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Biomedical subjects

B Stoffelmayr

Publications and source records attributed to B Stoffelmayr.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Effects of a 6-month incentive-based exercise program on adherence and work capacity.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of behavioral management techniques on exercise adherence linked to improvements in work capacity and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). One hundred thirty-seven participants in six different worksites on a university campus (five experimental and one comparison site) completed 6 months of a minimally supervised, incentive-based endurance exercise program. All participants in the experimental group contracted to engage in at least four bouts of 30 min of verified aerobic exercise within a prescribed target heart rate range each week for the duration of the program. Forty dollars deposited at the beginning of the program served as a response cost that could be lost as a result of failure to fulfill the weekly contracts. Individuals in the comparison group participated in a similar 6-month program but without the contracts and response cost strategies. Weekly adherence for both groups was strictly defined as verified fulfillment of all four bouts of exercise. Adherence for the experimental group was 97% by this definition, and adherence for the comparison group was 19% (P less than 0.01). VO2max increased 2.6% (P less than 0.01), and treadmill test time increased 16% (P less than 0.01) in the experimental group after the 6-month program, with no significant changes in the comparison group. Recovery heart rates at 2 and 4 min post-exercise were significantly lower at 6 months in the experimental group but not in the comparison group. These data provide evidence that adherence to a 6-month endurance exercise program can be improved significantly through the use of well conceived behavior management strategies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

Facilitating patient participation: the doctor-patient encounter.

Our purpose in undertaking this review has been to extract from the literature behavioral prescriptions for physicians and strategies for prevention. We have demonstrated that the physician who wishes to be a successful counselor needs to ensure that the patient knows what to do, work toward patient commitment to behavior change, negotiate and tailor the specifics of the treatment, and be a warm, attentive interviewer who provides support to patients by attending to emotional responses as they arise. We have suggested ways that the encounter can be embedded in a functioning primary care organization where other members of the team are involved, and where follow-up mobilization of social support and the systematic application of behavioral techniques can achieve permanent behavior change.

Communication↗

Worksite smoking cessation programs: a potential for national impact.

Data from three pilot studies of small worksite smoking cessation programs demonstrate that programs which appeal to all smokers in an organization, not just those who have stated an interest in achieving cessation, will attract a high per cent of smokers and assist an unusually high per cent of them to achieve and maintain abstinence.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

Efficacy of a one-month training block in psychosocial medicine for residents: a controlled study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of a comprehensive, one-month psychosocial training program for first-year medical residents. DESIGN: Nonrandomized, controlled study with immediate pre/post evaluation. Limited evaluation of some residents was also conducted an average of 15 months after teaching. SETTING: Community-based, primary care-oriented residency program at Michigan State University (MSU). SUBJECTS: All 28 interns from the single-track MSU residency program during 1986/87-88/89 participated in this required rotation; there was no dropout or instance of noncompliance with the study. In the follow-up study in 1989, all 13 available trainees participated. Of 20 untrained, volunteer controls, ten were second/third-year residents in the same program during 1986/87 and ten were interns from a similar MSU program in Kalamazoo, MI, during 1988/89. TEACHING INTERVENTION: An experiential, skill-oriented, and learner-centered rotation with competency-based objects focused on communication and relationship-building skills and on the diagnosis and management of psychologically disturbed medical patients. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The two subsets of the control group were combined because residents and training programs were similar and because means and standard deviations for the subsets were similar on all measures. By two-way analyses of variance (group x gender), the trainee group showed significantly greater gains (p less than 0.001) on questionnaires addressing knowledge, self-assessment, and attitudes; a mean of 15 months following training, there was no significant deterioration of attitude scores. All trainees were also able to identify previously unrecognized, potentially deleterious personal responses using a systematic rating procedure. Residents' acceptance of the program was high. CONCLUSIONS: Intensive, comprehensive psychosocial training was well accepted by residents. It improved their knowledge, self-awareness, self-assessment, and attitudes, the latter improvement persisting well beyond training.

Adult↗

Residents' attitudes towards and skills in counseling: using undetected standardized patients.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the frequency and quality of certain prevention-oriented counseling skills of resident physicians and to compare these skills with the residents' attitudes towards and knowledge about primary prevention. DESIGN: Longitudinal descriptive study. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: 54 PGY-1-3 internal medicine and family practice residents enrolled in three training programs affiliated with Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. INTERVENTION: Trainees' attitudes towards and knowledge about certain prevention activities were captured by an instrument designed for this study using 127 Likert scales. Counseling skills were assessed with one of two standardized patients. Residents were unaware of the simulation, which occurred in their routinely scheduled ambulatory care setting. Audiotapes of the interactions were rated by blinded, independent raters. Residents had strong positive beliefs about the role of primary care physicians in counseling patients, high levels of knowledge about what the counseling should entail, and high self-assessment about the frequency and quality of their own counseling interventions. Skill levels, however, were at or below a level defined as minimally acceptable. CONCLUSION: Resident physicians' skill levels, as measured in this study, are inadequate to accomplish routine counseling interventions in the primary care setting. These results suggest that more reliance should be placed on direct observation of physicians, ideally in nonreactive settings, for purposes of drawing conclusions about physician performance. Further, these results have implications for the training of students and residents in the area of counseling for prevention.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