INTRODUCTION The aim of the study was to describe how often patients seek information about their disease in connection with contact to a hospital and to elucidate how information-seeking behaviour is related to the patients' perception of this contact. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was based on patient surveys from the Danish county of Aarhus from 1999 to 2006 including eight public hospita...

Peacekeeping operations form an increasing part of the role of the U.K. Armed Forces. This study identified perceived needs for training before such operations, experiences of stress during deployments, beliefs and attitudes regarding psychological support and debriefing on return, general attitudes toward peacekeeping duties, and positive aspects of the peacekeeping role. Although nearly all p...

This is a continuation of and a development of a debate between John Keown and me. The issue discussed is whether, in Britain, an unpaid system of blood donation promotes and is justified by its promotion of altruism. Doubt is cast on the notions that public policies can, and, if they can, that they should, be aimed at the promotion and expression of altruism rather than of self-interest, espec...

This article examines public opinion in advanced economies to assess what the general public thinks about inflation. Are individual citizens concerned about inflation? How important a public policy issue do they think it is? What influences their opinions about inflation? Does opinion about inflation vary across countries and, if so, what accounts for this variation? The opinion surveys examine...

What explains controversy over outpatient commitment laws (OCLs), which authorize courts to order persons with mental illness to accept outpatient treatment? We hypothesized that attitudes toward OCLs reflect "cultural cognition" (DiMaggio, P. Annl Rev Sociol 23:263-287, 1997), which motivates individuals to conform their beliefs about policy-relevant facts to their cultural values. In a study ...

BACKGROUND Evaluations on different aspects of the performance of public hospitals in China have been conducted, usually based on indicators developed by literature review and expert suggestions. The patient perspective was not always considered. This study aims to identify what patients care most about in China's public hospitals exclusively from a patient perspective. METHODS A mix of strat...

BACKGROUND Monitoring graduates' views of their learning experiences is important to ensure programme standards and further improvement. This study evaluated graduates' satisfaction with and attitudes towards a Master programme in Dental Public Health. METHODS An online questionnaire was sent to individuals who completed successfully the Master of Science programme in Dental Public Health at ...

BACKGROUND Misuse of antimicrobials (AMs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are global concerns. The present study evaluated knowledge, attitudes and practices about AMR and AM prescribing among medical doctors in two large public hospitals in Lima, Peru, a middle-income country. METHODS Cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire RESULTS A total of 256 participants compl...

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to validate the reliability and validity of the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) in Heilongjiang province, northern China. METHODS The SAQ was distributed to 27 public hospitals in five cities across Heilongjiang province. The Cronbach's α, item-dimension and dimension-dimension correlations were calculated. Descriptive analyses and confirmatory fac...

OBJECTIVES To determine the nature and extent of governance activities by health service boards in relation to quality and safety of care and to gauge the expertise and perspectives of board members in this area. METHODS This study used an online and postal survey of the Board Chair, Quality Committee Chair and two randomly selected members from the boards of all 85 health services in Victori...