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Biomedical subjects

S Gunderson

Publications and source records attributed to S Gunderson.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Promoting organ donation among high school students: an educational intervention.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a high school education program to promote organ donation awareness. The primary outcomes were intention to discuss organ donation with family or friends and actual discussion behavior. DESIGN: Longitudinal, observational study. METHODS: 665 high school students filled out evaluations at the beginning and at the end of a 1-hour education program. One month later, the students were asked to report whether they had discussed donation. RESULTS: After the program, knowledge and attitude scores and the proportion of students who intended to discuss donation increased (P < .05). At 1-month follow-up, 48% of students reported actual discussion. Intention has a strong, positive relationship with discussion behavior (odds ratio, 8.27; 95% CI, 3.18-21.51). Ethnicity, sex, and attitude of the students were also predictors of donation discussion behavior. CONCLUSIONS: This program appears to be effective in prompting discussion of organ donation among high school students.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

A method for estimating solid organ donor potential by organ procurement region.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to develop a methodology for estimating potential solid organ donors and measuring donation performance in a geographic region based on readily available data on the hospitals in that region. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed in a stratified random sample of 89 hospitals from 3 regions to attain a baseline of donor potential. Data on a range of hospital characteristics were collected and tested as predictors of donor potential through the use of hierarchical Poisson regression modeling. RESULTS: Five hospital characteristics predicted donor potential: hospital deaths, hospital Medicare case-mix index, total hospital staffed beds, medical school affiliation, and trauma center certification. Regional estimates were attained by aggregating individual hospital estimates. Confidence intervals for these regional estimates indicated that actual donations represented from 28% to 44% of the potential in the regions studied. CONCLUSIONS: This methodology accurately estimates organ donor potential within 3 geographic regions and lays the foundation for evaluating organ donation effectiveness nationwide. Additional research is needed to test the validity of the model in other geographic regions and to further explore organ donor potential in hospitals with fewer than 50 beds.

California↗
PubMed1997

The impact of a comprehensive, hospital-focused intervention to increase organ donation.

In this article the results of a 2-year intervention designed to increase rates of organ donation while improving services to bereaved families of potential donors are described. The project focused on improving key elements of the organ donation process. The intervention was implemented in 50 hospitals within the service areas of three organ procurement organizations. Results show an increase in identification, referral, and asking rates. The overall donation rate increased significantly, from 33% to 43%. However, consent rates remained unchanged. Future efforts should focus on improving the request process by systematically incorporating practices that are associated with higher consent rates. This should enable hospital and organ procurement organization staff to appropriately and effectively offer families the option of organ donation; further increases in organ donation should follow.

Bereavement↗
PubMed1992

Estimation of peak oxygen consumption from a sub-maximal half mile walk in obese females.

This study compared peak oxygen consumption estimated from a half mile sub-maximal walk test with oxygen consumption determined from a maximal treadmill test with 96 obese females. A half mile walk was completed as quickly as possible without running. Retests on 71 subjects were completed to determine the reliability of the half mile walk. Hearts rates were obtained for 15 s immediately upon completion of the walks. Stepwise regression to estimate peak VO2 was used with the following variables: walk time (TM), body weight, height, BMI, age, and heart rate (HR). The best equation was peak VO2 (ml/kg/min) = 53.23 - (1.98 x TM) - (0.32 x BMI) - (0.08 x age), r = 0.76, s.e.e. = 2.89 ml/kg/min. The mean difference between determined and estimated peak VO2 in a cross-validation group of subjects who were not included in the validation group was 0.15 ml/kg/min (n.s.), r = 0.77, s.e.e. = 3.01 ml/kg/min, E = 3.09. Reliability for time to complete the half mile walk was r = 0.87 with 0.1 min difference (n.s.). This study indicated the half mile walk to provide an accurate, reliable estimate of peak VO2 which should be useful in the clinical setting.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Diet and body composition. Effect of very low calorie diets and exercise.

Obesity is the presence of excess body fat and is associated with a variety of medical conditions which increase morbidity and mortality. Millions of individuals participate in weight-reduction programmes which include reduced calorie diets and may also include exercise. Very low calorie diets (VLCD) of 400 to 800 kcal/day appear attractive as they generally show an increase in weight loss from 0.2 to 0.5 kg/week found with the traditional diet to 1.5 to 2.0 kg/week. Early use of very low calorie diets with poor quality protein and loose medical supervision resulted in about 60 deaths, many of which were attributed to loss of lean body mass and in particular, cardiac muscle atrophy. Although current very low calorie diets are presumed safe, concern regarding preservation of lean body mass (LBM) remains. Investigators have used exercise to slow the depletion of lean body mass during very low calorie diets; however, the results are not conclusive. A host of different methodologies and questionable documentation and design of exercise protocols precludes a definitive statement for the benefits of exercise during very low calorie diets for the purpose of LBM retention.

Body Composition↗