Measure Of Perceived Health Status Research Articles

General Social Support and Physical Activity: An Analysis of the Ontario Health Survey

In spite of the many benefits of regular physical activity, the majority of Canadians are sedentary. This paper examines the relationship between general social support and physical activity levels. An analysis of data on 29,135 individuals from the 1990 Ontario Health Survey was conducted. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to determine the relationship between measures of general social support, derived from factor analysis, and physical activity levels. Sociodemographic and perceived health status measures were included as control variables. The results showed that general social support, in the form of Social Quantity and Social Frequency (number of friends/family members and frequency of contact), was significantly associated with higher levels of physical activity. Conversely, support in the form of Familial Structure (marital/cohabitation and parental status) was significantly associated with lower levels of physical activity. The findings indicate the types of general social support that facilitate or hinder participation in physical activity.

Neuropsychological performance and CD4 levels in HIV-1 asymptomatic infection.

The performance of 68 HIV-1 seropositive asymptomatic (HIV+) subjects stratified on CD4 levels were compared with 82 HIV-1 seronegative (HIV-) subjects on a battery of neuropsychological, mood state, and perceived health status measures. The neuropsychological test battery included measures of attention, reaction time, memory, intellectual ability, psychomotor speed, frontal lobe or "executive" function, and decision time. None of the HIV+ subjects were taking antiviral agents. The groups did not differ for age, mood state, or WAIS-R Verbal and Performance IQ scores. Due to group differences for education and weekly ethanol consumption, both variables were used as covariates in multivariate analyses of variance. Relatively few differences were observed between subgroups of HIV+ patients or between these subgroups and control subjects. These data suggest that factors other than absolute levels of immunosuppression as expressed by CD4 levels alone, appear to be responsible for the deficits observed in HIV+ asymptomatic patients.