Conventional health insurance: a decade later

In this article, the 1987 conventional health plans are examined and 1987 group health insurance is compared with that of 1977. The source of information for 1987 is the national survey of 771 private and public employers conducted by the Health Insurance Association of America. Data for 1977 are from the National Medical Care Expenditures Survey. Findings show that conventional health plans' share of the group market declined from 95 to 73 percent during the decade; the majority of Americans covered by conventional group insurance are now enrolled in a plan that self-insures; prospective utilization review grew dramatically after 1984; and patient cost sharing increased, but not as significantly as conventional wisdom holds.

Effects of physical conditioning on self-concept of adult obese males

The purpose of the study was to investigate possible psychological changes in obese men after participating in an eight-week nutrition and physical conditioning program. The subjects, 45 male, metropolitan policemen who were considered at least 20 percent over their optimum body weights, were placed on diets and received weekly instruction on topics of nutrition and exercise. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups, one that participated in aerobic conditioning and one that did not. The amount of oxygen consumption, as an index of physical fitness, and performance on selected subscales of the Tennessee Self-concept Scale (TSCS) were measured before and after the training and conditioning programs. Both groups displayed significant increases in oxygen consumption and on the Physical Self and Self-satisfaction subscales, but on all these measures, the Conditioning Group increased significantly (2 to 3 times) more. For both groups, the Total Variability measure from the TSCS showed significant reductions, which have been associated with personality integration. These results demonstrate that physical conditioning and dietary educational sessions or educational sessions alone are associated with positive changes in self-concept in obese individuals and also corroborate other studies that show links between physical and psychological fitness.

Hemodynamic and energy cost responses to changes in arm exercise technique

The purpose of this investigation was to determine heart rate, blood pressure, rate pressure product, and oxygen consumption responses to variations in arm exercise technique of a specific calisthenics for cardiac rehabilitation. Eight subjects performed the following four variations of an arm calisthenics: slow paused, slow continuous, fast paused, and fast continuous. Heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolic cost were measured during the last minute of each variation. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences between exercise variations (p less than .05) across means in heart rate, blood pressure, rate pressure product, and metabolic equivalent terms. Post hoc analysis revealed that changes in technique caused significantly large differences (p less than .05) in heart rate, blood pressure, and rate pressure product, but metabolic equivalent term levels did not change significantly. Changes in arm exercise technique result in significant changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and rate pressure product with little or no changes in metabolic equivalent terms. This finding suggests that prescribing exercise based on metabolic equivalent terms may not be indicative of cardiac stress unless the technique of exercise is carefully monitored and controlled.

Fatigue rate during anaerobic and aerobic exercise in insulin-dependent diabetics and nondiabetics

This study was designed to determine whether insulin-dependent diabetics fatigue at a different rate than nondiabetics during anaerobic and aerobic exercise. The rate of fatigue during cycle ergometer exercise at 90 percent (anaerobic) and 60 percent (aerobic) of predicted maximum oxygen consumption in eight men who were insulin-dependent diabetics and eight nondiabetic men was determined. For the insulin-dependent diabetics, performance at 90 percent was a significantly better predictor (p less than .05) of performance at 60 percent than it was for the nondiabetics. The rate of fatigue during cycle ergometer exercise for insulin-dependent diabetics may be predictable, and this may be important in evaluating exercise tolerance for these patients.