The relationship between consumer attitudes and frequency of advertising in newspapers for hospitals.
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OBJECTIVES: This article presents survey data about the health and behavioral characteristics of a randomly selected sample of 629 adults with mental retardation (MR) living in Massachusetts in 2000. The goals of this analysis were to: describe the health, behavioral, and functional characteristics of the sample; examine relationships between consumer health, behavior problems, and functioning; and analyze variations in health and behavior problems by type of residential setting (parent/relative home, community residence, or institutional setting). METHODS: The authors analyzed data obtained from interviews with proxies (relatives, guardians, advocates, or program staff) on behalf of consumers and from state agency records. Chi-square analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between health, behavioral, and functional characteristics of consumers and differences in health and behaviors by type of residence. RESULTS: More than 80% of consumers were reported to have either "excellent" or "good" health. Overall health status did not significantly vary by residential type, but was significantly related to the presence of additional disabilities and some functional limitations. Several health and behavioral measures varied significantly by residential type: recent physical, dental, and ob/gyn exams; medication usage; problem behaviors; and functional level. CONCLUSIONS: As large numbers of individuals with MR reach adulthood and old age, public health and medical professionals face the challenges of addressing the health and behavioral needs of this population, preventing secondary health conditions, and improving environmental conditions that may influence health and mental health.
Health claims for foods are permitted in an increasing number of countries, but there are very few studies evaluating their effect on purchase behavior and consumer health. There are significant differences between countries but, in general, consumers see health claims as useful; they prefer short, succinct wording rather than long and complex claims; and they believe that claims should be approved by the government. Consumers view a food as healthier if it carries a health claim and this "halo" effect may discourage them from seeking further nutrition information. Consumers do not clearly distinguish between nutrient content, structure-function, and health claims. There is some evidence that the use of health claims improves the quality of dietary choices and knowledge of diet-disease relationships.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the experience of enrollees in a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP). DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Survey of University of Minnesota employees regarding their 2002 health benefits. STUDY DESIGN: Comparison of regression-adjusted mean values for CDHP and other plan enrollees: customer service, plan paperwork, overall satisfaction, and plan switching. For CDHP enrollees only, use of plan features, willingness to recommend the plan to others, and reports of particularly negative or positive experiences. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: There were significant differences in experiences of CDHP enrollees versus enrollees in other plans with customer service and paperwork, but similar levels of satisfaction (on a 10-point scale) with health plans. Eight percent of CDHP enrollees left their plan after one year, compared to 5 percent of enrollees leaving other plans. A minority of CDHP enrollees used online plan features, but enrollees generally were satisfied with the amount and quality of the information provided by the CDHP. Almost half reported a particularly positive experience, compared to a quarter reporting a particularly negative experience. Thirty percent said they would recommend the plan to others, while an additional 57 percent said they would recommend it depending on the situation. CONCLUSIONS: Much more work is needed to determine how consumer experience varies with the number and type of plan options available, the design of the CDHP, and the length of time in the CDHP. Research also is needed on the factors that affect consumer decisions to leave CDHPs.
Two factors are driving a new wave of medical products. The first is the use of technology to make products "intelligent"--that is, build them not only to measure a particular parameter, like blood glucose, but to help patients and caregivers manage conditions. This allows the users of these products focus less on the technical aspects of treating a condition (e.g. calculating the proper amount of insulin to treat a given level of blood glucose) and more on the overall management of the disease. The second development is the rapid movement of devices from the doctor's office to the home. Chain drug stores carry dozens of medical devices for home use by consumers. The challenge for manufacturers and designers is to present the medical device's intelligence in a way that is palatable to the consumer. One important theme is that medical product consumers are also consumers of everything else: home electronics, appliances, clothing, etc. These consumers are applying the same decision-making processes they use when buying a blender to the process of buying a medical device. It is therefore necessary for medical product manufacturers to create devices that interact with consumers in consumer-friendly ways. Putting intelligence into a product is one thing; helping the consumer utilize and appreciate it is quite another. This chapter covers some principles to keep in mind, and discusses a framework for better design of intelligent medical products that connect with consumers on emotional and functional levels beyond simple medical efficacy.
