scholarly journals Context Effects in the Evaluation of Bodily Symptoms: Comparing Three Versions of the Health Norms Sorting Task

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Weck ◽  
Michael Witthöft

The illness-related evaluation of bodily symptoms is considered to be an important maintaining factor in somatoform disorders. However, little is known about context variables that could influence this evaluation process. In the current study, participants completed three versions of the Health Norms Sorting Task (HNST) and evaluated bodily symptoms in different contexts (i.e., different evaluation perspectives and time frames of evaluation). Additionally, the three HNST versions were presented in different orders. Bodily symptoms were evaluated more often as a sign of illness when a specific time frame (i.e., one week) was given. However, this context effect was only large when participants had previously evaluated symptoms existing without a concrete duration. Thus, previously completed symptom evaluations appear to represent an important frame of reference in terms of a cue that makes specific context variables salient. The results further suggested that these cueing effects might be less relevant for participants with elevated somatic symptom reports.

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Marko Tončić ◽  
Petra Anić

Abstract. This study aims to examine the effect of affect on satisfaction, both at the between- and the within-person level for momentary assessments. Affect is regarded as an important source of information for life satisfaction judgments. This affective effect on satisfaction is well established at the dispositional level, while at the within-person level it is heavily under-researched. This is true especially for momentary assessments. In this experience sampling study both mood and satisfaction scales were administered five times a day for 7 days via hand-held devices ( N = 74 with 2,122 assessments). Several hierarchical linear models were fitted to the data. Even though the amount of between-person variance was relatively low, both positive and negative affect had substantial effects on momentary satisfaction on the between- and the within-person level as well. The within-person effects of affect on satisfaction appear to be more pronounced than the between-person ones. At the momentary level, the amount of between-person variance is lower than in studies with longer time-frames. The affect-related effects on satisfaction possibly have a curvilinear relationship with the time-frame used, increasing in intensity up to a point and then decreasing again. Such a relationship suggests that, at the momentary level, satisfaction might behave in a more stochastic manner, allowing for transient events/data which are not necessarily affect-related to affect it.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 484
Author(s):  
Claudiu Vințe ◽  
Marcel Ausloos ◽  
Titus Felix Furtună

Grasping the historical volatility of stock market indices and accurately estimating are two of the major focuses of those involved in the financial securities industry and derivative instruments pricing. This paper presents the results of employing the intrinsic entropy model as a substitute for estimating the volatility of stock market indices. Diverging from the widely used volatility models that take into account only the elements related to the traded prices, namely the open, high, low, and close prices of a trading day (OHLC), the intrinsic entropy model takes into account the traded volumes during the considered time frame as well. We adjust the intraday intrinsic entropy model that we introduced earlier for exchange-traded securities in order to connect daily OHLC prices with the ratio of the corresponding daily volume to the overall volume traded in the considered period. The intrinsic entropy model conceptualizes this ratio as entropic probability or market credence assigned to the corresponding price level. The intrinsic entropy is computed using historical daily data for traded market indices (S&P 500, Dow 30, NYSE Composite, NASDAQ Composite, Nikkei 225, and Hang Seng Index). We compare the results produced by the intrinsic entropy model with the volatility estimates obtained for the same data sets using widely employed industry volatility estimators. The intrinsic entropy model proves to consistently deliver reliable estimates for various time frames while showing peculiarly high values for the coefficient of variation, with the estimates falling in a significantly lower interval range compared with those provided by the other advanced volatility estimators.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Sun Hyun Kim ◽  
Sang-Yeon Suh ◽  
Seok Joon Yoon ◽  
Jeanno Park ◽  
Yu Jung Kim ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective Several studies supported the usefulness of “the surprise question” in terms of 1-year mortality of patients. “The surprise question” requires a “Yes” or “No” answer to the question “Would I be surprised if this patient died in [specific time frame].” However, the 1-year time frame is often too long for advanced cancer patients seen by palliative care personnel. “The surprise question” with shorter time frames is needed for decision making. We examined the accuracy of “the surprise question” for 7-day, 21-day, and 42-day survival in hospitalized patients admitted to palliative care units (PCUs). Method This was a prospective multicenter cohort study of 130 adult patients with advanced cancer admitted to 7 hospital-based PCUs in South Korea. The accuracy of “the surprise question” was compared with that of the temporal question for clinician's prediction of survival. Results We analyzed 130 inpatients who died in PCUs during the study period. The median survival was 21.0 days. The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy for the 7-day “the surprise question” were 46.7, 88.7, and 83.9%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy for the 7-day temporal question were 6.7, 98.3, and 87.7%, respectively. The c-indices of the 7-day “the surprise question” and 7-day temporal question were 0.662 (95% CI: 0.539–0.785) and 0.521 (95% CI: 0.464–0.579), respectively. The c-indices of the 42-day “the surprise question” and 42-day temporal question were 0.554 (95% CI: 0.509–0.599) and 0.616 (95% CI: 0.569–0.663), respectively. Significance of results Surprisingly, “the surprise questions” and temporal questions had similar accuracies. The high specificities for the 7-day “the surprise question” and 7- and 21-day temporal question suggest they may be useful to rule in death if positive.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferudun Sezgin ◽  
Ayşe Tınmaz ◽  
Sezgin Tetik

