SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Comprehension”

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 703 records · Page 39Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

Establishing a comprehensive questionnaire for detecting drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: Drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms (DIEPS) often substantially compromise quality of life (QOL) of patients receiving drugs with central antidopaminergic activities. A lack of comprehensive screening method based upon patients' subjective symptoms for detecting DIEPS appears to have prevented pharmacists from delivering satisfactory pharmaceutical care for these patients. Thus, we have attempted to develop a comprehensive questionnaire for screening patients having higher risks of developing DIEPS. METHODS: One hundred fourteen outpatients taking gastroprokinetic drugs (itopride, cisapride, trimebutine, domperidone and metoclopramide) at least 2 weeks participated in the study. One patient with familial Parkinson disease served as a positive reference. They undertook a questionnaire consisting of 9 comprehensive questions written in non-technical words that were aimed to detect typical symptoms of Parkinsonism including akathisia and dyskinesia. Each symptom was scored in a semiquantitative scale [i.e., from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much)] by the patients. RESULTS: Of the 108 subjects who successfully completed the questionnaires, 43 gave scores 2 or greater indicating the presence of DIEPS. However, no statistically significant correlations were observed between the scores of any possible pairs of the questionnaire items. Five subjects had a mean questionnaire score of equal to or greater than 1.6, and the patient with familiar Parkinsonism had the highest mean score of 1.9. CONCLUSION: The questionnaire presented herein detected 4 patients with suspected DIEPS. Further studies should be warranted to assess whether it would be useful for pharmacists as a screening tool for DIEPS in patients having higher risks of DIEPS.

Aged↗

PubMed1997

Fostering reader response and developing comprehension strategies in deaf and hard of hearing children.

In response to the increasing use of children's trade books in school reading programs, this article reviews the use of real text, drawing on the application and interaction of two distinct perspectives: reader response theory and comprehension instruction. The authors propose the need to combine knowledge of instruction with the new focus on the role of the reader within response theory and within comprehension research. This article suggests how comprehension instruction and response to literature activities can intersect in the classroom for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Explicit models and instructional strategies are discussed in the framework of this bimodal approach to reading. A sample list of high quality children's books, including several trade books that feature deaf or hard of hearing characters and issues, is provided as a resource for teachers.

Child↗

PubMed1995

The deaf child and solving problems of arithmetic. The importance of comprehensive reading.

The present investigation is informed by two major considerations. First, the need for teachers to know more about the difficulties experienced by the deaf child when presented with written mathematical problems. Second, the idea of the relationship between linguistic competence in deaf subjects and their difficulties in the comprehension of verbal messages. In particular, the present article analyzes the influence of reading comprehension level on the solution of verbally expressed problems of arithmetic. The results indicate that reading comprehension level is clearly related to the problem-solving level of deaf subjects. In general, if the deaf are unable to understand the verbally presented problem, they will not be able to solve it correctly.

Achievement↗

PubMed2002

Comprehensive community interventions to promote health: implications for college-age drinking problems.

OBJECTIVE: This article reviews comprehensive community interventions that sought to reduce (1) cardiovascular disease risks; (2) smoking; (3) alcohol use disorders, alcohol-related injury and illicit drug use; or (4) sexual risk taking that could lead to HIV infection, sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy. METHOD: Comprehensive community programs typically involve multiple city government agencies as well as private citizens and organizations and use multiple intervention strategies such as school-based and public education programs, media advocacy, community organizing, environmental policy changes and heightened enforcement of existing policies. This review focused on English-language papers published over the past several decades. RESULTS: Some programs in each of the four problem areas achieved their behavioral and health goals. The most consistent benefits were found in programs targeting behaviors with immediate health consequences such as alcohol misuse or sexual risk taking. Results were less consistent when consequences of targeted behaviors were more distant in time such as cardiovascular risks and smoking. Also, programs that targeted youth to prevent them from starting new health-compromising behaviors tended to be more successful than programs aimed at modifying preexisting habits among adults. Programs that combined environmental and institutional policy change with theory-based education programs were the most likely to be successful. Finally, programs tailored to local conditions by the communities themselves tended to achieve more behavior change than programs imported from the outside. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive community intervention approaches may have considerable potential to reduce college-age drinking problems, especially given the success of these programs in reducing alcohol-related problems and in preventing health-compromising behaviors among youth.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1973

Modification of deficits in reading for comprehension.

Subjects were asked to read a passage orally and then to answer questions about the passage. When praise and pennies were given for correct answers, the percentage of correct answers increased in two sixth-grade subjects whose reading for comprehension was tested to be 2 yr below grade level. The behavior of these subjects was compared to that of two subjects whose reading for comprehension was tested to be on grade level. Although no evidence for changes in the accuracy of answering comprehension questions is found in the previous literature, the percentage of correct answers in the children with deficits increased to approximately the same level as the children tested to be on grade level.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1989

Improving patient comprehension of literature on smoking.

