Re-evaluation of systematic reviews of acupuncture and moxibustion for childhood autism / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To re-evaluate the systematic review/Meta-analysis of acupuncture and moxibustion for childhood autism (CA), aiming to provide decision-making basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment.@*METHODS@#The systematic review and/or Meta-analysis of acupuncture and moxibustion for CA were searched in PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, CNKI and Wanfang databases. The retrieval time was from the database establishment to May 5th, 2022. PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and Meta-analyses) was used to evaluate the report quality, and AMSTAR 2 (a measurement tool to assess systematic reviews 2) was used to evaluate the methodological quality, bubble map was used to construct the evidence map and GRADE was used to evaluate the quality of evidence.@*RESULTS@#A total of 9 systematic reviews were included. The PRISMA scores ranged from 13 to 26. The report quality was low, and there was a serious lack in the aspects of program and registration, search, other analysis and funding. The main problems in methodology included not making prespecified protocol, incomplete retrieval strategy, not providing a list of excluded literatures, and incomplete explanation on heterogeneity analysis and bias risk. The evidence map showed that 6 conclusions were valid, 2 conclusions were possible valid and 1 conclusion was uncertain valid. The overall quality of evidence was low, and the main factors leading to the downgrade were limitations, followed by inconsistency, imprecision and publication bias.@*CONCLUSION@#Acupuncture and moxibustion has a certain effect for CA, but the quality of reporting, methodology and evidence in included literature need to be improved. It is suggested to perform high-quality and standardized research in the future to provide evidence-based basis.

Problems and improvement suggestions for job burnout measurement tools and their application / 环境与职业医学

Job burnout is a hot topic in occupational health psychology research at home and abroad. This paper reviewed the concept and development of job burnout, introduced the common tools measuring job burnout, indicated the problems reported in the measurement tools of job burnout, proposed suggestions on the introduction, translation, development and use of burnout measurement tools, summarized the new trend of research on job burnout abroad, and prospected the future research work of job burnout in China.

Overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis of Xingnaojing Injection in treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage / 中国中药杂志

To overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis of Xingnaojing Injection(XNJ) in the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage(ICH). The systematic reviews concerning XNJ in the treatment of ICH were retrieved from four Chinese databases, four English databases, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry and ClinicalTrail.gov, with the retrieval time set from their inception to September 2020. Following the independent screening and data extraction by two researchers, a measurement tool to assess systematic evaluation 2(AMSTAR 2) and grades of recommendation, assessment, development and evaluation(GRADE) system were used to evaluate the metho-dological, reporting and evidence qualities of the 10 included systematic reviews. The results showed that XNJ was superior to the wes-tern medicine or conventional treatment in improving the effective rate and National Institutes of Health stroke scale(NIHSS) score, Barthel index(BI), and Glasgow coma scale(GCS) score and Chinese stroke scale(CSS) score, and reducing the mortality and cerebral hematoma volume, without inducing obvious adverse reactions. In general, the methodological, reporting and evidence qualities of the 10 included systematic reviews were poor. The AMSTAR 2 scores showed that key items No. 2 and No. 16 failed to meet the stan-dard, resulting in poor methodological quality. There was only one outcome indicator graded by GRADE as intermediate quality, 43% indicators as low quality, 42% indicators as extremely low quality, and none as high quality. These available evidences have suggested that the methodological, reporting and evidence qualities of the systematic evaluation concerning XNJ for the treatment of ICH need to be improved. Most evidences support that XNJ was better than the western medicine or conventional treatment in the treatment of ICH, but the methodological quality and the reliability of outcome indicators in relevant systematic review were low. More high-quality studies are still required for further verification.

Development of a measuring tool for elderly care service needs in the community and its reliability and validity / 中华全科医师杂志

