scholarly journals Public attitudes to people with ASD: contact, knowledge and ethnicity

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Gemegah ◽  
Dimitra Hartas ◽  
Vasiliki Totsika

Purpose The increase in autism prevalence and presentation in the media suggests a rise in public awareness. This paper aims to explore what factors (contact, knowledge and ethnicity) may be associated to positive attitudes towards individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Design/methodology/approach An online survey examined contact with and knowledge of ASD among Black, Asian and White ethnic groups to predict public attitudes to people with ASD. Findings In multiple regression models, the results suggested that the level of contact predicts positive attitudes towards autism when demographic factors were accounted. The level of knowledge about autism were significantly associated to attitudes, but not consistently when demographic factors were accounted. However, differences in knowledge and attitudes to people with ASD were identified amongst Black, Asian and White ethnic groups. Research limitations/implications These findings have implications for policy and public health and education campaigns, including ensuring contact and knowledge of autism among the public. Originality/value These findings have implications for policy and public health and education campaigns, including ensuring contact and knowledge of autism among the public. Additionally, further effort is required to target public knowledge and attitudes to autism, particularly among ethnic groups. Institutional support tailored to encourage structured and unstructured contact across public domains such as education, health, social and care practices could effectively reduce prejudice between the public and people with ASD over time.

2012 ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
V. Gimpelson ◽  
G. Monusova

Using different cross-country data sets and simple econometric techniques we study public attitudes towards the police. More positive attitudes are more likely to emerge in the countries that have better functioning democratic institutions, less prone to corruption but enjoy more transparent and accountable police activity. This has a stronger impact on the public opinion (trust and attitudes) than objective crime rates or density of policemen. Citizens tend to trust more in those (policemen) with whom they share common values and can have some control over. The latter is a function of democracy. In authoritarian countries — “police states” — this tendency may not work directly. When we move from semi-authoritarian countries to openly authoritarian ones the trust in the police measured by surveys can also rise. As a result, the trust appears to be U-shaped along the quality of government axis. This phenomenon can be explained with two simple facts. First, publicly spread information concerning police activity in authoritarian countries is strongly controlled; second, the police itself is better controlled by authoritarian regimes which are afraid of dangerous (for them) erosion of this institution.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. e038712
Author(s):  
Yi Jiang ◽  
Bangsheng Wu ◽  
Long Long ◽  
Jiaxing Li ◽  
Xiaoqing Jin

ObjectivesThe incidence of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is low in China. CPR training could improve public attitudes and willingness, but at present, the attitudes of the public after online training are unclear. This study investigated individual attitudes towards CPR, the willingness to perform it in emergencies along with the main obstacles and the overall effects of online training.DesignQuestionnaires were distributed to investigate the public attitudes and willingness towards performing bystander CPR.SettingQuestionnaires were accessible after the online course ‘First Aid’.Participants1888 students who attended ‘First Aid’ from December 2019 to 1 January 2020 and then completed the questionnaire voluntarily.ResultsThe majority understood CPR (96.7%) and displayed a willingness to learn (98.4%) and to disseminate CPR knowledge (82.0%). Characteristics associated with more positive attitudes included women, the 26–35-year olds and those in medical-related occupations (p<0.05). Only 34.8% had CPR training before. Most people would willingly perform CPR on a close family member. Compared with the standard CPR (S-CPR), the public preferred chest compression-only CPR (CO-CPR) (p<0.01). The top three obstacles to performing CO-CPR were lack of confidence (26.7%), fear of harming the victim (23.4%) and causing legal trouble (20.7%), while regarding S-CPR, fear of disease transmission (22.9%) ranked second. Women, those in poor health and in medical-related occupations, were more likely to perform CPR (p<0.05). The confidence to perform CPR was improved remarkably after online training (p<0.05).ConclusionsThe overwhelming majority of respondents showed positive attitudes and willingness towards CPR. In some cases, there is still reluctance, especially towards S-CPR. Obstacles arise mainly due to lack of confidence in administering CPR, while online CPR training can markedly improve it. Therefore, we should focus on disseminating CPR knowledge, targeting those who are less willing to perform CPR and helping overcome their obstacles by online training.


