No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Almost everyone experiences an incident, illness, or concern that requires clinical advice or assistance. Most persons obtain the desired care and renew their daily activities. Some people, however, appear to be (medical) problem-prone, wellness-resistant or reinforced by illness sequelae. Individuals who maintained illness behaviors are often called, for example, chronic pain, asthma, or psychiatric patients by caregivers who focus on diagnoses. Some patients may be viewed as primarily chronic, with specific diagnoses considered secondary. Chronicity is here defined as a measure of individual, situation, exposure, and provider interaction outcomes. Independent of disease processes, chronicity-producing interactions often predict inappropriate and atypical medical utilization patterns. The assessment of chronicity, its precursors, and dynamics may identity high risk person, situation, provider, and environment combinations and permit more effective and relevant prevention and treatment strategies. The study patient chronicity, the Pre-Assistance Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed with 320 items on medical, personal, and situational topics. PAQ responses from 60 medical and 40 psychiatric VA outpatients were correlated with three estimators of patient chronicity: PAQ totals (from an empirically-derived key), clinicians' subjective ratings of patients' chronicity, and indices of subjects' 2 year use of VA medical center resources. PAQ totals correlated significantly with 240 items, medical usage with 119, and clinicians' ratings with 100. For replication, a 40 item short form was given to 120 medical and 80 psychiatric outpatients. Thirty-four items correlated significantly with two of the three measures, 26 with all three. The short form demonstrated high reliability (alpha = .91; test-retest reliability = .90; split-half reliability = .89). PAQ totals, chronicity ratings, and use indices showed no significant differences across from administrations although the psychiatric patients scored significantly higher (more chronic) on all measures. The findings support a general chronicity construct and suggest many applications from the screening of potential employees to the development of specific treatment plans matched to particular PAQ patterns. The major message, however, is that public health, medical, psychological, and sociological constructs may be integrated into a comprehensive model of medical utilization patterns that provides views of illness, wellness, and health care delivery and assessment.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1997. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D., Education)--University of Idaho, April 25, 2006. / Major professor: Karen Wilson Scott. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-162). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984. / Also available in print.

M.Cur. / The role players participating within the support groups for patients with chronic diseases in Primary Health care services are facing a difficult task of managing support groups effectively. They are confronted by managerial challenges involved in the managing of support groups for patients with chronic diseases, such as careful planning, organising, leading and controlling the support groups. This is evidently confirmed by the disintegration of support groups and patients openly and deliberately rebelling and ignoring participation in support groups. The resistance and opposition is also displayed by other staff members within the clinic. The general dissatisfaction and frustration among the primary health care facilitators serves as proof of the poor management of support groups. The need to investigate and address this dilemma is important. It is therefore the reason why the researcher embarked on this studying order to explore the I experiences of the role players with regard to the management of the support groups for patients with chronic diseases within the clinic context, and then utilise the results ad basis for formulating guidelines for quality management of support groups within Primary Health Care clinics in Soweto. The following research questions are therefore relevant: ~ What are the experiences of the primary health care facilitators with regard to the management of support groups for the patients with chronic diseases with primary health care clinics in Soweto? ~ What are the experiences of the facility managers with regard to the management of support groups for patients with chronic diseases within primary health care clinics in Soweto? ~ What are the experiences of patients with chronic diseases with regard to the management of support groups? ~ What guidelines should be formulated to ensure quality management and sustainability of support groups for patients with chronic diseases within the primary health care clinics in Soweto? The following research objectives were formulated: ~ To explore and describe the experiences offacility managers with regard to the management of support groups for patients with chronic diseases within primary health care clinics in Soweto. ~ To explore and describe the experiences of the primary health care facilitators with regard to the management of support groups for patients with chronic diseases within primary health care clinics in Soweto. ~ To explore and describe the experiences of the patients with chronic diseases with regard to the management of support groups within primary health care clinics in Soweto. ~ To formulate guidelines for quality management and sustainability of support groups for patients with chronic diseases within the primary health care clinics in Soweto.

Thesis (MSc(Immunology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.