Function Of Educational Level Research Articles

Attitudes towards vaccines and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19: a cross-sectional analysis—implications for public health communications in Australia

ObjectiveTo examine SARS-CoV-2 vaccine confidence, attitudes and intentions in Australian adults as part of the iCARE Study.Design and settingCross-sectional online survey conducted when free COVID-19 vaccinations first became available in...

Does Paying for Aquatic Resources Matter? A Case of an African Riverine Ecosystem

Valuation of environmental goods and services has an important role to play in the protection and conservation of riverine resources. However, the literature shows a dearth of information regarding factors that influence people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for riverine resources. This research study was undertaken to find out key factors that affect the willingness of people to pay for the conservation of aquatic resources in the lower section of the Linthipe River in Malawi. Data was collected through household interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and contingent valuation (CV) surveys. The study noted that communities were willing to offer $3.51 per year for the conservation of aquatic resources in the river. This study established that the people’s WTP is a function of education level, household usage of the goods and services, community support in the management of the resources, household income, and distance of the household from the river ecosystem. The study further discovered that the pay-out level of the users along the Linthipe River was driven by household usage of resources from the river, period of stay in the area, and level of household income. Our recommendation is that government and development partners should popularize the important role played by rivers and streams to surrounding communities and beyond to appeal for more support from users. The authorities must further empower the communities along the rivers and streams to sustainably manage the aquatic resources for the continued appreciation of aquatic resources by future generations.

PROFILE OF ANIMAL PROTEIN CONSUMERS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FISH CONSUMPTION IN THE SEMIARID REGION OF BRAZIL

The present study characterizes animal protein consumers, with emphasis on fish consumption in the semiarid region of Brazil. No significant differences were observed in our analysis of the frequency of fish consumption as a function of education level (p =0.1362), with a mean consumption across all levels of 4.78±2.05 meals per month and a median of four meals per month. In the analysis of fish consumption as a function of age, gender, education level, income and product preference, in a multiple model, the most influential variable was found to be product preference (P-value = 0.00005, Durbin-Watson = 2.0594), with no statistic difference regards to age, gender, schooling or income (p = 0.6987). In semiarid´s region, there is a predominant preference for bovine, with fish being the third most consumed protein. It is essential to maintain and promote campaigns to encourage fish consumption, as well as to promote public investment in order to reduce production costs and, consequently, ensure that fish is always a readily available option for consumers. These and other actions are necessary in order to prevent the economic factor from becoming the deciding factor for consumption decisions, in the short, medium and long term.

Linking openness to cognitive ability in older adulthood: The role of activity diversity

Relatively few studies have examined the reasons older individuals participate in activities that may benefit cognition with aging. Personality traits, particularly, openness to experience, are likely to influence how activities are selected. Openness to experience has also reliably shown to relate to cognitive and intellectual capacities. The current study tested whether diversity in activity helped to explain the overlap between openness to experience and cognitive functioning in an older adult sample (n = 476, mean age: 72.5 years). Results suggest that openness is a better predictor of activity diversity than of time spent engaged in activities or time spent in cognitively challenging activities. Further, activity diversity explained significant variance in the relationship between openness and cognitive ability for most constructs examined. This relationship did not vary with age, but differed as a function of education level, such that participating in a more diverse array of activities was most beneficial for those with less formal education. These results suggest that engagement with a diverse behavioral repertoire in late life may compensate for lack of early life resources.

The Effect of Statement Biased Popular Media Consumption on Public Perceptions of Nuclear Power

This study assesses the effect of popular media consumption, as a function of education level, on the public’s opinions about nuclear power. Opinions concerning ten statements about nuclear power were collected before and after participants read a news article in support of or in opposition to nuclear power. The purpose of the study was to determine the degree of malleability of people’s opinions about nuclear power and whether this malleability increased or decreased with the subject’s education level (high school students, college students, and college graduates). We hypothesized that, despite an evident agenda by the article’s author, public viewpoints on nuclear power may fluctuate from their original standpoints after reading the article. The results indicate that participants, regardless of education level, were willing to change their opinions about nuclear power after consuming a single popular media article. After reading the media article, supporting nuclear power, participants showed more positive opinions about nuclear power. Conversely, participants who consumed the media article that was critical of nuclear power showed a more negative overall opinion about nuclear power. This indicates that respondents, regardless of education level, are open to modifying their opinions about nuclear power after consuming popular media, even if the media has a clear statement bias in support of nuclear power or against it.

