Stakeholders' opinions regarding important measures of nursing home quality for consumers.

This article reports on a survey of opinions about specific categories and indicators of quality used by the Health Care Financing Administration in the survey and certification process for nursing homes in the US. The survey was conducted of a selected sample of administrators, directors of nursing, state survey agency training coordinators, state ombudsmen, and nursing home advocates in 1996. General patterns of agreement were found across all respondent groups that the 3 most important categories of quality were as follows: quality of care, quality of life, and residents' rights.

An examination of differential follow-up rates in breast cancer screening.

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that follow-up rates for women with abnormal breast screening results would vary by age, ethnicity and initial screening results in California's Breast Cervical Cancer Control Program. The sample was composed of women in this screening program who had received abnormal clinical breast exam (N = 5239) or mammography results (N = 1202). Chi-squared analysis showed significant differences by age and initial screening results but in logistic regression analysis the only demographic variable to retain significance in analysis was age, although size of the clinic was also highly significant.

Continuity after a stroke: implications of life-course disruption in old age.

Life-course disruption caused by a stroke and subsequent attempts on the part of stoke victims to restore continuity was explored through qualitative research with a sample of 216 persons. This research suggests: 1) that theory in gerontology could be deepened by framing continuity to include discontinuous experience in late life; and 2) that research on what elderly persons themselves make of continuity--how they perpetuate it or recreate it and the obstacles they perceive in doing so--may inform our understanding of the experience of old age and lead to applications in the practice of gerontology that address the disruption illness poses for people's lives.