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Biomedical subjects

L Hancock

Publications and source records attributed to L Hancock.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Agreement between two measures of drug use in a low-prevalence population.

The present study examined the agreement between two measures of prevalence of drug use in the community: self-report and specific pharmacological analyses of urine samples. The data were collected in the context of a random community survey of health practices and attitudes. A random 20% of the households participating in the health study were targeted for biochemical assay. Compliance with urine delivery was relatively high at 79%. Urine samples were screened qualitatively for cannabinoids and benzodiazepines using the enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT) (Syva Diagnostics, Palo Alto, CA). Screening for pharmaceuticals used a standard thin-layer chromatography (TLC) technique. Agreement between the self-report and biochemical assay estimates of prevalence was statistically significant (p less than .05). While self-report of substance use is not a perfect measure of consumption, it remains a relatively economical and reasonably accurate method of obtaining estimates of substance use in community samples.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Schizophrenia in primary care.

Schizophrenia affects 1 percent of the general population in the United States. Unfortunately, this common illness is often poorly understood and feared by many health care professionals. Whether nurse practitioners who work in primary care are aware of it or not, they inevitably come into daily or weekly contact with schizophrenics. This article is designed to increase nurse practitioners' understanding of this brain disease and help them realize that they already possess skills that are ideally suited to working with this population. Presented here are current definitions and facts about schizophrenia, as well as practical ideas for history taking, physical exam and the development of a realistic management plan.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cell-microcarrier adhesion to gas-liquid interfaces and foam.

The interaction of microcarriers, both with and without cells attached, with gas bubbles was studied. These studies consisted of qualitative microscopic observations of microcarriers with bubbles, quantitative measurements of microcarrier entrapment in foam, and quantitative measurements of the effect of bubble rupture at gas-medium interfaces. Ten different "protective additives" were evaluated for their ability to change the dynamic surface tension of the culture media and to prevent microcarrier adhesion to air bubbles during gas sparging and to prevent entrapment in the foam layer. These studies indicate that microcarriers, with and without cells, readily attach to gas-medium interfaces; yet unlike suspended cells, cells attached to microcarriers are not damaged by bubble ruptures at gas-medium interfaces. Only one surfactant was found to substantially prevent microcarrier entrapment in the foam layer; however, this surfactant was toxic to cells. No correlation was observed between surface tension and the prevention of microcarrier adhesion to gas-liquid interfaces. It is suggested that cell damage as a result of sparging in microcarrier cultures is the result of cells, attached to microcarriers, attaching to rising bubbles and then detaching from the microcarrier as this combination rises through the medium. It is further suggested that the hydrodynamic drag force of the rising microcarrier is sufficiently high to remove the bubble-attached cell from the microcarrier.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Community action for health promotion: a review of methods and outcomes 1990-1995.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to explore the effectiveness of community action as a strategy for health promotion, through a critical review of five years of community action evaluation literature. METHODS: Community action was defined as a health promotion, program that involved the community in implementation and control of the process of the program. Criteria for scientific evaluation of programs were proposed for sampling and control procedures, reliability and validity of instruments, analysis techniques, and specification of details of the intervention. A critical review of the literature, located by an on-line and related reference search, was undertaken for community action aimed at reducing cancer and cardiovascular disease, between January 1990 and May 1995. RESULTS: None of seven community action studies (17 articles) that examined cancer risk factors fulfilled all the criteria for rigorous scientific evaluation. The most methodologically adequate cancer study, the COMMIT intervention, had only a moderate degree of success in reducing community smoking rates. Similarly, none of the six studies (25 articles) on cardiovascular disease fulfilled all the criteria. The results for the most methodologically adequate study, the Minnesota Heart Health Program, were disappointing, with strong secular trends preventing adequate assessment of the intervention effect. CONCLUSIONS: The finding that none of the reviewed studies met all evaluation criteria was due to several factors, including political considerations, feasibility, and the continued evolution of the science of evaluation in health promotion. Some important questions are posed for researchers by the failure of methodologically superior projects, such as COMMIT, to show major gains in reducing health risk behaviors.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