Chi‐Fung Lu, Alyssa B. Schultz, Mary Jenny and Dee W. Edington
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a mail‐based educational intervention to improve knowledge of blood pressure and cholesterol values among members of a large insurance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a mail‐based educational intervention to improve knowledge of blood pressure and cholesterol values among members of a large insurance population.
Design/methodology/approach
As part of the 2004 health risk appraisal (HRA) follow‐up program, 48,429 members of WEA Trust received at least two mailings for the mail‐based blood pressure and cholesterol intervention. These members then completed a follow‐up HRA in 2006. Change in the knowledge and risks of blood pressure and cholesterol values were analyzed among two‐time participants. A survey was also completed six to nine months after the first mailing to study participants' awareness and perception of the program.
Findings
The 2004 and 2006 two‐time HRA participants showed a 13.9 percentage point gain (p<0.05) and 12.2 percentage point gain (p<0.05) in people who knew their blood pressure and cholesterol values, respectively, as well as a significant increase in the percent of people taking medication or under medical care for their blood pressure (+2.9 for overall and +11.3 for BP≥140/90 population; p<0.05) or cholesterol conditions (+3.8 for overall and +11.4 for cholesterol≥240 population; p<0.05). Among those who knew their values (BP or cholesterol) in both 2004 and 2006, there was a 3.9 percentage point increase (p<0.05) in the number of people with normal BP (BP<120/80 mmHg) and a 4.8 percentage point increase (p<0.05) in the number of people with normal cholesterol (cholesterol <200 mg/dL) in 2006. The majority (83 percent) of survey respondents found the materials useful for improving health and 22 percent contacted a physician because of the information they received.
Practical implications
This relatively low‐cost and easily implemented educational intervention was successful in increasing knowledge of blood pressure and cholesterol values, taking control of blood pressure and cholesterol risks and in encouraging appropriate follow‐up with a physician.
Originality/value
Knowledge of blood pressure and cholesterol numbers are an important first step in raising awareness of a person's health risks and disease status.
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George W. Ruch and Gary Taylor
We review and analyze the accounting literature that examines the effects of accounting conservatism on financial statements and financial statement users. We begin by analyzing…
Abstract
We review and analyze the accounting literature that examines the effects of accounting conservatism on financial statements and financial statement users. We begin by analyzing how conservatism affects the reported numbers on the financial statements. These studies primarily evaluate how conservatism affects earnings quality, including earnings persistence and the presence of earnings management. Next, we assess the effect of accounting conservatism on the users of the financial statements. We identify three primary users of the financial statements: (1) equity market users (2) debt market users and (3) corporate governance users. Within each of these categories, we analyze the findings of prior research and explore unanswered research questions. By analyzing the effects of accounting conservatism from a diverse range of research topics, we inform the discussion on the costs and benefits of accounting conservatism.
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Stephen Stansfeld, Davina Woodley‐Jones, Farhat Rasul, Jenny Head, Simon Clarke and Colin Mackay
Over recent years there have been massive changes in working life and workplaces. Across the 1990s there has been a marked increase in reports of work‐related psychological…
Abstract
Over recent years there have been massive changes in working life and workplaces. Across the 1990s there has been a marked increase in reports of work‐related psychological distress in the UK. This paper uses the results of the most recent Occupational Health Decennial supplement (Office for National Statistics (ONS) & Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2007), based on nationally representative data sources on distress at work, working conditions, sickness absence and psychiatric morbidity to examine the reasons for the apparent increase in work‐related psychological distress.
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Anne Coughlan and Erica Goldman
Mary Kay is one of the best-known direct sellers of women's cosmetics in the world. Its channel strategy is to use independent beauty consultants, who are independent…
Abstract
Mary Kay is one of the best-known direct sellers of women's cosmetics in the world. Its channel strategy is to use independent beauty consultants, who are independent distributors, to sell directly to consumers. Its compensation plan is multilevel, providing commissions to distributors on their own sales as well as the sales of the distributors they recruit. At the time of the case, the company is grappling with a well-established change in consumer behavior—the decline of the stay-at-home mom as she returns to the workforce—combined with the opportunities offered by Internet selling. Focuses on the company's efforts to move with consumer demand and behavior, while remaining true to its core goal of “Improving Women's Lives.” Discusses ways Internet technology can be used throughout the company's channel and supply chain structure, not just as a route to market.
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![Kellogg School of Management](/insight/static/img/kellogg-school-of-management-logo.png)
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Mark Hofer and Kathleen Owings Swan
If integrating technology means nothing more than enhancing the traditional delivery system of social studies content, where laptops replace notebooks, where PowerPoint slides…
Abstract
If integrating technology means nothing more than enhancing the traditional delivery system of social studies content, where laptops replace notebooks, where PowerPoint slides replace handwritten overheads, where e-textbooks replace hard copy textbooks, then we will be no closer to the NCSS vision of transformative, powerful social studies instruction. (Doolittle & Hicks, 2003, p.75)
This article draws on my doctoral research into the expansion of the Catholic educational mission in New Zealand in the years from 1945 to 1965. The project utilised archival and…
Abstract
This article draws on my doctoral research into the expansion of the Catholic educational mission in New Zealand in the years from 1945 to 1965. The project utilised archival and documentary sources and interviews with thirty three Catholic educators: twenty one female religious from the Sisters of Mercy, Dominican Sisters and the Religious of the Sacred Heart and twelve male religious from the Marist Brothers, Christian Brothers and the Society of Mary (Marist Priests) and two former diocesan directors of Catholic education.
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As Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott have pointed out, the US TV serial Supernatural owes much of its success to the way it combines horror with family drama, strengthening the…
Abstract
As Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott have pointed out, the US TV serial Supernatural owes much of its success to the way it combines horror with family drama, strengthening the affective involvement of viewers in the lives of its protagonists, the monster-hunting Winchester brothers. The notion of home – presented variously as a domestic, feminine space from which the Winchesters and their compatriots are excluded; a mobile and contingent space of masculine bonding; and a hybrid space which allows for self-expression outside prescribed gender norms, but which also holds the potential for danger – is central.
Heather L. Duda has pointed to the ways monster hunters are excluded from the normative institutions of their societies, and this is certainly true of the Winchesters, who live in their family car and are unable to maintain ‘normal’ homes. Later seasons give them a home in the form of an underground bunker, not designed as a domestic space, but nonetheless a place where their hypermasculine behaviours can be relaxed. This chapter examines the tensions that emerge in this apparent move from a traditional narrative of the home as feminine space under threat to something more ambivalent, where masculine identity itself may be in danger.
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Rachel Humphris, Hannah Bradby, Beatriz Padilla, Jenny Phillimore, Simon Pemberton and Silja Samerski
Research has long focused on the notion of access and the trajectory towards a healthcare encounter but has neglected what happens to patients after these initial encounters. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Research has long focused on the notion of access and the trajectory towards a healthcare encounter but has neglected what happens to patients after these initial encounters. This paper focuses attention on what happens after an initial healthcare encounter leading to a more nuanced understanding of how patients from a diverse range of backgrounds make sense of medical advice, how they mix this knowledge with other forms of information and how they make decisions about what to do next.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on 160 in-depth interviews across four European countries the paper problematizes the notion of access; expands the definition of “decision partners”; and reframes the medical encounter as a journey, where one encounter leads to and informs the next.
Findings
This approach reveals the significant unseen, unrecognised and unacknowledged work that patients undertake to solve their health concerns.
Originality/value
De-centring the professional from the healthcare encounter allows us to understand why patients take particular pathways to care and how resources might be more appropriately leveraged to support both patients and professionals along this journey.