国际合作计划生育结合项目效果初探—以居民意识问卷调查结果为依据

根据计划生育结合项目 3个周期居民意识问卷调查结果 ,对 90年代以来的结合项目实施效果进行了分析。通过和对照乡镇的对比可以看出 :项目乡镇在计划生育、妇幼保健、寄生虫预防、健康教育等几个方面都有较大的变化 ,项目获得了预期的效果 ,对当地的计划生育工作有很大的促进作用     

On the mode of administering a questionnaire and responses to open-ended items

Concurrently administered personal and telephone surveys are compared to measure differences between the modes for identical questions. Speed of questioning is found to be greater in telephone interviews than personal interviews. The faster pace of telephone interviews is linked to shorter answers to open-ended items on the telephone. The tendency to reduce such responses is disproportionately exhibited by younger, affluent respondents who tend to provide detailed responses in personal interviews.     

Preference for caesarean and attitudes toward birth in a Chilean sample of young adults

BackgroundLittle empirical research exists about what motivates birth mode preferences, and even less about this topic in Latin America, where obstetric interventions and caesareans are some of the highest worldwide.AimTo identify factors associated with caesarean preference among Chilean men and women who plan to have children and to inform childbirth education and informed consent procedures.MethodsAn online cross-sectional survey measuring attitudes toward birth was administered to graduate students at a large public university in Chile. Eligible students were under the age of 40 and had no children but intended to have children. Logistic regression modelling was used to determine which sociodemographic factors, knowledge and beliefs were associated with caesarean preference.FindingsAmong eligible students, 730 responded and 664 provided complete answers to the variables of interest. Respondents had a mean age of 28.8; 38% were male and 62% female. Positive attitude toward technological intervention (Odds Ratio 7.4, 95% Confidence Interval 3.9–14.0), high risk perception of vaginal birth (Odds Ratio 1.8, 95% Confidence Interval 1.1–2.8), family history of caesarean (Odds Ratio 1.9, 95% Confidence Interval 1.0–3.8) and high fear of birth (Odds Ratio 3.7, 95% Confidence Interval 2.0–6.8) were associated with caesarean preference.DiscussionPreference for caesarean birth was highly associated with positive attitudes toward technological intervention and may be related to a lack of knowledge about the realities of caesarean and vaginal birth.ConclusionsPatient-centered education on the relative benefits and risks of birth modes has the potential to influence preferences toward vaginal birth.     

Midwives’ views of changing to a Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC) model in Scotland: A baseline survey

BackgroundThere is good evidence that Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC) is associated with improved clinical outcomes, greater maternal satisfaction, and improved work experiences for midwives. Changes made to the organisation require careful implementation, with on-going evaluation to monitor progress.AimTo develop a survey tool that incorporates several validated scales, which was used to collect baseline data prior to implementing a high-quality Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC) model in Scotland (Hewitt et al., 2019). This tool gathered data about midwives’ personal and professional wellbeing prior to service reorganisation, with a longitudinal study intended to measure change in midwives’ reportage across time. This paper reports the baseline data-collection.MethodsAn on-line survey was shared with practising midwives (n = 321) in Scotland via the NHS intranet, verbally, email, and paper. The survey elicited midwives views about Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC); values and philosophies of care; attitudes towards their professional role; personal and professional demographics; quality of life and wellbeing. Psychometric attitudinal scales were scored and free text comments themed according to positive/negative opinions of the new Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC) model to highlight key concerns to be addressed and identify change barriers or facilitators.FindingsThe majority of midwives indicated support for philosophies underpinning Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC), which includes physiological birth and providing autonomous midwifery care. Participants also indicated positive attitudes towards their current role and organisation, with some worrying about how the organisation was going to implement the changes required. Worries included, receiving an overburdening workload, being deskilled in certain areas of midwifery practice, and lack of support were litigation to arise.ConclusionMidwives support the values and philosophies that underpin Continuity of Midwifery Care (CMC), yet worry about organisational change involved in evolving systems of care. Hence, management require to implement strategies to reduce fears. For example, delivering accurate and honest information, enabling midwives to plan, design and implement changes themselves, and providing emotional and material help.     

