scholarly journals Development of Policy-Relevant Indicators for Injury Prevention in British Columbia by the Key Decision-Makers

Author(s):  
Megan Oakey ◽  
David C. Evans ◽  
Tobin T. Copley ◽  
Mojgan Karbakhsh ◽  
Diana Samarakkody ◽  
...  

Indicators can help decision-makers evaluate interventions in a complex, multi-sectoral injury system. We aimed to create indicators for road safety, seniors falls, and ‘all-injuries’ to inform and evaluate injury prevention initiatives in British Columbia, Canada. The indicator development process involved a five-stage mixed methodology approach, including an environmental scan of existing indicators, generating expert consensus, selection of decision-makers and conducting a survey, selection of final indicators, and specification of indicators. An Indicator Reference Group (IRG) reviewed the list of indicators retrieved in the environmental scan and selected candidate indicators through expert consensus based on importance, modifiability, acceptance, and practicality. Key decision-makers (n = 561) were invited to rank each indicator in terms of importance and actionability (online survey). The IRG applied inclusion criteria and thresholds to survey responses from decision-makers, which resulted in the selection of 47 road safety, 18 seniors falls, and 33 all-injury indicators. After grouping “like” indicators, a final list of 23 road safety, 8 seniors falls, and 13 all-injury indicators were specified. By considering both decision-maker ranking and expert opinion, we anticipate improved injury system performance through advocacy, accountability, and evidence-based resource allocation in priority areas. Our indicators will inform a data management framework for whole-system reporting to drive policy and funding for provincial injury prevention improvement.

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Mitton ◽  
Y.C. MacNab ◽  
N. Smith ◽  
L. Foster

Provincial and regional decision makers in the injury prevention field were interviewed in British Columbia (B.C.) to obtain their views about best processes for the transfer or dissemination of relevant data. These decision makers (n = 13) indicated that data should provide them with a holistic and comprehensive picture to support their decision processes. In addition, they felt information about injury types and rates should be linked backward to determinants or causes and forward to consequences or outcomes. This complete chain of data is needed for planning and evaluating health promotion interventions. It was also felt that data providers needed to devote more effort to fostering effective receptor capacity, so that injury prevention professionals will be better able to understand, interpret and apply the data. These findings can likely be generalized to other jurisdictions and policy areas, and offer additional insight into the practicalities of knowledge transfer and exchange in researcher/decision maker partnerships.


Author(s):  
Ravneet Athwal ◽  
BCIT School of Health Sciences, Environmental Health ◽  
Helen Heacock

Background With the increasing shift to reusable shopping bags and the potential ban on plastic bags in Canada in the near future, the question arises as to whether consumers are aware of the proper practices to maintain a safe environment within the bags themselves. The reason for this study was to determine if people are aware of the need to keep specific bags for certain food groups and if they are aware of the need to wash and/or sanitize their reusable shopping bags due to the risk of cross-contamination. Usage of the same bag for various foods (e.g. lettuce and raw meat) without proper sanitation practices can lead to cross-contamination between the foods, and in turn, create a risk of food borne illness. Methods A survey created on Microsoft Office 365 Word was administered through Survey Monkey and distributed on Reddit, various social media, and by email. The survey collection ran for one week in the month of January 2020. The survey consisted of 14 questions and took approximately two to three minutes to complete. Results 225 respondents filled out the online survey. The majority of survey responses were from British Columbia (47%), were female (54%), attended post-secondary institutions (65%) and were between the ages of 20 to 30 (46%). Nearly half of reusable shopping bag users use the same bag to store their fruits/vegetables and their meats, 61% of users have never cleaned their shopping bags, 7% clean them weekly, and only 1% clean their bag after every use. Those who mix produce and meats in the same bag are less likely to wash their RSBs (p = 0.0006). Males are less likely to wash their shopping bags than females (P = 0.009). 97% of survey respondents were not provided with any cleaning instructions upon their purchase of a reusable shopping bag and 93% have never seen educational material presented on RSB cleaning and/or the risk of cross-contamination. 84% believe there is not appropriate awareness and knowledge among the general public on the cleaning requirements of reusable shopping bags and the potential risk of cross-contamination while 10% believe there is sufficient awareness. Not surprisingly, those who were not aware that shopping bags need to be cleaned between uses were less likely to wash them (p = 7.804 x10-19). Conclusion In conclusion: 1. people who are not aware that their RSBs need to be cleaned between uses are also less likely to clean them, 2. males are less likely to clean their reusable shopping bags, 3. bags that contain both fruits/vegetables and meats in the same bags are also less likely to be cleaned, and 4. bags that are used more frequently also cleaned more frequently. Further education on reusable shopping bags is needed along with the transition from plastic bags to reusable shopping bags. At the time of publication, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic was rapidly spreading throughout the world. In order to prevent fomite spread of disease, British Columbia forbade the use of RSBs in grocery stores, resulting in a proliferation of plastic bags. Time will tell when, and if, RSBs will be permitted for grocery shopping.  


