Examining the Effects of a Low-Cost Prompt to Reduce Retail Theft

The present study evaluated the extent to which a low-cost, antitheft intervention impacted theft and sales in a multiple baseline design across two grocery stores. Previous research has measured the impact on theft of items that have a sign indicating their high theft rate and stickers next to or on the items. In contrast, this study tracked four intervention groups: a group directly marked with a sign and ribbons, two indirectly targeted groups (sign-only and a group down the aisle from the sign-only), and a group with no intervention. Results indicated the largest decrease in theft for one of the indirectly targeted groups, from 45 total items stolen to 13, compared to a smaller decrease in theft (i.e., 64 to 40) for the directly targeted sign and ribbons products. Implications of these findings for applying behavior-based antitheft interventions in retail businesses are discussed and future research is proposed.     

Exposure to Traffic and Risk of Hospitalization Due to Injuries

Research on the risk of motor vehicle injuries and their relationship with the amount of travel has been only partially analyzed. The few individual exposure assessments are related to very specific subsets of the driving and traveling populations. This study analyzes the relationship between kilometers traveled and hospitalization due to motor vehicle injuries. Twelve thousand three hundred and sixty nine Spanish university graduates from the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra multipurpose cohort study were evaluated. They had not been hospitalized due to motor vehicle injuries at baseline and were followed up to eight years. Biannual questionnaires allowed for self‐reporting of kilometers traveled in motor vehicles, together with incidence of hospitalization. Covariates in the Cox regression models included age and gender and baseline use of safety belt while driving, driving a vehicle with driver‐side airbag, driving a motorcycle, and drinking and driving. There were 49,766 participant‐years with an average yearly travel of 7,828 km per person‐year. Thirty‐six subjects reported a first hospitalization event during this time. The adjusted hazard ratio per additional kilometer traveled was 1.00005 (95% confidence interval 1.000013 to 1.000086). Even the smallest of reductions in the amount of kilometers traveled (from an average of 3,250 km per year to 1,000) has a statistically significant protective effect on the likelihood of sustaining hospitalization due to motor vehicle injury (aHR 0.9, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.98). In light of current policies aimed to reduce motorized traffic due to environmental concerns, it may be appropriate to consider the additional health benefit related to reductions in injuries.     

The Observer Effect and Its Impact on Staff Behavior in an Acquired Brain Injury Neurobehavioral Treatment Setting

Staff in three neurobehavioral residential settings (5 in each residence for a total of 15 staff) were trained on specific positive interaction behaviors in a multiple baseline design. Staff in each of the residences were provided with recommended behaviors for interacting with residents through an observational procedure where they observed and completed checklists on video models of the targeted staff interaction behavior. In addition to staff interaction behaviors, subsequent levels of adaptive resident behaviors were also examined, such as active engagement and indices of happiness. Targeted interactions increased from an average of 7.2% of intervals during baseline to 80% during the intervention. Productive involvement engaged in by residents increased from 17.9% in baseline to 73.9% during the intervention, and the happiness indices of residents increased from 6.1% in baseline to 67.5% during the intervention.     

Districting for parcel delivery services – A two-Stage solution approach and a real-World case study

This paper studies a real-world problem arising in the context of parcel delivery. Given a heterogeneous set of resources, i.e., different drivers and different vehicles, the problem for each day consists of assigning a driver and a vehicle to each customer requiring service. Two conflicting aspects must be taken into account. On the one hand, service consistency is desirable, meaning that a customer should always be served by the same driver. On the other hand, daily demand fluctuations and tight resource constraints prohibit fixed resource assignments. With the aim of finding a reasonable compromise between these aspects, we propose a novel two-stage districting approach, which establishes delivery districts in the first stage and adapts them to the daily demand realizations in the second stage. For the first stage problem we propose three models that differ in the level of detail of their input data, their expected compliance with service consistency and the driver’s contractual working times, and their computational effort. Our two-stage approach merges the two dominant approaches in the literature, which either determine a priori routes and then adapt them on a daily basis, or derive fixed service regions for drivers. We present a case study based on a real-world data set. The results highlight the differences between the three first stage models and show that only few adaptations of the districts are necessary in the second stage to achieve feasible daily delivery tours along with a very good workload balance for drivers. We also analyze the effects of a homogeneous vs a heterogeneous fleet, of full time drivers vs full and part time drivers, and of the location of the depot and the length of the planning horizon.     

