Arbeitslosigkeit und Stellenannahmebereitschaft: Erste Ergebnisse eines Faktoriellen Survey Moduls

Matching individuals to jobs is a fundamental problem in any labour market. This paper focuses on job characteristics, such as wages, job quality, and distance from the current place of residence, and the impact of these characteristics on the willingness of employed and unemployed individuals to accept new job offers. Using an experimental factorial survey module (FSM) implemented in the fifth wave of a large population survey (Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security), the willingness of employed and unemployed labour market participants to accept new job offers was compared while considering job characteristics like gain of income or commuting distance. In this study, unemployed and employed individuals received the same set of hypothetical job offers. Consistent with theoretical arguments, the about 20,000 evaluations provided by about 4,000 respondents showed that unemployed participants generally exhibit a greater willingness to accept new job offers than employed ones. Moreover, unemployed individuals were likely to make more concessions than employed individuals with respect to job quality, such as accepting fixed-term job offers. Interestingly, little evidence for different decision-making or weightings of mobility costs was found, which enables us to conclude that interregional unemployment disparities can scarcely be explained by unemployed individuals lacking the willingness to work or relocate

The pathophysiology of Peyronie’s disease

OBJECTIVE: To review the contemporary knowledge of the pathophysiology of Peyronie’s disease (PD). METHODS: Medline was searched for papers published in English from 2000 to March 2013, using the keywords ‘Peyronie’s disease’ and ‘pathophysiology’. RESULTS: More than 300 relevant articles were identified for the purpose of this review. Unfortunately only a few studies had a high level of evidence, and the remaining studies were not controlled in their design. Many theories have been proposed to explain the cause of PD, but the true pathogenesis of PD remains an enigma. Identifying particular growth factors and the specific genes responsible for the induction of PD have been the ultimate goal of research over the past several decades. This would provide the means to devise a possible gene therapy for this devastating condition. We discuss present controversies and new discoveries related to the pathophysiology of this condition. CONCLUSION: PD is one of the most puzzling diseases in urology. The pathogenesis remains uncertain and there is still controversy about the best management. The pathogenesis of PD has been explored in animal models, cell cultures and clinical trials, but the results have led to further questions. New research on the aetiology and pathogenesis of PD is needed, and which will hopefully improve the understanding and management for patients with this frustrating disease

A study to explore patient goals in the ICU Rehabilitation setting

Background: The number of patients surviving critical care is increasing. Quality of life after critical care is known to be poor for some patients. The evidence base for effective rehabilitation interventions in the period following a stay in an intensive care unit is limited. Objectives: To understand what rehabilitation goals are important to patients after critical care discharge. Methods: This prospective study, which was undertaken during an intensive care unit recovery program, explored the recovery goals of 43 patients. Framework analysis was used to extract prevalent themes and identify the important components of recovery from the patients’ perspective. Results: Participants described diverse goals for their post–intensive care unit recovery. Most goals were about health-related quality of life, including physical goals and rehabilitation. Although health was central to many of the participants’ individual recovery aims, themes of family and social engagement and adopting appropriate goal trajectories also emerged within patient goals. Individual strategies for reaching these goals varied, and patients had different aspirations about what they could achieve. Conclusions: Patients’ aspirations for their intensive care unit recovery are diverse. Design of postdischarge care can be informed by this greater understanding of the heterogeneous starting points and goal trajectories of survivors of critical illness

Does age really matter? Recall of information presented to newly referred patients with cancer.

Purpose: To examine age- and age-related differences in recall of information provided during oncology consultations. Patients and Methods: Two hundred sixty patients with cancer diagnosed with heterogeneous cancers, seeing a medical or radiation oncologist for the first time, participated in the study. Patients completed questionnaires assessing information needs and anxiety. Recall of information provided was measured using a structured telephone interview in which patients were prompted to remember details physicians gave about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Recall was checked against the actual communication in audio-recordings of the consultations. Results: Recall decreased significantly with age, but only when total amount of information presented was taken into account. This indicates that if more information is discussed, older patients have more trouble remembering the information than younger ones. In addition, recall was selectively influenced by prognosis. First, patients with a poorer prognosis recalled less. Next, the more information was provided about prognosis, the less information patients recalled, regardless of their actual prognosis. Conclusion: Recall is not simply a function of patient age. Age only predicts recall when controlling for amount of information presented. Both prognosis and information about prognosis are better predictors of recall than age. These results provide important insights into intervention strategies to improve information recall in patients with cancer. (aut. ref.

Does age really matter? Recall of information presented to newly referred patients with cancer

Purpose To examine age- and age-related differences in recall of information provided during oncology consultations. Patients and Methods Two hundred sixty patients with cancer diagnosed with heterogeneous cancers, seeing a medical or radiation oncologist for the first time, participated in the study. Patients completed questionnaires assessing information needs and anxiety. Recall of information provided was measured using a structured telephone interview in which patients were prompted to remember details physicians gave about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Recall was checked against the actual communication in audio-recordings of the consultations. Results Recall decreased significantly with age, but only when total amount of information presented was taken into account. This indicates that if more information is discussed, older patients have more trouble remembering the information than younger ones. In addition, recall was selectively influenced by prognosis. First, patients with a poorer prognosis recalled less. Next, the more information was provided about prognosis, the less information patients recalled, regardless of their actual prognosis. Conclusion Recall is not simply a function of patient age. Age only predicts recall when controlling for amount of information presented. Both prognosis and information about prognosis are better predictors of recall than age. These results provide important insights into intervention strategies to improve information recall in patients with cancer