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Biomedical subjects

G R Webb

Publications and source records attributed to G R Webb.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Interventions in preschools to increase the use of safety restraints by preschool children.

Despite the proven safety value of wearing vehicle safety restraints, people continue to travel without this protection. Legislation requiring the use of safety restraints has been implemented in several countries, including Australia, in an attempt to improve rates of restraint use. In Australia, legislation dramatically increased rates of adult restraint use, yet the rate of restraint use by children remains comparatively low. One of the main reasons for parents not restraining their child is the child's dislike of wearing a restraint, with resultant disruptive behavior. This study compared two interventions implemented within preschools: a coercive intervention aimed at parents and an educational intervention aimed at preschool children. Measures of restraint use were made by direct observation at preschools prior to intervention and again immediately following the 2-week interventions. The safety restraint use of children in the control and coercive intervention groups did not change significantly as a result of intervention. Restraint use of children in the educational intervention group increased 15 percentage points from 60.6% to 75.0%: a significant increase of 25%. This novel intervention approach holds promise as a means of increasing preschool children's use of safety restraints.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed1986

Detection of patients with high alcohol intake by general practitioners.

General practitioners have the potential to treat patients with alcohol problems effectively. Despite the medical implications of excessive alcohol intake, it appears that general practitioners are not sufficiently aware of the drinking habits of their patients. The aim of the study was to investigate the accuracy of 56 randomly chosen general practitioners in detecting which of their patients had a high alcohol intake. Altogether, 2081 patients were recruited in general practitioners' waiting rooms, where they answered questions about their drinking habits. After the consultations general practitioners were asked to indicate the patients' levels of alcohol intake. The results showed that general practitioners correctly identified only 27.5% of patients who were classified as "high risk" drinkers, using Australian Medical Association criteria. They correctly identified only 45.2% of patients who were classified as "moderate to heavy" drinkers, defined by them as drinkers who consume four or more standard drinks a day. These findings have important implications for clinical practice since they indicate that general practitioners are failing to perform adequately in an important area of preventive medicine. This issue needs to be addressed in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Fecal hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activities in vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventists, control subjects, and bowel cancer patients.

Cell-free extracts were prepared from mixed fecal anaerobic bacteria grown from stools of 14 vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventists, 16 omnivorous control subjects, and eight patients recently diagnosed with cancer of the large bowel. Preparations were assayed for NAD- and NADP-dependent 3alpha-, 7alpha- and 12alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases with bile salts and androsterone as substrates (eight substrate-cofactor combinations were tested). A significant intergroup difference was observed in the amounts of NAD- and NADP-dependent 7alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase produced: bowel cancer patients exceeded controls, and controls exceeded Seventh-Day Adventists. Other enzyme activity comparisons were not significant. The pH values of the stools were significantly higher in cancer patients compared to Seventh-Day Adventists; values were 7.03 +/- 0.60 and 6.46 +/- 0.58 respectively. The pH value for controls was 6.66 +/- 0.62. A plot of pH value versus NADP-dependent 7alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase tended to separate the cancer patients from the other groups. Comparative data suggest that much of the 3alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase active against bile salt is also active against androsterone.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Ion pair extraction technique with azure A, for differentiating biles of normal subjects and patients with liver disease from patients with Crohn's disease with small bowel involvement.

The ion pair extraction technique with Azure A solution, chloroform/methanol (equal volumes), and dilute sulfuric acid, was used to study bile-rich duodenal aspirates of (a) healthy volunteers and patients with (b) cholestatic liver disease, (c) Crohn's disease with small bowel involvement, and (d) those with primarily colon involvement. Duplicate aliquots of extracted duodenal aspirates from these four groups were subjected to ion pair extraction, with and without prior acetylation, and the absorbance ratios at 645 nm without acetylation/with acetylation ("acetylation index") compared; values (+/- SD) obtained were 0.052 +/- 0.0098, 0.038 +/- 0.014, 0.136 +/- 0.048, and 0.077 +/- 0.056, respectively, for the four groups. The acetylation index for group c was significantly (P less than 0.001) different from that of groups a and b. All other intergroup comparisons were not significant. The acetylation index correlated positively (r = 0.922) with the ratio of glycine- to taurine-conjugated bile acids, measured independently, implying that it reflects this ratio.

Acetylation↗