Days. Residents linked their everyday living and EOL preferences by using ‘if and then’ logic to convey anticipation and readiness related to EOL. These findings suggest new strategies to start discussions of EOL care preferences with NH residents.     

An analysis of the first implementation and impact of the World Health Organisation’s health promoting school model within disadvantaged city schools in Ireland

While knowledge about the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) healthy schools model has been developed in recent years, process implementation and outcomes for school children have not improved in line with these advances. This deficit has become known as the ‘implementation gap’ and refers to the difference between the evidence of what works in theory and what is delivered in practice. The aim of this research was to evaluate the first implementation and impact of the WHO model among urban disadvantaged school children in Ireland from 2008 to 2012. A concurrent mixed methods study design was used. A process evaluation-mapped implementation and a three-year cohort study measured the impact. Data comprised of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis. Instruments included the Kidscreen-27 and the Child Depression Inventory (CDI). Over 600 children in five intervention and two comparison schools were recruited. The process evaluation revealed that top-down decision making based on the communities rather than each individual school’s needs and a lack of understanding of the concept of the whole school approach inhibited implementation. No significant differences were found between intervention and comparison of schools over three years post implementation. The successful implementation within an urban disadvantaged region requires not an analysis of the regional needs but a development of the individual school needs and sufficient lead-in time to ensure that each school is ready in terms of its understanding. Furthermore, healthy schools coordinators roles need to be clarified as facilitators of development and change rather than as unsustainable providers of health activities.     

Noise pollution and annoyance: An urban soundscapes study

Since 1972, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared noise as a pollutant. Over the last decades, the quality of the urban environment has attracted the interest of researchers due to the growing urban sprawl, especially in developing countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of noise exposure in six urban soundscapes: Areas with high and low levels of noise in scenarios of leisure, work, and home. Cross-sectional study. The study was conducted in two steps: Evaluation of noise levels, with the development of noise maps, and health related inquiries. 180 individuals were interviewed, being 60 in each scenario, divided into 30 exposed to high level of noise and 30 to low level. Chi-Square test and Ordered Logistic Regression Model (P < 0,005). 70% of the interviewees reported noticing some source of noise in the selected scenarios and it was observed an association between exposure and perception of some source of noise (P < 0.001). 41.7% of the interviewees reported some degree of annoyance, being that this was associated with exposure (P < 0.001). There was also an association between exposure in different scenarios and reports of poor quality of sleep (P < 0.001). In the scenarios of work and home, the chance of reporting annoyance increased when compared with the scenario of leisure. We conclude that the use of this sort of assessment may clarify the relationship between urban noise exposure and health.