Traditional versus facebook-based surveys: Evaluation of biases in self-reported demographic and psychometric information

Background: Social media in scientific research offers a unique digital observatory of human behaviours and hence great opportunities to conduct research at large scale, answering complex sociodemographic questions. We focus on the identification and assessment of biases in social-media-administered surveys.Objective: This study aims to shed light on population, self-selection, and behavioural biases, empirically comparing the consistency between self-reported information collected traditionally versus social-media-administered questionnaires, including demographic and psychometric attributes.Methods: We engaged a demographically representative cohort of young adults in Italy (approximately 4,000 participants) in taking a traditionally administered online survey and then, after one year, we invited them to use our ad hoc Facebook application (988 accepted) where they filled in part of the initial survey. We assess the statistically significant differences indicating population, self-selection, and behavioural biases due to the different context in which the questionnaire is administered.Results: Our findings suggest that surveys administered on Facebook do not exhibit major biases with respect to traditionally administered surveys in terms of neither demographics nor personality traits. Loyalty, authority, and social binding values were higher in the Facebook platform, probably due to the platform?s intrinsic social character.Conclusions: We conclude that Facebook apps are valid research tools for administering demographic and psychometric surveys, provided that the entailed biases are taken into consideration.Contribution: We contribute to the characterisation of Facebook apps as a valid scientific tool to administer demographic and psychometric surveys, and to the assessment of population, self-selection, and behavioural biases in the collected data.Fil: Kalimeri, Kyriaki. Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation; ItaliaFil: Beiro, Mariano Gastón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long"; ArgentinaFil: Bonanomi, Andrea. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; ItaliaFil: Rosina, Alessandro. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; ItaliaFil: Cattuto, Ciro. Isi Foundation; Itali

A European Mixed Methods Comparative Study on NEETs and Their Perceived Environmental Responsibility

This study explores whether young people\u2019s propensity to take responsibility for the environment\u2014and, consequently, to make pro-environment consumption choices\u2014is negatively affected by living in a condition of social exclusion, such that of NEETs (i.e., Not in Education, Employment or Training). By adopting a mix of comparative methods, we used the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs-QCA) to compare European countries to find which configurations of types of NEET can be associated with different levels of perceived individual environmental responsibility. In addition, we implemented a mediation model by using Generalized Structural Equation Modeling (GSEM) estimation, to find whether the association between the NEET condition and the level of perceived environmental responsibility is mediated by individual happiness\u2014as a proxy of social exclusion\u2019s consequences on the individual\u2019s well-being. Fs-QCA results are integrated at the micro level to test context-related variation. Data come from the 2016 European Social Survey, the 2016 Eurofound report, and the 2018 Italian Youth Report. We found that the presence of more vulnerable NEETs is associated with lower levels of perceived environmental responsibility. At the micro level, only in some countries does the condition of NEET lead to attribute environmental responsibility to the institutions, rather than to the single individual, and it seems related to a general lower well-being

Molecular remission induced by gemtuzumab ozogamicin associated with donor lymphocyte infusions in t(4;11) acute lymphoblastic leukemia relapsed after transplantation

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Searching for a stock structure in <i>Sardina pilchardus</i> from the Adriatic and Ionian seas using a microsatellite DNA-based approach

En el presente trabajo se ha investigado la variabilidad genética de la sardina europea en el mar Adriático y Jónico con el objetivo de detectar la posible existencia de estructura genética entre y dentro de ambas cuencas. El análisis de la variabilidad genética en ocho loci microsatélites detectó una desviación respecto al equilibrio HW por un exceso de homocigotos en algunas de las muestras estudiadas. La estima del nivel de diferenciación interpoblacional, realizada mediante AMOVA, qST and rRST, y descriptores Bayesianos, resultó no significativa para las muestras analizadas. Estos datos concuerdan con los obtenidos en estudios previos basados en alozimas y marcadores mitocondriales y contradicen la anterior identificación de dos subpoblaciones en el mar Adriático en base a datos morfológicos y reproductivos

The role of Patient Health Engagement model (PHE-model) in affecting patient activation and medication adherence: A structural equation model

