BACKGROUND: Only prospective cohort studies can capture changes in work conditions and their effects on health. Such studies are rare in bus drivers, despite their high rates of injuries and diseases. The three existing cohorts have limited exposure data, collected at baseline and thus uninformative on exposure and exposure-effect dynamics. Therefore, we aimed to develop the Swiss Transport Personnel Health Cohort (TRAPHEAC) and to anticipate and prevent potential bias. METHODS: To set up the study protocol, we first organized the stakeholder consultation and available data inventory. Second, we mapped the exposure-outcomes pairs to list the most prevalent occupational hazards, and conducted exposure measurement campaigns. Third, we built the Swiss Bus-Exposure Matrix for physical-chemical hazards and Bus-Ergonomics Matrix for visual and biomechanical constrains. These matrices contain 705 bus models operated in Switzerland since 1980 and enable assessing current and past exposure when merged with bus drivers' work histories. RESULTS: We opted for an original study design combining prospective cohort part starting at 2024 and a retrospective part with nested case-control studies. Bus drivers will be invited through three complementary channels: unions, companies, and social media. The eligibility screening, information, and consent form signature and registration will be conducted using the study web-site modules. Registered bus drivers will first receive a comprehensive inclusion questionnaire, then a yearly follow-up questionnaire to assess and update the drivers' work histories. Validated self-reported questionnaires will be used for assessing additional health outcomes (e.g., stress, sleep problems, musculoskeletal disorders, burnout) and individual, occupational and live-style related factors (e.g., personality, ICT use, physical activity). Hospital records (with diagnosed diseases, diagnosis dates and treatments) centralized since 2000 by the Swiss Federal Statics Office will be used for assessing disease prevalence, incidence and case-control status. Advanced statistical analysis will be conducted to address etiological and methodological questions (e.g., individual and joint causal effects of multiple exposures and exposure components; time-varying exposure and outcome variables and confounders mixtures). CONCLUSIONS The yearly assessment of both exposure and health outcomes should enable capturing changes in work conditions and their effects on bus drivers' health and well-being over time and facilitate the tailoring, implementation and evaluation of preventive interventions.
Humans ; Switzerland/epidemiology* ; Prospective Studies ; Occupational Exposure/statistics & numerical data* ; Occupational Diseases/epidemiology* ; Cohort Studies ; Motor Vehicles ; Research Design ; Retrospective Studies ; Case-Control Studies ; Occupational Health ; Adult ; Male ; Female

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to obtain research-based evidence on the relationships among general characteristics, family strength, self-control, and happiness among late school-aged children using a correlational research design. METHODS: The participants were 172 fifth- and sixth-grade students from two public elementary schools. Data were collected by employing structured questionnaires, including the Korean Family Strengths Scale for Strengthening Family II, a self-control scale, and a happiness scale. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 23.0. RESULTS: The level of happiness of late school-aged students showed significant correlations with family strength (r=.78, p<.001), and self-control (r=.59, p<.001). Family strength had a significant positive correlation with self-control (r=.55, p<.001). The factors with a significant impact on participants' happiness were family strength (β=.63, p<.001), self-control (β=.21, p<.001), exercise frequency, and self-perceived health. The total explanatory power of the model was 69%, and the explanatory power of family strength for the level of happiness was 61%, showing that the family strength was the most important factor that promoted happiness in late school-aged students. CONCLUSION: These findings imply that improving family strength is an important aspect of promoting happiness among late school-aged children. Interventions to strengthen late school-aged children's self-control are also necessary.
Child ; Family Characteristics ; Happiness ; Humans ; Research Design ; Self-Control ; Statistics as Topic

