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Biomedical subjects

B Lent

Publications and source records attributed to B Lent.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Sense and sensitivity: developing a gender issues perspective in medical education.

As part of a larger project focused on integrating women's health issues and gender issues into undergraduate medical education in Canada, the question of what is actually meant by a "gender issues perspective" in medical education was explored. Clinical experience, discussions with colleagues, and exposure to a variety of medical education resources reinforced the complexity of the subject and demonstrated the difficulty in making amorphous ideas concrete. Eight dimensions encompass the key concepts underlying a gender issues perspective. Practical applications highlight the usefulness of these suggested dimensions in making sense of and bringing sensitivity to this complex subject.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Survey of parental-leave policies and experiences in Ontario academic departments of psychiatry.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze psychiatrists' self-reports on a survey of faculty parental leaves conducted in 5 Ontario faculties of medicine. METHOD: A self-report questionnaire was mailed to all Ontario academic medical faculty members requesting information on demographics, parenting status, knowledge of parental-leave policies, personal and collegial experience of recent parental leave, and opinions about ideal parental-leave policies. RESULTS: The survey yielded a 48.6% response rate (3104 respondents). Of the respondents, 318 (10.2%) were academic psychiatrists and 113 (35.5%) of them had or adopted children since 1990. Of the 113 recent parents, 59 (53.2%) did not know their official university parental-leave policy. Fifty-one (48.1%) psychiatrists had recently taken parental leave (30 female, 21 male). Of these, females (26, 86.7%) were more likely than males (0%) to take more than 8 weeks' leave (P = 0.001). The income paid during parental leave was highly variable. Although 192 (64.4%) psychiatrists recommended that temporary replacements be hired and 175 (59.1%) recommended that the replacements be paid from a common faculty risk pool, replacements were hired for only 7 (13.7%) recent leaves. This replacement rate for psychiatry parental leaves was the second lowest of 8 medical specialties. Several leave takers felt that the leave negatively affected their research (32, 32.7%), administration (24, 23.3%), overall career course (23, 21.5%), colleagues' workload (27, 26.2), clinical work (19, 18.3%), teaching (18, 17.3%) and colleagues' attitudes toward them (11, 10.4%). Although 220 (71.5%) academic psychiatrists recommended paid leave to the primary caregiver for 16 or more weeks, 88 (28.6%) recommended less than the 17-week national standard. For secondary caregivers, 202 (66.0%) academic psychiatrists recommended a paid leave of 1-8 weeks, but 63 (20.6%) recommended paid leave for less than 1 week. One hundred and fifty-four psychiatrists (53.1%) recommended that parental-leave income be composed of usual income excluding clinical earnings, a less generous recommendation than that suggested by academic physicians in family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, and surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of knowledge of parental-leave policies and the variability in income and duration of parental leaves among Ontario academic psychiatrists call for the development, transmission, and implementation of equitable policies. Common faculty risk pools should be established to pay temporary replacements for parental leaves to facilitate the hiring of replacements and to avoid overburdening remaining colleagues. Strategies to allow new parents to continue their career development, especially in research, need further attention. There are clear discrepancies between what psychiatrists believe to be the vital role of early parenting in child development and what they recommend and provide with regard to parental leave for their colleagues. These discrepancies become more evident when compared with the more generous policies and practices in several other medical specialties.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed1996

Development of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool for use in family practice.

BACKGROUND: This study developed a screening tool for use by family physicians to identify and assess women patients experiencing emotional and/or physical abuse by their partner. METHODS: An initial set of eight questions developed for the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) was completed by both abused and non-abused women. Participants were also asked to indicate their comfort in answering the questions in both research and family practice contexts. They also completed the Abuse Risk Inventory and a demographic questionnaire. Analysis of the WAST included 1) standard assessment of the validity and reliability of the measure and 2) examination of the efficacy of further reducing the number of questions on the WAST for screening purposes. RESULTS: The final samples of abused (n = 24) and non-abused women (n = 24) differed significantly on a number of demographic and abuse variables. After eliminating one of the original items, a strong single factor structure was identified for the WAST that accounted for 85% of the total variance in responses to the WAST items. The WAST was found to be a highly reliable measure; coefficient alpha was estimated at.95. The scale also demonstrated construct and discriminant validity. The abused women reported being less comfortable responding to the WAST questions, in both the research and family practice contexts, than the non-abused women. The two WAST questions the abused women reported being most comfortable with were used to construct the WAST-Short for initial screening purposes. The WAST-Short correctly classified 100% of the non-abused women and 91.7% of the abused women. CONCLUSIONS: The WAST demonstrated good reliability and validity and discriminated between abused and non-abused women. Development of the WAST-Short provides physicians with a relatively unobtrusive screening tool for assessing abuse. The use of additional WAST questions can be used to further explore the possibility that a woman patient is experiencing abuse by her partner. Further study includes field testing the WAST in the family practice setting.

