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D Bagnall

Publications and source records attributed to D Bagnall.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Health care providers' attitudes and beliefs about functional impairments and chronic back pain.

OBJECTIVE: This study validated a measure entitled the Health Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS) for assessing the attitudes and beliefs of health care providers about functional expectation for chronic low back pain patients. HC-PAIRS was developed by modifying the Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (PAIRS) used to assess the attitudes and beliefs of chronic pain patients. DESIGN: This study surveyed 150 community health care providers and 66 functional restoration providers using HC-PAIRS. HC-PAIRS consists of 15 items attributing back pain patients' impairment and disability to pain, followed by a seven-point Likert scale anchored with degrees of agreement and disagreement. Reliability of HC-PAIRS was determined using Cronbach's alpha. Factor analysis was performed to explore the dimensions of attitudes and beliefs. Validity was determined by HC-PAIRS accurately measuring the pain attitudes and beliefs of functional restoration providers, who have a stated philosophy concerning this notion. RESULTS: For the 150 community health care providers, HC-PAIRS revealed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.78. Factor analysis showed four dimensions of attitudes and beliefs measures by HC-PAIRS, which were entitled "functional expectations," "social expectations," "need for cure," and "projected cognition." Community providers showed a mean score of 52 (S.D. = 10). Most respondents were neutral or disagreed somewhat with the notion that chronic back pain should limit functional performance, but a wide range of responses were noted (range 33-80), indicating that diverse pain attitudes and beliefs are held. The 66 functional restoration providers had a mean HC-PAIRS score of 38 (S.D. = 7), and a range of scores from 26 to 52 was found. As expected, these scores corresponded to disagreement with the notion that chronic low back pain justifies impairments and disability. This was accurately measured by HC-PAIRS and is evidence of HC-PAIRS validity. Comparison of HC-PAIRS between community and functional restoration providers revealed a significantly lower score for function restoration providers (t = 12.14, p < 0.000). CONCLUSION: These results suggested that HC-PAIRS can be used to measure health care providers' attitudes and beliefs about the degree to which chronic low back pain justifies impairments and disability. HC-PAIRS may be useful to health care providers interested in examining this notion.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Phloem Transport and the Regulation of Growth of Sorghum bicolor (Moench) at Low Temperature.

Leaf expansion in Sorghum bicolor (Moench) was severely retarded by low night temperatures (5 C). However, this was not reflected in the early measurements of relative growth rate, indicating that the response was not associated with a deterioration of the photosynthetic system. For plants grown at 30/25 C (day/night) and subsequently held at an ambient temperature of 30 C, phloem transport, as measured either by the movement of (14)C-photosynthate through a zone of controlled temperature or by accumulation of dry matter distal to this zone, was inhibited by temperatures below 10 C. The speed of movement of (32)P through the temperature controlled zone was more sensitive to temperature with reductions apparent below 20 C. Although there was some recovery in the movement of (32)P following 3 days equilibration at low temperature (1 to 10 C), the new values (approximately 100 centimeters per hour) were still only about one-third of those obtained in the high temperature controls. For plants held at an ambient temperature of 21 C, which is well below the optimum for growth, translocation was only inhibited by temperatures below 5 C. Although low temperature may reduce the carrying capacity of the phloem of S. bicolor, this is unlikely to be an important factor in regulating the growth of the plants at low temperatures.

Journal Article↗