scholarly journals What Are the Important Factors Influencing the Recruitment and Retention of Doctoral Students in a Public Health Setting? A Discrete Choice Experiment Survey in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (18) ◽  
pp. 9474
Author(s):  
Shimeng Liu ◽  
Yingyao Chen ◽  
Shunping Li ◽  
Ningze Xu ◽  
Chengxiang Tang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Logit Model ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Monthly Income ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
Employment Location

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the employment preferences of doctoral students majoring in social medicine and health care management (SMHCM), to inform policymakers and future employers on how to address recruitment and retention requirements at CDCs across China. Methods: An online discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to elicit doctoral SMHCM students’ job preferences. The scenarios were described with seven attributes: monthly income, employment location, housing benefits, children’s education opportunities, working environment, career promotion speed, and bianzhi. A conditional logit model and a mixed logit model were used to evaluate the relative importance of the selected attributes. Results: A total of 167 doctoral SMHCM students from 24 universities completed the online survey. All seven attributes were statistically significant with the expected sign and demonstrated the existence of preference heterogeneity. Monthly income and employment location were of most concern for doctoral SMHCM students when deciding their future jobs. Among the presented attributes, working environment was of least concern. For the sub-group analysis, employment located in a first-tier city was more likely to lead to a higher utility value for doctoral students who were women, married, from an urban area, and had a high annual family income. Unsurprisingly, when compared to single students, married students were willing to forgo more for good educational opportunities for their children. Conclusions: Our study suggests that monthly income and employment location were valued most by doctoral SMHCM students when choosing a job. A more effective human resource policy intervention to attract doctoral SMHCM students to work in CDCs, especially CDCs in third-tier cities should consider both the incentives provided by the job characteristics and the background of students. Doctoral students are at the stages of career preparation, so the results of this study would be informative for policymakers and help them to design the recruitment and retention policies for CDCs.

scholarly journals Job Preferences for Social Medicine and Health care Management PhD Students in China: A Discrete Choice Experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimeng Liu ◽  
Yingyao Chen ◽  
Shunping Li ◽  
Ningze Xu ◽  
Chengxiang Tang
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Health Workforce ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Care Management ◽  
Health Care Management ◽  
Social Medicine ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Monthly Income

Abstract Background: The shortage of public health workforce and its uneven distribution between developed and underdeveloped areas still exist in China’s health system. This study aimed to investigate PhD students majoring in social medicine and health care management (SMHCM)’s stated preferences when choosing a job, so as to inform policy-makers regarding alternative interventions to address recruitment and retention problems at underdeveloped areas.Methods: The relative importance of 7 job attributes was assessed by conducting a web-based discrete choice experiment (DCE) survey on a sample of 193 SMHCM PhD students at different grades during October 20 and November 12, 2020. The 7 attributes were monthly income, location, housing, children’s education, working environment, career promotion and Bianzhi (which refers to the authorized number of personnel (the number of established posts) in a party or government administrative organ). Results: All 7 attributes were statistically significant with the expected sign and demonstrated the existence of preference heterogeneity. Monthly income, location and Bianzhi were of most concern for SMHCM PhD students when deciding their future jobs. Among the presented attributes, working environment was of least concern. For the sub-group analysis, the job in first-tier city was more likely to lead to a higher utility value for PhD students who were women, married, coming from urban area and has high annual family income. Compared with female PhD students, male PhD students were willing to pay more for a shorter time to get promoted.Conclusions: Both monetary and non-monetary attributes were found to be significantly influential in affecting PhD students’ preferences for choosing a job. Wider use of choice experiments can help improve the recruitment and retention of health workforce at disease control system, especially in third-tier cities where resource constraints preclude the use of all strategies.

scholarly journals Parental Vaccine Preferences for Their Children in China: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Vaccines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 687
Author(s):  
Tiantian Gong ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
Ping Liu ◽  
Xiaozhen Lai ◽  
Hongguo Rong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Logit Model ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Stated Preference ◽  
Mixed Logit ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Mixed Logit Model

Background: Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective health investments to prevent and control communicable diseases. Improving the vaccination rate of children is important for all nations, and for China in particular since the advent of the two-child policy. This study aims to elicit the stated preference of parents for vaccination following recent vaccine-related incidents in China. Potential preference heterogeneity was also explored among respondents. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was developed to elicit parental preferences regarding the key features of vaccines in 2019. The study recruited a national sample of parents from 10 provinces who had at least one child aged between 6 months and 5 years old. A conditional logit model and a mixed logit model were used to estimate parental preference. Results: A total of 598 parents completed the questionnaire; among them, 428 respondents who passed the rational tests were analyzed. All attributes except for the severity of diseases prevented by vaccines were statistically significant. The risk of severe side effects and protection rates were the two most important factors explaining parents’ decisions about vaccination. The results of the mixed logit model with interactions indicate that fathers or rural parents were more likely to vaccinate their children, and children whose health was not good were also more likely to be vaccinated. In addition, parents who were not more than 30 years old had a stronger preference for efficiency, and well-educated parents preferred imported vaccines with the lowest risk of severe side effects. Conclusion: When deciding about vaccinations for their children, parents in China are mostly driven by vaccination safety and vaccine effectiveness and were not affected by the severity of diseases. These findings will be useful for increasing the acceptability of vaccination in China.

