Biomedical subjects

D J Tataryn

Publications and source records attributed to D J Tataryn.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Measuring the information needs of husbands of women with breast cancer: validity and reliability of the Family Inventory of Needs--husbands.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: A two-phase study was undertaken to test the Family Inventory of Needs--Husbands (FIN-H), a tool designed to measure the information needs of husbands of women with breast cancer and the extent to which these needs are met. DESIGN: Methodologic survey. SAMPLES: Phase I: a panel of 6 husbands; phase II: 84 husbands of women with breast cancer. METHODS: Panel of expert ratings followed by pilot test of the two-part survey. FINDINGS: In phase I, husbands assessed the FIN-H for clarity, internal consistency, and content validity. All preset criteria were met. In phase II, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and internal validity were assessed. Internal consistency estimates as measured by Cronbach's standardized alpha coefficients were 0.91 and 0.93. Test-retest correlations were 0.82 and 0.76 (p = 0.0001). Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the FIN-H consists of five factors. CONCLUSIONS: Initial results suggest that the FIN-H is reliable and valid. Further testing is needed to confirm these results. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Before nurses can address the information needs of husbands of women with breast cancer, use of a reliable and valid assessment tool is recommended.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Information needs of husbands of women with breast cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To identify and measure the information needs of the husbands of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer and to determine the extent to which these needs are being met. DESIGN: Descriptive survey. SETTING: Five surgical inpatient units at four urban hospitals in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. SAMPLE: 84 husbands of women recently diagnosed with breast cancer. METHOD: Subjects completed the Family Inventory of Needs--Husbands. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Information needs and extent to which these needs were met. FINDINGS: Husbands' highest ranked needs were those related to immediate care needs and communication issues. Their lowest ranked needs were those related to family relationship issues and their practical involvement in caring for their spouse. No differences existed between type of surgery (lumpectomy versus mastectomy) and number of needs and whether or not needs were met. However, husbands whose wives had undergone their first mastectomy reported approximately three times more unmet needs than husbands whose wives had undergone previous surgery for breast cancer. Husbands at greatest risk for not having their needs met were those whose occupational classification was listed as retired or laborers, those with less than a high school education, and those whose wives had only undergone one surgery for breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study provide a profile of the husbands' most and least important information needs and the degree to which these important needs were met. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: With a clearer idea of the type of information important to husbands of women with breast cancer, intervention studies to determine how to best address these information needs can be designed.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Reliability of the Manitoba Mental Health Management Information System for Research.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the accuracy of data contained in Manitoba's Mental Health Management Information System (MHMIS) as compared with client charts and to determine which factors influence completeness and accuracy. METHODS: Data on diagnosis, open date and close date, demographic information, and contact information were obtained from client charts and compared with data extracted from the MHMIS. Semistructured interviews were conducted with individuals who contribute data to the MHMIS. RESULTS: Data on required demographic variables, primary diagnosis, and open and close dates are highly similar in the 2 sources. The correlation between data sources on the number of client contacts is also good. CONCLUSION: This study establishes the reliability of MHMIS data. MHMIS data, in combination with hospital abstracts and physician claims data, provide the information needed to serve as a psychiatric case register (PCR) and can be used for psychiatric epidemiology as well as for planning, monitoring, and evaluating mental health services.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗

PubMed1996

Population health and health care use: an information system for policy makers.

University-based researchers in Manitoba, Canada, have used administrative data routinely collected as part of the national health insurance plan to design a population-based health information system (POPULIS). Decision-makers can use this system to make critical comparisons across regions of residents' health status, socioeconomic risk characteristics, and use of hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians. Policy makers have found this information system useful in providing answers to questions they are often asked: Which populations need more physician services? Which need fewer? Are high-risk populations poorly served or do they have poor health outcomes despite being well served? Does high utilization represent overuse or is it related to high need? Three commentaries follow.

Database Management Systems↗

PubMed1995

Hypnotizability and mental imagery.

Two studies investigated the relationship between mental imagery and hypnotizability, with the imagery measures administered in a hypnotic context. The correlation of hypnotizability with vividness of imagery was significant in one study, but not in the other; both correlations were significantly lower than that obtained between hypnotizability and absorption, assessed in the same samples. The correlations with control of visual imagery, and with various measures of the vividness of motor imagery, were even lower and rarely significant. Except for an aggregate index of motor imagery, a search for significant nonlinear relationships with hypnotizability yielded nothing that was consistent across studies. Future studies of imagery and hypnotizability should make use of better measures of vividness of mental imagery and consider the relevance of aspects of imagery other than vividness.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

A population-based health information system.

