Background Many Nigerians pay out-of-pocket for their health care, and some hospitals have starte... more Background Many Nigerians pay out-of-pocket for their health care, and some hospitals have started utilising e-payment systems to increase transactional efficiency. The study investigated the type and usage of e-payment platforms in public hospitals and the factors that may influence the managerial staff’s disposition towards using the e-payment system. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 300 managerial staff within the four public tertiary hospitals in Enugu, Nigeria, through proportionate quota sampling. The survey obtained participants’ demographic characteristics, types of e-payment platforms, managerial staff’s technophobia, perception of credibility, and disposition towards e-payment. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation, and hierarchical linear regression. Results The majority of the respondents (n = 278, 92.7% completion rate) aged 43.4 ± 7.6 years were females (59.0%) with a bachelor’s degree (54.7%). Their disposition (80.0%±17...
Perceptions of Service Climate in healthcare organizations are important because of their linkage... more Perceptions of Service Climate in healthcare organizations are important because of their linkages to patient and organizational outcomes. This article presents findings from survey data collected from frontline nurses (n = 275) in Canada who were working in a provincial healthcare system that had recently undergone significant structural changes. The findings indicate that frontline nurses held a neutral view of the Service Climate overall but a strong and negative perception of Managerial Service Practices. The results suggest that some service practices existed in nurses’ working environments; however, improvements could be made in the areas of recognizing and rewarding those who consistently provide high levels of quality service. This has implications for not only continuous quality improvement but also for the patient and staff experience in healthcare.
A nonblinded randomized trial was conducted at two Canadian provincial outpatient addiction clini... more A nonblinded randomized trial was conducted at two Canadian provincial outpatient addiction clinics that tested the effectiveness of a systemic congruence couple therapy (CCT) versus individual‐based treatment‐as‐usual (TAU) on nine clinical outcomes: (1) primary outcomes—alcohol use and gambling, psychiatric symptoms, and couple adjustment; (2) secondary outcomes—emotion regulation, substance use, depression, post‐traumatic stress symptoms, and life stress. Data of primary clients and partners (N = 46) were analyzed longitudinally across baseline, posttreatment (5 months), and follow‐up (8 months). Alcohol use disorder (95%) and gambling disorder (5%) were in the severe range at baseline, and co‐addiction was 27%. Psychiatric comorbidity was 100%, and 18% of couples were jointly addicted. Between‐group comparison favored CCT in primary outcomes with medium‐to‐large effect sizes (Cohen's h = 0.74–1.44). Secondary outcomes were also significantly stronger for CCT (Cohen's h =...
BACKGROUND Although there is a significant body of evidence on maternal mental health, an inadequ... more BACKGROUND Although there is a significant body of evidence on maternal mental health, an inadequate focus has been placed on African immigrant women. This is a significant limitation given the rapidly changing demographics in Canada. The prevalence of maternal depression and anxiety among African immigrant women in Alberta and Canada, as well as the associated risk factors, are not well understood and remain largely unknown. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of maternal depression and anxiety among African immigrant women living in Alberta, Canada up to 2 years postpartum. METHODS This cross-sectional study surveyed 120 African immigrant women within 2 years of delivery in Alberta, Canada from January 2020 to December 2020. The English version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale-10 (EPDS-10), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale, and a structured questionnaire regarding associated factors were administer...
Background Mental health disorders are the most common perinatal conditions. They affect mothers,... more Background Mental health disorders are the most common perinatal conditions. They affect mothers, babies, partners, and support networks. However, <15% of pregnant and postpartum women seek timely help for their mental health care. Low perinatal mental health knowledge and universal screening unacceptability are cited as important deterrents to obtaining timely mental health care. Objective The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was 2-fold: (1) to determine African immigrant mothers’ views of perinatal mental health and to identify predictors of those views and (2) to identify African immigrant mothers’ views regarding perinatal mental health screening and to determine factors associated with those views. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenience sample of African immigrant women from the province of Alberta, Canada. Respondents were eligible to participate if they were aged ≥18 years, had a live birth, and the infant was aged ≤2 years. Qu...
Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity, Jun 25, 2021
Academic misconduct describes a complex set of behaviours with many reported motivating factors. ... more Academic misconduct describes a complex set of behaviours with many reported motivating factors. However, most research investigating the motivating factors behind academic misconduct has been conducted on American college students. To assess academic misconduct at our mid-sized university in Alberta, Canada, we conducted focus groups with students and faculty to further explore the motivational factors underlying academic misconduct. We conducted a thematic analysis on the interview responses in which two thematic categories of motivations arose: dispositional (or psychological) factors and situational (or contextual) factors. Both student and faculty participants reported a variety of motivating factors for academic misconduct, including but not limited to dispositional aspects, such as attitudes concerning academic misconduct or a lack of understanding, as well as contextual factors, such as taking a full course load and familial pressure. However, unlike their American counterparts, our participants did not discuss the impact that their peers have on motivating academic misconduct. We add our results to the growing body of research which focuses on identifying and analyzing Canadian trends in academic misconduct research.
Patients' satisfaction with physiotherapy management of chronic mechanical neck pain in physiothe... more Patients' satisfaction with physiotherapy management of chronic mechanical neck pain in physiotherapy departments of public hospitals in Ibadan, Nigeria: a mixed-method study.
International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2021
There is a paucity of research into the prevalence of academic dishonesty within Canada compared ... more There is a paucity of research into the prevalence of academic dishonesty within Canada compared to other countries. Recently, there has been a call for a better understanding of the particular characteristics of educational integrity in Canada so that Canada can more meaningfully contribute to current discussions surrounding academic integrity. Here, we present findings from student (N = 1142) and faculty (N = 130) surveys conducted within a medium-sized (~ 8700 students) Canadian university. These surveys probed perceptions towards, and experiences with, academic dishonesty, in which we aimed to understand how students and faculty regarded academically dishonest practices during their postsecondary careers. We also aimed to understand how often students engaged in, and faculty had witnessed, academic dishonesty, whether or not witnessing incidents of academic dishonesty corresponded with gender, year of experience, highest level of educational attainment, discipline, or their pers...
Background Numerous studies have found negative outcomes between shift work and physical, emotion... more Background Numerous studies have found negative outcomes between shift work and physical, emotional, and mental health. Many professional caregivers are required to work shifts outside of the typical 9 am to 5 pm workday. Here, we explore whether shift work affects the health and wellbeing of long-term care (LTC) and assisted-living (AL) professional caregivers. Method The Caring for Professional Caregivers research study was conducted across 39 LTC and AL facilities in Alberta, Canada. Of the 1385 questionnaires distributed, 933 surveys (67.4%) were returned completed. After identifying 49 questions that significantly explained variances in the reported health status of caregivers, we examined whether there was a relationship between these questions and reported health status of caregivers working night shifts. Results We found significant differences between responses from those working different shifts across six of seven domains, including physical health, health conditions, men...
The Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) is a widely used patient-reported measure of health status... more The Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) is a widely used patient-reported measure of health status in patients with coronary artery disease. Comparisons of SAQ scores amongst population groups and over time rely on the assumption that its factorial structure is invariant (i.e., equivalent). This study evaluates the measurement invariance of the SAQ across different demographic and clinical groups as well as over time. Methods: Data were obtained from the Alberta Provincial Project on Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease registry, a population-based registry of patients who received coronary angiogram in Alberta, Canada. Health-related quality of life was measured using the 16-item Canadian version of the SAQ (SAQ-CAN). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess configural, weak, strong, and strict measurement invariance (MI) across age groups, sex, disease type, treatment, and over time. Model fit was assessed using the comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Results: Of the 8101 patients who completed the measure at baseline, 1300 (16.1%) were at least 75 years old, while 1755 (21.7%) were female, 5154 (63.6%) were diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome, while 1177(14.5%) received coronary artery bypass graft treatment. There was evidence of strict invariance across age, sex, and disease groups, but partial strict invariance was established across treatment subgroups and over time. Conclusion: SAQ-CAN is a valid measure for comparing health-related quality of life of coronary artery disease patients across population groups and over time.
Measures of availability and accessibility are often used separately or interchangeably to assess... more Measures of availability and accessibility are often used separately or interchangeably to assess gambling exposure. This study examined the advantages of assessing gambling exposure using availability, accessibility, and a composite measure. Logistic and poisson regression analyses were used to determine the relative importance of these measures in predicting problem gambling using data from the 2008 and 2009 Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Alberta (SEIGA) surveys. The composite measure of gambling exposure predicted both the risk and severity of problem gambling better than the availability or accessibility measures alone. These results demonstrate that individual differences in problem gambling are better predicted by a composite measure of exposure.