In sickness and in health: An exploration of spousal support and occupational similarity

Abstract

While many studies of interventions have focused on their content and immediate effects, less research has focused on the processes that may explain these effects. The purpose of this study was to show how process evaluation can be used to interpret the results of an intervention study in four industrial canteens in Denmark. Two canteens acted as intervention groups and two as comparison groups. Effects were measured by surveys before and after interventions, and observations and interviews were conducted to provide an in-depth understanding of processes. Analyses were conducted based on the responses from 118 employees. Results showed, contrary to expectations, improvements in working conditions and well-being in one intervention group and in one comparison group, whereas no improvements were found in the two remaining groups. Data from the process evaluation enabled a meaningful interpretation of these results, raising the possibility programme failure rather than theory failure, and thereby constituting an example of how process evaluation can shed light over the factors that may influence outcomes in controlled intervention studies.     

Success or failure? Interpreting and understanding the impact of interventions in four similar worksites

While many studies of interventions have focused on their content and immediate effects, less research has focused on the processes that may explain these effects. The purpose of this study was to show how process evaluation can be used to interpret the results of an intervention study in four industrial canteens in Denmark. Two canteens acted as intervention groups and two as comparison groups. Effects were measured by surveys before and after interventions, and observations and interviews were conducted to provide an in-depth understanding of processes. Analyses were conducted based on the responses from 118 employees. Results showed, contrary to expectations, improvements in working conditions and well-being in one intervention group and in one comparison group, whereas no improvements were found in the two remaining groups. Data from the process evaluation enabled a meaningful interpretation of these results, raising the possibility programme failure rather than theory failure, and thereby constituting an example of how process evaluation can shed light over the factors that may influence outcomes in controlled intervention studies.     

Selecting Nonpharmaceutical Interventions for Influenza

Models of influenza transmission have focused on the ability of vaccination, antiviral therapy, and social distancing strategies to mitigate epidemics. Influenza transmission, however, may also be interrupted by hygiene interventions such as frequent hand washing and wearing masks or respirators. We apply a model of influenza disease transmission that incorporates hygiene and social distancing interventions. The model describes population mixing as a Poisson process, and the probability of infection upon contact between an infectious and susceptible person is parameterized by p. While social distancing interventions modify contact rates in the population, hygiene interventions modify p. Public health decision making involves tradeoffs, and we introduce an objective function that considers the direct costs of interventions and new infections to determine the optimum intervention type (social distancing versus hygiene intervention) and population compliance for epidemic mitigation. Significant simplifications have been made in these models. However, we demonstrate that the method is feasible, provides plausible results, and is sensitive to the selection of model parameters. Specifically, we show that the optimum combination of nonpharmaceutical interventions depends upon the probability of infection, intervention compliance, and duration of infectiousness. Means by which realism can be increased in the method are discussed.     

Speed and Accuracy of Data Analysts' Behavior Using Methods of Equal Interval Graphic Data Charts,Standard Celeration Charts,and Statistical Process Control Charts

Abstract

In response to a debate concerning effectiveness of alternative data handling methods in the hands of experts, the exploratory research reported here was conducted. Experts worked individually except for the SPC expert who was assisted by another expert. Two equal interval graphing experts, two standard behavior or celeration charting experts, and one team of SPC experts were presented with four sets of data that they graphed one point at a time. Their task was to plot, analyze, and identify the location of an intervention within each data set. A total of N = 8 series were plotted and analyzed by each analyst. Average percent of interventions correctly identified by equal interval, celeration, and SPC chartists were respectively, 63%, 32%, and 25%. Rank order of mean hours spent on the exercises was from fewest to most hours, celeration chartists, equal interval chartists, and charting SPC charting team. Regardless of method used, poorer quality baseline data in data series resulted in poorer performances among chartists. Implications are discussed in terms of future research into charting behavior and practical consequences of establishing or failing to establish “good” baseline control prior to introducing interventions in the OBM tradition.     

