PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Karina Davidson

Publications and source records attributed to Karina Davidson.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Behavioral cardiology --has its time finally arrived?

Traditional cardiology has taken a mechanistic approach to heart disease. But the new discipline of behavioral cardiology takes a broader view, concluding that heart disease is not inevitable, but develops largely from unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking, overeating and physical inactivity, and from psychosocial stress. Physical inactivity and excessive caloric intake are also responsible for the epidemic of obesity, which is associated with a dramatic increase in the prevalence of diabetes. This increase in the incidence of diabetes may, in turn, reverse the recent decline of cardiovascular deaths in the US. A variety of psychosocial stressors have been implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease. These include occupational stress, anxiety, social isolation, hostility, anger, and type A behavior. There is clearly some overlap between these stressors, all of which may affect the heart adversely. Both the lifestyle and psychosocial factors can be altered by behavioral treatment, in which the patient and the practitioner work together. Unfortunately, various barriers can impair the successful implementation of behavioral treatment. These barriers include poor compliance by the patient, lack of skill in providing effective interventions by the health care provider, and lack of incentives within the health care system, particularly reimbursement.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2002

Environmental illness prevalence: A population-based study in Nova Scotia.

OBJECTIVES: Clinic studies demonstrate that people diagnosed with environmental illness experience high levels of disability and health care utilization. Even though the controversial status of this disorder attracts attention, actual prevalence estimates and estimated impact on health care systems are unclear. To address this, we sought both a prevalence estimate and a measure of the degree of health care utilization for those reporting this diagnosis. DESIGN AND METHODS: Point prevalence, as assessed by self-report of professional diagnosis, was established with data from the Nova Scotia Health Survey 1995, a stratified, random sample population survey of 3227 Nova Scotian adults. We compared medical care utilization for the year following the survey, drawn from the provincial medical insurance register, between the 24 cases with no other reported medical conditions and 48 age-, sex-, and education level-matched healthy controls. RESULTS: The adjusted point prevalence of environmental illness was 2.6%. Physician reimbursement costs across the following year were 5.5 times more likely to be above the survey average ($259 CAD) when compared to the healthy control group. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of environmental illness diagnoses represents a significant disability and treatment burden, justifying research into case definition and the phenomenology of environmental illness by health psychologists.

Journal Article↗