Self-reported Opinions Research Articles

Association of validated patient reported outcome measures with patients' self-reported disease status in axial spondyloarthritis.

In axSpA, validated PROs are well-established in clinical trials, but it remains unclear whether they comprehensively reflect patients' discomfort and disease status. We aimed to investigate how patients' self-reported disease status does compare to validated clinical trial measures during routine clinical visits. Data from axSpA patients' initial and last five visits were retrospectively analyzed. ASDAS, BASDAI, ASAS20, ASAS40 and ASAS partial remission were assessed at each visit and compared with patients' self-reported disease status, categorized into very good (status satisfaction), mild, severe, and very severe based on patient's self-reported opinion on the level of severity of symptoms' burden related to axSpA. The association of these PROs with patients' self-reported disease status was analyzed using mixed models. 3,120 visits over a median follow-up of 4.7 years from 557 axSpA patients were analyzed. Very good or mild self-reported disease status was reported in 98.7% and 90.9% of visits with inactive or low ASDAS, compared with 67.9% and 39.3% with high or very high ASDAS.Severe or very severe self-reported disease status was reported in 15.1% of visits with ASAS20 achievement, in 7.2% with ASAS40 achievement, and in 0.6% with achievement of ASAS partial remission, compared with 26.0% without ASAS20 achievement, 25.1% without ASAS40 achievement, and 30.1% without achievement of ASAS partial remission. Patientś self-reported disease status was well captured by ASDAS and BASDAI in most clinical visits. Other investigated measures used in clinical trials failed to capture patientś self-reported disease status in a large proportion of visits.

High school rugby coaches’ knowledge and opinions of concussion in KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa: an ecological cross-sectional study

BackgroundConcussions in Rugby Union are common with an increased risk to adolescent players. Coaches are key to injury prevention and a greater understanding of their knowledge and sentiments may guide future initiatives. There is a lack of data on rugby coaches, especially in South Africa. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge and opinions of high school rugby coaches regarding concussion management.MethodsThis cross-sectional study of 37 high school rugby coaches in South Africa, was conducted via a self-reported questionnaire. Concussion knowledge was scored for correct answers only with closed-question scaling methods to measure the importance of items of concussion management using a graphical rating scale. An attitude scale (Likert) was used to assess self-reported opinions and behaviours. Associations were calculated for participant characteristics and overall concussion injury knowledge.ResultsMore participants showed good overall knowledge of ≥ 75% (n = 22, 59% vs. n = 15, 40%), especially those with greater coaching experience (p = 0.021). Player welfare was perceived more important than player performance (185 vs. 164), with concussion prevention most important (184 of 185). Appealing characteristics of an injury prevention programme were the improvement of player skill (173, SD ± 0.75, mean 4.68), being adaptable (171, ± 0.86, 4.62), and being completed in the warm-up (167, ± 0.93, 4.51). The biggest perceived barriers were duration (138, ± 1.59, mean 3.73), effort (130, ± 1.56, 3.51), compliance and lack of knowledge (both 127, ± 1.68, 3.43).ConclusionThese results support the implementation of ongoing concussion education for rugby coaches and identify areas for promoting awareness and knowledge of concussion injury prevention, identification, and specific management of younger athletes. Appealing characteristics and barriers are highlighted and may allow for improved implementation and adherence to concussion prevention programmes.

Talk Is Cheap: Self-Reported Versus Actual Marksmanship Proficiency Among Military and Community Samples

Abstract Marksmanship is a critical skill for military, law enforcement, and security professionals as well as recreational shooters who participate in competitions or hunting. Unfortunately, skill assessments vary wildly between branches of military service and even more so when compared with local law enforcement or security requirements. This heterogeneity creates wide-ranging opinions about what constitutes a firearm expert, with people claiming expertise despite only rudimentary training. The high degree of subjectivity undermines communication between firearm professionals and raises questions about the value of opinions. The current investigation thus explored self-reported marksmanship capabilities and their relationship with actual marksmanship capabilities. A novel firearm survey gauged subjective self-evaluations with participants also performing multiple objective shooting tasks. Participants included a community sample, who completed shooting tasks on simulator for safety reasons, and a military sample, who completed live fire exercises. Self-reported opinions sufficiently captured actual marksmanship variability among the community sample, although self-reported opinions did not predict marksmanship abilities among the professional military sample. This discrepancy identifies the relative practical value of using self-reported metrics based on the participant population, but more importantly, it underscores the limited value of professional opinion without some objective marksmanship data to provide a more direct comparison.

