Suchergebnisse

This dissertation examines the emergence of biological threats and public health preparedness in the United States. The principal aims of this research revolved around tracking the ways in which pathogens and diseases have come to be understood as dangerous both to populations and to the state, as well as how responses to these dangers have been rendered thinkable and "actionable."There were three research sites, including: 1) the US Congress, where biological threats were articulated largely within the Congressional committee hearing setting; 2) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which collectively contributed to thinking about a specific biological threat, smallpox, around the turn of the century, feeding into the ill-fated Smallpox Vaccination Program; and 3) public health departments in five counties in California, where preparedness strategies and efforts have been put into practice.Data sources for this study included 30 interviews with experts at federal, state and local levels; direct- and participant-observation of several preparedness exercises, meetings, clinics, etc.; and a wide array of documents from the various research sites and elsewhere. Several modes of analysis were employed, including policy narrative analysis, genealogical tracings of specific practices and logics, and grounded theory techniques.Three sets of findings are presented. First, legislators and experts testifying at committee hearings employed a number of narrative techniques which successfully rendered ambiguous information, past and present events, and other uncertainties into dangers requiring imminent intervention. Second, techniques such as the risk- or cost-benefit analysis seem highly ineffective as a method to organize and structure difficult-to-grasp objects such as extremely unlikely (low probability) events. Moreover, the Smallpox Vaccination Program appears not to have been an instance of an emergent preparedness rationality, but rather a traditional public health program ill-suited to the demands of a national or homeland security program. Third, local public health preparedness efforts appear to lack structures and mechanisms to help sustain them in the long run, which in some sense also violates the logic of a preparedness rationality.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an arts-based educational program, Basic Reading Through Dance. Basic Reading Through Dance is a 20-session, curriculum-based reading intervention for first-grade students developed by Whirlwind, a not-for-profit organization. There were a total of 721 first-grade students from Chicago public schools who participated in the study, with 328 students from 6 schools receiving the program and 393 students from 9 schools serving as controls. The program was designed to improve reading skills, as assessed by the PhonoGraphix Test, such as code knowledge (alphabet sounds) and phoneme segmentation (separating letter sounds within spoken words). Results suggest that the students who participated in the program improved significantly more than control students on all reading skills that were assessed.

Two studies were conducted to assess the extent to which prepaid monetary incentives increase response rates to company-sponsored employee surveys. The first study indicated that providing a prepaid monetary incentive to a randomly selected group of employees from among a sample of 7,268 employees increased response rates from 31.7% to 43.5%. A second study based on 4,925 employees from another company replicated this finding and tested for effects of novelty and incentive size. Although response rates in the second study were significantly higher for employees who received an incentive (24.9%) compared with those who did not receive an incentive (20.8%), no significant effects were found for novelty or incentive size. The implications for using incentives to increase response rates in company-based surveys are discussed.

Strategic 360 Feedback is defined as (a) having content derived from the organization's strategy and values; (b) creating data that are sufficiently reliable and valid to be used for decision-making; (c) being integrated into talent management and development systems; and (d) being inclusive of all candidates for assessment. The handbook contains 31 chapters by leading practitioners in the field, organized into five major sections: 360 for decision making, 360 for development, methodology and measurement, organizational applications (case studies), and critical and emerging topics. It presents viewpoints from academics, scientists, practitioners, and consultants on best practices in the design, implementation and evaluation of many forms of multirater processes and technologies currently used to support talent management systems.