The Effects of a Goal Setting Intervention on Productivity and Persistence in an Analogue Work Task

The authors of this study sought to quantify the beneficial effect of goal setting on work performance, and to characterize the persistence or deterioration of goal-directed behavior over time. Twenty-six participants completed a computer-based data entry task. Performance was measured during an initial baseline, a goal setting intervention that consisted of either a high, unattainable goal (high goal condition) or a low, attainable goal (low goal condition), followed by a return to baseline, and a second goal setting intervention (the alternate goal to the first goal). In the fifth condition, each participant was given the choice to work in either the high or low goal condition. Greater performance increases were reliably observed during the high goal condition than during the low goal condition, but patterns of persistence or deterioration varied across participants. The implications of the findings for the development and understanding of goal setting interventions in the workplace are explored.     

Reducing Absenteeism and Rescheduling Among Grocery Store Employees With Point-Contingent Rewards

The purpose of this research was to evaluate a reward program designed to reduce absenteeism among staff (N = 38) at a grocery store. The intervention included public feedback and a credit reward system whereby participants got store dollars for attendance and authorized rescheduling of work assignments. Results showed that absenteeism decreased from a group mean of 8 shifts missed per week during baseline to 4.25 shifts missed per week during the intervention before increasing to 6.75 shifts missed per week during the reversal phase. The mean total rescheduling occurrences were reduced from a baseline average of 19.83 per week to 9.25 per week during the intervention and returned to 22.25 per week during the reversal. Employees were also less likely to leave early during the intervention period.     

A Risk-Based Method for Modeling Traffic Fatalities

We describe a risk-based analytical framework for estimating traffic fatalities that combines the probability of a crash and the probability of fatality in the event of a crash. As an illustrative application, we use the methodology to explore the role of vehicle mix and vehicle prevalence on long-run fatality trends for a range of transportation growth scenarios that may be relevant to developing societies. We assume crash rates between different road users are proportional to their roadway use and estimate case fatality ratios (CFRs) for the different vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-pedestrian combinations. We find that in the absence of road safety interventions, the historical trend of initially rising and then falling fatalities observed in industrialized nations occurred only if motorization was through car ownership. In all other cases studied (scenarios dominated by scooter use, bus use, and mixed use), traffic fatalities rose monotonically. Fatalities per vehicle had a falling trend similar to that observed in historical data from industrialized nations. Regional adaptations of the model validated with local data can be used to evaluate the impacts of transportation planning and safety interventions, such as helmets, seat belts, and enforcement of traffic laws, on traffic fatalities.     

Absenteeism in Health Care: Using Interlocking Behavioral Contingency Feedback to Increase Attendance With Certified Nursing Assistants

This research used an ABA multiple baseline design across hospitals to evaluate a behavioral intervention designed to reduce absenteeism among 64 certified nursing assistants (CNA) in a rural health care organization. Pre-baseline assessments suggested that when CNAs were absent from work, other employees had to work unscheduled shifts. Because of this metacontingency, employees reported that they skipped work themselves to make up for the extra shifts they had to cover. This cycle created more unscheduled shifts and potentially caused the high absenteeism prevalent at the organization. An intervention with normative and metacontingency feedback significantly decreased the total number of days CNAs were absent per week across the three hospitals from a baseline mean of 0.24 (SD?=?0.19) days per week (7.74% of their scheduled hours) to a mean of 0.13 (SD?=?0.17) days per week (3.81% of their scheduled hours) during the intervention. In a return to baseline the total number of days CNAs were absent per week across the three hospitals increased to a mean of 0.24 (SD?=?0.20) days per week (7.47% of their scheduled hours).     

