What Does the Australian General Public Know About Treatments for Dementia? A Population Survey.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rahja M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6090500 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundSwift defibrillation by lay responders using automated external defibrillators (AEDs) increases survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). This study evaluated newly designed yellow-red vs. commonly used green-white signage for AEDs and cabinets and assessed public attitudes to using AEDs during OHCA.MethodsNew yellow-red signage was designed to enable easy identification of AEDs and cabinets. A prospective, cross-sectional study of the Australian public was conducted using an electronic, anonymised questionnaire between November 2021 and June 2022. The validated net promoter score investigated public engagement with the signage. Likert scales and binary comparisons evaluated preference, comfort and likelihood of using AEDs for OHCA.ResultsThe yellow-red signage for AED and cabinet was preferred by 73.0% and 88%, respectively, over the green-white counterparts. Only 32% were uncomfortable with using AEDs, and only 19% indicated a low likelihood of using AEDs in OHCA.ConclusionThe majority of the Australian public surveyed preferred yellow-red over green-white signage for AED and cabinet and indicated comfort and likelihood of using AEDs in OHCA. Steps are necessary to standardise yellow-red signage of AED and cabinet and enable widespread availability of AEDs for public access defibrillation.
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Project description:BackgroundThere are well established modifiable risk factors for late-life dementia. These risk factors account for over 30% of population attributable dementia risk and accrue over the lifespan. Young adults have the greatest potential to reduce their own risk for dementia. This study aimed to investigate what young Australian adults know about dementia and its risk factors, and further, how they estimated these risks.MethodsAn online survey promoted through various social media platforms was completed by 604 young Australian adults aged 18-44 years of age.ResultsSeventy percent of participants had a limited understanding of dementia (identifying cognitive or functional impairment), 25% had a good understanding, with 5% having no understanding. Twenty percent of respondents thought there were no modifiable risk factors for dementia. Less the half of participants agreed with two of the nine established dementia risk factors (hearing loss in midlife and education in early life), with over half of participants agreeing to the remaining seven risk factors. Females consistently judged the risks conferred by the nine established dementia risk factors to be higher than males. Those who were lonely judged the dementia risk conferred by loneliness to be higher than those who were not lonely; and smokers judged the dementia risk conferred by smoking to be less than non-smokers.ConclusionYoung adults have the greatest potential to change their dementia risk, and these findings show that there are important gaps in knowledge of dementia and its risk factors in this group.
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Project description:ObjectiveWe aimed to identify the priorities for joint pain research from a large general population survey and identify characteristics associated with these priorities.MethodsA question about research priorities was developed in collaboration with the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre's Research Users' Group. The question was embedded in a postal survey to an existing cohort of adults with self-reported joint pain, aged ≥56 years, in North Staffordshire. Respondents were asked to rank their top three priorities for research. Factor mixture modelling was used to determine subgroups of priorities.ResultsIn all, 1756 (88%) people responded to the survey. Of these, 1356 (77%) gave three priorities for research. Keeping active was rated the top priority by 38%, followed by research around joint replacement (9%) and diet/weight loss (9%). Two clusters of people were identified: 62% preferred lifestyle/self-management topics (e.g. keeping active, weight loss) and 38% preferred medical intervention topics (e.g. joint replacement, tablets). Those who preferred the medical options tended to be older and have hip or foot pain.ConclusionThis study has provided population data on priorities for joint pain research expressed by a large cohort of older people who report joint pain. The most popular topics for research were linked to lifestyle and self-management opportunities. Pharmaceutical and invasive interventions, despite being common topics of research, are of less importance to these respondents than non-medical topics. Specific research questions will be generated from this study with collaboration of the patient's group.
