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Journal of Ophthalmology 2022To assess the knowledge and awareness of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy among ophthalmic patients in Madang.
PURPOSE
To assess the knowledge and awareness of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy among ophthalmic patients in Madang.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a hospital-based study conducted at Madang Provincial Hospital Eye Clinic in Papua New Guinea. The study included all patients who visited the facility during the period of the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the patients' demographics and their knowledge and awareness about diabetes and diabetic retinopathy.
RESULTS
A total of 203 (97.6%) patients consented and participated in the study out of 208 patients who were approached. The age of participants ranged from 19 to 78 years with a median (IQR) of 41 (53-29) years. 107 (52.7%) were female participants. A majority of the participants (62.6%) had at least secondary education. A few of the participants (3.9%) had known diabetes, and 134 (66%) had no relatives or friends with diabetes. A total of 145 (71.4%) participants knew that diabetes can affect the eye. Most of the participants (93.6%) checked their eyes only when their vision was affected, 161 (79.3%) agreed that regular eye checks are necessary, and more than half (54.2%) knew that diabetes can lead to blindness. Age, gender, level of education, and whether a participant or participant's friends and relatives had been diagnosed with diabetes were significantly associated with the knowledge and awareness of participants about diabetes and diabetic retinopathy.
CONCLUSION
A majority of the participants had good knowledge of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy. Health education and promotion will also help increase the awareness of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy in the country.
PubMed: 35692965
DOI: 10.1155/2022/7674928 -
JAMA Network Open Oct 2021Ten years after the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, patients continue to report insurance-related barriers to specialty mental health care.
IMPORTANCE
Ten years after the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, patients continue to report insurance-related barriers to specialty mental health care.
OBJECTIVES
To assess privately insured patients' perceptions of the adequacy of their health plan's provider network (provider network includes physicians, clinicians, other health care professionals, and their institutions that constitute the network), whether practitioners frequently leave plans, and whether practitioner plan participation affected patients' plan choice.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A nationally representative, population-based internet survey study of English-speaking US adults participating in KnowledgePanel, an online research panel, was conducted from August to September 2018. Data analysis was performed from November 12, 2020, to May 12, 2021. From a sample of 29 854 panelists aged 18 to 64 years, 19 602 initiated the screener (completion rate of 66%), and 728 met study criteria: adults with private insurance receiving both specialty mental health and medical care in the past year.
EXPOSURE
Health plan's provider network.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Self-report of plan inadequacy, whether a practitioner left the plan and the participant's responses (stopped treatment, switched practitioner, or continued treatment), and whether participation of a specific practitioner was considered when a health plan was chosen. Experiences with both mental health and medical provider networks were assessed. Analyses were weighted to match the sample to the US population. Weights provided by KnowledgePanel were also adjusted for panel recruitment, attrition, oversampling, and survey nonresponse.
RESULTS
Of a total of 728 study participants, 204 (39%) were aged 18 to 34 years, 504 (61%) were women, 82 (17%) were Hispanic, and 551 (66%) were non-Hispanic White individuals. Serious psychological distress was reported by 262 participants (36%), and 214 participants (29%) also received mental health treatment from a primary care practitioner. Participants rated their mental health provider network as inadequate more frequently than their medical provider network (163 [21%] vs 70 [10%]; odds ratio [OR], 2.69; 95% CI, 1.64-4.40; P < .001). However, among the 193 participants also receiving mental health treatment from a primary care practitioner, there was no significant difference in the ratings of mental health and medical provider networks (44 [14%] vs 18 [9%]; OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.65-3.67; P = .32). Sixty participants (8%) reported that a mental health practitioner had left their plan's insurance network in the past 3 years. Of the 523 participants with a choice of plan, 98 (20%) considered whether a specific mental health practitioner was in network before choosing a plan.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
This study's findings suggest that more participants perceived their mental health networks to be inadequate compared with their medical networks. Increasing the availability of mental health treatment in primary care practices may aid plans in constructing adequate mental health provider networks and improve patient access to mental health care.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Insurance, Health; Mental Health; Mental Health Services; Private Sector; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; Young Adult
PubMed: 34677592
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.30770 -
Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and... Dec 2019To find out parental expectations regarding outcomes of unilateral cochlear implantation prior to surgery and experience received by them after cochlear implantation and...
