Predictors of willingness to register as an organ donor among dutch adolescents

Abstract

In order to identify relevant determinants of organ donor registration among Dutch adolescents, a school-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 145 high school students. Fifty-one percent of respondents indicated they were willing to register as organ donors and 80% reported a positive general attitude towards registration. Various misconceptions about the registration and donation procedure were identified. On average only moderate knowledge levels related to organ donation were found. In order of strongest association, negative outcome expectancies, past behaviour and experience, positive outcome expectancies, and social outcome expectancies proved to be significant predictors of willingness to register as organ donors. Self-efficacy was indirectly associated with willingness via outcome expectancies. Knowledge about organ donation was not significantly associated with willingness. The results suggest that in order to persuade adolescents to register as organ donors, refutational messages will have to be developed to counterargue the prevailing negative outcome expectancies related to organ donation and registration as an organ donor.     

An Evaluation of a Brief Multiple-Stimulus Without Replacement Preference Assessment Conducted in an Electronic Pictorial Format

We compared the results of a brief electronic pictorial multiple-stimulus without replacement (EP-MSWO) preference assessment to a brief tangible MSWO preference assessment in five children with autism. Results of both assessments yielded a match between high preferred (HP) toys for four participants and low preferred toys for three participants. The overall correlation between assessments across participants was strong and statistically significant (ρ = .67, p < .01). A reinforcer assessment conducted with three participants confirmed HP toys identified in the EP-MSWO functioned as reinforcers.     

Knowledge systems and public health

The knowledge and information systems (KIS) perspective arose from reflections on agricultural development. In the health sector, it is not quite as common to think in terms of KIS. Yet in this complex field, in which health education and promotion play increasingly important roles, the KIS perspective might be very useful. In this article, the authors attempt to apply ideas about KIS and knowledge management to health, by paying attention to the historical development, especially of public health, and by exploring the contribution these ideas could make to the field. Some of the observations made in this attempt are: upstream information flows often are developed poorly, interaction and exchange among the different KIS parties require ongoing stimulation, in special projects and complex communication situations, a system-integrator is needed. Maria Koelen is a staff member of the Department of Extension Science, Wageningen Agricultural University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands, and is responsible for the department's research and courses on health education.     

Neurobehavioral outcomes in diseases of childhood. Individual change models for pediatric human immunodeficiency viruses.

The growing incidence of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in children is a major public health problem. Current research emphasizes treatments for ameliorating deleterious effects on the child's neurological and behavioral development. This article outlines approaches to the assessment of individual change that may provide alternatives to more traditional approaches to the assessment of neurobehavioral outcomes in children with chronic diseases. These approaches provide more precise conceptualizations of changes that lead directly to statistical designs and measurement strategies for assessing effects of HIV-1 and AIDS on development. Such assessments can be superimposed on current clinical trial methodologies to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological and behavioral interventions designed to improve quality of life in HIV-1 infected children.     

Constructive Thinking and Burnout among Secondary School Teachers

The present study investigated the relationship between Epstein’s (1998, Constructive thinking: The key to emotional intelligence. London: Praeger publisher.) components of constructive thinking and burnout as experienced by a sample of Dutch secondary school teachers. A postal questionnaire was sent to teachers from randomly selected secondary schools. The response rate was 54.1% (N=433). Four components of constructive thinking significantly contributed to the explained variance in emotional exhaustion (17%), depersonalization (21%), and personal accomplishment (20%). The results of the study suggest that secondary school teachers’ maladaptive thinking processes prevent them from rational thinking during their work, which significantly contributes to the onset of burnout. Burnout intervention programs for teachers are likely to be more effective when the participator’s maladaptive thinking system is taken into consideration. This stems from the idea that personality factors are a probably easier point of departure to tackle burnout symptoms than organizational factors.     

