Background and Objective: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is an established concept in which students obtain mutual benefits by teaching and learning from each other. In the clinical environment, this often occurs intentionally or unintentionally in various formats such as same level or cross level peer tutoring, peer mentoring, cooperative learning and the like. This study determined the effectiveness of Peer Assisted Learning in achieving identified program outcomes in the curriculum for clerks and postgraduate interns rotating in Otorhinolaryngology specialty. Methodology: Study has 2 parts. Part 1 was a one-group pre-test and post-test design that involved teaching training of 16 PGI to be peer tutors in Otorhinolaryngology Physical Examination (ORL PE) to clerks. Video recorded pre-training baseline and post-training actual skills demonstrations of the PGI were rated. Scores were compared using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test with p value at 5% level of significance. Part 2 was a randomized controlled single-blind trial of Peer-Led vs. Expert Faculty-Led ORL PE training of 55 clerks. Tutees performed a post training video-recorded skills demonstration assessed by a faculty rater who was blinded as to who among the clerks underwent the PAL-Led or Expert Faculty-Led training. Scores of the tutees in the 2 models of instruction were compared using the Mann-Whitney U-test at 5% level of significance. Results: Part 1 results showed significant improvement in the post-training scores of the 16 PGI in the identified micro skills and ORL PE skills. For Part 2, 33 and 22 clerks underwent PAL-Led and Expert Faculty-Led instruction respectively. Comparison of performance scores of the clerks in the 2 models of instruction showed no significant difference. Conclusion Teaching training for PGI improved their knowledge, skills and attitude in teaching ORL PE skills to clerks. There was no significant difference in the performance outcomes between clerks that underwent PALLed and Expert Faculty-Led model of instruction.
Teacher Training ; Peer Group

PURPOSE: Group-based interventions help the members of the parent group work together to share their parenting stress, provide opportunities for them to support each other emotionally and informatively, and allow them to achieve what they want to accomplish. The purpose of this study is to investigate and synthesize the outcome of a parenting support program for infant and toddler parents. METHODS: Published randomized control trials were identified through Ovid-Medline, Embase and CINAHL DB. Eligible studies include articles published between 2008 and 2018 in English in the randomized controlled trial design in which parenting support programs were implemented for infant and toddler parents group. RESULTS: A total of 11 studies was selected for this review. These programs reported large level of effect size for parenting, and middle level effect size for parent's psycho-social outcomes and child development. There were many programs conducted for parents with infants between 13 and 24 months, and the frequency of programs provided for 2 hours a week was high with 9 to 12 sessions. Most programs were facilitated by trained professionals including nurses and social workers except two programs led by lay persons. CONCLUSION: This review demonstrates that group-based parenting support programs have positive effects on parenting, parent's psychosocial health and infant development. To disseminate the effective group-based parenting support programs, further research is needed to confirm the long term effect and develop nurse's role as a group facilitator.
Child ; Child Development ; Humans ; Infant ; Nurse's Role ; Parenting ; Parents ; Peer Group ; Social Work ; Social Workers

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify the effects of utilizing Smartphone Application Peer Support (SAPS) on health behavior and body mass index (BMI) among overweight or obese breast cancer survivors (BCS). METHODS: A nonequivalent control group with a non-synchronized design was utilized and 36 participants (experimental group 14, control group 22) were recruited from August 2017 to September 2018. Participants were 40~65 years old, overweight or obese, had completed primary cancer treatment within the 12 months prior to the study, and had not done regular exercise during the last 6 months. The 3-month SAPS consisted of exercise and diet education (once p/2 weeks), peer support (once p/week), and self-monitoring using smartphone applications (5 times p/week). All participants underwent assessments at baseline, right after SAPS, and at 3 months after SAPS. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: At the completion of SAPS significant differences were found between groups in motivation for exercise (t=−3.24, p=.005), physical activity (t=−4.15, p<.001), total calorie intake (t=3.42, p=.002), calories from fat (t=−3.01, p=.005), intake of vegetables (t=−2.83, p=.008), and BMI (t=5.21, p<.001). Significant differences in BMI (t=4.13, p<.001) remained up to 3 months after SAPS completion. No significant differences was shown between groups in self-efficacy for exercise, either immediately after or 3 months after SAPS. CONCLUSION: The SAPS has the potential to improve motivation for exercise, health behavior, and BMI of BCS. However, special efforts are required to encourage participants to complete the intervention and maintain long-term effects for future trials.
Body Mass Index ; Breast Neoplasms ; Breast ; Diet ; Education ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Motivation ; Motor Activity ; Overweight ; Peer Group ; Smartphone ; Survivors ; Vegetables