The purpose of this study was to examine the opinions of school principals and teachers about the new implication process which teachers are being evaluated by school principals according to performance criteria. Phenomenological study design was chosen in this qualitative research. Participants were selected according to maximum variation sampling which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. Data were collected from 11 school principals and 14 teachers via semi-structured interview forms in Tokat city center. Data were analyzed according to descriptive analyzing technique. According to the results obtained in the study, participants stated that the purpose of current performance evaluation is the evaluation of teachers and to support their professional development. About the new application’s access to the purposes, while many of the teachers reported that the system could not achieve its goals, most of the school principals stated that the system would reach the goals with some shortcomings. Participants criticized the system for fast coming up and implementation. Participants stated that school principals were not qualified for this system. The most important strength of the system was defined as the teacher’s close awareness of the school principals. According to teachers’ views about the weaknesses of the system; the impact of conflicts or prejudices affecting school, school principals’ failure to take into account the criteria list, the existence of biased behaviors, the fact that principals were not educated in supervision, erroneous or incomplete practices in branch-specific evaluations, the deterioration of organizational peace. The majority of school principals reported that the applied system could contribute to the professional development of teachers, while the majority of teachers thought that the system would make a limited contribution. A two-day seminar was held with the school principals while training for teachers was not arranged by the Ministry of Education prior to the performance evaluation process. In the study, some suggestions were also made regarding the development of the current practice and the assessment of teacher performance in Turkey.Extended English abstract is in the end of PDF (TURKISH) file. ÖzetBu çalışmanın amacı öğretmenlerin performans kriterlerine göre okul müdürleri tarafından değerlendirildiği yeni uygulama konusunda okul müdürleri ve öğretmenlerin görüşlerini ortaya koymaktır. Nitel araştırma yöntemine göre tasarlanan bu çalışmada olgu bilim deseni benimsenmiştir. Çalışmada katılımcılar amaçlı örnekleme yöntemlerinden maksimum çeşitlemeye göre oluşturulmuştur. Tokat il merkezinde görev yapmakta olan 11 okul müdürü ve 14 öğretmenle yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılarak veri toplanmıştır. Veriler betimsel analiz tekniğine göre çözümlenmiştir. Araştırmada elde edilen verilere göre katılımcılar mevcut performans değerlendirme uygulamasının amacının daha çok öğretmenlerin değerlendirilmesi ve mesleki gelişimlerini artırma olduğu yönünde görüş belirtmişlerdir. Yeni uygulamanın amacına ulaşabilmesine ilişkin öğretmenlerin çoğunluğu sistemin amacını gerçekleştiremeyeceğini düşünürken okul müdürlerinin çoğunluğu bazı eksiklikler belirtmekle birlikte sistemin amacına ulaşabileceğini ifade etmektedirler. Uygulanma süreciyle ilgili katılımcılar sistemin bir anda gündeme gelmesi ve uygulanmasını eleştirmektedir. Katılımcılar okul müdürlerinin bu konuda yeterli olmadığını düşünmektedir. Sisteminin en önemli güçlü yanının okul müdürünün öğretmeni yakından tanıması olduğu ifade edilmiştir. Sistemin zayıf yönleri ile ilgili olarak öğretmenler; okulda yaşanacak çatışmaların veya önyargıların değerlendirmeyi etkilemesi, okul müdürlerinin kriter listesini dikkate almaması, taraflı davranışların varlığı, müdürlerin denetim konusunda eğitimli olmamaları, branşa özgü değerlendirmelerde hatalı veya eksik uygulama, örgüt barışının bozulması şeklinde görüş belirtmişlerdir. Okul müdürlerinin çoğunluğu uygulanmakta olan sistemin öğretmenlerin mesleki gelişimine katkı sağlayacağını belirtirken öğretmenlerin çoğunluğu kısıtlı katkı sağlayacağını düşünmektedir. Performans değerlendirme süreci öncesinde Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı tarafından öğretmenlere yönelik bir eğitim düzenlenmezken, okul müdürlerine iki günlük bir seminer düzenlenmiştir. Çalışmada ayrıca mevcut uygulamanın geliştirilmesi ile ilgili ve Türkiye’de genel anlamda öğretmen performansının değerlendirilmesi ile ilgili olarak birtakım önerilerde bulunulmuştur.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Stone ◽  
Cheng K. Fred Wen ◽  
Stefan Schneider ◽  
Doerte U. Junghaenel

