Knowledge and attitudes of nurses towards alcohol and related problems: the impact of an educational intervention

An exploratory study of quasi-experimental approach that aimed to verify the impact of an educational intervention on attitudes and knowledge of nurses towards alcohol use and associated problems. The sample included 185 nurses, divided into two groups: 84 submitted to a training course and formed the experimental group. Data were collected through a knowledge survey and an attitude scale. The attitudes of the participants of both groups were positive. There were no significant differences between groups in relation to knowledge. The strongest predictors of positive attitudes were possessed preparation to act with chemical dependents (OR = 2.18), "have received increased workload during graduation on the theme, 'alcohol and other drugs'" (OR = 1.70), and "completed graduate school" (OR = 2.59). The educational intervention had a positive impact on the attitudes of nurses towards alcoholics, work and interpersonal relationships with such clientele.

Attitudes, knowledge, and opinions regarding mental health among undergraduate nursing students

A cross-sectional study involving 235 subjects was conducted in 2011 to compare the opinions of nursing students regarding mental illness and related care practices at two institutions in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Following approval by the ethics committee, data collection was initiated using an instrument containing questions regarding the importance of personal characteristics, knowledge of mental health, and the Opinions about Mental Illness (OMI) scale. Statistical analyses, including the Mann-Whitney test, Chi-squared test, and Spearman correlation at , were performed using SPSSv.15. The students exhibited significantly different characteristics only for Benevolence. Regarding the importance of knowledge about mental health, in comparison with students from the State University of Londrina (Universidade Estadual de Londrina – UEL), students at the State University of Maringa (Universidade Estadual de Maringá – UEM) considered psychological aspects more comprehensively than technical knowledge. We conclude that there are differences between students at these institutions in terms of knowledge and the factor Benevolence. Further studies are necessary to identify the underlying causes of such differences.

School age children with HIV/AIDS: possible discrimination and attitudes against

Survey-based study what purpose was to analyse respondents’ opinions about contacts with HIV/AIDS-affected people. It was performed using a paper-pencil method during visits of respondents at primary care centres and on-line through a link to the questionnaire distributed among patients of primary care physicians. The study involved 302 respondents, 80% of whom were women; the average age was 34.48 years. The majority of respondents did not know anyone with HIV/AIDS (89.6%). About 83.3% claimed that they would not decrease contacts with HIV/AIDS-affected people. According to 64.1% of respondents, children with HIV/AIDS should go to kindergarten/public or non-public school. We selected a group of respondents, who previously were not but now are inclined to limit such contacts. These respondents can be a potential target group for HIV/AIDS educational programmes. Most respondents think that there is insufficient information about the HIV/AIDS in the mass media.

Consumer Satisfaction with Websites of Banks - The Moderating Effect of Consumer Technology Attractiveness