International Journal of Population Data Science, 2018
IntroductionCoronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients are known to report higher healthcare resource... more IntroductionCoronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients are known to report higher healthcare resource use, such as inpatient [IP] and emergency department [ED] readmissions, than the general population. We investigate if the patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) improve the accuracy of readmissions risk prediction models in CAD. Objectives and ApproachPatients enrolled in the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH) registry between 1995 and 2014 who received catheterization (CATH) and completed baseline PROMs were linked to discharge abstract data and national ambulatory data. Logistic regression (LR) was used to develop 30-day and 1-year readmissions risk prediction models adjusting for patients’ demographic, clinical, and self-reported characteristics. PROM was measured using the 19-item Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ). The discriminatory performance of each prediction model was assessed using the Harrel’s c-statistic for LR. Resu...
The pragmatic-explanatory continuum indicator summary version 2 (PRECIS-2) tool has recently been... more The pragmatic-explanatory continuum indicator summary version 2 (PRECIS-2) tool has recently been developed to classify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) as pragmatic or explanatory based on their design characteristics. Given that treatment effects in explanatory trials may be greater than those obtained in pragmatic trials, conventional meta-analytic approaches may not accurately account for the heterogeneity among the studies and may result in biased treatment effect estimates. This study investigates if the incorporation of PRECIS-2 classification of published trials can improve the estimation of overall intervention effects in meta-analysis. Using data from 31 published trials of intervention aimed at reducing obesity in children, we evaluated the utility of incorporating PRECIS-2 ratings of published trials into meta-analysis of intervention effects in clinical trials. Specifically, we compared random-effects meta-analysis, stratified meta-analysis, random-effects meta-regress...
Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods, 2014
ABSTRACT A simple, robust test for the autocorrelation parameter in an intervention time-series m... more ABSTRACT A simple, robust test for the autocorrelation parameter in an intervention time-series model (AB design) is proposed. It is analogous to the traditional tests and can easily be computed by using the freeware R. In the same way as traditional tests of autocorrelation are based on least squares (LS) fits of a linear model, our robust test is based on the highly efficient Wilcoxon fit of the linear model. We present the results of a Monte Carlo study which show that our robust test inherits the good efficiency properties of this Wilcoxon fit. Its empirical power is only slightly less than the empirical power of the least squares test over situations with normally distributed errors while it exhibited much more power over situations with error distributions having tails heavier than those of a normal distribution. It also showed robustness of validity over all null situations simulated. We also present the results of the application of our test to a real data set which illustrates the robustness of our test.
Background Many Nigerians pay out-of-pocket for their health care, and some hospitals have starte... more Background Many Nigerians pay out-of-pocket for their health care, and some hospitals have started utilising e-payment systems to increase transactional efficiency. The study investigated the type and usage of e-payment platforms in public hospitals and the factors that may influence the managerial staff’s disposition towards using the e-payment system. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 300 managerial staff within the four public tertiary hospitals in Enugu, Nigeria, through proportionate quota sampling. The survey obtained participants’ demographic characteristics, types of e-payment platforms, managerial staff’s technophobia, perception of credibility, and disposition towards e-payment. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation, and hierarchical linear regression. Results The majority of the respondents (n = 278, 92.7% completion rate) aged 43.4 ± 7.6 years were females (59.0%) with a bachelor’s degree (54.7%). Their disposition (80.0%±17...
Perceptions of Service Climate in healthcare organizations are important because of their linkage... more Perceptions of Service Climate in healthcare organizations are important because of their linkages to patient and organizational outcomes. This article presents findings from survey data collected from frontline nurses (n = 275) in Canada who were working in a provincial healthcare system that had recently undergone significant structural changes. The findings indicate that frontline nurses held a neutral view of the Service Climate overall but a strong and negative perception of Managerial Service Practices. The results suggest that some service practices existed in nurses’ working environments; however, improvements could be made in the areas of recognizing and rewarding those who consistently provide high levels of quality service. This has implications for not only continuous quality improvement but also for the patient and staff experience in healthcare.
A nonblinded randomized trial was conducted at two Canadian provincial outpatient addiction clini... more A nonblinded randomized trial was conducted at two Canadian provincial outpatient addiction clinics that tested the effectiveness of a systemic congruence couple therapy (CCT) versus individual‐based treatment‐as‐usual (TAU) on nine clinical outcomes: (1) primary outcomes—alcohol use and gambling, psychiatric symptoms, and couple adjustment; (2) secondary outcomes—emotion regulation, substance use, depression, post‐traumatic stress symptoms, and life stress. Data of primary clients and partners (N = 46) were analyzed longitudinally across baseline, posttreatment (5 months), and follow‐up (8 months). Alcohol use disorder (95%) and gambling disorder (5%) were in the severe range at baseline, and co‐addiction was 27%. Psychiatric comorbidity was 100%, and 18% of couples were jointly addicted. Between‐group comparison favored CCT in primary outcomes with medium‐to‐large effect sizes (Cohen's h = 0.74–1.44). Secondary outcomes were also significantly stronger for CCT (Cohen's h =...
