PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Interviews as Topic”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 505 records · Page 28Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Asking for a prenatal diagnosis after the birth of a child with Down's syndrome.

Three years ago we undertook, in collaboration with André and Joëlle Boue (Inserm U 73), a research project investigating the psychological aspects of prenatal diagnosis following the earlier birth (and sometimes death) of a child with Down's syndrome. For this study we selected 20 couples who had requested such an examination. These couples present some particularities which justified, in our opinion, a specific study. In a few cases, one of the parents happened to be a carrier of a balanced chromosome translocation, but usually the trisomy was free. Moreover, the mother's age did not increase the risk factor. Our investigation was carried out on the basis of a series of one or several interviews, the man and the woman being seen separately. These unstructured interviews, with the fewest possible questions and interventions on our part, were tape-recorded with the permission of our subjects. We then analyzed the precise content of the typed texts of the these interviews. Two main topics emerged from this analysis: 1) The extreme impact of the birth of a child with Down's syndrome and the place and role of such a child in the family's life, and 2) The relationship between the parents and physician before and after the birth, including the request for a prenatal diagnosis.

Amniocentesis↗
PubMed1992

Health effects of unemployment--I. Long-term unemployed men in a rural and an urban setting.

Between 1983 and 1987 in an urban and a rural Dutch area employed and long-term unemployed men, between 30 and 50 years old, have been interviewed. The main topics of the study were the independent health effects of unemployment, the factors related to these health effects and socio-cultural differences. Long-term unemployment is considered to be a social phenomenon that restructures individual's social positions into multiple deprived positions. The characteristics of this restructuring are a relative lack of socio-structural resources, low social participation and emotional problems. Independent effects on the health status (perceived somatic and depressive complaints and self reported chronic disease) have been found to exist among both the rural and the urban unemployed. There is no clear effect of unemployment on health care use, but regional differences in health care use among rural and urban unemployed have been found. Between the urban and rural unemployed there are more similarities than differences in the factors and models explaining ill-health. The most important factors are: loneliness, disadvantageous consequences of unemployment, money worries and ill-health prior to job loss (health selection at the labour market). One important difference is that among the urban unemployed the perceived size of the network is an explanatory factor, but among the rural unemployed perceived stigmatization is more important. In general, ill-health can be better explained for the rural unemployed than for the urban unemployed.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Overdoses among friends: drug users are willing to administer naloxone to others.

The distribution of naloxone to heroin users is a suggested intervention to reduce overdose and death rates. However, the level of willingness of drug users to administer this medication to others is unclear. Drug users recruited from the community between January 2002 and January 2004 completed a structured interview that assessed topics including drug use, overdose history, and attitudes toward using overdose remedies to assist others. Of the 329 drug users, 82% had used heroin and 64.3% reported that they had injected drugs. Nearly two thirds (64.6%) said that they had witnessed a drug overdose and more than one third (34.6%) had experienced an accidental drug overdose. Most participants (88.5%) said that they would be willing to administer a medication to another drug user in the event of an overdose. Participants who had used heroin (p = .024), had injected drugs (p = .022), had witnessed a drug overdose (p = .001), or had a history of one or more accidental drug overdoses (p = .009) were significantly more willing to treat a companion who had overdosed. Drug users were willing to use naloxone in the event of a friend's overdose. Specific drug use and overdose histories were associated with the greatest willingness to administer naloxone.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Meaning and coherence of self and health: an approach based on narratives of life events.

Using contributions from the fields of interactionist sociology and narrative studies and the results of an empirical study, in this article we examine the subject's mediation between life events and state of health. Examining narratives focusing on significant life events from 26 men and women aged between 51 and 73 from the administrative region of Ile de France, we suggest that dimensions of meaning and coherence of self need not be taken as internal dispositions, but rather as the product of sociocognitive work on self-narration. The characterisation of the types of causal relationships that the narrators establish between significant events and other events, situations or periods in their lives, opens up avenues for the development of a methodological tool to replace traditional ways of measuring sense of coherence and meaning/purpose in life using psychometric methods. This alternative perspective based on a conception of the self as narrative might provide a remedy for certain conceptual and methodological difficulties that are found within the field of coping research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Listening to respondents: a qualitative assessment of the Short-Form 36 Health Status Questionnaire.

