In mapping social networks, investigators have confronted the following choices in the selection of an instrument to assess networks: (1) qualitative versus quantitative approaches; (2) subjective versus objective criteria; (3) synchronic versus diachronic descriptions. Evolving out of fieldwork with discharged mental patients, the Network Analysis Profile was designed to resolve these methodol...

Objectives. Defining and validating a measure of safety contributes to further validation of clinical measures. The objective was to define and examine the psychometric properties of the outcome "incidents of harm." Methods. The Incident of Harm Caregiver Questionnaire was administered to caregivers of older adults discharged from hospital by telephone. Caregivers completed daily logs for one m...

A Vietnam Era (1964-1975) Twin Registry of American male-male veterans born between 1939 and 1955 has been developed to provide a study sample for research evaluating the impact of Vietnam service on the medical and psychosocial aspects of health. In preparation for developing the Registry, several alternative sources of twins and methods for identifying twins were investigated. A computerized ...

PURPOSE To determine outcome and its predictors following psychological intervention in people with Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES) METHODS: Prospective audit of 89 consecutive patients. PNES were recorded at baseline (initial psychology appointment), at 6 months and 3 years post the initial appointment. Six-month data was obtained by face-to-face interview, while 3-year data was obta...

To determine the extent of inappropriate hospital use, and to investigate factors related to variations in appropriateness, 8,031 hospital records of patients discharged from 41 hospitals in 3 Massachusetts professional standards review organization (PSRO) areas were reviewed in 1973 and 1978. The Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) was used for the reviews and logistic regression analysi...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate and describe the non-justified discrepancies found on reconciling chronic medication prescribed to patients when discharged from hospital. Secondly, the impact of the reconciliation process is evaluated by assessing the seriousness of the discrepancies. DESIGN Cality study. SETTING Short Stay Medical Unit in Elda General Hospital, Alicante, Spain. PARTICIPANTS All pa...

OBJECTIVE To examine the outcome of a population of long stay psychiatric patients resettled in the community. DESIGN Prospective study with 5 year follow up. SETTING Over 140 residential settings in north London. SUBJECTS 670 long stay patients from two London hospitals (Friern and Claybury) discharged to the community from 1985 to 1993. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Continuity and quality of ...

OBJECTIVES To determine the influence of superstition about Taian (a lucky day)-Butsumetsu (an unlucky day) on decision to leave hospital. To estimate the costs of the effect of this superstition. DESIGN Retrospective and descriptive study. SETTING University hospital in Kyoto, Japan. SUBJECTS Patients who were discharged alive from Kyoto University Hospital from 1 April 1992 to 31 March ...

We report the effects of system geometry on the clogging of granular material flowing out of flat-bottomed hoppers with variable aperture size D and with variable angle θ of tilt of the hopper away from horizontal. In general, larger tilt angles make the system more susceptible to clogging. To quantify this effect for a given θ, we measure the distribution of mass discharged between clogging ev...

Recent reports on time trends in atopic disease suggest that the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis has levelled off in some European countries after several decades of increasing. 2 We reported earlier that the prevalence of asthma in young Finnish men remained stable from 1926 to 1961 but started to rise steeply during the 1960s; a sixfold, virtually linear increase in asthma prevalen...