Iowa Seat Belt Use Survey 2012 Data Collection Methodology Report September 13, 2012

In an effort to achieve greater consistency and comparability in state‐wide seat belt use reporting, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new requirements in 2011 for observing and reporting future seat belt use. The requirements included the involvement of a qualified statistician in the sampling and weighting portions of the process as well as a variety of operational details. The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau contracted with Iowa State University’s Survey & Behavioral Research Services (SBRS) in 2011 to develop the study design and data collection plan for the State of Iowa annual survey that would meet the new requirements of the NHTSA. A seat belt survey plan for Iowa was developed by SBRS with statistical expertise provided by Zhengyuan Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Statistics at Iowa State University. The Iowa plan was submitted to NHTSA in December of 2011 and official approval was received on March 19, 2012.

Community pharmacists’ understanding, attitudes, practice and perceived barriers related to providing pharmaceutical care: a questionnaire-based survey in Macao

Purpose: To explore the knowledge, attitudes, practice and perceived barriers of community pharmacists regarding provision of pharmaceutical care as well as provide recommendations on how to advance the service during the early stage of development in Macao. Methods: A questionnaire comprising 10 items was used to collect respondents’ demographic information and to evaluate their understanding of pharmaceutical care, attitude towards service provision, current practice and perceived barriers. Descriptive and comparative analysis of the results was conducted. Results: While 95 % of the participating pharmacists agreed that patients’ health was their primary responsibility, only 57 % believed that they can provide better pharmaceutical care in the future. The majority spent most of their work time counselling patients (90 %) and checking prescription (70 %). Only a small portion monitored adverse drug reaction and drug compliance (44 %), engaged in health screening or drug safety promotion (20 %) or maintained patient medication records (4 %). Insufficient communication with physicians (90 %), lack of time (79 %) and lack of physical space at the pharmacy (76 %) were considered the most significant barriers. Conclusion: A suboptimal level of pharmaceutical care is provided by pharmacists in Macao. Considering the barriers identified and integrating other country experiences, establishing an enabling atmosphere using policy and regulatory measures is the fundamental element for advancing pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists.

An interprofessional approach to improving paediatric medication safety

Safe drug prescribing and administration are essential elements within undergraduate healthcare curricula, but medication errors, especially in paediatric practice, continue to compromise patient safety. In this area of clinical care, collective responsibility, team working and communication between health professionals have been identified as key elements in safe clinical practice. To date, there is limited research evidence as to how best to deliver teaching and learning of these competencies to practitioners of the future.An interprofessional workshop to facilitate learning of knowledge, core competencies, communication and team working skills in paediatric drug prescribing and administration at undergraduate level was developed and evaluated. The practical, ward-based workshop was delivered to 4th year medical and 3rd year nursing students and evaluated using a pre and post workshop questionnaire with open-ended response questions.Following the workshop, students reported an increase in their knowledge and awareness of paediatric medication safety and the causes of medication errors (p < 0.001), with the greatest increase noted among medical students. Highly significant changes in students' attitudes to shared learning were observed, indicating that safe medication practice is learnt more effectively with students from other healthcare disciplines. Qualitative data revealed that students' participation in the workshop improved communication and teamworking skills, and led to greater awareness of the role of other healthcare professionals.This study has helped bridge the knowledge-skills gap, demonstrating how an interprofessional approach to drug prescribing and administration has the potential to improve quality and safety within healthcare.

Romanian Knowledge and Attitudes regarding Dietary Fibers

Presently, the scientists recognize the health benefits of food fibers in the menu and also plant food sources are at high interest both for general population and food companies. The food companies are responsible for a clear nutrition labelling that will assist consumers to make informed and healthy choices and health providers has to inform the population about the benefits of fibers.The aim of our study was to evaluate the Romanian knowledge and attitudes regarding dietary fibers from food products. We made a qualitative survey based on a questionnaire applied in 2015, over a period of 6 months, over 670 Romanian consumers. It was focused on testing the attitudes and knowledge towards ingestion of foods rich in fibers. For all data analysis we used the software SPSS, from IBM Inc. Our results showed that the knowledge about dietary fibers and also the ingestion of food products rich in fibers were low, and most of the subjects didn’t have any interest to read the nutritional information from food labels. The female participants ate more whole grains and fruits than males and pay more attention to food labelling. Romanian people prefer to stay and eat home than at restaurants especially in rural areas, and the knowledge about fibers benefits was significantly related to education and urban location. We underline the needs for more efficient community interventions and proper information about the importance of dietary fibers for our health and also to improve and disseminate nutritional standards and diet recommendation among population.

Iowa Seat Belt Use Survey 2013 Data Collection Methodology Report, September 26, 2013

In an effort to achieve greater consistency and comparability in state-wide seat belt use reporting, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new requirements in 2011 for observing and reporting future seat belt use. The requirements included the involvement of a qualified statistician in the sampling and weighting portions of the process as well as a variety of operational details. The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau contracted with Iowa State University’s Survey & Behavioral Research Services (SBRS) in 2011 to develop the study design and data collection plan for the State of Iowa annual survey that would meet the new requirements of the NHTSA. A seat belt survey plan for Iowa was developed by SBRS with statistical expertise provided by Zhengyuan Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Statistics at Iowa State University and was approved by NHTSA on March 19, 2012.

Iowa Seat Belt Use Survey 2014 Data Collection Methodology Report, September 25, 2014

In an effort to achieve greater consistency and comparability in state-wide seat belt use reporting, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new requirements in 2011 for observing and reporting future seat belt use. The requirements included the involvement of a qualified statistician in the sampling and weighting portions of the process as well as a variety of operational details. The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau contracted with Iowa State University’s Survey & Behavioral Research Services (SBRS) in 2011 to develop the study design and data collection plan for the State of Iowa annual survey that would meet the new requirements of the NHTSA. A seat belt survey plan for Iowa was developed by SBRS with statistical expertise provided by Zhengyuan Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Statistics at Iowa State University and was approved by NHTSA on March 19, 2012.

Iowa Seat Belt Use Survey 2015 Data Collection Methodology Report, September 9, 2015

In an effort to achieve greater consistency and comparability in state-wide seat belt use reporting, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new requirements in 2011 for observing and reporting future seat belt use. The requirements included the involvement of a qualified statistician in the sampling and weighting portions of the process as well as a variety of operational details. The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau contracted with Iowa State University’s Survey & Behavioral Research Services (SBRS) in 2011 to develop the study design and data collection plan for the State of Iowa annual survey that would meet the new requirements of the NHTSA. A seat belt survey plan for Iowa was developed by SBRS with statistical expertise provided by Zhengyuan Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Statistics at Iowa State University and Director of the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology. The plan was approved by NHTSA on March 19, 2012.

A Best Practice Process for Fleet Safety Training

This paper outlines a process for fleet safety training based on research and management development programmes undertaken at the University of Huddersfield in the UK (www.hud.ac.uk/sas/trans/transnews.htm) and CARRS-Q in Australia (www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/staff/Murray.jsp) over the past 10 years.