Objective To develop a measuring tool for the elderly care service needs in the community.Methods Based on the literature search and Delphi expert consultation,a measuring tool for elderly care service needs was developed.The reliability (internal consistency coefficient) and validity (surface validity,content validity,criterion-related validity) of the developed measurement tool were evaluated with on-site expert consultation and the cross-sectional survey.Results A 11-dimension measurement tool was developed,which covered physical health,mental health and desires for old-age support assessment.The reliability evaluation showed that there was significant correlation (P＜0.05) among the measurement dimensions of the physical health and the mental health of the elderly in community.The validity evaluation showed that the measurement methods for the measurement dimensions of the elderly care needs,including the evaluation items,evaluation methods,and rating methods,all got below 2 scores in applicability assessment,and the measurement methods of the self-care ability,vision,the self-willingness/information expression of the elderly,the ability of the elderly to understand the willingness/information expressed by others,and the ability to provide family care were all supported by more than 50％ experts,which indicated that the surface validity and content validity were good.There was a significant positive correlation between the living places of the elderly and the needsof elderly care services (r=0.214,P＜0.01),and there were significant correlations between all measurement dimensions with the living place except anxiety (P＜0.05),which indicated that the measurement tool had an acceptable criterion-related validity.The consistency of self-supporting willingness,the family willingness to care for the elderly with the current old-age care place were relatively poor (Kappa=0.063,P=0.007;Kappa=0.051,P=0.006).Conclusion The overall performance of the measurement tool for the elderly care service needs developed in this study is acceptable.It has been approved by both the elderly care service suppliers and the elderly care service needs evaluators.It also shows some internal consistency in measurement results of the demanders,and is consistent with the actual living place.

Chronic pain in long-lived elderly: prevalence, characteristics, measurements and correlation with serum vitamin D level / Dor crônica em idosos longevos: prevalência, características, mensurações e correlação com nível sérico de vitamina D

ABSTRACTBACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Chronic pain considerably worsens quality of life of the elderly, giving relevance to studies addressing it in such individuals, especially those long-lived. Recently, vitamin D deficiency, very prevalent among the elderly, has been correlated to chronic pain. This study aimed at estimating the prevalence of chronic pain among community long-lived elderly with functional independence, at evaluating its characteristics and at correlating this pain to serum vitamin D levels.METHODS:Cross-sectional study of the “Long-Lived Project”, with elderly aged 80 years or above, of both genders, with functional independence. Socio-demographic data were collected, referred chronic pains were measured and serum vitamin D levels were obtained.RESULTS:We have evaluated 330 participants of the “Long-Lived Project” and pain prevalence was 20.9%, especially nociceptive, continuous, moderate to severe and lumbar pain. Among pain intensity measurement tools, faces and verbal numeric scales were preferred. There has been high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among long-lived elderly with chronic pain (87%); deficiency and insufficiency levels were 49 and 38%, respectively, however such levels were not significantly correlated to chronic pain.CONCLUSION:There has been high prevalence of chronic pain among the elderly. Moderate to severe and low back pain were the most frequent. There has been high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among studied long-lived elderly; however there has been no significant correlation between low serum vitamin D levels and chronic pain.

RESUMOJUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS:A dor crônica diminui consideravelmente a qualidade de vida dos idosos, dando relevância aos estudos que a abordam nesses indivíduos, sobretudo nos longevos. Recentemente, a hipovitaminose D, muito prevalente entre idosos, tem sido relacionada à dor crônica. O objetivo deste estudo foi estimar a prevalência de dor crônica entre os longevos da comunidade com independência funcional, avaliar suas características e correlacionar essa dor com os níveis séricos de vitamina D.MÉTODOS:Estudo transversal do “Projeto Longevos”, com idosos de 80 anos ou mais, de ambos os gêneros, com independência funcional. Foram apurados os dados sócio-demográficos, avaliadas e mensuradas as dores crônicas apresentadas e obtidos os níveis séricos da vitamina D.RESULTADOS:Foram avaliados 330 participantes do “Projeto Longevos”, e encontrada prevalência de 20,9% de dor crônica, sendo essa principalmente do tipo nociceptiva, contínua, de intensidade moderada a intensa, de localização lombar. Dentre os instrumentos de mensuração da intensidade dolorosa, os preferidos foram as escalas de faces e numérica verbal. Observou-se alta prevalência de hipovitaminose D nos longevos com dor crônica (87%); níveis de deficiência e insuficiência em 49 e 38%, respectivamente, porém tais níveis não se correlacionaram significativamente com a presença de dor crônica.CONCLUSÃO:A prevalência de dor crônica entre os longevos foi alta. Intensidade moderada e intensa e localização lombar foram as mais frequentes. Houve alta prevalência de hipovitaminose D entre os longevos estudados, porém não se observou correlação significativa entre baixos níveis séricos de vitamina D e dor crônica.

Training Traditional Birth Attendants on the Use of Misoprostol and a Blood Measurement Tool to Prevent Postpartum Haemorrhage: Lessons Learnt from Bangladesh.

