Use Of Peer Groups Research Articles

Compliance to Recommended Prevention and Management Practices among Type 2 Diabetes Patients in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania

Introduction: Diabetes-related complications are the significant causes of morbidity and mortality among type 2 diabetes patients. The complications can be reduced by practicing and maintaining several preventive measures. The present study aims to assess compliance and factors associated with recommended management practices and prevention of complications among type 2 diabetes patients in selected health facilities in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February to May 2023 among 140 patients, including patients who were diagnosed with diabetes for at least three months prior to the study. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire, which included patients’ characteristics and a previously validated Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities questionnaire to assess patients' compliance with recommended practices. A multivariable regression analysis was employed to identify factors associated with compliance with recommended practices. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 59 ±12.08 years and 65% were females. Among 140 patients, 91.4% (n=128) had poor or unsatisfactory self-care practices with an overall mean of 3.81± 2.08 days per week for diabetes management. The recommended practices with good or satisfactory performance were non-smoking, non-alcohol drinking and prescribed medication. In contrast, unsatisfactory performance was observed for self-monitoring of blood glucose with a mean of physical activity. Multiple regression analysis showed that co-morbidity (AOR 4.5; 95% CI:1.14-18.02) and being employed (AOR 4.4; 95% CI:1.25-15.44) independently predict self-care practices. Conclusion and recommendation: Compliance with self-monitoring of blood glucose, physical exercise and dietary practices were found to be low among type 2 diabetes patients, which could increase the risk of complications. Nutritional and lifestyle counselling and the use of peer groups should be emphasized to improve compliance with recommended practices.

Culture of patient care among international nursing students: a focused ethnographic study

BackgroundThis study was conducted to describe and explain the culture of patient care in international nursing students.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted using focused ethnography. Participants (n = 21) were purposefully selected from non-Iranian international students and their nursing instructors. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, and field-note taking. Data were analyzed with the Roper and Shapira inductive approach of ethnographic content analysis.ResultsThe cultural model of the study included the acquisition of cultural competence through acceptance of differences and finding commonalities. Subcategories were: “avoiding cultural bias”, “trying to be on the path of adaptation”, “appealing to the support and companionship of colleagues”, “coping with culture shock”, “acculturation”, “getting help from cultural intelligence”, “cultural empathy”, and “language and communication enhancement”.ConclusionCultural competence is teachable. The pattern of formation is through accepting differences and searching for commonalities. Suggestions for promoting the culture of care among international students include effective use of peer groups and teaching different national ethnicities and cultures.

Social Work Students’ Reflections on Self-care While Completing Field Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACTSelf-care is a beneficial practice for social workers to both maintain their general wellbeing and to perform their professional role efficaciously. For students, field education is a prime opportunity to put their newly acquired skills and knowledge of social worker self-care into practice. This article reports from a broader study on the ways social work students construct and practice self-care, with the focus of this article on a student cohort who completed placement during Covid-19 restrictions. To explore how Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students at an Australian university situated their understanding and practice of self-care within their final year placement, a textual analysis of 26 BSW student assessments, a 600-word critical reflection, was conducted. Two themes emerged from the student reflections. First, while engagement with Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) proved crucial for students to participate in student placement, it also created fresh challenges for their self-care practice. Second, students’ understanding and practice of self-care were critically shaped by their professional and academic peer environments. Knowledge of how social work students understand, and practice self-care is vital for social work educators to critically support student development during field education.IMPLICATIONSSocial work students’ self-care requires further nuanced conceptualisations, including addressing the role of ICTs in contemporary student field education placements.The use of peer groups supports student understanding of self-care during field education.Higher education providers can create further opportunities for formal peer connection during placements to embed self and collective care into students’ emerging practice.