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weichao Chen ◽  
Anindita Paul ◽  
Francis Kibaru ◽  
Yanfei Ma ◽  
Dinara Saparova

This paper discusses the various challenges encountered during iterative testing of an insurance company's home page prototypes. The study focuses on the methodology details, including the selection of prototypes and usability evaluation methods and the considerations for practical trade-offs. During Phase 1, six individual think-aloud interviews were conducted to compare three prototypes. Participants were asked to complete tasks on the prototypes. Based on the findings from Phase 1, three prototypes were developed. In Phase 2, an online survey was administered with existing customers to compare these three prototypes. Survey responses indicated that content, layout, and visual appearance were most influential on users' preferences of the designs. At the end of our paper, we compare the implementation and the results of usability evaluation and the prototypes in the two phases and discuss the limitations of the study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-101
Author(s):  
Ronnie E. Baticulon ◽  
Michael C. Dewan ◽  
Nunthasiri Wittayanakorn ◽  
Philipp R. Aldana ◽  
Wirginia J. Maixner

OBJECTIVEThere are limited data on the pediatric neurosurgical workforce in Asia and Australasia. The training and clinical practice of pediatric neurosurgeons need to be characterized in order to identify gaps in knowledge and skills, thereby establishing a framework from which to elevate pediatric neurosurgical care in the region.METHODSAn online survey for pediatric neurosurgeons was created in REDCap (Research Electronic Database Capture), collecting demographic information and data on pediatric neurosurgical training and clinical practice. The link to answer the survey was sent to the mailing lists of the Asian Australasian Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery and the Japanese Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery, disseminated during the 2019 Asian Australasian Pediatric Neurosurgery Congress, and spread through social media. The survey was open to neurosurgeons who operated on patients ≤ 18 years old in Asian Australasian countries, whether or not they had completed fellowship training in pediatric neurosurgery. Descriptive statistics were computed and tabulated. Data were stratified and compared based on surgeon training and World Bank income group.RESULTSA total of 155 valid survey responses were analyzed, representing neurosurgeons from 21 countries. A total of 107 (69%) considered themselves pediatric neurosurgeons, of whom 66 (43%) had completed pediatric neurosurgery training. Neurosurgeons in East Asia commonly undergo a fellowship in their home countries, whereas the rest train mostly in North America, Europe, and Australia. A majority (89%) had operating privileges, and subspecialty pediatric training usually lasted from 6 months to 2 years. On average, trained pediatric neurosurgeons perform a higher number of pediatric neurosurgical operations per year compared with nonpediatric-trained respondents (131 ± 129 vs 56 ± 64 [mean ± SD], p = 0.0001). The mean number of total neurosurgical operations per year is similar for both groups (184 ± 129 vs 178 ± 142 [mean ± SD], p = 0.80). Respondents expressed the desire to train further in pediatric epilepsy, spasticity, vascular malformations, craniofacial disorders, and brain tumors.CONCLUSIONSBoth pediatric and general neurosurgeons provide neurosurgical care to children in Asia and Australasia. There is a need to increase pediatric neurosurgery fellowship programs in the region. Skill sets and training needs in pediatric neurosurgery vary depending on the country’s economic status and between pediatric-trained and nonpediatric-trained surgeons.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1and2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajeev Dhingra ◽  
Preetvanti Singh

Decision problems are usually complex and involve evaluation of several conflicting criteria (parameters). Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is a promising field that considers the parallel influence of all criteria and aims at helping decision makers in expressing their preferences, over a set of predefined alternatives, on the basis of criteria (parameters) that are contradictory in nature. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a useful and widespread MCDM tool for solving such type of problems, as it allows the incorporation of conflicting objectives and decision makers preferences in the decision making. The AHP utilizes the concept of pair wise comparison to find the order of criteria (parameters) and alternatives. The comparison in a pairwise manner becomes quite tedious and complex for problems having eight alternatives or more, thereby, limiting the application of AHP. This paper presents a soft hierarchical process approach based on soft set decision making which eliminates the least promising candidate alternatives and selects the optimum(potential) ones that results in the significant reduction in the number of pairwise comparisons necessary for the selection of the best alternative using AHP, giving the approach a more realistic view. A supplier selection problem is used to illustrate the proposed approach.


