Search results

Subjective measurements of cognition have seldom been used in schizophrenia. This is mainly due to the assumption that such measurements lack sensitivity in a disorder characterized by poor insight. We investigated the capacity of BRIEF-A (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Adult Version: a self-administered, ecological questionnaire) to identify executive deficits in adults with schizophrenia. The global score and each domain-specific score was significantly lower in patients than in healthy controls. BRIEF-A could be a useful complement to objective measurements, providing a subjective assessment of everyday consequences of executive dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among medical laboratory science students (MLSSs) in the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ghana.

A cross-sectional study design was employed to recruit a total of 178 students into the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather relevant information on risk factors, and a hepatitis B diagnostic test kit was used to test for HBV infection. Descriptive, chi-square test, bivariate and multiple logistic regression statistical analysis were computed. Significance was observed at p < 0.05.

The prevalence of HBV infection among MLSSs was 6.7%. Torn gloves and splash of blood and body fluids contributed to 43.0% and 28.0% of all the risk factors of HBV infection, respectively. Also, 43.3% of students had received at least one dose of the hepatitis B vaccination. Sharp object-related injury and torn gloves increased the odds of HBV infection, while vaccination decreased the odds of HBV infection.

This study reveals the prevalence of HBV among MLSSs, who are recognized as being among the high-risk student populations aside from student nurses.

This study aims to dispense a concrete and coherent picture on the role of digitalization of accounting information (DOAI) among the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a statistically reliable and parsimonious paradigm for procuring the impact of DOAI on sustainable innovation ecosystem (SIE) and public value (PV) generation. With this cue, the geographical scope of this tentative manuscript was framed in SMEs of developing countries.

A three-pronged methodology was disposed in this research, namely, literature review, expert interviews and self-administered survey. Qualitative data was procured from a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews. The quantitative data was drawn on a self-administered survey in which the closed-ended questionnaires were conveniently circulated to a cross-sectional sample of 583 respondents. The data captured from quantitative approach was processed and analyzed via covariance-based structural equation modeling with AMOS 26.0.

The outcomes analysis highlighted that there were significant positive associations between the hypothesized constructs regarding significance and effect size. These interlinks were also partially mediated through the mediation of quality of information on financial reports and SIE.

This research was bounded by geographical provenance emphasis on one country and relative smallness of the data set procured through anonymous survey-based approach drawn from a convenient sample of digitally savvy respondents working in one sub-sector resulted in the reduction in the robustness and generalizability of the observations. Nevertheless, these above-mentioned limitations could thus offer the starting points for novel avenues creation for the future research.

The practitioners would definitely have valuable benefits from in-depth insights on the obtained findings. Concretely, as lifting the degree of understandings on the magnitude of long-term cooperation and superior coordination within the SIE would enable practitioners to enlarge their business viewpoints to better cope with the challenges of complicated business settings, facilitating them to co-create PV for all their key stakeholders through giving priority to implementing DOAI.

Society could benefit from this study if policymakers and the influencers of government focus on innovative features and assure the possible environment for innovation deployment through embarking on introducing policies that would facilitate the digitalization as well as stimulate and incentivize establishing the SIE for PV generation. It would be good for both the SMEs and society when SMEs could thrive in community settings as well as this togetherness.

Unpacking the potential of DOAI has been considered as the promising research avenues that are outlined not only to redress the shortfall in the research stream in relation to the digitalization among SMEs but also provide the right directions for sustainable development among SMEs.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented mental health repercussions in the lives of every individual including university students. Therefore, study on students’ psychological state and its associated factors during the pandemic are of importance. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

An online survey was done on a total of 207 university students of Pakistan to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, concerns or fears amidst COVID-19 and mental distress. Validated tools; Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)-Depression were used to assess stress, anxiety and depression, respectively.

Around 14% of the university students were experiencing severe stress and anxiety, while 8.2% had severe depression. The authors found that stress among university students was related to psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 5.1: 1.1, 22.9) and unpredictability due to the pandemic (OR = 3.7: 1.2, 11.2). The significant determinants of anxiety were psychiatric illness/symptoms (OR = 6.6: 3.4, 12.9), implementation of public health measures (OR = 3.7: 1.1, 11.6), employed mothers (OR = 2.4: 1.1, 5.0) and lack of support from university administration (OR = 2.2: 1.0, 5.0). While the factors associated with depression included psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 8.4: 3.3, 21.5), unpredictability due to pandemic (OR = 6.8: 2.2, 20.7), impaired social support system (OR = 3.7: 1.3, 10.4) and studying without a scholarship (OR = 2.1: 1.0, 4.4).

