1,720,992 research outputs found
Synergistic risk and decision making: A study of whether knowledge of harmful drug-drug interactions affects drug dosing behaviours
No full textRecent studies indicate that nearly 70% of the adult population in developed countries now use medicinal drugs, over 20% are prescribed five or more drugs, and approximately 12% are exposed to potentially serious drug-drug interactions. The day-to-day responsibility of safely using combinations of medicinal drugs often rest with lay individuals acting in non-clinical contexts without professional supervision. Consequently, understanding that certain drug combinations present a ‘synergistic risk’ (i.e., the risk attributable to the drug combination is greater than the sum of the risk attributable to each constituent drug) is often central to avoiding harmful drug-drug interactions. We conducted two studies to test whether providing individuals with information about a drug combination that presents a synergistic (cf. additive) risk elicited higher perceived risk and, therefore, increased precautionary dosing behaviours. Participants were presented with a scenario describing how two symptoms of an infection that could each be treated by a different drug. In Experiment 1 (N = 120), information about the effects of combining the two drugs was varied: (i) no information, (ii) combination elicits an additive risk, or (iii) combination elicits a synergistic risk. In Experiment 2 (N = 445), the size of the risk (small or large) and the participant’s role (patient or doctor) was also varied. In both studies, perceived risk and negative affect increased in response to information about the increased probability of side effects from the harmful synergistic drug interaction. Despite these increases, participants did not adjust their drug dosing behaviour in either experiment: dosing was similar when these interactions were large or small, or when they had synergistic or additive effects. These findings suggest that people may struggle to transfer their knowledge of drug-drug interaction risks into decision making behaviours. Hence, both researchers and medical professionals should take care not to assume that holding accurate risk perceptions of a drug’s side effects will result in decisions that help to avoid harmful drug interactions
Towards an understanding of adult judgments of synergistic health benefits
No full textObjective: Numerous scientific studies show that certain combinations of dietary and/or lifestyle factors produce health benefits which are greater than the sum of the benefits associated with each factor alone. To address an existing knowledge gap, we assessed the extent to which individuals understand that certain combinations present these ‘synergistic health benefits’.Design: Health benefit judgments were obtained from lay adults for a range of dietary and/or lifestyle combinations that have been found to present synergistic benefits. Association between these judgments and socio-cognitive characteristics such as numeracy, education and health interest were examined.Methods: 352 Swiss adults were presented with a description of one of eight synergistically beneficial combinations. Each participant provided a categorical benefit judgment (i.e., sub-additive, additive or synergistic) for the combination and explained the cognitive reasoning underlying their judgment. Participants completed measures of numeracy and health interest. Results: The proportion of combinations judged to present a synergistic benefit was modest for ‘macro-level’ combinations (e.g., diet and exercise), but low for ‘micro-level’ combinations (e.g., two phytochemicals). Cognitive reasoning data showed that a higher proportion of judgments for micro-level (cf. macro-level) combinations were based on greater subjective epistemic uncertainty. Higher interest in health was associated with a better understanding of synergistic benefits, but numeracy and education level were not. Conclusions: There is considerable scope to improve the extent to which lay adults understand that specific combination of diet and lifestyle behaviours can synergistically benefit their health. Our results enable us to make informed recommendations for public health interventions
Putting knowledge into practice: does information on adverse drug interactions influence people's dosing behavior?
