The author contends that, in eliminating HIPAA's mandatory consent requirement, which is the initial step in the patient's Patient Consent exercise of the right to health information privacy, DHHS has turned its back on privacy protection. She posits that the proposed change is the result of a disturbing focus on ...

The case for the benefits of physical activity has been well documented in healthy individuals, and the potential for reducing the risk of mental and physical ill health is substantial. Yet, individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) have long been advised to avoid participation in exercise in order to minimise the ...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among exercise behavior, the ability to live independently as assessed by functional activities of daily living (ADL), and psychological health as measured by the Philadelphia Geriatric Center morale scale, using data from 202 elderly residents aged 70 and living in ...

A survey of the drinking, smoking and illicit drug use of more than 90 000 teenage school students was carried out in 1999. This exercise, known as the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), revealed marked differences in the substance use patterns of those surveyed in ...

Information was collected on the environmental opportunities for exercising self-determination among 281 adults with mental retardation receiving community-based residential supports. The results indicated that: (1) the majority of participants had little or no opportunity to exercise self-determination over major life decisions (e.g., with whom and where to live, the recruitment ...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a community-based exercise course applied to a group of American Indians (AI) who, because of physician recommendation and/or self-motivation, desired to increase their physical activity. Changes in physiological measurements and self-perceived measurements were determined following a moderate-intensity exercise program ...

OBJECTIVES: Programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) is a priority setting framework that has been used over the last 25 years in the health sector. To date, no formal evaluation of this framework has been conducted. The aims of this study were to categorize previous PBMA exercises systematically and determine ...

Since Hippocrates first advised us more than 2000 years ago that exercise-though not too much of it--was good for health, the epidemiology of physical activity has developed apace with the epidemiological method itself. It was only in the mid-20th century that Professor Jeremy N Morris and his associates used quantitative ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between the stages of exercise participation and health insurance costs. METHODS: A hurdle model was used to examine health survey and health insurance costs data by stage of exercise participation. RESULTS: Employees classified in the maintenance stage (regular exercisers) of exercise adoption had lower costs ...

OBJECTIVE: This article describes the Scottish Borders General Practitioners Exercise Referral Scheme (GPERS). Results from a survey carried out three to five years after participants were first referred to the scheme are described. DESIGN: A semi-structured postal questionnaire was sent out with a pre-paid reply envelope. SETTING: Participants who had ...

Disability adjusted life years (DALYs) are the sum of the present value of future years of lifetime lost through premature mortality, and the present value of years of future lifetime adjusted for the average severity (frequency and intensity) of any mental or physical disability caused by a disease or injury. ...

The dominant outcome from exercise prescription is an increase in various markers of exercise capacity. A very large group of studies have demonstrated that the VO2max is increased in response to exercise performed according to well-accepted principles of exercise prescription. Other markers of exercise capacity, such as the VT, also ...

This study examined the attitudes toward exercise held by older adults within different stages of the exercise change model for the purpose of aiding health professionals in developing effective approaches that engage older adults in physical activity. Men and women (n = 116) between the ages of 60 and 93 ...

BACKGROUND: Utah has the highest percentage of physically active adults in the United States. It also has a high percentage of religiously active people. About 90% of the adult population has a religious preference and 62% of those individuals attend church weekly. This study evaluates the relationship between religious preference, ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the socio-demographic, psychosocial, and social support variables that predict compliance to treatment regimens in HF patients. DESIGN AND SETTING: Semistructured interviews were conducted on 82 patients at an outpatient heart failure clinic to gather data related to compliance behaviors. Five standardized ...

OBJECTIVES: The aim was to assess the content, validity and reproducibility of web-based questionnaires, for a study on osteoporosis prevention among young British women. Twenty-two questionnaires to assess knowledge, self-efficacy, physical activity, calcium intake, health beliefs and stages of change relevant to osteoporosis prevention were identified. Nine were selected and ...

We define conditional and marginal treatment effects appropriate for count data, and then conduct an empirical analysis for the effects of exercise on health care demand using panel data from the Health Retirement Study. The response variables are office visits to doctors and hospitalization days, and the treatments of interest ...

