Reported satisfaction, fluctuation of vision, and glare among patients one year after surgery in the Prospective Evaluation of Radial Keratotomy (PERK) Study.

We studied satisfaction with the results of radial keratotomy one year after surgery on one eye as reported by 354 patients in the Prospective Evaluation of Radial Keratotomy (PERK) Study. We measured satisfaction using an index based on ten questions that were part of a longer psychometric questionnaire. Patients were generally satisfied with the results of radial keratotomy-48% were very satisfied, 42% were moderately satisfied, and 10% were dissatisfied. A lot of trouble with fluctuating vision was reported by 12% of patients before surgery and by 34% one year after surgery; 17% reported a lot of trouble with glare both before surgery and one year after surgery. The three major factors that influenced satisfaction were uncorrected visual acuity, residual refractive error, and subjective daily fluctuation in vision. A multiple regression equation that incorporated these three variables, glare, and patient sex was able to predict only 46% of the variance in patient satisfaction.

Psychosocial characteristics of candidates for the prospective evaluation of radial keratotomy (PERK) study.

The National Eye Institute Prospective Evaluation of Radial Keratotomy (PERK) Study is a multicenter clinical trial for the evaluation of radial keratotomy. This article describes the questionnaire data collected on PERK patients and compares them with a similar group of myopic persons studied during the Rand Health Insurance Experiment (heretofore referred to as the Rand study). The PERK patients are young, white myopes who dislike being dependent on corrective lenses but perceive themselves to be more visually impaired than do comparable Rand study myopes. Most female subjects and a plurality of the male subjects have tried contact lenses and quit wearing them mainly because use of the lenses was inconvenient or bothersome. There is no evidence that patients are psychologically or socially deviant. Both male and female subjects expressed a fear of being without vision and cited impatience with the lenses as their major motivation for wanting surgery.

Comparison of male and female suicides in a defined community.

During the past 20 years, suicide rates in the United States have risen consistently. The upward trend has been particularly pronounced for adolescents and males. The availability of a complete data set on all suicides that occurred between 1925 and 1979 in Sacramento County, California, allowed us to compare trends in suicide rates by sex. Our objective is to describe existing differences and similarities between males and females in age-at-death, demographic characteristics, and evidence of presuicide disintegration. We found that female suicide rates in Sacramento County were significantly lower than males and there were significant differences in presuicide characteristics and behaviors between males and females who committed suicide. Except for the youngest age groups, suicide rates for males have remained stable over the last 20 years, while female rates have increased slightly. The fact that this increase coincides with a period of rapid change in the employment and familial roles of women is of particular interest. Male and female suicides differ in important respects, but as female rates rose the characteristics of female suicides increasingly resembled those of male suicides.

Attributes of suicide in females.

Long-term trends in suicides among females were investigated using data from Sacramento County, California. Of the 3,741 cases, 3,398 were Caucasian and 952 (25.4 percent) were females. These analyses focus on 837 Caucasian and Hispanic females. Female suicide rates in Sacramento County have increased gradually since 1925 with a corresponding decline in the male/female sex ratio. The suicide data suggest that a minimum of three types of female suicides can be identified and that the incidence of each type varies with the age of the women. Indicators that help in identifying cases and in tentatively describing an etiology include marital status, employment status and occupation, physical ill health, familial loss or disruption, and psychiatric symptoms.

Suicide among adolescents in Sacramento County, California 1950-1979.

Suicide is one of the three leading causes of death among adolescents. More importantly, the rate of suicide is on the increase among both male and female adolescents (Tischler, McKenry, & Morgan, 1981). Data from the United States show that approximately 25,000 persons commit suicide each year (Coleman, 1976), and almost one-fifth of these are in the 15 to 24 year age group (Hendin, 1975). More disturbing is that a large number of adolescent suicides go unreported and that up to 50% of all these unreported suicides are categorized as "accidents" (Toolan, 1964). Utilizing suicide data collected in Sacramento County, California between 1925 and 1979, we analyzed suicides among persons aged 10 to 24 to determine if there are sociodemographic factors or presuicide behaviors which discriminate between male and female suicides, suicides of different ages, or explain the increase in suicide rates, and to compare adolescent suicide rates in Sacramento County with national findings.