Search

Showing total 2 results
Start Over Topic research Publisher biomed central
2 results

1. An experimental comparison of web-push vs. paper-only survey procedures for conducting an in-depth health survey of military spouses.

Author

McMaster, Hope Seib, LeardMann, Cynthia A., Speigle, Steven, Dillman, Don A., and Millennium Cohort Family Study Team

Subjects
*MILITARY spouses, *INTERNET surveys, *RESEARCH methodology, *EPIDEMIOLOGY, *ACQUISITION of data, *COMPARATIVE studies, *INDUSTRIES, *INTERNET, *LONGITUDINAL method, *MEDICAL cooperation, *POSTAL service, *RESEARCH, *MILITARY personnel, *SPOUSES, *SURVEYS, *EVALUATION research
Abstract

Background: Previous research has found that a "web-push" approach to data collection, which involves contacting people by mail to request an Internet survey response while withholding a paper response option until later in the contact process, consistently achieves lower response rates than a "paper-only" approach, whereby all respondents are contacted and requested to respond by mail.Method: An experiment was designed, as part of the Millennium Cohort Family Study, to compare response rates, sample representativeness, and cost between a web-push and a paper-only approach; each approach comprised 3 stages of mail contacts. The invited sample (n = 4,935) consisted of spouses married to U.S. Service members, who had been serving in the military between 2 and 5 years as of October, 2011.Results: The web-push methodology produced a significantly higher response rate, 32.8% compared to 27.8%. Each of the 3 stages of postal contact significantly contributed to response for both treatments with 87.1% of the web-push responses received over the Internet. The per-respondent cost of the paper-only treatment was almost 40% higher than the web-push treatment group. Analyses revealed no meaningfully significant differences between treatment groups in representation.Conclusion: These results provide evidence that a web-push methodology is more effective and less expensive than a paper-only approach among young military spouses, perhaps due to their heavy reliance on the internet, and we suggest that this approach may be more effective with the general population as they become more uniformly internet savvy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2017
Full Text
View/download PDF

2. Bronchoabsorption; a novel bronchoscopic technique to improve biomarker sampling of the airway

Author

F. Y. Ali, Grant C. Nicholson, Brian Leaker, P. J. Barnes, Brian J. O'Connor, and N Daudi

Subjects
Male, Pathology, Respiratory System, Bronchial brushing, SERUM, Lung, medicine.diagnostic_test, Smoking, respiratory system, Middle Aged, ALLERGIC RHINITIS, medicine.anatomical_structure, CXCL9, Female, Inflammation Mediators, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, SMOKERS, Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine, Adult, Paper, medicine.medical_specialty, BRONCHIAL LAVAGE, OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY-DISEASE, 1102 Cardiovascular Medicine And Haematology, Specimen Handling, Biopsy, Bronchoscopy, medicine, COPD PATIENTS, Humans, CXCL11, Interleukin 8, RNA, Messenger, BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE FLUID, Aged, Science & Technology, business.industry, Research, Gene Expression Profiling, 1103 Clinical Sciences, Pneumonia, respiratory tract diseases, CCL20, Bronchoalveolar lavage, Absorption, Physicochemical, Immunology, ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH-FACTOR, ASTHMA, business, INFLAMMATORY MEDIATORS, Biomarkers
Abstract

Current techniques used to obtain lung samples have significant limitations and do not provide reproducible biomarkers of inflammation. We have developed a novel technique that allows multiple sampling methods from the same area (or multiple areas) of the lung under direct bronchoscopic vision. It allows collection of mucosal lining fluid and bronchial brushing from the same site; biopsy samples may also be taken. The novel technique takes the same time as standard procedures and can be conducted safely. Eight healthy smokers aged 40–65 years were included in this study. An absorptive filter paper was applied to the bronchial mucosa under direct vision using standard bronchoscopic techniques. Further samples were obtained from the same site using bronchial brushings. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was obtained using standard techniques. Chemokine (C-C Motif) Ligand 20 (CCL20), CCL4, CCL5, Chemokine (C-X-C Motif) Ligand 1 (CXCL1), CXCL8, CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, Interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), IL-6, Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Matrix metalloproteinase 8 (MMP-8) and MMP-9 were measured in exudate and BAL. mRNA was collected from the bronchial brushings for gene expression analysis. A greater than 10 fold concentration of all the biomarkers was detected in lung exudate in comparison to BAL. High yield of good quality RNA with RNA integrity numbers (RIN) between 7.6 and 9.3 were extracted from the bronchial brushings. The subset of genes measured were reproducible across the samples and corresponded to the inflammatory markers measured in exudate and BAL. The bronchoabsorption technique as described offers the ability to sample lung fluid direct from the site of interest without the dilution effects caused by BAL. Using this method we were able to successfully measure the concentrations of biomarkers present in the lungs as well as collect high yield mRNA samples for gene expression analysis from the same site. This technique demonstrates superior sensitivity to standard BAL for the measurement of biomarkers of inflammation. It could replace BAL as the method of choice for these measurements. This method provides a systems biology approach to studying the inflammatory markers of respiratory disease progression. NHS Health Research Authority ( 13/LO/0256 ).

Published
2015