What Happens When Mini-Publics Are Held in a Deeply Divided Place? Evidence from Northern Ireland

A pessimistic view of the potential of deliberative mini-publics to effectively contribute to democratic decision making on highly contested issues in deeply divided places asserts that (1) deliberative quality would be low due to the bitterness prompted by discussion of divisive issues, and (2) levels of opinion change would be low given the stubbornly enduring nature of political attitudes in divided places. We empirically examined this pessimistic view using a quasi-experiment involving mini-publics on two separate issues in Northern Ireland: (1) the contentious ethno-national question of Northern Ireland’s constitutional status, and (2) the much less contested and non-ethno-national issue of social care. Contrary to the pessimistic view, we find evidence that from the perspective of the participants themselves, deliberative quality was higher in the mini-public on an ethno-national issue. However, in line with the pessimistic view, levels of self-reported opinion change were significantly lower in the ethno-national mini-public. Overall, the findings highlight the potential for carefully designed deliberative mini-publics to address divisive ethno-national issues: they provide a space for participants to engage with such issues in open and respectful discussion—even if the prospects for attitudinal change are more limited.

Google Translate for Writing in an Online English Class: Vietnamese Learners’ Perceptions and Performances

The present study aimed to explore learners’ perceptions while using Google Translate (GT) during online English-Writing lessons and to evaluate its effectiveness on learners’ English writing skills. Online questionnaires and individual interviews were used to collect self-reported opinions from 24 Vietnamese students. Learner writing samples from the 12-week online session were also collected in order to identify possible improvements in writing. The findings revealed that the learners generally reported a positive effect on their writing from using Google Translate. In contrast, textual analysis of learners’ writing samples indicated that although there were slight improvements in their writing skills, problems still exist. According to an error analysis that was conducted, negative transfer of structures from the students’ L1 (Vietnamese) accounted for most of the lexical and syntactic errors identified. The findings demonstrate that GT is a useful support tool for teaching English writing. The contrastive analysis in the present study contributes to language interference studies and discussions on bilingual and multilingual education in the Vietnamese context.

On the Relation between Opinion Change and Information Consumption on Reddit

While much attention has been devoted to the causes of opinion change, little is known about its consequences. Our study moves a first step in this direction by looking at Reddit, and in particular to the subreddit r/ChangeMyView, a community dedicated to debating one’s own opinions on a wide array of topics. We analyze changes in online information consumption behavior that arise after a self-reported opinion change, by looking at the participation to a set of sociopolitical communities. We find that people who self-report an opinion change are significantly more likely to change their future participation in a specific subset of those communities. Specifically, there is a significant association (Pearson r = 0.46) between using propaganda-like language in a community and the increase in chances of leaving it. Comparable results (Pearson r = 0.39) hold for the opposite direction, i.e., joining these same communities. In addition, the textual content of the post associated with opinion change is indicative of which communities will be joined or left: a predictive model based only on the text of this post can pinpoint these communities with an average precision@5 of 0.20. Our results establish a link between opinion change and information consumption, and highlight how online propagandistic communities act as a first gateway to internalize a shift in one’s sociopolitical opinion.

