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Biomedical subjects

Bee-Horng Lue

Publications and source records attributed to Bee-Horng Lue.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Social support and family functioning on psychological symptoms in elderly Chinese.

The purpose of this study was to extend our knowledge about how social support and family functioning affect mental health, and to examine the buffering effects of support in the presence of health stressors. A random cluster sample of 507 elderly community people were surveyed with a structured questionnaire, which included the depression and anxiety subscale of the Chinese version of Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Family Emotional Involvement and Criticism Scale (FEICS), Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), and the Katz Activities of Daily Living Scale (KADL). Results revealed that women had more anxiety symptoms than men (mean=3.49; 95% CI: 3.02-3.95 versus mean=2.56; 95% CI: 2.27-2.85). Emotional support was more important than instrumental support for psychological symptoms. Family emotional involvement was inversely correlated to depression (r=-0.19) and anxiety (r=-0.22), while criticism was positively correlated to depression (r=0.29) and anxiety (r=0.31). Multivariate analysis revealed that women, impaired cognitive function, urban residents with chronic diseases, less emotional support, and more criticism from the family were associated with more depressive and anxiety symptoms. Family involvement had buffering effects on psychological symptoms for people with cognitive impairment and medical diseases. Our results imply that elderly people with mental symptoms and chronic medical diseases benefit more from family involvement.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

Students' evaluation on a two-stage anatomy curriculum.

This study evaluated students' perspectives of the two-stage anatomy course, which is designed to retain the time-honored tradition of cadaver dissection and to include innovative components into anatomy education. A total of 94 sixth-year medical students completed a questionnaire survey at the end of the second stage anatomy course. The results showed that more than half of the students were satisfied with the two-stage anatomy course. Students found that cadaver dissection was most helpful in learning anatomy. The two-stage anatomy course can enhance understanding and memory of anatomical knowledge. However, students disagreed on whether or not the two-stage course can reduce the burden of learning or that the parallel study of anatomy and the 'Life and Death' course could change their attitude toward death more effectively. National Licensing Examination revealed no obvious change after the implementation of the new anatomy course. Traditional and innovative components in anatomy curriculum could coexist in harmony. We provided an alternative for those who wanted to retain cadaver dissection in a reformed curriculum. Further study is needed to evaluate the adequacy of anatomy knowledge and student performance in the long run.

Anatomy↗
PubMed2004

Dyspnea and its correlates in taiwanese patients with terminal cancer.

This study prospectively assessed dyspnea and related bio-psycho-social-spiritual factors--including severity, cause, psychological distress, and fear of death--that were possibly related to dyspnea in 125 terminal cancer patients at admission and two days before their death. At admission, 74 patients had dyspnea, which improved but later worsened. Causes included cachexia, anemia, pleural effusion, and lymphangitis. Quality of life, anxiety, depression, and fear of death improved after admission; anxiety was correlated with dyspnea before death (r = 0.211, P < 0.05, univariate analysis). Lung infection (odds ratio = 2.29, 95% confidence interval = 0.68-3.90; multiple regression), airway obstruction (2.27, 1.41-3.13), acidemia (1.82, 0.72-2.98), and pericardial effusion (1.38, 0.44-2.32) were independent correlates of dyspnea severity at admission (42.8% of explained variance). Before death, airway obstruction, esophageal cancer, pericardial effusion, lung infection, and mediastinal mass were independent correlates of severity (42.7% of explained variance). Comprehensive care, including improved psychospiritual status, can help in controlling dyspnea and enhancing patients' quality of life.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

The use of focus groups in evaluating quality of life components among elderly Chinese people.

In Taiwan, to measure the quality of life (QOL) of elderly Chinese, one must rely on instruments developed in other Chinese or Western populations and not specifically for the elderly. The purpose of this study is to understand the components of QOL for elderly Chinese from Taiwan living in residential homes or in their communities. Forty-four elderly men and women divided into six focus groups were interviewed on video tape and the resultant recording was analyzed qualitatively by six independent researchers. The study yielded 15 QOL domains grouped into six dimensions: physical health (physical well-being, impact of illness, medical care), psychological health (mood states, life attitude and retrospection, philosophy of living, self-efficacy), social function (connectedness, exercise and leisure activities, social activities and services), living environment (living environment and arrangements, institutional factors), economic status, and religion and death (religion, death). For elderly Chinese in Taiwan, positive and negative life domains are equally important in the perception of life quality; person-environment interaction is a major consideration in the evaluation of QOL; family ties are an important component of QOL; traditional Chinese beliefs exert a positive influence on perceived QOL; and social functioning and vitality have a different meaning in Chinese compared to Western cultures.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2004

Plasma adiponectin levels and metabolic factors in nondiabetic adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: The relationship of plasma adiponectin levels with various anthropometric and metabolic factors has been surveyed extensively in adults. However, how plasma adiponectin levels are related to various anthropometric indices and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents is not as vigorously studied. In this study, we investigated this among healthy nondiabetic adolescents. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Two hundred thirty nondiabetic subjects (125 boys and 105 girls, approximately 10 to 19 years old) were included. The plasma adiponectin, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, lipids and anthropometric indices including body height, weight, waist circumference, and hip circumference were examined. Body fat mass (FM) and percentage were obtained from DXA scan. The homeostasis model assessment was applied to estimate the degree of insulin resistance. RESULTS: The plasma adiponectin levels were significantly higher in girls (30.79 +/- 14.48 micro g/mL) than boys (22.87 +/- 11.41 micro g/mL). The plasma adiponectin levels were negatively related to BMI, FM, FM percentage, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, insulin resistance, plasma insulin, triglycerides, and uric acid levels, but positively with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) with the adjustment for age and gender. Using different multivariate linear regression models, only age and HDL-C were consistently related to the plasma adiponectin levels after adjustment for the other variables. DISCUSSION: The relationship between plasma adiponectin and various anthropometric indices and metabolic factors, especially HDL-C, previously reported in adults was present in the healthy nondiabetic adolescents. Whether variation of plasma adiponectin levels in healthy nondiabetic adolescents may influence their future coronary artery disease risk warrants further investigation.