Age-related decline in verbal learning is moderated by demographic factors, working memory capacity, and presence of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Age-related memory changes are highly varied and heterogeneous. The study examined the rate of decline in verbal episodic memory as a function of education level, auditory attention span and verbal working memory capacity, and diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI). Data were available on a community sample of 653 adults aged 17-86 years and 70 patients with a-MCI recruited from eight broad geographic areas in Greece and Cyprus. Measures of auditory attention span and working memory capacity (digits forward and backward) and verbal episodic memory (Auditory Verbal Learning Test [AVLT]) were used. Moderated mediation regressions on data from the community sample did not reveal significant effects of education level on the rate of age-related decline in AVLT indices. The presence of a-MCI was a significant moderator of the direct effect of Age on both immediate and delayed episodic memory indices. The rate of age-related decline in verbal episodic memory is normally mediated by working memory capacity. Moreover, in persons who display poor episodic memory capacity (a-MCI group), age-related memory decline is expected to advance more rapidly for those who also display relatively poor verbal working memory capacity.

Effectiveness and costs of phototest in dementia and cognitive impairment screening

BackgroundTo assess and compare the effectiveness and costs of Phototest, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Memory Impairment Screen (MIS) to screen for dementia (DEM) and cognitive impairment (CI).MethodsA phase III study was conducted over one year in consecutive patients with suspicion of CI or DEM at four Primary Care (PC) centers. After undergoing all screening tests at the PC center, participants were extensively evaluated by researchers blinded to screening test results in a Cognitive-Behavioral Neurology Unit (CBNU). The gold standard diagnosis was established by consensus of expert neurologists. Effectiveness was assessed by the proportion of correct diagnoses (diagnostic accuracy [DA]) and by the kappa index of concordance between test results and gold standard diagnoses. Costs were based on public prices and hospital accounts.ResultsThe study included 140 subjects (48 with DEM, 37 with CI without DEM, and 55 without CI). The MIS could not be applied to 23 illiterate subjects (16.4%). For DEM, the maximum effectiveness of the MMSE was obtained with different cutoff points as a function of educational level [k = 0.31 (95% Confidence interval [95%CI], 0.19-0.43), DA = 0.60 (95%CI, 0.52-0.68)], and that of the MIS with a cutoff of 3/4 [k = 0.63 (95%CI, 0.48-0.78), DA = 0.83 (95%CI, 0.80-0.92)]. Effectiveness of the Phototest [k = 0.71 (95%CI, 0.59-0.83), DA = 0.87 (95%CI, 0.80-0.92)] was similar to that of the MIS and higher than that of the MMSE. Costs were higher with MMSE (275.9 ± 193.3€ [mean ± sd euros]) than with Phototest (208.2 ± 196.8€) or MIS (201.3 ± 193.4€), whose costs did not significantly differ. For CI, the effectiveness did not significantly differ between MIS [k = 0.59 (95%CI, 0.45-0.74), DA = 0.79 (95%CI, 0.64-0.97)] and Phototest [k = 0.58 (95%CI, 0.45-0.74), DA = 0.78 (95%CI, 0.64-0.95)] and was lowest for the MMSE [k = 0.27 (95%CI, 0.09-0.45), DA = 0.69 (95%CI, 0.56-0.84)]. Costs were higher for MMSE (393.4 ± 121.8€) than for Phototest (287.0 ± 197.4€) or MIS (300.1 ± 165.6€), whose costs did not significantly differ.ConclusionMMSE is not an effective instrument in our setting. For both DEM and CI, the Phototest and MIS are more effective and less costly, with no difference between them. However, MIS could not be applied to the appreciable percentage of our population who were illiterate.

Tabagisme et niveau d’instruction en milieu africain

Tobacco smoking is a scourge that continues to increase in developing countries despite its known consequences. Is the population of the Ivory Coast sufficiently informed about the consequences of smoking? For this reason, we decided to evaluate the knowledge of the effects of smoking among the people of Abidjan. To evaluate the knowledge of the effects of smoking in the population of Abidjan. To relate this knowledge to the educational level and smoking status. We evaluated knowledge about smoking and its consequences as a function of educational level and smoking status in the population of Abidjan over the age of 15 years. This was undertaken in 3 months, from November 2005 to January 2006, in the two busiest communes in Abidjan. The minimum number of persons required was 1152 but, in fact, we interviewed 1409. The prevalence of smoking was 36.5% with a predominance of males (sex ratio = 3:11). They were mainly young with a mean age of 27.44 years. This population's main sources of information on the ill effects of smoking were the mass media. In general, the subjects did not have a good understanding of smoking and its consequences. With regard to the diseases related to smoking, bronchial carcinoma and cardiovascular disorders were the best known, in 53.1 and 18.1%, respectively. With regard to the components of tobacco, nicotine was the best known (92.6%). Knowledge was related to the level of education: the subjects of a higher educational level were the most knowledgeable about the consequences of smoking. As a result, these subjects were less attached to smoking than the less educated. The consequences of smoking are poorly understood by the general population. With regard to the level of education, the better educated had a better understanding of the effects of smoking and were also those who smoked the least.