Author(s):  
Thomas A. Norton ◽  
Melissa Ruhl ◽  
Tim Armitage ◽  
Brian Matthews ◽  
John Miles

The development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is advancing quickly in some enclaves around the world. Consequently, AVs exist in the public consciousness, featuring regularly in mainstream media. As the form and function of AVs emerge, the attitudes of potential users become more important. The extent to which the public trusts AV technology and anticipates benefits, will drive consumer willingness to use AVs. Broadly, public attitudes will determine whether AVs can attract public investment in infrastructure and become a feature of the future transport mix or fail to realize the potential their developers assert. As part of UK Autodrive, a program trialing the introduction of AVs in the United Kingdom, researchers conducted focus groups in five UK cities, and a comparison focus group in San Francisco (December 2017 to September 2018) using representative samples (total n = 137). Focus group facilitators guided discussions in three areas considered central to usage decisions: trust in the technology, ownership models, and community benefit. This paper describes findings from a quasi-quantitative study supported with qualitative insights. This research provides three key takeaways centering on trust in the technology and in delivering benefit. First, some participants gain trust through experience and others through evidence. Second, participants had difficulty discriminating between AV developers, indicating a need for industry cooperation. Third, partnerships were found to demonstrate trust, highlighting the need for more and deeper partnerships moving forward. Generally, participants had positive attitudes toward AVs and expect AVs to provide benefits. However, these attitudes and expectations could change as AV development progresses.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Landi ◽  
Antonio Costantini ◽  
Marco Fasan ◽  
Michele Bonazzi

PurposeThe purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster public engagement and dialogic accounting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed the official Facebook pages of the leading public agencies for health crisis in Italy, United Kingdom and New Zealand and they collected data on the number of posts, popularity, commitment and followers before and during the outbreak. The authors also performed a content analysis to identify the topics covered by the posts.FindingsEmpirical results suggest that social media has been extensively used as a public engagement tool in all three countries under analysis but – because of legitimacy threats and resource scarcity – it has also been used as a dialogic accounting tool only in New Zealand. Findings suggest that fake news developed more extensively in contexts where the public body did not foster dialogic accounting.Practical implicationsPublic agencies may be interested in knowing the pros and cons of using social media as a public engagement and dialogic accounting tool. They may also leverage on dialogic accounting to limit fake news.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to look at the nature and role of social media as an accountability tool during public health crises. In many contexts, COVID-19 forced for the first time public health agencies to heavily engage with the public and to develop new skills, so this study paves the way for numerous future research ideas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Siqin Wang ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Mengxi Zhang ◽  
Xiao Huang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the US and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US METHODS We collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion, further linking to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modelling RESULTS An increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis CONCLUSIONS The analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramiro Z. Dela Cruz ◽  
Ruth A. Ortega-Dela Cruz

Purpose This study aims to develop a Facilities technology management framework for public health-care institutions in a developing country. Design/methodology/approach The study used descriptive research design to identify the specifications of the framework via strategic initiatives anchored on efficiency, sustainability, ecological-friendliness and technological innovation. These measures are wrapped into a facilities TM framework which incorporates concepts and practices on risk management, facility management (FM) and TM. Findings Results of the survey of the public HCIs in the Philippines, show high levels of acceptability of proposed measures which identify the technologies, innovations and materials which are in the viable context of public hospital circumstances in the country. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study are limited to the public HCIs in a developing country, and thus cannot be generalized to other HCIs particularly the private institutions. Practical implications The framework seeks to help improve the operational efficiency and sustainability of public HCIs in a developing country like the Philippines. The discussions on TM revolve around the application of TM approaches. Also, the study incorporates discussions on sustainability, technology innovation and the conformity of these with HCI standards, best practices and government requirements. Social implications The study takes into consideration the identification of FM principles and practices that are deemed suitable and applicable for public HCIs in a developing country. This study is intended to develop a TM framework for FM services which is cost-effective but not sacrificing safety, security, employees and the environment. Then the foremost consideration is the perceived suitability of the framework in the public HCI environment. Originality/value This is an original study. It has as its scope the fusion of FM and TM approaches that would help in the identification of challenges, requirements for manpower, processes and technologies (especially, information and communications technolog-based technologies), and a corresponding TM system framework for public HCI facilities in a developing country.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfadil Mohammed Mahmoud ◽  
Indraijt Pal ◽  
Mokbul Morshed Ahmad

