The ill physician who self-discloses: What do patients think?

Background: Physicians with a serious illness face difficult decisions about revealing this sensitive information to patients. Self-disclosure of illness is a largely unexplored topic, particularly from the patient's perspective.

Objectives: To learn about patients' emotions and reactions to their family physician's sharing with them about having a major illness.

Screening physical examinations in 25,000 Israeli schoolchildren.

Unlabelled: Physical examinations in childhood and adolescence have been recommended by various professional organizations. In order to assess the value of periodic physical examinations in identifying previously undetected conditions, we analyzed the results of school screening examinations of approximately 25,000 Israeli students.

Methods: Entire student populations in the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 10th grades in the Tel Aviv-Yafo public school system were offered physical examinations during the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 school years.

Reaching Jewish ultra-orthodox adolescents: results from a targeted smoking prevention trial.

Background: Ultra-orthodox, Jewish adolescent boys are considered to have relatively high smoking rates, but are generally not targeted by Israel's smoking prevention programs.

Objective: The objective of this trial was to test the effectiveness of a religion-based tobacco control intervention in reducing smoking prevalence among these youth.

Methods: The study population participants were 340 boys from 63 religious boys' schools in Jerusalem.

Assessment of health issues and concerns of Israeli seventh graders during school physician examinations: a pilot study.

Background: The AMA Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) recommends annual medical evaluations during adolescence, emphasizing screening and counseling regarding psychosocial issues. In Israel, seventh graders undergo medical examinations within the school health services, focusing on the detection of physical conditions. We addressed the psychosocial issues of these students by introducing an expanded school physician evaluation.

Preventive adolescent health care in family practice: a program summary.

The AMA Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) has been the cornerstone of preventive care for teenagers since its publication in 1994. Despite this, there has been little documentation of their implementation in the family medicine literature. This article gives an overview of a family practice-based adolescent preventive health program based on GAPS recommendations, and reports on compliance, feasibility and health issues.