Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy
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Obesity is a public health challenge faced worldwide. Community pharmacists may be well placed to manage Australia's obesity problem owing to their training, accessibility and trustworthiness. However, determining consumers' needs is vital to the development of any new services or the evaluation of existing services. ⋯ Although Australian consumers were willing to seek pharmacists' advice about weight management, they perceived several barriers to the provision of weight management services in community pharmacy. If barriers are addressed, community pharmacies could be a viable and accessible setting to manage obesity.
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Interest in citizens' juries for eliciting the views of the public to inform coverage decisions on new health technologies has grown. However, evaluative information, particularly regarding their short- and/or longer-term impact on participants' views is limited. As citizens' juries can be resource intensive, such information is required to make 'evidence-based' decisions about their use. ⋯ There appears to be evidence suggesting that the views of individuals who participate in citizens' juries change as a result of the experience, and those 'informed' views are sustained.
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The paper refers to the increased competition between health care providers and the need for patient-centred services in Greece. Using service quality methodology, this paper investigates service quality perceptions of patients in Greek public primary health centres. ⋯ THIS paper raises a number of issues that concern the applicability of SERVQUAL in health care services and could enhance current discussions about SERVQUAL improvement. Quality of health care needs to be redefined by encompassing multiple dimensions. Beyond a simple expectations-perceptions gap, people may hold different understandings of health care that, in turn, influence their perception of the quality of services.
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Increasingly, patient decision aids and values clarification methods (VCMs) are being developed to support patients in making preference-sensitive health-care decisions. Many VCMs encourage extensive deliberation about options, without solid theoretical or empirical evidence showing that deliberation is advantageous. Research suggests that simple, fast and frugal heuristic decision strategies sometimes result in better judgments and decisions. Durand et al. have developed two fast and frugal heuristic-based VCMs. ⋯ The specific nature of patient preference-sensitive decision making does not seem to resemble environments in which the TTB and tallying heuristics have proven successful. Encouraging patients to consider less rather than more relevant information potentially even deteriorates their values clarification process. Values clarification methods promoting the use of more intuitive decision strategies may sometimes be more effective. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend further theoretical thinking about the expected value of such heuristics and of other more intuitive decision strategies in this context, as well as empirical assessments of the mechanisms by which inducing such decision strategies may impact the quality and outcome of values clarification.
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Peer education by volunteers may aid attitudinal change, but there is little understanding of factors assisting the preparation of peer educators. This study contributes to conceptual understandings of how volunteers may be prepared to work as peer educators by drawing on an evaluation of a training programme for peer education for advance care planning (ACP). ⋯ We reflect on the extent to which the programme aided the development of 'critical consciousness' among the volunteers: a key factor in successful peer education programmes. More research is needed about the impact on uptake of ACP in communities.