This study was designed to determine if simplification of smoking literature improved patient comprehension. Subjects (N = 129) were randomized in three groups: to receive no smoking booklet, receive one written at the 5th grade, or the 10th grade reading level. Subjects receiving the 5th grade booklet showed 13 percent better comprehension than those receiving the 10th grade booklet, and 18 percent better than the controls. Comprehension of written smoking materials can be improved by adjustment of the reading grade level.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Comprehensive treatment of late-onset tibia vara.

BACKGROUND: Late-onset tibia vara (Blount disease) can be difficult to treat because of frequent morbid obesity and associated deformities, including distal femoral varus, proximal tibial procurvatum, and distal tibial valgus, that contribute to lower extremity malalignment. We present a comprehensive approach that addresses all components of the deformity and allows restoration of the anatomic and mechanical axes. METHODS: Fifteen consecutive patients (nineteen lower extremities) with late-onset tibia vara were managed with this comprehensive approach. The mean age of the patients at the time of surgery was 14.9 years, and the mean weight was 113 kg. Standing anteroposterior and lateral radiographs were made preoperatively and at the time of the final follow-up. Preoperatively, the mean mechanical axis deviation was 108 mm, the mean lateral distal femoral angle was 95 degrees , and the mean mechanical medial proximal tibial angle was 71 degrees . In all nineteen extremities, the proximal tibial varus deformity was corrected by means of a valgus osteotomy and application of an Ilizarov ring external fixator. Distal femoral varus was corrected by means of either hemiepiphyseal stapling or valgus osteotomy with blade-plate fixation in thirteen of the nineteen extremities. Distal tibial valgus was treated either with hemiepiphyseal stapling or with varus osteotomy and gradual correction with use of the Ilizarov external fixator in eleven of the nineteen extremities. RESULTS: After a mean duration of follow-up of 5.0 years, the mean mechanical axis deviation had improved to 1 mm (range, 20 to -30 mm), the lateral distal femoral angle had improved to 87 degrees (range, 83 degrees to 98 degrees), and the mechanical medial proximal tibial angle had improved to 88 degrees (range, 83 degrees to 98 degrees ). The mean time required for correction of the proximal tibial varus deformity was thirty-one days, and the external fixator was removed at a mean of 4.5 months postoperatively. All patients had development of one or more superficial pin-track infections (mean, 1.9 pin-site infections per patient). No wound infections, nonunions, or neurovascular complications occurred. Eighteen of the nineteen extremities were pain-free at the time of the final follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive approach allowed restoration of the mechanical and anatomic axes of the lower extremity in patients with late-onset tibia vara, resulting in a resolution of symptoms as a result of normalization of the weight-bearing forces across the knee and ankle. We believe that this approach will decrease the risk of early degenerative arthritis of the knee.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Comprehensive, technology-based clinical education: the "virtual practicum".

This article discusses the application of technology to promote more comprehensive clinical education in the biopsychosocial aspects of primary care. Comprehensive refers to the inclusion, in addition to scientific and technical knowledge, of knowledge that is less easily characterized, quantified, and taught: empathy, intuition, the demonstration of artistry. Clinical education will be increasingly facilitated by the proliferation of computers capable of displaying combinations of text, graphics, video, and sound; broadband networks capable of delivering these multiple media to the home or office; and new methods for using these technologies for education and training. However, current models for technology-based learning are limiting, lagging behind the rapid technological evolution driving our entry into the Information Age. Some recent educational models (Schon's reflection-in-action and reflective practicums [1], Boisot's E-space [2], Kolb's learning cycle [3]) provide for a more comprehensive and complete view of health professional education. This article describes these models in depth and proposes a new model for technology-based clinical training, the "Virtual Practicum," based on them. The Virtual Practicum is illustrated with a new interactive CD-ROM program, dealing with primary care of patients with HIV/AIDS. The concepts presented here are generally useful in thinking about clinical education, regardless of the means used.

CD-ROM↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluating the use of a comprehensive pretravel database by travel medicine experts and novices for advice building.

