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Biomedical subjects

R J Haggerty

Publications and source records attributed to R J Haggerty.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Breaking the link between stress and illness in children. What role can physicians play?

Six-year-old Mary has a new baby sister, and her father, who recently lost his job, is talking about moving to another city where employment opportunities are better. Mary is worried about leaving her friends and going to a new school. With her mother preoccupied with the baby and her father job hunting, Mary responds to the stress in her life by having a sore throat. In this article, Dr Haggerty urges that children like Mary must be taught to deal with stress in ways that lessen susceptibility to illness but retain the motivating and life-enhancing virtues of stress and suggests that health care providers take on the role of teacher.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1980

Life stress, illness and social supports.

Stress has been shown to lower resistance to disease and thus to have a significant effect on susceptibility to a variety of physical and psychological illnesses. A correlation has also been established between the degree of social stress and an individual's use of medical services. However, the majority of people do not respond to stress in these ways. Social supports (e.g. a caring family) seem to be an important protective factor against the effects of stress. Other mtethods of protection (meditation, relaxation response or learning specific coping skills) are also important, but have been little studied. Given their importance in preventive medicine, the author suggests that social support systems should pay an increasing part in health services.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Program evaluation as health services research.

Evaluation of health program is necessary for more rational allocation of scarce resources. Steps in evaluation include: 1)Specification of the program goals, 2) Description of the program, 3) Definition and measurement of outcome, 4) Assessment of intervening variables, 5) Analysis of data, and 6) Implementation of findings. Examples from impirical evaluation studies are presented to illustrate one practical application of these steps. While the random controlled trial is a most powerful tool, it is very difficult to apply in complex human services programs. In the future, more use of multivariate matching of groups to approximate a quasi experimental situation will be needed. Education of health professionals in methods of evaluation is necessary to promote planned improvement in health services.

Boston↗
PubMed1976

Delivery of health care for children: report of an experiment.

This paper summarizes an experiment evaluating the effectiveness of primary pediatric care delivered to a sample of low-income inner-city families. Primary pediatric care in this study was similar to pediatric group practice. The study findings indicated that the effects of primary care compared with the episodic care received by the control families were appreciable. This included the decreasing of hospitalizations, operations, illness visits, and appointment breaking; increasing of health supervision visits, preventive services, and patient satisfactions; and accomplishing these changes at a lower cost. Patient morbidity was not altered. Medicaid made no difference in the care patterns of the experimental families and apparently benefited only those control families who were white. The controlled clinical trial offers the best opportunity to compare different models of priervices for children.

Attitude to Health↗