BACKGROUND Daily diaries are extensively used for examining participants' daily experience in behavioral and medical science. Whether participants recall their experiences within the time frames prescribed by task has received little attention. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to describe survey respondents' self-reported recall timeframe and to evaluate the impact of different daily diary items on respondents reported affective states. METHODS In this study, 577 participants completed a mood survey with one of four time frame instructions: 1) today, 2) since waking up today, 3) during the last 24 hours, or 4) in the last day. They were also asked to indicate the time periods they considered when answering these items and to recall the instructional phrases associated with the items. RESULTS Almost all participants in the "Today" (97%) and "Since waking up today" (94%)" conditions reported using time periods consistent with our expectations, while a lower proportion was observed in the "during the last 24 hours" (69%) condition. A diverse range of responses was observed in the "In the last day" condition. Furthermore, the instructions influenced the levels of some self-reported affects, although exploratory analyses were not able to identify the mechanism underlying this finding. CONCLUSIONS Overall, these results indicate that "Today" and "Since waking up today" are the most effective instructional phrases for inquiring about daily experience and that investigators should use caution when using the other two instructional phrases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
N. N. Petrova

Objective: to analyze the diagnostic significance of clinical and phenomenological characteristics of affective disorders in patients with chronic somatic pathology.Patients and methods. The analysis included the results of a clinical evaluation of 131 patients with chronic somatic pathology, including 96 patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases and 35 patients with cerebral small vessel disease. Clinical assessment included Primary care evaluation of mental disorders (PRIME-MD) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.Results and discussion. Despite the significant frequency and transparent clinical symptoms, general practitioners diagnosed mental disorders in only 30% of patients with depression. We observed a higher prevalence of somatic rather than psychological complaints during the clinical survey. According to the screening using PRIME-MD, 74% of patients were diagnosed with mood disorders, anxiety, and somatoform disorders. We also noted their significant comorbidity with a predominance of a depression and anxiety combination (p < 0.001). Hypertensive patients had the highest depression prevalence (87%) and severity. Moderate depression was the most frequent diagnosis in the study participants, corresponding to major depressive disorder (61.5%).Conclusion. In general, the symptoms of anhedonia, depression, and anxiety were most pronounced in patients with affective disorders. The high prevalence of somatic symptoms complicates depression evaluation. It is possible to highlight depression and anhedonia as significant symptoms for the detection of depression in patients with somatic disorders.


Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riwaj Bhagat ◽  
Krishna Madireddy ◽  
Shivani Naik ◽  
Gopika Kutty ◽  
Wei Liu

