Attitudes and beliefs of oral health professionals regarding their role in health promotion

Issues addressed: The study was designed to gain an understanding of health promotion from the perspective of oral health professionals employed in the public sector during a transition in the focus of services. Methods: A cross sectional survey of oral health professionals employed by Queensland Health was conducted between March and April 2001. Staff were randomly sampled from employment records. A proportionate random sample, stratified across professional groups and geographical zones, was selected. Results: While the majority of the health professionals surveyed perceived oral health promotion to be part of their role, they felt ill equipped to adopt it. Professional groups differed in their confidence and perception of how to promote health in their clinical setting, existing barriers they encountered and their participation in health promotion programs. Conclusions: Strategies to improve the adoption of the oral health promotion role within Queensland public oral health services include: regular in- service and education for all staff regarding health promotion issues; increased cohesion of the oral health team; intersectorial collaboration; supportive district management; and a refocus to primary health care and public health concepts

Clinical reporting by occupational therapists and speech pathologists: Therapists' intentions and parental satisfaction

This study employed a qualitative research design to explore therapists' and parents' perspectives of paediatric occupational therapy and speech pathology assessment reports. Aims of the study were to explore the intentions of therapists when writing reports, to expand upon existing literature on parental satisfaction and preferences with respect to paediatric clinical reports, to highlight documentation practices that would serve to maximize parental use of allied health reports, and to develop specific guidelines on how reports can be written to ensure they are useful and beneficial to therapists and parents. Participants were 15 parents of children who had been assessed at 1 of 2 university clinics and subsequently received a written report, and 11 therapists employed at the same university clinics. Questionnaires were used to seek information from therapists concerning the purpose of assessment reports and essential aspects to include when writing reports for parents. In-depth interviews were used to seek information about how understandable and beneficial clinical reports were to parents. The data were subjected to thematic analysis. From comments of therapists' intentions and parents' stated needs, and in accordance with literature reviewed, guidelines were identified for the production of parent-oriented reports. Conclusions drawn from this study can be specifically applied to services producing paediatric occupational therapy or speech pathology assessment reports, but are widely relevant to paediatric allied health services. (author abstract)

Knowledge beliefs and attitudes of squash venue operators relating to use of protective eyewear

Sports venues are in a position to potentially influence the safety practices of their patrons. This study examined the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of venue operators that could influence the use of protective eyewear by squash players. A 50% random sample of all private and public squash venues affiliated with the Victorian Squash Federation in metropolitan Melbourne was selected. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 squash venue operators during August 2001. Interviews were transcribed and content and thematic analyses were performed. The content of the interviews covered five topics: (1) overall injury risk perception, (2) eye injury occurrence, (3) knowledge, behaviors, attitudes and beliefs associated with protective eyewear, (4) compulsory protective eyewear and (5) availability of protective eyewear at venues. Venue operators were mainly concerned with the severe nature of eye injuries, rather than the relatively low incidence of these injuries. Some venue operators believed that players should wear any eyewear, rather than none at all, and believed that more players should use protective eyewear. Generally, they did not believe that players with higher levels of experience and expertise needed to wear protective eyewear when playing. Only six venues had at least one type of eyewear available for players to hire or borrow or to purchase. Operators expressed a desire to be informed about correct protective eyewear. Appropriate protective eyewear is not readily available at squash venues. Better-informed venue operators may be more likely to provide suitable protective eyewear.

Beliefs and practices of patients with advanced cancer: implications for communication

The aim of this study was to investigate the beliefs that patients with advanced cancer held about the curability of their cancer, their use of alternatives to conventional medical treatment, and their need to have control over decisions about treatment. Of 149 patients who fulfilled the criteria for participation and completed a self-administered questionnaire, 45 patients (31%) believed their cancer was incurable, 61 (42%) were uncertain and 39 (27%) believed their cancer was curable. The index of need for control over treatment decisions was low in 53 patients (35.6%) and high in only 17 patients (11.4%). Committed users of alternatives to conventional medical treatments were more likely to believe that their cancer was curable (P

Beliefs, practices, and interactions of teachers in a Japanese high school English department

This study reveals the school culture and the teachers' professional development activities in a Japanese high school learning environment. Furthermore, it documents the relationships among the context, teachers' beliefs, practices, and interactions. Using multiple data sources including interviews, observations, and documents of teachers from an English department, this yearlong study revealed these English as a Foreign Language teachers lacked many teacher learning opportunities in their context. The study revealed that teacher collaboration only reinforced existing practices, eroding teachers' motivation to learn to teach in this specific context. The study provides evidence to teacher educators about inservice teachers and their learning environment and the significance of the relationships between the two entities. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Depression in young adolescents: Investigations using 2 and 3 factor versions of the parental bonding instrument