2020 ◽  
pp. 102986492097216
Author(s):  
Gaelen Thomas Dickson ◽  
Emery Schubert

Background: Music is thought to be beneficial as a sleep aid. However, little research has explicitly investigated the specific characteristics of music that aid sleep and some researchers assume that music described as generically sedative (slow, with low rhythmic activity) is necessarily conducive to sleep, without directly interrogating this assumption. This study aimed to ascertain the features of music that aid sleep. Method: As part of an online survey, 161 students reported the pieces of music they had used to aid sleep, successfully or unsuccessfully. The participants reported 167 pieces, some more often than others. Nine features of the pieces were analyzed using a combination of music information retrieval methods and aural analysis. Results: Of the pieces reported by participants, 78% were successful in aiding sleep. The features they had in common were that (a) their main frequency register was middle range frequencies; (b) their tempo was medium; (c) their articulation was legato; (d) they were in the major mode, and (e) lyrics were present. They differed from pieces that were unsuccessful in aiding sleep in that (a) their main frequency register was lower; (b) their articulation was legato, and (c) they excluded high rhythmic activity. Conclusion: Music that aids sleep is not necessarily sedative music, as defined in the literature, but some features of sedative music are associated with aiding sleep. In the present study, we identified the specific features of music that were reported to have been successful and unsuccessful in aiding sleep. The identification of these features has important implications for the selection of pieces of music used in research on sleep.


2021 ◽  
pp. 027347532199210
Author(s):  
Else-Marie van den Herik ◽  
Tim M. Benning

Free-riding is a serious challenge in group projects. While there are various methods to reduce free-riding, marketing educators still face a difficult task when selecting an appropriate method for their course. In this study, we propose a students’ preferences-based approach that supports marketing educators with the selection of methods to detect and handle free-riding. To measure these preferences, students completed an online survey based on a choice task about two methods to detect free-riding and a ranking task about four methods to handle free-riding ( n = 254). Their answers were analyzed using chi-squared tests, Borda scores, and rank-ordered logit models. The results show that (a) neither Dutch nor international students have a clear preference for one of the two detection methods (the reporting system vs. the process evaluation system), (b) grade discussion (a possible reduction of the free-rider’s grade based on a conversation with the course coordinator about each student’s contribution) is the most preferred method to handle free-riding, and (c) international students have a stronger preference for stricter handling methods. Marketing educators can apply the proposed approach, or use our specific findings, for designing methods to reduce free-riding in their courses.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Moaz Gharib ◽  
Kamaal Allil ◽  
Omar Durrah ◽  
Mohammed Alsatouf

PURPOSE: Trust is vital to all positive relationships. This empirical study explores the effect of three facets of organisational trust (trust in supervisors, in co-workers and in the organisation) on employee commitment in Salalah Mills Co. in the food industry in the Sultanate of Oman. METHODOLOGY: Data were collected via an online survey sent to all employees working in Salalah Mills Co., Oman. The final sample consisting of 102 responses with a response rate of 54 percent were analysed using multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The findings revealed that two facets of organisational trust (trust in co-workers and trust in supervisors) were found to have a significant positive effect on employee commitment, while trust in the organisation was found to have no significant effect. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Trust in supervisors and trust in co-workers directly affect employee commitment. Therefore, managers should consider promoting both of these forms of trust to enhance employee commitment. VALUE: Although previous studies have examined the link between organisational trust and employee commitment, a focus on Oman and the food sector has been particularly rare, so this study offers new insights. The findings will help decision-makers on design strategies and policies to improve employee commitment through trust.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. A258-A258
Author(s):  
S. Cote-Meek ◽  
F. Assinewe ◽  
D. Jones-Keeshig ◽  
A. Macpherson

2005 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-386
Author(s):  
S. Denise Allen

This article discusses collaborative research with the Office of the Wet'suwet'en Nation on their traditional territories in north-central British Columbia, Canada, a forest-dependent region where contemporary and traditional forest resources management regimes overlap. In-depth personal interviews with the hereditary chiefs and concept mapping were used to identify social-ecological linkages in Wet'suwet'en culture to inform the development of culturally sensitive social criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management (SFM) in this region. The preliminary results demonstrate how the CatPac II software tool can be applied to identify key component concepts and linkages in local definitions of SFM, and translate large volumes of (oral) qualitative data into manageable information resources for forest managers and decision-makers. Key words: social criteria and indicators, sustainable forest management, qualitative research, Wet'suwet'en


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