The aim of this study was to identify bibliographic characteristics and research trends of articles published on the elderly people in dental hygiene. An analysis was done of 191 articles published from 1999 to 2017. Bibliographic characteristics were nine items such as publication journal, research design, research participants, number of researchers, data analysis method, keywords, research topic, and validity and reliability report. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of statistical program. First, the research on the elderly, which was published in dental hygiene, started to be published in 1999 and on going. Though major publications have been published in Journal of Korean Society of Dental Hygiene and Journal of Dental Hygiene Science, the kinds of journals are becoming diverse. Second, cross-sectional research was the most. Third, the elderly were the most studied subjects, but the criteria varied. Fourth, the number of authors was largest in order of two and three person. Fifth, data analysis method was in order of descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA. Sixth, there were many duplication of keywords about oral, elderly, and health. Seventh, oral health behavior science was the most studied subject. Eighth, validity and reliability were reported at 27.4% and 51.6%, respectively. Ninth, only 15.7% of study was founded research funding. Based on the results of this study, we consider increase experimental research further. Therefore, it is recommeded that validity and reliability should be reported in research paper, and the keywords used in the field of dental hygiene should be agreed upon.
Aged* ; Financial Management ; Humans ; Methods ; Oral Health ; Oral Hygiene* ; Publications ; Reproducibility of Results ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In multicenter clinical trials, laboratory tests are performed in the laboratory of each center, mostly using different measuring methodologies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate coefficients of variation (CVs) of laboratory results produced by various measuring methods and to determine whether mathematical data adjustment could achieve harmonization between the methods. METHODS: We chose 10 clinical laboratories, including Green Cross Laboratories (GC Labs), the central laboratory, for the measurement of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), serum triglycerides, creatinine, and glucose. The serum panels made with patient samples referred to GC Labs were sent to the other laboratories. Twenty serum samples for each analyte were prepared, sent frozen, and analyzed by each participating laboratory. RESULTS: All methods used by participating laboratories for the six analytes had traceability by reference materials and methods. When the results from the nine laboratories were compared with those from GC Labs, the mean CVs for total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, and glucose analyzed using the same method were 1.7%, 3.7%, 4.3%, and 1.7%, respectively; and those for triglycerides and creatinine analyzed using two different methods were 4.5% and 4.48%, respectively. After adjusting data using Deming regression, the mean CV were 0.7%, 1.4%, 1.8%, 1.4%, 1.6%, and 0.8% for total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglyceride, creatinine, and glucose, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We found that more comparable results can be produced by laboratory data harmonization using commutable samples. Therefore, harmonization efforts should be undertaken in multicenter trials for accurate data analysis (CRIS number; KCT0001235).
Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, HDL ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Creatinine ; Glucose ; Humans ; Methods ; Multicenter Studies as Topic ; Research Design* ; Statistics as Topic ; Triglycerides

PURPOSE: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate students' academic outcomes after implementation of the team-based learning (TBL) approach in patient/client management courses in an entry-level doctor of physical therapy (DPT) curriculum. METHODS: The research design of this study involved comparing written and practical exam scores from DPT student cohorts taught with the traditional instructional methods (lecture-based) to those of students from subsequent cohorts taught using the TBL approach in two patient/client management courses: basic skills and cardiopulmonary. For this comparison, the exams used, the number of contact hours and labs, and the instructors who taught these courses remained the same during the transition between these two instructional methods (traditional vs. TBL). The average of all individual course exam scores was used for data analysis. RESULTS: In both courses, there were no meaningful differences in the mean exam scores among students across years of cohorts receiving the same instructional method, which allowed clustering students from different years of cohorts in each course receiving the same instructional method into one group. For both courses, the mean exam score was significantly higher in the TBL group than in the traditional instruction group: basic skills course (P<0.001) and cardiopulmonary course (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Student cohorts taught using the TBL approach academically outperformed those who received the traditional instructional method in both entry–level DPT patient/client management courses.
Cohort Studies ; Curriculum* ; Education, Professional ; Educational Measurement ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Learning* ; Methods ; Physical Therapists ; Research Design ; Retrospective Studies ; Statistics as Topic ; United States*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify research trends in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration from 2013 to 2015. METHODS: For this study, 171 articles were analyzed. Research designs, participants, research settings, sampling, and data analyses methods were reviewed using established analysis criteria. Keyword centrality and clusters were generated by keyword network analysis. RESULTS: Most of studies used quantitative methods (82.5%), and sampling mainly focused on nurses (68.8%). The most commonly used data analyses methods were t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and regression. The most central keywords were turnover and empowerment. Network analysis generated four network groups: 1) burnout; 2) turnover; 3) happiness; and 4) nursing professionalism. CONCLUSION: The results of this study identify current trends and interests in Korean nursing administration research. The findings from this study suggest that future studies include a variety of research methods and maintain appropriate research ethics.
Ethics, Research ; Happiness ; Nursing Administration Research ; Nursing Research ; Nursing* ; Power (Psychology) ; Professionalism ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: We explored Koreans' perception of the meaning of death with dignity that Korean people. METHODS: A phenomenological research methodology was applied. A total of 13 participants were sampled based on their age and gender. Participants were interviewed in depth from September 2015 through February 2016. Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis method was used for data analysis. To establish the validity of the study, we evaluated its realistic value, applicability, consistency and neutrality of the qualitative evaluation criteria of Lincoln and Guba. RESULTS: Koreans' perception of death with dignity was structured as 19 themes, nine theme clusters and four categories. The four categories were “comfortable death”, “good death”, “resolving problems before death”, and “death with good reputation”. The theme clusters were “death without pain”, “death submitting to one's fate”, “death that is not ugly”, “leaving good memories to others”, “dying in a way we want”, “death after proper settling of things”, “dealing with chronic resentment before death”, “death after living a good life”, and “death with recognition”. CONCLUSION: For Koreans, death with dignity meant not burdening others, settling things right and leaving good memories to their families and friends. Such perceptions can be applied to hospice care for terminally ill patients.
Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Friends ; Hospice Care ; Hospices ; Humans ; Methods ; Research Design ; Right to Die ; Statistics as Topic ; Terminally Ill

