Misinformed About the Affordable Care Act? Leveraging Certainty to Assess the Prevalence of Misperceptions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112231/1/jcom12165.pd

Order Effects of Ballot Position without Information-Induced Confirmatory Bias

Candidate list positions have been shown to influence decision making when voters have limited candidate information (e.g. Miller and Krosnick, 1998; Brockington, 2003). Here, a primacy advantage is observed due to a greater number of positive arguments generated for early list candidates (Krosnick, 1991). The present study examined list position effects when an absence of information precludes such a confirmatory bias heuristic. We report the first large scale low-information experimental election where candidate position is fully counterbalanced. Seven hundred and twenty participants voted in a mock election where the position of 6 fictitious and meaningless parties was counterbalanced across the electorate. Analysis by position revealed that significantly fewer votes were allocated to the terminal parties (Experiment 1). In addition, Experiment 1 reported preliminary evidence of an alphabetical bias (consistent with Bagley, 1966). However, this positional bias was not present in a methodological replication using six genuine UK political parties (Experiment 2). This suggests that in situations of pure guessing, the heuristic shifts from the primacy benefiting confirmatory bias to an alternative heuristic that prejudices the first and last parties. These findings suggest that whilst the UK general electoral process may be largely immune to positional prejudice, English local elections (in which there can be multiple candidates from the same party) and multiple preference ranking systems (Scottish Local Government and London Mayoral Elections) could be susceptible to both positional and alphabetical biases

Racial Attitudes Predicted Changes in Ostensibly Race‐Neutral Political Attitudes Under the Obama Administration

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136427/1/pops12315_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136427/2/pops12315.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136427/3/pops12315-sup-0001-suppinfo01.pd

Durability of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair in patients with connective tissue disorders

AbstractObjective: Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair is a durable procedure performed with reasonable perioperative mortality and morbidity in patients with atherosclerotic aortic disease. However, the long-term outcome and durability of TAAA repair performed in patients with a connective tissue disorder (CTD) is not well known. Methods: The records of 257 patients who underwent TAAA repair at the Johns Hopkins Hospital between January 1992 and December 2001 were reviewed. Survival analysis was performed with Kaplan-Meier analysis, and subgroups were compared with the log-rank test. Multivariable analysis was performed with the Cox proportional hazards model and logistic regression. Results: Patients with CTD (n = 31) were seen earlier (mean age, 48.6 ± 2.9 years) than patients without CTD (mean age, 69.1 ± 0.6 years; P < .0001, Mann-Whitney U test) and had a greater incidence rate of aortic dissection (52% versus 19%; P < .0001, χ2 test) and extent I or II aneurysm (77% versus 64%; P = .04). The perioperative (30-day) mortality rate was 6.5% in patients with CTD, which was similar to the rest of the cohort (P = .39, Fisher exact test). The incidence rate of paraparesis/paraplegia was 12.9%/6.5% in patients with CTD, and CTD was the only factor predictive of paraparesis (P = .03; odds ratio, 9.3; logistic regression). The cumulative survival rate among the entire cohort was 53.4% ± 4.4% at 5 years (Kaplan-Meier), and no difference was seen among patients with or without CTD (P = .16, log-rank test) or among different Crawford extents (P = .29). Of the two late (>6 months) deaths in patients with CTD, none were from aortic rupture or dissection, compared with two of 31 late deaths in patients without CTD. Multivariable analysis confirmed that postoperative renal failure (P = .03) predicted mortality but neither CTD (P = .93), nor Crawford extent (P = .21, Cox regression) predicted mortality. Among survivors, no mean difference was found in largest aortic diameter on follow-up imaging in patients with or without CTD (4.7 ± 0.3 cm versus 4.4 ± 0.3 cm; P = .47, Mann-Whitney U test). The cumulative graft patency rate, representing long-term graft stability and with death, rupture, dissection, or recurrent aneurysm as endpoints, was 47.5% ± 4.6% at 5 years (Kaplan-Meier) and was similar in patients with or without CTD (P = .10, log-rank test). Conclusion: TAAA repair appears to be a durable operation, with a reasonable 5-year patient survival rate and a low risk of postoperative paraplegia or additional aortic events. Patients with CTD can expect their outcome, including long-term survival and aortic stability, to be similar to patients without CTD. (J Vasc Surg 2002;36:696-703.