Inappropriate authorship and other fraudulent publication strategies are pervasive. Here, I deal with contribution disclosures, authorship disputes versus plagiarism among collaborators, kin co-authorship, gender bias, authorship trade, and fake peer review (FPR). In contrast to underserved authorship and other ubiquitous malpractices, authorship trade and FPR appear to concentrate in some Asian countries that exhibit a mixed academic pattern of rapid growth and poor ethics. It seems that strong pressures to publish coupled with the incessantly growing number of publications entail a lower quality of published science in part attributable to a poor, compromised or even absent (in predatory journals) peer review. In this regard, the commitment of Publons to strengthen this fundamental process and ultimately ensure the quality and integrity of the published articles is laudable. Because the many recommendations for adherence to authorship guidelines and rules of honest and transparent research reporting have been rather ineffective, strong deterrents should be established to end manipulated peer review, undeserved authorship, and related fakeries.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Authorship* ; Dissent and Disputes ; Ethics ; Humans ; Peer Review* ; Plagiarism ; Publications ; Research Report ; Sexism

BACKGROUND: Although the same equipment and reagents can be employed for inspecting identical samples, the setting and verification methods for the corresponding reference intervals differ from each other, and such methods are not well established. To address the issues associated with establishing and validating reference intervals, a Web-based application is proposed for collaboratively setting reference intervals. METHODS: A Web application was designed for automatically providing the statistical results associated with a reference interval upon receiving the corresponding test results from participating institutions and incorporating the cumulative data. RESULTS: By employing the proposed Web-based application (www.referencerange.org), reference intervals can be collaboratively set based on objective and statistical analyses incorporating clinical chemistry results obtained from Korea Healthcare Association in the years 2016 and 2017. Cumulative data obtained from the existing input peer group associated with an inspection are updated in real time, and the current set reference interval is displayed in real time. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a Web-based application is designed for collaboratively setting reference intervals whereby all Korean laboratories can easily participate, collectively set reference intervals, and apply the set reference intervals. Hence, the proposed application can aid in providing basic data associated with health information.
Chemistry, Clinical ; Delivery of Health Care ; Indicators and Reagents ; Korea ; Peer Group

OBJECTIVE: To provide autonomy support from three dimensions based on self-determination theory (SDT), i.e. professional support, peer support, family support, and to investigate whether this intervention can improve diabetes self-management behavior and glycemic control of diabetic patients, and to analyze the influencing factors of the effect. METHODS: Using convenient sampling method, three communities were selected respectively in Beijing. Each community selected health service stations with similar conditions as different intervention groups. The diabetic patients managed by the station who were eligible for inclusion were recruited into this intervention group. The community stations were divided into three groups. The routine intervention group only issued knowledge manuals and conducted health management according to the requirements of basic public health services. Peer support groups were divided into small groups and carried out doctor-led group activities. Based on doctor-led peer support activities, the doctors and peers were trained to provide autonomy support based on self-determination theory, and their family members were trained in the form of manuals to provide autonomy support, forming a concerted support of the three dimensions. Activity processes and materials were also designed based on SDT. The intervention duration was 3 months, and the main evaluation indexes were HbA1c and patients' self-management behaviors, skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy scores. RESULTS: Before and after the intervention, the HbA1c of routine intervention group were 7.40%±1.37%, 7.30%±1.18%. The HbA1c of peer support group before and after the intervention were 7.33%±1.15% and 7.13%±1.27%. The HbA1c of autonomy support group before and after the intervention were 7.42%±1.22% and 6.78%±0.80%. Before and after the intervention, the self-management score in routine intervention group was 10.54±2.28 and 10.80±2.15, the score in peer support group was 11.09±1.89 and 11.40±1.78, the score in autonomy support group was 10.34±1.99 and 11.10±1.65, respectively. The HbA1c and self-management score increased higher in autonomy support group than in the other two groups. After intervention, the control rate in autonomy support group was higher than in the other two groups. According to the multi-factor analysis, the value of HbA1c after intervention was positively related to the baseline HbA1c, and negatively related to self-management behavior. The value in autonomy support group was higher than in routine intervention group. Baseline self-management behavior, self-efficacy, knowledge, skill, family support, autonomy support, peer support and age were positively correlated with the change of behavior. CONCLUSION self-management behavior intervention based on self-determination theory can effectively promote self-management behavior and glycemic control of diabetic patients, and the effect is better than single peer support activities.
Beijing ; Blood Glucose ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/therapy* ; Humans ; Peer Group ; Self Care ; Self-Management