A consensus emerged in the late 1990s among leaders in global maternal health that traditional birth attendants (TBAs) should no longer be trained in delivery skills and should instead be trained as promoters of facility-based care. Many TBAs continue to be trained in places where home deliveries are the norm and the potential impacts of this training are important to understand. The primary objective of this study was to gain a more nuanced understanding of the full impact of training TBAs to use misoprostol and a blood measurement tool (mat) for the prevention of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) at home deliveries through the perspective of those involved in the project. This qualitative study, conducted between July 2009 and July 2010 in Bangladesh, was nested within larger operations research, testing the feasibility and acceptability of scaling up community-based provision of misoprostol and a blood measurement tool for prevention of PPH. A total of 87 in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with TBAs, community health workers (CHWs), managers, and government-employed family welfare visitors (FWVs) at three time points during the study. Computer-assisted thematic data analysis was conducted using ATLAS.ti (version 5.2). Four primary themes emerged during the data analysis, which all highlight changes that occurred following the training. The first theme describes the perceived direct changes linked to the two new interventions. The following three themes describe the indirect changes that interviewees perceived: strengthened linkages between TBAs and the formal healthcare system; strengthened linkages between TBAs and the communities they serve; and improved quality of services/service utilization. The data indicate that training TBAs and CHW supervisors resulted in perceived broader and more nuanced changes than simply improvements in TBAs’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Acknowledgeing TBAs’ important role in the community and in home deliveries and integrating them into the formal healthcare system has the potential to result in changes similar to those seen in this study.

Developing and testing the reliability of a measurement tool for an urban area food environment in Korea: Focusing on food stores / 한국영양학회지

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to develop a reliable measurement tool to assess the urban food environment, particularly focusing on food stores in Korea. METHODS: The items for the measurement tool were selected through systematic literature reviews and adjusted to the Korean food environment. A total of 25 food stores in an urban area were recruited for the pilot test to evaluate the time required for completion of the survey, ease of response, willingness to participate, difficulties in conducting the survey, and appropriateness, and 34 food stores were recruited for assessment of the reliability of the tool using percent agreement and kappa value. RESULTS: The measurement tool is composed of questions regarding food store characteristics, accessibility, and food availability. On average, 26 minutes was required to survey a single food store, and the subjects and interviewers answered that the process was not difficult for the survey. The percent agreement for the inter-rater and test-retest reliability ranged from 93.9~98.8% and 91.9~97.9, respectively. The kappa values ranged from 0.78 to 0.97, which was very high. Percent agreement and kappa value of food with healthy option were lower than those of the general food in the inter-rater reliability (p = 0.0027, p = 0.0095 respectively) as well as in the test-retest reliability (p = 0.0081, p = 0.0290, respectively), although they were still high enough (86.4~98.0% for percent agreement, 0.64~0.96 for kappa value). CONCLUSION: The newly developed measurement tool for assessment of food store environment appears to be feasible and reliable; therefore, it can be applied to research on the association between food environment and dietary behaviors as well as health outcomes.

Quality evaluations for five published meta-analyses of intravenous fish oil interventions on clinical outcomes by a measurement tool to assess systematic reviews / 中华临床营养杂志

Objective To use a measurement tool to assess systematic reviews (AMSTAR) to assess the methodological quality of published meta-analyses of intravenous fish oil interventions on clinical outcomes in postoperative or intensive care unit (ICU) patients supported with parenteral nutrition (PN).Methods PubMed,EMBASE,Cochrane Library,Web of Science,Chinese Biomedical Databases,China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wanfang Database,and some other databases were searched to retrieve the eligible studies published from January 1996 to September 2013,and the relevant journals and the references of included studies were also retrieved manually.The studies were included if they were systematic reviews or meta-analyses that evaluated the effects of fish oil-enriched PN and standard PN for postoperative or ICU patients on clinical outcome.Two reviewers screened the literature according to the inclusion criteria and extracted the data.Then the AMSTAR was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies.Results A total of five relevant meta analyses were included.Based on AMSTAR,two studies were of high quality,one of moderate quality,and the other two were of low quality.Conclusions The methodological quality of these five published metaanalyses of intravenous fish oil interventions is uneven.Further large-scale and high-quality randomized controlled trials about the impact of intravenous fish oil on clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness analysis for postoperative and ICU patients are needed.

A Comparison of Social Capital Tools Developed by International Institutes and Nations / 農村醫學 地域保健

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify and compare social capital measurement tools for the convenient use in public health studies. METHOD AND RESULT: This study examined and compared social capital tools developed individually by the World Bank, the OECD, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Korea. A comprehensive framework was constructed with six conceptual dimensions and sixteen indices. The six dimensions included Membership, Network, Trust, Information and communication, Social and civic participation, and Social cohesion and exclusion, which connoted the structural, cognitive, bonding, bridging, operative, and output elements. The indices of each tool were respectively matched to the indices of the comprehensive framework. The comprehensive tools were Integrated Questionnaire for the Measurement of Social Capital (SC-IQ) of the World Bank with 27 questions and the European Social Survey (ESS) of the OECD with 80 questions. CONCLUSION: The SC-IQ should be utilized in public health studies due to its simplicity yet comprehensiveness as a social capital tool. The ESS should also be considered as a comprehensive tool.