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the public health risk factors of internally displaced households and suggest appropriate measures and strategies for health risk reduction in the context of IDPs.Design/methodology/approachThe composite Index (CI) method was used to compare the public health risk factors at the household level in three IDP camps. A set of 22 indicators were studied in 326 households. Households were selected by using a two-stage cluster sampling technique.FindingsThe findings indicate that the Shangil Tobaya camp is at the highest risk for communicable diseases (63.6%) followed by Zamzam (52.4%) and Abu Shouk (42.7%) at the household level. Eight indicators appeared to have made differential impacts between Abu Shouk and Shangil Tobaya, these include: level of education, walking time to health facilities, water source, latrines type, safe disposal of child feces, frequency of visit by pregnant women to antenatal care services, place of delivery and women delivering their children with the help of skilled birth attendants.Research limitations/implicationsSince the selection criteria of the camps were predefined; there are variations in the number of samples between the camps. Therefore, the generalizability may be compromised.Social implicationsIncreased access to healthcare services particularly reproductive health services to the most vulnerable groups (women). Community involvement in services management to promote ownership.Originality/valueThe methods used in this study is original and flexible and can be replicated for other emergency areas and risks.


Author(s):  
Jasmine R. Silver

PurposeThis study extends legitimacy theory by examining individualizing and binding moral motives and perceptions of police.Design/methodology/approachData are drawn from an online survey of the public (N = 961). OLS regression is used to predict global perceptions of legitimacy, as well as department legitimacy and acceptance of force in an experimental vignette that manipulates procedural justice.FindingsThe binding moral motive is associated with greater global and department legitimacy and acceptance of force. The individualizing moral motive is associated with reduced global legitimacy and acceptance of force, and with department legitimacy when procedural justice is low. Perceptions of legitimacy mediate the effects of the binding moral motive on acceptance of force and of the individualizing moral motive when procedural justice is low.Research limitations/implicationsThis study identifies novel antecedents of police legitimacy and acceptance of force (i.e. binding and individualizing moral motives).Social implicationsThis study provides insight into public attitudes regarding use of force.Originality/valueThis study is the first to propose and test a link between binding and individualizing moral motives and perceptions of police.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 929-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodyn Platt ◽  
Minakshi Raj ◽  
Sharon L.R. Kardia

Purpose Nations such as the USA are investing in technologies such as electronic health records in order to collect, store and transfer information across boundaries of health care, public health and research. Health information brokers such as health care providers, public health departments and university researchers function as “access points” to manage relationships between the public and the health system. The relationship between the public and health information brokers is influenced by trust; and this relationship may predict the trust that the public has in the health system as a whole, which has implications for public trust in the system, and consequently, legitimacy of involved institutions, under circumstances of health information data sharing in the future. This paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors aimed to examine characteristics of trustors (i.e. the public) that predict trust in health information brokers; and further, to identify the factors that influence trust in brokers that also predict system trust. The authors developed a survey that was administered to US respondents in 2014 using GfK’s nationally representative sample, with a final sample of 1,011 participants and conducted ordinary least squares regression for data analyses. Findings Results suggest that health care providers are the most trusted information brokers of those examined. Beliefs about medical deceptive behavior were negatively associated with trust in each of the information brokers examined; however, psychosocial factors were significantly associated with trust in brokers, suggesting that individual attitudes and beliefs are influential on trust in brokers. Positive views of information sharing and the expectation of benefits of information sharing for health outcomes and health care quality are associated with system trust. Originality/value This study suggests that demonstrating the benefits and value of information sharing could be beneficial for building public trust in the health system; however, trust in brokers of information are variable across the public; that is, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs are associated with the level of trust different individuals have in various health information brokers – suggesting that the need for a personalized approach to building trust.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngoako Solomon Marutha ◽  
Olefhile Mosweu

Purpose This study sought to investigate a framework for ensuring the confidentiality and security of information at the public health-care facilities to curb HIV/AIDS trauma among patients in Africa. In most instances, trauma to HIV/AIDS patients accelerate because of their personal information relating to the state of illness leaks to public people. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study used literature to study confidentiality and security of information at the public health-care facilities to curb HIV/AIDS trauma among patients in Africa. Findings The study revealed that confidentiality and security of information has been neglected, in most instances, at the health-care facilities, and this has, to some extent, affected HIV/AIDS patients negatively, leading to trauma, stigma and skipping of treatment by patients resulting in accelerated mortality among chronic patients. The study recommends that patients’ information be always strictly controlled and kept confidential and secured at all the times, especially that of HIV/AIDS patients. Practical implications The proposed framework can be used by health-care facilities to guide the management and promotion of the confidentiality and security of information in the public health-care facilities to curb additional trauma to HIV/AIDS patients in the context of Africa, and even beyond. Originality/value The study provides a framework to ensure the confidentiality and security of information at the public health-care facilities to curb additional trauma to HIV/AIDS patients.


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