BACKGROUND: The practice of travel medicine is particularly dependent on knowledge that must be continuously updated, and that can be found in professional electronic documents (PEDs), as specialized websites or comprehensive off-line databases. In this study, we show to what extent the use of a comprehensive pretravel database can compensate for a lack of knowledge in travel medicine during advice building, despite inexperience in using such systems. METHODS: Sixteen physicians, novices and experts in travel medicine, were solicited for building adequate recommendations about real cases of international travel with the help of a specialized PED. The physician's verbalizations, browsing in the documentation and final recommendations have been analyzed for the purpose of identifying and counting the requests addressed to the system and the informative elements in the recommendations. RESULTS: Novices make 2.5 times as many requests for information as experts (p=.0009), and look for a greater variety of information, specifically connected to health precautions (p=.0012), immunizations (p=.0001), health care resources (p=.0037) and climate (p=.019), whereas experts focus their requests mainly on health risks (64.81% of requests, p5.0009). The recommendations from the two groups included equivalent quantities of about 12 pieces of information, but experts used 92.34% of the information found in the documentation, whereas novices used 72.37% (p=.00005). The most used informative elements, whatever the expertise level is, are related to immunizations and health precautions, but experts include more information about health risks (p=0.017), drug characteristics (p=0.014) and chemoprophylaxis (p=0.026). CONCLUSIONS: The PED actually increases the novices' travel medicine expertise, and is particularly efficient for immunizations and health precautions. The PED helps a novice to build advice that is, on the whole, equivalent to an expert's in terms of nature, if not of quality. Implications for the benefits of comprehensive PEDs in the practice of travel medicine are discussed.

Clinical Competence↗

PubMed2000

Effectiveness of a comprehensive diabetes lower-extremity amputation prevention program in a predominantly low-income African-American population.

OBJECTIVE: To compare patient outcomes 1 year before and 1 year after enrollment in a comprehensive diabetes lower-extremity amputation prevention program. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Outcome data were obtained on 197 patients enrolled in the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Diabetes Foot Program, which provides foot care to a predominantly low-income African-American population in Louisiana. Data were obtained using a structured interview administered by a registered nurse. Recordings were made of number of days with an open foot ulcer, number of times hospitalized for a foot problem, number of days spent in the hospital for a foot problem, number of visits to the emergency room for a foot problem, number of times an antibiotic was prescribed for a foot problem, number of all foot operations, number of lower-extremity amputations, and number of missed workdays for a foot problem. Data were obtained on all patients at the initial visit and at the 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: Analysis of data showed a reduction in foot-related ulcer days (-49%), hospitalizations, (-89%), hospital days (-90%), emergency room visits (-81%), antibiotic prescriptions, (-57%), foot operations (-87%), lower-extremity amputations (-79%), and missed workdays (-70%) after 1 year of comprehensive foot care compared with the 1-year period before treatment. CONCLUSIONS: This single cohort outcome study showed a large reduction in foot-related complications after the first year of comprehensive preventive foot care.

Black or African American↗

PubMed2001

Comprehensive evaluation of community-based diabetic patients: effect of feedback to patients and their physicians: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate improvements in diabetes care stimulated by comprehensive evaluation of community-based diabetic patients with feedback to the patients and their physicians. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A comprehensive evaluation of community-based diabetic patients with annotated reporting of results to both patients and their physicians (universal intervention) was followed by random assignment of 50% of patients to individual counseling (randomized intervention). In four communities, two large and two small, 55 type 1 and 376 type 2 diabetic patients were recruited, evaluated, and reassessed at 1 year. Outcome measures were HbA1c, serum cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. RESULTS: There were significant improvements in all outcome measures for type 2 diabetic patients randomized to individual counseling (P = 0.03; follow-up rate 84%) and significant improvements in all outcome measures for all high-risk type 2 patients (highest P value = 0.004; follow-up rate 85%). CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive evaluation of diabetic patients at the community level with annotated reporting of results to the patients and their physicians was associated with improvement of mean HbA1c, cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, particularly in patients in high-risk status for these outcome variables. Individual counseling of 50% of patients, randomly selected, enhanced these results.

Blood Pressure↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Clinician communication associated with diabetic patients' comprehension of their therapeutic regimen.

The purpose of this study was to identify the types of statements used by medical and nursing clinicians in encounters with diabetic outpatients that are associated with accurate comprehension of their therapeutic regimen. Encounters between 19 clinicians and 29 patients followed in an urban diabetes clinic were examined. Statements made by clinicians were classified by trained observers according to an 11-category observation scheme. Immediately after the encounters, each patient was interviewed and asked to recall his or her regimen as just discussed. Recall was verified by review of a videotape of the encounter. By use of multiple discriminant analysis, a combination of three types of statements by clinicians was found to predict high (better than 80%) comprehension by patients: demonstrating respect, sharing current clinical data, and acknowledging patient statements (inversely). Insofar as patient comprehension of the diabetic regimen is a prerequisite for compliance with that regimen, this study suggests that the chances for therapeutic success are increased when the interaction of clinician and patient takes a certain tone. Most importantly, the clinician should be informative. Current laboratory and physical findings should be shared with the patient in order to make more obvious the successes and failures of recent attempts at compliance. As suggested in previous research, this information should have its strongest effect when conveyed in a nonthreatening manner.

