Validity of Medicaid household respondent reporting of ambulatory visits for mental disorders.

Comparison with administrative records or "best estimate file" enables an evaluation of the accuracy of household reports of mental health use in the four-State Medicaid Household Survey conducted as part of the National Medical Care Utilization and Expenditure Survey. Underreporting of probability of ambulatory mental health use ranged from 14 to 24% compared to 5 to 7% for ambulatory health visits; household estimates of number of mental health visits seemed to be more accurate than administrative records. Household reporting of provider type seemed to be very accurate for psychiatrist visits, but there seemed to be a tendency to report psychologist visits as psychiatrist visits.     

The effect on stockholder wealth of product recalls and government action: The case of Toyota's accelerator pedal recall

We analyze the effect of Toyota's faulty accelerator pedal on stockholder wealth. Using the event study methodology, we show that a major recall in January of 2010 is associated with a 19% fall in the company's cumulative abnormal returns. Continued concerns that Toyota was unable to identify and adequately fix the problem prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct its own investigation in March, 2010. The results of this government investigation exonerated the company and Toyota's cumulative abnormal returns rose by almost 9%. The Toyota case provides an opportunity to study a product recall with both company error and a government action that addressed concerns about the safety of the product.     

浅谈电子病历标准化

电子病历是数字化的病人医疗健康记录,电子病历标准化是医院信息化、网络化发展的趋势。文章对电子病历的意义、标准化发展现状和存在的问题进行了阐述。     

A weighting approach to making inference with probabilistically linked data

Record linkage is the act of bringing together records from two files that are believed to belong to the same unit (e.g., a person or business). It is a low‐cost way of increasing the set of variables available for analysis. Errors may arise in the linking process if an error‐free unit identifier is not available. Two types of linking errors include an incorrect link (records belonging to two different units are linked) and a missed record (an unlinked record for which a correct link exists). Naively ignoring linkage errors may mean that analysis of the linked file is biased. This paper outlines a “weighting approach” to making correct inference about regression coefficients and population totals in the presence of such linkage errors. This approach is designed for analysts who do not have the expertise or time to use specialist software required by other approaches but who are comfortable using weights in inference. The performance of the estimator is demonstrated in a simulation study.     

Structural measurement errors in nonseparable models

This paper considers measurement error from a new perspective. In surveys, response errors are often caused by the fact that respondents recall past events and quantities imperfectly. We explore the consequences of limited recall for the identification of marginal effects. Our identification approach is entirely nonparametric, using Matzkin-type nonseparable models that nest a large class of potential structural models. We show that measurement error due to limited recall will generally exhibit nonstandard behavior, in particular be nonclassical and differential, even for left-hand side variables in linear models. We establish that information reduction by individuals is the critical issue for the severity of recall measurement error. In order to detect information reduction, we propose a nonparametric test statistic. Finally, we propose bounds to address identification problems resulting from recall errors. We illustrate our theoretical findings using real-world data on food consumption.     

An analysis of some short-term health effects of air pollution in the Washington,D.C. metropolitan area

This study assesses some of the short-term health effects of air pollution in Washington, D.C. Specifically, regression models are formulated to explain health-care visits to a group practice medical care plan. Primary interest is focused on the effects of mobile-source air pollutants, particularly photo-chemical oxidants. Meteorological conditions, as well as other variables thought to influence the consumption of medical services, are included in the models as explanatory variables. The study found only a small effect of air pollution levels on the health-care visits to the group practice.     

The effects of sampling on measures of association between variables based on sample means

Many studies that involve people's perceptions or behaviors focus on aggregate rather than individual responses. For example, variables describing public perceptions for some set of events may be represented as mean scores for each event. Event mean scores then become the unit of analysis for each variable. The variance of these mean scores for a variable is not only a function of the variation among the events themselves, but is also due to the variation among respondents and their possible responses. This is also the case for the covariances between variables based on event mean scores. In many contexts the variance and covariance components attributable to the sampling of respondents and their responses may be large; these components can be described as measurement error. In this paper we show how to estimate variances and covariances of aggregate variables that are free of these sources of measurement error. We also present a measure of reliability for the event means and examine the effect of the number of respondents on these spurious components. To illustrate how these estimates are computed, forty-two respondents were asked to rate forty events on seven risk perception variables. Computing the variances and covariances for these variables based on event means resulted in relatively large components attributable to measurement error. A demonstration is given of how this error is removed and the resulting effect on our estimates.     