Standardised health status questionnaires are widely used to obtain subjective assessments of health. However, little research has investigated the meaning of the data they produce. Statistical tests will highlight some problems with the structure and wording of a questionnaire but they cannot shed any light on the way in which respondents interpret questions or their intended meaning when they select a response. Various qualitative techniques are being used within disciplines such as sociology and psychology to test both the language of survey instruments and the cognitive bases of surveys. This paper outlines some of these methods and reports findings from a qualitative research study in the UK with a widely used questionnaire--the Short-Form 36 Health Status Questionnaire. The value of including in-depth, qualitative validation techniques in the development and testing of surveys used to collect subjective assessments of health is clearly demonstrated by the findings of the study.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1999

Perceptions of soil-eating and anaemia among pregnant women on the Kenyan coast.

After a clinical study at Kilifi District hospital had shown a high prevalence of geophagy among pregnant women, and a strong association of geophagy, anaemia and iron depletion, 52 pregnant women from the same hospital, and 4 traditional healers from the surroundings of Kilifi in Kenya were interviewed on the topic of soil-eating and its perceived causes and consequences. The findings were substantiated by results from an earlier anthropological study on maternal health and anaemia in the same study area. Most of the pregnant women (73%) ate soil regularly. They mainly ate the soil from walls of houses, and their estimated median daily ingestion was 41.5 g. They described soil-eating as a predominantly female practice with strong relations to fertility and reproduction. They made associations between soil-eating, the condition of the blood and certain bodily states: pregnancy, lack of blood (upungufu wa damu), an illness called safura involving "weak" blood, and worms (minyolo). The relationships the women described between soil-eating and illness resemble to some extent the causalities explored in biomedical research on soil-eating, anaemia and intestinal worm infections. However the women did not conceptualise the issue in terms of the single causal links characteristic of most scientific thought. Instead, they acknowledged the existence of multiple links between phenomena which they observed in their own and other women's bodies. The women's ideas about soil-eating and their bodies shows the significance of both social and cultural context on the ways in which women derive knowledge from, and make sense of their bodily states. The cultural associations of soil-eating with blood, fertility and femininity exist alongside knowledge of its links to illness. Our findings show that soil-eating is more than just a physiologically induced behaviour; it is a rich cultural practice.

Anemia, Iron-Deficiency↗
PubMed1999

Prediction of physician visits and prescription medicine use for back pain.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which specific patient attitudes and beliefs about medical care and self-care for back pain predict future healthcare use. An automated database allowed examination of the predictive relationships in two primary care patient samples. In general, beliefs that physicians should find a definitive cause and permanent cure for back pain predicted neither physician visits nor prescription medication fills. Patient attitudes endorsing the benefits of medical treatment for back pain (as opposed to a permanent cure) predicted the use of these specific healthcare services. In a third sample of primary care back pain patients, we assessed whether a four-session self-care intervention modified those attitudes and beliefs shown to predict future healthcare use. The group intervention was associated with changes in attitudes about use of physician services but not medication use. A secondary purpose was to examine initial psychometric properties of a proposed back pain Self-Care Orientation Scale made up of the original 11 items. Factor analyses of the item set yielded three factors, but inconclusive results; the internal consistency of the identified sub-scales was only moderate. However, findings that a subset of items predicted physician visits and prescriptions medication fills, and was sensitive to change following a self-care intervention, suggest avenues for improving measurement of self-care orientation. These findings help clarify specific patient attitudes and beliefs that are related to healthcare utilization and suggest that a subset of these beliefs can be modified through a brief educational intervention.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1998

Partner notification techniques.

This article aimed to cover the range of techniques used in partner notification for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Many of the current methods were developed over the past 50 years, and very little operational research has since been undertaken to refine them. More work is needed to evaluate inexpensive strategies to improve patient referral, to determine the psychological and behavioral impact of partner notification and methods of incorporating social networks in partner notification programs.

Confidentiality↗
PubMed2003

Participating in medical education: views of patients and carers living in deprived communities.

OBJECTIVES: Active patient involvement in community-based education is still relatively novel; in particular, the involvement of patients living in socially and economically deprived areas is still unusual. This study explores the views of patients and carers living in deprived areas on their participation in medical education. DESIGN: A total of 36 patients and 18 parents were interviewed at home by Year 1 students undertaking an accelerated 4-year degree programme. Subsequently, taped interviews using a topic guide were carried out with 18 patients/carers. Their views on their active involvement with medical students are presented here. RESULTS: Most of the patients in this study did not view themselves as teaching the students but considered their role to be more one of partnership, explanation and sharing. They considered that they were the 'best judges' of certain aspects of their illness. These aspects related to psychological, social and behavioural issues, which impacted on both themselves and their families. Patients considered these issues to be as important as the medical condition they were diagnosed with. Patients also raised issues concerning the importance of doctors listening to patients. CONCLUSION: This study showed that patients living in areas of deprivation were positive about being involved in medical education. They considered their personal experience and knowledge of illness to be an important aspect of student learning. They were happy to share this knowledge and they were very keen that doctors should listen to them. The challenge for medical educators is to ensure that this is achieved.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

[Pain and ethnicity - results of a survey at three internal/gynecological first-aid stations in Berlin].

