摘要:

Objectives. To evaluate the efficacy of a self‐help booklet and specific advice in reducing chronic fatigue in a primary care population aged 18–34 years.Design. A randomized controlled trial.Methods. A self‐help intervention (N= 70) was compared with no treatment (N= 80). The main outcome measures were a fatigue questionnaire and the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire. Follow‐up was completed on 127 patients.Results. The self‐help group showed significantly greater improvements in fatigue (p= .01) and psychological distress (p<.01) than controls. At follow‐up, 63 per cent of the self‐help completers achieved a good outcome (scored less than 4 on the fatigue questionnaire) compared with 39 per cent of the control group.Conclusions. The provision of a self‐help booklet and specific advice during a consultation with a research nurse was more effective than no treatment at improving fatigue and psychological distress. General practitioners should be encouraged to use self‐help literature in the management of patients w

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00535.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives. To examine women's attitudes towards the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and to predict intention to take it in a sample of 1200 women using the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1988) and a measure of similar prior behaviour.Design. The design was cross‐sectional. A postal survey was carried out.Methods. Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 1200 women aged between 38 and 58 generated from the Kent Family Health Services Authority records. Questions based on the theory of planned behaviour were used to predict women's intentions to take HRT. Information was also collected about the women's sources of information on the menopause, their experience of the menopause and the time leading up to it, their general health, and their sociodemographic circumstances.Results. Analysis was carried out on the responses of the 641 women who were not yet taking and had never taken HRT. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that similar prior behaviour made a small independent contribution to the prediction of behavioural intention when entered after the components of the model. Structural equation modelling was carried out to show the paths between the variables. When age was included, similar prior behaviour was shown to influence behaviour through perceived behavioural control and attitude.Conclusions. In predicting women's intention to take HRT, the beliefs of significant others, the women's personal beliefs, their degree of confidence in their ability to carry out the behaviour and the experience of similar prior behaviour are important consideration

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00536.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The relationship between Type A behaviour (TAB), problem‐solving style, and health was investigated in a sample of 79 middle managers (40 males and 39 females), using a questionnaire methodology. Health was divided into psychological well‐being, self‐rated physical healthiness, self‐rated frequency of illness and self‐rated health behaviour. Problem‐solving style was treated as a multidimensional construct and was measured in terms of six factors, helplessness, control, confidence, creativity, approach, and avoidance styles. Type As reported significantly more illness than Type Bs. In addition, a highly significant sex by TAB interaction was found on problem‐solving confidence and problem‐solving helplessness indicating that Type A females and Type B males were the more confident problem solvers and Type A females and Type B males felt less helpless in problem situations. On psychological well‐being, self‐rated healthiness and self‐rated health behaviour there were no differences between Type As and Type Bs. Multiple regression analysis showed that scores on TAB only accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in self‐rated frequency of illness. Problem‐solving style accounted for a significant proportion of the varian

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00537.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the joint association between biographical, medical and pre‐operative psychological variables on the one hand, and a range of short‐ and long‐term psychological and disorder‐specific outcome measures on the other hand, in patients undergoing lumbar surgery.Design. Canonical correlations were used to determine which groups of pre‐operative variables were related to groups of outcome measures.Methods. Participants were 126 patients undergoing lumbar surgery. On the day before surgery, information was obtained regarding age, sex, medical status variables, anxiety, fatigue, indices of pain and coping. Three days and three months post‐operatively, several aspects of recovery were measured.Results. Female sex, number of analgesics taken, expected poor recovery according to the neurosurgeon, and pre‐operative anxiety were associated with poorer short‐term recovery. Reoperation, pre‐operative anxiety, fatigue and pain during daily activities were associated with poorer long‐term recovery.Conclusions. The results suggest that the assessment of recovery after surgery might be improved by taking psychological variables into account, apart from biographical and medical variables. Checking patients' levels of pre‐operative anxiety, fatigue and pain might help hospital staff to detect patients who may be at risk of poor recovery in the long run. Applying psychological intervention techniques aimed at anxiety, fatigue and pain may facilitate reco

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00538.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives. To investigate whether individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors) present themselves in an overly positive fashion on health‐related questionnaires.Design. There were two cross‐sectional studies. Repressors (low trait anxiety, high defensiveness) were compared with (a) total non‐repressors and (b) a subset of non‐repressors which consisted of extreme scoring control groups on trait anxiety and defensiveness: low anxious, high anxious and defensive high anxious.Methods. Participants completed three health‐related questionnaires: a measure of coping resources (the Coping Resources Inventory, CRI; Hammer&Marting, 1988) (Study 1); a measure of psychological symptomatology, the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire, GHQ‐12; Goldberg, 1992) (Study 2); and a measure of physical symptoms, the Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness (PILL; Pennebaker, 1982) (Study 2).Results. In Study 1, repressors scored significantly higher on the CRI than total non‐repressors and all extreme scoring control groups. A similar pattern was shown for the subscales of the CRI. In Study 2, repressors scored significantly lower on the GHQ‐12 and the PILL, compared to total non‐repressors. Repressors scored significantly lower on the GHQ‐12 compared to two extreme control groups: high anxious and defensive high anxious, although there was no significant effect for the PILL.Conclusions. The results support the hypothesis that repressors are presenting themselves in an overly positive fashion on self‐report

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00539.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives. The current study investigated the fundamental nature of the cognitive processing deficit associated with spontaneous dieting behaviour.Design. In a between‐subjects design, dieters and non‐dieters performed a number of cognitive performance tasks designed to test the competing hypotheses that the deficit in performance previously observed in dieters is due either to resource capacity limitation or to a failure to maintain attentional focus.Methods. Current dieters (N= 21), non‐dieting restrained eaters (N= 20) and non‐dieting low‐to‐medium restrained eaters (N= 28) completed measures of working memory span, attentional focus and motor speed. Participants also completed self‐report measures of dietary restraint, somatic sensation and affective state.Results. Dieters displayed a significantly smaller working memory span than non‐dieting participants with a similar level of dietary restraint, which covaried with their self‐rated ‘Desite to eat’.Conclusions. The cognitive impairments found to be associated with dieting behaviour result from a reduction in working memory processing capacity. It is suggested that this, in turn, results from task‐irrelevant cognitions concerning food preferentially consuming limi

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00540.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives. The Self‐Expression and Control Scale (SECS) has been constructed to investigate the role of anger expression and anger control in the aetiology and progression of hypertension, coronary heart disease and other chronic diseases.Design and methods. This questionnaire was presented to a Dutch community sample (N= 946). A first version of the questionnaire with 64 items was reduced to 40 items on the basis of principal component analyses and analyses of internal consistency. This final 40‐item version of the questionnaire consists of four subscales of 10 items each. The subscales are: anger‐in (AI, the internationalization of anger), anger‐out (AO, the externalization of anger), control‐anger‐in (CAI, control over the internalization of anger) and control‐anger‐out (CAO, control over the externalization of anger). Additionally, differences between the community sample of Dutch residents and a sample of coronary heart disease patients (N= 257) on the four subscales were examined.Results. The psychometric properties of the SECS proved to be highly acceptable, and the convergent and discriminant validity quite promising. Males and older persons scored statistically significantly lower on AO and higher on CAI and CAO than females and younger persons. The community sample of Dutch residents scored significantly higher on AO than a population of coronary heart disease patients.Conclusions. The anger control scales seem to allow a more differentiated assessment of anger, which may be of crucial importance for future research on a

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00541.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8287.1997.tb00542.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1997

数据来源: WILEY