Articles: interviews.
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Although medicine has been traditionally a man's profession, a full third of medical students are now women, and in some schools nearly a half. Only a few articles exist exploring gender differences in the interview process. Implications of sexual discrimination have been made regarding the weight of the interview, the descriptors applied to the women interviewees, and the tones of their letters of reference. ⋯ The current study was designed to explore any relationships between the questions asked in the interview and the gender of the applicant. The women were more frequently asked about their plans for marriage and children, while the men were more often questioned about their reasons for entering medicine or selection of a specialty. The interviewees believed they could give more honest responses to interviewers of the same gender.
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Scand J Prim Health Care · Mar 1990
The relationship between menarche and sexual, contraceptive, and reproductive life events.
Relationships between menarche and sexual, contraceptive, and reproductive life events were investigated by structured interviews of 585 Danish women, aged 15-54 years. Data were analyzed by multivariate test statistics. The trend toward an earlier menarche was confirmed. ⋯ After correction for coital debut, no association was observed between menarche and coital frequency, number of sexual partners, or use of oral contraceptives. Menarche was not associated with number of births, spontaneous or induced abortions, or frequency of ectopic pregnancies. The results suggest that the predictive value of the menarche for sexual and contraceptive life events is conditioned primarily by the association between menarche and coital debut.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 1990
Comparative Study Clinical TrialApplication of the verbal autopsy during a clinical trial.
During a community-based treatment trial of onchocerciasis with ivermectin, verbal autopsies were employed as one method to assess the safety of the drug. The verbal autopsy questionnaire was designed to determine causes of death and mortality differentials in the treated population. During the 8 months of surveillance here reported, 25 individuals died, yet only 9 of these deaths were certified. ⋯ We found that in 80% of the adult deaths, the verbal autopsy and death certificate diagnoses of underlying cause of death agreed. The verbal autopsy was less accurate in diagnosing child deaths which we attribute to the design of the verbal autopsy (being to detect potential drug related deaths in adults) and to the delay between death and interview. We conclude that verbal autopsies are an important addition to surveillance systems in remote areas where the absence or inadequacy of health information systems does not allow a thorough follow-up of all subjects in drug studies.
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During a semi-structured interview 82 migraine patients were asked biographical and illnessrelated questions. They completed psychological instruments on coping behavior (Stressverarbeitungsfragebogen), self-concept (Frankfurter Selbstkonzeptskalen), attributional style (IE-SV-F), illness behavior, and illness-related attributions (Tübinger Attributions-fragebogen). The theoretical background of this research is a cognitive model of coping with stress and illness. ⋯ Some of the pain behavior strategies could be identified as being focused on illness (guarding behavior, avoidance and social withdrawal, resignation and complaint); only the attempt to relax is regarded as being focused on health. Migraine patients show a preference neither for medical nor psychological causal attributions of their illness but score significantly higher on medical than psychological control attributions. The results have implications for psychological therapy.
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For the present investigation 31 out-patients suffering from chronic pain received a pain diary, that is a booklet in which they recorded their pain level on visual analogue scales and daily activities several times during a day. We used weekly interviews and the patient's records in the diary to evaluate the patient's compliance and the influence of a pain diary on the pain perception and on the physician-patient-interaction. We found that most of the patients were willing and able to use the pain diary. 30 out of 31 patients kept the diary voluntarily for an average period of 4 weeks. 70% of the patients regarded the pain diary as helpful irrespective of whether or not they considered it at the same time as burden. ⋯ Patients from this study reported a better control over their pain and improved conciousness of their own body. As the patient plays an active part the pain diary promotes an equal cooperation between physician and patient. The new information derived from a pain diary enables both patient and physician to alter their point of view.