Coping Responses as Predictors of Satisfaction with Life amongst a Group of Patients Diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which coping responses could predict the level of life satisfaction experienced by patients suffering from diabetes mellitus. A non-experimental; cross-sectional design was adopted. The sample consisted of 154 individuals (62 Type I diabetics; 80 Type II diabetics; and 12 individuals for whom diagnostic information was not available) recruited from the outpatient diabetes clinic at a large state hospital. All participants completed the Coping Responses Inventory - Adult Version; as well as the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Initially; Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between the predictor variables (coping responses) and the criterion variable (satisfaction with life). Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine the amount of variance in the satisfaction with life scores that was explained by coping responses. The combination of approach and avoidance coping subscales accounted for 33of the variance in the participants' satisfaction with life scores. However; upon further analysis; the avoidance coping subscales were found to account for 28of the variance in the sample's satisfaction with life. The cognitive avoidance subscale and the acceptance or resignation subscale were found to correlate negatively with satisfaction with life at the 1level of significance. It appears that approach coping responses do not predict the satisfaction with life experienced by individuals suffering from diabetes. However; avoidant coping responses; particularly cognitive avoidance and acceptance or resignation; are predictive of lower levels of satisfaction with life

Factors associated with size and proportionality at birth in term Jamaican infants.

The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with size and proportionality at birth in a cohort of term infants established to investigate their growth and development. One hundred and forty term low-birth-weight (birth-weight < 2,500 g) infants and 94 normal birth-weight infants (2,500- < 4,000 g) were recruited within 48 hours of birth at the main maternity hospital, Kingston, Jamaica. Birth anthropometry and gestational age were measured, and maternal information was obtained by interview and from hospital records. Controlling for gestational age, variables independently associated with birth-weight were rate of weight gain in the second half of pregnancy, maternal height, haemoglobin level < 9.5 microg/dL, time of first attendance in antenatal clinic, birth order, pre-eclampsia, and consumption of alcohol, with 33% of the variance in birth-weight explained. Birth length was associated only with maternal height and age, while measures of proportionality (ponderal index and head/length ratio) were associated with characteristics of the environment in late pregnancy, including rate of weight gain, weight in late pregnancy, and pre-eclampsia. The variation in maternal characteristics associated with size or proportionality at birth may reflect the times during gestation when different aspects of growth are most affected.

The nutritional status of rural Jamaican school children

Three thousand, eight hundred and eighty-two (3,882) children in grades 2-5, attending 16 rural primary and all-age schools in central Jamaica were weighed and their weight-for-age standard deviation scores calculated using the World Health Organization/National Center for Health Statistics (WHO/NCHS) references. Heights were also measured in a random sample of the grade 5 children (n = 793) and height-for-age and body mass index (BMI-kg/m2) calculated. Sixty-nine per cent of the total sample were of normal weight-for-age, 2were moderately undernourished (weight-for-age > -3 Z-score, -2 Z-score, < or = -1 Z-score). Few children were overweight. The frequency distribution of weight-for-age was similar in girls and boys. In the subsample of children in whom heights were measured, 25.8were < or = -1 Z-score height-for-age, and of these 4.9were < -2 Z-score. Compared with a survey conducted in a similar rural area in the 1960s, the children's mean weights for age group categories were 1.1 to 3.7 kg heavier. Children who were older than appropriate for their grade were more likely to be undernourished (Odds ratio 3.94, 95CI 3.21, 4.83), which suggests that undernourished children may be more likely to repeat a grade or start school later.

Growth and development of West Indian children; Part I: growth

The growth of Caribbean infants is comparable to the NCHS standards until approximately 3 months of age despite somewhat lower bithweights. After this, growth rates dcline. This pattern is similar to that seen in other developing countries (Condon-Paolini et al, 1977; Whitehead, 1979; Rowland et al, 1988). By 18 months of age, average weights and heights of Jamaican children approached the 10th centile of the NCHS standards and remained below the 40 th centile the NCHS standards and remained below the 40 th centile throughout childhood. Ashocroft's studies of growth in childhood showed that the pattern of growth was similar in a number of countries in the Region but, in more recent nutricional surveys, differences between countries can be detected. For example, the prevalence od undernutrition is lower in Barbados but conversely obesity, especially in older girls, is be becoming a significant problem. Most of the growth data on which this review is based was collected in the 1960s and early 1970s. Only a few studies provoded longitudinal data. These were primarily those concerned with growth in the first year of life and the Lawrence Tavern study in which in which children were measured up to 4 years of age. there is clearly a need for more recent data, particularly longitudinal, since the available data suggest that secular changes are occuring. Surveys of nutritional status provide some information on the adequacy of growth but cannot be a substitute for measurements of normal grosth patterns