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Project description:This is the first national study of public and patient research priorities in osteoporosis and fracture. We have identified new research areas of importance to members of the public, particularly 'access to information from health professionals'. The findings are being incorporated into the research strategy of the National Osteoporosis Society.PurposeThis study aimed to prioritise, with patients and public members, research topics for the osteoporosis research agenda.MethodsAn e-survey to identify topics for research was co-designed with patient representatives. A link to the e-survey was disseminated to supporters of the UK National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) in a monthly e-newsletter. Responders were asked to indicate their top priority for research across four topics (understanding and preventing osteoporosis, living with osteoporosis, treating osteoporosis and treating fractures) and their top three items within each topic. Descriptive statistics were used to describe demographics and item ranking. A latent class analysis was applied to identify a substantive number of clusters with different combinations of binary responses.ResultsOne thousand one hundred eighty-eight (7.4%) respondents completed the e-survey. The top three items overall were 'Having easy access to advice and information from health professionals' (63.8%), 'Understanding further the safety and benefit of osteoporosis drug treatments' (49.9%) and 'Identifying the condition early by screening' (49.2%). Latent class analysis revealed distinct clusters of responses within each topic including primary care management and self-management. Those without a history of prior fracture or aged under 70 were more likely to rate items within the cluster of self-management as important (21.0 vs 12.9 and 19.8 vs 13.3%, respectively).ConclusionThis is the first study of public research priorities in osteoporosis and has identified new research areas of importance to members of the public including access to information. The findings are being incorporated into the research strategy of the National Osteoporosis Society.
| S-EPMC5409917 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe present study aimed to provide information on awareness of the attributable fraction of cancer causes among the Japanese general population.MethodsA nationwide representative sample of 2,000 Japanese aged 20 or older was asked about their perception and level of concern about various environmental and genetic risk factors in relation to cancer prevention, as a part of an Omnibus Survey. Interviews were conducted with 1,355 subjects (609 men and 746 women).ResultsAmong 12 risk factor candidates, the attributable fraction of cancer-causing viral and bacterial infection was considered highest (51%), followed by that of tobacco smoking (43%), stress (39%), and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (37%). On the other hand, the attributable fractions of cancer by charred fish and meat (21%) and alcohol drinking (22%) were considered low compared with other risk factor candidates. For most risk factors, attributable fraction responses were higher in women than in men. As a whole, the subjects tended to respond with higher values than those estimated by epidemiologic evidence in the West. The attributable fraction of cancer speculated to be genetically determined was 32%, while 36% of cancer was considered preventable by improving lifestyle.ConclusionOur results suggest that awareness of the attributable fraction of cancer causes in the Japanese general population tends to be dominated by cancer-causing infection, occupational exposure, air pollution and food additives rather than major lifestyle factors such as diet.
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Project description:Vaccine hesitancy has been recognized as a major global health threat by the World Health Organization. Many studies have investigated vaccine safety as a determinant for vaccine hesitancy; however, not much attention has been paid to vaccine production and quality control during the vaccine production process or whether knowledge about this topic may influence vaccine confidence. The aim of this study was to characterize the common knowledge about the vaccine production process. A freely accessible online questionnaire was developed on Google Modules and disseminated through social networks. A descriptive analysis of the collected answers was performed, and the chi-square test was used to assess significant differences for the sociodemographic characteristics of the study population (age, gender, work or education and training in the healthcare setting, minor offspring). A binary logistic regression model was performed considering these socio-demographic categories as independent variables. The number of collected questionnaire was 135. Most of the participants (127/135, 94.1%) were aware that quality control measures are carried out during manufacturing, although some knowledge gaps emerged in specific aspects of the vaccine production process, without statistically significant differences between age groups. Working in the healthcare setting or being educated in healthcare may be considered predictors for a better understanding that more than 50% of the production time is spent on quality control (AOR = 3.43; 95% CI: 1.84-8.14, p = 0.01) and that considering quality control performed during the vaccine production process is adequate for avoiding contamination (AOR = 7.90; 95% CI: 0.97-64.34; p = 0.05). This study allowed for a characterization of common knowledge about the vaccine production process. It highlighted the need to implement specific strategies to spread correct information about the vaccine production process. This study may contribute to increased confidence and trust in vaccines and vaccination among the general population.
| S-EPMC8229207 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We show that people's perceptions of public figures' personalities can be accurately predicted from their names' location in GPT-3's semantic space. We collected Big Five personality perceptions of 226 public figures from 600 human raters. Cross-validated linear regression was used to predict human perceptions from public figures' name embeddings extracted from GPT-3. The models' accuracy ranged from r = .78 to .88 without controls and from r = .53 to .70 when controlling for public figures' likability and demographics, after correcting for attenuation. Prediction models showed high face validity as revealed by the personality-descriptive adjectives occupying their extremes. Our findings reveal that GPT-3 word embeddings capture signals pertaining to individual differences and intimate traits.
