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Standard Questions (standard + question)

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Medical Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

Widespread pain symptoms and psychological distress in southern Chinese with orofacial pain

JOURNAL OF ORAL REHABILITATION, Issue 1 2010
A. S. MCMILLAN
Summary, The study investigated the experience of widespread pain (WP) symptoms and psychological distress in southern Chinese with orofacial pain (OFP). A community-based, cross-sectional case,control study involving people aged 35,70 registered with the Hospital Authority/University of Hong Kong Family Medicine Clinic served as the sampling frame. People with recent OFP symptoms and a group without OFP took part. Standard questions were asked about OFP conditions in the previous month. Psychological status was evaluated through depression, and non-specific physical symptoms (NPS) scores were measured with depression and somatization sub-scales of the Symptom Checklist-90. Widespread pain was determined using body outline drawings to identify painful sites prior to a standard clinical examination. Two hundred people with OFP and 200 without OFP participated. Compared with 5·0% in the comparison group (P = 0·005), 13·5% of participants with OFP had WP (OFP/WP). Multiple OFP symptoms were more common in the OFP/WP sub-group than the OFP sub-group without WP (OFP/No WP) (P < 0·002). Sixty-three percent of the OFP/WP sub-group had moderate/severe depression scores compared with 26·0% in the OFP/No WP sub-group (P < 0·001). When pain items were included and excluded, 92·6% and 88·9% of the OFP/WP sub-group had moderate/severe NPS scores, respectively compared with 68·5% and 65·0% in the OFP/No WP sub-group (P = 0·004). Co-morbid WP occurred relatively often in southern Chinese with OFP. Psychological distress was common in OFP sufferers, particularly those with WP. A multidisciplinary approach to treatment including cognitive/behavioural therapy should be considered in Chinese people with OFP as part of a WP pattern. [source]

A single question for the rapid screening of restless legs syndrome in the neurological clinical practice

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 9 2007
R. Ferri
The purposes of this study were to validate the use of a single standard question for the rapid screening of restless legs syndrome (RLS) and to analyze the eventual effects of the presence of RLS on self-assessed daytime sleepiness, global clinical severity and cognitive functioning. We evaluated a group of 521 consecutive patients who accessed our neurology clinic for different reasons. Beside the answer to the single question and age, sex, and clinical diagnosis, the following items were collected from all patients and normal controls: the four criteria for RLS, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S), and the Mini-Mental State evaluation. RLS was found in 112 patients (70 idiopathic). The single question had 100% sensitivity and 96.8% specificity for the diagnosis of RLS. ESS and CGI-S were significantly higher in both RLS patient groups than in normal controls. RLS severity was significantly higher in idiopathic than in associated/symptomatic RLS patients. RLS can be screened with high sensitivity and good reliability in large patient groups by means of the single question; however, the final diagnosis should always be confirmed by the diagnostic features of RLS and accompanied by a careful search for comorbid conditions. [source]

Democrats with adjectives: Linking direct and indirect measures of democratic support

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 5 2007
ANDREAS SCHEDLER
Since people may entertain competing democratic ideas and ideals, however, the academic community ignores the extent to which standard questions capture citizen support for liberal democracy. To solve the validity problems associated with direct measures of democratic support, this article proposes linking them to more concrete, indirect measures of support for democratic principles and institutions. It employs the statistical technique of cluster analysis to establish this linkage. Cluster analysis permits grouping respondents in a way that is open to complex and inconsistent attitudinal profiles. It permits the identification of ,democrats with adjectives' who support democracy in the abstract, while rejecting core principles of liberal democracy. The article demonstrates the fruitfulness of this approach by drawing a map of ,illiberal democrats' in Mexico on the basis of the country's 2003 National Survey on Political Culture. [source]

Use of a structured interview to assess portfolio-based learning

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 9 2008
Vanessa C Burch
Context, Portfolio-based learning is a popular educational tool usually examined by document review which is sometimes accompanied by an oral examination. This labour-intensive assessment method prohibits its use in the resource-constrained settings typical of developing countries. Objectives, We aimed to determine the feasibility and internal consistency of a portfolio-based structured interview and its impact on student learning behaviour. Methods, Year 4 medical students (n = 181) recorded 25 patient encounters during a 14-week medical clerkship. Portfolios were examined in a 30-minute, single-examiner interview in which four randomly selected cases were discussed. Six standard questions were used to guide examiners in determining the ability of candidates to interpret and synthesise clinical data gathered during patient encounters. Examiners were trained to score responses using a global rating scale. Pearson's correlation co-efficient, Cronbach's , coefficient and the standard error of measurement (SEM) of the assessment tool were determined. The number of students completing more than the required number of portfolio entries was also recorded. Results, The mean (± standard deviation [SD], 95% confidence interval [CI]) interview score was 67.5% (SD ± 10.5, 95% CI 66.0,69.1). The correlation coefficients for the interview compared with other component examinations of the assessment process were: multiple-choice question (MCQ) examination 0.42; clinical case-based examination 0.37; in-course global rating 0.08, and overall final score 0.54. Cronbach's , coefficient was 0.88 and the SEM was 3.6. Of 181 students, 45.3% completed more than 25 portfolio entries. Conclusions, Portfolio assessment using a 30-minute structured interview is a feasible, internally consistent assessment method that requires less examination time per candidate relative to methods described in published work and which may encourage desirable student learning behaviour. [source]