Biomedical subjects

Rino Rumiati

Publications and source records attributed to Rino Rumiati.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Understanding of and attitude to xenotransplantation among Italian university students: impact of a 3-yr university course.

BACKGROUND: Young people, and students in particular, generally have a positive attitude to xenotransplantation. We reported previously that university students attending their first year approved of the idea of transplanting animal organs into humans. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a 3-yr course at various faculties on the university students' understanding of and attitude to xenotransplantation. METHODS: University students in their fourth year at five different faculties of Padua University (Italy), who had previously been surveyed in exactly the same way 3 yr earlier, were re-administered an anonymous 19-item questionnaire on their attitude to xenotransplantation. RESULTS: A total of 453 students completed the fourth year questionnaire (84 males, 369 females; mean age 24.6 yr, range 21-36 yr). Students were attending courses in Medicine (22.1%), Veterinary Science (16.5%), Agriculture (10.4%), Educational Sciences (22.1%) and Psychology (28.9%). In their fourth year, 85% of the students knew that animal organs could, at some stage, be transplanted into humans, 81.5% approved of this idea and 84% would accept an animal organ to save their life if necessary (these percentages were 88%, 78% and 76%, respectively 3 yr earlier). A significantly larger proportion of the students who approved of xenotransplantation were attending science courses rather than art courses, while no differences emerged as regards gender. Those who refused xenotransplantation justified their position mainly on ethical-moral (41.7%) and immunological (35.7%) grounds. CONCLUSION: As in their first year, so too in their fourth, University students were well informed about the feasibility of transplanting animal organs into human beings and those attending science courses were more likely to accept this idea than art students. Approval of xenotransplantation was much the same among fourth year males and females, whereas in the first year, male students had approved more than female students.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Expert and public perception of risk from biotechnology.

Risk perceptions of a series of biotechnology applications were examined in a public (nonexpert) sample and an expert sample. Compared with the experts, the public perceived all biotechnology applications as more risky. Both groups perceived food-related applications to be riskier than medical applications. Compared with the public, experts perceived both food and medical applications as less harmful and more useful. Experts also judged the risks posed from medical biotechnology applications as more familiar and acknowledged by people and science. Lay estimates of the risk of food applications were predicted by potential harm, potential benefits, science knowledge, and familiarity; experts' estimates were predicted only by harm and benefits. Lay estimates of the risk of medical applications were predicted by potential harm; experts' estimates were predicted by potential benefits, number and type of people exposed, and science knowledge. We discuss the implications of the results for risk communication about and management of different types of biotechnologies.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Understanding of and attitudes to xenotransplantation: a survey among Italian university students.

UNLABELLED: Xenotransplantation is currently at the experimental stages on animal models and many problems still have to be overcome in the biomedical, immunological and ethical fields. Moreover, people's attitudes to xenotransplantation vary: surveys among intensive-care staff have revealed negative opinions, while the general public and students seem to be more positive. Little is known about the influence of schooling and the choice of university faculty on attitudes to xenotransplantation. The aims of this study were: (i) to evaluate university students' attitudes to xenotransplantation; (ii) to investigate any socio-demographic, religious and educational determinants behind students' opinions on xenotransplantation. University undergraduates on five different courses were surveyed at Padua University. A 24-item questionnaire was distributed to students at the end of lectures and completed anonymously immediately after its distribution. No information was given to students beforehand. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: chi-squared, Pearson's test; P-values <0.05 were considered significant. A total of 585 of 602 (97.2%) students completed the questionnaire (132 males, 453 females, mean age 20.4, range 19 to 43 yr). They were on courses in Medicine (33.85%), Agriculture (5.98%), Veterinary Medicine (11.45%), Psychology (18.46%) and Educational Sciences (30.26%). As for their previous schooling, they came from classical or scientific high school (58.3%), technical college (14.7%), language college (6.3%), teacher training college (11.9%) or others (8.8%). Concerning their religious beliefs, 83% were Catholics, and 56.2% defined themselves as practising Catholics. Eighty-eight percentage of the students knew of the possibility of animal organs being transplanted into humans and 77.9% of them approved of this idea. When grouped according to gender and education, a higher proportion of students approving of xenotransplantation were male (P = 0.017) and had attended classical or scientific high school (P = 0.011). Disapproval for moral, ethical or religious reasons was higher among practising than among non-practising Catholics; the latter rejected xenotransplantation more for immunological and infectious reasons (P = 0.014). As for the type of university course, a higher proportion of students approving of xenotransplantation attended science courses (Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture and Medicine vs. Educational Sciences and Psychology) (P = 0.013). University students generally approved of xenotransplantation. Male gender and a high-school education were associated with a greater acceptance of xenotransplantation. Practising vs. non-practising Catholics reported significantly different reasons for any disapproval of xenotransplantation. The choice of a science rather than an arts faculty at university was more strongly associated with a positive opinion on xenotransplantation.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Rethinking the focusing effect in decision-making.