The Use of Peer Groups in Setting Director Compensation: Competition for Talent Versus Self-Serving Behavior

AbstractRecent Delaware Chancery Court decisions that boards are self-interested in setting director compensation have focused scrutiny on the pay-setting process used by corporations. We examine the effect of peer benchmarking on director compensation decisions. Director pay relates positively to peer director pay, and firms paying their directors highly are selected as peers. Moreover, firm performance and board advising performance are positively related to the talent component and are generally unrelated to the self-serving component of the peer pay effect. The evidence indicates that firms use peer benchmarking to justify high compensation mainly to attract talented directors to enhance board quality.

Peer Influence on Physician Use of Shorter Course External Beam Radiation Therapy for Patients with Breast Cancer

PurposeSocial contagion among physicians may affect the dissemination of innovative and high-value cancer care. We applied social contagion theory to investigate the role of physician peer influence on the use of short courses of external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for patients with breast cancer. Methods and MaterialsUsing a cohort of Medicare beneficiaries with breast cancer, we constructed physician peer groups based on patient-sharing relationships. Outcomes were a patient’s receipt of (1) moderately hypofractionated adjuvant EBRT after breast-conserving surgery and (2) short-course palliative EBRT for bone metastases. Using a longitudinal design, we used mixed-effects logistic regression to examine the association between physician peer group rate of short-course EBRT in 2011 to 2012 (T1) and patients’ receipt of short-course EBRT in 2013 to 2014 (T2). ResultsDuring T2, a total of 17,248 patients received adjuvant therapy (32.3% moderately hypofractionated) from 3235 physicians in 1202 physician peer groups. Compared with patients treated within peer groups in which no moderately hypofractionated adjuvant EBRT was used in T1, patients treated by a physician in a peer group with higher T1 use of moderately hypofractionated adjuvant EBRT were more likely to receive moderately hypofractionated adjuvant EBRT in T2 (adjusted odds ratio = 2.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.62-2.54, vs adjusted odds ratio = 2.61; 95% confidence interval, 2.04-3.35, for peer groups where 21%-46% and 47%-100% of radiation oncologists used moderately hypofractionated adjuvant EBRT in T1, respectively, compared with peer groups with no use of moderately hypofractionated adjuvant EBRT). In contrast, there was no significant relationship between T1 peer group use and T2 receipt of short-course palliative EBRT for bone metastases. ConclusionsPhysician peer groups significantly influenced use of short-course EBRT in adjuvant therapy but not in palliative therapy for patients with breast cancer.

Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents

This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called ‘joning,’ a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine‐month ethnographic study that the author conducted in an after‐school program, this article analyzes the structure and function of joning as a vernacular style of African American Vernacular English and its uses in constructing classroom identities. Joning often facilitated student learning, but it was perceived as a socially and physically risky linguistic practice because of its uses as conflict talk in the local community. Focusing on preadolescence as a key stage of language socialization, this article shows how minority students modify peer‐learned linguistic practices to pursue academic success on their own terms.

Beta Calculation in Emerging Markets in the Cross-Border Context – Selected Problems

When investing in emerging markets, investors face issues regarding the valuation of potential investments that may considerably affect the investment decision. This article discusses the challenges of valuing a company within the European emerging markets. We will focus on several issues regarding the reliability and fitness of Beta estimates with the use of peer groups in the context of cross-border investment valuation.

Interplay of Network Position and Peer Substance Use in Early Adolescent Cigarette, Alcohol, and Marijuana Use

Network position ( isolate , member, liaison), peer-group substance use, and their interaction were examined as predictors of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in a sample of 163 urban sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.Two measures of peer substance use were compared: one based on social network analysis (SNA), the other on perceptions of use. Results varied by substance. For cigarettes, network position and the interaction between position and peer-group use predicted use in the model using SNA to measure peer use. Liaisons were most likely to smoke, but isolates’ and members’ smoking was significantly associated with peer smoking. For alcohol, perceptions of peer-group alcohol use predicted individual use. For marijuana, peer-group use and the interaction between position and peer use predicted use, regardless of measure. Liaisons’ marijuana use was significantly associated with peer use. The importance of SNA for understanding peer factors in adolescent substance use is discussed.

