Various issues related to positioning infants and children with central nervous system dysfunction in order to conduct videofluoroscopic swallowing function studies are discussed. Extensive illustrations demonstrate solutions to specific problems. (DB)

Notes that, in survey of 50 cancer patients offered living wills, 6 individuals declined to sign advance directives. Contains detailed evaluation of each of six cases. Discusses potential value of living wills in context of other, newer forms of advance directives, such as durable power of attorney for health care, and more detailed living will…

There is no more far-reaching preventive mission than teaching children importance of nurturing children. We must instill in youth desire to do what is best for children, develop in young minds necessary scientific knowledge, provide daily opportunities for exercising nurturing habits, and supervise children's long-term health by developing…

Fifty-two physicians were surveyed to determine physician, parent, and disease variables that may influence child neglect recognition and reporting. Variables examined included the presence of initial symptoms, symptoms from failure to provide treatment, symptoms from treatment failure, adverse outcome without symptoms, parental mental…

Issues of aging and elder care are growing in importance. Policy and strategy should focus on prevention and health promotion. Affordable, accessible care balanced between home and institutions must be available everywhere. Education and training in elder care and changing the attitudes of the public about aging are essential. (SK)

Used national data to examine family choices in production of informal care for elderly family members among African-, German-, Irish-, and English-Americans. Findings suggest unique factors associated with each ethnic group's decision to provide care. Health care service provision and policy research that ignores ethnic diversity will be less…

Reviews causes and treatment of heat syncope, heat exhaustion, and exertional heatstroke and discusses the effectiveness of cooling heatstroke victims in ice versus cooled water. Cooled water appears to be as effective, though ice water decreases the incidence of cardiovascular complications. An energy depletion model is presented. (Author/SM)

Concrete, objective information that describes the experience from the patient's point of view in unambiguous terms is effective in reducing negative emotional response during threatening health care procedures. A four-stage process that permits systematic development of comprehensive and accurate messages using concrete objective information is…

Utilizes survey responses from 2178 community-dwelling older adults to test the hypothesis that predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics are better predictors of discretionary than nondiscretionary service use. Results generally support the hypothesis, underscoring the importance of need characteristics for least discretionary service use.…

Assesses the stability of nursing home residents' preferences for medical treatments. Nondemented, nondepressed residents (N=37) were surveyed serially over a six-month period. Subjects preferred more treatment for their current health concerns than for all hypothetical conditions. All preference changes were toward less intervention. Most…

Addresses the issue of homogeneity or heterogeneity within the older Hispanic population as revealed by the use of formal services with a sample of 2135 Hispanic elderly. Although results show the patterns of service use to reflect substantial homogeneity, there is a high degree of heterogeneity in the level of service use. (MKA)

Examines urban female teenagers' (N=185) best and worst encounters with physicians. Results show a preference for physicians who comfort, use humor, are understanding, and explain procedures. Physicians who rush, behave rudely, or are "too personal" were viewed negatively. Concludes that relational communication skill development must be a…

Describes methods used to adapt a health care program so that it would better meet the needs of a group of well, older Mandarin-speaking Chinese residents of Los Angeles. Outcomes from a pilot experiment are presented that are consistent with the notion that the adapted program was effective in reducing health-related declines among participants.…

The present case continues the series of anomia treatment studies with contextual priming (CP), being the second in-depth treatment study conducted for an individual suffering from semantically based anomia. Our aim was to acquire further evidence of the facilitation and interference effects of the CP treatment on semantic anomia. Based on the…

While there is growing evidence of the increasing use of medicines by the elderly, research undertaken to critically examine differences among types of medicine users in this population is limited. Using population data, we examine the influence of social, demographic, and health-related factors on likelihood of being a non-user, a user of…