Academic Edge News

Archive for the ‘Healthcare Consumers’ Category

Should Recruitment Materials for HIV Study Participants Be More Balanced?

Monday, November 16th, 2009

AEI has engaged in a collaboration with researchers at Indiana University to investigate the effects of messaging “sidedness.” How does presenting a “balanced” message, one that emphasizes negative aspects of participation in addition to positive ones, affect willingness to participate AND participant understanding. Simple graphics, clear messaging: sure you have to have those! But, what’s the effect of telling someone about incorrect beliefs, rather than just the facts?

You have a 50% chance of being in the experimental group.

VERSUS

You know, many people believe they have a greater than 50% chance of receiving the experimental vaccine, but, its true, you only have a 50% chance of being in the experimental group.

The first is simpler; the second directly { read more }

PDPT for you and me: Creating packaging for expedited partner services

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Psst, wanna take some extra drugs home to your partner? That’s the premise behind an increasingly common healthcare practice supported by the CDC. In patient-delivered partner therapy, health care providers offer extra prescription medicine to patients so that the patients can take some home to treat their sexual partners. The patient is cured; the partner is cured. Its a win-win situation, but what should the package look like that you take home to your partner and what should it say?

That’s the goal of an ongoing project to develop packaging and educational materials to support PDPT among providers, patients, and partners.

In preliminary efforts, AEI formatively developed and evaluated an integrated packaging system. As reported in a recent edition of the Journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections, the { read more }

Congratulations, You’ve Got Chlamydia! Would You Treat Your Partner?

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Most people in the United States say they would take additional prescription medicine to their partner if they themselves were diagnosed with an STI and treated. So called Patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT) is an up and coming healthcare practice meant to decrease the prevalence of Chlamydia and reducing rates of reinfection.

AEI recently conducted a research study to understand whether healthcare consumers would be willing to either give extra prescription medication to their partners or to take such medication if a partner offered it to them. The researchers also sought to identify things that influence willingness to participate.

The results of the study were recently published by AEI researcher Richard Goldsworthy and frequent AEI collaborator J. Dennis Fortenberry, from the Indiana University School of { read more }

6 for 6! AEI at the 2008 American Public Health Conference

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Academic Edge, Inc. went 6 for 6 in abstract submissions to the 2008 American Public Health Association annual conference. That’s a pretty seriously good batting average and we’ll be presenting some pretty seriously good research and development.

First up, an entire session of presentations on Expedited Partner Services, including the following:

Next, we have Peter Honebein and colleagues presenting the R&D results from their state-of-the-art web-based course Just Ask: SBIRT.

Finally, Drs. Goldsworthy, Honebein, and Schwartz will be discussing the evaluation of Every Square Inch: Preventing Pressure Ulcers, a DVD that targets increasing home care providers looking for and taking steps to prevent pressure ulcers among their patients.

Come visit the researchers in San Diego during the { read more }

New Birth Defects Warning Label Trumps Label Currently in Use

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Should a new symbol be coming to a birth defect hazard near you?

The warning label in use on Accutane(tm) and other teratogenic pharmaceuticals performed significantly worse than a newly developed label reports a recently completed study among more than 2000 adults throughout the United States.

Previous research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that the warning in use on isotetrenoin (e.g. Accutane) and other pharmaceuticals linked to birth defects was not being understood well, leading to increased risks among healthcare consumers.

The current study tested the label in use against a series of newly developed labels. “We wanted to determine whether some of the newer symbols on the labels would perform better than the existing one. The newer ones were grounded in theory and { read more }

1 in 5 People Admit to Sharing Prescription Drugs

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Do you share prescription medicine? Looks like you are not alone. AEI examined prevalence and types of prescription medication sharing among the general U.S. population, ages 12-44.

The study (read study ยป), published in the American Journal of Public Health has received national attention for its role in indentifying previously under-the-radar public health risks. 1 in 4 individuals reported sharing prescription medications and risks included loss of warnings, negative impact on patient-provider interactions, and birth defects and other hazards.

“Such sharing can easily affect people’s health, putting them at risk for a wide array of possible consequences,” said { read more }

New Birth Defects Warning Bests Existing Warning in Head-to-Head Competition

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Birth defects are a terrible thing. Avoiding birth defects is a good thing. Labels and warning symbols that are supposed to let us know about birth defects hazards were found to be not terribly effective in previous CDC research.

AEI made new warning symbols and labels and a recently completed nationwide study indicates that the new warnings are often considerably more effective than the existing one.

Better warnings, better healthcare consumer understanding. That’s why we do the things we do. { read more }

AEI research highlighted in CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update 02/06/2009

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

The CDC highlighted an article recently published by Richard Goldsworthy, AEI’s Director of Research and Development, and J. Dennis Fortenberry, a frequent AEI consultant and faculty member at Indiana University School of Medicine. The article, “Patterns and Determinants of Patient-Delivered Therapy Uptake Among Healthcare Consumers,” was published in the January 2009 edition of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. { read more }

AEI Receives FAS Grant from National Institutes of Health

Saturday, August 13th, 2005

The Academic Edge, Inc. recently received a two-year, $750,000, federal grant from the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse to continue development of its award-winning multimedia package that introduces parents and other care providers to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

NIAAA & AEIFASD is a set of physical and mental characteristics that occur among children whose biological mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy. FASD has long been known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The Academic Edge produced a CD-ROM to help care providers understand FAS and to seek a diagnosis if they suspect a child in their care may have been prenatally affected by alcohol. The additional funding allows AEI to development version { read more }