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Background: Apart from a person's physical functioning, the early identification of social context indicators which affect patient outcomes - such as environmental and psychosocial issues - is key for high quality and comprehensive care at home. During a home care assessment, a person's biomedical and functional problems are typically considered. Harder to define concepts, such as psychosocial well-being or living arrangements, are not routinely documented, even though research shows they also affect functioning and health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to develop and test a concise, integrated assessment (BelRAI Social Supplement) that evaluates these social context indicators for persons receiving home care to complement existing interRAI- instruments.Methods: The development of the BelRAI Social Supplement is a multi-stage process, based upon the revised MRC-framework, involving both qualitative and quantitative research with stakeholders such as; clients, informal caregivers, care professionals and policy makers. The developmental process encompasses four stages: (I) item generation based on multiple methods and content validation by a panel of stakeholders (II) assessing feasibility and piloting methods, (III) early evaluation, and (IV) final evaluation. Stage II and III are covered in this paper.Results: During Stages I and II, a testable version of the BelRAI Social Supplement was developed in an iterative process. In Stage III, 100 care professionals assessed 743 individuals receiving home care in Flanders between December 2018 and December 2019. Using inter-item correlation matrixes, frequency distributions and regular feedback from the participants, the BelRAI Social Supplement was improved and prepared for Stage IV. The updated version of the instrument consists of four main sections: (1) environmental assessment; (2) civic engagement; (3) psychosocial well-being; and (4) informal care and support. In total, the BelRAI Social Supplement contains a maximum of 76 items.Conclusions: The BelRAI Social Supplement was reviewed and shortened in close collaboration with care professionals and other experts in Flanders. This study resulted in an instrument that documents need-to-know social context determinants of home dwelling adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the propensity to attain a Ph.D. degree at the five largest universities in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. It provides insight into the rate at which junior scholars appointed at the universities involved attained their Ph.D.-degree, and the duration of the doctoral training period. Cox’s regression model was applied to statistically analyse the influence of a number of ‘demographic’ and ‘merit’ variables, and variables related to funding source and type of appointment of the junior scholarly staff. Large differences in Ph.D. durations and attainment rates were found across funding sources, research disciplines and types of appointments. The policy background and implications are discussed briefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]