611 research outputs found
The Attitudes about Complex Therapy Scale (ACTS) in Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Development, Validity and Reliability
Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with cardiovascular disease, and patients with both conditions are prescribed complex medication regimens.
Aim: The aim was to develop a reliable and valid measure of attitudes associated with the prescription and management of multiple medicines in patients with Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Methods: Principal component analysis (PCA) and Cronbach alpha assessed the reliability of the Attitudes about Complex Therapy Scale (ACTS). Examinations of relationships with related measures inform concurrent validity. Questionnaires were sent to a cross-sectional sample of 480 people prescribed multiple medicines for co-morbid Type 2 diabetes.
Results: Cronbach alpha was 0.76, indicating the scale had good internal reliability. PCA rotated a four factor model accounting for 37% of the variance. Four subscales identified; 1. Concerns about multiple medicines and increasing numbers of medicines; 2.Anxiety over missed medicines; 3. Desires to substitute medicines and reduce the number of medicines prescribed and; 4. Perceptions related to organising and managing complex therapy. The ACTS showed significant relationships with measures of anxiety, depression, general beliefs about medicines and self-efficacy. Also, the ACTS significantly correlated with adherence to medicines, showing good predictive validity.
Conclusion: The ACTS was designed to assess negative attitudes towards complex therapy and multiple medication management. This tool could aid prescribing decisions and may identify people who are intentionally non-adherent to all or some of their medicines
COVID-19 labour market shocks and their inequality implications for financial wellbeing
Using an online survey of Australian residents, we elicit the potential impacts of COVID-19 related labour market shocks on a validated measure of financial wellbeing. Experiencing a reduction in hours and earnings, entering into unemployment or having to file for unemployment benefits during the pandemic are strongly and significantly associated with decreases in financial wellbeing of around 29% or 18 points on the financial wellbeing scale of 0-100, despite various government measures to reduce such effects. Unconditional quantile regression analyses indicate that the negative COVID-19 labour market effects are felt the most by people in the lowest percentiles of the financial wellbeing distribution. Counterfactual distributional analyses and distribution regression indicate a shifting of the financial wellbeing distribution leftwards brought on by those suffering any of the above-mentioned labour market shocks, indicating potential dramatic increases in financial wellbeing disadvantage and inequality
Stratigraphy, Structure, and Metamorphism in the Haddam Quadrangle and Vicinity, Connecticut
50th meeting New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference: Connecticut, 1958: introductio
50th meeting New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference: Connecticut, 1958
Trip A: New London Turnpike; Trip B: Stratigraphy and Structure in the Triassic Rocks of Central Connecticut; Trip C: Pleistocene Geology of the Lower Quinnipiac Valley; Trip D: Deep River area; Trip E: Triassic border fault and associated sedimentary rock
Patient perceptions of treatment and illness when prescribed multiple medicines for co-morbid type 2 diabetes
Illness and treatment perceptions are vital for people self-managing co-morbid conditions with associated cardiovascular disease, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, perceptions of a co-morbid condition and the use of multiple medicines have yet to be researched. This study investigated the illness and treatment perceptions of people with co-morbid T2D. The Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (repeated for T2D, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia) and the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire Specific Concerns Scales (repeated for Oral hypoglycemic agents, anti-hypertensive medicines, and statins) were sent to 480 people managing co-morbid T2D. Data on the number of medicines prescribed were collected from medical records. Significantly different perceptions were found across the illnesses. The strongest effect was for personal control; the greatest control reported for T2D. Illness perceptions of T2D differed significantly from perceptions about hyperlipidemia. Furthermore, illness perceptions of T2D also differed from perceptions of hypertension with the exception of perceptions of illness severity. Hypertension and hyperlipidemia shared similar perceptions about comprehensibility, concerns, personal control, and timeline. Significant differences were found for beliefs about treatment necessity, but no difference was found for treatment concerns. When the number of medicines was taken as a between-subjects factor, only intentional non-adherence, treatment necessity beliefs, and perceptions of illness timeline were accounted for. Co-morbid illness and treatment perceptions are complex, often vary between illnesses, and can be influenced by the number of medicines prescribed. Further research should investigate relationships between co-morbid illness and treatment perception structures and self-management practices
The Higgs Sector and CoGeNT/DAMA-Like Dark Matter in Supersymmetric Models
Recent data from CoGeNT and DAMA are roughly consistent with a very light
dark matter particle with m\sim 4-10\gev and spin-independent cross section
of order \sigma_{SI} \sim (1-3)\times 10^{-4}\pb. An important question is
whether these observations are compatible with supersymmetric models obeying
without violating existing collider constraints and
precision measurements. In this talk, I review the fact the the Minimal
Supersymmetric Model allows insufficient flexibility to achieve such
compatibility, basically because of the highly constrained nature of the MSSM
Higgs sector in relation to LEP limits on Higgs bosons. I then outline the
manner in which the more flexible Higgs sectors of the Next-to-Minimal
Supersymmetric Model and an Extended Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model allow
large and at low LSP mass without violating
LEP, Tevatron, BaBar and other experimental limits. The relationship of the
required Higgs sectors to the NMSSM "ideal-Higgs" scenarios is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Proceedings of PASCOS 2010. The
paper is a compilation of talks given at: PASCOS 2010, ORSAY Workshop on
"Higgs Hunting", and SLAC Workshop on "Topologies for Early LHC Searches
The Academic Workplace (Spring 2006): Learning Equity-mindedness: Equality in Educational Outcomes
Morphospecies and Taxonomic Species Comparison for Hymenoptera
The use of morphospecies as surrogates for taxonomic species has been proposed as an alternative to overcome the identification difficulties associated with many invertebrate studies, such as biodiversity surveys. Hymenoptera specimens were collected by beating and pitfall traps, and were separated into morphospecies by a non-specialist with no prior training, and later identified by an expert taxonomist. The number of Hymenoptera morphospecies and taxonomic species was 37 and 42, respectively, representing an underestimation error of 12%. Different families presented varying levels of difficulty, and although the species estimation provided by the use of morphospecies initially appeared to have a relatively minor error rate, this was actually an artefact. Splitting and lumping errors balanced each other out, wrongly suggesting that morphospecies were reasonable surrogates for taxonomic species in the Hymenoptera. The use of morphospecies should be adopted only for selected target groups, which have been assessed as reliable surrogates for taxonomic species beforehand, and some prior training to the non-specialist is likely to be of primary importance
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