Reform of Education Services for Adolescents Through Digital Technology

The problem of HIV/AIDS cases affects the number of human resources in education such as teachers, administrators, principals who are reduced due to illness or death. Increasing cases of HIV/AIDS that spread among adolescents make the government pay more attention to the increase in these cases. Empirical facts found during the study show that one of the stakeholders in the world of education stated that learning about HIV/AIDS prevention has not been considered an urgent matter. The research is qualitative research using a descriptive approach based on the perspective of public policy. In this case, researchers have developed a basic health promotion system about HIV/AIDS and have been introduced to sufferers newly infected with HIV/AIDS. The results of studies in the city of Banjarmasin explored policy issues in education for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Study findings assist policymakers in making decisions regarding HIV/AIDS prevention policies.

Measuring the knowledge and attitudes of physicians towards patients with HIV/AIDS: study of Anatolian group

Purpose This paper aims to determine the knowledge and attitudes of the physicians regarding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), to emphasize that these patients exist and they will exist in the future and to raise awareness so as to prevent that their rights to treatment are revoked. Design/methodology/approach The survey was conducted via a link sent through an online system. Random physicians from 81 cities of the country were invited to the survey. The survey has 41 questions regarding knowledge and attitudes in total, including epidemiological information such as age, gender and title. Findings A total of 3,107 physicians has voluntarily participated in the study. In total, 2,195 (70.7%) are internal physicians and 912 (29.3%) are surgical physicians among the participant physicians. In total, 1,452 (46.7%) of the participants are specialist physicians, 608 (19.6%) of the participants are practising physician and the rest of it is physician assistants, academicians and dentists, respectively. Originality/value In this study, it has been found out that the physicians have a lack of knowledge on HIV/AIDS and they adopt a discriminatory attitude towards HIV-positive persons. HIV-positive patients who are exposed to discrimination and scared of being uncovered refrain from applying to hospitals for treatment, which puts public health into jeopardy due to the high viral load and these patients are faced with difficulties in coping with both medical and emotional load of the disease.

On hazard-based penalized likelihood estimation of accelerated failure time model with partly interval censoring

In survival analysis, the semiparametric accelerated failure time model is an important alternative to the widely used Cox proportional hazard model. The existing methods for accelerated failure time models include least-squares, log rank-based estimating equations and approximations to the nonparametric error distribution. In this paper, we propose another fitting method for the accelerated failure time model, formulated from the hazard function of the exponential error term. Our method can handle partly interval-censored data which contains event time, as well as left, right and interval censoring time. We adopt the maximum penalized likelihood method to estimate all the parameters in the model, including the nonparametric component. The penalty function is used to regularize the nonparametric component of the accelerated failure time model. Asymptotic properties of the penalized likelihood estimate are developed. A simulation study is conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed method and an application of this method to an AIDS study is presented as an example.

DISKRIMINASI ORANG DENGAN HIV/AIDS (Study Kasus Kelompok Dukungan Sebaya (KDS) Smile Plus Temanggung)

This article describes the discrimination of people with HIV / AIDS in the Smile Plus Temanggung Peer Support Group. Besides this research is also to find out the subject responding to discrimination that occurs in the family environment, work environment, and social environment. In this study, the authors used a qualitative method with a case study model. The focus of the study is to examine the discrimination experienced by people with HIV / AIDS. Data collection techniques using observation, interviews, and documentation, with triangulation techniques to test the validity of the data. The results of this study show that of the five research subjects four of them experienced discrimination in the form of direct discrimination and indirect discrimination with sources of discrimination originating from the family and work environment, while in the social environment they did not experience discrimination because the environment did not know their status.Keywords: Discrimination, HIV / AIDS, Peer support groups, Smile Plus

Quantifying diagnostic accuracy improvement of new biomarkers for competing risk outcomes

Summary The net reclassification improvement (NRI) and the integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were originally proposed to characterize accuracy improvement in predicting a binary outcome, when new biomarkers are added to regression models. These two indices have been extended from binary outcomes to multi-categorical and survival outcomes. Working on an AIDS study where the onset of cognitive impairment is competing risk censored by death, we extend the NRI and the IDI to competing risk outcomes, by using cumulative incidence functions to quantify cumulative risks of competing events, and adopting the definitions of the two indices for multi-category outcomes. The “missing” category due to independent censoring is handled through inverse probability weighting. Various competing risk models are considered, such as the Fine and Gray, multistate, and multinomial logistic models. Estimation methods for the NRI and the IDI from competing risk data are presented. The inference for the NRI is constructed based on asymptotic normality of its estimator, and the bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap procedure is used for the IDI. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed inferential procedures perform very well. The Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study is used to illustrate the practical utility of the extended NRI and IDI for competing risk outcomes.