AbstractNews media plays a large role in the information the public receives during an infectious disease outbreak, and may influence public knowledge and perceptions of risk. This study analyzed and described the content of U.S. news media coverage of Zika virus and Zika response during 2016. A random selection of 800 Zika‐related news stories from 25 print and television news sources was analyzed. The study examined 24 different messages that appeared in news media articles and characterized them using theories of risk perception as messages with characteristics that could increase perception of risk (risk‐elevating messages; n = 14), messages that could decrease perception of risk (risk‐minimizing messages; n = 8), or messages about travel or testing guidance (n = 2). Overall, 96% of news stories in the study sample contained at least one or more risk‐elevating message(s) and 61% contained risk‐minimizing message(s). The frequency of many messages changed after local transmission was confirmed in Florida, and differed between sources in locations with or without local transmission in 2016. Forty percent of news stories included messages about negative potential outcomes of Zika virus infection without mentioning ways to reduce risk. Findings from this study may help inform current federal, state, and local Zika responses by offering a detailed analysis of how news media are covering the outbreak and response activities as well as identifying specific messages appearing more or less frequently than intended. Findings identifying the types of messages that require greater emphasis may also assist public health communicators in responding more effectively to future outbreaks.

OBJECTIVES. To gather lessons from the communities that responded to confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the United States in order to inform recommendations to improve resilience to future High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) events. METHODS. Key informant interviews (n=73) were conducted between February and November 2016 with individuals who participated in EVD planning or response in Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; New York, New York; or Omaha, Nebraska. Participants represented healthcare; local, state, and federal public health; law; local and state emergency management; academia; local and national media; and local and state government. Two focus groups were then conducted in New York and Dallas, and study results were vetted with an expert advisory group. Accounts from the domestic Ebola response and recommendations for future events were used to develop an evidence-informed checklist that outlines specific actions for public health authorities. RESULTS. Participants focused on a number of important areas to improve public health resilience to HCID events, including governance and leadership, communication and public trust, quarantine and the law, monitoring programs, environmental decontamination, and waste management. CONCLUSIONS. The direct experiences of select jurisdictions recently engaged in EVD response provided a rare opportunity for collective learning and the development of a concrete list of actions with which to strengthen of public health resilience to future HCID events.

BACKGROUND: The domestic response to the West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic from 2014–2016 provides a unique opportunity to distill lessons learned about health sector planning and operations from those individuals directly involved. This research project aimed to identify and integrate these lessons into an actionable checklist that can improve health sector resilience to future high-consequence infectious disease (HCID) events. METHODS: Interviews (N = 73) were completed with individuals involved in the domestic EVD response in 4 cities (Atlanta, Dallas, New York, and Omaha), and included individuals who worked in academia, emergency management, government, health care, law, media, and public health during the response. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively. Two focus groups were then conducted to expand on themes identified in the interviews. Using these themes, an evidence-informed checklist was developed and vetted for completeness and feasibility by an expert advisory group. RESULTS: Salient themes identified included health care facility issues—specifically identifying assessment and treatment hospitals, isolation and treatment unit layout, waste management, community relations, patient identification, patient isolation, limitations on treatment, laboratories, and research considerations— and health care workforce issues—specifically psychosocial impact, unit staffing, staff training, and proper personal protective equipment. CONCLUSIONS: The experiences of those involved in the domestic Ebola response provide critical lessons that can help strengthen resilience of health care systems and improve future responses to HCID events.

Aerial spraying of products to kill larvae or adult mosquitoes is a public health measure used to control vector-borne diseases. In some outbreaks, the intervention has evoked controversy and community resistance. This study evaluated how local opinion leaders in US localities affected by Zika think about community engagement in public health policies for outbreak response. In December 2017 through March 2018, 4 focus groups were convened in Houston, TX, New Orleans, LA, Miami, FL, and Brooklyn, NY. They discussed a hypothetical scenario that featured vector control by aerial spraying. Participants (N = 20) more readily accepted this vector control method under 4 conditions: They were informed of alternatives, benefits, and risks for human health and the environment. Public health claims were backed by objective evidence and an authority figure genuinely working in the community's interests. They received timely notice about how to mitigate toxin exposure. And, aerial spraying helped to protect vulnerable individuals. The community engagement requirements of the local opinion leaders resonate with core principles of recent public health ethics frameworks: namely, personal autonomy, transparency, reasonableness, and solidarity. Participants foresaw problems with community consent in an era of growing social media use and mistrust in governmental and scientific authority. They also debated whether health authorities should use moral-based arguments, in addition to science-based ones, to communicate aerial spraying's risks and benefits.