State Police officers empathy level connection of work experience.

Response rates to surveys are decreasing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of lottery tickets as incentives in an epidemiologic control group. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to parents in the municipality of Stockholm, Sweden, who were to be used as a control group in a study addressing stress in parents of children with cancer. A stratified random sample of 450 parents were randomized into three incentive groups: (a) no incentive; (b) a promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply; (c) a promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply and an additional lottery ticket upon reply within 1 week. The overall response rate across the three groups was 65.3%. The response rate was highest in the no incentive group (69.3%) and lowest in the one plus one lottery ticket group (62.0%). In a survival analysis, the difference between the two response curves was significant by the log-rank test (P = 0.04), with the no incentive group having a shorter time to response than the incentive group. Our findings suggest that the use of lottery tickets as incentives to increase participation in a mail questionnaire among parents may be less valuable or even harmful. Incentives may undermine motivation in studies in which the intrinsic motivation of the respondents is already high.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com:Marika Wenemark, Åsa Vernby and Annika Lindahl Norberg, Can incentives undermine intrinsic motivation to participate in epidemiologic surveys?, 2010, EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, (25), 4, 231-235.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-010-9434-8Copyright: Springer Science Business Mediahttp://www.springerlink.com

Can incentives undermine intrinsic motivation to participate in epidemiologic surveys?

Response rates to surveys are decreasing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of lottery tickets as incentives in an epidemiologic control group. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to parents in the municipality of Stockholm, Sweden, who were to be used as a control group in a study addressing stress in parents of children with cancer. A stratified random sample of 450 parents were randomized into three incentive groups: (a) no incentive; (b) a promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply; (c) a promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply and an additional lottery ticket upon reply within 1 week. The overall response rate across the three groups was 65.3%. The response rate was highest in the no incentive group (69.3%) and lowest in the one plus one lottery ticket group (62.0%). In a survival analysis, the difference between the two response curves was significant by the log-rank test (P = 0.04), with the no incentive group having a shorter time to response than the incentive group. Our findings suggest that the use of lottery tickets as incentives to increase participation in a mail questionnaire among parents may be less valuable or even harmful. Incentives may undermine motivation in studies in which the intrinsic motivation of the respondents is already high.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com:Marika Wenemark, Åsa Vernby and Annika Lindahl Norberg, Can incentives undermine intrinsic motivation to participate in epidemiologic surveys?, 2010, EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, (25), 4, 231-235.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-010-9434-8Copyright: Springer Science Business Mediahttp://www.springerlink.com

Diagnosis-prescribing surveys in 2000, 2002 and 2005 in Swedish general practice: Consultations, diagnosis, diagnostics and treatment choices

The aim of this study is to present diagnostic patterns, diagnostics used and antibiotic treatment in relation to guidelines in 3 repeated diagnosis-prescription studies conducted simultaneously in general practice in 5 Swedish counties, during 1 week in November 2000, 2002 and 2005. General practitioners (GPs) at the participating health centres were asked to complete a form for all patients with symptoms of an infectious disease. During the studied periods a total of 15,371 consultations was registered. Consultations with GPs diagnosed as respiratory tract infection (RTI), especially consultations for sore throat, decreased considerably between y 2000 and 2005. The percentage of patients allocated an RTI diagnosis and prescribed an antibiotic declined significantly from 54% to 49% and the decline was most pronounced among children. Penicillin V remained the dominant antibiotic prescribed throughout the study periods. For lower urinary tract infections there was a significant change in choice of prescribed antibiotics with an increase for pivmecillinam and nitrofurantoin and a decrease for trimethoprim, in accordance with recommendations. The results indicate a quite close adherence to current guidelines, with changes in the pattern of consultations as well as in the management of infectious diseases in general practice in Sweden