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Biomedical subjects

S Bedford

Publications and source records attributed to S Bedford.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Problem behavior in the last year of life: prevalence, risks, and care receipt in older Americans.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of problem behavior in the last year of life in older people and to explore risk factors and assess the effect of behaviors on access to care. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of data from the 1993 National Mortality Followback Survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). SETTING: Persons who resided and died in the United States (except South Dakota) in 1993. PARTICIPANTS: Seven thousand six hundred and eighty-four deaths in people age 65 and older were included, from which full informant interview data were available for 6,748 decedents (88%). MEASUREMENTS: Informant data were collected on frequency of complaints about behavior from family members, complaints from others in the community, bizarre behavior, destroying property, violent threats or attempts, and temper tantrums. RESULTS: Overall, 20% of decedents were reported as having any of the problem behaviors sometimes or often in the last year of life. Rates differed little by age at death or gender. Risks of having problem behaviors were higher for those with clinically diagnosed dementia, mental illness, alcohol abuse, and bronchitis or emphysema. A diagnosis of dementia had been made in 27% of those with behavior problems. Nursing homes or healthcare facilities were the usual residence of 32% of people with any behavior problems sometimes or often during their last year of life. Informants for decedents who had destroyed property or made violent threats were 2.3 times (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.2-4.4) more likely to report that the subject had not received the care they had needed during the last year of life. CONCLUSION: Problem behavior is relatively common in older people in the last year of life and is not confined to nursing home residents or people suffering from dementia.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed1997

Correlations between observability of the spatial frequency doubled illusion and a multi-region pattern electroretinogram.

A glaucoma screening device based on the visibility of the spatial frequency doubled (FD) illusion will be marketed by Welch Allyn Ltd in the next year (ANU Patients (Australia) 611,585, (USA) 5,065,767 and application PL 3130). An underlying assumption of the method is that retinal processes are being tested. To test this assumption we compared the visibility of the FD illusion over a range of conditions and in the same spatial locations as a multi-region pattern electroretinogram (PERG). Grating speed and contrast were good predictors of the psychometric functions and PERG amplitude and phase.

Electroretinography↗
PubMed1997

A multiple-frequency, multiple-region pattern electroretinogram investigation of non-linear retinal signals.

It has been proposed that the spatial frequency doubled (FD) illusion may originate from Y-like non-linear retinal ganglion cells. If the contrast of multi-frequency stimuli is increased, Y cells show a phase advance in the self-sum frequencies but not in other output frequencies. We looked for these effects with a multi-region pattern electroretinogram (PERG) displaying the sum of two temporal frequencies in each visual field location. Regional variation was found in the recorded sum and difference frequencies. The results indicate that PERG signals become dominated by responses from Y-like cells when the FD illusion is seen.

Contrast Sensitivity↗