The Western China Gastric Cancer Collaboration (WCGCC) was founded in Chongqing, China in 2011. At the early stage of the collaboration, there were only about 20 centers. While now, there are 36 centers from western area of China, including Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Tibet. During the past few years, the WCGCC organized routinely gastric cancer standardized treatment tours, training courses of mini-invasive surgical treatment of gastric cancer and the clinical research methodology for members of the collaboration. Meanwhile, the WCGCC built a multicenter database of gastric cancer since 2011 and the entering and management refer to national gastric cancer registration entering system of Japan Gastric Cancer Association. During the entering and collection of data, 190 items of data have unified definition and entering standard from Japan Gastric Cancer Guidelines. Nowadays, this database included about 11 872 gastric cancer cases, and in this paper we will introduce the initial results of these cases. Next, the collaboration will conduct some retrospective studies based on this database to analyze the clinicopathological characteristics of patients in the western area of China. Besides, the WCGCC performed a prospective study, also. The first randomized clinical trial of the collaboration aims to compare the postoperative quality of life between different reconstruction methods for total gastrectomy(WCGCC-1202, ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02110628), which began in 2015, and now this study is in the recruitment period. In the next steps, we will improve the quality of the database, optimize the management processes. Meanwhile, we will engage in more exchanges and cooperation with the Chinese Cochrane Center, reinforce the foundation of the clinical trials research methodology. In aspect of standardized surgical treatment of gastric cancer, we will further strengthen communication with other international centers in order to improve both the treatment and research levels of gastric cancer in Western China.
Cancer Care Facilities ; China ; Clinical Protocols ; standards ; Clinical Trials as Topic ; methods ; standards ; Databases, Factual ; statistics & numerical data ; trends ; Education, Medical, Continuing ; Gastrectomy ; methods ; Humans ; Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures ; education ; Organizational Objectives ; Organizations ; statistics & numerical data ; trends ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Prospective Studies ; Quality of Life ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Registries ; statistics & numerical data ; Research Design ; standards ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; therapy

Testing of hypothesis was affected by statistical analysis set division which was an important data management work before data base lock-in. Objective division of statistical analysis set under blinding was the guarantee of scientific trial conclusion. All the subjects having accepted at least once trial treatment after randomization should be concluded in safety set. Full analysis set should be close to the intention-to-treat as far as possible. Per protocol set division was the most difficult to control in blinded examination because of more subjectivity than the other two. The objectivity of statistical analysis set division must be guaranteed by the accurate raw data, the comprehensive data check and the scientific discussion, all of which were the strict requirement of data management. Proper division of statistical analysis set objectively and scientifically is an important approach to improve the data management quality.
Clinical Trials as Topic ; standards ; Databases, Factual ; Research Design ; standards ; Statistics as Topic

A perfect clinical trial must nave a solid study design, strict conduction, complete quality control, non-interference of statistical result, and acceptable risk-benefit ratio. To reach the target, the quality control (QC) should be performed from the study design to conduction, from the analysis to conclusion. We discuss the relationship between data management and biostatistics from the statistical point of view, and emphasize the importance of the statistical concept and methods in the improvement of data quality in clinical data management.
Biostatistics ; Clinical Trials as Topic ; statistics & numerical data ; Data Collection ; standards ; Quality Control ; Research Design ; standards