Economic evaluations generally fail to incorporate elements of intangible costs and benefits, such as anxiety and discomfort associated with the screening test and diagnostic test, as well as the magnitude of utility associated with a reduction in the risk of dying from cancer. In the present analysis, 750 respondents were interviewed and asked to rank, according to priority, a number of alternative screening programme set-ups. Focus was on colorectal cancer screening and breast cancer screening. The alternative programmes varied with respect to number of tests performed, risk reduction obtained, probability of a false positive outcome and extent of co-payment. Stated preferences were analysed using discrete ranking modelling and the relative weighting of the programme attributes identified. Applying discrete choice methods to elicit preferences within this area of health care seems justified by the face validity of the results. The signs of the coefficients are in accordance with a priori hypotheses. This paper suggests that large-scale surveys focusing on individuals' preferences for cancer screening programmes may contribute significantly to the quality of economic evaluations within this field of health care.
This paper discusses different design techniques for stated preference surveys in health economic applications. In particular, we focus on different design techniques, i.e. how to combine the attribute levels into alternatives and choice sets, for choice experiments. Design is a vital issue in choice experiments since the combination of alternatives in the choice sets will determine the degree of precision obtainable from the estimates and welfare measures. In this paper we compare orthogonal, cyclical and D-optimal designs, where the latter allows expectations about the true parameters to be included when creating the design. Moreover, we discuss how to obtain prior information on the parameters and how to conduct a sequential design procedure during the actual experiment in order to improve the precision in the estimates. The designs are evaluated according to their ability to predict the true marginal willingness to pay under different specifications of the utility function in Monte Carlo simulations. Our results suggest that the designs produce unbiased estimations, but orthogonal designs result in larger mean square error in comparison to D-optimal designs. This result is expected when using correct priors on the parameters in D-optimal designs. However, the simulations show that welfare measures are not very sensitive if the choice sets are generated from a D-optimal design with biased priors.
The effectiveness of a parent training program for promoting positive parent-child relationships was examined among families of 2-year-olds. Forty-six mothers and fathers and their toddlers were assigned to either an intervention or comparison group. Intervention group parents participated in a 10-week program that focused on principles for effectively interacting with their toddlers. Parents completed measures of parenting self-efficacy, depression, stress, and perceptions of their toddler's behaviors and were videotaped playing with their toddlers preintervention, postintervention, and 3 months following the intervention. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that the parent training program led to significant increases in maternal self-efficacy, decreases in maternal stress, and improvements in the quality of mother-toddler interactions. No significant effects were found among fathers. Explanations for obtaining different outcomes for mothers and fathers are discussed and directions for future research are recommended.
The objective of our asthma management program is to optimize the disease management and the quality of life of children and adolescents with asthma. An improvement in coping with asthma should be achieved by teaching theoretical aspects and practical skills. The training is performed in small groups of children and adolescents of similar age, going for 10 sessions each lasting 90 minutes. Additionally, in 1999 and 2000, the program was also offered as a two-week workshop in the summer holidays. The goal of this study was the assessment of parental satisfaction with the outpatient asthma management program for children and adolescents. We developed a short questionnaire and assessed the following aspects: general parental satisfaction with the training, judgement of the children's knowledge about asthma, coping skills and recommendation of the training. All parents (n = 138) whose children/adolescents attended the training between 1999 and 2002 were invited to take part in this study. 106 parents (76.8%) returned the questionnaire. The results showed that most parents (95%) were highly satisfied with this asthma management program. They equally positively rated their children's coping skills (87% classified them as "much better") and their knowledge (96% rated it as "very good" resp. "good") about asthma after the training. Almost all parents (97%) recommended our program. The results were very helpful for planning the recently started, prospective case-control study on outcome evaluation of this program.
A frequent problem encountered in the evaluation of medical services is that patients intertwine or confound perceptions of technical medical skills (competence) with those of interpersonal and communication skills (courtesy). The present study investigated the extent to which competence and courtesy influenced enacted patient perceptions of medical care; as well as how those perceptions related to satisfaction and compliance with the care delivered. Small groups of undergraduates viewed one of four videotapes on which were depicted a physician-patient interaction for a sore throat problem. Differential levels of competence and courtesy were displayed in the various tapes. While watching the videotape, subjects were asked to assume the role of the sore throat patient. Factor analysis of semantic differential items administered subsequent to the videotapes revealed the presence of two strong and distinct clusters, one labeled courtesy and the other competence. Univariate ANOVAs indicated that the courtesy manipulation influenced the perception of courtesy and general medical satisfaction, while the competence manipulation influenced not only perceived competence but perceived courtesy, general medical satisfaction, and compliance as well. Subjects were able to accurately discriminate the extremes of good and poor physician behavior. The limitations of the study as well as its implications for developing better understanding of how perceptions of health care providers are formed were explored.
