Older Adults and Forgoing Cancer Screening

Although there is a growing recognition that older adults and those with extensive comorbid conditions undergo cancer screening too frequently, there is little information about patients’ perceptions regarding cessation of cancer screening. Information on older adults’ views of screening cessation would be helpful both for clinicians and for those designing interventions to reduce overscreening

Ex post information rents and disclosure in sequential screening

We study ex post information rents in sequential screening models where the agent receives private ex ante and ex post information. The principal has to pay ex post information rents for preventing the agent to coordinate lies about his ex ante and ex post information. When the agent’s ex ante information is discrete, these rents are positive, whereas they are zero in continuous models. Consequently, full disclosure of ex post information is generally suboptimal. Optimal disclosure rules trade off the benefits from adapting the allocation to better information against the effect that more information aggravates truth-telling

Hepatitis B among Pacific Islanders in Southern California: how is health information associated with screening and vaccination?

We measured Hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission knowledge and self-reported screening/testing behavior among Pacific Islanders (Guamanians/Chamorros, Samoans, and Tongans) in Southern California. We also examined access and trust by Pacific Islanders of varying health information sources. We administered and analyzed survey data (N = 297), using a convenience sample in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties in spring 2009. We found that while Pacific Islander respondents reported that they receive health information from physicians, and largely trust this source, information from and trust in physicians were not statistically significant in explaining whether respondents sought HBV screening or vaccination

Patient Understanding of Benefits, Risks, and Alternatives to Screening Colonoscopy

While several tests and strategies are recommended for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, studies suggest that primary care providers often recommend colonoscopy without providing information about its risks or alternatives. These observations raise concerns about the quality of informed consent for screening colonoscopy

Year 1 phonics screening check consultation

"The Government is committed to raising children's achievement in reading, and has expressed the intention to establish a phonics screening check for children in Year 1. This will be a short, light-touch screening check designed to confirm that children have grasped the basics of phonic decoding and to identify those pupils who need extra help at an early stage, so that schools can provide support. The results of the screening check will provide valuable information to parents. The screening check will be part of the arrangements for the statutory assessment of children in respect of the first Key Stage. This consultation seeks views on proposals around the purpose, structure and administration of the screening check" -- front cover

Healthcare Information and the Utilization of Pap-smear Testing amongst Taiwanese Women

This study is to investigate the determinants of healthcare information amongst women in Taiwan aged between 25 and 69 years, and the association with cervical cancer screening.A two-stage estimation model was adopted for this investigation. In the first stage, the determinants of healthcare information were estimated by the OLS method, with the predicted values of the healthcare information then being linked to the decision to undergo Pap-smear testing. The nationwide survey dataset was obtained from the 2002‘Health Promotion of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice' (HPKAP) in Taiwan, provided by the Bureau of Health Promotion. A total of 9,106 individuals were included in the analysis. The results reveal that the variations in the level of healthcare information are an important contributory factor to the utilization of cervical cancer screening in Taiwan. Therefore, in addition to providing free screening under the NHI, it is important for the healthcare authorities to place greater effort into strengthening the knowledge and information on cervical cancer screening and Pap-smear testing, for those who are currently less informed, so as to enhance the overall efficiency of the screening program.Health information; Pap-smear testing; Cervical cancer; National Health Insurance; Taiwan

Conditional Screening for Ultra-high Dimensional Covariates with Survival Outcomes

Identifying important biomarkers that are predictive for cancer patients' prognosis is key in gaining better insights into the biological influences on the disease and has become a critical component of precision medicine. The emergence of large-scale biomedical survival studies, which typically involve excessive number of biomarkers, has brought high demand in designing efficient screening tools for selecting predictive biomarkers. The vast amount of biomarkers defies any existing variable selection methods via regularization. The recently developed variable screening methods, though powerful in many practical setting, fail to incorporate prior information on the importance of each biomarker and are less powerful in detecting marginally weak while jointly important signals. We propose a new conditional screening method for survival outcome data by computing the marginal contribution of each biomarker given priorly known biological information. This is based on the premise that some biomarkers are known to be associated with disease outcomes a priori. Our method possesses sure screening properties and a vanishing false selection rate. The utility of the proposal is further confirmed with extensive simulation studies and analysis of a Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) dataset.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figure