Anthony Bruce Fallon

Identifying Predictors of the Reasons Women Give for Choosing to Breastfeed

The aims of this article are to outline the reasons Australian women give for initiating breastfeeding, identify unique predictors for these reasons, and use principal components factor analysis to determine factors that influence a womans decision to breastfeed. Data were collected as part of a large longitudinal study investigating the breastfeeding behaviors and supports of women in Southern Queensland, Australia. The most common reason women (N = 562) gave for deciding to breastfeed was breast milk is better for my baby (95.5%). Reasons related to the mother such as breastfeeding is more convenient (84.3%) were also popular. Four significant components—mother-related reasons, health effects for the infant, moral and family influences, and advice from others—were determined after principal components factor analysis. As well as health benefits for the infant, convenience and other reasons related to the mother appear to be important factors in an Australian womans decision to breastfeed. J Hum Lact. 23(4):338-344. Los objetivos de este artículo son delinear las razones que las mujeres dan para iniciar la lactancia materna, identificar pronósticos únicos de estas razones y el uso de análisis de componentes principales para determinar los factores que influencian a las mujeres en la decisión de amamantar. Se tomaron datos como parte de un estudio extenso longitudinal para investigar el comportamiento y apoyo a la lactancia materna en mujeres del sur de Queensland, Australia. La razón mas comúnmente mencionada para decidir amamantar de 562 mujeres amamantando durante el estudio fue que la leche materna es lo mejor para mi bebe (95.5%), a pesar de que las razones relacionadas con la madre como que amamantar es mas conveniente (84.3%) fue la mas popular. Cuatro componentes significativos: razones relacionadas con la madre, efectos en la salud del bebe, moral e influencias familiares y consejos de otros fueron determinadas después del análisis de componentes principales. Tanto los beneficios en la salud del bebe como conveniencia y otras razones relacionadas con la madre parecen ser factores importante que la mujer considera en la decisión de amamantar.

The relationship between personal breastfeeding experience and the breastfeeding attitudes, knowledge, confidence and effectiveness of Australian GP registrars

In conjunction with other health professionals, doctors believe they play an important role in promoting breastfeeding to women. Although many have positive breastfeeding attitudes, significant knowledge deficits often limit their capacity to effectively encourage, support and assist breastfeeding women and their infants. Personal breastfeeding experience (of self or partner) may be the main source of breastfeeding knowledge and skill development and is related to improved knowledge, more positive attitudes and greater confidence. This paper describes the relationship between the cumulative length of personal breastfeeding experience and the breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes of a cohort of Australian general practice (GP) registrars, as well as their confidence and perceived effectiveness assisting breastfeeding women. The Australian Breastfeeding Knowledge and Attitude Questionnaire containing demographic items, a 20-item attitude scale and a 40-item knowledge scale was distributed between February and May 2007 to Australian GP registrars in their final year of training. Participants with more than 52-week cumulative personal (self or partner) breastfeeding experience had the highest mean knowledge score, had more positive attitudes, and were more confident and effective than all other participants. Parents with limited personal experience (<or=26 weeks) had the poorest breastfeeding attitudes and their knowledge base was similar to participants with no personal experience. Confidence and perceived effectiveness when assisting breastfeeding women rose with increasing cumulative breastfeeding experience. Personal breastfeeding experience per se does not guarantee better breastfeeding knowledge or attitudes although increasing length of experience is related to higher knowledge, attitude, confidence and perceived effectiveness scores.

Lexicality and phonological similarity: A challenge for the retrieval‐based account of serial recall?

The retrieval‐based account of serial recall (Saint‐Aubin & Poirier, 2000) attributes lexicality, phonological similarity, and articulatory suppression effects to a process where long‐term representations are used to reconstruct degraded phonological traces. Two experiments tested this assumption by manipulating these factors in the recall of four‐ and five‐item lists of words and non‐words. Lexicality enhanced item recall (IR), but only affected position accuracy (PA) for five‐item lists under suppression. Phonological similarity influenced both words and non‐words, and produced impaired PA in silent and suppressed conditions. Consistent with the retrieval‐based account, words and non‐words of high word‐likeness appear subject to redintegration. However, some findings, like suppression not reducing the phonological similarity impairment in suppressed conditions, present challenges for the retrieval‐based account and other models of serial recall.

A systematic review of psychometric evidence and expert opinion regarding the assessment of faecal incontinence in older community-dwelling adults.

Objectives  This review had two objectives: (i) to determine what is required in an assessment of faecal incontinence issues for older community-dwelling adults; and (ii) to determine the psychometric tools most effective for assessment of faecal incontinence in older community-dwelling adults. Inclusion criteria  For the review of psychometric tools, studies were included if they were concerned with people living in the community, included a significant proportion of the sample aged 65 years or over, and either examined psychometric properties of assessment tools or assessed sensitivity of assessment tools to non-surgical interventions available in the community setting. For the review of expert opinion, the search was limited to expert opinion provided by an expert in faecal incontinence that related to community-based assessment. Only articles published in English were eligible for inclusion and no limits were placed on publication dates. Search strategy  An initial search of Medline and CINAHL databases identified terminology frequently used in the literature with regard to assessment of faecal incontinence. An extensive search was then undertaken using all identified key words and index terms. The third step involved a search of reference lists and bibliographies of all relevant articles. Methodological quality  All identified studies that met the inclusion criteria were assessed for methodological validity in the case of studies considered for inclusion in the psychometric review. Validity of expert text was also assessed prior to it being included in the review. Results  The final search strategy identified approximately 7000 references. Full-text versions of 144 references were critically appraised for inclusion in the review. Of these, 25 sources were included in the review of expert opinion and 16 in the review of psychometric properties. In the review of expert opinion, 254 conclusions were extracted for synthesis. The 31 thematic categories were organised under five major themes: History-taking, bowel assessment, psychosocial aspects, physical examination and specialist referral. From the sources that survived critical appraisal, 52 conclusions relating to psychometric properties of assessment tools were derived. There was limited, if any, analysis of psychometric properties for the majority of assessment tools. The Wexner and Vaizey symptom severity scales demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability and convergent validity. The Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (FIQLS) demonstrated reasonable reliability and good convergent and criterion-related validity. There was, however, some evidence questioning its discriminant validity. Conclusions  This systematic review represents an important first stage in developing guidelines for assessment of faecal incontinence in community-dwelling older people. Assessment should be comprehensive in nature. Gaps in expert opinion are evident regarding issues such as assessment of cognitive decline and specialist referral. Continence advisors need to be appropriately trained in using and interpreting results from assessment tools and conducting physical examinations. Although studies in the review of psychometric properties suffer from limitations such as inadequate sample sizes, the Vaizey and Wexner scales would appear to be the tools of choice. The FIQLS is clearly the tool of choice at this stage for measuring faecal incontinence quality of life. Further validation of tests used in faecal incontinence assessments is required.

The Effect of Item and Relational Processing on Incidental Long-term Memory for Order

Although stimulus similarity and levels of processing are often manipulated in long-term episodic tasks that test item memory, little attention has been paid to how these variable affect long-term memory for temporal order. The effects of these variables on order memory was tested using a task that required the reconstruction of the initial presentation order of short lists after a filled delay. Initial learning of the lists always involved incidental processing procedures ranging from low-level item processes to high-level relational processes. In all experiments, changes in stimulus similarity and processing tasks had similar effects on order memory to the effects found in tasks involving long-term item memory. An interpretation of the data is proposed, based on the joint contribution of distinctive item and relation processing, and poor encoding of order information with shallow processing. It is concluded that item information must play a significant role in the long-term order reconstruction task.