INTRODUCTION: Integrity and willingness to contribute to society are desired traits of medical students beyond academic excellence. We investigated the personality traits of medical students at the National University of Singapore (NUS), who were about to become doctors. Personality traits were compared with a peer population of local university students. METHODS: This study was conducted between October 2013 and December 2014. Year 4 medical students were administered the Revised NEO (Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness) Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), a 240-item Likert scale personality test. Test data was analysed by an institutional psychologist and compared to a separate sample of 377 non-medical students who were peers at the same university taking psychology as a module. Data was collated and analysed. RESULTS: 65 Year 4 medical students completed the NEO PI-R personality test. The personalities of Year 4 medical students at NUS differed from their peers in all domains except for openness. NUS medical students generally had less neuroticism, and were more extroverted, agreeable and conscientious than their peers. CONCLUSION Personality testing of NUS Year 4 medical students showed many of the desired traits of a doctor when compared to their peers at the same university.
Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Peer Group ; Personality ; Personality Inventory ; Psychology ; Singapore ; Students ; psychology ; Students, Medical ; psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities ; Young Adult

Gross anatomy, with cadaver laboratory dissection, is in a unique position to preside over a rich number of activities such as the team work, integrity, active learning, communication in the small group-all aspects of professional conduct. The purposes of this study are to investigate the correlation of professionalism with academic performance and the characteristics of groups of students in the performance variables. First-year Pusan National University School of Medicine students (n=108) from the Class of 2015 taking the gross anatomy course were required to do the self- and peer assessment about the professional behaviors of each of the six members of their dissecting group. The students were classified into one of four subgroups based on their deviation from the self- and peer assessment medians, such as high peer/high self (HP/HS), high peer/low self (HP/LS), low peer/high self (LP/HS), low peer/low self (LP/LS). There were significant higher scores in the high peer groups (HP/HS, HP/LS) in comparison with low peer groups (LP/HS, LP/LS) in the academic performance of end-of-term (F=3.24), credit (F=3.54), pre-Lab (F=3.94), practical examination (F=3.60) scores. Significant correlations among academic performance variables were observed generally. There were some differences in the correlation in the practical examination and other variables. The relatively high correlation between practical examination and other variables is HP/HS, followed by LP/LS, LP/HS and then HP/LS. In conclusion, peer- and self assessment subgroups showed a significant differences in the academic performance. This assignment would be available to evaluate work habits of professionalism in the gross anatomy laboratory. It is suggested that HP/HS group was more adaptable in the contextual leaning the gross anatomy course.
Busan ; Cadaver ; Humans ; Peer Group ; Problem-Based Learning ; Professionalism ; Self-Assessment*

OBJECTIVES: In most countries around the world, sex work is an illegal activity. Female sex workers (FSWs) in Iran hide their identities, and they are known to be a hard-to-reach population. Despite free access to HIV testing, fewer than half of FSWs receive HIV testing. The purpose of this study was to characterize the reasons for which FSWs do not seek testing at drop-in centers (DICs) and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers in Iran. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted in 2016. The participants were 24 FSWs who received services at VCT centers and DICs for vulnerable females in the north of Iran and 9 males who were the clients of FSWs. In this study, we made use of purposive sampling and carried out a thematic analysis. RESULTS: We found 4 major and 6 minor themes. The major themes were: fear of being infected (with HIV), stigma, indifference, and knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the significant efforts made by the government of Iran to establish and expand DICs for vulnerable females, the number of FSWs receiving services at these centers has not been very considerable. Consequently, by introducing and implementing training programs for peer groups, it may be possible to take steps toward establishing strategic programs for the control and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Counseling ; Dacarbazine ; Education ; Female* ; Health Services* ; HIV ; Humans ; Iran ; Male ; Peer Group ; Sex Workers*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the influence of health status and types of health management on depression in middle-aged women. METHODS: A convenience sample of 188 participants was recruited from health centers in S city. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected and analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and linear regression using SPSS/WIN 23 program. RESULTS: Results of the regression analysis showed that perceived current health status (β=−0.55, p < .001), no caregiver (β=0.47, p < .001), chronic diseases lasting more than three months (β=0.36, p < .001), perceived health status compared to peer group (β=0.32, p < .001), walking for health (β=−0.20, p=.002), caregiver except family (β=0.18, p=.001), and gastrointestinal disease (β=0.10, p=.022) influenced depression in middle-aged women. Overall, approximately 69.7% of total variance explained this model (adjusted R2=0.678, F=57.21, p < .001). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that it is more important to understand the level of perceived health status in middle-aged women. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop programs that include various health management methods and strengthen the health care with the help of families and neighbors in order to manage depression in middle-aged women.
Caregivers ; Chronic Disease ; Delivery of Health Care ; Depression* ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Peer Group ; Walking