Battered Women↗
PubMed1996

Clumsy children. Primer on developmental coordination disorder.

The common assumption that children "grow out of" clumsiness is not supported by studies carried out over the last 15 years. About 6% of children lack the motor coordination to perform age-appropriate tasks. Greater awareness of this developmental coordination disorder will improve the rate of identification. Family physicians should incorporate questions about motor skills into their assessments of preschool children.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1993

Identifying and treating wife abuse.

BACKGROUND: Wife abuse, acknowledged as a critical problem in our society, is often undetected by family physicians. The purpose of this study was to identify the problems and potential solutions encountered by family physicians in the identification and treatment of wife abuse in London, Ontario. METHODS: Family physicians in London were recruited to participate in four focus groups. The groups' discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed using qualitative methodology to determine relevant themes. RESULTS: Thirty-two physicians (16 male and 16 female) participated in the focus groups. The majority were in group practice (81%). The average number of years in practice was 11.75. An analysis of the focus group session identified two major clinical themes with subcategories: (1) physician issues (ie, identification, treatment); and (2) patient issues (ie, barriers to identification, symptom presentation). CONCLUSIONS: The focus groups served as an effective method to engage family physicians in isolating their own as well as their patients' difficulties in confronting this serious problem.

Family Practice↗
PubMed1986

Persistence of antibody and response to booster dose of Haemophilus influenzae type b polysaccharide diphtheria toxoid conjugate vaccine in infants immunized at 9 to 15 months of age.

At approximately 2 years of age, 27 infants previously immunized at 9 to 15 months of age with two doses of polyribosylribitol phosphate-diphtheria toxoid conjugate vaccine (PRP-D) and 23 infants immunized with polyribosylribitol phosphate (PRP) vaccine were given a single injection of PRP-D. Pre- and post-immunization sera were obtained. No serious local or systemic reactions were observed. The PRP-D recipients had a geometric mean anti-PRP antibody level of 4.8 micrograms/ml 1 month after the second primary injection, retained 1.2 microgram/ml 1 year later, and had a level of 71 micrograms/ml after the booster immunization. In contrast, PRP recipients had a geometric mean level of 0.083 microgram/ml 1 month after the second primary injection, retained 0.042 microgram/ml 1 year later, and after a single dose of PRP-D at approximately 2 years of age had a geometric mean level of 8.6 micrograms/ml. The significantly higher antibody response in the prior PRP-D recipients suggests the recall of immunologic memory induced by the PRP-D vaccine.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗
PubMed1982

Purification and properties of a kinase which phosphorylates and inactivates acetyl-CoA carboxylase.

A protein kinase which phosphorylates and inactivates acetyl-CoA carboxylase has been purified to apparent homogeneity from rat liver. The kinase was found to exist in two forms: bound to carboxylase in a complex or in a free form that is in different stages of aggregation over a wide range of molecular weights. The purification of the kinase involved first partial purification of acetyl-CoA carboxylase through polyethylene glycol precipitation and DEAE-cellulose chromatography. The kinase was then separated from acetyl-CoA carboxylase by Sepharose 2B chromatography. The molecular weight of the kinase subunit was 170,000 as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis. The incorporation of 1 mol of phosphate/mole of carboxylase subunit caused complete inactivation of the carboxylase. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, inactivated by the kinase, can be dephosphorylated and reactivated when incubated with phosphorylase phosphatase. The Km values of the kinase for acetyl-CoA carboxylase and ATP are 90 nM and 20 microM, respectively. The kinase was found to be cyclic AMP-independent, but activated by CoA. The protein kinase can phosphorylate acetyl-CoA carboxylase, protamine, and histones, but could not act on hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase or phosphorylase b.

Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase↗
PubMed1978

Gonorrhea in homosexual men.

Extragenital gonorrhea was seen in 65% of 54 cases of gonorrhea in 43 homosexual men attending a venereal diseases clinic between 1974 and 1977; in 21 cases the infection was extragenital only. This type of gonorrhea was often asymptomatic and was associated with a high rate of failure of initial treatment in 6 of the 50 cases in which the patient returned for follow-up assessment, and in 5 of the 6 the persistent infection was extragenital. Syphillis was seen concomitantly or had previously occurred in 6 of the 54 cases. Fifteen of 28 cases of primary, secondary or early latent syphilis seen in men during the same study period had occurred in homosexuals. Appropriate testing for extragenital gonorrhea and for syphilis is important in homosexual men who present for examination, and homosexuality with the possibility of extragenital gonorrhea should be considered in a man with syphilis of recent onset.

Gonorrhea↗