Biomedical subjects

Robert F Belli

Publications and source records attributed to Robert F Belli.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Life-course socioeconomic position and hypertension in African American men: the Pitt County Study.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the odds of hypertension for Black men in relationship to their socioeconomic position (SEP) in both childhood and adulthood. METHODS: On the basis of their parents' occupation, we classified 379 men in the Pitt County (North Carolina) Study into low and high childhood SEP. The men's own education, occupation, employment status, and home ownership status were used to classify them into low and high adulthood SEP. Four life-course SEP categories resulted: low childhood/low adulthood, low childhood/high adulthood, high childhood/low adulthood, and high childhood/high adulthood. RESULTS: Low childhood SEP was associated with a 60% greater odds of hypertension, and low adulthood SEP was associated with a 2-fold greater odds of hypertension. Compared with men of high SEP in both childhood and adulthood, the odds of hypertension were 7 times greater for low/low SEP men, 4 times greater for low/high SEP men, and 6 times greater for high/low SEP men. CONCLUSIONS: Greater access to material resources in both childhood and adulthood was protective against premature hypertension in this cohort of Black men. Though some parameter estimates were imprecise, study findings are consistent with both pathway and cumulative burden models of hypertension.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Utilities of dentin regeneration among insured and uninsured adults.

OBJECTIVES: This population-based study measured utilities (preferences measured under conditions of uncertainty) of dentin regeneration (DR), a potential new therapy, root canal therapy (RCT), and extraction (EXT). METHODS: A representative sample of dentate adults (aged 18-69 years) was randomly selected from the Detroit area. A computer program was used to administer the standard gamble (SG) method and record utility score (US) for treatment options of a tooth with reversible pulpitis using the SG method. For the SG method, two anchor states were used: filled tooth with full oral health and filled tooth with severe and continuous pain leading to EXT. Additional data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of the 807 adults who resided in 446 screened and selected households, a final sample of 630 adults who resided in 368 households were interviewed. The mean US for DR with 75 and 95% success rates were 72.5 and 86.2 (on a 0-100 scale), respectively. The US for RCT and immediate EXT were 75.6 and 31.3, respectively. Eleven per cent of the adults valued DR with 95% success probability higher than a simple filling with full oral health for life. There were no statistically significant differences in the average US of DR between insured and uninsured adults. Factors such as gender, race, education, income and insurance status, experiences with EXTs or root canal treatment, regularity of dental visits, quality of life, and quality of oral health were not significantly associated with the scores of DR. There was, however, a small but significant interaction between race and dental insurance, and race and gender. CONCLUSION: This population-based study found that DR was highly preferred to other standard treatment options.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Willingness to pay for dentin regeneration in a sample of dentate adults.

OBJECTIVES: Measurement of individuals' valuation of dental treatments is important in the evaluation of new technologies. In this paper the value of dentin regeneration, a new treatment for teeth with reversible pulpitis, is measured based on what individuals say they would be willing to pay to receive the treatment. METHODS: A total of 611 randomly selected dentate adults answered willingness to pay (WTP) and dental insurance questions. Detailed descriptions of the process and expected outcomes for dentin regeneration were presented to subjects as part of a larger study measuring preferences for different treatments. WTP was determined for two different levels of success for dentin regeneration. RESULTS: At a success rate of 95%, the mean WTP for dentin regeneration was $262.70 (noninsured) and $11.00 per month (insured subjects). For success rate of 75%, the corresponding values were $210.90 and $9.20 per month. Multivariate analyses were used to identify any significant relationships between WTP and a range of variables covering socio-demographic, socio-economic, dental experience and oral health status variables. The findings indicate that individuals' valuations of treatments involve substantial unexplained variation. About half of the noninsured subjects would pay for dentin regeneration if it cost $200 per tooth. CONCLUSIONS: The data on the WTP for dentin regeneration indicate that a substantial percentage of adults will pay for this new technology. This study provides for the first time an estimate of WTP for dentin regeneration among the population.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Internal consistency and reliability of a questionnaire assessing organizational innovation in two schools of dentistry.

The objective of this study was to test the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of a questionnaire designed to assess the status of and factors associated with organizational innovation in schools of dentistry. The questionnaire included thirty-three questions that assessed the following six domains: innovation/environment, innovation/leadership, innovation/personal, feedback/environment, feedback/personal, and feedback/interpersonal. A seventh domain, evidence-based learning, assessed the reaction of dental faculty to a scenario where the scientific evidence found a current treatment to be ineffective in improving the health status of patients. The questionnaire was mailed three times to a systematic sample of fifty-six dental faculty working at a research-intensive dental school (RES) and all thirty-nine dental faculty working at a dental school where the emphasis is on clinical education (CL). The two U.S. dental schools had similar numbers of students; however, they differed significantly in their research portfolios. The response rate was 70.5 percent. The seven domains had alpha coefficients ranging between 0.60 and 0.89. The test-retest reliability for the seven domains ranged between 0.65 and 0.92. Dental faculty of the RES school had significantly higher average scores than faculty of the CL school on innovation/leadership, innovation/environment, feedback/environment, and feedback/personal domains. Regression analyses found no differences between the two schools in innovation/environment scores. The innovation/environment scores were significantly associated with innovation/leadership, feedback/environment, feedback/interpersonal, and age. The evidence-based learning domain was negatively associated with the innovation/environment domain, indicating that faculty who were willing to abandon teaching of a treatment found to be ineffective felt that their school environment was not highly innovative. In conclusion, this preliminary study found that the questionnaire reliably assessed six domains representing innovation and feedback. This preliminary study also found that an innovative environment in two schools of dentistry is associated with presence of leaders who promote change and innovation, an environment that encourages feedback, and faculty members who value interpersonal feedback.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Retrospective data collection using event history calendars.

BACKGROUND: Event history calendars are used to collect retrospective data about events and life transitions over short and long periods of time. Event history calendars are highly structured, but flexible, approaches to interviewing respondents about past events that use their own past experiences as cues to remembering. Event history calendars incorporate autobiographical memory retrieval mechanisms to assist respondents in reconstructing past events and experiences accurately and completely. APPROACH: A sample event history calendar and experiences from an ongoing study of adolescent risk behavior are described to illustrate event history calendar methodology application in nursing research. Event history calendar design, recording, interviewing, and interviewer training descriptions are included. DISCUSSION: Event history calendars have been used extensively for retrospective data collection of occurrence, timing, and sequencing of a variety of life events in population studies, psychology, and sociology research, but not in nursing research. Because event history calendars improve recollection of complex sequences of personal events, they would be ideal for retrospective data collection in quantitative and qualitative nursing studies. Nursing expertise in history-taking make this a natural method of choice for retrospective data collection and as a means of stimulating communication during interviewing.

Adult↗