Study of the impact of available healthcare resources on the population’s mortality rate using the hierarchical linear modelling

Introduction. The uneven development of the medical material and technical base and resources is observed worldwide. At the same time, healthcare resource availability is associated with the territorial characteristics of the population’s mortality rate. In order to reduce mortality, a better understanding of this relationship is needed. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of healthcare resource availability on mortality, taking into account the hierarchical nesting of municipalities in subjects of the Russian Federation with further funding for health care and demographic indicators. Material and methods. For these purposes, hierarchical linear modelling is used. The assessment was carried out on the data of 265 municipalities attributed to 6 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The data sources are the Territorial Bodies of the Federal State Statistics Service and the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System (www.fedstat.ru). Results. As a result of modelling, the health care resources (doctors, medical personnel, beds) at the municipal level were determined to reduce the population mortality rate positively. At the same time, an ambiguous influence of the actual cost of the territorial compulsory medical insurance program was revealed at the regional level. Conclusion. The results obtained correspond to studies devoted to the regional diversity of the population mortality rate and the available healthcare resources. However, they make it possible to determine the influence of factors taking into account the level of their formation (regional, municipal). The proposed models make it possible to improve the quality of managerial decision-making in the health care system since, taking into account the hierarchical nesting, they share the influence of regional and local factors on the variation of municipalities in terms of the mortality rate of the population.

Professional Development and Teacher Job Satisfaction: Evidence from a Multilevel Model

Numerous studies in different countries find evidence for high rates of teacher turnover, leading to shortages and potential quality issues. Job satisfaction is found to be an important antecedent of turnover. In this study, we investigate the impact of various aspects of professional development for teachers (as well as interactions of these aspects) on job satisfaction. The main goal is to disentangle the interactions between need for and participation in professional development activities, allowing more detailed and precise analyses that may lead to a better substantiated understanding of the mechanisms at work. We use data from the 2018 wave of the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). The hierarchical data structure of teachers nested in schools, nested in regions requires the use of appropriate estimation techniques: multilevel or hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). We find a significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and need for professional development for teaching diversity and special needs, which is (negatively) moderated by the number of professional development activities a teacher had participated in. Another indicator, measuring the need for professional development in subject matter and pedagogy, shows a significant negative relationship with job satisfaction and is (positively) moderated by the amount of professional development.

The Analysis of Cognitive Moral in Bridging the Gap Between Internal Marketing and B2B Salespeople Performance

This study seeks to confirm and analyse the effect of cross-level cognitive morals on internal marketing and business sales force performance (i.e. behavioural performance and outcome performance). The concepts of relationship marketing and marketing theory of ethics underpin the relationship among variables. This study adopted a quantitative approach through a survey of 460 respondents from 13 company services and manufacturers. Internal marketing variables were measured at the unit level and tested using interrater agreement and the intraclass correlation. In contrast, the cognitive moral variables, behavioural performance, and sales force performance results were measured individually. Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) was used to test the effect of the cross-level research variables. The results showed that internal marketing empirically supports cognitive morals. However, the effect of internal marketing does not support the two-dimensional performances of the sales force. Theoretically, the contributions, internal marketing and cognitive morals have shown the relationship between marketing and marketing theory of ethics. Received: 28 April 2021 / Accepted: 15 July 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021

Understanding Country Differences: Predicting the Effect of Financial and Labor Market Conditions at Home and in the U.S. on International Doctoral Recipients’ First Labor Market Destination

This study used the Survey of Earned Doctorate, World Bank economic data of the student’s home country, and Hierarchical Linear Modelling analysis to examine the effects of financial factors and home-country macroeconomic indicators on international doctoral student’s labor market destination. This study found that wealth disparities and economic opportunities in the home country impact on international doctoral student outcomes. We find that higher GNI per capita was associated with decreased likelihood of remaining in the United States. We find that higher unemployment rates in the home country significantly increased the likelihood of choosing to remain in the United States. The study also identified factors impacting international doctoral recipients in the United States across regions and economies of the home country.

