Browsing by Subject "Questionnaire"
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Item Costs of chronic disease and an alternative to reduce these costs: case study of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Jang, Won-IkAn improved understanding of the costs of diseases is obtained by conducting a case study of the costs associated with end stage renal disease (ESRD). In estimating the costs of ESRD, the costs incurred by both patients and their primary unpaid caregivers are calculated. Most economic studies of the costs of diseases ignore either the patients? or unpaid caregiver side, focusing on one or the other. From a theoretical standpoint, it is shown unpaid caregiving lowers the costs of diseases to society. Unpaid caregiver lowers the cost, because for unpaid caregiving to occur, the net benefits of unpaid caregiving must be lower than the net benefits of hiring a paid caregiver. Using patients and their primary caregivers at the Gambro Dialysis Center in College Station, Texas as a case study, estimated total ESRD costs range from $84,000 to $121,000 / year / case. The distribution of these costs is positively skewed. Of the total costs, approximately 2% to 25% can be attributed to unpaid caregiving. Excluding direct medical costs in total ESRD costs, unpaid caregiving is 14% to 65% of total ESRD costs. Consideration of unpaid caregiving costs is, therefore, an important component of the costs of diseases. These estimates are conservative as the costs associated with lifestyle changes and health effects are noted, but no monetary value is placed on them. Results also indicate the patients? and caregivers? perception of the quantity of caregiving varies. An alternative water supply system to improve the efficiency of water supply systems taking into account water pricing, marketing, and treatment costs is proposed. This system treats and supplies water differently depending on the source of the water and if the end-use of the water is a potable or non-potable use, then may reduce treatment costs. Decreased treatment costs may make more stringent water standards more affordable. More stringent water standards may cause a decrease in the risk of water-related diseases including ESRD induced by water-borne toxins. Reducing the risk of ESRD will reduce society?s costs associated with chronic illnesses. Possible benefits and costs of the proposed system are discussed, but not calculated.Item Development and validation of the cognitive vulnerability schemas questionnaire for anxious youth(2014-12) Winton, Samantha Marie; Stark, Kevin DouglasAccording to cognitive theories of anxiety, anxiogenic schemata are a set of beliefs, rules, and assumptions that influence how those with anxiety make inferences and interpret threat. It is hypothesized that each anxiety disorder has a unique anxiogenic schema. This report describes the development of the Cognitive Vulnerability Schemas Questionnaire for Anxious Youth, an instrument used to measure anxiogenic schemata in youth aged 7-17 years old. Factor analyses of the scale demonstrated two empirically distinct and relatively stable dimensions of anxiogenic schema. The two identified factors of anxiogenic schema were: (1) Generalized Anxiety and Social Phobia Schema, and (2) Separation Anxiety Schema. The measure demonstrated good psychometric properties on a range of indices of reliability and validity. Results indicated that scores on the questionnaire subscales predicted anxiety symptomology. Regression analyses showed that both factors were predictors of anxiety symptomology, however did not predict anxiety diagnosis. Significant differences in the Cognitive Vulnerability Schemas Questionnaire for Anxious Youth subscales were demonstrated between patients with clinically significant Generalized Anxiety Symptoms, Social Phobia Symptoms, and Separation Anxiety Symptoms. The implications of these findings for theories of cognitive vulnerability and schema development in youth are discussed.Item Multidisciplinary thinking to increase sustainability in engineering : a case study in sanitation(2016-05) Wood, Alison P.; Lawler, Desmond F.; Blackhurst, Michael F.; McKinney, Daene C.; Kirisits, Mary Jo; Olmstead, Sheila M.This dissertation uses a case study in sanitation that illustrates the need for interdisciplinary analysis of sustainable solutions to engineering problems. This case study also suggests that one nontechnical factor that might be critical for increasing sustainability is consumer willingness to use the technology, which, along with factors such as cost, will drive technology adoption rates. By developing the ability and willingness to recognize needs for this type of interdisciplinary work and by collaborating with experts in other fields, engineers can more successfully create sustainable solutions to the problems they tackle. The work of this dissertation is in three stages. The first comprises a life cycle cost and cost-effectiveness analysis for a suite of household sanitation technologies. Results of this stage suggest that decentralized technologies are lower cost and more cost-effective for nitrogen management than conventional centralized wastewater treatment in the given case study location; composting and urine-diversion toilets proved the best performers on these metrics. The second stage of research expands the analysis to examine adoption of decentralized sanitation technologies as a two-party decision, with the individual discount rate used as a proxy for factors influencing homeowners’ adoption decisions. Results in two case study locations emphasize the dependence of analysis on case-specific details; in one case, monetary incentives are expected to be successful at bringing municipal and individual decision-makers into agreement to adopt decentralized sanitation systems under many cost scenarios, while monetary incentives are not expected to succeed at bringing about agreement between parties in the other case. The third stage of research uses a survey to examine non-monetary factors influencing homeowners’ adoption decisions surrounding composting and urine-diversion toilets. Results suggest that educational efforts are likely to be important in influencing adoption decisions, although not all homeowners will be swayed by additional information. Together, the three stages of this research illustrate how understanding of technologies as potential solutions to problems of sustainability changes as the analysis expands to incorporate methods from more disciplines. While true assessment of “sustainability” is difficult at best, movement toward increasingly sustainable technologies can be facilitated by broader analyses that lead to more thorough understanding.