The discrepancy between perceived importance and adequacy in discussing topics related to pregnancy and birthing in maternity services: the views of mothers giving birth in Northern Greece

Aim: To explore aspects of maternity care regarding mode of delivery, preferred mode and place for next delivery, number of abortions, and the discrepancy between perceived importance and adequacy in discussing topics related to pregnancy and birth in maternity services. Background: Childbearing has been highly medicalized in Greece; deliveries are taking place in hospitals under the supervision of obstetricians.Methods: A convenience sample of 607 mothers (mean age 33.1±5.8) who had given birth one week to one year prior to the study participated and completed the Kuopio Instrument for Mothers.Results: Out of 607 eligible subjects, 46.8% (n=284) completed the KIM after first delivery and 52.7% (n=320)after second or multiple deliveries; 9.1% (n=55) reported preterm delivery and 22.7% (n=138) one or more abortions. The majority, 66.3 % (n=403), had vaginal delivery, while 32.9% (n=200) had caesarean section (CS). A total of 485 mothers (81.5%) reported that they preferred to have their next delivery in a hospital, and 298 (49.8%) visited private obstetricians for pregnancy monitoring. The discussion of CS in maternity clinics(p=0.001) was rated as more important by women who had undergone CS, while recovery after delivery (p=0.050) and normal course of pregnancy (p=0.014) were rated as not adequately discussed during their last pregnancy.Conclusions: there is a need for further research in order to obtain information on these important issues at a national level

Personalized Stopping Rules in Bayesian Adaptive Mastery Assessment

We propose a new model to assess the mastery level of a given skill efficiently. The model, called Bayesian Adaptive Mastery Assessment (BAMA), uses information on the accuracy and the response time of the answers given and infers the mastery at every step of the assessment. BAMA balances the length of the assessment and the certainty of the mastery inference by employing a Bayesian decision-theoretic framework adapted to each student. All these properties contribute to a novel approach in assessment models for intelligent learning systems. The purpose of this research is to explore the properties of BAMA and evaluate its performance concerning the number of questions administered and the accuracy of the final mastery estimates across different students. We simulate student performances and establish that the model converges with low variance and high efficiency leading to shorter assessment duration for all students. Considering the experimental results, we expect our approach to avoid the issue of over-practicing and under-practicing and facilitate the development of Learning Analytics tools to support the tutors in the evaluation of learning effects and instructional decision making.Comment: 12 page

Health Education Interventions in Secondary Schools in Larissa, Greece

Introduction: School plays an important role in solving society’s health problems. Teachers are assigned a double role, that of the educator and that of the carrier of health-related behaviours and attitudes.Aim: The present study aims at investigating: a) the type and frequency of health education programs in secondary schools, and b) the teachers’ voluntary un-compensated contribution in promoting health-related behaviours by acting as role-models.Method: The data collection period lasted two months in the beginning of the school year 2007-2008. We used a 4-section questionnaire. The initial sample of 287 teachers which was selected by cluster random sampling, were secondary education teachers with permanent positions, working in 4 junior high-schools, 3 general high-schools, and 2 vocational high-schools in Larissa county. The final sample consisted of 216 teachers (response rate 75.3%).Results: 25% of the participants had attented seminars in health education, while 60% had read some handbook on Health Education in the last five years. 96 had participated in an organised health education program, and 70 were in charge of one. In 30% of the programs, the subjects were about mental health and they usually lasted about 6 to 12 months. 83% of the participants stated that they advise students, at least once per semester, on relaxation and satisfaction from life.Conclusion: The teachers’ socio-demographic and pedagogic profile, and their previous experience on health issues, may constitute prognostic indicators for their voluntary teaching of health education and, moreover, they are related with a teacher’s decision to get involed in health education interventions