RAND Corporation

About: RAND Corporation is a nonprofit organization based out in Santa Monica, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Health care & Population. The organization has 9602 authors who have published 18570 publications receiving 744658 citations.

Treatment Preferences Among Depressed Primary Care Patients

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To understand patient factors that may affect the probability of receiving appropriate depression treatment, we examined treatment preferences and their predictors among depressed primary care patients.

Defining and Measuring Financial Literacy

Abstract: Provides a review of theoretical and operational approaches to financial literacy, as well as a conceptual model and composite definition of financial literacy.

The relationship between perceived parental expectations and pediatrician antimicrobial prescribing behavior.

Abstract: Context. Despite growing concern over the escalating antimicrobial resistance problem, physicians continue to inappropriately prescribe. It has been suggested that a major determinant of pediatrician antimicrobial prescribing behavior is the parental expectation that a prescription will be provided. Objectives. To explore the extent to which parental previsit expectations and physician perceptions of those expectations are associated with inappropriate antimicrobial prescribing; and to explore the relationship between fulfillment of expectations and parental visit-specific satisfaction. Design. Previsit and postvisit survey of parents and postvisit survey of physicians. Setting. Two private pediatric practices, one community based and one university based. Participants. Ten physicians (response rate = 77%), and a consecutive sample of 306 eligible parents (response rate = 86%) who were attending sick visits for their children between October 1996 and March 1997. Parents were screened for eligibility in the waiting rooms of the two practices and were invited to participate if they spoke and read English and their child was 2 to 10 years old, had a presenting complaint of ear pain, throat pain, cough, or congestion, was off antimicrobial therapy for the past 2 weeks, and was seeing one of the participating physicians. Main Outcome Measures. Antimicrobial prescribing decision, probability of assigning a bacterial diagnosis, and parental visit-specific satisfaction. Results. Based on multivariate analysis, physicians9 perceptions of parental expectations for antimicrobials was the only significant predictor of prescribing antimicrobials for conditions of presumed viral etiology; when physicians thought a parent wanted an antimicrobial, they prescribed them 62% of the time versus 7% of the time when they did not think the parent wanted antimicrobials. However, physician antimicrobial prescribing behavior was not associated with actual parental expectations for receiving antimicrobials. In addition, when physicians thought the parent wanted an antimicrobial, they were also significantly more likely to give a bacterial diagnosis (70% of the time versus 31% of the time). Failure to meet parental expectations regarding communication events during the visit was the only significant predictor of parental satisfaction. Failure to provide expected antimicrobials did not affect satisfaction. Conclusions. The antibiotic resistance epidemic should lead to immediate replication of this study in a larger more generalizable population. If inaccurate physician perceptions of parent desires for antimicrobials for viral infections are confirmed, then an intervention to change the way physicians acquire this set of perceptions should be undertaken.

The Elimination form of the Inverse and its Application to Linear Programming

Abstract: It is common for matrices in industrial applications of linear programming to have a large proportion of zero coefficients. While every item raw material, intermediate material, end item, equipment item in, say, a petroleum refinery may be indirectly related to every other, any particular process uses few of these. Thus the matrix describing petroleum technology has a small percentage of non-zeros. If spacial or temporal distinctions are introduced into the model the percentage of non-zeros generally falls further. The present paper discusses a form of inverse which is especially convenient to obtain and use for matrices with a high percentage of zeros. The application of this form of inverse in linear programming is also discussed.

Blocking and anti-blocking pairs of polyhedra

Abstract: Some of the main notions and theorems about blocking pairs of polyhedra and antiblocking pairs of polyhedra are described. The two geometric duality theories conform in many respects, but there are certain important differences. Applications to various combinatorial extremum problems are discussed, and some classes of blocking and anti-blocking pairs that have been explicitly determined are mentioned.