Social inequalities in mortality by cause among men and women in France

Background:The aim of this study was to compare inequalities in mortality (all causes and by cause) by occupational group and educational level between men and women living in France in...

Avaliação cognitiva breve de pacientes atendidos em ambulatórios de neurologia geral

Cognitive evaluation is usually performed in the assessment of patients with suspected dementia, but is not generally performed in patients with other neurological diseases. To investigate the relevance of a systematic cognitive examination in patients with different neurological conditions. One-hundred and five patients consecutively attended over a one-year period in a general Neurology outpatient clinic from a public-affiliated hospital, with no complaints of cognitive changes, were submitted to the following cognitive tests: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), digit span (forward and backward), delayed recall of ten simple figures, category fluency and clock drawing. Whenever possible, the cut-off scores were adjusted as function of educational level. Nearly 2/3 of the patients presented impaired performance in at least one of the tests. The MMSE was altered in 20% of the patients. Performance at digit span was impaired in 50.4% of cases (29.5% forward and 20.9% backward), delayed recall in 14.2% of the patients, category fluency in 27.6% and clock drawing in 40.0%. These results reinforce the need of including cognitive evaluation as a routine part of the neurological examination, independently of the presence of specific complaints in this domain.

AIDS-related knowledge and behaviors in Mozambique: Connaissances et comportements face au SIDA en Mozambique

The objective of this study was to describe attitudes and knowledge about AIDS among the population aged 15 to 49 in Chókwè (Mozambique) during the period from March to May 2004, and to study associated factors. Cross-sectional study conducted by interviewing 1,055 people aged 15 to 49, of both sexes, residents in Chókwè (68,698 inhabitants). The questionnaires employed are known as the Behavior Surveillance Survey. Dependent variables were: knowledge about transmission routes and preventive methods, use of condoms and having had sexual relations with an irregular partner during the past 12 months. Odds ratios were calculated for the association between these variables and age, sex, educational level, neighborhood of residence, number of relations in the last 30 days, and whether AIDS tested, by fitting Logistic Regression models (bivariate and multivariate). Over 99% of the sexually active population of Chókwè knew about AIDS and condoms. More than half of the population of Chókwè has a good knowledge of preventive methods and of transmission routes. 72.9% of men and 91.3% of women did not use the condom when having sexual relationships. It was observed that a low educational level implied a lower degree of knowledge about preventive methods (OR=2.48, 95% CI: 1.60-3.84) and about transmission routes (OR=2.49, 95% CI: 1.37-4.52), less condom use and less relations with irregular or sporadic partners. The probability of not using condoms was higher among females, among people living in less privileged districts, with no education (OR=3.79; 95% CI: 1.80-7.99), with regular partners (OR=4.36; 95% CI: 1.93-9.84) and among people who have not had an AIDS test. Knowledge of preventive methods and transmission routes is good in more than half of the population of Chókwè. The majority of men and women do not use the condom when having sexual intercourse. Moreover, inequalities may be observed as a function of educational level and district socioeconomic level. Knowledge of preventive practices, mainly among socio-economically disadvantaged groups, must be improved and strategies designed to broaden access to use of condoms by everyone should be implemented.

Does education moderate neuropsychological impairment in late‐life depression?

The increased resistance of better-educated individuals to the cognitive effects of neuropathology has been conceptualized as reflecting brain reserve. This study examined whether educational level influences the degree of neuropsychological impairment associated with late-life depression. The neuropsychological performances of 115 older depressed patients and of 44 comparison subjects of similar age and education were compared as a function of educational level. While depressed patients performed worse than comparison subjects on all the measures, the severity of this impairment (with respect to comparison subjects) did not differ with the educational level of the patients. Brain reserve, as indexed by the patients' level of education, does not mitigate the cognitive decrements associated with late-life depression.