To find out parental expectations regarding outcomes of unilateral cochlear implantation prior to surgery and experience received by them after cochlear implantation and 1 year of regular auditory verbal therapy, with respect to the communication abilities, social skills and participation. Total of 200 parents of hearing impaired children participated in the study. A closed ended questionnaire containing 13 questions were used to collect the data. The participants were instructed to complete all the questions provided based on their expectations and experiences. The descriptive statistics were used to determine the frequency and percentage. Among 200 parents, almost all (95%) of the parents expected to have improvement in all the subscale of communication abilities, social skills and participation. 68.5% of the parents experienced improvement in their child's communication abilities, such as, response to quiet sounds, repetition of words without seeing speaker's face, elimination of use of gestures, easy communication and verbal expression for needs, thoughts and feelings. 76% of the parents experienced improvement in social skills and participations, such as, good relationship with elders, siblings and peers, making friends outside the family, actively participating in the activity done by other children and easily accepted by peers in the classroom. A large number of parents met with their expectations and a small proportion of families were found to be disappointed due to high hopes and unrealistic expectation before implantation, which had adverse effect on the children's performance.
PubMed: 31750101
DOI: 10.1007/s12070-019-01611-3 -
PM & R : the Journal of Injury,... Jun 2023Due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many health/wellness programs transitioned from in-person to virtual. This mixed-methods study aims to explore the...
INTRODUCTION
Due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many health/wellness programs transitioned from in-person to virtual. This mixed-methods study aims to explore the perceptions of older adults with Parkinson disease (PD) regarding in-person versus virtual-based Parkinson-specific exercise classes (PDEx).
OBJECTIVE
Explore experiences, perceptions, and perceived effect of participating in and transitioning from in-person to virtual PDEx in people with Parkinson disease (PwPD).
DESIGN
Cross-sectional mixed-methods design using an online survey and focus groups.
SETTING
PwPD who participated in an in-person and virtual PDEx (n = 26) were recruited to participate and completed online surveys and focus groups from their home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PARTICIPANTS
PwPD who participated in an in-person and virtual PDEx and agreed to participate completed an online survey (n = 16; male = 8; mean age = 74 years) and focus groups (n = 9; male = 4; mean age = 75 years).
INTERVENTIONS
N/A MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants completed survey questions and participated in focus groups regarding their perceptions, attitudes, and perceived changes in PD-related symptoms since participating in the PDEx, as well as barriers and facilitators to participating in virtual PDEx.
RESULTS
Participants felt PDEx was somewhat to very safe and beneficial. In the computer, comfort, and perceptions survey, participants reported perceived improved mobility (63%), balance (75%), and overall health (63%) since participating the PDEx, whereas some participants reported improved mental health (38%). Participants reported minimal difficulty with accessing virtual PDEx. Most participants stated that they would prefer to participate in a combination of in-person and virtual programming. Focus-group participants emphasized that virtual PDEx provided social and emotional support and improved confidence to perform and maintain an exercise regimen.
CONCLUSION
PwPD who transitioned from an in-person to a virtual PDEx felt the program was safe, effective, and improved or prevented declines in their mobility and balance. PwPD who transitioned to a virtual PDEx also reported benefits in non-motor symptoms such as social isolation.
Topics: Humans; Male; Aged; COVID-19; Parkinson Disease; Pandemics; Cross-Sectional Studies; Physical Therapy Modalities
PubMed: 35596118
DOI: 10.1002/pmrj.12848 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Apr 2021The increasing popularity of smartphones and location-based service (LBS) has brought us a new experience of mobile crowdsourcing marked by the characteristics of...