Efficacy of P11-4 for the treatment of initial buccal caries: a randomized clinical trial

To investigate the safety and efficacy of Self-Assembling Peptide P11-4 (SAP P11-4) compared to placebo or fluoride varnish (FV), a randomized, controlled, blinded, split-mouth study with sequential design was conducted. Subjects presenting two teeth with White-Spot-Lesions (WSLs) were included and teeth were randomly assigned to test or control. Control received placebo at baseline (D0) and test SAP P11-4, all received FV at Day 90 (D90). Standardized photographs were taken at each visit, and WSL size changes were morphometrically assessed. Hierarchical Linear Modelling, considering paired and sequential design, was used to test four hypotheses. SAP P11-4 lesions (test, D90–D0) showed significant WSL size reduction compared to placebo (control, D90–D0; p = 0.008) or FV (control, D180–D90; p = 0.001). Combination of SAP P11-4 and delayed FV after 90 days (test, D180–D0), showed a significant difference compared to FV alone (control D270–D90; p = 0.003). No significant difference on FV efficacy was found when SAP P11-4 was applied 3 months before FV (test D270–D90; control D270–D90, p = 0.70). SAP P11-4 treatment resulted in superior caries regression compared to either placebo or FV, and FV efficacy seems not to be affected by SAP P11-4. SAP P11-4 was found to be a safe and effective WSL treatment.

Trends in Teacher Monitoring Methods across Curriculum and Didaktik Traditions: Evidence from three PISA waves

The main objectives of this study were to examine trends in teacher monitoring methods (TMMs) among a representative set of 12 curriculum and didaktik countries, using data from PISA 2009, 2012, and 2015, and the association of TMMs with students’ reading, mathematics, and science performance accordingly. Curriculum and didaktik education traditions frame the study theoretically, while quantitative research methods are used, consisting of a two-sample difference of proportion test and hierarchical linear modelling. The findings suggest that across the PISA waves, the control over teachers is growing across all countries and in all three subject domains and four TMMs. However, the proportion of students in schools where any of the TMMs are used is higher and more statistically significant for curriculum than for didaktik countries. Student tests, teacher peer review, and principal observation are much more common TMMs than external inspector observation across all countries. Nevertheless, the use of external inspector observation is very low in several didaktik countries, and in the case of Finland almost inexistent. Results for Sweden seem to be over-reported as in previous survey work it was found that teacher self-assessment is the most common TMM, however, teacher self-assessment is not a variable included in the PISA survey. The results from within-country hierarchical linear models (HLMs) of associations of TMMs with students’ reading (2009), mathematics (2012), and science (2015) performance in PISA show mixed, and at times relatively large, effects from country to country and across three PISA waves, and interestingly the associations had diminished by PISA 2015. Adding a more diverse set of questions to PISA contextual questionnaires is warranted for results to be more meaningful and representative across more countries.

Making a choice when information is missing: The case of medical versus consumer choices

This paper reports an experimental investigation of decision-making under uncertainty. Today, patients are encouraged to participate, or even decide for themselves what kind of care and treatment they should get; they are now in the position of a consumer that chooses what he believes is best. However, choosing a specific treatment rather than another has more important consequences in one's life than choosing a brand of yogurt rather than another. We wanted to see if people choose according to the available information, or not. Using a within-person design, we asked if there are any differences in the way people make medical choices, as compared to non-medical, neutral choices. Latency was also measured for the 21 choices each participant had to make. Additionally, we investigated moral purity, and gender – as between-person variables, to see if they play a role in decision-making under uncertainty. We analyzed the data with hierarchical linear modelling, where a series of choices (level 1) were nested within individuals (level 2). Results showed that people relied on the available information more often for medical choices than for non-medical, neutral choices. The less time spent, the higher the probability of relying on the available information. Also, while moral purity was not a significant predictor of decision-making, gender seems to be a moderator: men tend to rely more than women on the known information, in the case of medical choices, while in the case of non-medical choices, the differences between men and women are insignificant.