Journal of behavioral medicine
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The purpose of this study was to examine Rogers' protection motivation theory and aspects of Janis and Mann's conflict theory in the context of AIDS-related health behavior. Subjects were 84 heterosexual men and women and 147 homosexual men with multiple sexual partners; LISREL's path-analysis techniques were used to evaluate the goodness of fit of the structural equation models. ⋯ Adding variables such as social norms and previous behavior increased the explained variance to 73% for heterosexual subjects and to 44% for homosexual subjects. It was concluded that although protection motivation theory did fit the data fairly adequately, expanding the theory with other variables--especially those related to previous behavior--could improve our understanding of AIDS-related health behavior.
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Research has suggested that physicians' jobs are more stressful than many other types of work, but sources of job stress for physicians have rarely been measured systematically. Interview data from 204 young physicians (57 women, 147 men) were used to construct four scales of sources of job stress: patient relationships, business/financial issues, time pressures, and competence concerns. ⋯ Sources and intensity of job stressors do not vary significantly by gender, but medical practice problems are more stressful in nonprofit than in for-profit practices. Early-career doctors appeared to experience only moderate levels of stress, and stressors were not related to impaired mental health.
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From a stratified, random sampling of Southeastern, nonurban high schools, survey data on smokeless tobacco use and potential psychosocial risk factors were obtained from 5683 adolescent females. Of the 15.3% who reported trying smokeless tobacco, most (75%) reported only experimental use. ⋯ Level of use, however, was most strongly associated with lower perceived negative consequences for use and the use of other substances. Separate analyses on American Indian, Black, and White subgroups suggested that factors associated with initial use were similar but that substantial differences exist between subgroups on risk factors for level of smokeless tobacco use.
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This paper describes the smokeless tobacco use practices and oral health problems of members of a minor league professional baseball team. Seventeen of 25 ball-players reported current use of smokeless tobacco. ⋯ Of the 19 current and past users, 15 reported first using smokeless tobacco after entering professional baseball. To discourage the use of smokeless tobacco by professional athletes, teams should stop accepting free samples and do a better job educating players about health consequences associated with use.
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It has been proposed that dysmenorrheic women have a heightened pain sensitivity compared to nondysmenorrheic women, although previous studies investigating this hypothesis have yielded conflicting results. This study investigated the pain sensitivity of nondysmenorrheic women and of women suffering from spasmodic, congestive, and combined dysmenorrhea, across three phases of the menstrual cycle: premenstrual, menstrual, and intermenstrual. No interaction between type of dysmenorrhea and menstrual phase was found for either pain threshold or pain tolerance, using three procedures of experimentally induced pain. On a self-report measure of pain, however, the congestive and combined dysmenorrheics reported the highest degree of pain and distress, especially during the premenstrual and menstrual phases; nonsufferers reported the lowest degree and were stable across phases.