Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey questionnaire: which normative data should be used? Comparisons between the norms provided by the Omnibus Survey in Britain, the Health Survey for England and the Oxford Healthy Life Survey.
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BACKGROUND: Population norms for the attributes included in measurement scales are required to provide a standard with which scores from other study populations can be compared. This study aimed to obtain population norms for the Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey Questionnaire, derived from a random sample of the population in Britain who were interviewed at home, and to make comparisons with other commonly used norms. METHODS: The method was a face-to-face interview survey of a random sample of 2056 adults living at home in Britain (response rate 78 per cent). Comparisons of the SF-36 scores derived from this sample were made with the Health Survey for England and the Oxford Healthy Life Survey. RESULTS: Controlling for age and sex, many of mean scores on the SF-36 dimensions differed between the three datasets. The British interview sample had better total means for Physical Functioning, Social Functioning, Mental Health, Energy/Vitality, and General Health Perceptions. The Health (interview) Survey for England had the lowest (worst) total mean scores for Physical Functioning, Social Functioning, Role Limitations (physical), Bodily Pain, and Health Perceptions. The postal sample in central England had the lowest (worst) total mean scores for Role Limitations (emotional), Mental Health and Energy/Vitality. CONCLUSION: Responses obtained from interview methods may suffer more from social desirability bias (resulting in inflated SF-36 scores) than postal surveys. Differences in SF-36 means between surveys are also likely to reflect question order and contextual effects of the questionnaires. This indicates the importance of providing mode-specific population norms for the various methods of questionnaire administration. (+info)
Morbidity in older people with self-reported asthma.
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OBJECTIVE: To investigate the differences in physical and psychological morbidity in older people with and without self-reported asthma and whether these are associated with use of more medication and hospital services. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of changes in health services for older people. SETTING: South Wales in 1990 and 1992. SUBJECTS: A population-based random sample of 2818 people aged 65 years and over. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of self-reported asthma; assessment of disability, anxiety, depression and memory using standardized measures; mobility; use of prescribed medication and hospital services. RESULTS: 231 subjects with self-reported asthma were identified. The prevalence of asthma was 8%, which was not significantly different between the sexes (P = 0.88), age groups (P = 0.06) or social classes (P = 0.108). There was a significant relationship between asthma and functional and physical disability (severe disability 29% vs 16%, P < 0.0001), mobility (housebound 7% vs 4%, P < 0.05), anxiety (37% vs 20%, P < 0.0001), depression (19% vs 10%, P < 0.001), poor perceived health status (23% vs 9%, P < 0.0001), number of different medications (seven or more, 13% vs 4%, P < 0.0001) and inpatient (P < 0.0001) and outpatient (P < 0.05) use of hospital services. CONCLUSIONS: There is excess psychological and physical morbidity and poorer perceived health status in older people with self-reported asthma. (+info)
The impact of patients' influence on recovery in a group of patients with dyspepsia.
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BACKGROUND: The approach to health and disease can either be salutogenic (origins of health) or pathogenic (disease causing), which thus makes recovery a concept featuring several different angles. Antonovsky, with his concept of salutogenesis, tried to reach a more complete understanding of its favourable effects on health. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate, understand and learn from the experiences of a small group of patients about factors leading to recovery. METHODS: A qualitative approach was used to explore patient experiences. One semi-structured interview was conducted by one of the authors (BN) with each of the 18 patients suffering from dyspepsia who had been investigated by means of gastroscopy at a university hospital clinic 12-15 years previously. The interviews were recorded either in written notes composed directly after the interviews or tape-recorded and subsequently transcribed. A modified form of grounded theory according to Strauss-Corbin was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: A pattern featuring five types of patients' influence on their lives was discerned, ranging from "a sense of no possibility of having an influence on existence/life" to "having influence". Strategies used by patients to maintain health could be categorized into four types: "extremists", "oscillators", "leapers" and "full-scalers". CONCLUSIONS: Listening to patients who had experiences with dyspepsia brought patient influence on their own lives and on the care process into focus. We consider that there might be a link between patients having an influence on their lives and their being healthy today. In clinical practice, patient recovery and health promotion could gain from a perspective where patient influence is treated with esteem and emphasized in the consultation. In the future, research design could benefit from taking patient influence on the care process into consideration. However, no causal linkage between patient influence and patient outcome was established in this study. In order to do that, studies with quantitative design should be undertaken in the future. (+info)
Promoting medical self-care: evaluation of a family intervention implemented in the primary health care by pharmacies.
