Indoor carbon monoxide exposures in a retail occupancy.

In a two-story retail mall in the Southeastern United States, employees within Store A (located on the second level) began to feel headaches and general unease and discussed the symptoms among themselves. Approximately 1.5 hr later, an employee called 9-1-1.

Measuring Effectiveness Based on Patient Experience (Instead of QALYs) in US Value Assessments.

Background: A key challenge in value assessment is how to summarize effectiveness, particularly the impact of interventions on patient health-related quality of life (HRQoL). One approach is to quantify the gains in HRQoL and life expectancy together as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs); however, this approach has faced various criticisms regarding its potential discriminatory aspects toward persons with disabilities, older adults, and the most vulnerable individuals in society.

Methods: Instead of QALYs, we provide an alternative approach that summarizes HRQoL gains from the perspective of its stakeholders (e.

Small Molecule RNA Degraders.

RNA is a central molecule in life, involved in a plethora of biological processes and playing a key role in many diseases. Targeting RNA emerges as a significant endeavor in drug discovery, diverging from conventional protein-centric approaches to tackle various pathologies. Whilst identifying small molecules that bind to specific RNA regions is the first step, the abundance of non-functional RNA segments renders many interactions biologically inert.

The Performance of Kaizen Tasks Across Three Online Discrete Choice Experiment Surveys: An Evidence Synthesis.

Background: Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement (kai ~ change, zen ~ good). In a kaizen task, a respondent makes sequential choices to improve an object's profile, revealing a preference path. Including kaizen tasks in a discrete choice experiment has the advantage of collecting greater preference evidence than pick-one tasks, such as paired comparisons.

Scale and rate heterogeneity in the EQ-5D-5L valuation.

Objectives: To estimate values on a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) scale using individual preference evidence, choice analyses typically include ancillary parameters, such as scale factors and discount rates. These parameters potentially differ among respondents. In this study, we investigated how allowing heterogeneity in scale and rate affects the estimation of EQ-5D-5L values.

Child health valuation protocol for a discrete choice experiment comparing paired comparison and kaizen tasks and estimating US EQ-5D-Y-3L values on an experience scale.

Introduction: A decade ago, the first national valuation study of the EQ-5D-Y-3L (Y-3L) involved a discrete choice experiment (DCE) that asked 4155 US adult respondents to complete 40 paired comparisons, choosing between two dying children. Instead of choosing between dying children, the respondents in this novel protocol are asked whether 'being in a coma' is better or worse than experiencing 'health problems' (ie, experience scale) and how they would relieve health problems (ie, kaizen tasks). Our aims are to compare the preference evidence of the paired comparison and kaizen tasks and to conduct a DCE for the valuation of Y-3L profiles on an experience scale.

Role Preferences in Medical Decision Making: Relevance and Implications for Health Preference Research.

Health preference research (HPR) is being increasingly conducted to better understand patient preferences for medical decisions. However, patients vary in their desire to play an active role in medical decisions. Until now, few studies have considered patients' preferred roles in decision making.

Preference heterogeneity in health valuation: a latent class analysis of the Peru EQ-5D-5L values.

Background: Preference heterogeneity in health valuation has become a topic of greater discussion among health technology assessment agencies. To better understand heterogeneity within a national population, valuation studies may identify latent groups that place different absolute and relative importance (i.e.

Current Practices for Accounting for Preference Heterogeneity in Health-Related Discrete Choice Experiments: A Systematic Review.

Background: Accounting for preference heterogeneity is a growing analytical practice in health-related discrete choice experiments (DCEs). As heterogeneity may be examined from different stakeholder perspectives with different methods, identifying the breadth of these methodological approaches and understanding the differences are major steps to provide guidance on good research practices.

Objectives: Our objective was to systematically summarize current practices that account for preference heterogeneity based on the published DCEs related to healthcare.

Using stated-preferences methods to develop a summary metric to determine successful treatment of children with a surgical condition: a study protocol.

Introduction: Wide variation in the management of key paediatric surgical conditions in the UK has likely resulted in outcomes for some children being worse than they could be. Consequently, it is important to reduce unwarranted variation. However, major barriers to this are the inability to detect differences between observed and expected hospital outcomes based on the casemix of the children they have treated, and the inability to detect variation in significant outcomes between hospitals.

Exploring the importance of controlling heteroskedasticity and heterogeneity in health valuation: a case study on Dutch EQ-5D-5L.

Background: Respondents in a health valuation study may have different sources of error (i.e., heteroskedasticity), tastes (differences in the relative effects of each attribute level), and scales (differences in the absolute effects of all attributes).

Corrigendum to "Analyzing the national fire incident reporting system to identify carbon monoxide incidents in the U.S. lodging industry" [Prev. Med. Rep. 24 (2021) 101531].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.

Analyzing the national fire incident reporting system to identify carbon monoxide incidents in the U.S. lodging industry.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisonings in the U.S. lodging industry have become a regular occurrence, however there is no current mandatory national reporting, tracking, or surveillance mechanism for CO incidents in the U.

A Guide to Observable Differences in Stated Preference Evidence.

