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Biomedical subjects

J Flora

Publications and source records attributed to J Flora.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Seeing, wanting, owning: the relationship between receptivity to tobacco marketing and smoking susceptibility in young people.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of the tobacco industry's marketing practices on adolescents by examining the relationship between their receptivity to these practices and their susceptibility to start smoking. DESIGN: Paper-and-pencil surveys measuring association with other smokers, exposure to tobacco industry marketing strategies, experience with smoking, and resolve not to smoke in the future. SETTING: 25 randomly selected classrooms in five middle schools in San Jose, California. SUBJECTS: 571 seventh graders with an average age of 13 years and 8 months; 57% were female. Forty-five per cent of the students were Asian, 38% were Hispanic, 12% were white, and 5% were black. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Exposure to social influences, receptivity to marketing strategies, susceptibility to start smoking. RESULTS: About 70% of the participants indicated at least moderate receptivity to tobacco marketing materials. Children who are more receptive are also more susceptible to start smoking. In addition to demographics and social influences, receptivity to tobacco marketing materials was found to be strongly associated with susceptibility. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco companies conduct marketing campaigns that effectively capture teenage attention and stimulate desire for their promotional items. These marketing strategies may function to move young teenagers from non-smoking status toward regular use of tobacco. Our results demonstrate that there is a clear association between tobacco marketing practices and youngsters' susceptibility to smoke. The findings, along with other research, provide compelling support for regulating the manner in which tobacco products are marketed, to protect young people from the tobacco industry's strategies to reach them.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Effects of the Stanford Five-City Project Media Advocacy Program.

The authors investigated the effects of a media advocacy program to build support for cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related policy changes and to encourage adoption of heart-healthy behaviors in the Stanford Five-City Project, a long-term trial of community-wide CVD risk reduction. The authors content analyzed 4,824 health articles in two treatment city newspapers and two reference city newspapers between 1977 and 1990. One treatment city newspaper responded well to the program; the other did not. In the Salinas Californian, the number of CVD-related articles increased during the campaign; these articles became more prominent and conspicuous, the focus on prevention increased, and more of these articles were written by local staff. Maintenance of these effects after the campaign was mixed. Results suggest that frequent, regular, systematic contact with media professionals and provision of materials influence newspaper coverage of health-related topics, which has important implications for shaping public opinion and policy change.

California↗
PubMed1991

Effect of long-term community health education on body mass index. The Stanford Five-City Project.

Being overweight is a risk factor for cardiovascular heart disease and other medical problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a community-wide cardiovascular risk reduction trial (the Stanford Five-City Project) on body mass index. In the Stanford Five-City Project, two treatment cities (n = 122,800) received a 6-year mass media and community organization cardiovascular risk reduction intervention. Changes in the treatment cities were compared with two control cities (n = 197,500) for changes in knowledge of risk factors, blood pressure, plasma cholesterol level, smoking rate, body mass index, and resting pulse rate after 5-1/3 years of the education program. Both cohort and cross-sectional (independent) samples were used in the study. In the independent surveys, subjects in the treatment communities gained significantly less weight than subjects in the control communities (0.57 kg compared with 1.25 kg) over 6 years. In the cohort, there were no significant overall differences. The study provides some evidence that a community health education program may help reduce weight gain over time, but more effective methods must be developed if this important risk factor is to be favorably affected in broad populations.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Therapeutic intervention scoring as a measure of performance in a helicopter emergency medical services program.

Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), which are both expensive and resource intensive, lack objective measures for system evaluation. We computed the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS) score for all patients during six consecutive months of service in a HEMS program to assess the value of this score for measuring the performance of the program. The TISS assigns values ranging from 1 to 4 for 57 medical and surgical interventions to measure the intensity of care during a 24-hour period. The TISS was recorded for 203 patients beginning at the time HEMS transport was requested. These flights also were classified as appropriate or inappropriate, given the information available, when HEMS care was initiated and days later when diagnostic evaluation was complete. Classification was done on the basis of whether the following criteria (potentially) ensure patient survival or improve outcome: speed of transport, presence of a medically skilled flight team, or the helicopter's ability to overcome hostile environmental conditions. The mean TISS score for all patients was 21.7. One hundred thirty-two of 203 flights (65%) were thought to be medically necessary, both at the time HEMS was requested and later (mean TISS, 28.1; analysis of variance, P less than .001). Thirty-four flights (17%) were thought to be appropriate using the information available at flight time, but not after the diagnostic workup was completed (mean TISS, 10.0). Thirty-six patients (18%) did not appear to require helicopter transport at any time, and had a mean TISS of 9.0. We conclude that TISS is a useful, objective measure of the performance of a HEMS program, and it should be tested in other HEMS programs.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Predicting the utilization of helicopter emergency medical services: an approach based on need.