The websites are becoming the firms’ first contact interface with their clients. Hence, understanding customers’ online attitudes and behaviors have been capturing increased research attention. The extant research has pointed customers’ satisfaction with the websites as the main reason for customers’ online behaviors. This research has used mostly variables related to the characteristics of the websites as the predictors of customers’ website satisfaction. However, recent research shows that groups of individuals displaying distinctive characteristics react differently to the same context. Therefore, behavior may be considerably different among groups of customers. In this study, we develop a conceptual model of the influence of individual characteristics on the traditional website quality – website satisfaction relationship. We propose a model based on the construct of consumer technology attractiveness (CTA) to represent the genuine positive propensity of individuals toward technology. We further test the moderating effect of this construct on the commonly used predictors of customer’s website satisfaction using Hierarchical Multiple Regression. The empirical study was based on websites of banks operating in Portuguese market. The commercial banking industry is one of the Portuguese industries that better uses the Internet to establish relationships with clients. Data were collected through an online website satisfaction survey, participated by the lecturers and postgraduate students from four Portuguese Universities and Polytechnic Institutes. Our final sample comprised 276 valid questionnaires. Our study permits to conclude that the most commonly used antecedents of website overall satisfaction are still relevant for analyzing consumer’s satisfaction with the banks websites. We also conclude that CTA has a significant moderating effect on almost all customers’ website satisfaction variables used in the study. This study contributes to highlight the theoretical importance and significant influence of consumers’ personal characteristics on their online behavior. Moreover, for the practitioners, a better understanding of these individual characteristics will assist them in developing customized websites that will meet customers’ expectations. O estudo dos comportamentos dos consumidores em ambientes online tem vindo a ter um crescente interesse, uma vez que os websites estão a transformar-se num importante ponto de contacto entre as empresas e os seus clientes. A satisfação dos clientes com os websites tem sido apontada pela Literatura como o principal condicionante dos comportamentos online dos consumidores. No entanto, a investigação científica tem conseguido provar que grupos de indivíduos com características distintas reagem de forma diferente quando submetidos a contextos idênticos, o que poderá levar a diferenças significativas no comportamento online de consumidores pertencentes a diferentes grupos. Neste estudo desenvolvemos um modelo conceptual que reflecte a influência de características individuais na relação entre a qualidade e a satisfação com os websites. Propomos um modelo assente na atractividade tecnológica do consumidor (CTA), que representa a propensão genuína que os indivíduos possuem em relação à tecnologia. Testamos o efeito moderador deste conceito sobre as variáveis mais utilizadas nos estudos sobre a satisfação dos consumidores com os websites, utilizando a Regressão Múltipla Hierárquica. O estudo empírico baseou-se nos websites dos bancos que operam no mercado português, uma vez que este sector é um dos que melhor utiliza a Internet na sua relação com os clientes. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um questionário sobre satisfação com os websites, colocado online e dirigido a docentes e estudantes de programas de pós-graduações, mestrados e doutoramentos de quatro universidades e instituto politécnico portugueses, tendo resultado numa amostra final de 276 questionários validados estatisticamente. Este estudo permitiu concluir que as variáveis que são mais utilizadas como antecedentes da satisfação dos consumidores com os websites, continuam a ser igualmente válidas para a análise dos websites dos bancos. Também concluímos que a CTA tem efeitos moderadores significativos na grande maioria das variáveis utilizadas neste estudo. Assim, conseguimos realçar a importância teórica das características pessoais dos consumidores no seu comportamento online. Para os gestores, uma melhor compreensão destas características individuais permitir-lhes-á desenvolver websites customizados que irão satisfazer as expectativas dos seus clientes.

Discounting Spotted Apples: Investigating Consumers’ Willingness to Accept Cosmetic Damage in an Organic Product, November 2006

Organic producers have limited methods of avoiding plant diseases that result in cosmetic damage to produce. Therefore, the appearance of organic produce is often less than perfect. We use an experimental auction to investigate how cosmetic damage affects consumers’ willingness to pay for organic apples. We find that 75% of the participants are willing to pay more for organic than for conventional apples given identical appearance. However, at the first sight of any imperfection in the appearance of the organic apples, this segment is significantly reduced. Furthermore, we find that there is a significant effect of interaction between cosmetic damage and product methods. Even though most consumers say they buy organic products to avoid pesticides, we find that cosmetic damage has a larger impact on the willingness to pay for organic apples than for conventional apples.

Nurses’ attitudes regarding the importance of families in pediatric nursing care

Affective, cognitive and behavioral components affect nurses´ attitudes to include families in the care processes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of nurses about the importance of including families in nursing care. Data collection was performed in pediatric and maternal-child unit of a Brazilian university hospital. A sample of 50 nurses completed the Portuguese version of the instrument Families’Importance in Nursing Care-Nurses’ Attitudes (FINC-NA). The results indicated that nurses have supportive attitudes regarding families participation in nursing care. Attitudes of lower support for involving families in nursing care were found among nurses with older age, more time in the profession and who had no previous contact with contents related to Family Nursing. The application of the instrument in other contexts of assistance may help to illuminate important aspects of the challenges to implementing a family-centered approach in clinical practice.





Evaluation of professional knowledge and attitudes on dementia patient care: a trans-cultural adaptation of an evaluation instrument

Objective To describe the trans-cultural adaptation of the evaluation instrument entitled Atenció Sanitària de Les Demències: la visió de L' Atenció Primarià from Catalan into versions in Portuguese for doctors and nurses. This study evaluates the knowledge and perspectives of these professionals in their treatment of patients diagnosed with dementia in cases of primary care. Method The adaptation followed internationally accepted rules, which include the following steps: translation, synthesis, back-translation, revision by a committee of specialists, and a test run with 35 practicing doctors and 35 practicing nurses in Brazil's Family Health Strategy (Estratégia Saúde da Família, or ESF in Portuguese). Results The translation, synthesis, and back-translation steps were performed satisfactorily; only small adjustments were required. The committee of specialists verified the face validity in the version translated into Portuguese, and all of the items that received an agreement score lower than 80% during the initial evaluation were revised. In the test run, the difficulties presented by the health care professionals did not reach 15% of the sample, and therefore, no changes were made. Conclusion The Portuguese translation of the instrument can be considered semantically, idiomatically, culturally, and conceptually equivalent to the original Catalan version and is, therefore, appropriate for use in Brazil.

