When friends recommend:Online purchasing behavior of Russian and Dutch people when prompted by recommendations from Facebook friends

This study investigates the relationship between product recommendations in a Facebook advertisement and the behavioral intentions of consumers, and to what extend this relationship is influenced by cultural differences in the tendency to avoid uncertain situations. In an online experiment 140 Dutch and 92 Russian people (average age 24 years) were presented with two advertisements of a GoPro camera in a Facebook context. The product recommendations in the advertisements differed in tie strength, that is, the amount and type of recommendations by close Facebook friends (strong ties) and other Facebook friends (weak ties). The results showed that the Dutch group had higher purchase intentions than the Russian group. Both groups are more influenced by strong tie online friends, than by weak tie online friends. The tie strength effect was stronger for the Dutch group. Meanwhile, compared to the Dutch group, the Russian group had a higher level of uncertainty avoidance, and also reported that they valued less the recommendations of other people, than those from their online friends. In addition, they were more willing to give the GoPro camera as a present to their close Facebook friends, than to other Facebook friends

De brachialgie in de huisartspraktijk

In this study we are concerned with an explorative integral examination in a general practitioner's practice. This integral approach of the patient is seen as the most essential aspect of the work of a general practitioner. Thirty brachialgy-patients have been subjected to this examination. For this purpose those brachiaigy-patients were selected who were quite evidently suffering from pain, but who were not found to have any defects when subjected to an extensive physical examination. To the examiners these symptoms proved to be clearly recognizable: these isolated complaints of pain, without further defects, were often attended with a characteristic carriage (bent, huddled-up). Besides the personalities of our patients bore great resemblance: reticent, lowspirited and especially tense people, who outwardly made a quiet, correct and often kind impression. The examiners were under the impression that a certain connection might exist between the nature of these symptoms on the one hand and the tension and reticence of our patients on the other. The question arose whether non-somatic factors might playa part in the aetiology of these symptoms. (We were strengthened in this opinion by the poor results of the purely somatic treatment). Consequently it was decided to subject this group of patients to an integral examination, so that also the psychic and social components of this disease would become clear..

Factors of resilience in informal caregivers of people with dementia from integrative international data analysis

Background/Aims: Although caring for a person with dementia can be stressful, some caregivers appear to experience few negative consequences to their well-being. This study aimed to examine what proportion of caregivers demonstrates resilience under different challenging circumstances and to identify factors related to their resilience. Methods: Baseline data from 4 studies from the Netherlands and UK among informal caregivers of people with dementia were harmonized and integrated. Caregiver resilience was defined as high levels of psychological well-being despite different types of high caregiving demands. Multivariate regression analyses identified factors significantly related to caregiver resilience. Results: The integrated data set included 15 harmonized variables with data from 1,048 caregivers facing a high care demand. The prevalence of resilience varied between 35 and 43%, depending on the demand for high care. Being a male caregiver, caring for a female, living apart from your relative, and low caregiver burden were positively related to caregiver resilience. Conclusion: Caregivers have the capacity to demonstrate resilience despite significant challenges. This study demonstrates how harmonization of data from multiple existing studies can be used to increase power and explore the consistency of findings. This contributes to a better understanding of which factors are likely to facilitate caregiver resilience and offers insights for developing services

Impact of travel time and rurality on presentation and outcomes of symptomatic colorectal cancer: a cross-sectional cohort study in primary care

Background: Several studies have reported a survival disadvantage for rural dwellers who develop colorectal cancer, but the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. Delayed presentation to GPs may be a contributory factor, but evidence is lacking. Aim: To examine the association between rurality and travel time on diagnosis and survival of colorectal cancer in a cohort from northeast Scotland. Design and setting: The authors used a database linking GP records to routine data for patients diagnosed between 1997 and 1998, and followed up to 2011. Method: Primary outcomes were alarm symptoms, emergency admissions, stage, and survival. Travel time in minutes from patients to GP was estimated. Logistic and Cox regression were used to model outcomes. Interaction terms were used to determine if travelling time impacted differently on urban versus rural patients. Results: Rural patients and patients travelling farther to the GP had better 3-year survival. When the travel outcome associations were explored using interaction terms, the associations differed between rural and urban areas. Longer travel in urban areas significantly reduced the odds of emergency admissions (odds ratio [OR] 0.62, P<0.05), and increased survival (hazard ratio 0.75, P<0.05). Longer travel also increased the odds of presenting with alarm symptoms in urban areas; this was nearly significant (OR 1.34, P = 0.06). Presence of alarm symptoms reduced the likelihood of emergency admissions (OR 0.36, P<0.01). Conclusion: Living in a rural area, and travelling farther to a GP in urban areas, may reduce the likelihood of emergency admissions and poor survival. This may be related to how patients present with alarm symptoms

Accounting for self-protective responses in randomized response data from a social security survey using the zero-inflated Poisson model

In 2004 the Dutch Department of Social Affairs conducted a survey to assess the extent of noncompliance with social security regulations. The survey was conducted among 870 recipients of social security benefits and included a series of sensitive questions about regulatory noncompliance. Due to the sensitive nature of the questions the randomized response design was used. Although randomized response protects the privacy of the respondent, it is unlikely that all respondents followed the design. In this paper we introduce a model that allows for respondents displaying self-protective response behavior by consistently giving the nonincriminating response, irrespective of the outcome of the randomizing device. The dependent variable denoting the total number of incriminating responses is assumed to be generated by the application of randomized response to a latent Poisson variable denoting the true number of rule violations. Since self-protective responses result in an excess of observed zeros in relation to the Poisson randomized response distribution, these are modeled as observed zero-inflation. The model includes predictors of the Poisson parameters, as well as predictors of the probability of self-protective response behavior.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOAS135 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org