scholarly journals Job preferences of undergraduate pharmacy students in China: a discrete choice experiment

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Liu ◽  
Shimeng Liu ◽  
Tiantian Gong ◽  
Quan Li ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Job Characteristics ◽  
Pharmacy Students ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Job Preferences ◽  
Open Management

Abstract Background Pharmacists are a crucial part of the health workforce and play an important role in achieving universal health coverage. In China, pharmaceutical human resources are in short supply, and the distribution is unequal. This study aimed to identify the key job characteristics that influence the job preferences of undergraduate pharmacy students and to elicit the relative importance of different job characteristics to shed light on future policy interventions. Methods A discrete choice experiment was conducted to assess the job preferences of undergraduate pharmacy students from 6 provinces in mainland China. A face-to-face interview was used to collect data. Conditional logit and mixed logit models were used to analyse data, and the final model was chosen according to the model fit statistics. A series of policy simulations was also conducted. Results In total, 581 respondents completed the questionnaire, and 500 respondents who passed the internal consistency test were analysed. All attributes were statistically significant except for open management. Monthly income and work location were most important to respondents, followed by work unit (which refers to the nature of the workplace) and years to promotion. There was preference heterogeneity among respondents, e.g., male students preferred open management, and female students preferred jobs in public institutions. Furthermore, students with an urban background or from a single-child family placed higher value on a job in the city compared to their counterparts. Conclusion The heterogeneity of attributes showed the complexity of job preferences. Both monetary and nonmonetary job characteristics significantly influenced the job preferences of pharmacy students in China. A more effective policy intervention to attract graduates to work in rural areas should consider both incentives on the job itself and the background of pharmacy school graduates.

scholarly journals A protocol for a discrete choice experiment: understanding preferences of patients with cancer towards their cancer care across metropolitan and rural regions in Australia

BMJ Open ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. e006661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Fen Wong ◽  
Richard Norman ◽  
Trisha L Dunning ◽  
David M Ashley ◽  
Paula K Lorgelly
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Fractional Factorial ◽  
Medical Decision ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Clinical Scenarios

IntroductionMedical decision-making in oncology is a complicated process and to date there are few studies examining how patients with cancer make choices with respect to different features of their care. It is also unknown whether patient choices vary by geographical location and how location could account for observed rural and metropolitan cancer differences. This paper describes an ongoing study that aims to (1) examine patient and healthcare-related factors that influence choices of patients with cancer; (2) measure and quantify preferences of patients with cancer towards cancer care using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and (3) explore preference heterogeneity between metropolitan and rural locations.Methods and analysisA DCE is being conducted to understand how patients with cancer choose between two clinical scenarios accounting for different patient and healthcare-related factors (and levels). Preliminary qualitative research was undertaken to guide the development of an appropriate DCE design including characteristics that are important and relevant to patients with cancer. A fractional factorial design using the D-efficiency criteria was used to estimate interactions among attributes. Multinomial logistic regression will be used for the primary DCE analysis and to control for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.Ethics and disseminationThe Barwon Health Human Research Ethics Committee approved the study. Findings from the study will be presented in national/international conferences and peer-reviewed journals. Our results will form the basis of a feasibility study to inform the development of a larger scale study into preferences of patients with cancer and their association with cancer outcomes.

scholarly journals Analyzing preferences for family doctor contract services in rural China: a study using discrete choice experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
peipei Fu ◽  
Yi Wang ◽  
Shimeng Liu ◽  
Jiajia Li ◽  
qiufeng Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Family Doctor ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Reimbursement Rate ◽  
Rural Residents ◽  
The Family ◽  
Good Attitude

