Development of goal-sensitive health-related utility assessment procedures.

Purpose: To measure the degree to which people express willingness to trade life or health for nonmedical goals.

Method: In 3 studies, outpatients provided important life goals. In study 1, patients performed time-tradeoff between life-years and goal achievement and chose between states that varied in goal achievement, life expectancy, and disability; in study 2, patients made choices that traded off health state and goal achievement; in study 3, patients performed time-tradeoff assessments in 3 different goal achievement contexts.

A randomized controlled trial to increase physical activity and reduce obesity in a predominantly African American group of women with mobility disabilities and severe obesity.

Objective: This randomized controlled trial tested a tailored, telephone-based physical activity coaching intervention for a predominantly African American group of women with severe obesity and mobility disability.

Methods: We recruited 92 clinic patients from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center referred by their physicians during 2004-2007 and randomized participants to one of three groups--awareness(informational brochure, no coaching), lower support (phone coaching only) and higher support (phone coaching plus monthly exercise support group)--to determine the efficacy of a tailored coaching intervention on key health outcomes, which included body weight and body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, physical activity (barriers and self-reported activity), movement and mobility, general health, and social support.

Results: The higher support group had the greatest reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) (7.

Life goals and health decisions: what will people live (or die) for?

Objective: Quality of life may represent not just quality of health but also the degree to which an individual achieves personally meaningful extrinsic goals unrelated to life duration that are not incorporated in the standard quality-adjusted life year model. The objectives of this study are to develop a typology of life goals and explore whether goal type is related to willingness to consider trading life years or health for goals.

Design: .

The "resident's dilemma"? Values and strategies of medical residents for education interactions: a cellular automata simulation.

Objectives: Medical residents engage in formal and informal education interactions with fellow residents during the working day, and can choose whether to spend time and effort on such interactions. Time and effort spent on such interactions can bring learning and personal satisfaction to residents, but may also delay completion of clinical work.

Methods: Using hypothetical cases, we assessed the values and strategies of internal medicine residents at one hospital for both cooperative and non-cooperative education interactions with fellow residents.