QUESTION: How high is the pain pressure in everyday life of German vs. not German patients, with which troubles do they come to the emergency room, how intense is their pain, how long is it lasting, how many pain areas are named? GROUP OF PATIENTS/METHODS: The study "Utilization of clinical emergency rooms by German patients and migrants" was carried out at first-aid stations of three Berlin hospitals in municipal districts with a high share of foreigners in the population in the form of standardized interviews on following topics: roads to have access to the emergency room, perception and interpretation of pain/troubles, expectations from the first-aid station, further medical care, chronical diseases, self-help measures, social data, migration aspects. RESULTS: An everyday life pressure because of headache and rheumatic pains was named significant more often by migrants of Turkish extraction than by the German women asked. In the age-group 50-65 years the migrants chose significant higher scale values to characterize their pain intensity. Migrants named all in all clearly more pain areas than German patients. The share of patients with pain persisting more than three days was 36.1 % in German women, 45.5 % in migrants of Turkish origin, 45.8 % in women of other ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: Pain interpretation as well as pain expression are socio-culturally conditioned. Differences between migrants and native patients should lead to take more into consideration the concrete life situation and specific strain in the patients' treatment.

Demography↗
PubMed1993

[Illness perception and coping with illness of bipolar manic-depressive patients].

Subjective concepts and experience of illness and coping behaviour are important factors for the course of bipolar disorder. 81 remitted and discharged patients (bipolar manic-depressive and bipolar schizoaffective) were interviewed on these topics. The last manic episode was usually reported as pleasant, but the recollection of acute symptoms was often affected by shame. Patients with few episodes preferred social and interactional explanations for their disordered states. The medical concept of illness was accepted with advancing episodes, it correlated with resignation and feelings of powerlessness. Initially active and conflict-orientated forms of coping predominated. But after further manic episodes family members often declared themselves responsible for the prevention of relapse (without success); the patients now showed an increase of denial and externalization. The data are condensed to a concept of a gradual change of attitudes of bipolar patients (with therapeutical implications).

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

The Block Nurse Program.

In the Block Nurse Program, existing resources and agencies are used to help keep elderly persons in their own homes with case-management by public health nurses living in the community. In an external evaluation of the program it was documented that a neighborhood long-term care delivery model not only works, but keeps elderly persons in their homes at low cost and with high care standards.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Alcohol use and HIV risk behaviors among rural adolescents in Khanh Hoa Province Viet Nam.

Research suggests that youth are consuming more alcohol and at younger ages than in the past. Data also indicate that alcohol consumption is associated with participation in other risk behaviors including aggression and sexual behaviors. As part of a randomized control effectiveness trial for an HIV prevention program, 480 Vietnamese youth (15-20 years old) living in eight rural communes in Khanh Hoa Province were administered a paper and pencil baseline evaluation. The evaluation included items for actual and intended alcohol use, perceptions of peers' alcohol consumption, and attitudinal questions regarding alcohol. The tool included questions on engagement and intention to engage in sexual behaviors. In addition, 96 randomly selected youth participated in qualitative interviews on similar topics. Among the 480 surveyed youth, 29.2% had consumed alcohol. Among those youth, 17.6% reported intoxication in the past 6 months. While young men were significantly more likely to drink than young women (P < 0.00), those young women who did drink were as likely to report intoxication. Alcohol use was significantly associated with engagement in sexual behaviors (P < 0.00) and intention to engage in sexual behaviors (P < 0.02). The qualitative data provided information on the social contexts of drinking behaviors and more in-depth findings regarding associated risk behaviors. With limited information about alcohol consumption among Vietnamese youth, these findings suggest that there is a need for more extensive research on alcohol use and associated risk behaviors among this population, and for targeted alcohol prevention and harm-reduction programs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Evaluation of an HIV risk reduction intervention among African-American homosexual and bisexual men.

