Heart disease risk perception in college men and women

The authors sought to assess the perception of risks for coronary heart disease (CHD) in college men and women. They surveyed 470 undergraduates from 2 major 4-year institutions who completed a questionnaire that measured perceived risks for heart disease. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents rated their risks as lower or much lower than those of their peers, indicating a clear optimistic bias. The research also revealed that the students who exercised regularly rated their risk of coronary disease lower than those who did not do so. In addition, women perceived a number of risk markers to be more potent or causative factors than men did. A significant number of participants did not comprehend commonly understood causal relationships associated with heart disease risk. The findings in this preliminary investigation suggest that college men and women do not accurately perceive their risks for developing heart disease.     

Working in Multidisciplinary Community Mental Health Teams: The Impact on Social Workers and Health Professionals of Integrated Mental Health Care

Correspondence to Professor John Carpenter, Centre for Applied Social Studies, University of Durham, Elvet Riverside II, Durham DH1 3JT, UK. E-mail: J.S.W.Carpenter{at}dur.ac.uk Summary This study investigated the relationships between the organizationof community mental health services and professional and teamidentification, team functioning and the psychological well-beingand job satisfaction of staff working in multidisciplinary communitymental health teams (CMHTs). Staff in four districts in theNorth of England completed anonymous questionnaires on two occasions,twelve months apart. There were systematic differences in teamfunctioning, favouring teams in districts where mental healthand social care services were integrated. However, service organizationhad no evident impact on professional or team identificationor on outcomes for staff in terms of stress or job satisfaction.There were differences between social workers (n = 31) and healthservice professionals (n = 82) indicating that social workershad poorer perceptions of team functioning and experienced higherlevels of role conflict. Controlling for other factors includingthe study districts, role conflict was a significant predictorof stress and of job dissatisfaction, while role clarity promotedjob satisfaction. We conclude that support and supervision aimedat ensuring a social work contribution to multidisciplinaryworking should be provided in the course of establishing CMHTsand integrated health and social care services.     

Family and marital profiles of couples in which one partner has depression or anxiety

Twenty-nine couples in which one partner was depressed, 21 couples in which one partner had an anxiety disorder, and 26 nondistressed control couples were compared on measures of (1) quality of life, stress, and social support; (2) family functioning; (3) marital functioning; and (4) relationship attributions. The depressed group had significant difficulties in all four domains. In contrast, the control group showed minimal difficulties. The profile of the anxious group occupied an intermediate position between those of the other two groups, with some difficulties in all four domains, although these were less severe and pervasive than those of the depressed group.     

Marriage and family therapists and psychotropic medications: practice patterns from a national study

A national sample of marriage and family therapists (MFTs) was used to describe practice patterns of MFTs whose clients use psychotropics and to compare medicated and nonmedicated clients. Marriage and Family Therapists (n=283) reported on 195 medicated and 483 nonmedicated adult clients. Clients (n=375) rated their improvement and satisfaction with treatment. Results showed that 91% of MFTs treat medicated clients, and these clients accounted for 25% of MFT cases. Medicated clients were most often seen in individual therapy, had more serious medical problems, and showed greater cumulative improvement in relational functioning. Therapists from MFT educational backgrounds had fewer medicated clients than MFTs from other educational backgrounds.     

Reliability and validity of the Outcome Expectations for Exercise Scale-2

Development of a reliable and valid measure of outcome expectations for exercise for older adults will help establish the relationship between outcome expectations and exercise and facilitate the development of interventions to increase physical activity in older adults. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Outcome Expectations for Exercise-2 Scale (OEE-2), a 13-item measure with two subscales: positive OEE (POEE) and negative OEE (NOEE). The OEE-2 scale was given to 161 residents in a continuing-care retirement community. There was some evidence of validity based on confirmatory factor analysis, Rasch-analysis INFIT and OUTFIT statistics, and convergent validity and test criterion relationships. There was some evidence for reliability of the OEE-2 based on alpha coefficients, person- and item-separation reliability indexes, and R(2)values. Based on analyses, suggested revisions are provided for future use of the OEE-2. Although ongoing reliability and validity testing are needed, the OEE-2 scale can be used to identify older adults with low outcome expectations for exercise, and interventions can then be implemented to strengthen these expectations and improve exercise behavior.     