The Minimum Safety Standard, Consumers’ Information, and Competition, February 2007

This paper explores the effects of a standard influencing care choice. Firm(s) may increase the probability of offering safe products by incurring a cost. Under duopoly, they compete either in prices or in quantities. Under perfect information about safety for consumers, the selected standard that corrects a safety underinvestment is always compatible with competition. Safety over investment only emerges under competition in quantities and relatively low values of the cost. Under imperfect information about safety for consumers, the standard leads to a monopoly situation. However, for relatively large values of the cost, a standard cannot impede the market failure coming from the lack of information.

(Re-) Shaping hatred: Anti-Semitic attitudes in Germany, 1890-2006

In this paper, we assess the determinants of long-run persistence of localculture, and examine the success of policy interventions designed to change attitudes.We analyze anti-Semitic attitudes drawing on individual-level survey results fromGermany s social value survey in 1996 and 2006. On average, we find that historicalvoting patterns for anti-Semitic parties between 1890 and 1933 are powerfulpredictors of anti-Jewish attitudes today. There is evidence that transmission takesplace both vertically (parent to child) and horizontally (among peers). Policy modifiedGerman views on Jews in important ways: The cohort that grew up under the Naziregime shows significantly higher levels of anti-Semitism. After 1945, the victoriousAllies implemented denazification programs in their zones of occupation. We usedifferences in these policies between the occupying powers as a source of identifyingvariation. The US and French zones today still show high anti-Semitism, reflecting anambitious botched attempt at denazification. In contrast, the British and Soviet zones,register much lower levels of Jew-hatred.

Married to intolerance: Attitudes towards intermarriage in Germany, 1900-2006

Marriage is amongst the biggest decisions in life. In general, there is a tendency towards assortative matching people marry others who are relatively similar to themselves. Intermarriage between different social, religious and ethnic groups in most societies is relatively rare (Blossfeld and Timm 2003). Where it occurs, it is associated with more rapid assimilation (Meng and Gregory 2005). The frequency of intermarriage can therefore serve as a useful indicator of tolerant attitudes towards a minority, and of the desire to integrate (Bisin, Topa, and Verdier 2004).In this paper, we analyze under which conditions intermarriage can be used as an indicator of tolerance, and whether such tolerant attitudes persisted in Germany during the last century. We combine information on individual-level attitudes from the German social survey (GESIS) with historical data on marriage patterns.

Seeking theta's desperately: Estimating the distribution of consumers under increasing block rates

This paper shows that the distribution of observed consumption is not a good proxy for the distribution of heterogeneous consumers when the current tariff is an increasing block tariff. We use a two step method to recover the "true" distribution of consumers. First, we estimate the demand function induced by the current tariff. Second, using the demand system, we specify the distribution of consumers as a function of observed consumption to recover the true distribution. Finally, we design a new two-part tariff which allows us to evaluate the equity of the existence of an increasing block tariff.

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Gift Card Fact Sheet – and Tips for Consumers, December 2007

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Gift Card Fact Sheet – and Tips for Consumers

Selling to consumers with endogenous types

For many goods (such as experience goods or addictive goods), consumers preferences may change over time. In this paper, we examine a monopolist s optimal pricing schedule when current consumption can affect a consumer s valuation in the future and valuations are unobservable. We assume that consumers are anonymous, i.e. the monopolist can t observe a consumer s past consumption history. For myopic consumers, the optimal consumption schedule is distorted upwards, involving substantial discounts for low valuation types. This pushes low types into higher valuations, from which rents can be extracted.For forward looking consumers, there may be a further upward distortion of consumption due to a reversal of the adverse selection effect; low valuation consumers now have a strong interest in consumption in order to increase their valuations. Firms will find it profitable to educate consumers and encourage forward looking behavior.

Supermarket key attributes and location decisions: A comparative study between British and Spanish consumers

The Maximum Capture problem (MAXCAP) is a decision model that addresses the issue of location in a competitive environment. This paper presents a new approach to determine which store s attributes (other than distance) should be included in the newMarket Capture Models and how they ought to be reflected using the Multiplicative Competitive Interaction model. The methodology involves the design and development of a survey; and the application of factor analysis and ordinary least squares. Themethodology has been applied to the supermarket sector in two different scenarios: Milton Keynes (Great Britain) and Barcelona (Spain).