A Cross-sectional Study Assessing Predictors of Essential Medicines Prescribing Behavior Based on Information-motivation-behavioral Skills Model among County Hospitals in Anhui, China

Background： The self-consciousness and practicality of preferentially prescribed essential medicines （EMs） are not high enough in county hospitals. The purposes of this study were to use the information-motivation-behavioral skills （IM B） model to identify the predictors of essential medicines prescribing behavior （EMPB） among doctors and to examine the association between demographic variables, IMB, and EMPB. Methods： A cross-sectional study was carried out to assess predictive relationships among demographic variables and IM B model variables using an anonymous questionnaire administered in nine county hospitals of Anhui province. A structural equation model was constructed for the I MB model to test the instruments using analysis of moment structures 17.0. Results： A total of 732 participants completed the survey. The average age of the participants was 37.7 ± 8.9 years old （range： 22-67 years old）. The correct rate of information was 90.64%. The average scores of the motivation and behavioral skills were 45.46 a： 7.34 （hundred mark system： 75.77） and 19.92 ± 3.44 （hundred mark system： 79.68）, respectively. Approximately half（50.8%） of respondents reported that the proportion of EM prescription was below 60%. The final revised model indicated a good fit to the data （x^2/df= 4.146, goodness of fit index = 0.948, comparative fit index = 0.938, root mean square error of approximation = 0.066）. More work experience （β = 0.153, P 〈 0.001 ） and behavioral skills （β = 0.449, P 〈 0.001 ） predicted more EMPB. Higher income predicted less information （β = -0.197, P 〈 0.001） and motivation （β =0.204, P 〈 0.001 ）. Behavioral skills were positively predicted by information （β = 0.135, P 〈 0.001 ） and motivation （β = 0.742, P 〈 0.001 ）. Conclusion： The present study predicted some factors of EMPB, and specified the relationships among the model variables. The utilization rate of EM was not high enough. Motivation and behavior skills were crucial factors affecting EMPB. The influence of demographic variables, such as income and work experience, on EMPB should be fully appreciated. Comprehensive intervention measures should be implemented from multiple perspectives.

Morphology and Mechanical Properties of Immiscible Polyethylene/Polyamide12 Blends Prepared by High Shear Processing

In this work, completely immiscible polyethylene/polyamidel2 （PE/PA12） blends were prepared by high shear extruder. The morphology and mechanical properties of the blends were investigated as a function of rotation speed. It was found that the high shear processing is an effective method to improve the dispersion of the PAl2 phase in PE matrix when PA 12 contents are 5 wt% and 10 wt%, and the dispersed phase particle size is reduced with the increase of rotation speed from 100 r/min to 500 r/min. However, with further increase of PAl2 content to 20 wt%, high shear processing has no effect on the phase morphology of the blends. Accordingly, a largely increased elongation at break and impact strength are observed for PE/PAl2/95/5 and PE/PA12/90/10 blends obtained at high rotation speeds but no effect on the property of PE/PAI2/80/20. Annealing experiment demonstrated that the obtained phase morphology is not stable thus compatibilizer should be introduced in the future work. This work could provide a guideline for the application of high shear processing in the preparation of polymer blends with huge polarity difference.