Prospectively predicting dietary restraint: the role of interpersonal self-efficacy, weight/shape self-efficacy, and interpersonal stress.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how the precursors of interpersonal self-efficacy and weight/shape self-efficacy would interact in the face of interpersonal stress to prospectively predict dietary restraint. Three models were explored, each with a different type of interpersonal stress: stress from same sex friendships, opposite sex friendships, or romantic relationships. METHOD: At Time 1 (T1), participants (N = 406) reported on their typical levels of interpersonal self-efficacy and weight/shape self-efficacy, and recent (past 28 days) dietary restraint. At Time 2 (T2), 11 weeks after T1, participants reported on their recent (past 28 days) levels of dietary restraint at that time. Between T1 and T2, participants completed inventories weekly on the previous week's interpersonal stressors. RESULTS: Consistent with prediction, low interpersonal self-efficacy and high weight/shape self-efficacy combined with high interpersonal stress (whether from same sex friendships, opposite sex friendships, or romantic relationships) to predict the highest levels of T2 dietary restraint after controlling for T1 levels. DISCUSSION: These results further link the interpersonal domain with dietary restraint and elucidate characteristics of women particularly apt to increase dietary restraint in response to interpersonal stress.

Replacement of the aortic valve with cryopreserved aortic allograft.

Replacement of the aortic valve with cryopreserved aortic allograft was performed in 88 patients during the period from July 1985 until January 1993. Age of patients ranged from 15 to 75 years (mean, 44 years). The cause of aortic valve disease was congenital in 39 (44%), rheumatic in 9 (10%), degenerative in 14 (16%), endocarditis in 11 (13%), and failed prosthesis in 15 (17%). The operation was performed by freehand allograft technique in 71 patients (81%). There were no perioperative deaths. Two patients died later at 4 months and 5 years after operation (actuarial survival = 94% at 7.5 years). Follow-up extending to 7.5 years shows 87% of patients are in New York Heart Association functional class I. No thromboembolism has been detected in any patient. Infection was cured in all patients with endocarditis. Mild aortic valve incompetence was detected by diastolic murmur in 45% of patients. Only three valves have been removed at reoperation: one was removed early for technical reasons, and two valves were removed for structural degeneration at 33 and 55 months; the latter was infected. Actuarial freedom from reoperation for any reason was 89%; for structural deterioration it was 93% at 7.5 years. Aortic valve replacement with cryopreserved aortic allograft can be safely performed in adult patients. Medium-term results show excellent freedom from thromboembolism and cure of bacterial endocarditis. Mild aortic valve incompetence is often present, but reoperation for progressive incompetence is unusual.

Office equipment: a hidden threat to hospital productivity.

While considered relatively unsophisticated by technological standards, office machines touch virtually every employee, and, perhaps due to their simplicity, affect hospital operations, efficiency and total costs in a similar manner as computers and telecommunications. Developing a plan for their use, maximizing their efficiency and managing them as powerful assets will produce a benefit well beyond the effort or cost expended.