Communication↗

PubMed1977

Imposed delay of response: effects on aphasics auditory comprehension of visuality and non-visually cued material.

Two groups of aphasics were administered an auditory comprehension task under conditions of 0-, 5-, and 10-sec. imposed delay of response. The auditory-visual group received auditory and visual cues; the auditory group received only auditory cues. Comprehension for the auditory-visual group was significantly better than for the auditory group. Increase in delay time significantly improved comprehension for the auditory-visual group but not for the auditory group.

Adult↗

PubMed1980

Preliminary investigation of transfer between single-word decoding ability and contextual reading comprehension by poor readers in grade six.

The study sought to investigate transfer between single-word decoding skill and contextual reading comprehension using 60 sixth grade pupils classified as 30 poor and 30 very poor readers. There were two training groups, content-specific and non-content-specific. One group received single-word decoding training, which led to decoding mastery of all words to be read in narrative prose passages and the accompanying literal and inferential comprehension questions. The other group learned to identify and pronounce words, equal in difficulty and number to those of the content-specific group but never a part of the passages and questions for the study. Pupils given content-specific training answered significantly more literal and inferential questions correctly than did those given non-content-specific training. It is suggested that there is transfer between single-word decoding skill and contextual, literal and inferential comprehension.

Child↗

PubMed1994

Use of assisted reading to improve reading rate, word accuracy, and comprehension with ESL Spanish-speaking students.

The present experiment examined the effectiveness of an assisted reading program on reading rates and comprehension of three Spanish-speaking students learning English. The effects of assisted reading on reading rate, word accuracy, and comprehension were examined using a multiple-baseline design across individuals. Increases in words read correctly per minute with repeated readings of the passage and on new passages, decreases in errors per minute, and increases in comprehension were noted.

Child↗

PubMed1998

Influence of prosodic boundaries on comprehension of spoken English sentences.

Three experiments investigated the role of prosody in the comprehension of auditory sentences. In Exp. 1 an analysis of three novice talkers and one expert talker verified the production parameters of one type of syntactic ambiguity and showed that pitch cues were more prominent than duration cues. In Exp. 2, 16 listeners used prosodic information to make consistent decisions reliably about phrase boundaries. In Exp. 3, 40 participants listened to sentences in which prosody was inconsistent with later morphosyntactic information, indicated their understanding, and then judged whether a visual target was related to the meaning of the sentence. Inconsistent prosody slowed comprehension and contributed to slower, less accurate judgments of sentence meaning. This suggests that prosodic information contributes to the perception of spoken language and can affect comprehension even when the syntactic structure indicated by prosody is contradicted by subsequent morphosyntactic information.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Reading comprehension: think and know verbs.

Verbs such as think, know, remember, and guess play a pivotal role in understanding, monitoring, and transformation of internal states. We focus on the specific words as think and know, polysemous cognitive verbs that show hierarchical organization and high frequency of use in children's and adults' lexicons. According to Booth and Hall's model, think and know present a conceptual organization that involves low conceptual levels (perception, memory, comprehension) and high conceptual levels (evaluation, metacognition, planning). The aim of this research was to study the relationship between children's comprehension of text processing and the conceptual levels of the above-described verbs. The research concentrated on 9-, 11-, and 13-yr.-old children's ability to understand think and know. Analysis yielded a strong relation between knowledge at the conceptual level of these verbs and reading comprehension skills. Moreover, it highlights the importance of this linguistic competence in skilled readers.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Prevention strategy for vibration hazards by portable power tools, national forest model of comprehensive prevention system in Japan.

In the 1950s, the introduction of portable power tools into the production process of many industries began on a large scale around the world and resulted in many cases of occupational vibration syndrome after the 1960s. There was an urgent world wide need to undertake preventive steps, medical assessment and therapy. At the end of 1964, our investigation began in Japanese national forests, and then in mines and stone quarries. The Japanese Association of Industrial Hygiene established a "Committee for Local Vibration Hazards" (1965), and many researchers in the medical and technological fields joined this Committee. After 10 years, a comprehensive system for the prevention of vibration syndrome was established in the national forestry. It consists of 1) improvements in vibrating tools, 2) hygienic regulation of operation time with an alternative working system, 3) health care system involving early medical checks, early therapy and age limitations in operation of vibrating tools, 4) protection against cold in the workplace and while commuting, and 5) education and training for health and safety. The prevention strategy for vibration syndrome in our national forests is to establish a comprehensive prevention system in cooperation among researchers in the medical and technological fields, workers and administration. The Ministry of Labor presented that strategy as good model of prevention for other industries (1976). New designs for this model were developed and adapted according to the special conditions of each industry. Thus comprehensive system for prevention of vibration syndrome developed successfully from the late 1970s to 1980s in Japan.

Forestry↗