Estrategias de Aprendizaje: Inteligencias Múltiples y Estrategias Didácticas

This article has as a main objective to: Identify how multiple intelligences and didactic strategies intervene in learning strategies. The data obtained is organized in a concentration matrix and is given statistical treatment to explore results where a 90 Alpha Cronbach is obtained. Besides, information is processed in the statistical analysis: Percentages and frequencies, comparative with T student test and integrational with factorial analysis. As main results it stands out that: Starting from the use, handling and development of multiple intelligences such as naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, logical mathematical along with didactic strategies such as team building, individual work, exchange of ideas, participation, visual aids, study of chaos, and to arouse curiosity impacts in students and motivates them to do analysis, comprehensive lecture and work collaboratively, all of this combined encourages students to be more autodidactic.

Semiparametric regression analysis of multivariate doubly censored data

This article discusses regression analysis of multivariate doubly censored data with a wide class of flexible semiparametric transformation frailty models. The proposed models include many commonly used regression models as special cases such as the proportional hazards and proportional odds frailty models. For inference, we propose a nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation method and develop a new expectation–maximization algorithm for its implementation. The proposed estimators of the finite-dimensional parameters are shown to be consistent, asymptotically normal and semiparametrically efficient. We also conduct a simulation study to assess the finite sample performance of the developed estimation method, and the proposed methodology is applied to a set of real data arising from an AIDS study.

The Effects of an AIDS Education Program on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Physical Therapy Students

AIDS (acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome) is a fast spreading pandemic with global affection and has affected lives of multitudes in recent years. The purpose of this paper was to determine the effect of an AIDS education program on physical therapy students’ knowledge about AIDS, attitudes towards people with AIDS and willingness to treat AIDS patients. A sample of 50 physical therapy students’ aged 22 to 28 volunteered to participate in this study. All subjects were pretested and posttested together with an AIDS study questionnaire. The subject group demonstrated an improvement in knowledge about AIDS (56%) and positive attitudes towards AIDS patients (16%), although the students’ willingness to provide services for AIDS patients remained unchanged following the AIDS education program. Further study of other levels of physical therapists or physical therapy students, measurement of actual clinical behaviours and comparisons of different educational interventions are needed.

Modified Delphi survey for the evidence summarisation of patient decision aids: Study protocol

IntroductionInformation included in a patient decision aid (PDA) can significantly influence patients’ decisions and is, therefore, expected to be evidence-based and rigorously selected and summarised. PDA developers have not yet agreed on a standardised process for the selection and summarisation of the supporting evidence. We intend to generate consensus on a process (and related steps and criteria) for selecting and summarising evidence for PDAs using a modified Delphi survey.Methods and analysisWe will develop an evidence summarisation process specific to PDA development by using a consensus-based Delphi approach, surveying international experts and stakeholders with two to three rounds. To increase generalisability and acceptability, we will distribute the survey to the following stakeholder groups: PDA developers, researchers with expertise in shared decision making, PDA development and evidence summarisation, members of the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) collaboration, policy makers with expertise in PDA certification and patient stakeholder groups. For each criterion, if at least 80% of survey participants rank the criterion as most important/least important, we will consider that consensus has been achieved.Ethics and disseminationIt is critical for PDAs to have accurate and trustworthy evidence-based information about the risks and benefits of health treatments and tests, as these decision aids help patients make important choices. We want to generate consensus on an approach for selecting and summarising the evidence included in PDAs, which can be widely implemented by PDA developers. Dartmouth College’s Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects approved this protocol. We will publish our results in a peer reviewed journal.

Bayesian semiparametric growth models for measurement error and missing data in CD4/CD8 ratio: Application to AIDS Study

In clinical research and practice, there is often an interest in assessing the effect of time varying predictors, such as CD4/CD8 ratio, on immune recovery following antiretroviral therapy. Such predictors are measured with errors, and ignoring those measurement errors during data analysis may lead to biased results. Though parametric methods have been used for reducing biases, they usually depend on untestable assumptions. To relax those assumptions, this paper presents semiparametric mixed-effect models which deal with predictors having measurement errors and missing values. We develop a fully Bayesian approach for fitting these models and discriminating between patients who are potentially progressors or nonprogressors to severe disease condition (AIDS). The proposed methods are demonstrated using real data from an AIDS clinical study.