TRENDS IN CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE AND AWARENESS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

The promise of agricultural biotechnology has become reality. Foods produced through biotechnology will become increasingly common in the food production and distribution system. Consumer reaction to these foods will be an important factor in determining the ultimate success of the biotechnology enterprise. This paper reviews trends in U.S. consumers' awareness and acceptance of biotechnology. Results of several national surveys show that biotechnology has not been an issue for the vast majority of consumers. Most have a positive attitude about biotechnology. This paper also presents some implications for future research and educational programs.Consumer/Household Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Public perceptions of the benefits and risks of biotechnology

Survey research can contribute a valid mechanism for public participation. Regulations must still be based on the best available science. Public policy will always include economic and political considerations. If done right, surveys can reflect the views of a diverse cross section of citizens

Sociology and Biotechnology: Challenges and Opportunities

Sociologists have traditionally been concerned with technological change. We now find renewed research interest in the social impacts and risks of biotechnology. Many public and key opinion leaders recognize that closer attention must be paid to tradeoffs, uncertainties, and negative consequences related to biotechnology. Sociologists have a number of important roles to play in ensuring that the benefits of biotechnology outweigh the potential risks. This paper examines several important issues about agricultural biotechnology that have not yet received adequate attention from sociologists. The nature of biotechnology as an innovation and as a risky technology is examined. Particular attention is aid to public perceptions of biotechnology. Research opportunities and challenges in the analysis of the biotechnology research and development system are presented. Implications of the complex nature of biotechnology for social impact assessment are described. Research opportunities in the area of risk management and perception are discussed

Concern About Eating Genetically Engineered Food

Concern about eating genetically engineered food is explored for a sample of residents from Florida and North Carolina. Previous research on consumers\u27 food safety concerns and perceived risk associated with food production suggests that concern about genetically engineered food is influenced by three factors. Concern is influenced by how well informed consumers are about food technology, their capacity to understand that information, and the compatibility of genetic engineering with consumers\u27 moral beliefs. Utilizing logistic regression, women and persons who viewed genetic engineering to be morally wrong were found to have greater concern about eating genetically engineered foods. Awareness and educational attainment also decreased concern about among North Carolina residents. For the Florida sample, awareness had no effect on concern, and education decreased concern for only one of two types of food. Although addressing concerns based on moral beliefs may be problematic, efforts to better inform consumers, especially women, might reduce their concern

Passing the Cluck, Dodging Pullets: Corporate Power, Environmental Responsibility, and the Contract Poultry Grower

Broiler production is concentrated in a few southem states where farmers are highly dependent on contract arrangements for income and livelihood. Poultry is the first animal industry to industrialize and its model of contract farming has been emulated by other animal industries. Environmental standards are becoming increasingly stringent and many farmers are faced with crossroad decisions about investments in dead bird and manure disposal facilities. Asymmetrical power relationships shift waste management responsibilities to growers in a number of ways. This paper details maneuvers poultry integrators use to avoid environmental risk and transfer it to their contract growers. Corporations pass the cluck when they shift responsibility for achieving regulatory compliance to the farmer who then must seek technical and financial assistance from public agencies. Poultry integrators dodge pullets when they retain ownership of live animals, but dead birds become the farmer\u27s property and disposal problem. Based on fieldwork conducted in Alabama and North Carolina, we develop a perspective for anticipating and understanding the environmental compliance dilemmas facing growers

Social and Demographic Influences on Environmental Attitudes

Sociologists have studied environmental attitudes for over two decades. Much of this research has sought to determine what factors are related to these attitudes. Past research has shown that certain social and demographic variables tend to have a positive influence on environmentalism. One of the more valid and reliable indicators of environmentalism is the 12-item attitude scale known as the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP). That scale has been shown to consist of three sub-scales. This paper extends previous research by examining the relative influence of six independent variables (age, gender, race, education, income, and residence) on each of the sub-scales and the overall NEP scale. The analysis generally supports the hypotheses that younger people, women, whites, and people of higher education levels hold more environmental attitudes as measured by the NEP index. Income has a significant nonlinear effect

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty

Population‐based cohort study of outcomes following cholecystectomy for benign gallbladder diseases

Background The aim was to describe the management of benign gallbladder disease and identify characteristics associated with all‐cause 30‐day readmissions and complications in a prospective population‐based cohort. Methods Data were collected on consecutive patients undergoing cholecystectomy in acute UK and Irish hospitals between 1 March and 1 May 2014. Potential explanatory variables influencing all‐cause 30‐day readmissions and complications were analysed by means of multilevel, multivariable logistic regression modelling using a two‐level hierarchical structure with patients (level 1) nested within hospitals (level 2). Results Data were collected on 8909 patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 167 hospitals. Some 1451 cholecystectomies (16·3 per cent) were performed as an emergency, 4165 (46·8 per cent) as elective operations, and 3293 patients (37·0 per cent) had had at least one previous emergency admission, but had surgery on a delayed basis. The readmission and complication rates at 30 days were 7·1 per cent (633 of 8909) and 10·8 per cent (962 of 8909) respectively. Both readmissions and complications were independently associated with increasing ASA fitness grade, duration of surgery, and increasing numbers of emergency admissions with gallbladder disease before cholecystectomy. No identifiable hospital characteristics were linked to readmissions and complications. Conclusion Readmissions and complications following cholecystectomy are common and associated with patient and disease characteristics

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

The Cholecystectomy As A Day Case (CAAD) Score: A Validated Score of Preoperative Predictors of Successful Day-Case Cholecystectomy Using the CholeS Data Set

Background Day-case surgery is associated with significant patient and cost benefits. However, only 43% of cholecystectomy patients are discharged home the same day. One hypothesis is day-case cholecystectomy rates, defined as patients discharged the same day as their operation, may be improved by better assessment of patients using standard preoperative variables. Methods Data were extracted from a prospectively collected data set of cholecystectomy patients from 166 UK and Irish hospitals (CholeS). Cholecystectomies performed as elective procedures were divided into main (75%) and validation (25%) data sets. Preoperative predictors were identified, and a risk score of failed day case was devised using multivariate logistic regression. Receiver operating curve analysis was used to validate the score in the validation data set. Results Of the 7426 elective cholecystectomies performed, 49% of these were discharged home the same day. Same-day discharge following cholecystectomy was less likely with older patients (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.15–0.23), higher ASA scores (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.15–0.23), complicated cholelithiasis (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.48), male gender (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.58–0.74), previous acute gallstone-related admissions (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.48–0.60) and preoperative endoscopic intervention (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.34–0.47). The CAAD score was developed using these variables. When applied to the validation subgroup, a CAAD score of ≤5 was associated with 80.8% successful day-case cholecystectomy compared with 19.2% associated with a CAAD score >5 (p < 0.001). Conclusions The CAAD score which utilises data readily available from clinic letters and electronic sources can predict same-day discharges following cholecystectomy