An information system evaluation tool built with customer satisfaction model theory / 中华医院管理杂志

This research applied the theory of customer satisfaction model in the evaluation of the clinical information system. By means of qualitative and quantitative methods, it made validity and reliability measurement on the measurement tools in use. In addition, it extracted the structure validity of the factor regulating scale via a factor analysis, and developed the scale for clinical information system measurement These efforts provided the hospitals with the useful measurement tool to improve their information system, promoting positive and practical hospital informationziation.

Advance in Hand Grip Measurement(review) / 中国康复理论与实践

@#The literatures in the PubMed between 1954～2009 on following aspects, such as grip strength assessment tools and Methods , influence factors, endurance of grip strength, test reliability was reviewed. It showed that grip strength is influenced by many factors, and standardized procedure and method should be recommended in the clinical practice for accurate outcome.

Practical Evaluation of Intellectual Capital (IC) Measurement Tool for Contract Foodservice Management Company

The purposes of this study were to a) measure the IC identified of CFMC (contract foodservice management company), b) examine IC circumstance of CFMC, c) evaluate practically IC measurement tool of CFMC, and d) present information for selecting an adequate CFMC to clients. The questionnaires of IC measurement were handed out to 108 CFMCs, there composing of main office employees, foodservice managers, customers, and clients of 207 school, 38 hospital, and 86 business/industry foodservices. The statistical data analysis was completed using SPSS Win (ver 12.0) for descriptive analysis, t-test, Mann-Whitney U test. First, CFMCs had operational experience for an average of 8 years and 8 months, and served an average of 38,540 meals a day. Most of the respondent companies specialized in the school foodservice field and managed an average of 66 clients for the contract period of 2 years and 3 months. Second, the respondent companies had gotten a score of 77.78 points for the total average, 77.7 points in the large enterprise group and 78.1 points in the small and medium-sized enterprise group. Therefore, the minimum number of points for the accrediting license on qualification is suggested to be over 70 out of a 100 point scale; this study would be serve as reference for the certification license on qualification. On the level of evaluation category, the scores were 14.15 to 20 points on[finance], 19.24 to 25 points on[customer], 19.33 to 25 points on[process], 14.31 to 20 points on[human resource], and 8.6 to 10 point on[renewal and development].[Renewal and development] and[customer focus] received better grades than other evaluation categories. Third,[Finance] indicated similar distribution overall. Small and medium-sized companies had lower grades than large companies on 'market ability' of[customer], but, clients of small and medium-sized companies had higher grade for 'client satisfaction' than large companies. Most of the companies supported 'infrastructure support for foodservice operation' of[process]by the main office of CFMCs, but, the branch chain offices of CFMCs were not applied efficiently. Large companies made more effort to improve the 'employee ability' of[human focus]than small and medium-sized CFMC. The 'research and development cost' of[renewal and development]was increased compared to the previous year. In conclusion, if CFMCs were to perform self-evaluation and a routine checkups by utilizing CFMC's IC measuring tool, improvements in CFMC operational capacities as well as foodservice quality can be noted.

Validating the Measurement Tool of Dental School Environment Satisfaction / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to develop and verify an instrument to measure the satisfaction rate of dental school environment. In order to develop such tool a pretest and precedent study of records was carried along with the student group discussion. This was to enhance the application of the measurement to in practise. METHODS: The sub scales was developed to measure the satisfaction rate of the dental school environment and the item goodness of the tool was verified through reliability and factor analysis. RESULTS: The instrument develop had measurement validity and when applied in practise it proved to be an instrument that can measure the dental school environment specifically and distinctively. CONCLUSION: The information given by the analysis of dental school environment in sub scales can be in practical use as the substantial evidence to diagnose the feature of relevant field, understand its problem and take a proper reform measure.

