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E Berkanovic

Publications and source records attributed to E Berkanovic.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Social networks, beliefs, and the decision to seek medical care: an analysis of congruent and incongruent patterns.

This article focuses on the impact of congruent and incongruent patterns of symptom specific beliefs and social network advice on the decision to seek medical care for symptoms. Data from 769 individuals who reported symptoms in the Los Angeles Health Survey are used to examine this issue. Further, the role of more general health orientations and social network influences in the decision to seek care is examined under these congruent and incongruent conditions. It is concluded that the more general factors, which have little effect on the aggregate, may play a role in decision making when beliefs and advice are incongruent. Further, it is concluded that reports of beliefs and advice about specific symptoms that have been given after the decision has been made to seek care may be valid and not the result of retrospective reconstruction.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1981

Structural and social psychological factors in the decision to seek medical care for symptoms.

Panel data are presented from the Los Angeles Health Survey, in which 1 year of symptom experience is analyzed. Of the 1,210 individuals originally in the panel, 769 reported at least one symptom in reinterviews conducted every 6 weeks during the study year. The dependent variable in the analysis is whether or not the individual decided to seek medical attention for his symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to organize the independent variables into five groups: 1) need; 2) social structure; 3) organization of care; 4) general social network patterns and health orientations; and 5) social network influences and personal beliefs specific to the symptoms. Of the 57 per cent of the variance explained by the entire set of independent variables, need factors accounted for 12 per cent and network influences and personal beliefs specific to the symptom accounted for 42 per cent. In spite of the amount of variance explained in this analysis, the allocation of the explained variance among the predictor variables raises some disturbing questions regarding our ability to understand the decision to use health services.

California↗
PubMed1980

The effect of inadequate language translation on Hispanics' responses to health surveys.

Data bearing on the effect of language of the interview on Hispanics' responses to a health survey in which no back-translation was undertaken reveal both lower reliabilities and lower bivariate correlations among Hispanics interviewed in Spanish than among Hispanics interviewed in English. An independent back-translation aimed at creating an English version of the questionnaire that was linguistically equivalent to the Spanish version indicated several instances in which the Spanish version was unidiomatic. Differences between the Spanish and English version in the idiomatic quality of the interview items, while not affecting meaning, appear to have affected the seriousness with which the interview situation was perceived. These perceptions, in turn, appear to have led to the response discrepancies observed.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1979

Awareness, opinion and behavioral intention of urban women regarding mammography.

A representative sample of women living in metropolitan Los Angeles were asked what they heard and what they believed about mammography and whether they would obtain a mammogram if their doctor advised it. Forty percent of these women said they had not heard of mammography even after the procedure was described. Few of those who had heard of mammography had negative feelings about it. Further, 93 percent of the overall sample said they would obtain a mammogram if their physician recommended it.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1976

Satisfaction with health services: some policy implications.

Although consumer satisfaction with health services is a frequently measured variable in health services research, the relevance of this variable for health policy is not always clear. The present paper suggests two criteria for specifying the relevance of satisfaction with health services for policy at the organizational level. First, it should be shown that consumer satisfaction is the result of organizational behaviors that are manipulable by policy. second, where he has a choice, it should be shown that satisfaction affects the organizationally relevant behavior of the consumer. Data are presented that support both criteria. Several suggestions are made for maximizing the policy relevance of future studies of satisfaction.

Appointments and Schedules↗
PubMed1975

The effects of prepayment on access to medical care: the PACC experience.

The data reported herein are taken from a larger study in which a prepaid medical foundation was compared with a non-prepaid free-for-service system on a number of factors pertaining to how health care is perceived by both Medicaid recipients and physicians. The data to be presented are confined to the issue of the impact of prepayment on Medicaid recipients' perceptions of their access to health care. Two sets of questions are explored. The first set bears directly on the issue of gaining access to care. The second set addresses the issue of the acceptability of the services received. Few differences were observed between the systems in either accessibility or acceptability. Thus, the fears of some critics of the HMO concept with respect to prepayment creating incentives for the denial of services are not supported by the data. It is concluded that the organizational features of medical practice which affect access are actually quite similar in the two systems.

Appointments and Schedules↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Health education goes Hollywood: working with prime-time and daytime entertainment television for immunization promotion.

This article presents an entertainment education strategy used to influence Hollywood prime-time and daytime television programs to add storylines on the importance of immunizations to their shows. Rather than giving information about immunizations to show producers, directors, actors, and writers, we furnished "log lines" and true stories about immunizations that could be used to inspire scripts that included immunization themes. By working through personal contacts within the entertainment television industry's closed system of networks, we were able to gain entree and some airtime for our campaign agenda. Embedded messages aired on eight popular shows in the 1996-1997 broadcast season, with five scheduled to air in the 1997-1998 season. These efforts were evaluated qualitatively, focusing on issues of personal networks, content of aired messages, and comparative costs for paid airtime. The strategy developed can be adapted for a range of entertainment education interventions.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Breast cancer detection behavior among urban women.

Data from the ongoing Los Angeles Health Study were analyzed to determine women's behavior and behavioral intentions regarding three modes of breast cancer detection behavior: breast self-examination (BSE), physician examination of the breasts, and mammography. Two questions were addressed: Are women who engage in one type of breast surveillance behavior likely to engage in all three? What are the social characteristics of women who engage in these breast cancer detection behaviors?The data indicated that women who had had a recent professional (physician) breast examination did not necessarily practice monthly BSE. Only 82 of a sample of 540 women had had mammography; thus, it was not possible to relate this type of surveillance to the other two types. However, 93 percent of the women interviewed indicated they would obtain a mammography examination if their physicians recommended it. There were few differences among the sociodemographic subgroups with respect to BSE and professional examination, with the exception that black women were more likely to report practicing monthly BSE than were white or Hispanic women.

Adolescent↗