Professional guidelines in occupational health and ergonomics

The disciplines of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy both play an important role in providing services in the area of Occupational Health and Ergonomics. This article will explore Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy professional guidelines in these two areas. For purposes of this article, Occupational Health and Ergonomic guidelines affecting therapists in Australia, The Netherlands, Canada and the United States will be discussed. The article will illustrate how the Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy organizations of several countries not only have existing Occupational Health and Ergonomic guidelines, position statements or like documents, but are also partnering with other organizations to make an impact on healthy workers and work environments. The information provided is not meant to be all-inclusive, but provide a look into professional responses to these expanding areas of practice.     

Russia and the Kyoto Protocol: The Long Road to Ratification

The Russian Federation played a crucial role in the Kyoto Protocol's ratification. Indeed, after the United States withdrawal, its ratification turned out to be indispensable for the Protocol to become legally binding. In early 2002, Russia decided to initiate the ratification process. However, the country long hesitated to fulfil its promises, and for the last two years it sent numerous contradictory signals with respect to its position on climate policy. Consequently, the factors that shape Russia's behaviour in the context of climate negotiations have received increasing attention. The main focus has been on the economic and international aspects motivating the Russian strategy. This paper attempts to complete this analysis by concentrating on a further feature that significantly contributed to Russia's final decision, namely, domestic forces. These factors have often been overlooked in the discussion of the Russian strategy. In order to fill this gap, this paper reconstructs the Russian ratification process, trying to identify the main domestic players and their role.     

A micro analysis of the macro differences in refusal risk among metropolitan areas. The case of the Italian multipurpose survey

Although still modest, non response rates in multipurpose household surveys have recently increased, especially in some metropolitan areas. Previous analyses have shown that refusal risk depends on the interviewers' characteristics. The aim of this paper is to explain the difference in refusal risk among metropolitan areas by analysing the strategies adopted in the recruitment of interviewers through a multilevel approach. The Annual Survey on Living conditions is a PAPI survey of the "Multipurpose" integrated system of social surveys and it represents our data base. For non responding household, data on non response by reason, municipality and characteristics of the interviewer are available. The results highlight that those cities recruiting interviewers mainly among young students have a higher refusal risk. These results are particularly important as they indicate that recruitment strategies may have a substantial impact on non sampling errors. Acknowledgements An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Conference on Improving Survey, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, August 25-28, 2002. We would like to thank the participants to the presentation for their useful comments and suggestions. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of any of the institutions they work for.     

Blueprint for ergonomics

Worker safety and health, and productivity and efficiency on the job can be greatly impacted by the application of ergonomics. This article outlines the decision making process for implementing ergonomic change in the workplace. Ergonomic principles, as well as risk factors for the upper extremity and low back are identified. Three ergonomic measurement methods are presented including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 1991 Revised Lifting Guidelines, Rodgers's Functional Job Analysis Technique, and the Moore and Garg Strain Index. Ergonomic solutions are discussed and additional factors to consider when designing ergonomic changes are identified.     

ASSESSMENT OF INTERPERSONAL FUNCTIONS: DEVELOPING MEASURES TO AID THE FUNCTIONAL FAMILY THERAPIST

One of the cornerstones of the functional family therapy model proposed by Alexander and Parsons (1982) is the assessment of interpersonal functions, which has traditionally been accomplished through intuition and clinical judgment. In this study, 109 college freshmen were recruited to evaluate the test-retest reliability of a videotaped scenario measure and a questionnaire designed to assess interpersonal functions. Subjects responded to both measures during an initial assessment phase and then again, during a second assessment phase, 2 weeks later. Pearson product-moment correlations and average agreement percentages indicate that both measures have adequate reliability. There were no sex differences, nor were subjects' responses related to a measure of social desirability.