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Project description:ObjectivesConducting a national survey of clinicians and administrators from specialised dementia assessment services (memory clinics) in Australia to examine their current organisational aspects and assessment procedures and inform clinical tool harmonisation as part of the Australian Dementia Network-memory clinics project.DesignA cross-sectional survey.SettingPublic and private memory clinics across Australia.Participants150 individual clinicians completed the survey between May and August 2019. Responses could be given anonymously. Most clinics were publicly funded services (83.2%) and in metropolitan regions (70.9%).Outcome measuresDescriptive data on organisational aspects of memory clinics (eg, waiting times, staffing); the three most commonly used assessment tools per assessment type (eg, self-report) and cognitive domain (eg, attention).ResultsSince the last national survey in 2009, the number of memory clinics across Australia has increased substantially but considerable variability has remained with respect to funding structure, staffing and assessment procedures. The average clinic employed 2.4 effective full-time staff (range 0.14-14.0). The reported waiting time for an initial assessment ranged from 1 week to 12 months with a median of 7 weeks. While most clinics (97%) offered follow-up assessments for their clients, only a few (31%) offered any form of cognitive intervention. We identified over 100 different cognitive assessment tools that were used at least 'sometimes', with widespread use of well-established core screening tools and a subset of common neuropsychological tests.ConclusionThis paper presents a current snapshot of Australian memory clinics, showing considerable heterogeneity with some common core elements. These results will inform the development of national memory clinic guidelines. Furthermore, our data make a valuable contribution to the international comparison of clinical practice standards and advocate for greater harmonisation to ensure high-quality dementia care.
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Project description:ObjectivesIdentify Australian public preferences for antibiotic treatments in the context of antibiotic stewardship.MethodsA discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted in Australia to investigate the importance of seven attributes associated with antibiotic treatments and related stewardship practices: contribution to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), treatment duration, side effects, days needed to recover, days before taking antibiotics, treatment failure and out-of-pocket costs. The DCE data were analysed using conditional logit, mixed logit and latent class conditional logit models. The relative importance of each attribute was calculated.ResultsA total of 1882 respondents completed the survey; the main study sample consist of 1658 respondents (mean age 48 years) who passed quality checks. All seven attributes significantly influenced respondents' preferences for antibiotic treatments. Based on the designed attribute levels in the DCE, on average, out-of-pocket costs (32.8%) and contribution to antibiotic resistance (30.3%) were the most important attributes, followed by side effects (12.9%). Days before starting medication was least important (3.9%). Three latent classes were identified. Class 1 (including respondents who were more likely to be older and more health literate; 24.5%) gave contribution to antibiotic resistance greater importance in treatment preferences. Class 2 (including respondents more likely to report poorer health; 25.2%) gave out-of-pocket costs greater importance. The remaining (50.4%), who were generally healthier, perceived side effects as the most important attribute.ConclusionsDespite concerted public awareness raising campaigns, our results suggest that several factors may influence the preferences of Australians when considering antibiotic use. However, for those more likely to be aware of the need to preserve antibiotics, out-of-pocket costs and limiting the contribution to antibiotic resistance are the dominant influence. Delays in starting treatment were not important for any latent class, suggesting public tolerance for this measure. These results could help inform strategies to promote prudent antibiotic stewardship.
| S-EPMC10409829 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To synthesise results of population surveys assessing knowledge and attitudes about prevention and treatment of dementia.MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and grey literature were searched for English language entries published between 2012 and May 2017. Survey questions were grouped using an inductive approach and responses were pooled.Thirty-four eligible studies and four grey literature items were identified. Surveys were conducted in Europe, the US, Eastern Asia, Israel, and Australia. Nearly half of respondents agreed that dementia is a normal and non-preventable part of ageing, but belief in the potential for prevention may be improving over time. The role of cardiovascular risk factors was poorly understood overall. Less than half of respondents reported belief in the availability of a cure for dementia. The value of seeking treatment was highly endorsed.Results suggest that knowledge about the potential for dementia prevention and treatment remains poor but may be improving over time. Knowledge among those living in low- and middle-income countries are largely unknown, presenting challenges for the development of National action plans consistent with World Health Organization directives.
| S-EPMC5908164 | biostudies-literature