General practitioners’ views towards management of common mental health disorders: Τhe critical role of continuing medical education

BackgroundThe disability burden of common mental health disorders is enormous and should be faced at the first point of contact in the healthcare system. General Practitioners (GPs) are called to recognize, diagnose, and manage patients with mental health disorders, a task which is not always addressed successfully. The study aims at examining the relationship between mental health education of GPs and self-reported opinions on the care they provide to patients with mental disorders in Greece.MethodsA questionnaire investigating GPs' viewpoints regarding diagnostic methods, referral rates and overall management of patients with mental disorders, and how these are impacted by their education on mental health, was employed, in a randomly selected sample of 353 GPs in Greece. Suggestions and proposals about improvement of ongoing mental health training, along with organizational reforming were also recorded.ResultsReceived Continuing Medical Education (CME) is characterized as insufficient by 56.1% of the GPs. More than half of the GPs participate in clinical tutorials and mental health conferences once per three years or less. The level of educational score on mental health is associated positively with decisiveness on management of patients and increases self-confidence. A percentage of 77.6% states knowledge of the appropriate treatment and 56.1% agree to initiate treatment without referring to a specialist. However, low to moderate self-confidence about diagnosis and treatment is stated by 47.5%. According to GPs, critical points for improving mental health primary care are the liaison psychiatry and high degree of CME.ConclusionGreek GPs are calling for focused and continuing medical education, in the field of psychiatry, along with essential structural and organizational reforming of the healthcare system, including an efficient liaison psychiatry.

Opinion seeking behaviour of healthcare providers in ambulatory cardiovascular care in Germany: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundHealthcare providers’ inclination to seek or lead other providers’ opinions on clinical topics may influence healthcare practices, particularly regarding their alignment across different providers in controversial domains. This study aimed to explore opinion-seeking behaviours of general practitioners and their impacts on clinical opinions in ambulatory cardiovascular care in Germany.MethodsBetween 2019 and 2021, we performed a written survey in two samples of general practitioners and one sample of self-employed cardiologists in three German states. The general practitioners were asked to identify a person they deemed influential on their views on cardiovascular conditions. Their self-perceived opinion leadership and opinion seeking behaviours were then measured, using a validated 12-item-questionnaire. General practitioners and cardiologists were requested to indicate their agreement with three potentially controversial aspects of cardiovascular ambulatory care. Potential impacts on the general practitioners’ views, including local cardiologists’ opinions, were examined using multi-level linear regression models.ResultsA total of 129 general practitioners and 113 cardiologists returned the questionnaire. 68.50% of general practitioners named an opinion leader, mainly cardiologists outside of their practice. General practitioners perceived themselves as opinion seeking and as opinion leading at the same time. Views on the presented controversial topics were mixed among both general practitioners and cardiologists. Self-reported opinion leadership behaviour of general practitioners was associated with their views on one of the three topics. No such associations were found for opinion seeking behaviours and the views of local cardiologists.ConclusionWhile most general practitioners named a cardiovascular opinion leader and saw themselves as opinion seeking regarding cardiovascular issues, they simultaneously perceived themselves as opinion leading, suggesting that opinion leadership and opinion seeking are not mutually exclusive concepts. The views of local cardiologists were not associated with the general practitioners’ view, suggesting that local medical specialists do not necessarily influence the surrounding opinion seekers’ views per se.Trial registration:We registered the study prospectively on 7 November 2019 at the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS, www.drks.de) under ID no. DRKS00019219.

Changing minds about global warming: vicarious experience predicts self-reported opinion change in the USA

Changing minds about global warming: vicarious experience predicts self-reported opinion change in the USA

"I can show what I really like."