Feeding practices of pre-school children and associated factors in Kathmandu, Nepal

Background: In developing countries such as Nepal, many children aged below 3 years do not grow at a sufficiently high rate and are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies (e.g. vitamin A). Challenges to child nutrition can result from poverty, unhealthy traditional practices, inadequate caring and feeding practices. The present study aimed to assess the feeding prac- tices of pre-school children and their associated factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in pre-schools located in Kathmandu district between February and March 2018. Three levels in terms of price range (lower, medium and higher level) of pre-schools were selected to reach the mothers of children aged ≤3 years. A structured ques- tionnaire was administered to 145 mothers. Descriptive analyses were con- ducted to observe the characteristics of the population. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the association for the factors of mothers’ perception of their current feeding practices. Results: We found that dal-bhat/jaulo was a common complementary food irrespective of socio-economic background. Interestingly, mothers who had received a higher education were significantly less likely to change their feeding practices (odds ratio = 0.118, confidence interval = 0.01–0.94). The mothers that fed a higher quantity porridge to their children showed a high willingness to change the feeding practices. Conclusions: Poor feeding practices are still an important public health problem in Nepal and were observed to be associated with low socio-eco- nomic status, unawareness and a lack of knowledge towards dietary diversity combined with strong beliefs related to social forces and cultures

Forming Judgments of Attitude Certainty, Intensity, and Importance: The Role of Subjective Experiences

Two studies examined the impact of subjective experiences on reports of attitude certainty, intensity, and importance. In Study 1, participants with moderate or extreme attitudes toward doctor-assisted suicide generated three (easy) or seven (hard) arguments that either supported or countered their opinion toward the issue prior to indicating the strength of their attitude. Participants with moderate attitudes rated their opinions as more intense, personally important, and held with greater certainty when they had generated either a small number of supporting arguments or a large number of opposing arguments. Ratings provided by individuals with extreme attitudes were unaffected by the argument generation task. In Study 2, the impact of ease of recall on strength-related judgments was eliminated when it was rendered nondiagnostic by a misattribution manipulation. Implications of these findings for attitude strength and other judgmental phenomena are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68385/2/10.1177_0146167299025007001.pd

Testing message framing to increase physical activity among British South Asians

Objective: British South Asians (BSAs) experience a higher incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) which is not declining in line with the UK national average. Low physical activity levels are likely to contribute to this elevated risk. This study investigated the effectiveness of message framing, cultural sensitivity and their interaction on promoting physical activity among BSAs. Design: One hundred and seventy-nine participants (70 males and 109 females) were randomly allocated to watch one of four films in a 2 (loss vs. gain) × 2 (culturally sensitive vs. non-culturally sensitive) design. Main outcome measures: Measures of self-reported physical activity and behavioural intention were completed at baseline and two-month follow-up. Results: The analysis revealed no main effects for message framing, cultural sensitivity or for the interaction between these factors for self-reported physical activity and behavioural intention. Conclusions: Healthy BSAs appear not to respond to health promotion messages which have been manipulated by message framing or cultural sensitivity. Possible explanations are that despite an increased risk of developing CHD, healthy BSAs may be unwilling to engage in immediate action for a potential future health problem and cultural sensitivity may be irrelevant to a ‘Westernised’ sample. Nevertheless, future research ought to investigate variations of the current intervention by using a larger sample size, targeting a more sedentary population, varying the length and exposure to the intervention in less assimilated groups, clinically symptomatic populations or those at high risk of CHD

Model-based estimates of the finite population mean for two-stage cluster samples with unit non-response

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74917/1/j.1467-9876.2007.00566.x.pd

Why do white Americans oppose race-targeted policies? Clarifying the impact of symbolic racism

Measures of symbolic racism (SR) have often been used to tap racial prejudice towar