Estimating the effects of friends on health behaviors of adolescents

This paper estimates the effects of friends' smoking and drinking on own behavior while controlling for correlated unobservables between friends. The effect of friends' behaviors is identified by comparing similar individuals who have similar friendship opportunities and make similar friendship choices, exploiting the idea that friendship choice reveals information about unobservables. We combine this identification strategy with an across‐cohort within school design so that identification arises in our reduced form estimates from across‐grade differences in the clustering of health behaviors. Finally, we use estimated information on correlated unobservables to examine longitudinal data on the onset of health behaviors, where the likelihood of reverse causality should be minimal. We find evidence that this strategy produces somewhat smaller (no more than 16% smaller) friendship effect estimates than the more standard school fixed effect models consistent with at most modest bias from correlated unobservables.     

Factors Associated With Health Care Access and Outcome

This study aims to (1) assess ethnic differences in health care access and health outcome between Asian Americans and Whites and between Asian American subgroups, (2) examine effects of cultural factors, and (3) investigate moderating effects of health risk behaviors between cultural characteristics and health care access and outcome. Data were derived from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey. Asian Americans (n = 4,462) and Whites (n = 4,470) were included. There were significant ethnic differences in health care access and health perception between Asian Americans and Whites and across Asian American subgroups. Health risk behaviors moderated relationships between cultural factors and health care access and outcome. Findings reveal that ethnicity affects an individual's health care access and health perception, and their health behaviors are an important factor that may improve or worsen outcomes. This study may increase our knowledge base of research and interventions to enhance ethnic minority populations' health care accessibility and perceptions.     

Libraries as Partners in Health Literacy

Abstract

Health literacy is becoming an important issue for nurses, pharmacists, health educators, and other health professionals. Studies are currently suggesting that low health literacy affects health care budgets, health outcomes, and adherence to medication regimens, not to mention an individual's ability to control or prevent illness and disease. At the same time, the amount of health information available to consumers increases every day, most of it written for a highly literate audience. National and international initiatives are developing to address the issue of health literacy, but few consider the library an obvious partner for these important projects. This paper overviews the key issues surrounding health literacy, outlining several initiatives and the methodologies used to evaluate levels of health literacy. Strategies for developing easy-to-read health materials will be explored. Finally, possible roles for libraries and librarians in health literacy will be examined, along with suggestions for further reading.     

Welfare Reform and Children's Health

This study investigates the effect of the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program on children's health outcomes using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation over the period 1994 to 2005. The TANF policies have been credited with increased employment for single mothers and a dramatic drop in welfare caseload. Our results show that these policies also had a significant effect on various measures of children's medical utilization among low‐income families. These health measures include a rating of the child's health status reported by the parents, the number of times that parents consulted a doctor, and the number of nights that the child stayed in a hospital. We compare the overall changes of health status and medical utilization for children with working and nonworking mothers. We find that the child's health status as reported by the parents is affected by the maternal employment status. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Friendship,sexual intimacy and young people’s negotiations of sexual health

Abstract

This paper examines how young people’s friendships influence safer sexual practices. Through a thematic discourse analysis, interviews with Sydney-based young people (aged 18–25 years) and Australian-based sexual health websites for young people are considered. Interview data illustrate how friendships can support young people's sexual experiences, concerns and safeties beyond the practice of ‘safe sex’ (condom use). This is evident in friends’ practices of sex and relationship advice, open dialogue, trust and sharing experiential knowledge, as well as friend-based sex. Meanwhile, friendship discourse from selected Australian sexual health websites fails to engage with the support offered by friendship, or its value to a sexual health agenda. Foucault’s account of friendship as a space of self-invention is considered in light of these data, along with his argument that friendship poses a threat to formal systems of knowing and regulating sex. Whether sexual or not, many close friendships are sexually intimate given the knowledge, support and influence these offer to one’s sexual practices and relations. This paper argues that greater attention to friendship among sexual health promoters and researchers would improve professional engagements with young people’s contemporary sexual cultures, and better inform their attempts to engage young people through social media.     

