The effect of socio-economic determinants on crime rates: An empirical research in the case of Greece with cointegration analysis

The present paper analyzes the relationship between the criminal offences, the function of the justice system and some of their socio-economic determinants in the case of Greece by estimating their dynamic interactions. The analysis covers the period 1971-2006 and the cointegration methodologies of Johansen (1988) and Johansen-Juselius (1990, 1992) are applied to the VAR model. From the cointegration results, a cointegrating vector is shown among total offences, convicted persons and socio-economic variables. Moreover, Error Correction Models are estimated for the short-run dynamics of the explanatory variables and their convergence to a long-run equilibrium state

Item Generation for a Music-related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adult Cochlear Implant Users

Introduction: Existing music questionnaires designed for adult cochlear implant (CI) users are limited in their ability to measure real-world benefits of auditory music training and new technologies. Aims: To investigate aspects of CI users’ relationship with music that are relevant to quality of life (QoL) domains, with a view to generating items for a new questionnaire. Methods: Thirty adult CI users participated in 1 of 6 focus groups about music in everyday life. The group discussion data were analyzed based on the theory of template analysis. The QoL domains of the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire were used as broad a priori categories to help with organizing associated themes. Participants also evaluated items of existing questionnaires. Results: The themes identified in the discussion were organized into three main domains (music listening ability, attitude towards music, musical activity), which constitute the music-related quality of life (MuRQoL) of CI users. Fifty-three items were developed for a prototype questionnaire using a combination of these themes and items from existing questionnaires highly rated by participants. Conclusion: The study highlights musical abilities, attitudes and activities of adult CI users poorly addressed or not addressed at all by previous questionnaires. By covering novel aspects of music experience, the MuRQoL questionnaire has the potential to be a more suitable measure of music-specific CI outcomes than previous questionnaires, which may open up new avenues for the assessment and provision of music rehabilitation in clinical settings. The MuRQoL questionnaire was optimized and validated in another study before becoming available for use

A Music-Related Quality of Life measure to guide music rehabilitation for adult CI users

Purpose: A music-related quality of life (MuRQoL) questionnaire was developed for the evaluation of music rehabilitation for adult cochlear implant (CI) users. The present studies were aimed at refinement and validation. Method: Twenty-four experts reviewed the MuRQoL items for face validity. A refined version was completed by 147 adult CI users and psychometric techniques were used for item selection, assessment of reliability and definition of the factor structure. The same participants completed the Short Form Health Survey for construct validation. MuRQoL responses from 68 CI users were compared with those of a matched group of normal-hearing (NH) adults. Results: Eighteen items measuring music perception & engagement and 18 items measuring their importance were selected; they grouped together into two domains. The final questionnaire has high internal consistency and repeatability. Significant differences between CI users and NH adults and a correlation between music engagement and quality of life (QoL) support construct validity. Scores of music perception & engagement and importance for the 18 items can be combined to assess the impact of music on the QoL. Conclusion: The MuRQoL questionnaire is a reliable and valid measure of self-reported music perception, engagement and their importance for adult CI users with potential to guide music aural rehabilitation

A Data-informed Public Health Policy-Makers Platform

Hearing loss is a disease exhibiting a growing trend due to the number of factors, including but not limited to the mundane exposure to the noise and ever-increasing amount of older population. In the framework of a public health policymaking process, modeling of the hearing loss disease based on data is a key factor in alleviating the issues related to the disease issuing effective public health policies. First, the paper describes the steps of the data-driven policymaking process. Afterward, a scenario along with the part of the proposed platform, responsible for supporting policymaking are presented. With the aim of demonstrating the capabilities and usability of the platform for the policy-makers, some initial results of preliminary analytics are presented in a framework of a policy-making process. Ultimately, the utility of the approach is validated throughout the results of the survey which was presented to the health system policy-makers professionals involved in the policy development process in Croatia

Clinical validation of a public health policy-making platform for hearing loss (EVOTION): protocol for a big data study

INTRODUCTION: The holistic management of hearing loss (HL) requires an understanding of factors that predict hearing aid (HA) use and benefit beyond the acoustics of listening environments. Although several predictors have been identified, no study has explored the role of audiological, cognitive, behavioural and physiological data nor has any study collected real-time HA data. This study will collect ‘big data’, including retrospective HA logging data, prospective clinical data and real-time data via smart HAs, a mobile application and biosensors. The main objective is to enable the validation of the EVOTION platform as a public health policy-making tool for HL. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This will be a big data international multicentre study consisting of retrospective and prospective data collection. Existing data from approximately 35 000 HA users will be extracted from clinical repositories in the UK and Denmark. For the prospective data collection, 1260 HA candidates will be recruited across four clinics in the UK and Greece. Participants will complete a battery of audiological and other assessments (measures of patient-reported HA benefit, mood, cognition, quality of life). Patients will be offered smart HAs and a mobile phone application and a subset will also be given wearable biosensors, to enable the collection of dynamic real-life HA usage data. Big data analytics will be used to detect correlations between contextualised HA usage and effectiveness, and different factors and comorbidities affecting HL, with a view to informing public health decision-making. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was received from the London South East Research Ethics Committee (17/LO/0789), the Hippokrateion Hospital Ethics Committee (1847) and the Athens Medical Center’s Ethics Committee (KM140670). Results will be disseminated through national and international events in Greece and the UK, scientific journals, newsletters, magazines and social media. Target audiences include HA users, clinicians, policy-makers and the general public. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03316287; Pre-results

Application of Big Data to Support Evidence-Based Public Health Policy Decision-Making for Hearing

Ideally, public health policies are formulated from scientific data; however, policy-specific data are often unavailable. Big data can generate ecologically-valid, high-quality scientific evidence, and therefore has the potential to change how public health policies are formulated. Here, we discuss the use of big data for developing evidence-based hearing health policies, using data collected and analyzed with a research prototype of a data repository known as EVOTION (EVidence-based management of hearing impairments: public health pOlicy-making based on fusing big data analytics and simulaTION), to illustrate our points. Data in the repository consist of audiometric clinical data, prospective real-world data collected from hearing aids and an app, and responses to questionnaires collected for research purposes. To date, we have used the platform and a synthetic dataset to model the estimated risk of noise-induced hearing loss and have shown novel evidence of ways in which external factors influence hearing aid usage patterns. We contend that this research prototype data repository illustrates the value of using big data for policy-making by providing high-quality evidence that could be used to formulate and evaluate the impact of hearing health care policies

Financial Development and Economic Growth: The Case of Greek Economy

This paper examines the relationship among financial development and economic growth, within a framework which also accounts trade openness, for the case of Greece using data covering the period 2001-2017. We investigate this relationship using the Johansen and Juselius (1990) cointegration approach and the Vector Error Correction Models (VECM), employing Granger causality technique, in order to explore the presence of causality among the variables. The results of cointegration analysis suggested that there is one cointegrated vector among the functions of financial development, economic growth and trade openness. Granger causality tests have shown that there are unidirectional causalities running from economic growth to financial development as well as from financial development to trade openness. The results support that financial development and trade openness do not have causal impact on economic growth in Greece, for the aforementioned period. On the other hand, economic growth has a causal impact on trade both directly and indirectly through financial development