Exercise has been suggested as an effective adjunctive treatment for a range of mental health conditions. In this study, we explored the perceptions of exercise held by course directors of doctoral training programmes in clinical psychology in England. Given the exploratory nature of the study, we used a qualitative design ...

Grounded in ecological theory, this study examines the association among participation in regular vigorous exercise and social status, aspects of prominent life settings, interactions between life settings, and more proximal individual resources and processes using data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (N = 3,032). ...

PURPOSE: When attempting to assess responsiveness to habitual exercise in a health context, there is a wide range of issues that need to be addressed in order to provide science-based recommendations for use in evidence-informed health care delivery. Issues regarding responsiveness include characteristics of the exercise regimen or dose as ...

This study was designed to examine factors influencing exercise behavior of older African American adults. Using the Transtheoretical Stages of Change Model and focus group methodology, 103 participants were assigned to gender and stage specific groups of 5 to 12 each. The focus group discussion guide was developed to explore ...

Practitioners have the opportunity to enhance the health of their patients by improving exercise adherence through appropriate exercise prescription and monitoring. Regular physical exercise can prevent or improve many of the chronic health conditions commonly observed in clinical practice. Unfortunately, efforts to help patients adopt an exercise program are often ...

Resting lung function is only weakly related to health status in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, reflecting the multifactorial causes of impairment and the heterogeneous nature of the condition. The current study examined whether density mask analysis of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) or exercise capacity were better surrogates for health status ...

Physical fitness of the American worker is a core element of personal good health and a key factor in corporate cost containment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically notes that health professionals should be physically active not only to benefit their own health but also to make more ...

The United States Congress directed the Department of Justice to conduct an exercise engaging key personnel in the management of mock chemical, biological, or cyberterrorist attacks. The resulting exercise was called "TOPOFF," named for its engagement of top officials of the United States government. This article offers a number of ...

Regular exercise in elderly people has beneficial health effects. We examined exercise frequency and intensity from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging Risk Factor Questionnaire (RFQ). The reliability and validity of these two questions individually, and when combined to form a scale, are reported. Agreement between the self-administered RFQ ...

Even more than the general population, orthopaedic patients suffer from multiple consequences of immobility. Fortunately, most of these patients are physically able to participate in some degree of moderately intense exercise. Helping the orthopaedic patient initiate and adhere to a moderately intense exercise routine is a nursing challenge. This challenge ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to look at rates of acculturation among Vietnamese immigrants, with particular emphasis on health behaviors. DESIGN: A volunteer sample was surveyed. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: The participants were drawn from inner and western Sydney, Australia. Participants were asked for their perception of their English fluency as ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of the National Healthy Lifestyle Programme, a noncommunicable disease intervention programme for major cardiovascular disease risk factors in Singapore, implemented in 1992. METHODS: The evaluation was carried out in 1998 by the Singapore National Health Survey (NHS). The reference population was 2.2 million multiracial Singapore ...

Does physical exercise in addition to a multicomponent smoking cessation program increase abstinence rate and suppress weight gain? An intervention study Tobacco use is considered the single most preventable cause of premature morbidity and mortality. Smoking cessation programs aim at two interrelated purposes, to help people to give up smoking ...

Although there are well documented protective health benefits conferred by regular physical activity, most individuals of all ages are not physically active at a level for sufficient maintenance of health. Consequently, a major public health goal is to improve the collective health and fitness levels of all individuals. The American ...

A study was conducted to determine whether general practitioners (GPs) participating in a telemedicine trial were self-selected enthusiasts for information technology compared with GPs in general. We compared two experimental groups of GPs in London and Wales (n = 126) who had volunteered to participate in a telemedicine trial and ...

The benefits for elderly individuals of regular participation in both cardiovascular and resistance-training programmes are great. Health benefits include a significant reduction in risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance, hypertension and obesity as well as improvements in bone density, muscle mass, arterial compliance and energy metabolism. ...

The purpose of this study was to develop a computerized exercise expert system (CEES) that creates tailored exercise plans for older adults. A panel of experts was selected in the areas of medicine, exercise physiology, health promotion, exercise psychology, and gerontology. The experts communicated with the principal investigator and the ...

