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We evaluated the effectiveness of a statewide Medicaid program providing in-home Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention services to young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder living in a rural southern state. Program effectiveness was assessed via the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R). A multi-level growth model was used to show significant variation among children's initial ABLLS-R scores and their growth trajectories. Hispanic children tended to have lower initial scores but demonstrated similar growth compared to their non-Hispanic peers. Children who were older at initial start in the program appeared to have higher initial composite scores and higher growth trajectories. Children in more populous counties had higher initial scores but grew at similar rates to children in more rural counties.

Data simulation and Monte Carlo simulation studies are important skills for researchers and practitioners of educational and psychological measurement, but there are few resources on the topic specific to item response theory. Even fewer resources exist on the statistical software techniques to implement simulation studies. This article presents an introduction to the questions that simulation studies can, and cannot answer, along with the primary steps of the simulation study. We primarily focus on the parts of the simulation for which statistical software is used, presenting syntax for simulating 2PL data, and discuss how to extend the basic syntax to more complex models. We focus on SAS software in the article to build upon an existing syntax base, as most universities have SAS licenses. Two small simulations serve as didactic illustrations and to demonstrate parameter recovery of the SAS IRT procedure and an evaluation of the procedure's item-fit options.

Although ticket sales and revenue have remained relatively constant in collegiate athletics over the past decade, attendance has steadily declined. Given the range of entertainment options available, student attendance at collegiate athletic events has, specifically, declined. Athletic administrators are often revenue oriented, and decreasing attendance has effects that span campus communities and cultures. As Greek-letter organizations are nearly ubiquitous within the higher education setting, fraternity and sorority members serve a unique opportunity area for engagement with fan attendance initiatives and future alumni giving. Accordingly, this study examined the motivations for attending collegiate athletic events as a member of a Greek-letter organization and the intention to attend collegiate athletic events as an alumnus of a Greek-letter organization. Findings illustrate that students and alumni that are affiliated with Greek-letter organizations have greater motivation to attend collegiate athletic events as students and greater intention to attend collegiate athletic events as alumni. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: One of the goals of PROMISE is to improve employment outcomes resulting in life-span reductions in youth reliance on SSI. Initial and prior employment is associated with long-term career trajectories for youth with disabilities. More research is needed to develop evidence-based practices that improve early employment outcomes for youth with disabilities receiving SSI benefits. OBJECTIVE: We seek to provide information about the demographic and intervention factors associated with the successful completion of 200-hour, interest-based summer work experiences. METHODS: Outcome data for 126 youth who participated in interest-based summer work experiences were collected. Regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between the number of hours worked and various discrete intervention variables. RESULTS: Interest-based job placement, case management, and job readiness training were significant predictors of success in the summer work experience. CONCLUSION: Particular aspects of service delivery, such as job readiness training, interest-based job placement, and personalized introductions to local workforce centers by case managers can significantly improve employment outcomes for youth with disabilities. State and federal agencies tasked with improving employment outcome for youth SSI recipients are provided substantiated justification to allocate resources that align with this evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: On December 20, 2019, the US "Tobacco 21" law raised the minimum legal sales age of tobacco products to 21 years. Initial research suggests that misinformation about Tobacco 21 circulated via news sources on Twitter and that sentiment about the law was associated with particular types of tobacco products and included discussions about other age-related behaviors. However, underlying themes about this sentiment as well as temporal trends leading up to enactment of the law have not been explored., Objective: This study sought to examine (1) sentiment (pro-, anti-, and neutral policy) about Tobacco 21 on Twitter and (2) volume patterns (number of tweets) of Twitter discussions leading up to the enactment of the federal law., Methods: We collected tweets related to Tobacco 21 posted between September 4, 2019, and December 31, 2019. A 2% subsample of tweets (4628/231,447) was annotated by 2 experienced, trained coders for policy-related information and sentiment. To do this, a codebook was developed using an inductive procedure that outlined the operational definitions and examples for the human coders to annotate sentiment (pro-, anti-, and neutral policy). Following the annotation of the data, the researchers used a thematic analysis to determine emergent themes per sentiment category. The data were then annotated again to capture frequencies of emergent themes. Concurrently, we examined trends in the volume of Tobacco 21-related tweets (weekly rhythms and total number of tweets over the time data were collected) and analyzed the qualitative discussions occurring at those peak times., Results: The most prevalent category of tweets related to Tobacco 21 was neutral policy (514/1113, 46.2%), followed by antipolicy (432/1113, 38.8%); 167 of 1113 (15%) were propolicy or supportive of the law. Key themes identified among neutral tweets were news reports and discussion of political figures, parties, or government involvement in general. Most discussions were generated from news sources and surfaced in the final days before enactment. Tweets opposing Tobacco 21 mentioned that the law was unfair to young audiences who were addicted to nicotine and were skeptical of the law's efficacy and importance. Methods used to evade the law were found to be represented in both neutral and antipolicy tweets. Propolicy tweets focused on the protection of youth and described the law as a sensible regulatory approach rather than a complete ban of all products or flavored products. Four spikes in daily volume were noted, 2 of which corresponded with political speeches and 2 with the preparation and passage of the legislation., Conclusions: Understanding themes of public sentiment-as well as when Twitter activity is most active-will help public health professionals to optimize health promotion activities to increase community readiness and respond to enforcement needs including education for retailers and the general public., (©Page D Dobbs, Allison Ames Boykin, Nnamdi Ezike, Aaron J Myers, Jason B Colditz, Brian A Primack. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 31.08.2023.)

Context: Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting., Aims: The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them., Settings and Design: A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria., Subjects and Methods: Respondents gave information about their experience with prescribing medicines, the extent to which they agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error and events that constituted such. Their experience with prescribing certain categories of medicines was also sought., Statistical Analysis Used: Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17 (SPSS Inc Chicago, Ill, USA). Chi-squared analysis contrasted differences in proportions; P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant., Results: The response rate was 90.9% and 27 (90%) had <1 year of prescribing experience. 17 (56.7%) respondents totally agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error. Most common reasons for prescribing mistakes were a failure to check prescriptions with a reference source (14, 25.5%) and failure to check for adverse drug interactions (14, 25.5%). Omitting some essential information such as duration of therapy (13, 20%), patient age (14, 21.5%) and dosage errors (14, 21.5%) were the most common types of prescribing errors made. Respondents considered workload (23, 76.7%), multitasking (19, 63.3%), rushing (18, 60.0%) and tiredness/stress (16, 53.3%) as important factors contributing to prescribing errors. Interns were least confident prescribing antibiotics (12, 25.5%), opioid analgesics (12, 25.5%) cytotoxics (10, 21.3%) and antipsychotics (9, 19.1%) unsupervised., Conclusions: Respondents seemed to have a low awareness of making prescribing errors. Principles of rational prescribing and events that constitute prescribing errors should be taught in the practice setting.