Consumer satisfaction, quality of life and distress with regard to social function and gender in severe mental illness

OBJECTIVE. The relationships between subjective satisfaction, distress and quality of life for severely mental ill patients with different functional levels and gender was investigated in a multi-center cohort, using a balanced mix of subjective and clinician ratings in an outcome-informed model for a clinical management based on shared decision making, 'The Quality star'. METHODS. Naturalistic data for 2552 persons, mainly with schizophrenia diagnoses, in long-term treatment and rehabilitation, were analyzed in a cross-sectional study. RESULTS. With increasing Social Function, rated with the split-GAF Disability/Functioning scale, the better were patients' Satisfaction, subjective Quality of life and Perceived Global Distress. Women were more satisfied with the care but also more distressed. CONCLUSION. Main findings were in line with other studies. However, the gender differences are in line with some, but not with other, studies. This poses questions how patient factors, instrument constructs, and treatment, especially shared decision making, influence subjective reports.

Factors influencing parent satisfaction with preventive health services for the early detection of speech and language delay in preschool children

The aim of this study was to identify parent and child characteristics which could influence parent satisfaction with preventive health services designed to detect preschool children with speech and language (SL) delay. This study was conducted on 101 children aged 18 to 36 months who participated in an organized SL delay early detection program. Validated instruments were used to assess children’s and parents’ characteristics. Satisfaction was evaluated using the client satisfaction questionnaire for the three activities of the program: 1) a public information session about SL development, 2) parent training sessions for parents concerned by their child SL development, and 3) a child’s SL assessment. Multiple logistic regressions were used to identify all independent factors (p < 0.05) associated with satisfaction and to estimate the odds ratios (OR) for satisfaction. Economically disadvantaged parents were less prone to participate in the first two activities of the early detection program. Older parents were more satisfied with the public information session (OR = 1.33 for 1 year increment;p = 0.001). Distressed parents were less satisfied with both the parent training sessions (OR = 0.28;p = 0.009) and the SL assessment (OR = 0.43;p = 0.046). Parents whose child had health problems at birth were less satisfied with the public information session (OR = 0.14, p = 0.03) and the SL assessment (OR = 0.33, p = 0.036). There is a need to better adapt the delivery of preventive services for the early detection of SL delay, especially for disadvantaged and distressed parents and for those whose child had suffered from health problems at birth.

What is artificial meat and what does it mean for the future of the meat industry?

The meat industry cannot respond to increases in demand by ever increasing resource use. The industry must find solutions to issues regarding animal welfare, health and sustainability and will have to do so in the face of competition from emerging non-traditional meat and protein products in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. These novel meat and protein products, otherwise known as ‘artificial meat＇ are utilising ground breaking technologies designed to meet the issues facing the conventional meat industry. These artificial meats, in vitro or cultured meat and meat from genetically modified organisms have no real capacity to compete with conventional meat production in the present environment. However, meat replacements manufactured from plant proteins and mycoproteins are currently the biggest competitors and are gaining a small percentage of the market. Manufactured meats may push conventional meat into the premium end of the market, and supply the bulk, cheap end of the market if conventional meat products become more expensive and the palatability and versatility of manufactured meats improve. In time the technology for other artificial meats such as meat from genetic modified organisms or cultured meat may become sufficiently developed for these products to enter the market with no complexity of the competition between meat products. Conventional meat producers can assimilate agroecology ecology concepts in order to develop sustainable animal production systems. The conventional meat industry can also benefit from assimilating biotechnologies such as cloning and genetic modification technologies, using the technology to adapt to the changing environment and respond to the increasing competition from artificial meats. Although it will depend at least partly on the evolution of conventional meat production, the future of artificial meat produced from stem cells appears uncertain at this time.

Continuous use of fitness apps and shaping factors among college students: A mixed-method investigation

Objective:This current study pursued an exploration of the psychological mechanism that determines college students'continuance intention to use fitness apps.Methods:This current study adopted a mixed methods research that composed two distinct phases.Study 1 was quantitative research that helped to identify determinants of Chinese college students'continuance intention to use.A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 379 college students to ascertain their user experience.Study 2 was qualitative research.A semi-structured interview was conducted with a sample of 10 college students.Study 2 can be seen as a follow-up study and it pursued an in-depth understanding on how college students use fitness apps in the everyday life and their views towards study 1's major findings.Results:The results revealed that five factors(confirmed usefulness,confirmed ease of use,satisfaction,fitness achievement and social connection)were found to significantly and positively affect college students'continuous intention to use fitness apps.Entertainment did not show obvious impact.In the interview,college students reported that even if they don't obtain entertainment from fitness apps,they will still push themselves to use them,because they have a very specific goal when using fitness apps,which is to achieve health and fitness.Conclusion:These findings indicated that successful fitness apps should make users feel convenient to use and indeed improves the fitness user's efficiency.Besides,people are more eager to get the information with strong credibility with the negligible effort.This implies more efforts should be made to design apps that can provide high-quality services.Moreover,if apps designers can pay more attention to protecting the personal information and data,it will inspire more people to use social connection functions.