Accurately predicting the utilization of helicopter emergency medical services is critical to both resource allocation and fiscal integrity, and health planning agencies may insist that the need for such services be demonstrated before the system can become operational. Most utilization predictions have been based solely on the experience of other services despite wide variation in need and use. This kind of prediction has the serious disadvantage of not considering local demographics and individual system variations. A better method uses needs analysis to predict utilization and to calculate demand. This method is based on a systematic identification of conditions that will benefit significantly from helicopter transport to a referral center, the incidence of those conditions, and the population to be served. The need for service is estimated by multiplying the population by the incidence. The fraction of patients with demonstrated need who will actually use the service is estimated on the basis of the interaction between local characteristics and condition variables.

Accidents↗
PubMed1983

Aortic valve replacement in the elderly.

In order to determine the risk of aortic valve replacement in the elderly, 77 patients over the age of 60 who had undergone this procedure were reviewed. Hypothermic-hyperkalemic cardioplegia was used in all patients. In 55 patients with isolated aortic valve replacement there were three deaths (5.5 per cent). In the entire series of 77 patients there were 13 deaths (13 per cent). In seven patients of an organ other than the heart. In only two patients did the operative death have a myocardial cause. Ninety-two per cent of the patients were in functional class I or II following surgery. Patients should come to surgery before reaching class IV. Aortic valve replacement can be carried out safely in the elderly, and the indications should be the same as for younger patients.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

The determination of the post-test likelihood for coronary disease using Bayes Theorem.

This report describes a method of using Bayes Theorem for determining the post-test likelihood for coronary disease from the exercise test. The pre-test likelihood is determined from the age, sex, and type of chest pain. Discriminant analysis of the amount of S-T depression, maximum pressure rate product and sex of the patient is then used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the patient's exercise test for coronary artery disease. The post-test likelihood for coronary artery disease can then be calculated using Bayes Theorem. The discriminant function was estimated from a training set of 174 patients. This was then applied to 113 new patients who had both exercise tests and coronary arteriograms. In this new set, 47 patients had a post-test likelihood of 90% or greater for coronary disease. Only one of these patients had normal coronary arteriograms, a predictive accuracy of 98%. Of the 25 patients with a post-test likelihood of 10% or less for coronary disease, four had multivessel disease and four had single vessel disease. The predictive accuracy for the absence of coronary disease was 68%. The predictive accuracy for the exclusion of multivessel disease was 84%. Eight of 10 patients with left main disease had a post-test likelihood for coronary disease of greater than 90%.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1977

The influence of lead strength on the S-T changes with exercise electrocardiography (correlative study with coronary arteriography).

The contribution of relative lead strength to S-T segment depression amplitude during exercise was evaluated in 98 patients who had both a treadmill stress test and a coronary arteriogram. This was accomplished by constructing an exercise S-T depression to R wave ratio (S-T/R) and then relating these ratios to the extent of coronary disease found with arteriography. The additional criterion of 1 mm S-T depression for the bipolar V5 and 0.5 mm for the late unipolar V5 was also reviewed. These criteria were then compared to the sensitivity and specificity of the usual 1 mm S-T depression criterion. The S-T/R ratio of 0.04 improved the detection of significant coronary disease over the usual criteria. The ratio of 0.1 was effective in avoiding false positive tests but lacked sensitivity. This would suggest that strong lead systems may give false positive S-T changes with exercise. The use of 0.5 mm depression as abnormal for the post-exercise unipolar V5 improved sensitivity without loss of specificity over the usual criteria of 1 mm S-T depression criteria. This may be a reflection of the voltage differences between the bipolar lead and the unipolar lead in these two lead systems. It is concluded that lead strength must be considered when evaluating the S-T response to exercise.

Angina Pectoris↗
PubMed1977

Semantic and perceptual processes in symbolic comparisons.

This article studies the processing of pictures and words as symbols. Pictures lead to faster and more accurate responses than words when the task is to decide which member of a pair of pictures or words denotes the larger or smaller object. The present experiments show that the superiority of pictures results from the fact that pictures are interpreted more quickly than words, but that after the interpretation is made, processing is the same. These experiments also give evidence that pictures and words are both processed in terms of linguistic codes rather than mental images. The results are well accounted for by an information-processing model that is based on two general assumptions: (a) The stimuli and the instructions are represented as discrete codes, and (b) processing proceeds until one and only one of the stimulus codes is the same as the code for the instructions.

Discrimination, Psychological↗