The increasing popularity of smartphones and location-based service (LBS) has brought us a new experience of mobile crowdsourcing marked by the characteristics of network-interconnection and information-sharing. However, these mobile crowdsourcing applications suffer from various inferential attacks based on mobile behavioral factors, such as location semantic, spatiotemporal correlation, etc. Unfortunately, most of the existing techniques protect the participant's location-privacy according to actual trajectories. Once the protection fails, data leakage will directly threaten the participant's location-related private information. It open the issue of participating in mobile crowdsourcing service without actual locations. In this paper, we propose a mobility-aware trajectory-prediction solution, TMarkov, for achieving privacy-preserving mobile crowdsourcing. Specifically, we introduce a time-partitioning concept into the Markov model to overcome its traditional limitations. A new transfer model is constructed to record the mobile user's time-varying behavioral patterns. Then, an unbiased estimation is conducted according to Gibbs Sampling method, because of the data incompleteness. Finally, we have the TMarkov model which characterizes the participant's dynamic mobile behaviors. With TMarkov in place, a mobility-aware spatiotemporal trajectory is predicted for the mobile user to participate in the crowdsourcing application. Extensive experiments with real-world dataset demonstrate that TMarkov well balances the trade-off between privacy preservation and data usability.
PubMed: 33918353
DOI: 10.3390/s21072474 -
Innovation in Aging 2020The Diabetes Self-Management Program (DSMP) and (PMPD) have been shown to reduce complications from poorly controlled diabetes. Only a few research studies have...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The Diabetes Self-Management Program (DSMP) and (PMPD) have been shown to reduce complications from poorly controlled diabetes. Only a few research studies have examined Latino individuals' participation in them. This study examines workshop completion among DSMP and PMPD participants and the effects of race/ethnicity, workshop language, workshop type, and workshop site on program completion rates by participants.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We used data from the National Council on Aging's data repository of individuals who participated in DSMP or PMPD between January 2010 and March 2019. Using a pooled cross-sectional study design, we examined workshop completion among 8,321 Latino and 23,537 non-Latino white (NLW) participants. We utilized linear probability models to estimate the effects of race/ethnicity and workshop language/type among the full sample; a stratified model estimated the separate effects of workshop language, type, and delivery site among Latinos. Participant characteristics included age, sex, education, number of chronic health conditions, living arrangement, health insurance status, and geographic location of workshop.
RESULTS
Compared to NLW participants in DSMP English workshops, Latinos enrolled in any workshop had a higher probability of completing at least four workshop sessions, and Latinos enrolled in PMPD Spanish workshops had a higher probability of completing six of six sessions. Among the Latino subsample, participation in PMPD Spanish or English workshops was associated with completing at least four sessions or all six sessions compared with participation in DSMP Spanish or English workshops. Among Latino participants, the effects of workshop site on completion rates were mixed.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Diabetes self-management education programs tailored for Latino participants had higher completion rates. Further research is warranted to better understand the effect of workshop site and participant characteristics on completion of DSMP and PMPD programs.
PubMed: 32206733
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igaa006 -
Gaceta Sanitaria Oct 2018Participation is a process that requires the involvement of the policy makers, managers, technicians and staff of the institutions, and of citizens, as well as...
Participation is a process that requires the involvement of the policy makers, managers, technicians and staff of the institutions, and of citizens, as well as intersectoral and interdisciplinary action. To generate transformative changes, an infrastructure that encourages participation and planned action is required, and that recognises all the actors in the process. It takes time and commitment to ensure continuity through the joint production of actions, hence the importance of consolidating participatory projects that continue beyond political changes making public services sustainable. Training, the appropriate use of participation tools and a horizontal policy of delegated power are essential to ensure participation. Surveys, sociograms, flowcharts, health assets mapping, participatory budgets and participatory evaluation matrices are some of the tools that can be chosen, depending on the type of subjects addressed, the time and resources available, the characteristics of the participating population and territory, as well as determining the use that will be made of the information generated for the next phase. Participation tools are useful for citizens and professionals to analyze, understand, debate and decide collectively how to improve living conditions and environments. Over the past decade, social networks in the virtual environment have generated new trends in mass participation, which are self-managed by citizens.