Linking Decision Theory and Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment: Tradeoffs Between Compliance and Efficacy for Waterborne Disease Interventions

Achieving health gains from the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals of universal coverage for water and sanitation will require interventions that can be widely adopted and maintained. Effectiveness—how an intervention performs based on actual use—as opposed to efficacy will therefore be central to evaluations of new and existing interventions. Incomplete compliance—when people do not always use the intervention and are therefore exposed to contamination—is thought to be responsible for the lower‐than‐expected risk reductions observed from water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions based on their efficacy at removing pathogens. We explicitly incorporated decision theory into a quantitative microbial risk assessment model. Specifically, we assume that the usability of household water treatment (HWT) devices (filters and chlorine) decreases as they become more efficacious due to issues such as taste or flow rates. Simulations were run to examine the tradeoff between device efficacy and usability. For most situations, HWT interventions that trade lower efficacy (i.e., remove less pathogens) for higher compliance (i.e., better usability) contribute substantial reductions in diarrheal disease risk compared to devices meeting current World Health Organization efficacy guidelines. Recommendations that take into account both the behavioral and microbiological properties of treatment devices are likely to be more effective at reducing the burden of diarrheal disease than current standards that only consider efficacy.     

The Political Economy of Moral Conflict: An Empirical Study of Learning and Law Enforcement Under Prohibition

The U.S. Prohibition experience shows a remarkable policy reversal. In only 14 years, a drastic shift in public opinion required two constitutional amendments. I develop and estimate a model of endogenous law enforcement, determined by beliefs about the Prohibition‐crime nexus and alcohol‐related moral views. In turn, the policy outcomes shape subsequent learning about Prohibition enforcement costs. I estimate the model through maximum likelihood on Prohibition Era city‐level data on police enforcement, crime, and alcohol‐related legislation. The model can account for the variation in public opinion changes, and the heterogeneous responses of law enforcement and violence across cities. Results show that a 15% increase in the homicide rate can be attributed to Prohibition enforcement. The subsequent learning‐driven adjustment of local law enforcement allowed for the alcohol market to rebound to 60% of its pre‐Prohibition size. I conclude with counterfactual exercises exploring the welfare implications of policy learning, prior beliefs, preference polarization, and alternative political environments. Results illustrate the importance of incorporating the endogenous nature of law enforcement into our understanding of policy failure and policy success.     

Leading for change: line managers’ influence on the outcomes of an occupational health intervention

Line managers may play a central role in the success of occupational health interventions. However, few studies have focussed on the relationship between line managers’ behaviours and the outcomes of occupational health interventions. We examined the influence of both line managers’ attitudes and actions towards an intervention as well as their transformational leadership on the expected outcomes of the intervention (i.e. employee self-rated health and work ability). The intervention consisted of the implementation and use of a web-based system for occupational health management. A sample of 180 employees provided data for the analysis. Self-rated health and work ability were measured at the baseline (Time 1) and follow-up (Time 3), while employee ratings of line managers’ attitudes and actions, and transformational leadership were measured during the intervention process (Time 2). The results revealed that line managers’ attitudes and actions positively predicted changes in both self-rated health and work ability. The influence of transformational leadership was indirect and mediated through line managers’ attitudes and actions towards the intervention. Based on the results, we suggest using process measures that include aspects of both line managers’ attitudes and actions as well as their transformational leadership in future process evaluation.     

Do Drivers of Small Cars Take Less Risk in Everyday Driving?

Previously reported observed data on risky everyday driving are brought together and reanalyzed in order to focus on the relation between risky driving and the size of the car being driven, as indicated by car mass. The measures of risky driving include separation between vehicles in heavy freeway traffic and speed on a two lane road. Observed seat belt use provides a third measure of driver risk. Confounding effects arising from the observed association between car mass and driver age are taken into account by segmenting the data into three driver age groups. Driver risk taking is found to increase with increasing car mass for each of these three aspects of everyday driving. The implications of these results with respect to driver fatality rates are discussed in terms of a simple model relating observed risky driving to the likelihood of involvement in a severe crash.     

