Predicting physicians\u27 intention to measure body mass index and assessing their identification and evaluation practices in overweight children and adolescents

One health challenge receiving a lot of attention today is childhood obesity. Numerous public and professional organizations recommend that physicians periodically measure BMI in children and adolescents. In addition, guidelines recommend medical evaluation of overweight children and adolescents. However, studies have shown an inconsistent use of body mass index (BMI). This study uses the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to identify factors that explain physicians\u27 intention to measure BMI in children and adolescents. Salient beliefs associated with intention were compared between intenders and nonintenders. The study also determines how physicians identify and evaluate overweight children and adolescents. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 2,590 physicians (family physicians and pediatricians) practicing in four states. The theoretical variables assessed in the study were: intention to measure BMI, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, attitudinal beliefs and evaluation, normative beliefs and motivation to comply, and control beliefs and evaluations. Physician practice-related and demographic information were also collected. The factors explaining intention were examined using correlation and multiple regression analysis. Salient beliefs between intenders and nonintenders were compared using ANOVA. Overall, 583 physicians returned the questionnaire (usable response rate of 22.8%). Only 44% of surveyed physicians strongly intended to measure BMI in children and adolescents. The theoretical models explained up to 51.2% of variance in intentions to measure BMI. There were significant behavioral and normative belief differences between physicians who intended and those who did not intended to measure BMI. A majority of physicians frequently used clinical impression, weight-for-age percentile, and weight-for-height percentile to identify overweight children and adolescents, with less than 57% actually using BMI percentiles. In terms of evaluating overweight children and adolescents, 15% followed all recommendations for family history assessment; however, 6% followed all recommendations for clinical evaluations and medical history and physical examination. Roughly one-third of physicians followed all recommendations for behavioral history assessment. The study also reflected variation in physicians practice across states. The TRA and the TPB provided a useful framework for studying physicians\u27 intentions to measure BMI. Physicians\u27 adherence to the recommended evaluation practices for overweight children and adolescents was low

Burden of care and health -related quality of life among caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder

Caring for a child with autism is a challenging experience for parents, who also have to assume the role of a caregiver. Several studies have documented the occurrence of negative outcomes among caregivers of children with autism. Autism has been shown to affect every aspect of caregivers\u27 lives, whether it is their mental health, physical health, financial health, or social health. The purpose of this study was to gather in-depth information about the impact of autism on primary caregivers. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used for this purpose. As part of the project, three studies were conducted. Data for study one was collected using focus groups, while that for study two and three were collected using a cross-sectional survey of primary caregivers of children with autism. In the first study, focus group discussions were conducted to understand caregivers\u27 experiences, needs, and concerns. Participants in focus groups described an adverse impact of autism on their emotional, physical, and social health. Participants reported an urgent need for respite care, support services, informational support from service providers, and insurance coverage of autism treatments. In the second study, psychometric properties of the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ) were tested for use among caregivers of children with autism. The results indicated acceptable factorial validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability of the CGSQ in this population. Until a burden instrument specific to caregivers of children with autism is developed, researchers could use the CGSQ to capture the caregiving experiences in this population. The third study assessed the impact of caregiving on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of primary caregivers of children with autism. After adjusting for age and gender, the HRQOL scores of caregivers were found to be lower than those of the general US population. Caregiving situational factors such as family functioning, social support, and coping mechanisms were found to have a significant effect on caregiver burden and HRQOL. These findings emphasize the use of multi-pronged intervention approach that incorporates components aimed at improving family functioning, increasing support services, and assisting caregivers in developing healthy coping skills

Introducing Virtual Law offices in the Existing Judiciary

With the rise of omnipresent foundation of computing resources over the past years, every IT Setup is expanding their horizons in the Cloud services and related technologies. Cloud provides dynamically scalable virtualized computing resources as a service over the Internet and this key characteristic differentiates it from traditional computing paradigm. It is the application of Cloud and mobile computing technologies for improving communication between lawyers, their clients, and any other person involved. This framework basically digitalizes the existing judicial file system to form an e-library using Clouds infrastructure and using the internet services like GPRS or GSM / CDMA or 3G/4G etc for information retrieval from this e-library after the request has received proper authorization and authentication of the regulatory body. Data is received from both Web and mobile based applications so that each person can access the judicial data anytime and anywhere. For the realization of this system, a web interface is created with e-library serving as the main database and with user-friendly interface to do the above data acquisition and analysis which ultimately gives pace to the slow process of case management

Aggressive angiomyxoma presenting with huge abdominal lump: A case report

Agressive angiomyxoma is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm. It mainly presents in females. We here present a case of angiomyxoma presenting as huge abdominal lump along with gluteal swelling. Case note is described along with brief review of literature

Efficient Learning Machines

Computer scienc