According to Legrenzi et al. [Cognition 49 (1993) 37], in making a choice people consider only the alternatives explicitly represented in their mental model of the decision situation. Their idea has found empirical support in the "focusing effect": Individuals focus on the alternatives explicitly stated in the problem context, and do not take into account other possibilities. In their original study, Legrenzi and colleagues considered only one factor to account for the explicit representation of an alternative--i.e., its explicit verbal formulation in the decision problem. Recent theories of relevance and information gain can help articulate their original idea, suggesting that individuals explicitly represent relevant alternatives, whether or not they are explicitly formulated in the decision problem. In three experiments we first replicated Legrenzi et al.'s original experiment, and then showed that the explicit verbal mention of an alternative is neither sufficient nor necessary to focus on it. The results suggest that individuals are able to consider relevant alternatives, even when they are not made explicit in the verbal formulation of a decision problem.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Long-term decrease in subjective perceived efficacy of immunosuppressive treatment after heart transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Mild, long-term non-compliance with immunosuppressive treatment after organ transplantation is common, and can result in early mortality. One possible source of non-compliance is the belief that the treatment is ineffective or unnecessary. This study investigates patients perception of the efficacy of their immunosuppressive treatment in a sample of heart transplant patients. METHODS: A questionnaire was given to 67 heart transplant recipients. The first part of the questionnaire addressed health-related behavior and attitude toward the immunosuppressive medication, using self-report questions. In the second part of the questionnaire, participants evaluated the perceived risk of rejection associated with non-compliant behaviors described in 8 scenarios. RESULTS: The data from the self-report questions showed a mild level of behavioral non-compliance, increasing over time, and a mild level of medication non-compliance. One third of the medication non-compliant patients chose the inefficacy or non-necessity of the treatment as a main cause of non-compliance. The second part of the questionnaire showed that subjective perceived efficacy of the immunosuppressive treatment decreased over time. CONCLUSIONS: Medication non-compliance is fostered by many factors. One of these is the belief that the treatment is ineffective or unnecessary. This belief increases over time, and could be the result of a non-clinical selective-attention bias.

Female↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[The framing effect: medical implications].

Over the last 20 years, many studies explored how the way information is presented modifies choices. This sort of effect, referred to as "framing effects", typically consists of the inversion of choices when presenting structurally identical decision problems in different ways. It is a common assumption that physicians are unaffected (or less affected) by the surface description of a decision problem, because they are formally trained in medical decision making. However, several studies showed that framing effects occur even in the medical field. The complexity and variability of these effects are remarkable, making it necessary to distinguish among different framing effects, depending on whether the effect is obtained by modifying adjectives (attribute framing), goals of a behavior (goal framing), or the probability of an outcome (risky choice framing). A further reason for the high variability of the framing effects seems to be the domain of the decision problem, with different effects occurring in prevention decisions, disease-detection decisions, and treatment decisions. The present work reviews the studies on framing effects, in order to summarize them and clarify their possible role in medical decision making.

Decision Making↗