These findings call for an urgent need to develop appropriate interventions and educational programs that could address the psychological needs of students.

The study directs the role of university and faculty in dealing the mental health needs of the student in COVID-19 pandemic time.

Educational programs are important that could address the psychological needs of students in COVID-19 pandemic.

University students reported mental distress during COVID-19 pandemic which shows that younger people are at risk of COVID-19 repercussions. Moreover, several stressors (i.e. impaired social support system and lack of support from universities) were revealed that could be mitigated by implementing appropriate strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how hospitality companies can best explain controversial corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to consumers who may not agree with the CSR activity. This research explores message framing through emotional and cognitive appeals to influence consumer perceptions of the Gideon Bible in USA hotel rooms. The study uses the theory of deontic justice to measure the impacts of messaging on consumer perceptions of the morality of the Gideon Bible as suicide prevention in hotels and its relation to controversial CSR initiatives.

The study uses an experimental study design via a self-administered survey to analyze participants’ perceptions of the placement of the Gideon Bible in hotel rooms and participants’ attitudes toward CSR initiatives based on deontic justice and religion using different message framing conditions.

Results show that religion was a major determinant of attitude towards the Gideon Bible, but the sentiment analysis also revealed that negative perceptions can be mitigated through message framing via emotional and cognitive appeals. Additionally, the cognitive appeal did impact CSR perceptions, as did identifying as Christian. Moral outrage emerged as a significant moderator for the relationships between message framing, attitudes toward the Gideon Bible and CSR.

This study provides an extension of deontic justice research to examine justice traits in accepting controversial CSR.

We sought to evaluate the capacity of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in discriminating mental disorders other than depression in pregnant women in northern Mexico. Three hundred pregnant women attending prenatal consultations in a public hospital in Durango City, Mexico submitted a validated EPDS and were examined for mental disorders other than depression using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 4th Ed. (DSM-IV) criteria. Sensitivity and specificity of cut-off points of the EPDS, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Of the 300 pregnant women studied, 21 had mental disorders other than depression by the DSM-IV criteria. The best EPDS score for screening mental disorders other than depression was 8/9. This threshold showed a sensitivity of 52.4%, a specificity of 67.0%, a positive predictive value of 11.5%, a negative predictive value of 95.4%, and an area under the curve of 0.643 (95% confidence interval: 0.52-0.76). The EPDS can be considered for screening mental disorders other than depression in Mexican pregnant women whenever a cut-off score of 8/9 is used. However, the tool showed small power to separate pregnant women with and without mental disorders other than depression.

Psychometric analyses of self-administered questionnaire data tend to focus on items and instruments as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the functioning of the response scale and its impact on measurement precision. In terms of the response scale direction, existing evidence is mixed and inconclusive.

Three experiments are conducted to examine the functioning of response scales of different direction, ranging from agree to disagree versus from disagree to agree. The response scale direction effect is exemplified by two different latent constructs by applying the Rasch model for measurement.

The agree-to-disagree format generally performs better than the disagree-to-agree variant with spatial proximity between the statement and the agree-pole of the scale appearing to drive the effect. The difference is essentially related to the unit of measurement.

A careful investigation of the functioning of the response scale should be part of every psychometric assessment. The framework of Rasch measurement theory offers unique opportunities in this regard.

Besides content, validity and reliability, academics and practitioners utilising published measurement instruments are advised to consider any evidence on the response scale functioning that is available.

The study exemplifies the application of the Rasch model to assess measurement precision as a function of the design of the response scale. The methodology raises the awareness for the unit of measurement, which typically remains hidden.

The objective of this study was to examine the causal relationships among sex, social support, disease severity, symptoms, physical activity, general health perception and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Thai adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD).

A cross-sectional study was conducted using convenience sampling to recruit 200 Thai adolescents with CHD aged between 13 and18 years from four tertiary university hospitals in Bangkok. Interview method and self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection held between November 2018 and February 2019. Data were analyzed using path analysis to test the hypothesized model of the relationships.

The causal model of HRQOL revealed a good fit with the data. This model of relationship could explain 48% of the variances in HRQOL. Only direct effects of disease severity, symptoms and social support on HRQOL were found while indirect effects were not.