Adiponectin↗
PubMed2004

Using senior residents as standardized patients for evaluating basic clinical skills of medical students.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The use of standardized patients (SPs) is a powerful method for performance evaluation in medical education. It has gained increasing popularity in teaching and evaluation of clinical skills of medical students in the last decade. Maintaining an active and effective SP program requires a tremendous amount of financial and manpower investment, which may be difficult for many medical schools to provide. This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of using senior residents as SPs (SRSPs) to alleviate the financial and manpower burdens of an SP program. METHODS: A total of 112 fifth year medical students and 26 third year senior residents from a university hospital participated in this research in 2000. Students at the end of a 9-week rotating clerkship in internal medicine formed groups of 7 members. Senior residents took multiple roles as case developers, SPs, teachers, and evaluators. Test and recess stations were integrated, and sequential individual and group discussion with SRSPs was used to provide feedback immediately after the completion of the examination. Students were given a test report including scores and written narrative feedback. Semi-constructive questionnaires were used for opinion survey from students as well as the SRSPs. RESULTS: All SRSPs demonstrated their ability to function in multiple roles and regarded the SRSP experience as helpful to improve this ability. Most SRSPs (89%) considered the experience beneficial in improving their clinical teaching skills. Ninety percent of SRSPs thought that a case should be portrayed for no more than 4 hours in order to maintain the consistency and accuracy. Seventy two percent of medical students reported that SRSPs' status as teachers did not interfere with their performance, 68% reported being able to treat SRSPs as real patients, and 96% reported that the evaluation was helpful to their professional development. CONCLUSIONS: An SRSP program is feasible, practical, and easy to establish. It can provide benefits to both students and senior residents with clinical training responsibilities, and serve as an alternative method for performance evaluation of students in medical schools with limited resources.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed2003

Development of a teaching style inventory for tutor evaluation in problem-based learning.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a self-rating instrument to assess teaching styles among tutors in problem-based learning (PBL). METHODS: The development of the teaching style inventory (TSI) was based theoretically on four types of teaching behaviours: the assertive, suggestive, collaborative and facilitative styles, as proposed by Bibace et al. A 35-item questionnaire was generated and evaluated for content validity by a group of experienced tutors. The questionnaire was mailed to 196 tutors at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The results were submitted for item analysis, internal consistency testing and exploratory factor analysis. Longterm test-retest reliability was assessed by a sample of 50 tutors after a 6-month interval. RESULTS: Finally, 118 tutors returned the questionnaires. In the item reduction process, seven items were excluded due to low interscale correlation. Principle component factoring yielded a three-factor solution that accounted for 48.5% of the total variance. Internal consistency coefficients of the four hypothetical domains ranged from 0.73 to 0.83. All domains correlated to each other as expected. Assertive and facilitative styles, which are theoretically opposite teaching styles, showed a negative correlation with each other. Most of the items of each hypothetical domain correlated better with their own domain than with other domains. Longterm test-retest correlations of the four domains ranged from 0.54 to 0.81. CONCLUSION: The TSI demonstrated high internal consistency reliability, acceptable longterm test-retest reliability, and construct validity. Further psychometric testing should focus on applicability to other populations, predictive validity and short-term test-retest reliability. This instrument can be used by programme directors for the recruitment of tutors and can also be used to increase the self-awareness of tutors.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Effects of a major earthquake on the status of pre-existing physical illness and levels of psychosocial distress in community inhabitants.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A major earthquake struck central Taiwan on September 21, 1999, causing a tremendous amount of damage in a very short time. This study surveyed the changes in the status of pre-existing physical illness and levels of psychosocial distress in a community after this earthquake. METHODS: One hundred and thirty inhabitants of Lu-Gu who were more than 40 years old were surveyed in June 2000, 9 months after the earthquake. A medical team in the disaster area carried out personal interviews using a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics, common physical illnesses, and psychologic distress and resource loss measures. RESULTS: Subjects reported more rapidly declining visual acuity (11.5%) and worse upper respiratory (7.7%) and gastrointestinal tract symptoms (3.8%) after the earthquake. The mean value of the psychologic distress scores was significantly higher than before the earthquake (12.16 +/- 3.28 vs 10.75 +/- 2.63; p < 0.01). Women and the elderly had higher psychologic distress scores. Subjects had considerable loss in financial resources, including home contents, adequate food, and sentimental possessions, (3.57 +/- 3.94, assessed using a resource loss measure on a 0-3 Likert scale with a possible range of 0-12). Women, the elderly, those who lived alone, and those with severe damage to their homes reported more loss than others in personal resources such as "feeling that my life is peaceful", "personal health", and "sense of optimism", but not in financial resources or interpersonal resources such as companionship, intimacy with at least one friend, and support from co-workers. CONCLUSIONS: There was an increased level of psychologic distress and financial burden among community members 9 months after the earthquake. The findings of this study suggest the need to strengthen community-based health care systems in disaster-prone areas, so that they can provide continuous care, especially related to the psychosocial impacts of these events.

Adult↗