Abstract Background: Preliminary evaluations have found that family doctor contract service has significantly controlled medical expenses, better managed chronic diseases, and increased patient satisfaction and service compliance. In 2016, China proposed the establishment of a family doctor system to carry out contract services, but studies have found uptake and utilization of these services to be limited. This study aimed to investigate rural resident preferences for FDCS from the public perspective in China. Methods : A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was performed to elicit respondent preferences towards FDCS among rural residents in China. Attributes and levels were established based on literature review and qualitative methods. Five attributes consisted of cost, medicine availability, reimbursement rate, competence of the family doctor, and attitude of the family doctor were evaluated using mixed logit model. Results: A total number of 609 residents were included in the main DCE analysis. Respondents valued high competence (coefficient 2.44, [SE 0.13]) and good attitude (coefficient 1.42, [SE 0.09]) of the family doctor most. Cost was negatively valued (coefficient -0.01, [SE 0.01]) as expected. The preference heterogeneity analysis was conducted after adjusting the interaction terms, we found that rural residents with lower educational attainment prefer good attitude than those with higher educational attainment counterparts. The estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for “high” relative to “low” competence was 441.13 RMB/year and WTP for a provider with a “good” relative to a “poor” attitude was 255.77 RMB/year. Conclusion: This present study suggested priorities should be given to strengthen and improve the quality of primary health care including family doctors’ competence and attitudes so as to increase the uptake of signing FDCS. The contract service package including annual cost, insurance reimbursement rate and individualized services should be redesigned and become congruent with residents with different health status and their stated preferences.

scholarly journals Use of Lotteries for the Promotion of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Service: A Discrete-Choice Experiment among Adult Men in Tanzania

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason J. Ong ◽  
Nyasule Neke ◽  
Mwita Wambura ◽  
Evodius Kuringe ◽  
Jonathan M. Grund ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Male Circumcision ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Individual Preference ◽  
Preference Heterogeneity ◽  
Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision ◽  
Lottery Ticket ◽  
Medical Male Circumcision

Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is effective in reducing the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, countries like Tanzania have high HIV prevalence but low uptake of VMMC. We conducted a discrete-choice experiment to evaluate the preferences for VMMC service attributes in a random sample of 325 men aged 18 years or older from the general population in 2 Tanzanian districts, Njombe and Tabora. We examined the preference for financial incentives in the form of a lottery ticket or receiving a guaranteed transport voucher for attendance at a VMMC service. We created a random-parameters logit model to account for individual preference heterogeneity and a latent class analysis model for identifying groups of men with similar preferences to test the hypothesis that men who reported sexually risky behaviors (i.e., multiple partners and any condomless sex in the past 12 months) may have a preference for participation in a lottery-based incentive. Most men preferred a transport voucher (84%) over a lottery ticket. We also found that offering a lottery-based financial incentive may not differentially attract those with greater sexual risk. Our study highlights the importance of gathering local data to understand preference heterogeneity, particularly regarding assumptions around risk behaviors.

scholarly journals Location, Location, Location: A Discrete Choice Experiment to Inform Vaccination Programme Delivery in the UK

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert McPhedran ◽  
Natalie Gold ◽  
Charlotte Bemand ◽  
Dale Weston ◽  
Rachel Rosen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Choice Experiment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Vaccination Programme ◽  
Logit Model ◽  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mixed Logit ◽  
Fractional Factorial ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
The Uk

Abstract BackgroundLarge-scale vaccination is fundamental to combatting COVID-19. In March 2021, the UK’s vaccination programme had delivered vaccines to large proportions of older and more vulnerable population groups; however, there was concern that uptake would be lower among young people. This research was designed to elicit the preferences of 18-29-year-olds with respect to key delivery characteristics.MethodsFrom 25 March - 2 April 2021, an online sample of 2,021 UK adults aged 18-29 years participated in a Discrete Choice Experiment. Participants made six choices, each between two SMS invitations to get vaccinated; each choice also had an opt-out. Each invitation had four attributes (1 x 5 levels, 3 x 3 levels): delivery mode, appointment timing, proximity, and SMS sender. These were systematically varied according to a d-optimal fractional factorial design. Order of presentation was randomised for each participant. Responses were analysed using a mixed logit model.ResultsThe logit model revealed a large alternative-specific constant (β = 1.385, SE = 0.067, p <0.001), indicating a strong preference for ‘opting in’ to appointment invitations. Pharmacies were dispreferred to the local vaccination centre (β = -0.256, SE = 0.072, p <0.001), appointments in locations that were 30-45 minutes travel time from one’s premises were dispreferred to locations that were less than 15 minutes away (β = -0.408, SE = 0.054, p <0.001), and, compared to invitations sent by the NHS, SMSs forwarded by ‘a friend’ were dispreferred (β = -0.615, SE = 0.056, p <0.001) but invitations from the General Practitioner were preferred (β = 0.105, SE = 0.048, p = 0.028).ConclusionsThe results indicated that the existing configuration of the UK’s mass vaccination programme was well-placed to deliver vaccines to 18-29-year-olds; however, some adjustments might enhance acceptance. Local pharmacies were not preferred; long travel times were a disincentive but close proximity (0-15 minutes from one’s premises) was not necessary; and either the ‘NHS’ or ‘Your GP’ would serve as adequate invitation sources. This research informed COVID-19 policy in the UK, and contributes to a wider body of Discrete Choice Experiment evidence on citizens’ preferences, requirements and predicted behaviours regarding COVID-19.

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