BACKGROUND Although there is a significant body of evidence on maternal mental health, an inadequ... more BACKGROUND Although there is a significant body of evidence on maternal mental health, an inadequate focus has been placed on African immigrant women. This is a significant limitation given the rapidly changing demographics in Canada. The prevalence of maternal depression and anxiety among African immigrant women in Alberta and Canada, as well as the associated risk factors, are not well understood and remain largely unknown. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of maternal depression and anxiety among African immigrant women living in Alberta, Canada up to 2 years postpartum. METHODS This cross-sectional study surveyed 120 African immigrant women within 2 years of delivery in Alberta, Canada from January 2020 to December 2020. The English version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale-10 (EPDS-10), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale, and a structured questionnaire regarding associated factors were administer...
Background Mental health disorders are the most common perinatal conditions. They affect mothers,... more Background Mental health disorders are the most common perinatal conditions. They affect mothers, babies, partners, and support networks. However, <15% of pregnant and postpartum women seek timely help for their mental health care. Low perinatal mental health knowledge and universal screening unacceptability are cited as important deterrents to obtaining timely mental health care. Objective The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was 2-fold: (1) to determine African immigrant mothers’ views of perinatal mental health and to identify predictors of those views and (2) to identify African immigrant mothers’ views regarding perinatal mental health screening and to determine factors associated with those views. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenience sample of African immigrant women from the province of Alberta, Canada. Respondents were eligible to participate if they were aged ≥18 years, had a live birth, and the infant was aged ≤2 years. Qu...
Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity, Jun 25, 2021
Academic misconduct describes a complex set of behaviours with many reported motivating factors. ... more Academic misconduct describes a complex set of behaviours with many reported motivating factors. However, most research investigating the motivating factors behind academic misconduct has been conducted on American college students. To assess academic misconduct at our mid-sized university in Alberta, Canada, we conducted focus groups with students and faculty to further explore the motivational factors underlying academic misconduct. We conducted a thematic analysis on the interview responses in which two thematic categories of motivations arose: dispositional (or psychological) factors and situational (or contextual) factors. Both student and faculty participants reported a variety of motivating factors for academic misconduct, including but not limited to dispositional aspects, such as attitudes concerning academic misconduct or a lack of understanding, as well as contextual factors, such as taking a full course load and familial pressure. However, unlike their American counterparts, our participants did not discuss the impact that their peers have on motivating academic misconduct. We add our results to the growing body of research which focuses on identifying and analyzing Canadian trends in academic misconduct research.
Patients' satisfaction with physiotherapy management of chronic mechanical neck pain in physiothe... more Patients' satisfaction with physiotherapy management of chronic mechanical neck pain in physiotherapy departments of public hospitals in Ibadan, Nigeria: a mixed-method study.
International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2021
There is a paucity of research into the prevalence of academic dishonesty within Canada compared ... more There is a paucity of research into the prevalence of academic dishonesty within Canada compared to other countries. Recently, there has been a call for a better understanding of the particular characteristics of educational integrity in Canada so that Canada can more meaningfully contribute to current discussions surrounding academic integrity. Here, we present findings from student (N = 1142) and faculty (N = 130) surveys conducted within a medium-sized (~ 8700 students) Canadian university. These surveys probed perceptions towards, and experiences with, academic dishonesty, in which we aimed to understand how students and faculty regarded academically dishonest practices during their postsecondary careers. We also aimed to understand how often students engaged in, and faculty had witnessed, academic dishonesty, whether or not witnessing incidents of academic dishonesty corresponded with gender, year of experience, highest level of educational attainment, discipline, or their pers...
Background Numerous studies have found negative outcomes between shift work and physical, emotion... more Background Numerous studies have found negative outcomes between shift work and physical, emotional, and mental health. Many professional caregivers are required to work shifts outside of the typical 9 am to 5 pm workday. Here, we explore whether shift work affects the health and wellbeing of long-term care (LTC) and assisted-living (AL) professional caregivers. Method The Caring for Professional Caregivers research study was conducted across 39 LTC and AL facilities in Alberta, Canada. Of the 1385 questionnaires distributed, 933 surveys (67.4%) were returned completed. After identifying 49 questions that significantly explained variances in the reported health status of caregivers, we examined whether there was a relationship between these questions and reported health status of caregivers working night shifts. Results We found significant differences between responses from those working different shifts across six of seven domains, including physical health, health conditions, men...
The Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) is a widely used patient-reported measure of health status... more The Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) is a widely used patient-reported measure of health status in patients with coronary artery disease. Comparisons of SAQ scores amongst population groups and over time rely on the assumption that its factorial structure is invariant (i.e., equivalent). This study evaluates the measurement invariance of the SAQ across different demographic and clinical groups as well as over time. Methods: Data were obtained from the Alberta Provincial Project on Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease registry, a population-based registry of patients who received coronary angiogram in Alberta, Canada. Health-related quality of life was measured using the 16-item Canadian version of the SAQ (SAQ-CAN). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess configural, weak, strong, and strict measurement invariance (MI) across age groups, sex, disease type, treatment, and over time. Model fit was assessed using the comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Results: Of the 8101 patients who completed the measure at baseline, 1300 (16.1%) were at least 75 years old, while 1755 (21.7%) were female, 5154 (63.6%) were diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome, while 1177(14.5%) received coronary artery bypass graft treatment. There was evidence of strict invariance across age, sex, and disease groups, but partial strict invariance was established across treatment subgroups and over time. Conclusion: SAQ-CAN is a valid measure for comparing health-related quality of life of coronary artery disease patients across population groups and over time.
Measures of availability and accessibility are often used separately or interchangeably to assess... more Measures of availability and accessibility are often used separately or interchangeably to assess gambling exposure. This study examined the advantages of assessing gambling exposure using availability, accessibility, and a composite measure. Logistic and poisson regression analyses were used to determine the relative importance of these measures in predicting problem gambling using data from the 2008 and 2009 Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Alberta (SEIGA) surveys. The composite measure of gambling exposure predicted both the risk and severity of problem gambling better than the availability or accessibility measures alone. These results demonstrate that individual differences in problem gambling are better predicted by a composite measure of exposure.
International Journal of Population Data Science, 2018
IntroductionCoronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients are known to report higher healthcare resource... more IntroductionCoronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients are known to report higher healthcare resource use, such as inpatient [IP] and emergency department [ED] readmissions, than the general population. We investigate if the patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) improve the accuracy of readmissions risk prediction models in CAD. Objectives and ApproachPatients enrolled in the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH) registry between 1995 and 2014 who received catheterization (CATH) and completed baseline PROMs were linked to discharge abstract data and national ambulatory data. Logistic regression (LR) was used to develop 30-day and 1-year readmissions risk prediction models adjusting for patients’ demographic, clinical, and self-reported characteristics. PROM was measured using the 19-item Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ). The discriminatory performance of each prediction model was assessed using the Harrel’s c-statistic for LR. Resu...
The pragmatic-explanatory continuum indicator summary version 2 (PRECIS-2) tool has recently been... more The pragmatic-explanatory continuum indicator summary version 2 (PRECIS-2) tool has recently been developed to classify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) as pragmatic or explanatory based on their design characteristics. Given that treatment effects in explanatory trials may be greater than those obtained in pragmatic trials, conventional meta-analytic approaches may not accurately account for the heterogeneity among the studies and may result in biased treatment effect estimates. This study investigates if the incorporation of PRECIS-2 classification of published trials can improve the estimation of overall intervention effects in meta-analysis. Using data from 31 published trials of intervention aimed at reducing obesity in children, we evaluated the utility of incorporating PRECIS-2 ratings of published trials into meta-analysis of intervention effects in clinical trials. Specifically, we compared random-effects meta-analysis, stratified meta-analysis, random-effects meta-regress...
Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods, 2014
ABSTRACT A simple, robust test for the autocorrelation parameter in an intervention time-series m... more ABSTRACT A simple, robust test for the autocorrelation parameter in an intervention time-series model (AB design) is proposed. It is analogous to the traditional tests and can easily be computed by using the freeware R. In the same way as traditional tests of autocorrelation are based on least squares (LS) fits of a linear model, our robust test is based on the highly efficient Wilcoxon fit of the linear model. We present the results of a Monte Carlo study which show that our robust test inherits the good efficiency properties of this Wilcoxon fit. Its empirical power is only slightly less than the empirical power of the least squares test over situations with normally distributed errors while it exhibited much more power over situations with error distributions having tails heavier than those of a normal distribution. It also showed robustness of validity over all null situations simulated. We also present the results of the application of our test to a real data set which illustrates the robustness of our test.
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Papers by Olu Awosoga