Grant W. Somes

Factors influencing self-assessment of health.

Abstract Perception of ones own health status has proven a useful proxy measure for clinically-measured health status. Perceived health has also shown considerable promise as a predictor of several types of behavioral and physical outcomes after illness. The present study replicates the work of others in finding several correlates of this potentially important variable. Two conceptual models derived from the literature on recent life experience and health are presented as being possibly useful for situating perceived health in a framework of causal relationships.

Patient response to variations in denture technique. Part II: Five-year cephalometric evaluation

This study was designed to determine if differences in rates of residual alveolar bone loss could be found in patients wearing dentures made by a complex technique and a standard technique. Cephalometric radiographs were made for each of 64 patients at initial placement of the dentures and for all active patients at five yearly recall visits. These radiographs were measured to determine rates of mandibular bone loss, maxillary bone loss, loss of total face height, rotation of the mandible, and migration of the denture bases over the 5-year period. At the end of the study no statistically significant differences between the two groups of patients could be found. Examination of all participants in this study revealed rates of bone loss that were very similar to those reported by other investigators.

Personality factors in resistance to illness after recent life changes.

Abstract Three personality dimensions, derived by factor analysis from the Omnibus Personality Inventory, are examined as possible intervening variables between recent life experience and subsequent health change in a college population. All three personality measures, social conformity, liberal intellectualism and emotional sensitivity, are found to be independently and significantly predictive of health change; these relationships hold even when recent life experience is introduced as a significant predictor of health change. The addition of personality measures to information about recent life experience sinificantly improves the predicability of deleterious health change. The results are discussed in the context of factors which promote resistance to health breakdown after life changes.

The relationship of recent life change to seriousness of later illness.

Abstract A sample of 313 college freshmen was prospectively studied to determine whether recent life change predicted the seriousness of subsequent illness. Using the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale as the measure of seriousness, it was found that recent life change correlated at 0.33 with seriousness. This measure of seriousness also correlated with several other measures of severity and seriousness. However, the fact that seriousness was highly correlated (0.80) with the number of new health problems experienced, raises questions about the value of using both as outcome measures in life change research.

The effect of imbalance in life satisfactions and frustrations upon illness behavior in college students

Abstract Numerous studies have demonstrated a significant correlation between multiple recent life change and altered health states, yet illness is not the inevitable consequence of such change. The capacity of an individual to cope with change is thought to be the intervening variable which determines the health response. In this study the Heimler Scale of Social Functioning (HSSF) is examined as a possible measure of coping skill among a group of college students who reported high recent life change and whose illness experience was carefully documented throughout the following school year. Significant predictive power was demonstrated for the HSSF singly as well as in combination with other psychological measurements.

Langner's 22-item measure of psychophysiological strain as an intervening variable between life change and health outcome

Abstract Langners 22-item measure of psychophysiological strain is conceptualized as an intervening variable between recent life change and negative change in health. Data analysis indicates that four health change variables are better predicted by the strain variable than by life change, though each contributes independently and significantly to the prediction of health outcomes. The results are discussed in light of a psychosomatic model that views strain as casually closer to health outcome than is life change.

Distribution of Q When Testing Equality of Matched Proportions

Abstract The asymptotic distribution of Cochrans Q statistic is obtained under the null hypothesis H 0 for comparing proportions in matched samples under the multinomial model. Simulation studies show that a Satterthwaithe-type approximation provides a better approximation to the limiting distribution than does the chi-square distribution. Also, if by the nature of the problem, H 0 implies the side condition H, which is necessary for Q to have a limiting chi-square distribution, then Q has the same Pitman efficiency as a Wald statistic that is known to have some optimal asymptotic properties and that has the χ2 distribution in the limit under H 0 whether or not H holds.

Variations in mandibular rest positions with and without dentures in place

As part of a seven-year study concerning variations in denture techniques, seven radiographs were made for 52 patients. Three films of the series were made with dentures in the mouth and the patient at the vertical relation of rest; three films were made with the dentures out of the mouth and the patient at the vertical relation of rest; and one film was made with the patient at the vertical relation of occlusion. Differences were computed using an average of the three films for both groups. It was determined that the vertical relation of rest is affected by the presence of dentures in the mouth. However, this difference was not predictable, since with the dentures out, 25 per cent of the patients showed an increase in vertical relation, 59.6 per cent showed a decrease, and 15.4 per cent showed very little change.

The relationship of personality, life change, psychophysiological strain and health status in a college population.

Abstract A model which describes the process whereby recent life changes are translated to health changes through the egency of psychophysiological strain is put forward. The role of personality factors is appraised at three critical points in the process. Three personality measures are derived which seem to influence extent of reported life change, strress symptomatology and illness experience. The findings are examined in the light of both substantive and methodological interpretations.

The influence of illness severity and time since life change on the size of the life change-health change relationship.

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between recent life change experience and subsequent changes in health as a function of the length of time between life change and health change reports. We attempt to present data concerning an ambiguity in the literature about whether this relationship tends to increase, decrease, or remain unchanged as time elapses between life change report and health status follow-up.