State anxiety in the PTCA and stent population

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health.Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and stent has become the most commonly performed cardiac procedure in Australia over the last decade. This study investigated the level of anxiety experienced by patients who were undergoing elective PTCA and stent procedures. Anxiety was assessed at three specific times, in-hospital pre-procedure, within 18 hours after the procedure, and one-week post discharge, using two methods to assess anxiety, the State Anxiety Inventory and the Faces Anxiety Scale. The sample (n = 100) was predominantly elderly (mean 65.63 years), male (80%) and married (83%). Most participants (70%) had previously experienced a cardiac event, of which the most common was PTCA and stent (41 %). Almost half of the participants had experienced unstable angina (47%) and the most frequent concurrent condition was hypertension (67%). The results confirm that most people were not clinically anxious as anxiety SAI scores ranged from 37.72 (mean) pre-procedure and decreased over time to 31.8 (mean) post procedure and again post discharge 28.79 (mean). However, there is a significant group of participants that experienced more than normal levels of anxiety pre procedure (49%), post procedure (32%) and post discharge (19%). The independent predictors of anxiety were also identified through multiple regression analysis. Participants at risk of pre-procedure anxiety were those taking medications for the management of the symptoms of anxiety and depression. The predictors of post procedure anxiety included anxiety pre-procedure, having chest pain post procedure, or undergoing a PTCA and stent procedure for the first-time. Again, post discharge patients were more likely to be anxious if they were anxious pre-procedure and they reported their major concern to be related to the future progression of their coronary artery disease. The Faces Anxiety Scale proved to have low sensitivity and moderate specificity in this sample. The conclusion is that anxiety is relatively common and needs to be identified and treated, particularly pre-procedure to decrease subsequent anxiety. An instrument to detect anxiety quickly and accurately needs to be developed for clinical use

The cultural parameters of lead poisoning: a medical anthropologist's view of intervention in environmental lead exposure.

This article identifies four culturally shaped sources of lead exposure in human societies: modern and historic technological sources: food habits; culturally defined health beliefs; and beauty practices. Examples of these potential sources of lead poisoning are presented from current cultures. They include the use of lead-glazed cooking pottery in Mexican-American households; folk medical use of lead in Hispanic, Arabic, South Asian, Chinese, and Hmong communities; as well as the use of lead as a cosmetic in the Near East, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Four interacting cultural conditions that create barriers to the reduction of lead exposure and lead poisoning are identified and discussed. These are knowledge deficiencies, communication resistance, cultural reinterpretations, and incongruity of explanatory models

The Uniform Partnership Act and Its Effect Upon the West Virginia Decisions and Statutes

The primary purpose in the annotation of the Uniform Partnership Act is to indicate briefly the changes its adoption would bring about in the law of West Virginia. To this end no attempt has been made to give all the citations; and on those sections on which there seem to be no state decisions at all comments have been made only when it seemed necessary

Participation Status in an Arkansas Better Chance Program on Early Literacy and Mathematics Readiness

The current study explored the effects of ABC prekindergarten program status by gender and ethnicity on early literacy and mathematics readiness for students entering kindergarten in a large urban school district in Central Arkansas. The study used scores for kindergarten students categorized by their prekindergarten participation in the school district’s ABC prekindergarten program (participated versus no participation), gender, and ethnicity (White and non-White). The NWEA MAP Growth assessment was used to measure literacy and mathematics achievement in all nine elementary schools in the Central Arkansas school district. In all four hypotheses, the main effect of ABC prekindergarten program participation was not significant. The second hypothesis revealed a significant main effect of gender on mathematics achievement with the females, on average, significantly outscoring the males. For the third hypothesis, the results indicated a significant main effect of ethnicity on literacy achievement. In this instance, the non- White students scored significantly lower on literacy compared to their White counterparts. Finally, for Hypothesis 4, there were two significant results in mathematics, the main effect of ethnicity and the interaction effect of ethnicity and ABC vii prekindergarten program participation. Because the interaction effect helped explain the main effect of ethnicity, attention was given to the simple main effects analysis. The results of the simple effects analysis of the interaction indicated a significant difference between two of the pairings. First, the non-White students not participating in the ABC program scored significantly lower compared to the White students who did not participate in the ABC prekindergarten program. Second, the non-White students not participating in the ABC prekindergarten program scored significantly lower compared to the non-White students who participated in the ABC prekindergarten program