Prevalence and predictors of medication non-adherence in some common non-communicable chronic diseases and cancers: a comparative study

Background: Adherence is a key factor in the success of all pharmacological therapies. Medication non-adherence is an extremely common barrier to achieve positive health outcomes. The present study aims to compare medication non-adherence in some common chronic diseases and cancers and also to assess various factors influencing it.Methods: Pre-validated questionnaires based on general medication adherence scale (GMAS) were equally distributed among 300 patients suffering from chronic illnesses and cancers. 270 patients returned completely filled questionnaires.Results: The study population consists of 53.33% men and 46.66% women.55.55% patients were literate. 70.37% of patients were from rural areas. 61.48% were taking 2-4 drugs. As compared to 14.81% males 18.51% of females had poor or low adherence. Only 0.74% of young patients (<30 years) had poor/low adherence as compared to 16.29% each in other age groups. Rural patients had poor adherence as compared to patients from urban areas. As compared to 31.85% illiterate patients, only 16.29% of literate patients had poor or low adherence. Adherence was better in patients taking more than one drug. Statistically, a significant correlation was found between gender, age, level of education, and area of residence. Duration of treatment, the number of drugs, and the frequency of dosage were not found significantly correlated with adherence. Patients suffering from malignancies had higher medication adherence as compared to chronic illnesses.Conclusions: Medication non-adherence is common in patients with chronic diseases and cancers that are treated with unsupervised oral antineoplastic drugs. The complex problem of non-adherence calls for interventions at various levels

Correlations and Event-by-Event Fluctuations in High Multiplicity Events Produced in 208^{208}Pb-208^{208}Pb Collisions

Analysis of high multiplicity events produced in 158A GeV/c $^{208}$Pb-$^{208}$Pb collisions is carried out to study the event-by-event fluctuations. The findings reveal that the method of scaled factorial moments can be used to identify the events having densely populated narrow phase space bins. A few events sorted out adopting this approach are individually analyzed. It is observed that these events do exhibit large fluctuations in their pseudorapidity, $\eta$ and azimuthal angle, $\phi$ distributions arising out due to some dynamical reasons. Two particle $\Delta\eta$-$\Delta\phi$ correlation study applied to these events too indicates that some complex two-dimensional structure of significantly high magnitude are present in these events which might have some dynamical origin. The findings reveal that the method of scaled factorial moments may be used as an effective triggering for events with large dynamical fluctuations.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures (Accepted for publication in Advances in High Energy Physics

Who is More Free? A Comparison of the Decision-Making of Private and Public School Principals

While an abundance of school choice literature focuses on student achievement outcomes, little has been done to determine the mechanisms involved in producing such outcomes. We present a comparative analysis of private and public school principals using data from the School and Staffing Survey (SASS) 2011-2012. We add to the literature by examining the differences in private and public school principals’ abilities to influence important decisions at their schools. We conclude that private schooling may have a systematic advantage over public schooling since private school leadership exhibits more autonomy in influencing relevant decisions

Private Schooling Promotes Political and Economic Freedom? An International Fixed Effects Instrumental Variables Analysis

Additional private schooling within a nation-state may increase citizens’ political and economic freedom through increased educational quality, balanced power relationships, and increased civic engagement. We employ a two-stage-least-squares time and country-level fixed-effects analytical technique to examine how private schooling could affect political rights, civil liberties and economic freedom indices. We also use a new instrumental variable, short-run fluctuations in the demand for schooling, to predict private schooling. We examine 174 different nations across the globe from 1999 to 2014, and find significant evidence to suggest that private schooling leads to enhanced political and economic freedom. In particular, our preferred model finds that a ten percentage point increase in private share of schooling enrollment within a nation, over time, is associated with a 7.4% of a standard deviation increase in the Political Rights Index and an 8% of a standard deviation increase in the Economic Freedom of the World Index

Event by Event Analysis of High Multiplicity Events Produced in 158 A GeV/c 208 Pb- 208 Pb Collisions

An extensive analysis of individual high multiplicity events produced in 158 A GeV /c 208Pb- 208Pb collisions is carried by adopting different methods to examine the anomalous behavior of these rare events. A method of selecting the events with densely populated narrow regions or spikes out of a given sample of collision events is discussed.Employing this approach two events with large spikes in their eta- and phi- distributions are selected for further analysis. For the sake of comparison, another two events which do not exhibit such spikes are simultaneously analyzed. The findings suggest that the systematic studies of particle density fluctuations in one- and two-dimensional phase-spaces and comparison with those obtained from the studies of correlation free Monte Carlo events, would be useful for identifying the events with large dynamical fluctuations. Formation of clusters or jet like phenomena in multihadronic final states in individual events is also discussed and the experimental findings are compared with the independent particle emission hypothesis by carrying out Monte Carlo simulations

Identifying Feasible Physical Activity Programs for Long-Term Care Homes in the Ontario Context

Background Structured exercise programs for frail institutionalized seniors have shown improvement in physical, functional, and psychological health of this population. However, the ‘feasibility’ of implementation of such programs in real settings is seldom discussed. The purpose of this systematic review was to gauge feasibility of exercise and falls prevention programs from the perspective of long-term care homes in Ontario, given the recent changes in funding for publically funded physiotherapy services. Method Six electronic databases were searched by two independent researchers for randomized controlled trials that targeted longterm care residents and included exercise as an independent component of the intervention. Results A total of 39 studies were included in this review. A majority of these interventions were led by physiotherapist(s), carried out three times per week for 30–45 minutes per session. However, a few group-based interventions that were led by long-term care staff, volunteers, or trained non-exercise specialists were identified that also required minimal equipment. Conclusion This systematic review has identified ‘feasible’ physical activity and falls prevention programs that required minimal investment in staff and equipment, and demonstrated positive outcomes. Implementation of such programs represents cost-effective means of providing long-term care residents with meaningful gains in physical, psychological, and social health