Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1989
Life experiences, response styles and mental health among mothers and children in Beirut, Lebanon.
A sample of 152 women living in Beirut, Lebanon was studied to determine the relationship between life experiences, mothers' depression, and children's health and behavior. Measures of the perceived negative impact of both war and nonwar related events, measures of available social support, sociodemographic variables, coping or response strategies and displacement were used to predict mothers' depressive symptomatology and their children's health. ⋯ Among the most noteworthy of the findings was the association between the use of an emotional response style and the measure of psychological dysfunction. Finally, the level of a mother's depressive symptomatology was found to be the best predictor of her child's reported morbidity, with higher levels of symptoms associated with higher levels of morbidity.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1988
Corporate characteristics and worksite health promotion programs: survey findings from Fortune 500 companies.
A study was carried out to assess the nature and extent of worksite health promotion programs in Fortune 500 companies. Growth and interest in worksite health promotion continues at a remarkable rate. Fortune 500 firms are a good barometer of the state of the art of programs in work settings because these companies have large numbers of employees, an interest in cost savings, and expertise to invest in innovative efforts. ⋯ It is of special interest that, in general, the higher ranked, larger and high-technology companies are more likely to have programs; offer more activities in programs; have plans for program expansion; use a model of sharing costs of, and time to participate in program activities; make greater use of health professionals; and utilize more often needs assessment, evaluation and cost analysis techniques. The results of this study underscore the importance of examining a broad constellation of factors surrounding worksite programs. Given the organizational literature reviewed, it is likely that the characteristics of Fortune 500 programs documented here will serve as models for programs in midsize and smaller companies.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1988
Practice compatibility and type of framework: essential dimensions in the salaried primary care practitioners' approach to practice.
A multivariate paradigm, aimed at furthering the understanding of the factors underlying the devotion to practice of salaried primary care practitioners, has been developed and subjected to empirical verification. A study among a sample of Israeli primary care practitioners (N = 134) revealed an empirical structure of "Practice Compatibility', suggesting that the devotion to practice is conditioned by the clinical and professional role compatibility. Compatibility in turn is contingent on the practitioners' conviction in the sincerity of manifest health care oriented goals of the care-providing-framework. ⋯ In this respect the contribution of the present study is in identifying the factors underlying the salaried practitioners' motivation to practice. However, contrary to the expected, practice compatibility does not predict the primary care practitioners' likelihood to demonstrate affective behavior. Thus the data were unable to repudiate earlier evidence regarding the significance of the private fee-for-service framework in predicting affective behavior.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1988
Violent deaths among Mexican-, Puerto Rican- and Cuban-born migrants in the United States.
This paper analyzes nationwide and regional mortality rates for violent causes of death among persons born in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba, living in the continental United States. The Mexican-born had the highest death rates from accidents, the Puerto Rican-born from homicide and the Cuban-born from suicide. ⋯ Mexican-born men had higher accident death rates outside their areas of concentration. Contributing factors to violent causes of death include the interaction of socioeconomic, behavioral, cultural and psychological factors.
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This paper argues that because Ayurveda is commonly approached as a single coherent tradition of medicine characterized predominately by the doctrines, clinical practitioners, and medical infrastructure that supports it, the rich diversity of empirical indigenous medicine available in the daily lives of the Sinhalese is often obscured. Thus the numbers of IMPs, the wide range of services they provide, and the importance of Ayurveda and Sinhala medicine as basic explanatory models of health and illness within the general population may be significantly under-estimated in analyses of Sri Lanka's medical system. In practice, Ayurveda is a dynamic phenomenon that offers multifaceted approaches to healing. ⋯ This analysis views illness and health care in terms of the multiple systems of knowledge and action, phenomena and interaction, that characterize them as well as in terms of the medical treatises and institutions that formalize them. In this light, Ayurveda emerges as a plural medical system in itself. As such, it remains a fundamental means of defining and treating illness in Sri Lanka.