Intended Message Versus Message Received in Hypothetical Physician Risk Communications: Exploring the Gap

We examined the risk perception that is derived from hypothetical physician risk communications. Subjects (n= 217) completed a questionnaire on the Web for $3. Subjects were presented with four hypothetical cancer risk scenarios that included a physician risk communication in one of three risk communication formats: verbal only, verbal plus numeric probability as a percent, and verbal plus numeric probability as a fraction. In each scenario, subjects were asked to imagine themselves as the patient described and to state their perceived personal susceptibility to the cancer (i.e., risk perception) on a 0 to 100 scale, as well as responses to other measures. Subjects' risk perceptions were highly variable, spanning nearly the entire probability scale for each scenario, and the degree of variation was only slightly less in the risk communication formats in which a numeric statement of risk was provided. Subjects were more likely to overestimate than underestimate their risk relative to the stated risk in the numeric versions, and overestimation was associated with the belief that the physician minimized the risk so they wouldn't worry, innumeracy, and worry, as well as decisions about testing for the cancer. These results demonstrate significant gaps between the intended message and the message received in physician risk communications. Implications for medical decisions, patient distress, and future research are discussed.     

Children and young people requiring home assisted ventilation in the South of England: incidence,receipt of care support and components of the care package

The study found an increasing number of ventilator dependent children and young people living at home. Almost three quarters of the sample had a physical disability as a result of or in addition to their primary diagnosis. There was wide variation in the amount of paid care supporting these families which appeared unrelated to the level of ventilatory dependence. Nurses working in community children's teams or hospital outreach teams were the most frequent care organisers and care managers. The majority of the care packages were funded by Health Authorities.     

Sensitivity Analysis for Importance Assessment

We review briefly some examples that would support an extended role for quantitative sensitivity analysis in the context of model-based analysis (Section 1). We then review what features a quantitative sensitivity analysis needs to have to play such a role (Section 2). The methods that meet these requirements are described in Section 3; an example is provided in Section 4. Some pointers to further research are set out in Section 5.     

The placekicker in professional football: Simmel's stranger revisited

The concept of Georg Simmel's stranger as expanded by Robert Park and Alfred Schutz is applied to the placekicker in American professional football. The placekicker's relationship to the team is examined in terms of its structural centrality and cultural marginality. Changes that have occurred in football due to the rise to prominence of the kicker are described. Implications from the occupational position of the kicker are drawn.     

Coherency conditions for finite exchangeable inference

Summary We idenify the invertible coherent functional relation between an array of asserted conditional probabilities and the probability distribution for the sum of events that are regarded exchangeably, in the regular case thatP(N _N+1 |S _N =a) ∈ (0, 1) for everya=0, 1, ...,N. The result is used to construct a useful algebraic and geometrical representation of all coherent inferences in the regular case, including those that are nonlinear in the sum of the conditioning events. The special case in which conditional probabilities mimic observed frequencies within (0, 1) receives an exact solution, which allows an easy interpretation of its surprising consequences. Finally, we introduce a new direction in research on prior opinion assessment that this approach, inverse to the usual one, suggests.     

Parents: Dilemmas for Professionals

A professional critically examines her practices towards parents whilst an educational psychologist. Aspects of the power relationship are explored, including acting as a friend, the trappings of professionalism, privacy and confidentiality, interprofessional trust, and the provision of services. A tentative conclusion reached is that these create dilemmas which are part of the workings of the system within which the educational psychologist works, and that professional survival is the underlying motive.     

Cultural definitions of elder maltreatment in Portugal

A small convenience sample of 34 participants (17 males, 17 females) from the Portuguese islands of the Azores and Madeira were asked to provide examples of how extreme, moderate, and mild maltreatment towards an elder would be defined in their culture and society. Neglect, especially psychological neglect, physical maltreatment, and psychological maltreatment were the most frequently reported types of maltreatment. References to neglect and physical maltreatment appeared most often as examples of extreme maltreatment. In general, men were somewhat more likely than women to provide examples of physical aggression in their examples of maltreatment. As examples of extreme maltreatment, females provided significantly more examples of abandonment than males. Although interpretations of the findings must be cautious because of the small sample size and limited statistical power, the study illustrates a procedure for assessing constructs of elder mistreatment in a way that attends to respondents' own constructions of the phenomenon.