No full textObjective: Adverse drug events relating to drug-drug interactions are a common cause of patient harm. Central to avoiding this harm is the patients’ understanding that certain drug combinations present a synergistic risk. Two studies tested whether providing individuals with information about a drug combination that presents a synergistic (cf. additive) risk would elicit higher perceived risk and, therefore, would result in greater precaution in terms of dosing behavior. Design: Both studies employed an experimental design. Methods: Participants were presented with a scenario describing how two symptoms of an infection could each be treated by a different drug. In Experiment 1, information about the effects of combining the two drugs was varied: (i) no information, (ii) combination elicits an additive risk, or (iii) combination elicits a synergistic risk. In Experiment 2, the size of the risk (small or large) and the participant’s role (patient or doctor) was also varied. Results: In both experiments, perceived risk and negative affect increased in response to information about the increased probability of side effects from the drug-drug interaction. Despite these increases, participants did not adjust their drug dosing behavior in either experiment: dosing was similar when these interactions were large or small, or when they were due to synergistic or additive effects. Conclusions: People may struggle to transfer their knowledge of drug-drug interaction risks into decision making behaviors. Care should be taken not to assume that holding accurate risk perceptions of a drugs side effect will result in decisions that help avoid adverse drug events
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Der Einfluss von individuellen und situativen Faktoren auf die Bereitschaft zur Inanspruchnahme von Vorsorgeuntersuchungen am Beispiel des Hautkrebsscreenings
Full text linkHautkrebs ist die häufigste Krebsart in Deutschland und der kaukasischen Bevölkerung generell, und damit ein wesentlicher Mitverursacher erhöhter Sterblichkeit sowie steigender Kosten im Gesundheitssystem. Um dem entgegenzuwirken, wurde 2008 die gesetzliche Möglichkeit der Inanspruchnahme eines Hautkrebsscreenings eingeführt, um dieser Gruppe von Erkrankungen frühzeitig vorzubeugen. Es zeigt sich jedoch, dass dieses Angebot bisher nur rudimentär wahrgenommen wird. Für andere Bereiche von Gesundheitsverhalten wie bspw. der Ernährung oder dem Konsum von Alkohol und Tabak wurde bereits gezeigt, dass sowohl soziodemographische als auch persönlichkeitsrelevante Variablen einen Einfluss auf das Gesundheitsbewusstsein haben. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war es, prädiktive Faktoren für die Inanspruchnahme eines HKS zu ermitteln.
Hierfür wurden N = 1042 Probanden online sowie analog im Praxisbetrieb untersucht, die einen Fragebogen zu ihrem Gesundheits- und Präventionsverhalten bearbeiteten. Außerdem machten alle Probanden demographische Angaben (Alter, Geschlecht, Ausbildung, …) und füllten die Subskalen Neurotizismus und Gewissenhaftigkeit des NEO FFI zur Persönlichkeit aus.
Es zeigte sich, dass Personen, die sich (regelmäßig) einem HKS unterzogen, eher weiblich und älter sind und angeben, ein höheres Gesundheitsbewusstsein zu haben sowie auch in anderen Bereichen (wie Schutzimpfungen und anderen Vorsorgeuntersuchungen) ein ausgeprägteres Präventionsverhalten aufweisen. Bildung als Indikator für sozioökonomischen Status zeigte keinen Einfluss. Hinsichtlich der Persönlichkeit hatte Gewissenhaftigkeit einen positiven prädiktiven Wert, während sich die Neurotizismusausprägungen nicht auf die Inanspruchnahme eines HKS auswirkten.
Die vorliegenden Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine generelle Steigerung des Bewusstseins für Hautkrebs in der Gesellschaft sinnvoll wäre, um die Teilnahmequoten an Hautkrebsvorsorgeuntersuchungen zu steigern. Zudem konnten spezielle Personengruppen, nämlich Männer und jüngere Personen, identifiziert werden, die gezielt auf die Möglichkeit der Inanspruchnahme eines HKS aufmerksam gemacht werden sollten, da diese besonders niedrige Teilnahmequoten aufwiesen. Auf dem Gebiet der Persönlichkeitsforschung hinsichtlich der Inanspruchnahme von Vorsorgeuntersuchungen wären Desiderate für weitergehende Forschung die Aufgliederung des Neurotizismus in seine Subfacetten, um ein genaueres Bild vom Einfluss jener auf die Inanspruchnahme von HKS zu bekommen
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