The Development of a Quality Measurement Tool for a Contract-Managed Hospital Foodservice / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purposes of this study were: a) to develop the a quality measurement tool for the contract-managed hospital foodservice, and b) to evaluate their performance with the developed quality measurement tool, and c) to verify the reliability and validity of the quality measurement tool. The developed quality measurement tool comprised two parts, which were foodservice management and medical nutrition care service. The foodservice management part was classified into six functional categories which were Menu, Procurement and Storage, Production and Distribution, Facility and Utility, Sanitation and Safety, and Management and Evaluation. The medical nutrition care service part indicated the medical nutrition care provided. Quality measurement tool had 91 standards and 324 indicators. The quality measurement tools were distributed to the hospital foodservice manager employed by the foodservice company. The 324 indicators were measured by foodservice manager on the 5-Likert-type scales, and then adapted to a 100 point scale. The SPSS Ver. 11.0 was used for statistical analysis. The categories whose scores were evaluated as being high were Procurement', General Sanitation', Personal sanitation' and Waste' and the categories whose scores were evaluated as being low were Diet Order Manual', Standard Recipe', Appropriateness (Facility and Utility)', Check (Facility and Utility)' and Information Management'. All the categories of medical nutrition service were evaluated as having seriously low scores. Therefore, it was necessary for the contract-managed hospital foodservice to improve its performance in the area of medical nutrition care service. For the verification of the developed quality measurement tool, the reliability obtained by calculating Cronbach's alpha was 0.8747, and the content validity was also proved by scrutiny of the modification of the Professional group's techniques.

Exploring Sources of Life Meaning among Koreans / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: The purpose was to explore sources of Koreans' life meaning and determine its structure that is reflective of Koreans' unique culture and values. METHODS: The study consisted of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. To this end, two sample data sets were collected. Study One was an exploratory study in which the qualitative component was conducted in order to gather all possible attributes of sources of life meaning among Koreans. All possible sources of life meaning were extracted through content analysis. Study Two was a quantitative study using a closed questionnaire and conducted in order to determine the structure of Koreans' life meaning by measuring Koreans' current level of life meaning. For the study, factor analysis was carried out. RESULTS: From Study One, 106 attributes of all possible sources of Koreans' life meaning were extracted. In Study Two, factor analysis with the responses from 638 subjects reduced 106 attributes to 53 attributes and ten factors were extracted as Koreans' sources of life meaning: Achievement, Security, Religion, Acceptance & Affirmation, Relationship, Self-Transcendence, Good Character, Self-Discipline, Physical Health and Intimate Friend. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICIATIONS: Among the ten factors extracted from this study, the factors of Security, Acceptance and Affirmation, Good Character, Self-Discipline, and Physical Health are Koreans' unique factors of Life Meaning, while Achievement, Religion, Relationship, Self-Transcendence and Intimate Friend are comparable to Wong's1) Personal Meaning Profile for Canadians. It implies that it is necessary to develop Koreans' own measurement tool in order to assess their life meaning properly. However, because this study was an exploratory in developing Koreans' life meaning mea-surement and had several limitations, in order to determine structure of Koreans' life meaning, further study must be necessary.

Development of a Measurement Tool System in Health and Medical Areas via the World Wide Web / 대한의료정보학회지

Scientific information databases produce insufficient and unsatisfactory levels of data for the specialized needs of researchers. Especially in the health and medical areas, researchers are looking for a measurement tool on the web that allows interaction between the database and the researcher for the production of new information through searching, accumulating, modifying, and deleting data. In this research paper, first a concrete explanation of the informational items in databases such as the types of measurement tool in the health and medical areas, their usage methods, their reliability and validity. Secondly, this report developed the service system of the measurement tool in the health and medical areas including functions of searching and answers of measurement information, functions in writing up information measurements from the web, and the user's friendly system according to their accessing levels. This measurement tool system can be applied for digital data collection and analysis rapidly via the web.

Problems with patient satisfaction surveys and suggestions / 中华医院管理杂志

Contemporary management ideas and social movements have impelled governments and service providers to value healthcare consumers' opinions and experiences. Patient satisfaction surveys have been used as a routine tool to measure a hospital's service quality from the patient's angle and patients' fidelity towards service providers. Quality improvement measures and service development strategies are consequently formulated. However, there still exist many problems in the research on and use of satisfaction surveys as a measurement tool, including lack of strategies for scientific tool selection and development, lack of standardization and analysis benchmarking, emphasis on nursing service at the expense of a hospital's overall service quality, lack of psychological surveying and research on applicability and practicability, artificially introduced bias factors in conducting the surveys, oversimplified presentation of survey results, and limited use of information, It is suggested that guidelines for tool selection and development be formulated, regional or nationwide benchmarking be established, plan designs in conducting the surveys be perfected, presentation of survey results be improved, and rational use of information be promoted.