Due to the lack of study focusing on factors influencing HRQOL in Thai adolescents with CHD, this empirical study provides the evidence in Thai literature. The modifiable influencing factors for HRQOL found in this study can be manipulated through psycho-educational intervention given to the adolescents and significant others, especially parents, to help increase quality of life in adolescents with CHD.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of two potentially important antecedents of female Generation Y consumers’ attitudes towards beauty products. In particular, the impact of the media and groups is analysed through their influence on subjective norms.

Structural equation modelling analysis of moment structures was used to propose and test a research model by means of data from a substantial size of female Generation Y consumers.

The study’s results confirm that female Generation Y consumers have a favourable attitude towards beauty products and that this attitude is influenced by their subjective norms. Furthermore, the findings suggest that group influence, which includes the opinions of friends, family and peers and media influence both predict female Generation Y consumers’ favourable attitude towards beauty products via their influence on this segment’s subjective norms.

These results emphasise the strategic importance of incorporating subjective norms, together with media and group influence into beauty product marketing communication campaigns targeting female Generation Y consumers. Given that this generation is known to be prevalent users of social media and often consult online peer product reviews, such strategies should also be extended beyond traditional media platforms to include social media, particularly social media influencers and online product review platforms, thereby tapping into subjective norms and group influence.

This study contributes to understanding female Generation Y consumers’ attitudes towards beauty products, especially the combined influence of subjective norms and media and group influence on such attitudes.

El propósito de este trabajo es examinar la influencia de dos antecedentes potencialmente importantes de las actitudes de las consumidoras de la Generación Y hacia los productos de belleza. En concreto, se estudia la influencia de los medios de comunicación y de los grupos a través de su influencia en las normas subjetivas.

Se empleó el análisis de modelos de ecuaciones estructurales de estructuras de momento para proponer y probar un modelo de investigación mediante datos de un tamaño considerable de consumidoras de la Generación Y.

Los resultados del estudio confirman que las consumidoras de la Generación Y tienen una actitud favorable hacia los productos de belleza y que esta actitud está influenciada por sus normas subjetivas. Además, los resultados sugieren que la influencia del grupo, que incluye las opiniones de amigos, familiares y compañeros, y la influencia de los medios de comunicación predicen la actitud favorable de las consumidoras de la Generación Y hacia los productos de belleza a través de su influencia en las normas subjetivas de este segmento.

Estos resultados enfatizan la importancia estratégica de incorporar las normas subjetivas, junto con la influencia de los medios de comunicación y del grupo, en las campañas de comunicación de la comercialización de productos de belleza dirigidas a las consumidoras de la Generación Y. Dado que se sabe que esta generación es la usuaria habitual de los medios sociales y suele consultar en línea las revisiones de los productos, esas estrategias también deberían ampliarse más allá de las plataformas de los medios de comunicación tradicionales para incluir los medios sociales, en particular las personas que ejercen influencia en los medios sociales, y las plataformas de revisión de productos en línea, aprovechando así las normas subjetivas y la influencia del grupo.

Este estudio contribuye a comprender las actitudes de las consumidoras de la Generación Y respecto de los productos de belleza, especialmente la influencia combinada de las normas subjetivas y la influencia de los medios de comunicación y los grupos en esas actitudes.

摘要

本文旨在研究两个重要的潜在因素，对Y世代女性消费者对美容产品态度的影响。具体来说，是通过媒体和群体对主观规范的影响来进行分析。

本研究采用结构方程模型分析力矩结构，结合相当规模的Y世代女性消费者的数据，提出并检验研究模型。

研究结果证实，Y世代女性消费者对美容产品持积极态度，而且这种态度受到她们主观规范的影响。此外，研究结果表明，群体影响（包括朋友、家人和同伴的意见）和媒体影响都能通过对Y世代女性消费者主观规范的影响来预测她们对美容产品的好感度。

本文的研究结果强调了将主观规范和媒体、群体影响纳入针对Y世代女性消费者的美容产品营销传播活动的战略重要性。由于Y世代是社交媒体的普遍用户，并且经常查看其他用户评价，因此这种策略应该超越传统媒体平台，将社交媒体，特别是社交媒体网络红人和在线产品评论平台纳入其中，利用他们对消费者主观规范和群体的影响力。

本研究有助于了解Y世代女性消费者对美容产品的态度，特别是主观规范和媒体、群体对这种态度的综合影响。