Applying time-constraint access control of personal health record in cloud computing

ABSTRACT

Due to the advances in medical technology, popularity of education, and increase of public self-consciousness. The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the use of e-health tools. The digitalization of patients’ personal health records enables doctors to review parients’ complete medical records and enhance medical efficiency. A personal health record system is established in the cloud to achieve these above goals.Therefore, the aim of this study is to construct an authority management mechanism by incorporating bilinear pairing and time-constraint. The proposed scheme will ensure that an authorized medical personnel can obtain an decryption key only in the legal time interval.     

Retrospective questions: data quality,task difficulty,and the use of a checklist

Data from a national panel study with waves in 1987 and 1991 (N=1257), present evidence of the low accuracy of responses to retrospective questions, concerning both attitudes and behaviour. Applying a split ballot design, it is investigated whether using a checklist improves the response accuracy for a retrospective question about one single event: how respondents (N=363) did obtain the job they had four years ago. Furthermore interaction effects of ‘task difficulty’ are examined. The response accuracy indeed increases by using a checklist; however, this increase is not statistically significant. The expected increase of the checklist effect with higher ‘task difficulty’ appears for longer recall intervals, but not for more frequent changes of jobs. It turned out that for male respondents all the predicted effects are indeed clearly present. But for female respondents the checklist appeared to have no effect, irrespective of the task difficulty. A tentative explanation for this unexpected gender effect is suggested by pointing at indications that the male and female respondents differed in the way they obtained their job.     

Estimating Health Demand for an Aging Population: A Flexible and Robust Bayesian Joint Model

We analyse two frequently used measures of the demand for health—hospital visits and out‐of‐pocket health care expenditure—which have been analysed separately in the existing literature. Given that these two measures of health demand are highly likely to be closely correlated, we propose a framework to jointly model hospital visits and out‐of‐pocket medical expenditure, which allows for the presence of nonlinear effects of covariates using splines to capture the effects of aging on health demand. The findings from our empirical analysis of the US Health and Retirement Survey indicate that the demand for health varies with age. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Applied Econometrics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Explaining differences in labour market transitions between panel and life-course data in West-Germany

Panel and life-course data are ideally suited to unravelling labour market dynamics, but their designs differ, with potential consequences for the estimated relationships. To gauge the extent to which these two data designs produce dissimilar transition rates and the causation thereof, we use the German Life History Study and the German Socio-Economic Panel. Life-course data in particular suffer from recall effects due to memory bias causing understated transition probabilities. Panel data suffer from seam effects due to spurious transitions between statuses recalled in activity calendars that generate heaps at particular time points and cause overstated transition probabilities. We combine the two datasets and estimate multilevel (multistate) discrete-time models for event history data to model transitions between labour market states taking these factors into account. Though we find much lower transition rates in the life-course study, confirming the results of Solga (Qual Quant 35:291–309, 2001) in this Journal for East-Germany, part of the difference can be explained by short spells recall bias. The estimated models on exit, re-entry and job mobility on the combined datasets show indeed a negative retrospective design effect. Another specification that includes the length of the recall period shows no significant decrease in the transition probabilities with increasing length, suggesting that the negative design effect is due to other design differences.     

Regression Analysis under Probabilistic Multi‐Linkage

Linkage errors can occur when probability‐based methods are used to link records from two distinct data sets corresponding to the same target population. Current approaches to modifying standard methods of regression analysis to allow for these errors only deal with the case of two linked data sets and assume that the linkage process is complete, that is, all records on the two data sets are linked. This study extends these ideas to accommodate the situation when more than two data sets are probabilistically linked and the linkage is incomplete.     

Why are the unemployed in worse health? The causal effect of unemployment on health

We analyse the effect of unemployment on health using information from the German Socio-Economic Panel of the years 1991-2008. To establish a causal effect we rely on fixed-effects methods and plant closures as exogenous entries into unemployment. Although unemployment is negatively correlated with health, we do not find a negative effect of unemployment due to plant closure on health across several health measures (health satisfaction, mental health, and hospital visits). For this subgroup of the unemployed, unemployment does not seem to be harmful and selection effects of ill individuals into unemployment are likely to contribute to the observed overall correlation between poor health and unemployment.     