OBJECTIVE: To provide the first data which evaluates an HIV risk reduction intervention designed to reduce HIV high-risk sexual behavior in African-American homosexual and bisexual men. SUBJECTS: Participants (n = 318) were recruited from bars, bathhouses, and erotic bookstores, and through homosexual African-American organizations, street out-reach, media advertisements, and personal referrals of individuals aware of the study. METHODS: Participants were randomized into a single or triple session experimental group or a wait-list control group. Both experimental interventions included AIDS risk education, cognitive-behavioral self-management training, assertion training, and attempts to develop self-identity and social support. Data collection involved assessments of self-reported changes in sexual behavior at 12- and 18-month follow-up. RESULTS: Participants in the triple session intervention greatly reduced their frequency of unprotected anal intercourse (from 46 to 20%) at the 12-month follow-up evaluation and (from 45% to 20%) at the 18-month follow-up evaluation. However, levels of risky behavior for the control group remained constant (from 26 to 23% and from 24 to 18%) at 12- and 18-month follow-up evaluations, respectively. In addition, levels of risky behavior for the single session intervention decreased only slightly (from 47 to 38% and from 50 to 38%) at the 12- and 18-month follow-up evaluations, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Results were interpreted to demonstrate the superiority of a triple session over a single session intervention in reducing risky sexual behavior in this cohort.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Association of adolescents' history of sexually transmitted disease (STD) and their current high-risk behavior and STD status: a case for intensifying clinic-based prevention efforts.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents are at high risk of sexually transmitted disease (STD)/HIV infection, and one vulnerable subgroup is African American females. The association between adolescents' previous experience of STD and recent sexual risk behaviors has been ill-defined. GOAL: The goal was to examine the associations between adolescents' self-reported history of STD diagnosis and current sexual risk behaviors, prevention knowledge and attitudes, and STD infection status. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional survey. Recruitment sites were in low-income neighborhoods of Birmingham, Alabama, characterized by high rates of unemployment, substance abuse, violence, and STDs. Participants were sexually active adolescent females (N = 522) 14 to 18 years of age. Information on STD history and current sexual behaviors (within the 30 days before assessment) was collected in face-to-face interviews. Less sensitive topics, such as STD prevention knowledge, attitudes about condom use, and perceived barriers to condom use, were addressed via self-administered survey. DNA amplification of vaginal swab specimens provided by the adolescents was performed to determine current STD status. Outcomes associated with past STD diagnosis were determined by means of logistic regression to calculate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) in the presence of observed covariates. RESULTS: Twenty-six percent of adolescents reported ever having an STD diagnosed. Although past STD diagnosis was associated with increased STD prevention knowledge, it was not associated with increased motivation to use condoms. Compared with adolescents who had never had an STD, adolescents with a history of diagnosed STD were more likely to report not using a condom at most recent intercourse (AOR = 2.54; 95% CI = 1.64-3.93; = 0.0001), recent unprotected vaginal intercourse (AOR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.15-2.79; = 0.010), inconsistent condom use (AOR = 2.27; 95% CI = 1.46-3.51; < .0001), sexual intercourse while drinking alcohol (AOR = 2.09; 95% CI = 1.33-3.28; = 0.001), and unprotected intercourse with multiple partners (AOR = 3.29; 95% CI = 1.09-9.89; = 0.034). Past STD diagnosis was associated with increased risk for current biologically confirmed gonorrhea and trichomoniasis (AOR = 2.48; 95% CI = 1.09-5.23; = 0.030; and AOR = 2.05; 95% CI = 1.18-3.59; = 0.011, respectively). Past STD diagnosis was not significantly associated with increased risk of current biologically confirmed chlamydia (AOR = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.45-1.37; = 0.38). CONCLUSION: Among this sample of female adolescents, past STD diagnosis was an indicator of current high-risk sexual activity and increased risk for two common STDs: gonorrhea and trichomoniasis. Although adolescents may gain factual knowledge from the experience of having an STD diagnosed, they are not applying that knowledge to their current sexual behaviors. Thus, these adolescents remain at risk for subsequent STD infection. Therefore, the findings suggest that there is a need to intensify clinic-based prevention efforts directed toward adolescents with a history of STDs, as a strategy for reducing STD-associated risk behaviors and, consequently, the likelihood of new STD infections.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Panic disorder among patients with chronic fatigue.

Among 200 adults with a chief complaint of chronic fatigue evaluated in an internal medicine practice, currently active panic disorder was diagnosed in 26 patients (13%), a frequency tenfold greater than that in the general population. Panic disorder preceded or was coincidental with the onset of chronic fatigue in 21 of these patients. In comparison with the rest of the study cohort, significantly more patients with panic disorder had a history of severe depression, including persistent thoughts of death or suicide. Moreover, more patients with panic disorder showed a lifetime tendency to have physical symptoms that remained unexplained after medical evaluation. Our findings suggest that treatable panic disorder is an important contributor not only to major depression and somatization, but also to the etiology and clinical presentation of chronic fatigue in patients in an outpatient practice.

Adult↗