Reducing Drinking Water Supply Chemical Contamination: Risks from Underground Storage Tanks

Drinking water supplies are at risk of contamination from a variety of physical, chemical, and biological sources. Ranked among these threats are hazardous material releases from leaking or improperly managed underground storage tanks located at municipal, commercial, and industrial facilities. To reduce human health and environmental risks associated with the subsurface storage of hazardous materials, government agencies have taken a variety of legislative and regulatory actions—which date back more than 25 years and include the establishment of rigorous equipment/technology/operational requirements and facility‐by‐facility inspection and enforcement programs. Given a history of more than 470,000 underground storage tank releases nationwide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to report that 7,300 new leaks were found in federal fiscal year 2008, while nearly 103,000 old leaks remain to be cleaned up. In this article, we report on an alternate evidence‐based intervention approach for reducing potential releases from the storage of petroleum products (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, heating/fuel oil, and waste oil) in underground tanks at commercial facilities located in Rhode Island. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether a new regulatory model can be used as a cost‐effective alternative to traditional facility‐by‐facility inspection and enforcement programs for underground storage tanks. We conclude that the alternative model, using an emphasis on technical assistance tools, can produce measurable improvements in compliance performance, is a cost‐effective adjunct to traditional facility‐by‐facility inspection and enforcement programs, and has the potential to allow regulatory agencies to decrease their frequency of inspections among low risk facilities without sacrificing compliance performance or increasing public health risks.     

A Bayesian Approach for Analyzing Results of Vehicle Collision Tests

Certain motor vehicle safety standards stipulate a collision test speed and a set of performance criteria that vehicles must satisfy during or after the collision test. For example, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 301 requires a 30 mile per hour (mph) barrier collision and specifies a certain maximum allowable limit on the total spillage of fuel. Vehicle designs are required to meet this standard; however, when collision tests are conducted at speeds higher than the standard, vehicles do not always satisfy the performance criteria. This paper develops a mathematical model for estimating the probability of meeting the standard by using a Bayesian framework to incorporate engineering judgment with collision test results. The model is based on the idea that there are random features to a vehicle's ability to meet performance standards in a collision, especially at such elevated speeds. Example calculations are included to illustrate the estimation of the probability of meeting the standard and to compare it with a maximum likelihood approach.     

IMPROVING THE DELIVERY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND RELATED SERVICES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The utility of organizational behavior management (OBM) for improving the delivery of special education and related services in public school districts was investigated in three experimental studies. Each study employed a multiple baseline design to judge the efficacy of an OBM intervention on service delivery problems common to most public school organizations. The problems and OBM interventions were: (1) expanding the range of functioning of school psychologists through performance feedback; (2) training special service teams to develop valuable individual education programs (IEPs) with a behavioral, in-service training program; and (3) ensuring the implementation of a special education resource room program by means of program consultation. All interventions were implemented by public school program managers and staff. In each study, the particular intervention resulted in improvement in service delivery performance. Results of the studies are discussed within the context of the recently enacted legislation for the education of handicapped children and in terms of generality to mental health, business, and industrial settings.     

Organizational interventions: A research-based framework for the evaluation of both process and effects

Abstract

Organizational interventions are often recommended when organizations want to improve employee psychological health and well-being. Research, however, has revealed inconsistent results and reviewers have called for research on why interventions either bring about desired change or fail to do so. Answering the “how” and “why” of intervention outcomes requires a close examination of the elements that hinder or facilitate desired outcomes, thus moving beyond evaluation of only the overall effects. In this paper, we present an evaluation framework based on recent intervention research and process-oriented organization theory. The framework offers suggestions for which elements to include when evaluating organizational interventions. Within the framework, elements crucial to intervention evaluation are grouped into four overarching categories that we argue are crucial to evaluation over the five phases of an intervention programme. These categories are: the organizational “actors”; the mental models of those actors; the context of the intervention; and intervention design and process. Evaluation during the process as well as of the overall effects, as recommended by this framework, should throw light on what works for whom, why, how and under which circumstances.