Risk factors and coronary artery disease for asymptomatic women using electron beam computed tomography.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. In 1995, 58,200,000 people were estimated to have the disease, claiming 960,592 lives, while 481,287 people died of coronary artery disease (CAD). Most people are unaware they have CAD, and death is often quite sudden.

The relationships between family primary caregiver characteristics and satisfaction with hospice care, quality of life, and burden.

Purpose/objectives: To examine relationships between family primary caregiver characteristics and satisfaction with hospice care, quality of life (QOL), and burden.

Design: Exploratory, quantitative.

Setting: Five hospice organizations in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.

Gains from public-private collaborations to improve community health.

In several disciplines there exists theoretical and empirical evidence to show that community affects health and behaviors; but to date such evidence has remained largely outside the health services field. In this article, the authors introduce and contribute to this evidence and then discuss how those in the healthcare sector can work to increase public-private collaborations. Telephone survey data collected in 1995 from 1,826 randomly selected residents of a Northwest urban county were used in multivariate analysis to assess the relationship between community quality and health status.

The relationship of community quality to the health of women and men.

Using a 1996 community survey of behavioral risk factors, this cross-sectional study of 804 residents in a rural community examines the relationship of community quality to the health status of women and men. We use two categories of community factors to assess community quality: measures of the social quality of community life, and measures of community quality that focus on the physical environment. Health status is assessed by four measures that examine perceived health status and functioning.

The effects of CEO-board relations on hospital performance.

This article assesses the relationship between CEO-board relations and hospital financial performance. A study of 90 acute care California hospitals examined changes in the relations between the CEO and governing board over two time periods in 1985 and 1989. The results show that CEO-board participation is an effective governance mechanism that significantly enhances hospital performance.

Psychiatric hospitalization decision making by CMHC staff.

The decision to recommend hospitalization for patients with psychiatric illness is often made on the basis of unknown reliability and validity. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and reliability of self-reported psychiatric hospitalization decision making among staff at a Community Mental Health Center. Foremost among the results, the conditions that staff consider to be appropriate indicators of hospitalization show only modest reliability.

The right ventricle in mitral regurgitation: evaluation by electron beam tomography.

Mitral valve regurgitation affects heart ventricle volumes, which can be accurately measured by electron beam tomography (EBT). Most studies have focused on the left ventricle, but findings have failed to resolve some crucial clinical issues. We reviewed EBT studies of 35 patients with moderate mitral valve regurgitation but no ischemia, aortic valve regurgitation, or left ventricular failure to investigate the relationship between right ventricle volumes and ejection fraction and extent of mitral regurgitation.

Use of the Clark-Madison Test of Oral Language with the hearing-impaired: a content validity and comparative study.

This study examined the content validity of the Clark-Madison Test of Oral Language (CMTOL) as a measure of nonwritten expressive language with hearing-impaired children. Twenty severely hearing-impaired children were administered the CMTOL using total communication. All test administrations were considered valid.