Using the theoretical domains framework to inform strategies to support dietitians undertaking body composition assessments in routine clinical care

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition, sarcopenia and cachexia are clinical wasting syndromes characterised by muscle loss. Systematic monitoring by body composition assessment (BCA) is recommended for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of the syndrome(s). This study investigated practices, competency, and attitudes of Australian dietitians regarding BCA, to inform a local implementation process. METHODS: Applying the Action cycle in the Knowledge to Action framework, surveys were distributed to the 26 dietitians of an 800-bed tertiary hospital. The survey assessed barriers and enablers to performing routine BCA in clinical care. Results were categorised using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and suitable interventions mapped using the Behaviour Change Wheel. RESULTS: Twenty-two dietitians (84.6%) completed the survey. Barriers to BCA were identified in all TDF domains, particularly in Knowledge, Skills, Social/professional role and identity, Beliefs about capabilities, and Environmental context and resources. Enablers existed in domains of: Skills; Beliefs about consequences; Goals; Environmental context and resources; Social influences; Intentions; Optimism; Reinforcement. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that hospital dietitians experience individual, team, and organisational barriers to adopt BCAs in clinical practice. We were able to formulate targeted implementation strategies to overcome these barriers to assist BCA adoption into routine practice. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06375-7

Collateral Damage of Facebook Apps: Friends, Providers, and Privacy Interdependence

Aquest volum de la publicació periòdica també es correspon a la monografia "ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection"Third-party apps enable a personalized experience on social networking platforms; however, they give rise to privacy interdependence issues. Apps installed by a user's friends can collect and potentially misuse her personal data inflicting collateral damage on the user while leaving her without proper means of control. In this paper, we present a multi-faceted study on the collateral information collection of apps in social networks. We conduct a user survey and show that Facebook users are concerned about this issue and the lack of mechanisms to control it. Based on real data, we compute the likelihood of collateral information collection affecting users; we show that the probability is significant and depends on both the friendship network and the popularity of the app. We also show its significance by computing the proportion of exposed user attributes including the case of profiling, when several apps are offered by the same provider. Finally, we propose a privacy dashboard concept enabling users to control the collateral damage

Practitioner accounts and knowledge production: an analysis of three marketing discourses

Responding to repeated calls for marketing academicians to connect with marketing actors, we offer an empirically-sourced discourse analysis of the ways in which managers portray their practices. Focusing on the micro-discourses and narratives that marketing actors draw upon to represent their work we argue that dominant representations of marketing knowledge production present a number of critical concerns for marketing theory and marketing education. We also evidence that the often promoted idea of a need to close the gap between theory - as a dominant discourse - and practice, as a way of doing marketing, is problematic to pursue. We suggest that a more fruitful agenda resides in the development of a range of polyphonic and creative micro-discourses of management, promoting context, difference and individual meaning in marketing knowledge production

Tourists as Mobile Gamers: Gamification for Tourism Marketing

Gaming as a cutting-edge concept has recently been used by some innovative tourism sectors as a marketing tool and as a method of deeper engagement with visitors. This research aims to explore the gamification trend and its potential for experience development and tourism marketing. Using a focus group, this paper discusses gaming and tourism, and explores what drives tourists to play games. The results suggest tourists’ game playing motivation is multidimensional. Players tend to start with purposive information seeking, then move on to an intrinsic stimulation. Socialization is also an important dimension. The research demonstrates several implications for tourism marketing

Driven to excess? Linking calling, character and the (mis)behaviour of marketers

We are presently at a point of unique circumstantial convergence where recession, an increased emphasis on business ethics, and marketer’s reluctance to accept shifting social agendas have combined to identify the need for a new approach to marketing. Using concepts from the human resources, marketing and psychology literatures, and especially Erich Fromm’s ideas concerning economic character, this paper posits that marketers – as a professional community – are driven to promote consumerist outcomes; victims of an automaton amalgam of calling and character. The analysis suggests the vulnerability of both marketer and consumer are mutually reinforcing and that we need, somehow, to break this damaging cycle of dependence. We know little, however, about how marketers think and feel about their discipline, so this paper also promotes an agenda for marketer behaviour research, as a countervailing balance to a currently disproportionate focus on the consumer