Discriminant analysis of survey data

We consider the problem of the effect of sample designs on discriminant analysis. The selection of the learning sample is assumed to depend on the population values of auxiliary variables. Under a superpopulation model with a multivariate normal distribution, unbiasedness and consistency are examined for the conventional estimators (derived under the assumptions of simple random sampling), maximum likelihood estimators, probability-weighted estimators and conditionally unbiased estimators of parameters. Four corresponding sampled linear discriminant functions are examined. The rates of misclassification of these four discriminant functions and the effect of sample design on these four rates of misclassification are discussed. The performances of these four discriminant functions are assessed in a simulation study.     

Obtaining cancer risk factor prevalence estimates in small areas: combining data from two surveys

Summary.  Cancer surveillance research requires accurate estimates of risk factors at the small area level. These risk factors are often obtained from surveys such as the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) or the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS). The NHIS is a nationally representative, face-to-face survey with a high response rate; however, it cannot produce state or substate estimates of risk factor prevalence because the sample sizes are too small and small area identifiers are unavailable to the public. The BRFSS is a state level telephone survey that excludes non-telephone households and has a lower response rate, but it does provide reasonable sample sizes in all states and many counties and has publicly available small area identifiers (counties). We propose a novel extension of dual-frame estimation using propensity scores that allows the complementary strengths of each survey to compensate for the weakness of the other. We apply this method to obtain 1999–2000 county level estimates of adult male smoking prevalence and mammogram usage rates among females who were 40 years old and older. We consider evidence that these NHIS-adjusted estimates reduce the effects of selection bias and non-telephone coverage in the BRFSS. Data from the Current Population Survey Tobacco Use Supplement are also used to evaluate the performance of this approach. A hybrid estimator that selects one of the two estimators on the basis of the mean-square error is also considered.     

Standards of Probability Sampling for Legal Evidence

Brief recognition is given to bicentennials of the death of James Stirling (1692–1770) and birth of Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (1770–1843); to sesquicentennials of the publication of the 3rd definitive edition of Laplace's Théorie analytique des probabilités, and of the births of William Chauvenet (1820–1870) and Isaac Todhunter (1820–1884); to centennials of the births of Louis Bachelier (1870–1946) and Jean Perrin (1870–1942); and to the semicentennial of the initial publication (1920) of Metron, an International Review of Statistics.     

Gender attitudes in the Arab region – The role of framing and priming effects

Most evidence on survey response effects is based in the Western world. We use data from two randomized experiments built into a nation-wide representative household survey in Tunisia to analyze the effects of framing and priming on responses to gender attitudes in the Arab context. Our first experiment shows that questions on attitudes towards decision-making power when framed in an equality frame reduce responses in favor of gender inequality. In our second experiment we find that responses to attitudes towards domestic violence are susceptible to an audio primer. Oral statistical information about the incidence of domestic violence in Tunisia increases disapproval of domestic violence among the male subsample further, but does not affect women. In terms of impact heterogeneity, we find mixed results for treatment interventions interacting with the gender of the interviewer and the interviewer’s perceived religiosity.     

Losing ground: The persistent declining economic fortunes of children

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate trends in the income status of children, as compared to that of adults and elderly people, from 1991 through 2005. Using the March 1992, 1999, and 2006 Current Population Surveys (CPS), this study examines income distributions of children relative to adults and elderly people at three stages: pre-transfer income, pre-transfer income plus social insurance benefits, and pre-transfer income plus social insurance benefits plus welfare payments. While children as well as adults and elderly people lost economic ground at the post-transfer income stage from 1991 to 2005, the losses experienced by children surpassed those of adults and elderly people. This occurred despite the fact that income growth among children was greater than that of adults and elderly people at the pre-transfer stage – a demonstration of increases in employment income of their parents which coincided with the welfare reforms of 1996. This study also found that declines in the distributive effect of both social insurance benefits and welfare payments were greater for minority children. Policy implications are discussed.     

Disagreement in Australian partners’ reports of financial difficulty

We use unique data in which both partners report about household finances to demonstrate that there is often disagreement about whether the household has experienced financial difficulty in the past year. Four alternative explanations for this disagreement are tested using the data. The results indicate that disagreement may be related to the severity of the underlying material hardship rather than to gender differences or individual (as opposed to household) views of financial difficulty. We find limited evidence that for some couples information asymmetries contribute to explaining disagreement about financial difficulty. This implies that standard surveys which collect information about the household’s financial position from a representative individual may fail to completely characterize the nature of material hardship.