Browsing by Subject "Early intervention"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Early Educational Intervention and Midlife Psychological Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Investigation In A Low-Income, Urban Sample
    (2020-06) Mondi-Rago, Christina
    The present study is the first to examine the relations between participation in a public early childhood intervention (the Child-Parent Center (CPC) program) and psychological wellbeing into early mid-life. Data is drawn from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), which has followed a cohort of 1,539 individuals who grew up in urban poverty for over four decades. Approximately two-thirds of the original study cohort participated in the CPC program in early childhood; the rest comprise a demographically matched comparison group. In this study, participants’ psychological wellbeing is assessed in terms of rates of depressive symptoms, as well as aspects of positive psychological functioning. Processes mediating the relationship between ECE intervention and long-term psychological wellbeing are explored, as well as potential moderated mediation (e.g., whether the effects of CPC participation vary for different subgroups of children). Future directions for child development research, early childhood intervention, and public policy are discussed.
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    Modeling the Early Identification and Intervention of Alzheimer’s Disease
    (2015-09) Michaud, Tzeyu
    Advances in neuroimaging and biomarkers now provide the ability to detect evidence for the pathophysiological process of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) before clinically detectable dementia. Because of these findings, AD research has begun to focus on the preclinical or prodromal stages of the disease. For example, many clinical trials and laboratory-based studied have examined the clinical benefit of earlier AD intervention, such as pre-symptomatic stages of AD, based on the belief that it is more likely to achieve disease modification. The economic evaluation of potential interventions on AD, which mainly extends to include the earlier disease stages by using biomarker testing to predict the risk of disease progression, needs to be updated. Accordingly, the overall objective of this thesis is to quantify the value of using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker testing for early-targeted treatment on patients with mild cognitive impairment who are at risk of developing AD. Firstly, I examined whether CSF biomarker testing can categorize MCI patients into different risk groups of developing AD, and thus allowing for targeted early treatment on MCI patients. Secondly, I conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate the different treatment strategies with or without testing information involved by developing a decision model to synthesize all relevant evidence and project the expected value of outcomes of interest for each proposed alternative. Finally, I further address key challenges based on the current evidence by estimating the societal value of reducing uncertainty surrounding the decision model through further research. Economic evidence about the relative costs and outcomes of health and social care can assist decision makers in determining the best use of scarce healthcare resources.
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    Professional development including performance feedback to support home visitors' use of caregiver coaching strategies during home visits
    (2014-11) Krick Oborn, Kellie M.
    Purpose: The purpose of the current study was first to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent professional development intervention that included two brief workshops plus a six week performance feedback package on the home visitors' use of specific caregiver coaching strategies and range routines utilized during home-based intervention. The second purpose was to examine the extent to which the home visitors' use of coaching practices related to changes in parent engagement, parental stress, parent self-efficacy, and child developmental progress. An additional secondary purpose was to examine the extent to which home visitors and caregivers reported the professional development and subsequent caregiver coaching to be: (1) acceptable, (2) feasible, and (3) effective in changing practice.Method: A multiple-baseline design across three home visitors and caregiver/child dyads was used to evaluate the effects of workshops plus a performance feedback package on home visitors' use of caregiver coaching strategies and range of routines. The functional relation between the intervention and the dependent variable of the home visitor's use of caregiver coaching strategies was analyzed based on visual inspection using guidelines established by Kratochwill, Hitchcook, Horner, Levin, Odom, Rindskopf, and Shadish, (2010). Results: Findings provide support for the use of individualized performance feedback targeting home visitors' use of caregiver coaching strategies as well as support for the use of operationally defined caregiver coaching strategies. All participating home visitors and primary caregivers reported the professional development and subsequent coaching to be acceptable, feasible, and effective. Conclusions: The results of this study add to emerging data on the use of performance feedback to support teacher implementation of caregiver coaching strategies in the context of early intervention home visits.