Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P M Scriven.
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One hundred and six former or current flexible trainees in anaesthesia responded to a questionnaire evaluating their part-time training (a response rate of 71%). They were compared with a group of 32 flexible trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology. Anaesthetists were more satisfied than obstetricians and gynaecologists with their training (96% compared with 84%); opportunities to publish (75% and 63%); research training (63% and 48%); and monitoring of their progress (78% and 67%). Without flexible training, 20% of the anaesthetists would have ceased to train, compared with 9% of the obstetrics and gynaecology group. Nearly all those who had finished their training were working as consultants (54% of the whole group); 4% had either retired, become a clinical assistant or a locum consultant. The remainder (42%) were senior registrars.
Measurements of walking pattern, exercise performance, heart rate response to exercise and body composition have been made in 13 male manual workers at retirement and again one and two years later. The exercise consisted of walking, in accordance with standard instructions; heart rate and footfall signals were recorded on magnetic tape during the test using body-borne tape recorders. After the first year highly significant reductions in walking speed were found but no significant changes in walking pattern, heart rate response or body composition. When the measurements made at the end of one year of retirement were compared with those made at the end of two years no significant changes were found.
1. An exercise test has been developed which is suitable for elderly or frail subjects. It is based on free walking at three different speeds on a level indoor course of 256m. The subject sets his own pace in accord with simple instructions. 2. Twenty-four elderly men and ten young men took part in the study. 3. The time and number of paces taken to cover two sections of 100m within the course were used to establish that the subjects walked steadily. Walking speed, pace frequency and stride length were then calculated. 4. Heart rate was obtained with body-borne tape recorders and related to the walking speed. The heart rate at a standard walking speed could then be obtained by interpolation. This is an assessment of the cardiovascular response to exercise (physical condition). The variation on repeating the test was +/-5 per cent and there was no significant difference between the two age groups. 5. The assessment was found to correlate moderately well with a conventional assessment of physical condition based on oxygen uptake from tests on a bicycle ergometer. 6. The test could also be used as a performance index since walking speed was characteristic for the subject. The younger group walked significantly faster than the older group. As a performance index the test is therefor sensitive to age differences.
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