The Relationship Between Alumni Relations and Fund-Raising: A Study on the Effect of Departmental Integration on Alumni Giving

This study examined the effect of integration between alumni relations and development departments on alumni giving. Integration was defined as the degree to which members of alumni and development departments achieve unity of effort. To determine the level of integration, the study looked at organizational structure, collective planning, collaboration, communication, and participation. As a primary focus, the study measured the level of interdepartmental integration and compared the results with actual alumni giving at each school. The study also compared the level of integration between schools with centralized and decentralized organizational structures. The study demonstrated an inverse relationship between interdepartmental integration and alumni giving. Most schools in the study with high alumni giving did not have highly integrated alumni relations and development departments. Schools with low alumni giving were more highly integrated. Further research, however, indicated that factors such as a school\u27s age, size, and number of alumni and development staff significantly affected both alumni giving and integration, overshadowing this study\u27s results. The study did find that schools with a centralized organizational structure were consistently more integrated than decentralized schools

Sex disparities in health and health care utilization after Parkinson diagnosis: Rethinking PD associated disability

OBJECTIVE: To examine sex differences and trends in comorbid disease and health care utilization in individuals with newly diagnosed Parkinson disease (PD). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Over 133,000 Medicare beneficiaries with a new PD diagnosis in 2002 followed through 2008. METHODS: We compared the prevalence and cumulative incidence of common medical conditions, trends in survival and health care utilization between men and women with PD. RESULTS: Female PD patients had higher adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) of depression (IRR: 1.28, 1.25-1.31), hip fracture (IRR: 1.51, 1.45-1.56), osteoporosis (3.01, 2.92-3.1), and rheumatoid/osteoarthritis (IRR: 1.47, 1.43-1.51) than men. In spite of greater survival, women with PD used home health and skilled nursing facility care more often, and had less outpatient physician contact than men throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS: Women experience a unique health trajectory after PD diagnosis as suggested by differing comorbid disease burden and health care utilization compared to men. Future studies of sex differences in care needs, care quality, comorbidity related disability, PD progression, and non-clinical factors associated with disability are needed to inform research agendas and clinical guidelines that may improve quality survival for women with PD