A report of undergraduates' bonding misconceptions

The types of misconceptions related to electronegativity, bonding, geometry, and microscopic representations that undergraduate chemistry majors hold is described. Fifty-six students from six different courses, representing freshmen through senior level chemistry majors were interviewed. The qualitative coding scheme of the interview transcripts revealed a number of misconceptions not previously documented. In addition, the stability of the misconceptions was investigated as a function of educational level, indicating that some students' misconceptions relating to bonding are resistant to change despite increased chemistry education.

Students' perceptions of male sexually aggressive behavior as a function of educational level and gender

Two hundred and four students (108 college freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors; 96 high school juniors and seniors) participated in this study. The socioeconomic status of the participants (high school = 93% Caucasian, 7% African-American; college = 96% Caucasian, 4% African-American) was primarily in the lower middle-class range. The purposes of this investigation were (1) to test whether or not differences exist between high school and college students' perceptions of one form of male sexually aggressive behavior against women, (2) to determine if differences exist between male and female students' perceptions of such behavior against women, and (3) to explore the sex role socialization theory by providing empirical observation of its basic tenets. Findings suggested that boys may experience slower maturation and development of sensitivity toward sexual aggression than girls, but that this gap may lessen with advancing age for college males.

A ‘Pause-Break’ Task For Eliciting Syllable Boundary Judgments from Literate and Illiterate Speakers: Preliminary Results for Five Diverse Languages

A new oral ‘pause-break’ task is described for eliciting judgments about syllable boundaries from speakers of languages of diverse types who have potentially limited educational and/or literacy levels. Results are presented from five different languages, including English. The English results replicate the findings from previous studies using other techniques, while the following generalizations follow from the application of the technique to Arabic, Blackfoot, Korean, and Swiss German: There is (1) a widespread tendency to treat single intervocalic consonants as syllable onsets and (2) an equally broad tendency to break between the two members of intervocalic CC clusters. The treatment of intervocalic geminates or long consonants (as in Arabic and Blackfoot) seems to vary as a function of educational level: In general, the better educated, literate speakers interpret them as disegments and treat them as in (2) above, while the semiliterate subjects often interpret them as single segments and treat them as in (1). The technique itself seems to have proved itself as suitable for use with speakers of a wide range of educational levels and languages.

Memory Impairments in Alcoholism: Effects of Age and Education

Memory impairments related to alcoholism and to age (young, middle, and old) were examined as a function of educational level (low, high). Factoring of 14 different memory test scores from 93 alcoholics and 73 controls into four components indicated that alcohol-related impairments in verbal memory were observed in adults with low, but not high levels of education. Similarly, age-related decrements in visual-spatial and verbal memory tasks (Components I and II) affected mainly low-education alcoholics and controls. On these components, age and alcoholism did not interact, but were additive. Effects of education were reflected in verbal but not nonverbal tasks (Auditory and Design Recognition, Components III and IV). Neither years of heavy drinking, lifetime consumption, nor abstinence (80% had < 7 wks abstinence) predicted component scores of alcoholics, while age or education accounted for significant variance in visual-spatial, verbal, and design recognition components.

Perception of Control and Faith in Experts Among Residents in the Vicinity of Three Mile Island1

A survey of residents near the Three Mile Island nuclear generating facility four years after the accident explored the relationship of lack of perceived control over their lives, loss of faith in experts, and TMI‐related worry as a function of pre‐ versus post‐accident residence. Findings indicate that for residents who moved into the area after the accident, lack of perceived control relates to TMI‐specific worry, whereas for those present at the time of the accident, lack of perceived control relates to loss of faith in experts. Pre‐ versus post‐accident residents also differ in perceived lack of control and loss of faith in experts as a function of educational level.

A Comparison of the Self-Esteem Levels in Evangelical Christian and General Populations

Self-esteem is a central mechanism in psychological health and is reported to be readily accessible to Christians due to their unique relationship with an unconditionally accepting God. The self-esteem levels of 351 evangelical Christians from college and church settings and 1115 general volunteers comprised of students, administrators, and government employees were measured by the Self-Esteem scale of the Coping Resources Inventory for Stress. Analysis of variance indicated that the more highly educated graduate student and academic administrator subgroups of the general population outdistanced several other general subgroups and accounted for the significant differences between the two large populations. The mean scores of the Christian subgroups were not significantly different from each other nor from any general subgroups, but fluctuated as a function of educational level in a pattern consistent with the general population. Personal attainments are offered as a prominent antecedent of self-esteem and the findings are discussed in terms of the inadequacies of cognitive change alone to produce practical gains in this attribute and the relative stability of the self-esteem trait