Does the use of peer groups contribute to higher pay and less efficient compensation?

We provide empirical evidence on how the practice of competitive benchmarking affects chief executive officer (CEO) pay. We find that the use of benchmarking is widespread and has a significant impact on CEO compensation. One view is that benchmarking is inefficient because it can lead to increases in executive pay not tied to firm performance. A contrasting view is that benchmarking is a practical and efficient mechanism used to gauge the market wage necessary to retain valuable human capital. Our empirical results generally support the latter view. Our findings also suggest that the documented asymmetry in the relationship between CEO pay and luck is explained by the firm's desire to adjust pay for retention purposes and is not the result of rent-seeking behavior on the part of the CEO.

Peer crowds, work experience, and financial saving behaviour of young Canadians

The objective of this study is to examine predictors of young people’s saving behaviour. The results from probit analysis, using a national survey of 1806 Canadians aged 12–24, reveal that individuals from peer groups identified as adult- or achievement-oriented are more likely to save money, especially for future schooling. The results also show that while workers, both students and non-students, are more likely to save money for the future in general, only students who are part-time workers save money for future school tuition. The use of peer groups and labour market participation to segment the youth market is a fruitful way to learn about the economic behaviour of young people.

Has the Use of Peer Groups Contributed to Higher Levels of Executive Compensation?

We provide empirical evidence on how the practice of competitive benchmarking affects CEO pay. We find that the use of benchmarking is widespread, and has a significant impact on levels and changes in CEO compensation. The practice is controversial and one view is that it is inefficient because it can lead to increases in executive pay that are not tied to firm performance. A contrasting view is that benchmarking can be a practical and efficient mechanism to gauge the market wage necessary to retain valuable human capital. Our empirical results provide some support for the latter view. We find that firms use competitive benchmarking to gauge the reservation wage necessary for retention. Our analysis also provides an alternative explanation for the documented asymmetry in the relationship between CEO pay and luck, which has previously been attributed to rent seeking behavior.

A follow up study of dental patient education in the workplace: Participants' opinions

This study was a follow up to a previous study which showed a longterm effect of a dental patient education programme among unskilled workers aged 18–64 years. The investigator suggested that the reason for the longterm effect was the use of active involvement of the participants. The aim of the present study was to examine what the participants themselves thought of the progrmme and what they thought was the reason for any behavioural change. Twenty subjects were interviewed in-depth by a trained psychologist using a tape recorder. The transcribed data were analysed and compared to the previously suggested active-involvement principle. There was a strong resemblance between the active-involvement principle and the participants' own expressions of the reasons for the behavioural changes. The most important factors were (a) the programme carried out during working hours at the place of work, (b) the use of peer-groups and (c) these peer-groups' feelings of having a voice in deciding the content of the programme. It is recommended to include dental patient education based on active involvement in future health promotion programmes in the workplace.

Recognizing the teen-ager who needs to be pregnant: a clinical perspective.

Based on the last three years' clinical experience with 600 inpatient adolescents at the Adolescent Center of Houston International Hospital, this paper reviews the pregnancy issue in terms of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The majority of the patients were white middle-class girls ranging in age from 12 to 17. The clinical symptoms which especially identified at-risk patients were (1) failure experiences, (2) stymied aggression, (3) rights of passage proclamation, (4) parental complicity, (5) the guaranteed spouse, (6) perceived love deprivation, (7) contrived need for parental acceptance, and (8) pseudoknowledge. Secondary prevention is described in terms of (1) parents' group for the parents of the young parents, (2) use of peer group psychotherapy, and (3) parents' groups as a means for dealing with "pregnancy substitutes." Tertiary prevention is depicted in terms of (1) peer group psychotherapy in the postabortion phase, (2) use of peer groups and parents' groups to avoid further pregnancies, and (3) peer/parents' group psychotherapy as a source of contraceptive information. Illustrative vignettes are included for each category. Follow-up at six months after hospitalization has supported the effectiveness of the methods of intervention described.