Welcome to the era of vague news: a study of the demands of statistical and mathematical products in the COVID-19 pandemic media.

In this article, we report on a typology of the demands of statistical and mathematical products (StaMPs) embedded in media items related to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The typology emerged from a content analysis of a large purposive sample of diverse media items selected from digital news sources based in four countries. The findings encompass nine categories of StaMPs: (1) descriptive quantitative information, (2) models, predictions, causality and risk, (3) representations and displays, (4) data quality and strength of evidence, (5) demographics and comparative thinking, (6) heterogeneity and contextual factors, (7) literacy and language demands, (8) multiple information sources, and (9) critical demands. We illustrate these categories via selected media items, substantiate them through relevant research literature, and point to categories that encompass new or enhanced types of demands. Our findings offer insights into the rich set of capabilities that citizens (including both young people and adults) must possess in order to engage these mass media demands, critically analyze statistical and mathematical information in the media, evaluate the meaning and credibility of news reports, understand public policies, and make evidenced-informed judgments. Our conclusions point to the need to revise current curricular frameworks and conceptual models (e.g., regarding statistical and probability literacy, adult numeracy), to better incorporate notions such as blended knowledge, vagueness, risk, strength of evidence, and criticality. Furthermore, more attention is needed to the literacy and language demands of media items involving statistical and mathematical information. Implications for further research and educational practice are discussed.

Numeracy, adult education, and vulnerable adults: a critical view of a neglected field.

This survey paper examines selected issues related to the intersection of three broad scholarly areas: numeracy, adult education, and vulnerability. Numeracy encompasses the ways in which people cope with the mathematical, quantitative, and statistical demands of adult life, and is viewed as an important outcome of schooling and as a foundational skill for all adults. The focus on vulnerability stems from the realization that concerns of policy makers and educators alike often center on populations seen as vulnerable. The paper is organized in five sections. After a brief introduction, Section 2 examines adult numeracy, focusing on five numeracy domains (health, financial, digital, civic, and workplace numeracy), literacy-numeracy linkages, functional and critical aspects of numeracy, and the centrality of numeracy practices, and notes sources of vulnerability for each of these. Section 3 sketches formal, non-formal and informal contexts in which adults learn or develop their numeracy, and examines factors that may be potential sources of vulnerability, including systemic factors and dispositional and affect factors. Section 4 reflects more broadly on the concept of vulnerability, introduces selected aspects of the papers published in this issue of ZDM Mathematics Education, and points to findings regarding adult learners who may be deemed vulnerable. The closing section summarizes conclusions and research directions regarding the intersection of the three core domains. Overall, the paper points to emerging research needs and educational challenges that are relevant to scholars, practitioners, and policy makers interested in developing the numeracy of adults as well as in the mathematics education of younger learners.

Unheard voices: complaint patterns of older persons in the health care system.

To examine the patterns and prevalence of complaints about health services among older clients of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), explore demographic correlates, and compare results with the patterns in the younger population. Primary data were collected from the responses of subjects who participated in two national phone surveys, conducted in Israel over a period of 2 years. The final sample included 372 participants aged 65 and older, and 796 younger persons, who believed they had reasons to complain about their HMO. Of the 372 participants with cause to complain, only 23% had actually complained. Subjects who were 75-years-old and above, with below-average income, had 2.5 times higher probability for not complaining than people under 65. No statistically significant differences were found between the older participants and younger participants regarding the reasons for complaints or the procedures for making them. Recommendations are made for the recognition of older persons as a unique group within the health care system and for developing organizational mechanisms for capturing their unheard voices by HMOs.

[Patterns of client complaints in Israel's healthcare system].

OBJECTIVES: Israel's National Health Law of 1994 established the rights of citizens to receive quality health services. The Law set several mechanisms for treating clients' complaints. This study examined complaint patterns and reasons, complaint channels, and knowledge regarding complaints among citizens insured by Israeli health services, with the goal of contributing to the usage of complaints as a tool for improving medical services to citizens. METHOD: The study was conducted using a telephone survey, with national probability sample of N = 1500 respondents aged 21+. FINDINGS: About 75% of respondents did not have a cause to complain over the last 12 months, 25% reported a cause to complain, but only 9.5% (143 of 1500) actually complained. Approximately half of the causes for complaint concerned structural problems such as payments, waiting lists or eligibility. Causes regarding processes and interactions, or medical treatment and its outcomes, each accounted for a quarter of causes. Most complainers, about 75%, submitted their grievances informally at the local level. Only a minority (17%) appealed to official bodies established by Israel's National Health Law at the Ministry of Health or at the HMOs. Clients' awareness regarding rights to complain was found to be low. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to improve clients' knowledge and change complaint patterns, develop means for analyzing existing knowledge about client complaints already available to front-line employees. Furthermore, there is a need to plan organizational mechanisms for capturing and using future complaints submitted on a local level or informally, which are the bulk of the complaints.

Informal complaints on health services: hidden patterns, hidden potentials.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of informal complaints on health services among clients of Health Maintenance Organizations, and explore demographic correlates. Such complaints are a potentially important source of information regarding quality of healthcare. METHOD: Primary data were collected by a phone survey from a nationwide random sample of 1500 persons aged 21+ in Israel. RESULTS: About 25% of the respondents reported a cause to complain, but only 9.5% actually complained. About 75% of the complainants submitted their grievances informally at the local level. Only a minority (17%) appealed to official bodies established by law. Minority groups and recent immigrants had significantly lower rates of reasons to complain and actual complaints. CONCLUSIONS: Suggestions are made for outreach efforts to socially vulnerable groups and for developing organizational mechanisms for capturing and using future complaints submitted informally to front-line employees, which are the bulk of the complaints. Further research is needed regarding factors affecting customers complaining and non-complaining behavior, including factors that specifically affect the behavior of minority groups.

The emergence of legal prevention in old age: findings from an Israeli exploratory study.

The aging of the world has led the field of law to the realization that it must respond and change in order to deal with this phenomenon. One way in which law has responded to societal aging was by adopting preventive measures in the field of elder law. The Israeli legal system is only in its initial stages of establishing and implementing preventive tools for old age. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was twofold: First, it looked into the knowledge about, understanding of, and actual usage of preventive legal tools in old age in Israel. Second, it compared the Israeli findings to those of a similar American study. The findings of this exploratory study indicate that overall in Israel, the actual usage of preventive legal tools in old age is low both in absolute terms and compared to the American rates. Another important finding is the significant gap between the knowledge about preventive legal tools and their actual use by older adults. The findings suggest that Israel and other countries that are in their initial stages of developing preventive laws for older persons should consider broader socio-legal issues than the mere enactment of preventive legislation.

Why organizations continue to create patient information leaflets with readability and usability problems: an exploratory study.

Readability and usability problems with patient information leaflets continue to be reported despite long-standing recognition of their existence and the availability of guidelines for developing health education materials. This exploratory study examined possible causes for such problems, based on interviews with professionals who developed leaflets in large health organizations. Findings suggest that readability is an important concern for developers, but that complex organizational processes are involved in creating leaflets, and that developers face a need to cope with organizational politics, goal conflicts and various other pressures. Six factors were identified, i.e. (1) initiators, (2) intended users and contexts of use, (3) goals, (4) work flow and content decisions, (5) readability considerations, and (6) evaluation practices, that can adversely affect the content, organization, and resulting comprehensibility and usability of leaflets. It is suggested to adopt a broad ecological view of the environments in which patient education materials are created and deployed. Implications for practice and for future related research are discussed.