Surveys are a common instrument to gauge self-reported opinions from the crowd for scholars in the CSCW community, the social sciences, and many other research areas. Researchers often use surveys to prioritize a subset of given options when there are resource constraints. Over the past century, researchers have developed a wide range of surveying techniques, including one of the most popular instruments, the Likert ordinal scale, to elicit individual preferences. However, the challenge to elicit accurate and rich self-reported responses with surveys in a resource-constrained context still persists today. In this study, we examine Quadratic Voting (QV), a voting mechanism powered by the affordances of a modern computer and straddles ratings and rankings approaches, as an alternative online survey technique. We argue that QV could elicit more accurate self-reported responses compared to the Likert scale when the goal is to understand relative preferences under resource constraints. We conducted two randomized controlled experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk, one in the context of public opinion polling and the other in a human-computer interaction user study. Based on our Bayesian analysis results, a QV survey with a sufficient amount of voice credits, aligned significantly closer to participants' incentive-compatible behaviors than a Likert scale survey, with a medium to high effect size. In addition, we extended QV's application scenario from typical public policy and education research to a problem setting familiar to the CSCW community: a prototypical HCI user study. Our experiment results, QV survey design, and QV interface serve as a stepping stone for CSCW researchers to further explore this surveying methodology in their studies and encourage decision-makers from other communities to consider QV as a promising alternative.

Urology Program Directors’ Perception of Pregnancy During Residency

To assess urology program directors' (PDs) perception of pregnancy during residency training. A 30 question anonymous survey was sent to 142 urology PDs regarding their demographics, program information, institution policies, and self-reported opinions. Results were assessed via descriptive analysis. A total of 63 PDs responded with a response rate of 44%: 19% were female, 73% between 40-59 years of age, and 91% had children. A minority (17%) of programs had 40% or more female residents. 37% of PDs had never had a pregnant resident during their time as PD while 57% had one to five pregnant residents. On multivariate analysis, PDs age > 60 years or PD having their first child when > 30 years old were predictors for poor support of maternity leave. The majority of PDs felt their program was better/much better at being supportive toward maternity leave compared to other surgical specialties at their institution. Only 21% of PDs felt that taking maternity leave burdened other residents unfairly. Of respondents, 62% felt prepared/completely prepared to advise residents on pregnancy during residency. However, 91% of PDs affirmed it would be helpful to have formal policies in place regarding maternity/paternity leave. While the majority of PDs do not have a negative perception of pregnancy during residency, a small portion feels that pregnancy during residency is a burden on other residents. More than half of PDs feel prepared to discuss this issue with their residents. However, a large majority would find formal policies helpful.

Dental and physical therapy faculty collaborate in assessing and educating dental students on musculoskeletal disorders.

Research shows 54% to 93% of practicing dentists suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), with many developing afflictions early in their careers. Studies also show that dental students are developing MSDs early in their professional education. The research goal was to quantify the prevalence, anatomical location and initial onset of MSDs among first-year dental students. The study also assessed the students' self-reported opinion as to whether there were enough educational touchpoints to improve their ergonomics in daily activities. At the conclusion of a 9-month preclinical restorative course, that included 2 lectures on MSDs, ergonomics, and postural cueing sessions, a dental and physical therapy faculty member administered a survey to 143 first-year dental students. This survey included questions about the history and presentation of the students' MSD symptoms and their opinion on the relative value of the educational interventions. There was a 96.5% response rate to the survey with 87.8% of students reporting mild to moderate pain. The cervical spine (41.7%) and hands (42.4%) were the most common areas afflicted. 55.4% reported pain commencing 1 month after starting in the simulation clinic. Over 60.9% of students "agreed" or "somewhat agreed" that the 2 sessions of hands-on ergonomic educational interventions resulted in improved biomechanics and students requested additional educational resources. Dental students are developing MSDs as soon as 1 month after commencing dental school. Dental education should include ongoing ergonomic training throughout the curriculum to help students prevent MSDs.

