A pilot study on nurses' attitudes toward perinatal bereavement support: a cluster analysis

With this research we sought to evaluate black customers' perceptions of service quality in the life assurance industry. Personal interviews were conducted nationwide with 165 policy holders of a company. Altogether 18 of the company's managers from various regions filled in the questionnaire for comparison purposes. The difficulties experienced in doing research in disadvantaged communities were highlighted. This could be a challenging area for future research as the specific needs of consumers in this important market are still largely unknown to marketers and service providers. The pilot study revealed that it was necessary to simplify the scales that are usually used, to phrase the questions in the terminology used by the consumer and to rescale the responses. It was established that the criteria used by black customers in the life assurance industry to assess service quality were different from those of Parasuraman, Zeithaml Berry but the generally held view that expectations of service quality are higher than perceptions was upheld. Cluster analysis and ANOVA revealed that perceptions of service quality varied among customers with different socio-economic backgrounds.

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EFFECTIVENESS OF ACADEMIC TEACHING IN THE FIELD OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0011.7235 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol XX (1) ◽

pp. 104-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Piotr Pietrzak

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Cluster Analysis ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Euclidean Distance ◽

Public Universities ◽

Full Time ◽

Academic Teaching ◽

Empirical Verification ◽

Agricultural Sciences ◽

Squared Euclidean Distance

The paper discusses the effectiveness of teaching in fields representing agricultural sciences. Empirical verification was based on data taken from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The research is a pilot study and concerns 1935 graduates of 10 Polish public universities, who obtained a second-cycle full-time studies diploma in 2015. Cluster analysis was performed using Ward’s method and squared Euclidean distance. The conducted procedure allowed to distinguish three clusters of fields differing in level of effectiveness of teaching. In general, the highest effectiveness in the studied group of fields of science was characterized by those that were run through universities located in the capital and cities over 500,000 residents.

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Who gets hooked on Facebook? An exploratory typology of problematic Facebook users

Cyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace ◽

10.5817/cp2016-3-4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Tracii Ryan ◽

John Reece ◽

Andrea Chester ◽

Sophia Xenos

Keyword(s):

Cluster Analysis ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Online Survey ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Future Research ◽

Social Activities ◽

Social Monitoring ◽

Facebook Use ◽

Patterns Of Behavior ◽

High Engagement

Scholars have suggested that there are multiple pathways to problematic Facebook use, and each are linked to the types of activities that users engage in. However, these concepts have yet to be empirically explored. The present paper addresses this gap in the literature by presenting a pilot study based on a sample of 59 (50 females, 9 males) problematic Facebook users. Closed and open-ended data were collected using an online survey. Cluster analysis was then used to identify three types of problematic Facebook users: those with high engagement in social activities and browsing, those with low engagement in social activities but high engagement in browsing, and those with low engagement in both social activities and browsing, but moderate engagement in gaming. This paper presents an in depth discussion of the patterns of behavior identified within these clusters. In addition, four potential pathways to problematic Facebook use are proposed: online social enhancement, social monitoring, procrastination, and entertainment. This study contributes to the development of a much-needed theoretical framework of problematic Facebook use, and provides direction for future research.

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Examining novice anaesthesia trainee simulation performance: a tale of two clusters

BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning ◽

10.1136/bmjstel-2020-000812 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. bmjstel-2020-000812

Author(s):

Rodrigo J Daly Guris ◽

Christina R Miller ◽

Adam Schiavi ◽

Serkan Toy

Keyword(s):

Cluster Analysis ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Technical Skill ◽

Cluster Solution ◽

Simulation Studies ◽

Speaking Up ◽

Cluster Membership ◽

Task Load ◽

Simulation Performance ◽

Performance Differences

IntroductionUnderstanding performance differences between learners may provide useful context for optimising medical education. This pilot study aimed to explore a technique to contextualise performance differences through retrospective secondary analyses of two randomised controlled simulation studies. One study focused on speaking up (non-technical skill); the other focused on oxygen desaturation management (technical skill).MethodsWe retrospectively analysed data from two independent simulation studies conducted in 2017 and 2018. We used multivariate hierarchical cluster analysis to explore whether participants in each study formed homogenous performance clusters. We then used mixed-design analyses of variance and χ2 analyses to examine whether reported task load differences or demographic variables were associated with cluster membership.ResultsIn both instances, a two-cluster solution emerged; one cluster represented trainees exhibiting higher performance relative to peers in the second cluster. Cluster membership was independent of experimental allocation in each of the original studies. There were no discernible demographic differences between cluster members. Performance differences between clusters persisted for at least 8 months for the non-technical skill but quickly disappeared following simulation training for the technical skill. High performers in speaking up initially reported lower task load than standard performers, a difference that disappeared over time. There was no association between performance and task load during desaturation management.ConclusionThis pilot study suggests that cluster analysis can be used to objectively identify high-performing trainees for both a technical and a non-technical skill as observed in a simulated clinical setting. Non-technical skills may be more difficult to teach and retain than purely technical ones, and there may be an association between task load and initial non-technical performance. Further study is needed to understand what factors may confer inherent performance advantages, whether these advantages translate to clinical performance and how curricula can best be designed to drive targeted improvement for individual trainees.

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A Pilot Exploratory Study to Form Subgroups Using Cluster Analysis of Family Needs Survey Scores for Providing Tailored Support to Parents Caring for a Population-Based Sample of 5-Year-Old Children with Developmental Concerns

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph19020744 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 744

Author(s):

Motohide Miyahara

Keyword(s):

Cluster Analysis ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Support Groups ◽

Hierarchical Clustering ◽

Missing Values ◽

Population Based ◽

Small Scale ◽

Second Phase ◽

Family Needs ◽

Need For Information

In a population-based developmental screening program, healthcare providers face a practical problem with respect to the formation of groups to efficiently address the needs of the parents whose children are screened positive. This small-scale pilot study explored the usefulness of cluster analysis to form type-specific support groups based on the Family Needs Survey (FNS) scores. All parents (N = 68), who accompanied their 5-year-old children to appointments for formal assessment and diagnostic interviews in the second phase of screening, completed the FNS as part of a developmental questionnaire package. The FNS scores of a full dataset (N = 55) without missing values were subjected to hierarchical and K-means cluster analyses. As the final solution, hierarchical clustering with a three-cluster solution was selected over K-means clustering because the hierarchical clustering solution produced three clusters that were similar in size and meaningful in each profile pattern: Cluster 1—high need for information and professional support (N = 20); cluster 2—moderate need for information support (N = 16); cluster 3—high need for information and moderate need for other support (N = 19). The range of cluster sizes was appropriate for managing and providing tailored services and support for each group. Thus, this pilot study demonstrated the utility of cluster analysis to classify parents into support groups, according to their needs.

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