The authors introduce the Population Health Information System, its conceptual framework, and the data elements required to implement such a system in other jurisdictions. Among other innovations, the Population Health Information System distinguishes between indicators of health status (outcomes measures) and indicators of need for health care (socioeconomic measures of risk for poor health). The system also can be used to perform needs-based planning and challenge delivery patterns.

Canada↗

PubMed1995

Utilization of physician resources for ambulatory care.

This article describes the utilization of ambulatory physician services by Manitoba residents during the fiscal year 1991/1992. Care was assigned to the patient's residence in one of eight administrative regions, whether the care was received in or out of the region of residence. Disparities in physician supply across regions did not correspond with differences in the use of services: the Winnipeg region had twice as many physicians per 1000 residents as the largely rural non-Winnipeg regions and was home to most specialists. With their rich supply of physicians, particularly specialists, Winnipeg residents had somewhat higher contact rates (16%), and the province spent 26% more per resident providing physician services, despite the fact that our indicators of health status and socioeconomic risk suggest no increased need for physician services among Winnipeg residents. Despite the concentration of physicians in Winnipeg, there was remarkably good access to physicians across the province, with 78% or more of the residents in every region making at least one contact with a physician during the year. The differences in use between Winnipeg and non-Winnipeg residents were almost entirely accounted for by intensive users, (individuals making eight or more visits per year). Although residents 75 years of age and older (6% of the population) made twice as many visits per capita compared to younger adults, their actual demand on the system was small, accounting for just less than 10% of expenditures on physician services. Population-based health information provides important insight for needs-based planning of physician services.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

The psychological unconscious. Found, lost, and regained.

In response to Greenwald's article on contemporary research on unconscious mental processes, the authors address three issues: (a) the independence of much recent research and theory from psychodynamic formulations; (b) the broad sweep of the psychological unconscious, including implicit perception, memory, thought, learning, and emotion; and (c) the possibility that the analytic power of unconscious processing may depend both on the manner in which mental contents are rendered unconscious and the manner in which they are to be processed.

Awareness↗

PubMed1991

Absorption, openness to experience, and hypnotizability.

Absorption, a correlate of hypnotizability, is conceptually related to openness to experience. Study 1 found no evidence that gender moderated the correlation between absorption and hypnotizability, or of nonlinear trends. Study 2 showed that openness was factorially complex, and that absorption was related to imaginative involvement, but not to social-political liberalism. Study 3 found small quadratic trends in the relations between these variables and hypnotizability; hypnotizability was related to imaginative involvement, but not liberalism. Study 4 confirmed differential correlations between absorption subscales and hypnotizability but failed to confirm the nonlinear trends. Implications for future studies of the correlates of hypnotizability, and for the nature of the "fifth factor" in personality structure, are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Conditioning in the unattended left ear.

Two experiments demonstrated that a conditioned emotional response can both be established and arouse responses without awareness in a dichotic paradigm. Right handed male subjects performed a complex verbal task presented to the right ear, while patterns of musical notes were presented to the left ear. For experimental subjects, one of the patterns was always followed by an aversive noise in the left ear; the noises were presented at random times to control subjects. In Study 1, latency of skin potential response to the noise decreased among experimental subjects relative to control subjects, indicating that the critical tone pattern was acting as a CS. Subject awareness was determined through both recall and recognition procedures, and only unaware subjects were used. Study 2 demonstrated the effect more powerfully by showing conditioned responses among experimental subjects on interpolated CS-alone trials and a lack of reportable awareness among all subjects.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prognostic awareness and the terminally ill.

The authors rated patients who were in advanced stages of cancer and in their final few weeks of life on their level of awareness of their medical prognosis (N = 200, mean age = 71.0 years). The authors measured prognostic awareness with a semistructured interview, dividing patients into those acknowledging No Awareness, Partial Awareness, and Complete Awareness. The authors also administered a semistructured interview for depressive disorders, along with an assessment of various demographic and social support measures. Nineteen patients (9.5%) denied awareness of both their terminal prognosis and foreshortened life expectancy. Thirty-four patients (17%) were placed in the partial awareness category, with the remaining 147 patients (73.5%) reporting complete awareness. Depression was nearly three times greater among patients who did not acknowledge their prognosis, as compared with those who demonstrated partial or complete acknowledgment (chi2 = 7.094), P = 0.029). In addition to depression, male patients, older patients, and those having "intense social contact" were associated with lower ratings of prognostic awareness. Dying patients differ in respect to their capacity to acknowledge their prognosis. Prognostic disavowal is most likely to arise in patients with underlying psychological distress and emotional turmoil.

Adaptation, Psychological↗