The effects of questionnaire length and lottery ticket inducement on the response rate in mail surveys

Abstract

As part of a study on functional gastrointestinal disorders in the Australian community, we surveyed 500 subjects to test the effects of questionnaire length and lottery inducement on the response rate in mail surveys. By random allocation, n = 124 subjects received a short form questionnaire (28 pages) with a lottery ticket, n = 126 received a short form with no lottery ticket, n= 124 received a long form (32 pages) with a lottery ticket and n= 126 received a long form with no lottery ticket. The overall response rate for the study was 74%. The response rates for the short (76.8%) versus long (71.2%) form and lottery ticket (74.2%) versus no lottery ticket (73.8%) were not significantly different. Significantly more short forms compared with longer forms were received after each stage of the follow-up protocol. A long questionnaire can however be successfully used in survey research.     

论医疗差错

医疗差错是危及医疗安全、制约医疗质量、影响医患关系、引发医惠纠纷的核心问题,是医院管理的重点和难点。国内对医疗差错尚缺乏系统的理论研究。本文探讨的问题是：医疗差错概念的逻辑研究;医疗差错致因的假说分析;医疗差错诱因的理论探索和医疗差错管理的思路创新。     

群体性事件形成的心理机制分析

我国正处在社会转型时期,由各利益主体之间的磨擦而引发的群体性事件日益增多,诱发群体性事件的原因也复杂多样。如果从人类行为发生的内在机理看,它们主要遵循刺激——反应机制。导致群体性事件的发生既有直接诱因,也包括弱势群体的大量存在等社会诱因,而各种认识的偏差则是群体性事件的主观心理性因素。我们只有通过改变条件或作用方式,正确调整社会心理,使群体性事件丧失其发生的前提,才能达到预警预防群体性事件的目的。     

不同类型社会排斥中归因诱导对攻击性的影响

为探讨归因诱导能否缓解不同类型社会排斥引发的攻击性,研究分别采用网络任务范式和网络投球范式启动拒绝和放逐,进行不同的归因诱导后用科研助理评分范式测量攻击性。结果发现,放逐引发的攻击性比拒绝高;归因诱导对拒绝引发的攻击性有显著影响,对被拒绝者进行内部归因诱导后其攻击性显著低于外部归因诱导组和无归因诱导组;归因诱导对放逐引发的攻击性无显著影响。研究表明归因诱导对拒绝型直接排斥引发的攻击性有缓解作用。     

Biomedical research and mining of the poor: The need for their exclusion

Almost all ethical guidelines and legislative policies concerning biomedical research involving human subjects contain provisions about relevance of research for the participating populations, informed consent, adequate care for research induced injuries and several other safeguards but the poor continue to suffer. Globalization has further aggravated poor people’s vulnerability by exposing them to international markets. Since the developing countries are abode of higher population of the poor they have become the unholy mines of this human ore for researchers. In this paper I examine various dimensions of poverty and analyze the international ethical responses in the area of biomedical research involving human subjects in order to determine their adequacy to protect the poor against exploitation and misuse and conclude that in view of the poor’s inherent and extreme vulnerability and the failure of ethical pronouncements to protect them from misuse and exploitation, they should be excluded from being enrolled as research subjects This paper was presented at the 6th International Bioethics Conference on the subject of ‘The Responsible Conduct of Basic and Clinical Research’, held in Warsaw, Poland, 3–4 June 2005.     

The Inducement of Meaningful Work: A Response to Anderson and Weijer

James A. Anderson and Charles Weijer take the wage payment model proposed by Neil Dickert and Christine Grady and extend the analogy of research participation to unskilled wage labor to include just working conditions. Although noble in its intentions, this moral extension generates unsavory outcomes. Most notably, Anderson and Weijer distinguish between two types of research subjects: occasional and professional. The latter, in this case, receives benefits beyond the moral minima in the form of “the right to meaningful work.” The problem is that meaningful work can itself be a form of inducement, and consequently, may in fact increase the incidence of inducement contrary to the intentions of the wage payment model.     

如何减少医疗差错

医疗差错是危及医疗安全、制约医疗质量、影响医患关系、引发医患纠纷的核心问题,是医院管理的重点和难点。本文通过对医疗差错的分析和美国七大减少医疗差错的借鉴来探讨如何结合我国医院的实际来有效地减少医疗差错的发生。