Associations between parenting style and depressive symptomatology in a community sample of young adolescents (N = 2596) were investigated using self-report measures including the Parental Bonding Instrument and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Specifically, the 25-item 2-factor and 3-factor models by Parker et al. (1979), Kendler's (1996) 16-item 3-factor model, and Parker's (1983) quadrant model for the Parental Bonding Instrument were compared. Data analysis included analysis of variance and logistic regression. Reanalysis of Parker's original scale indicates that overprotection is composed of separate factors: intrusiveness (at the individual level) and restrictiveness (in the social context). All models reveal significant independent contributions from paternal care, maternal care, and maternal overprotection (2-factor) or intrusiveness (3-factor) to moderate and serious depressive symptomatology, controlling for sex and family living arrangement. Additive rather than multiplicative interactions between care and overprotection were found. Regardless of the level of parental care and affection, clinicians should note that maternal intrusiveness is strongly associated with adverse psychosocial health in young adolescents.

Parents' and staff's perceptions of parental needs during a child's admission to hospital: an English perspective

The aim of this research was to compare perceptions of parental needs held by parents of hospitalized children and the staff caring for them, so that potential communication breakdown could be avoided. A well-trialled tool was used with a convenience sample in paediatric facilities in a National Health Service trust in north-east England. Some differences were found between parents and staff for scores for perceived importance of the 51 needs that were included in the questionnaire, and whether or not they were being satisfactorily met during the child’s hospital admission, but there were no consistent patterns, so it is difficult to draw conclusions. Parents declared themselves more independent than the staff perceived them to be. Such findings facilitate improvements in communication between parents and staff and can be included in education programmes for both.

Two new tools for assessing patients' knowledge and beliefs about obstructive sleep apnea and continuous positive airway pressure therapy

Background and purpose: Patients' knowledge and beliefs about their illnesses are known to influence a range of health related variables, including treatment compliance. It may, therefore, be important to quantify these variables to assess their impact on compliance, particularly in chronic illnesses such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) that rely on self-administered treatments. The aim of this study was to develop two new tools, the Apnea Knowledge Test (AKT) and the Apnea Beliefs Scale (ABS), to assess illness knowledge and beliefs in OSA patients. Patients and methods: The systematic test construction process followed to develop the AKT and the ABS included consultation with sleep experts and OSA patients. The psychometric properties of the AKT and ABS were then investigated in a clinical sample of 81 OSA patients and 33 healthy, non-sleep disordered adults. Results: Results suggest both measures are easily understood by OSA patients, have adequate internal consistency, and are readily accepted by patients. A preliminary investigation of the validity of these tools, conducted by comparing patient data to that of the 33 healthy adults, revealed that apnea patients knew more about OSA, had more positive attitudes towards continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, and attributed more importance to treating sleep disturbances than non-clinical groups. Conclusions: Overall, the results of psychometric analyses of these tests suggest these measures will be useful clinical tools with numerous beneficial applications, particularly in CPAP compliance studies and apnea education program evaluations. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parental occupation and Ewing's sarcoma: Pooled and meta-analysis

Etiologic data on Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) are limited, with only 5 case-control studies reported. Interesting associations, particularly related to parental occupation, have been noted, but results are somewhat inconsistent. We conducted a pooled analysis of 3 case-control studies to assess the overall associations between parental occupation and ESFT. The pooled analysis provided data on parental occupational exposure on 199 cases of ESFT and 1,451 controls. The pooled odds ratio for the periconception and gestation periods were 2.3 (95% CI = 1.3-4.1) for children whose fathers had worked on farms and 3.9 (95% CI 1.6-9.9) for those whose mothers had farmed. For the periconception and gestation periods, there was a 3.5-fold increased risk for those with both parents having farmed and a doubling of risk for those with at least one parent having farmed; pattern of increasing risk with increasing number of years of postnatal parental exposure to farms was seen. No other occupational group (or more narrowly defined occupations) had other than minor inconsistent associations with the occurrence of ESFT. In addition, we conducted a meta-analysis of farm occupation (a main risk factor) including all 4 case-control studies that collected required information to consider parental occupation. Results of the meta-analysis were consistent with those from the pooled analysis. This collaborative analysis of available individual data on parental occupation and ESFT in the offspring provides evidence supporting the hypothesis of an association between ESFT and parental occupation in farming. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Multiplication and comultiplication of beliefs

Multiplication and comultiplication of beliefs represent a generalisation of multiplication and comultiplication of probabilities as well as of binary logic AND and OR. Our approach follows that of subjective logic, where belief functions are expressed as opinions that are interpreted as being equivalent to beta probability distributions. We compare different types of opinion product and coproduct, and show that they represent very good approximations of the analytical product and coproduct of beta probability distributions. We also define division and codivision of opinions, and compare our framework with other logic frameworks for combining uncertain propositions. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.