Media and memory: the efficacy of video and print materials for promoting patient education about asthma.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the effects of presentation medium on immediate and delayed recall of information and assessed the effect of giving patients take-home materials after initial presentations. METHODS: Primary-care patients received video-based, print-based or no asthma education about asthma symptoms and triggers and then answered knowledge-based questions. Print participants and half the video participants received take-home print materials. A week later, available participants completed the knowledge assessment again. RESULTS: Participants receiving either intervention outperformed controls on immediate and delayed assessments (p<0.001). For symptom-related information, immediate performance did not significantly differ between print and video participants. A week later, receiving take-home print predicted better performance (p<0.05), as did self-reported review among recipients of take-home print (p<0.01). For content about inhaler usage, although video watchers outperformed print participants immediately after seeing the materials (p<0.001), a week later these two groups' performance did not significantly differ. Among participants given take-home materials, review predicted marginally better recall (p=0.06). CONCLUSION: Video and print interventions can promote recall of health-related information. Additionally, reviewable materials, if they are utilized, may improve retention. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: When creating educational tools, providers should consider how long information must be retained, its content, and the feasibility of providing tangible supporting materials.

Severity of gambling is associated with physical and emotional health in urban primary care patients.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of recreational and disordered gambling, and to identify its association with health functioning, in urban primary care patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from 574 adults presenting to an urban primary care medical clinic. Participants completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen, Short Form-12 Health Survey, Second Edition and questions assessing demographic characteristics and frequency and intensity of current gambling behaviors. RESULTS: Overall, 10.6% of participants met lifetime criteria for pathological gambling, and an additional 5.1% were classified as problem gamblers. Pathological gamblers and problem gamblers reported more health-related concerns than recreational gamblers and nongamblers on indices of physical and emotional functioning. Contrary to prior research, recreational gambling was not associated with better health. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that disordered gambling is relatively common in primary care settings, and gambling severity is associated with decreased health functioning.

Science and spirit: health care utilization in rural Jamaica

Presents an analysis of health care in Jamaica by focusing on three aspects: 1) self-medication and family based care which covers a variety of options used by people in the early stage; 2) professional bio-medical sector including government health services and private doctors, vitally important when illnesses do not respond to the first aspect, and 3) folk sector comprised of a variety of alternatives - church based faith healing, folk practitioners and the African derived Kumina cult. Contends that these health seeking strategies should be analysed not as choices between systems but as steps in the process of coping with illnesses. Suggests that planners search for more effective methods of managing chronic illnesses, including strategies for prevention and treatment.

Science and spirit: health care utilization in rural Jamaica

This study uses an analysis of health care utilization in a rural community in eastern Jamaica, to evaluate health care development in this Caribbean country and suggest new approaches which could improve the effectiveness of health development programs. To make sense of health-seeking strategies it is necessary to look first at the various components of the health care system and their interconnections with the cultural, social, economic, and political realms. This problem is approached through the use of Kleinman's tripatite model of health care systems, which focuses on three interconnecting sectors. Within the popular sector, the realm of self-medication and family based care, there are a variety of options which people use in the early stages of illness. The professional biomedical sector, which includes the government health services and private doctors, plays a vital role when illness does not respond to self - treatment. However, structural ineffeciencies and economic barriers limit access to biomedical treatment, especially for the poorest individuals. The folk sector comprise of a variety of alternatives, public and private, ranging from church - based faith healing to several types of folk practitioners and the African-drived Kumina cult. Spirtual beliefs, which have taken shape through the evolution of Jamaican folk religion, continue to exert a profound influence of health care decision-making. Pattern which emerge from the analysis of numerous cases suggest the health-seeking strategies can be better understood when analyzed not as choices between systems, but as steps in a complex iterative process of coping with illness. The relative balance among the various factors affecting health care decisions changes at different stages of the process. The preponderence of chronic illness in rural Jamaica means that many people cycle continually through the illness and the health-seeking process. There has been a dearth of creative planning aimed at addressing chronic illness, which has become the most important health problem in Jamaica. To better respond to the changing needs of the population, planners and administrators must look for more effective methods of managing chronic illness, including strategies for prevention and treatment(AU)