Depressive symptoms in outpatients with heart failure: Importance of inflammatory biomarkers,disease severity and personality

Objective: Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in heart failure (HF) patients, however the underlying etiology of depression in HF patients remains yet unclear. Hence, the goal is to examine the relative importance of inflammation, disease severity and personality as predictors of depression in HF patients. Design: Depressive symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, depression subscale) were assessed at baseline and one-year follow-up in 268 HF patients (75.6% men; mean age?=?66.7?±?8.7). Markers of inflammation (TNFα, sTNFr1, sTNFr2, IL-6 and IL-10), disease severity (e.g. New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification) and personality (Type D personality, loneliness) were assessed at baseline. Results: At baseline, NYHA class, body mass index, educational level, Type D personality and loneliness were significantly associated with depression. Higher NYHA class (B?=?2.25; SE?=?.83), higher educational level (B?=?1.41; SE?=?.48), Type D personality (B?=?2.56; SE?=?.60) and loneliness (B?=?.19; SE?=?.05) were also independently associated with higher depression levels at one-year follow-up (all p-values?<?.005). Inflammation, brain natriuretic peptide and left ventricular ejection fraction were not related to depression over time. Conclusions: Personality factors, but not inflammation, were independent concomitants of depressive symptoms in patients with HF. Gaining more insight into the etiology of depression in HF patients is important in order to identify potential targets for novel interventions.     

On the nature of the verbal memory deficit in Alzheimer''s disease

Verbal memory was investigated in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) with previously documented deficits in word production and comprehension. Procedures were employed to evaluate word recall and recognition within the context of both "multistore" and "levels of processing" models of memory. In addition, memory abilities were evaluated with respect to performance on measures of verbal fluency and language comprehension. As expected, the AD patients performed significantly worse than normal individuals on all tasks. However, in each experiment their pattern of recall across conditions was found to be qualitatively similar to that produced by normal subjects. It was argued that the memory impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease may be largely due to an inability to encode a sufficient number of stimulus features or attributes. Furthermore, this encoding deficit includes, but is not limited to, semantic attributes. Similarities between the performance of the AD patients and reported findings with Korsakoff patients and normal subjects with "weak" memory were discussed.     

Nutritional Contributions to the CNS Pathophysiology of HIV-1 Infection and Implications for Treatment

Nutritional deficiencies are commonplace in patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, and recent research has indicated that nutritional factors may play an important role in the pathogenesis of HIV-1 disease. Although nutritional deficiencies are unlikely to be the primary causative factor in disease progression, they may contribute to cognitive dysfunction, neurologic abnormalities, mood disturbance, and immune dysregulation associated with HIV-1 infection. Furthermore, deficiencies of specific micronutrients have been associated with increased risk of HIV-1-associated mortality. This article will briefly summarize the role of macronutrient deficiency, the interactions of specific micronutrient deficiencies with neuropsychiatric functioning, and the role of these factors in HIV-1 disease progression. Since recent research has shown that normalization of many nutritional deficits and supplementation beyond normal levels are associated with improvements in neuropsychiatric functioning, potential treatment implications will also be discussed.     

Internal Consistency and Power When Comparing Total Scores from Two Groups

Researchers now know that when theoretical reliability increases, power can increase, decrease, or stay the same. However, no analytic research has examined the relationship of power to the most commonly used type of reliability—internal consistency—and the most commonly used measures of internal consistency, coefficient alpha and ICC(A,k). We examine the relationship between the power of independent samples t tests and internal consistency. We explicate the mathematical model upon which researchers usually calculate internal consistency, one in which total scores are calculated as the sum of observed scores on K measures. Using this model, we derive a new formula for effect size to show that power and internal consistency are influenced by many of the same parameters but not always in the same direction. Changing an experiment in one way (e.g., lengthening the measure) is likely to influence multiple parameters simultaneously; thus, there are no simple relationships between such changes and internal consistency or power. If researchers revise measures to increase internal consistency, this might not increase power. To increase power, researchers should increase sample size, select measures that assess areas where group differences are largest, and use more powerful statistical procedures (e.g., ANCOVA).