Beliefs about others' global warming beliefs: The role of party affiliation and opinion deviance

People often misperceive other people's beliefs about global warming—for instance, underestimating the percentage of people who think global warming is happening. In the U.S., perceptions of others vary across political lines and interact with the extent to which partisans align or deviate from the views of their political ingroup. With an online sample of U.S. adults (N = 1214), we conduct a partial replication and extension of prior research on the relationship between global warming “opinion deviance” (i.e., taking a stance that conflicts with the prototypical views of one's ingroup) and perceptions of other people's views, using a different methodological approach. We found that, compared with partisans who align with the prototypical views of their ingroup (i.e., political party), opinion-deviant partisans consistently perceive a narrower partisan divide across several views (e.g., belief that global warming is happening, belief that it is human-caused, and support for climate policies), even when statistically controlling for self-reported opinion extremity. Additionally, opinion-deviant Republicans, more than opinion-aligned Republicans, perceive that more Republicans hold pro-climate views. Further, among both Republicans and Democrats, perceptions of pro-climate ingroup consensus correlates with both increased activism intentions and frequency of discussing global warming with family and friends. Our results support theoretical perspectives and research on opinion deviance showing that misperceptions of public opinion about global warming vary based on an interaction between an individual's party affiliation and their individual climate beliefs.

How well do women understand and remember information in labour versus in late pregnancy? A pilot randomised study

Medical informed consent is the process by which a ‘competent’, non-coerced individual receives sufficient information including risks of a medical procedure and gives permission for it to occur. The capacity to give an informed consent might be impaired during labour. This study aimed to examine women’s abilities to understand and remember during labour. Women were prospectively recruited at 36 weeks of gestation and randomised to undertake questionnaires which assessed their ability to understand and remember information. They were randomised to: (1) information given in labour only, written format (2) information in labour, verbal (3) information at 36 weeks plus labour, written (4) information at 36 weeks plus labour, verbal. Immediate comprehension and retention was assessed at 36 weeks, in labour, and 24–72 hours after birth. Forty-nine women completed the questionnaires regarding understanding and retention of information at 36 weeks, six intrapartum, and five postpartum (90% attrition). Women receiving information at 36 weeks and in labour versus in labour had a higher comprehension of pregnancy-related information, its retention, and total score. Women receiving information in late pregnancy and labour may comprehend and retain it better than women only receiving information during labour. Given small sample size, further research is needed to support these preliminary findings.Impact statementWhat is already known on this subject? The evidence regarding the capacity of labouring women to give informed consent is largely based on women’s self-reported experiences or expert opinions and has mixed findings. Existing guidelines recommend that an informed consent should be given antenatally for both clinical practice and research. Studies show that obtaining an informed consent antenatally is neither feasible nor widely implemented.What do the results of this study add? A novel approach to providing empirical evidence regarding women’s capacity to comprehend and retain information during labour. Our study confirms the difficulty with antenatal recruitment for intrapartum research.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/further research? This raises ethical concerns regarding the current intrapartum research in which consent is largely sought at the time of the study. Emphasises the need to explore the question ‘Do labouring women have the capacity to consent to research?’ in order to ensure that women are protected during labour.

On self-reported use of communication strategies by CLIL learners in primary education

The use of communication strategies (CSs) in oral and written second language (L2) production has been widely investigated (e.g. Muñoz, 2007). As for content and language integrated learning (CLIL) settings, learners seem to resort to the first language (L1) less often than in traditional foreign language instruction (e.g. Celaya & Ruiz de Zarobe, 2010). However, few studies have examined what L2 learners say about their use of CSs by means of questionnaires – e.g. Ehrman & Oxford (1990), with adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners – and little is known about the reported use of CSs by young learners (Purdie & Oliver, 1999), and much less by young CLIL learners. This study examines learners’ self-reported opinions about the use of CSs (guessing, miming, morphological creativity, dictionary, predicting, paraphrasing, borrowing, calque, foreignizing, avoidance and appeal for assistance). An adapted survey (Kellerman, Bongaerts, & Poulisse, 1987; Oxford, 1989; O’Malley & Chamot, 1990; Yule & Tarone, 1990) was administered to CLIL learners of English in grades 5 and 6 of primary education. Quantitative differences in terms of the type of strategies used were explored. Analyses showed striking similarities between grades 5 and 6 as well as significant differences in the use of the different CSs, paraphrasing and appeal for assistance being the most frequent strategies, whereas morphological creativity and miming obtained the lowest frequency. Findings are discussed in the light of learners’ age and the nature of CLIL instruction.