Background And Objective: In health preference research, studies commonly hypothesize differences in parameters (i.e., differential or joint effects on attribute importance) and/or in choice predictions (marginal effects) by observable factors.

Indoor chlorine gas release in a natatorium: A case study.

Pool chemicals are utilized in pools to inactivate pathogens, optimize pH, and increase water clarity. This is conducted to ensure public health and safety by reducing bacteria concentrations and allowing distressed swimmers to be detected underwater. In commercial recreational facilities, muriatic acid and gaseous CO are typically used to maintain pH.

Preference Paths and Their Kaizen Tasks for Small Samples.

Background: Stated preference research currently lacks a form of evidence that is well suited for small samples. A preference path is a sequence of two or more choices showing the evolution of an object following an adaptive process.

Objectives: The aims were to introduce preference paths and their kaizen tasks and to demonstrate how to analyze their evidence using a small sample.

United States COVID-19 Vaccination Preferences (CVP): 2020 Hindsight.

Background: Shortly after the 2020 US election, initial evidence on first-generation COVID-19 vaccines showed 70-95% efficacy and minimal risks. Yet, many US adults expressed reluctance.

Aims: The aim of this study was to compare persons willing and unwilling to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to estimate the effects of vaccination attributes on uptake: proof of vaccination, vaccination setting, effectiveness, duration of immunity, and risk of severe side effects.

QALYs for COVID-19: A Comparison of US EQ-5D-5L Value Sets.

Background: In economic evaluations, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) can serve as a unit of measurement for disease burden. Obtaining QALY values for COVID-19 presents a challenge owing to the availability of two US EQ-5D-5L value sets and the potentially asymptomatic presentation of the disease. The first value set was completed allowing for the discounting of future health outcomes while the second value set is undiscounted.

Does Controlling for Scale Heterogeneity Better Explain Respondents' Preference Segmentation in Discrete Choice Experiments? A Case Study of US Health Insurance Demand.

Analyses of preference evidence frequently confuse heterogeneity in the effects of attribute parameters (i.e., taste coefficients) and the scale parameter (i.

Peruvian Valuation of the EQ-5D-5L: A Direct Comparison of Time Trade-Off and Discrete Choice Experiments.

Objectives: (1) To produce Peruvian general population EQ-5D-5L value sets on a quality-adjusted life-year scale, (2) to investigate the feasibility of a "Lite" protocol less reliant on the composite time trade-off (cTTO), and (3) to compare cTTO and discrete choice experiment (DCE) value sets.

Methods: A random sample of adults (N = 1000) in Lima, Arequipa, and Iquitos did a home interview; 300 were randomly selected to complete 11 cTTOs first. All respondents completed a DCE, including 10 latent-scale pairs (A/B) with 5 EQ-5D-5L attributes, and 12 matched pairs (A/B and B/C) with 5 EQ-5D-5L and one lifespan attributes.

Mid- to long-wave infrared computational spectroscopy with a graphene metasurface modulator.

In recent years there has been much interest concerning the development of modulators in the mid- to long-wave infrared, based on emerging materials such as graphene. These have been frequently pursued for optical communications, though also for other specialized applications such as infrared scene projectors. Here we investigate a new application for graphene modulators in the mid- to long-wave infrared.

Reporting Formative Qualitative Research to Support the Development of Quantitative Preference Study Protocols and Corresponding Survey Instruments: Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers.

Background: Formative qualitative research is foundational to the methodological development process of quantitative health preference research (HPR). Despite its ability to improve the validity of the quantitative evidence, formative qualitative research is underreported.

Objective: To improve the frequency and quality of reporting, we developed guidelines for reporting this type of research.

Mid- to long-wave infrared computational spectroscopy using a subwavelength coaxial aperture array.

Miniaturized spectrometers are advantageous for many applications and can be achieved by what we term the filter-array detector-array (FADA) approach. In this method, each element of an optical filter array filters the light that is transmitted to the matching element of a photodetector array. By providing the outputs of the photodetector array and the filter transmission functions to a reconstruction algorithm, the spectrum of the light illuminating the FADA device can be estimated.

The Value Employees Place on Health Insurance Plans: A Discrete-Choice Experiment.

Background: The federally-facilitated Health Insurance Marketplace-also known as the Health Insurance Exchange-was designed as a tool to help people purchase insurance plans, yet many Americans remain uninsured, partially due to rising premiums. One possible strategy to stabilize its premiums is to encourage healthier people to purchase their plans through the Marketplace instead of through their employers.

Objective: This study examined the values that single adults with employer-based coverage place on health insurance plan attributes using a discrete-choice experiment (DCE).

Does Device or Connection Type Affect Health Preferences in Online Surveys?

Background And Objective: Recent evidence has shown that online surveys can reliably collect preference data, which markedly decrease the cost of health preference studies and expand their representativeness. As the use of mobile technology continues to grow, we wanted to examine its potential impact on health preferences.

Methods: Two recently completed discrete choice experiments using members of the US general population (n = 15,292) included information on respondent device (cell phone, tablet, Mac, PC) and internet connection (business, cellular, college, government, residential).