Emotional distress and health risk behaviours of mothers of United States Marines.

AIM: The aim was to explore emotional distress and health risk behaviours of mothers of servicemen. The study was inspired by the first author's clinical practice in primary care among women who reported significant emotional distress surrounding impending deployment of their sons. BACKGROUND: Thousands of US service members have been deployed in the current wars. The potentially profound effects of deployment on emotional distress of military spouses and children have been documented; however, mothers of servicemen have not been studied. METHODS: This was an exploratory descriptive study to determine self-reported levels of emotional distress and health risk behaviours in the mothers of deployed male US Marines compared with mothers of male Marines not currently deployed. Mothers were accessed via a voluntary online support organization. RESULTS: Mothers of deployed sons reported significantly higher levels of emotional distress and more health risk behaviours compared with mothers of sons not deployed. Many of the mothers in both groups reported high levels of emotional distress. DISCUSSION: As primary care providers, nurses should be alert to the high levels of emotional distress and health risk behaviours among all patients. This exploratory study highlights these dimensions in mothers of servicemen. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first of mothers of sons serving in the military. While the focus is on mothers of sons serving in the US military, their experience is likely not unique. Mothers of military service members all over the world send their children off to war and wait for their safe return.

Human immunodeficiency virus testing for elective orthopedic procedures: results in a community-based hospital.

Between January 1, 1989 and July 31, 1995, voluntary preoperative screening tests for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay, were completed on 2,727 patients who underwent elective orthopedic surgical procedures. There were 2,719 (99.7%) negative, 4 (0.15%) positive, and 3 (0.11%) false-positive results; 1 test was indeterminate (0.04%). All 4 positive patients were men with a mean age of 32 years (range: 26-43 years). Although the prevalence of positive tests is low in this setting, voluntary testing alerts the surgeon to higher risk patients, does not sacrifice patient care, and enables the incorporation of more extensive precautionary measures in the operating room to minimize occupational risks to the surgical team.

Association of Socioeconomic Position and Demographic Characteristics with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Healthcare Access among Adults Living in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.

Background. The burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is increasing in low-to-middle income countries. We examined how socioeconomic and demographic characteristics may be associated with CVD risk factors and healthcare access in such countries. Methods. We extracted data from the World Health Organization's STEPwise approach to surveillance 2002 cross-sectional dataset from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). We used these data to estimate associations for socioeconomic position (education, income, and employment) and demographics (age, sex, and urban/rural) with CVD risk factors and with healthcare access, among a sample of 1638 adults (25-64 years). Results. In general, we found significantly higher proportions of daily tobacco use among men than women and respondents reporting primary-level education (<9 years) than among those with postsecondary education (>12 years). Results also revealed significant positive associations between paid employment and waist circumference and systolic blood pressure. Healthcare access did not differ significantly by socioeconomic position. Women reported significantly higher mean waist circumference than men. Conclusion. Our results suggest that socioeconomic position and demographic characteristics impact CVD risk factors and healthcare access in FSM. This understanding may help decision-makers tailor population-level policies and programs. The 2002 Pohnpei data provides a baseline; subsequent population health surveillance data might define trends.

Mastalgia: evaluation and management.

Mastalgia, defined as breast pain, is a common, often distressing complaint among women. It is the most common breast-related complaint in primary care clinics, with a prevalence in working women of approximately 66%. An underlying fear of breast cancer is what prompts these patients to seek health care. A comprehensive history and thorough clinical breast exam is essential to evaluation. Once significant breast disease is ruled out, the majority of these patients respond to simple reassurance.

Enhanced discriminability at the phonetic boundaries for the place feature in macaques.

Discrimination of speech-sound pairs drawn from a computer-generated continuum in which syllables varied along the place of articulation phonetic feature (/b,d,g/) was tested with macaques. The acoustic feature that was varied along the two-formant 15-step continuum was the starting frequency of the second-formant transition. Discrimination of stimulus pairs separated by two steps was tested along the entire continuum in a same-different task. Results demonstrated that peaks in the discrimination functions occur for macaques at the "phonetic boundaries" which separate the /b-d/ and /d-g/ categories for human listeners. The data support two conclusions. First, although current theoretical accounts of place perception by human adults suggest that isolated second-formant transitions are "secondary" cues, learned by association with primary cues, the animal data are more compatible with the notion that second-formant transitions are sufficient to allow the appropriate partitioning of a place continuum in the absence of associative pairing with other more complex cues. Second, we discuss two potential roles played by audition in the evolution of the acoustics of language. One is that audition provided a set of "natural psychophysical boundaries," based on rather simple acoustic properties, which guided the selection of the phonetic repertoire but did not solely determine it; the other is that audition provided a set of rules for the formation of "natural classes" of sound and that phonetic units met those criteria. The data provided in this experiment provide support for the former. Experiments that could more clearly differentiate the two hypotheses are described.