Despite the demands of a busy office setting, a brief physician counseling session about exercise can be highly effective and well worth the precious time. Components include delivering a clear message about exercise, stepping back to assess the patient's readiness to change, and using the patient's cues to set an ...

Exercise prescription principles for persons without chronic disease and/or disability are based on well developed scientific information. While there are varied objectives for being physically active, including enhancing physical fitness, promoting health by reducing the risk for chronic disease and ensuring safety during exercise participation, the essence of the exercise ...

In 1996, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a 50-day exercise campaign called the "Director's Physical Activity Challenge" to stimulate its employees to exercise. Of the 5822 eligible employees, 3740 (64%) joined, but pre- and post-data was available on only 1192 (20.5%) people. Of this group, 86% of ...

Despite the known health benefits of regular physical activity and exercise, physical inactivity is prevalent among American adults. The primary care provider is in an optimal position to provide physical activity and exercise counseling. The Physician-based Assessment and Counseling for Exercise (PACE) program, which utilizes the stages of change theory, ...

The leucine metabolite, beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) enhances the effects of exercise on muscle size and strength. Although several reports in animals and humans indicate that HMB is safe, quantitative safety data in humans have not been reported definitively. The objective of this work was to summarize safety data collected in nine ...

Among 123 older African Americans recruited into a church-based exercise program, 43% had dropped out within four months. Compared to those who did not drop out, drop outs had lower levels of education, energy to do activities, energy to exercise, and self-ratings of health, all based on measures taken before ...

OBJECTIVE: to compare exercise levels, and dietary intake of fruit and vegetables in representative samples of healthy elderly people living in rural and urban areas. DESIGN: two-wave (screening followed by face-to-face interview) cross-sectional survey. SETTING: rural Cambridgeshire and urban Nottingham, UK. PARTICIPANTS: 2041 respondents (1021 in Cambridgeshire; 1020 in Nottingham) ...

The benefits of regular exercise for older adults are well documented and include improvements in physical, functional, as well as psychological, health. The purpose of this descriptive study was to test a theoretically and empirically based model describing the factors that influence exercise behaviour of older adults in the United ...

The Reconditioning Exercise and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Trial (REACT) is a two-arm randomized clinical trial designed to compare short-term versus long-term exercise intervention in terms of physical function, acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, health-related quality of life, and cost-effectiveness. Clinical trials such as REACT are now routinely ...

BACKGROUND: Few primary care physicians routinely counsel for exercise, despite the benefits of physical activity and the high prevalence of inactivity. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Physician-Based Assessment and Counseling for Exercise (PACE), a brief, behavior-based tool for primary care providers counseling healthy adults. ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine if appropriate advice had been given to adults with congenital heart disease regarding safe and effective exercise, and to assess pre-existing misconceptions of the potential benefits and dangers of exercise. DESIGN: An anonymous self assessment questionnaire. SETTING: A tertiary referral clinic. PATIENTS: 99 adults (57 men, 42 ...

Many have studied the effects of different lifestyles on disease, mortality or risk factors for a disease, but little is known about how behaviour is changed in the population. We studied the need for counselling and its effect on willingness and ability to change lifestyle, and subsequent changes in CHD ...

The term hormesis refers to beneficial effects from low doses of potentially harmful substances. Although there are many laboratory examples of this phenomenon, it remains controversial and has never become widely accepted by the health community. This review goes beyond the laboratory and describes many clinical and common sense, real-world ...

BACKGROUND: Available evidence suggests that despite physicians' positive attitudes toward exercise as an important part of promoting a healthy lifestyle, few physicians actually prescribe exercise for their patients. One barrier may be lack of a standard office instrument. OBJECTIVES: To determine the (1) exercise counseling habits among a large group ...

Mind-body exercise methods are spreading rapidly throughout the health, fitness, and rehabilitation fields. Many of the claimed benefits for these activities are not supported by clinical evidence, and, as alternative therapies, they carry legal and professional ramifications. Understanding the nature of mind-body exercise and knowing the scientific evidence behind claims ...

Physical activity may play an important role in the management of mild-to-moderate mental health diseases, especially depression and anxiety. Although people with depression tend to be less physically active than non-depressed individuals, increased aerobic exercise or strength training has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms significantly. However, habitual physical activity ...