Topics: Community Participation; Humans; Models, Organizational; Research Report; Societies, Medical; Spain
PubMed: 30274747
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2018.06.008 -
BMC Medical Research Methodology Oct 2023Participants in epidemiological cohorts may not be representative of the full invited population, limiting the generalizability of prevalence and incidence estimates. We...
Can non-participants in a follow-up be used to draw conclusions about incidences and prevalences in the full population invited at baseline? An investigation based on the Swedish MDC cohort.
BACKGROUND
Participants in epidemiological cohorts may not be representative of the full invited population, limiting the generalizability of prevalence and incidence estimates. We propose that this problem can be remedied by exploiting data on baseline participants who refused to participate in a re-examination, as such participants may be more similar to baseline non-participants than what baseline participants who agree to participate in the re-examination are.
METHODS
We compared background characteristics, mortality, and disease incidences across the full population invited to the Malmö Diet and Cancer (MDC) study, the baseline participants, the baseline non-participants, the baseline participants who participated in a re-examination, and the baseline participants who did not participate in the re-examination. We then considered two models for estimating characteristics and outcomes in the full population: one ("the substitution model") assuming that the baseline non-participants were similar to the baseline participants who refused to participate in the re-examination, and one ("the extrapolation model") assuming that differences between the full group of baseline participants and the baseline participants who participated in the re-examination could be extended to infer results in the full population. Finally, we compared prevalences of baseline risk factors including smoking, risky drinking, overweight, and obesity across baseline participants, baseline participants who participated in the re-examination, and baseline participants who did not participate in the re-examination, and used the above models to estimate the prevalences of these factors in the full invited population.
RESULTS
Compared to baseline non-participants, baseline participants were less likely to be immigrants, had higher socioeconomic status, and lower mortality and disease incidences. Baseline participants not participating in the re-examination generally resembled the full population. The extrapolation model often generated characteristics and incidences even more similar to the full population. The prevalences of risk factors, particularly smoking, were estimated to be substantially higher in the full population than among the baseline participants.
CONCLUSIONS
Participants in epidemiological cohorts such as the MDC study are unlikely to be representative of the full invited population. Exploiting data on baseline participants who did not participate in a re-examination can be a simple and useful way to improve the generalizability of prevalence and incidence estimates.
Topics: Humans; Incidence; Prevalence; Follow-Up Studies; Sweden; Obesity
PubMed: 37821822
DOI: 10.1186/s12874-023-02053-w -
Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal =... May 2020Clinical trials are important to improve public health care. However, recruiting participants for trials can be difficult.
BACKGROUND
Clinical trials are important to improve public health care. However, recruiting participants for trials can be difficult.
AIMS
This study assessed public knowledge of and willingness to participate in clinical trials in Jordan and examine the sociodemographic characteristics associated with knowledge and willingness and the reasons behind unwillingness to participate.
METHODS
The questions were part of a representative, population-based survey in 2011 that included 3196 Jordanian individuals. In a home-based interview, participants were asked about: sociodemographic characteristics, and knowledge of and participation in clinical trials.
RESULTS
Only 21.8% of respondents knew what a clinical trial was and (1.2%) had participated in a trial. About 25% of respondents indicated their willingness to enrol in a trial. Significantly more men (24.1%) than women (19.3%) knew what clinical trials were (P < 0.001), whereas more women (4.3%) than men (2.9%) said they would be very likely to agree to participate in trials. People aged 40-49 years had better knowledge of and greater willingness to participate in trials than other age groups. Income was positively associated with knowledge of trials but negatively associated with willingness to participate. Higher education was positively correlated with knowledge of and willingness to take part in trials. The main reasons for not participating in trials were concern about the risk to own health (61.1%) and not being convinced about the outcome and benefits of clinical trials (29.7%).
CONCLUSION
The low level of knowledge of and willingness to participate in clinical trials indicates that strategies are needed to educate the public about the nature and importance of clinical trials.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Attitude to Health; Clinical Trials as Topic; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Jordan; Male; Middle Aged; Research Subjects; Sex Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
PubMed: 32538447
DOI: 10.26719/2020.26.5.539