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Biomedical subjects

D U Smith

Publications and source records attributed to D U Smith.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Olfactory dysfunction in diabetes mellitus.

Olfactory dysfunction has been reported in individuals with diabetes mellitus, but the etiology is unknown. Diabetes is often complicated by serious medical conditions which could be related to the development of decreased olfactory ability. Overall, our 111 subjects with diabetes showed deficiencies in their ability to identify odorants measured with the Odorant Confusion Matrix (mean = 67.8% correct). The presence of macrovascular disease was found to be associated with olfactory dysfunction. Glycemic control as well as the type and duration of diabetes were not related to olfactory ability. Also, there was no distinct association with the presence of neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, hypertension, or impotence. Consistent with previous studies utilizing measures of odorant identification, performance decreased with increased age, females were somewhat superior to males, and smoking had a deleterious effect. Other nondiabetes-related medical conditions and medications had no apparent effect on the olfactory ability of our subjects. These results suggest that the sequelae associated with macrovascular disease, such as perhaps, ischemia, to the olfactory area, impact negatively on olfactory ability.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Congruence between curriculum goals and students' perceptions of learning environment.

The authors' main objectives in the study reported here were to assess medical students' perceptions of the learning environments provided by fourth-year clinical electives taken at three different training sites and to determine whether differences in learning environment among the sites could be attributed to differences in curricular goals. The investigators used a survey containing 32 items subdivided into six subscales: structure, interpersonal relationships, educational climate, practicality, enthusiasm, and humanism. Perceptions of the elective learning environment were obtained from 67 students. Overall differences among training sites as perceived by the students were found by means of a multivariate analysis of variance to be statistically significant. Further analysis revealed site differences on four subscales: structure, interpersonal relations, educational climate, and practicality. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1981

Cognitive style and instructional materials for medical students.

The study assessed the effects of matching, or mismatching, third-year medical students by cognitive style and instructional mode. At the beginning of each of four rotations of the third-year surgery clerkship, all students (n = 245) were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test and then classified as either field-independent or field-dependent. The students in rotations one to three (n = 180) were randomly assigned to either a highly structured sequence or to an unstructured sequence on colorectal cancer, and in the fourth rotation all students (n = 65) took the colorectal cancer self-instructional sequence currently in use. Following the instructional period, the students were administered an inventory of instruction, a simulation game, and a multiple-choice posttest of the content. Results showed few effects favoring matching cognitive style with instructional materials. Implications for highly motivated, high-achieving students were discussed.

Cognition↗
PubMed1981

Academic anxiety, locus of control, and achievement in medical school.

Programs designed to assist medical students in academic difficulty typically fail to consider the importance of such factors as academic anxiety and the individual's mechanisms for coping with stress. The authors have addressed this issue by examining relationships among prior achievement, academic anxiety, locus of control, and performance in the first year of medical school. Academic anxiety not only was found to be significantly related to first year performance, but also, when combined with a measure of prior achievement, resulted in a significant increase in prediction. Additional evidence is presented which suggests that the relationship between academic anxiety and achievement may be curvilinear. Locus of control was found to correlate significantly with academic anxiety and tended to shift in a direction of greater externality during the first year of medical school. Findings are discussed within the framework of existing psychological research, and implications are presented for medical admissions, curricula, and counseling.

Achievement↗