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BACKGROUND: Medical self-care is the range of behaviours undertaken by people to promote or restore health when dealing with a medical problem. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate medical self-care effects of a family intervention implemented in primary health care by pharmacies, in terms of non-professional and professional involvement. METHODS: The intervention was implemented in one of two primary health care areas during a 4-month period and involved consecutive families acting as an intervention (IG, n = 94) or a control (CG, n = 93) group. Eight telephone interviews were conducted with each family. The families were asked about complaints of illness, how long they prevailed and how they were treated. RESULTS: The results showed (P < 0.05-0.0001) that the IG had more medical problems (931 versus 621) compared with the CG, were less hospitalized (4 versus 10), stayed at home more to take care of sick children (84 versus 40), read more medical brochures (121 versus 31), tried more non-medical treatments (228 versus 116), and had fewer visits to the department of paediatrics but more visits to primary health care (69 and 98 versus 90 and 68). CONCLUSIONS: Due to the non-randomization procedure, some caution with regard to generalization of the results must be taken, but they are in concordance with established knowledge of the usefulness of medical self-care. The results indicate that a brief intervention for families can change the use of health authorities. It therefore seems meaningful to implement the intervention in a more comprehensive way in the primary health care setting, while at the same time trying to implement it as a large-scale randomized experimental study, comprising aspects such as the individual's need for care, the use of the right organization level and the assessment of economic costs and savings. (+info)
Quality of vaccination services and social demand for vaccinations in Africa and Asia.
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For immunization to be effective in the long run as a major global disease control intervention it is important to provide good quality vaccination services. Studies carried out in three countries in Asia (Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines) and two countries in Africa (Ethiopia and Malawi), and reported on in this article, document the fact that parents are willing to invest considerable effort in having their children vaccinated; however, there are a number of serious shortcomings in the quality of the routine vaccination services and strains are apparent at the interface between the vaccination providers and the users. These shortcomings are detracting from the sustainability of routine vaccination programmes and are promoting the growth of pools of nonimmunized and partially immunized children. To safeguard the continued operation and to enhance the coverage of routine vaccination programmes it is crucial that these difficulties be addressed. (+info)
Counseled women's perspectives on their interactions with lay health advisors: a feasibility study.
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Although the use of lay health advisors (LHAs) has become a popular intervention in public health promotion projects, few programs have conducted evaluations demonstrating program impact by interviewing people actually counseled by LHAs. This study used semistructured, in-person interviews with 29 older, black women to elicit their perceptions of their interactions with the North Carolina Breast Cancer Screening Program's LHAs, and the ways in which these interactions affected their mammography attitudes and behavior. Interview data indicate that a majority of the respondents felt that LHAs had helped them in some way; most said that talking to advisors made them think more positively about mammograms and/or consider getting one. LHAs influenced the women they counseled because the women knew the advisors well, felt comfortable talking to advisors about private issues, considered advisors to be credible sources of information about mammography and because advisors offered women support with respect to their mammography behavior. These results elucidate some of the mechanisms through which LHAs affect the attitudes and behavior of individuals in their social networks. (+info)
How do researchers influence decision-makers? Case studies of Mexican policies.
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Though the problems translating or applying research in policy-making are legion, solutions are rare. As developing countries increase their capacities to develop effective local solutions to their health problems, they confront the research/policy dilemma. Yet few descriptive studies of research-policy links can be found from developing countries, and the relevance of European and North American models and data is questionable. We report the results of a descriptive study from Mexico of the relationship between health research and policy in four vertical programmes (AIDS, cholera, family planning, immunization). We interviewed 67 researchers and policy-makers from different institutions and levels of responsibility. We analyzed interviewee responses looking for factors that promoted or impeded exchanges between researchers and policy-makers. These were, in turn, divided into emphases on content, actors, process, and context. Many of the promoting factors resembled findings from studies in industrialized countries. Some important differences across the four programmes, which also distinguish them from industrialized country programmes, included extent of reliance on formal communication channels, role of the mass media in building social consensus or creating discord, levels of social consensus, role of foreign donors, and extent of support for biomedical versus social research. We recommend various ways to increase the impact of research on health policy-making in Mexico. Some of the largest challenges include the fact that researchers are but one of many interest groups, and research but one input among many equally legitimate elements to be considered by policy-makers. Another important challenge in Mexico is the relatively small role played by the public in policy-making. Further democratic changes in Mexico may be the most important incentive to increase the use of research in policy-making. (+info)
Unofficial fees in Bangladesh: price, equity and institutional issues.
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The widespread collection of unofficial fees at health facilities is a common form of rent-seeking behaviour in Bangladesh. Typically, unofficial fees come in the form of cash payments for the performance of required services, for direct purchase of drugs and medical-surgical requisites, and for service access. Using observational and interview methods, this study explores linkages between official and unofficial fees at three Bangladesh health facility levels; primary care Thana Health Complexes, secondary or district hospitals, and medical college hospitals. The study estimates payment levels for different income classes and different payor types at these facilities, thereby highlighting potential equity, price and institutional questions associated with unofficial fees. Not only does the practice have clear income and equity effects, there also appear to be direct effects upon patient satisfaction, perception of quality, and the ability to pay for health services. The article concludes with a discussion of 'rent capture' processes at Bangladesh facilities and the effect of unofficial fees in six areas of health sector reform: displaced official policies, reduced merit goods production, upward income redistribution, distorted human resource development, growth of facility inefficiency, and obstruction of market reforms. (+info)