Traditional approaches to curing patients with chronic benign pain have had only limited success. Rehabilitation becomes therefore more important and in recent years management programs have been developed to achieve this goal. This study was based on the hypothesis that a program can be more effective with its structure according to the comments of patients with respect to the various components of the program. After testing this hypothesis we conclude that such subjective evaluation of treatment is an important factor which merits receiving more attention than previous work has suggested.
In this study the frequency of chewing behavior in a 6-year-old male diagnosed with pica was reduced using a simplified habit reversal procedure. Data were collected on the frequency of chewing behavior, treatment acceptability, parent satisfaction, and social validity of the behavior change. This study represents the first known application of the habit reversal procedure to treat pica-related chewing in a normally intelligent child.
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A post-operative survey of 291 children was conducted to assess morbidity found at home in the first five days post-tonsillectomy. Analgesic requirement (92.4 per cent), signs of distress (90.4 per cent), otalgia (69.1 per cent), halitosis (66.7 per cent) were common. Physical or behavioural changes (36.8 per cent) and secondary haemorrhage (8.9 per cent) were also prominent features. Nausea was reported in 59 children (20.3 per cent) and delayed return to a normal diet which in turn predisposed to secondary haemorrhage. Return to normal diet was independent of pain. General Practitioners were consulted by 60.6 per cent and more than half were prescribed drugs. The presence of an organized clot in the tonsillar fossa (3.45 per cent) post-operatively did not delay discharge from hospital and none of these patients re-presented with secondary haemorrhage. Based on their child's experience in this study, only one third of the parents approved of day-case tonsillectomy in principle, a finding which has implications for the instigation of day-case tonsillectomy procedures.
OBJECTIVE: The curriculum of a group for parents of children with ADHD and its evaluation by the participants are presented. METHOD: A questionnaire was sent to the participants and answered anonymously. RESULTS: With a response rate of 59 %, mainly positive ratings were obtained. Information on the nature of the disorder, on behavioural strategies and the mutual exchange with other parents and the therapists were considered especially helpful. CONCLUSIONS: Information on ADHD, behavioural interventions and the exchange among co-parents contribute substantially to the success of a parent training group.
Counselling and psychological therapy is now an established part of health care in most AIDS settings, yet intervention has thus far tended to focus on the individual. It is argued that there is a need for greater development of therapy for couples in the AIDS field, based on the results of a pilot study of cognitive-behavioural couples therapy with 10 couples referred to a clinical psychologist working in an AIDS setting. Results suggest that satisfaction with the relationship significantly improved over the course of therapy, and the problem for which the clients were initially referred were resolved. One individual case report of a couple is presented, in order to illustrate the method of therapy used. The limitations in this pilot study, in addition to general problems in carrying out research in this area, which make generalisations from the data difficult, are discussed. It is concluded that there is preliminary evidence to illustrate the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural couples therapy for gay couples in an AIDS setting, and that counselling interventions should not solely focus on the individual.
We examined whether timeline icons improved older and younger adults' comprehension of medication information. In Experiment 1, comprehension of instructions with the icon (icon/text format) and without the icon (text-only format) was assessed by questions about information that was (a) implicit in the text but depicted explicitly by the icon (total dose in a 24 hour period), (b) stated and depicted in the icon/text condition (medication dose and times), and (c) stated but not depicted by the icon (e.g., side effects). In a separate task, participants also recalled medication instructions (with or without the icon) after a study period. We found that questions about dose and time information were answered more quickly and accurately when the icon was present in the instructions. Notably, icon benefits were greater for information that was implicit rather than stated in the text. This finding suggests that icons can improve older and younger adults' comprehension by reducing the need to draw some inferences. The icon also reduced effective study time (study time per item recalled). In Experiment 2, icon benefits did not occur for a less integrated version of the timeline icon that, like the text, required participants to integrate dose and time information in order to identify the total daily dose. The integrated version of the icon again improved comprehension, as in Experiment 1, as well as drawing inferences from memory. These findings show that integrated timeline icons improved comprehension primarily by aiding the integration of dose and time information. These findings are discussed in terms of a situation model approach to comprehension.