Self-Reported Use and Opinions of Ankle Prophylaxes in Division III Collegiate Athletes: An Exploratory Study

It is theorized that ankle taping is effective in reducing the incidence of a recurrent ankle injury. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of ankle taping in Division III athletes. Of student-athletes in the population studied, 321 returned surveys, of which 132 (41.1%) individuals indicated they have had their ankle(s) taped. Of the 132 individuals, 99 (75.0%) have had an ankle sprain. There were similar responses between both groups, particularly regarding not being able to tape (anxious about injury). Results of this study revealed that regardless of history of ankle injury, a majority of individuals stated they taped their ankle to prevent injury.

Utilizing Community-Based Social Marketing in a Recycling Intervention with Tailgaters

The purpose of the current study was to design and implement a pilot intervention following the community-based social marketing (CBSM) process (McKenzie-Mohr & Smith, 1999) and Darnton’s (2008) social marketing framework to change the recycling knowledge and behaviors of tailgaters during home football events for a particular institution of higher education. Researchers asked what effect does a CBSM intervention have on the recycling behavior (via self-reported opinion and actual materials recycled) as well as self-reported knowledge among tailgaters during home football events for a particular IHE. In addition, researchers asked whether the use of students and student-athletes, from the respective IHE, as recycling educators would be better received by tailgaters than some other set of individuals. Both objective and subjective evidence support a conclusion that the pilot intervention enhanced the recycling behavior and recycling knowledge of tailgaters. Subjective evidence supports a conclusion that th...

Indicators of opinion leadership in customer networks: self-reports and degree centrality

In this paper, we assess two alternative indicators of opinion leadership, self-reported opinion leadership and degree centrality, on the same dataset. We also investigate the interaction effect of these two indicators and the social network environment on opinion leadership. We use social network and survey data from the mobile telecom industry to analyze opinion leadership in smartphone adoption. We find that degree centrality indicates opinion leadership, but that self-reported opinion leadership indicates opinion leadership only under the right social circumstances. In case of weak to moderate network ties, the effect of self-reported opinion leadership is not significant. However, self-reported opinion leaders more effectively influence their strong ties. This study sheds light on indicators of opinion leadership and provides insights for managers to improve their social marketing campaigns.

Facial expression judgments support a socio-relational model, rather than a negativity bias model of political psychology.

Self-reported opinions and judgments may be more rooted in expressive biases than in cognitive processing biases, and ultimately operate within a broader behavioral style for advertising the capacity - versus the trustworthiness - dimension of human reciprocity potential. Our analyses of facial expression judgments of likely voters are consistent with this thesis, and directly contradict one major prediction from the authors' "negativity-bias" model.

The Effects of Creative Reminiscing on Individuals with Dementia and Their Caregivers: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACTReminiscing is known to enhance well-being, increase social participation and provide opportunities for self-expression. However, while reminiscing activities have become standard in many memory care facilities, their outcomes have not been systematically evaluated. Aims: This research explored the effects of creative reminiscence activities on the quality of life of clients with memory loss and on caregivers' self-perceived burdens associated with caring for an individual with memory loss. Methods: Using time and attention control activities and creative reminiscing activities, the observed, self-reported, and caregivers' opinions of the quality of life of clients with moderate Alzheimer's disease was documented over the course of this study. Caregivers' perceptions of the burdens associated with caring for loved ones were also assessed.Result: Results of this pilot study showed significant increases in caregivers' perceptions of their loved ones' quality of life and decreases in the burdens they experienced during the intervention phase. No significant changes occurred in clients' self-reported or observed well-being during the study. Conclusions: While using a carefully considered creative reminiscence activity intervention for clients with dementia can cause a decrease in caregivers' perception of their own burden and an increase in their perceptions of the loved ones' quality of life, future research is needed to determine the subtle nuances in well-being of individuals with memory loss and their caregivers.