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Sovereign Bond Risk

Governments around the world are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic with a mix of public health, fiscal, macroprudential, monetary, and/or market-based policies. We assess the impact of the pandemic in Europe on sovereign CDS spreads using an event study methodology. We find that a higher number of cases and deaths and public health containment responses significantly increase the uncertainty among investors in European government bonds. Other governmental policies magnify the effect in the short run as supply chains are disrupted. Moreover, an increased debt-to-GDP ratio significantly boosts the cumulative abnormal change of CDS spreads, which indicates that investors are concerned about countries that are too indebted and thus have a limited capacity to intervene and provide fiscal stimuli and emergency fiscal packages to businesses and households.     

Call centres and beyond: a thematic evaluation

This introduction aims to place the articles in this special edition in the context of the wider literature on call centres. The discussion is arranged around four themes: the characteristics and organisational features of call centre work, the choices and strategies that are available to manage the work, the effects of this type of work on employees and, finally, the responses and reactions of call centre staff to their work experiences. The articles selected, which are drawn from a conference sponsored by this journal, are then summarised.     

I didn't tell,and I won't tell: dynamic response error in the SIPP

Using state administrative records matched to the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation, we examine intertemporal relationships in response errors. False negative errors in reporting food stamps are highly correlated across interviews for the same household. Hypotheses that the error process can be explained by learning behaviour are not supported. Bivariate probit of response error in two periods reveals that responses to covariates are stable over time and the latent error terms are positively correlated. These findings support the hypothesis that respondents have a latent tendency to cooperate (or not cooperate) with surveys. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

丰田召回门事件对我国企业构建诚信机制的启示

2010年新年伊始,全球最大的汽车制造商之一日本丰田汽车公司因大规模召回汽车在业界掀起巨澜。透过丰田车召回事件,我们可以领略到汽车制造业在召回制度上的发展进程以及特点,同时也让我们从全新的视角对我国企业诚信机制的构建产生一些启示。     

Healthy lifestyle and safety: An expected net benefit approach to seat belt use

This paper examines the relationship between motorist safety belt use and three lifestyle behaviors affecting health. A healthy lifestyle affects benefits of seat belt use because it indicates a greater value on safety. If individuals are rational in their behavior, we expect consistency across health and safety choices. Using a nationwide survey sample and logit analysis we find lifestyle has expected effects on belt use holding constant individual and vehicle characteristics. Illustrations for two different lifestyles are considered: (1) smoking 1 pack per day, 2 years between dental visits, and no regular exercise and (2) no smoking, 1 year between dental visits and regular exercise. Healtiher lifestyle increases the probability of seat belt use by more than 50% for typical individuals     

Prevention and management of product recalls in the processed food industry: a case study based on an exporter's perspective

During 1999–2003, the US Food and Drug Administration reported a total of 1307 processed food product recalls, most of which were avoidable. There are many areas of the processed food supply chain where significant exposure to risk exists. Additionally, there are systems that can be used in-house at manufacturing facilities, such as hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) and radio frequency identification (RFID) that can be very beneficial in recall avoidance. Effective employee training is another key point for consideration. In the event of a recall, a company must be prepared in advance with a detailed crisis management procedure. Companies should consider recall insurance, depending on their size and market dominance. Public relations strategies are critical in surviving a recall. Care must be taken to connect to the consumer and communicate a strong message. Findings from analysis suggest potential reduction of product recalls through recommended preventive measures including the use of HACCP and RFID systems.     

Non‐Classical Measurement Error in Long‐Term Retrospective Recall Surveys*

Applied microeconomic researchers are beginning to use long‐term retrospective survey data in settings where conventional longitudinal survey data are unavailable. However, inaccurate long‐term recall could induce non‐classical measurement error, for which conventional statistical corrections are less effective. In this article, we use the unique Panel Study of Income Dynamics Validation Study to assess the accuracy of long‐term retrospective recall data. We find underreporting of transitory variation which creates a non‐classical measurement error problem.