Consumerisation in UK Higher Education Business Schools: Higher fees, greater stress and debatable outcomes

For many UK Higher Education Business Schools, the continued recruitment of UK, EU and International students is crucial for financial stability, viability and independence. Due to increasingly competitive funding models across the sector many institutional leaders and administrators are making decisions typical of highly marketised consumer environments. Thus, this paper explores, academics’ perceptions of the impact of consumerisation in UK Higher Education Business Schools. To achieve this 22 Business School academics were interviewed within three UK Higher Education institutions (HEIs) in the North of England. Participants had a minimum of three years teaching experience. Data was analysed using template analysis taking an interpretive approach. The findings indicate that academics perceived the introduction of tuition fees to have been the catalyst for students increasing demonstration of customer-like behaviour: viewing the education process as transactional, with the HEI providing a ‘paid for’ service. It is argued that these changes in UK Higher Education have created tensions between university leaders and academics, creating genuine dilemmas for those with decision-making responsibilities who must balance academic integrity and long term institutional financial viability

Contacting authors to retrieve individual patient data : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis is considered the "gold standard" for exploring the effectiveness of interventions in different subgroups of patients. However, obtaining IPD is time-consuming and contact with the researchers responsible for the original trials is usually required. To date, there are no studies evaluating different strategies to optimize the process for retrieval of IPD from such researchers. Our aim is to examine the impact of providing incentives to the researchers responsible for the trials eligible for a meta-analysis to submit their IPD. METHODS/DESIGN: We updated our previously published systematic reviews for type 1 diabetes mellitus comparing long- and intermediate-acting insulin regimens (from January 2013 to June 2015) and for Alzheimer's dementia comparing cognitive enhancers (from January 2015 to May 2015). Eligible were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) fulfilling the eligibility criteria of the systematic reviews. We will randomly allocate authors of the reports of these RCTs into an intervention or control group. Those allocated to the intervention group will be contacted by email, mail, and phone, and will be asked to provide the IPD from their RCT and will be given a financial incentive. Those allocated to the control group will be contacted by email, mail, and phone, but will not receive a financial incentive. Our primary outcome will be the proportion of authors who provide the IPD. The secondary outcomes will be the time to return the dataset (defined as the period between the information request and the authors' response with the dataset), and completeness of data. We will compare the response rates in the two groups using the odds ratio and the corresponding 95 % confidence interval. We will also use binary logistic regression and cox regression analyses to examine whether different RCT characteristics, such as study size and sponsor information, influence the probability of providing IPD and the time needed to share the data. DISCUSSION: This study will determine whether a financial incentive affects response rates when seeking IPD from the original researchers. We will disseminate our findings in an open access scientific journal and present results at national and international conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial is registered in Clinical Trials.gov, ID number NCT02569411 . Date of registration 5 October 2015

How Global are Global Brands? An Empirical Brand Equity Analysis

The term 'global brand' has become widely used by the media and by consumers. Business week publishes annually its widely known ranking of the 'Best Global Brands' (with Coca-Cola as number 1 in the past years) and consumers on summer vacations purchase brands such as Heineken or Marlboro they are familiar with from their home country. Although media and consumers call these brands 'global' and centralized marketing departments manage these brands globally - are these 'global brands' really global? Are they really perceived everywhere in the same way by the customers? Can we talk about truly global brand equity? And if there were brand image differences between countries, which factors causes them? The authors conducted an empirical research during May and June 2009 with similarly aged University students (bachelor students at business school) in Germany (n=426) and Mexico (n=296). The goal was to identify if brand awareness rates differ between Germans and Mexicans, if the brand image of Apple iPod is perceived in the same way in Germany and in Mexico and what influencing factors might have an impact on any brand image discrepancy between the countries. Results prove that brand recall rates differ between the two countries (with higher rates in Mexico) as well as brand image attributes vary significantly (28 out of 34 brand image attributes are significantly different between Germany and Mexico), with Mexico showing higher levels of favorable brand image attributes. Key influencing factors on the different brand image perceptions are perceived quality, satisfaction and the influence of reference groups (such as friends and family). The results suggest that so-called 'global brands' are not perceived the same way in Germany and Mexico. As a consequence, brand management using standardized marketing instruments for its presumable 'global brands' might be better off with a more differentiated approach that takes account a specific local brand image