Time and risk preferences and the perceived effectiveness of incentives to comply with diabetic retinopathy screening among older adults with type 2 diabetes

Behavioral economics has the potential to inform the design of incentives to improve disease screening programs by accounting for various behavioral biases. We investigate the association between multiple behavioral economics concepts and the perceived effectiveness of incentive strategies for behavioral change among older patients with a chronic disease. This association is examined by focusing on diabetic retinopathy screening, which is recommended but very variably followed by persons living with diabetes. Five time and risk preference concepts (i.e., utility curvature, probability weighting, loss aversion, discount rate, and present-bias) are estimated simultaneously in a structural econometric framework, based on a series of deliberately-designed economic experiments offering real money. We find that higher discount rates and loss aversion and lower probability weighting are significantly associated with lower perceived effectiveness of intervention strategies whereas present-bias and utility curvature have an insignificant association with it. Finally, we also observe strong urban vs. rural heterogeneity in the association between our behavioral economic concepts and the perceived effectiveness of intervention strategies

Student Uncertainty and Major Choice

This paper examines how model uncertainty affects students\u27 choice of major. To account for this uncertainty, the students apply a max-min operator to their optimization problem. We show analytically that greater uncertainty in a particular major causes the student to be less likely to choose that major and that greater uncertainty across all majors causes fewer students to major in science, technology, engineering, and math. To test the model\u27s assumptions and predictions, we have conducted a novel survey of college freshmen. The results from this survey are consistent with assumptions and implications of the theoretical model

Age, Gender, Biometry, Refractive Error, and the Anterior Chamber Angle among Alaskan Eskimos

The prevalence of angle-closure glaucoma (ACG) is greater for Eskimos/Inuit than it is for any other ethnic group in the world. Although it has been suggested that this prevalence may be due to a population tendency toward shallower anterior chamber angles, available evidence for other populations such as Chinese with high rates of ACG has not consistently demonstrated such a tendency

The Impact of Glaucomatous Visual Field Defects on Speed and Eye Movements during Reading

Objective: To investigate the link between glaucomatous visual field defects and reading performance by assessing reading speed and eye movements in reading. Methods: Eight glaucoma patients and 8 normal-sighted participants were recruited using convenience sampling in this cross-sectional study. The visual field was evaluated using the Humphrey Matrix 24-2. Reading speed was assessed in words per minute using Buari-Chen Malay Reading Chart and the SAH reading passages compendium. Eye movements in reading were recorded using 3D video-oculography. Results: Glaucoma and control groups displayed significant differences in reading speed (t=3.12; p0.05). Conclusion: The association of defect areas and types with reading speed but not with eye movements might suggest a different coping strategy between eye movement adjustment and reading adaptation in response to visual field defects. Significant association with fixation but not with saccades might indicate that the disengaged and engaged mechanisms of visual attention are affected differently by visual field defects

The Impact of Glaucomatous Visual Field Defects on Speed and Eye Movements during Reading

Objective: To investigate the link between glaucomatous visual field defects and reading performance by assessing reading speed and eye movements in reading. Methods: Eight glaucoma patients and 8 normal-sighted participants were recruited using convenience sampling in this cross-sectional study. The visual field was evaluated using the Humphrey Matrix 24-2. Reading speed was assessed in words per minute using Buari-Chen Malay Reading Chart and the SAH reading passages compendium. Eye movements in reading were recorded using 3D video-oculography. Results: Glaucoma and control groups displayed significant differences in reading speed (t=3.12; p0.05). Conclusion: The association of defect areas and types with reading speed but not with eye movements might suggest a different coping strategy between eye movement adjustment and reading adaptation in response to visual field defects. Significant association with fixation but not with saccades might indicate that the disengaged and engaged mechanisms of visual attention are affected differently by visual field defects

The impact of parental migration on health status and health behaviours among left behind adolescent school children in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One out of ten of China's population are migrants, moving from rural to urban areas. Many leave their families behind resulting in millions of school children living in their rural home towns without one or both their parents. Little is known about the health status of these left behind children (LBC). This study compares the health status and health-related behaviours of left behind adolescent school children and their counterparts in a rural area in Southern China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted among middle school students in Fuyang Township, Guangdong, China (2007-2008). Information about health behaviours, parental migration and demographic characteristics was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Overweight/obesity and stunting were defined based on measurements of height and weight. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to estimate the differences in health outcomes between LBC and non-LBC.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>18.1% of the schoolchildren had one or both parents working away from home. Multivariate analysis showed that male LBC were at higher risk of skipping breakfast, higher levels of physical inactivity, internet addiction, having ever smoked tobacco, suicide ideation, and being overweight. LBC girls were more likely to drink excessive amounts of sweetened beverage, to watch more TV, to have ever smoked or currently smoke tobacco, to have ever drunk alcohol and to binge drinking. They were also more likely to be unhappy, to think of planning suicide and consider leaving home.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest that parental migration is a risk factor for unhealthy behaviours amongst adolescent school children in rural China. Further research is required in addition to the consideration of the implications for policies and programmes to protect LBC.</p

Willingness to Pay for Cataract Surgery in Rural Southern China

This paper examines the willingness of patients in China to pay for cataract surgery

Children’s myopia: prevention and the role of school programmes

Exciting solutions are being developed to combat the huge increase in childhood myopia that had become the leading cause of visual impairment, particularly in East Asia. In these settings school-based vision care programmes can make a real difference