BACKGROUND Self-diagnosis of influenza is an important component of pandemic control and management as it may support self-management practices and reduce visits to healthcare facilities, thus helping contain viral spread. However, little is known about the accuracy of self-diagnosis of influenza, particularly during pandemics. METHODS We used cross-sectional survey data to correlate self-dia...

Objective To assess how raising cigarette excise taxes in Peru might impact cigarette consumption, and to determine if higher taxes would be regressive. Methods Total demand price elasticity was estimated by income groups using two datasets: quarterly time-series data from 1993 - 2012 and data from a cross-sectional survey of income and expenses conducted in 2008 - 2009 . A functional form of...

BACKGROUND Patient satisfaction towards care during encounter with clinicians is key for better treatment outcomes. We assessed patient satisfaction with TB clinical care consultations in Kampala, Uganda. METHODS This was a facility-based cross sectional study done between September 2012 and February 2013 using qualitative method of data collection. Participants consecutively completed a pre-...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The study aimed to consider the impact of two different types of reminder on response rates and costs in a postal survey. DESIGN The study was a cross sectional survey. A self-completion lifestyle questionnaire was used. Those who did not respond after the initial mailing were randomly allocated to receive either a postcard or questionnaire as a first reminder. All outstanding...

BACKGROUND Although motivation of health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has become a topic of increasing interest by policy makers and researchers in recent years, many aspects are not well understood to date. This is partly due to a lack of appropriate measurement instruments. This article presents evidence on the construct validity of a psychometric scale developed to mea...

BACKGROUND Mothers are encouraged to practice exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child's life. The general objective of the study was to assess the predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers in Ghana. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study using data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS). The study sample (n = 316) was based on infants (0-5 mon...

Tests for recent infection (TRIs), such as the BED assay, provide a convenient way to estimate HIV incidence rates from cross-sectional survey data. Controversy has arisen over how the imperfect performance of a TRI should be characterised and taken into account. Recent theoretical work is providing a unified framework within which to work with a variety of TRI- and epidemic-specific assumption...

OBJECTIVE This study examined whether neighbourhood level socioeconomic variables have an independent effect on reported child behaviour problems over and above the effect of individual level measures of socioeconomic status. DESIGN AND SETTING Multilevel analysis of cross sectional survey data relating individual level child behavioural problems and parental measures of socioeconomic status ...

This study investigated level and sources of stress among university students in different areas like Taiwan, NZ, USA and China. The study was a cross sectional survey and the population comprised convenient samples. A questionnaire was designed by the researchers and validated through expert judgment. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and ANOVA for the research q...