Background: Increasing bodies of scientific research today examines the factors and interventions affecting patients' ability to self-manage and adhere to treatment. Patient activation is considered the most reliable indicator of patients' ability to manage health autonomously. Only a few studies have tried to assess the role of psychosocial factors in promoting patient activation. A more systematic modeling of the psychosocial factors explaining the variance of patient activation is needed. Objective: To test the hypothesized effect of patient activation on medication adherence; to test the the hypothesized effects of positive emotions and of the quality of the patient/doctor relationship on patient activation; and to test the hypothesized mediating effect of Patient Health Engagement (PHE-model) in this pathway. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study involved 352 Italian-speaking adult chronic patients. The survey included measures of i) patient activation (Patient Activation Measure 13-short form); ii) Patient Health Engagement model (Patient Health Engagement Scale); iii) patient adherence (4 item-Morinsky Medication Adherence Scale); iv) the quality of the patients' emotional feelings (Manikin Self Assessment Scale); v) the quality of the patient/doctor relationship (Health Care Climate Questionnaire). Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses proposed. Results: According to the theoretical model we hypothesized, research results confirmed that patients' activation significantly affects their reported medication adherence. Moreover, psychosocial factors, such as the patients' quality of the emotional feelings and the quality of the patient/doctor relationship were demonstrated to be factors affecting the level of patient activation. Finally, the mediation effect of the Patient Health Engagement model was confirmed by the analysis. Conclusions: Consistently with the results of previous studies, these findings demonstrate that the Patient Health Engagement Model is a critical factor in enhancing the quality of care. The Patient Health Engagement Model might acts as a mechanism to increase patient activation and adherence

Robotic rectal surgery: State of the art

Laparoscopic rectal surgery has demonstrated its superiority over the open approach, however it still has some technical limitations that lead to the development of robotic platforms. Nevertheless the literature on this topic is rapidly expanding there is still no consensus about benefits of robotic rectal cancer surgery over the laparoscopic one. For this reason a review of all the literature examining robotic surgery for rectal cancer was performed. Two reviewers independently conducted a search of electronic databases (PubMed and EMBASE) using the key words “rectum”, “rectal”, “cancer”, “laparoscopy”, “robot”. After the initial screen of 266 articles, 43 papers were selected for review. A total of 3013 patients were included in the review. The most commonly performed intervention was low anterior resection (1450 patients, 48.1%), followed by anterior resections (997 patients, 33%), ultra-low anterior resections (393 patients, 13%) and abdominoperineal resections (173 patients, 5.7%). Robotic rectal surgery seems to offer potential advantages especially in low anterior resections with lower conversions rates and better preservation of the autonomic function. Quality of mesorectum and status of and circumferential resection margins are similar to those obtained with conventional laparoscopy even if robotic rectal surgery is undoubtedly associated with longer operative times. This review demonstrated that robotic rectal surgery is both safe and feasible but there is no evidence of its superiority over laparoscopy in terms of postoperative, clinical outcomes and incidence of complications. In conclusion robotic rectal surgery seems to overcome some of technical limitations of conventional laparoscopic surgery especially for tumors requiring low and ultra-low anterior resections but this technical improvement seems not to provide, until now, any significant clinical advantages to the patients

Platelet-Lysate-Expanded Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for the Treatment of Resistant GVHD

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The Caregiving Health Engagement Scale (CHE-s): development and initial validation of a new questionnaire for measuring family caregiver engagement in healthcare

Background This study was aimed to preliminary validate a cross-disease psychometric measure to assess the psycho-social experience of family caregiver engagement in healthcare (Caregiving Health Engagement Scale, CHE-s), which refers to the caregiver\u2019s psychological attitude to be an active, skilled and motivated player in the care process of their loved ones. Method The study consisted of a mixed methods, multi-stage research. First, a preliminary qualitative stage was aimed at investigating \u2013 in the caregivers\u2019 perspective - the engagement process in providing care to a ill relative (stage 1). The second stage of the research was aimed at developing a psychometric scale to assess this concept (i.e. the Caregiving Health Engagement Scale \u2013 CHE-s) and to preliminary test its psychometric properties (stage 2). Results Overall, 230 caregivers (32 in stage 1, and 198 in stage 2) participated to the study. The first qualitative stage, conducted by qualitative interviews on 32 family caregivers, highlighted four main experiential positions of caregiver engagement (namely, denial, hyper-activation, drawing, and balance), showing that \u201cfull engagement\u201d occurs when caregivers become able to reach balance between their caring tasks and their broad life goals. In the second quantitative stage, we used the qualitative evidences emerged from stage one as a basis for developing the items of the Caregiving Health Engagement scale (CHE-s). We preliminary tested its psychometric properties through a cross-sectional study on 198 caregivers, which demonstrated CHE-s to be a reliable measure to capture the dynamic nature of caregiver engagement. The CATPCA results, together with the ordinal alpha of 0.88, suggests a mono-dimensional latent structure and a very good internal consistency and CFA showed adequate goodness of fit indices. (CFI\u2009=\u20090.96, RMR\u2009=\u20090.03, RMSEA\u2009=\u20090.05). Conclusions Health care systems that prioritize person-led care may benefit from using the Caregiving Health Engagement Model and the CHE scale (CHE-s) to assess the engagement level of family caregivers in order to better tailor the supportive and educational intervention addressing them