Introduction: The Computed Tomography Perfusion (CTP) RAPID software is widely used for the patient selection for mechanical thrombectomy (MT) after anterior circulation large vessel occlusion (LVO). There is a notion that it overestimates the core volume (CV) in an earlier time frame from symptom onset. We compared the accuracy of CTP RAPID estimated CV in different time frames with diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) infarct volume (IV). Method: A retrospective data review of patients who underwent MT for anterior circulation LVO with TICI 2b/3 reperfusion from 2017 to 2019 was done. Patients with baseline CTP and follow up 36-hour MRI was included. Patients with parenchymal hematoma, graded as per ECASS II classification were excluded. CTP time was dichotomized as 0-3 hours (hrs) and >3 hrs from symptom onset. DWI IV was calculated by ABC/2 formula. The volumetric difference (VD), defined as DWI IV minus CTP CV, core volume overestimation (CVO), defined as CTP CV minus DWI IV and CT ASPECTS was calculated. Large CV was defined as >50 ml CV. Standard descriptive statistics and independent sample T-test were used as statistical tools. Result: Total MT cases (n) were 61. Mean age (y.o) was 66 (SD 13.9) (male 57.4%). In < 3 hrs from symptom onset (n 27), mean CTP CV was 38.8 ml (SD 39.8), DWI IV was 39.6 ml (SD 51.4), VD was 0.9 ml (SD 55.2) (p 0.945) and CVO (n 11) was 39.6 ml (SD 35.7) (p 0.008). Mean large CV (n 8) was 78.3 ml (SD 25.4) with median CT ASPECTS of 8 (IQR 6.5-9) and median mRS at discharge 2 (IQR 0.8- 3.3). In >3 hrs from symptom onset (n 34), mean CTP CV was 28.81 ml (SD 47.4), DWI IV was 75.3 ml (SD 69.5), VD was 46.5 ml (SD 61.8) (p 0.002) and CVO (n 5) was 25.2 ml (SD 41.27) (p 0.60). Mean large CV (n 5) was 116.8 ml (SD 75.3) with median CT ASPECTS of 6 (IQR 5-7) and median mRS at discharge 5 (IQR 4- 6). Conclusion: Overestimated core volume on CTP was seen in more than one third cases within 3 hours from symptom onset. Large CV estimated within this time frame had higher CT ASPECTS and good functional outcome at discharge.


Author(s):  
Antoinette Kavanaugh ◽  
Thomas Grisso

Chapter 4 offers guidance for the clinician in the earliest stages of the evaluation process before engaging in the evaluation itself. The first section focuses on whether the clinician is competent to perform Miller evaluations. It focuses on what is required of the clinician in terms of specialized knowledge, ways to avoid bias, and other special demands of Miller cases. The second section focuses on communications with the party requesting the evaluation (typically an attorney) and describes how to reach agreement about objectives and creating the proper expectations for both the attorney and the clinician. Finally, various logistical matters are discussed regarding location of evaluations, time frames, and gaining access to relevant records and collateral interviewees. The chapter concludes with suggestions for planning the evaluation itself.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 700 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Almeida ◽  
Mónica Eusébio ◽  
Jaime Almeida ◽  
Matteo Boattini

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0.35cm; line-height: 200%;" class="western"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Background:</strong> Variations in emergency department admissions have been reported to happen as a result of major sports events. The work presented assessed changes in volume and urgency level of visits to a major Emergency Department in Lisbon during and after the city’s football derby.<br /><strong>Material and Methods:</strong> Volume of attendances and patient urgency level, according to the Manchester Triage System, were retrospectively analyzed for the 2008-2011 period. Data regarding 24-hour periods starting 45 minutes before kick-off was collected, along with data from similar periods on the corresponding weekdays in the previous years, to be used as controls. Data samples were organized according to time frame (during and after the match), urgency level, and paired accordingly.<br /><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 14 relevant periods (7 match and 7 non-match) were analyzed, corresponding to a total of 5861 admissions. During the match time frame, a 20.6% reduction (p = 0.06) in the total number of attendances was found when compared to non-match days. MTS urgency level sub-analysis only showed a statistically significant reduction (26.5%; p = 0.05) in less urgent admissions (triage levels green-blue). Compared to controls, post-match time frames showed a global increase in admissions (5.6%; p = 0.45), significant only when considering less urgent ones (18.9%; p = 0.05).<br /><strong>Discussion:</strong> A decrease in the total number of emergency department attendances occurred during the matches, followed by a subsequent increase in the following hours. These variations only reached significance among visits triaged green-blue.<br /><strong>Conclusion:</strong> During major sports events an overall decrease in emergency department admissions seems to take place, especially due to a drop in visits associated with less severe conditions.<br /><strong>Keywords:</strong> Emergency Service, Hospital; Triage; Sports; Soccer; Portugal.</span></span></p>


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