Biomedical subjects

L Saldana

Publications and source records attributed to L Saldana.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Of needles and skinned knees: children's coping with medical procedures and minor injuries for self and other.

Children participated in four role-plays designed to assess what the children themselves would do and what they would suggest a friend should do when encountering a medical procedure and a minor injury. Open-ended responses were coded into an empirically derived continuum suggested by past research. Similar responses were given to cope with medical procedures and injuries. However, children suggested more reactive coping strategies (e.g., cry, pull away) for themselves and more proactive responses (e.g., think of something fun, take deep breaths) for friends. This finding questions the assumption that children choose the most effective coping strategy in their repertoire when they themselves confront an aversive stimulus, suggesting that preparation for invasive procedures should include motivational components.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1998

Is instrumental variability abnormally high in children exhibiting ADHD and aggressive behavior?

To test whether instrumental behavior of some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is more variable than control subjects, the sequences of responses by three groups of children were compared: (i) those diagnosed with ADHD who lived in a residential treatment facility for children demonstrating aggressive behavior; (ii) age-matched children from the same facility who did not have an ADHD diagnosis but who had also demonstrated abnormal levels of aggression; and (iii) normal children from a local school. The experiment consisted of rewarding children for responding in a computer 'game' on two keys of a keyboard during each of three phases. In phase 1, rewards were provided independently of sequence variability (IND). In phase 2, rewards depended upon highly variable sequences of left and right responses. Phase 3 was a return to the IND contingencies. The results showed that sequence variability was higher in the sequence variability (VARY) phase than in the preceding IND phase, but remained high when the contingencies returned to IND, thus replicating previous findings. In none of the phases did the ADHD children respond more variably than the controls. However, ADHD subjects made more off-task responses than did controls. Thus, although the present research showed differences between ADHD and control subjects, there was no evidence to support higher behavioral variability in the ADHD subjects.

Aggression↗

PubMed1997

Survey of pediatric hospitals' preparation programs: evidence of the impact of health psychology research.

A survey of all 123 nonchronic-care pediatric hospitals in the United States revealed that 75% of hospitals responding had greatly increased the use of effective medical procedure preparation technologies, such as filmed modeling and coping skills instruction, in comparison to the last survey. Respondent characteristics such as position (e.g., nurse, child life worker, physician), degree (e.g., RN, MA, PhD), and length of time in the position failed to predict the type of techniques selected, but higher respondent knowledge and more psychological sources of preparation information did predict the use of preparation techniques used for drawing blood that experts rated as more effective. Challenges for more effective dissemination of research in the future are considered, as is the need for increased study of research-implementation links.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1996

Accelerating children's risk for injury: mothers' decisions regarding common safety rules.

Although safety rules are one of the primary preventative tactics used by parents to avoid childhood injury, very little is known about how rules are applied within families. In this preliminary study in the area of application of family safety rules, we found that mothers tended to impose rules consistently more often than inconsistently, and where they were inconsistent, they tended to regard a risky behavior as unacceptable, even if there was no family rule outlawing the behavior. The number of rules was negatively related to the number of injuries, suggesting that rules may indeed have the preventative properties that parents believe them to have. The importance of understanding how rules may prevent or fail to prevent injuries is underlined and future research challenges are described.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Quantifying tissue damage from childhood injury: the minor injury severity scale.

Described an instrument designed to quantify the extent of tissue severity damage following a minor childhood injury event. Few tools exist to allow objective assessment of injury and those which do exist are oriented toward major injuries necessitating medical intervention. The Minor Injury Severity Scale (MISS) does not require specialized medical experience to apply. It yields a 0-7 score which indexes objective parameters such as depth and length of lesion for 22 different kinds of injuries. The data reported here suggest good coder reliability, excellent test-retest stability, and acceptable correspondence between mothers' and children's reports. Data are presented on divergent validity to show that tissue damage is related to but is not the same as injury outcomes such as pain, fear, and disability. Limitations of the scale and challenges to future research are also discussed.

Child↗

PubMed1979

Mechanism of failed labor after fetal death and its treatment with prostaglandin E2.

Pregnancy was terminated with prostaglandin E2 in 65 women harboring a dead fetus for 3 days to 8 weeks. The study was designed to: (1) elucidate the mechanism of failed onset of labor in the presence of fetal death, (2) determine appropriate dose-response relationships, and (3) evaluate safety and efficacy of this new method of intervention. Results indicate that plasma progesterone levels from 12 to 40 weeks' gestation are in the lower normal statistical range as compared to those seen in pregnancy with a living fetus. Uterine size as estimated from fetal birth weight is also in the low normal range compared to that seen in a viable pregnancy. Hence the uterine volume-progesterone ratio is equal to or greater than that in normal pregnancy and thereby partially explanatory for the failed initiation of labor. The dosage required to produce delivery declined in each month's grouping from a mean of 56 +/- 26 (SD) mg at 12 to 15 weeks to 22 +/- 8.4 mg at 38 to 40 weeks. Dose-delivery response did not correlate with age, parity, or progesterone levels but did correlate with oxytocin response. Three unusual and serious complications occured.

Adult↗

PubMed1977

Quantitative analysis in the oxytocin challenge test.

A quantitative analysis of the oxytocin challenge test (OCT) was carried out in 305 women to evaluate: (1) the intrauterine pressures evoked during the oxytocin infusion, (2) when fetal heart rate (FHR) decelerations are likely to occur, (3) the type and amount of decelerations which are significant, and (4) what clinical events and laboratory parameters correlate with the OCT. If contractions are evoked at a rate of three per 10 minutes, the pressure profile mimics normal labor. The first FHR deceleration is likely to occur between the second and third effective contraction. A deceleration/contraction ratio greater than or equal to 10% significantly forecasts an abnormal FHR during parturition and an increased chance of a cesarean section.

Adult↗

PubMed1977