Testing for family influences on obesity: The role of genetic nurture

A large literature has documented strong positive correlations among siblings in health, including body mass index (BMI) and obesity. This paper tests whether that is explained by a specific type of peer effect in obesity: genetic nurture. Specifically, we test whether an individual's weight is affected by the genes of their sibling, controlling for the individual's own genes. Using genetic data in Add Health, we find no credible evidence that an individual's BMI is affected by the polygenic risk score for BMI of their full sibling when controlling for the individual's own polygenic risk score for BMI. Thus, we find no evidence that the positive correlations in BMI between siblings are attributable to genetic nurture within families.     

The impact of health on retirement behaviour: empirical evidence from West Germany

In this paper, the relative importance of an individual's health status on retirement behaviour is analysed within the framework of a structural, discrete-time hazard rate model which is estimated using a balanced panel of elderly West German men. The results obtained reveal that the presence of chronic complaints or disability have a significant positive impact on the probability of early retirement. Moreover, the relative intensity of the individual preference for leisure appears to be, ceteris paribus, below average among public sector employees. Education, too, is shown to exert considerable influence on retirement behaviour, but the relationship between an individual's educational status and the probability of early retirement appears to be rather complex. A policy-related simulation experiment based on the estimates is carried out in order to assess the effects of changes in the incentive structure of the existing pension scheme. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

教育对健康的影响及其作用机制研究——基于中国家庭追踪调查的实证分析

目的：研究个体教育水平对健康的影响,分析教育对健康的作用机制。方法：利用CFPS2020数据,通过Logit模型与线性回归分析教育水平对健康是否存在影响,运用中介效应分析对其作用机制进行探讨。结果：以身体不适、自评健康和心理健康为因变量,受教育年限的提升对个体健康存在显著正效应,但高等教育个体中该效应不显著;中介效应分析显示,以代表健康行为的吸烟、锻炼和代表预算约束的收入水平为中介变量,教育对健康的中介作用存在,支持健康行为说和预算约束说。结论：教育对健康存在正向影响,但其主要体现在初中等教育阶段;更高的受教育年限促使个体通过改善健康行为和收入,进而提高健康水平。     

The Role of Culture in Health Literacy and Chronic Disease Screening and Management

Cultural and language differences and socioeconomic status interact with and contribute to low health literacy, defined as the inability to understand or act on medical/therapeutic instructions. Health literacy is increasingly recognized as an important factor in patient compliance, cancer screening utilization, and chronic disease outcomes. Commendable efforts have been initiated by the American Medical Association and other organizations to address low health literacy among patients. Less work has been done, however, to place health literacy in the broader context of socioeconomic and cultural differences among patients and providers that hinder communication and compliance. This review examines cultural influences on health literacy, cancer screening and chronic disease outcomes. We argue that cultural beliefs around health and illness contribute to an individual’s ability to understand and act on a health care provider’s instructions. This paper proposes key aspects of the intersection between health literacy and culturally varying beliefs about health which merit further exploration.     

Women's Health Policies Associated with Obesity,Diabetes, High Blood Pressure,and Smoking: A Follow-Up on the Women's Health Report Card

ABSTRACT

This study sought to elucidate associations between state-level policies related to women's health and state prevalence of obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes among women. Using data from national sources compiled for Making the Grade on Women's Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card, state policies on key women's health issues were evaluated on the degree to which policies adequately protected women's health. Blocked regressions assessed the policies associated with state outcomes. Anti-discrimination policies were prominent for high blood pressure, smoking, and obesity; models accounted for significant variance for all outcomes. State policies that support women may improve women's health.     

Community Networks and Health Information Providers: A Natural Partnership

Abstract

The model of the community network has many applications for health service organizations wishing to disseminate information to a broad base of the population. This article discusses the development of community networks, and the benefits these networks offer health information providers and members of the community in an era when increasing emphasis is being placed on the individual's responsibility for health and wellness. The evolution of the partnership between health information providers and community networks is discussed by looking at the development of the Saskatoon Free-Net's Health and Wellness area.     

Complex Living Arrangements and Child Health: Examining Family Structure Linkages with Children's Health Outcomes

Using data on 67,558 children (age 0 to 17) from the 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America's Families, the association between complex living arrangements and children's health is examined. The authors consider children residing in a wide range of living arrangements, including with stepparents, single fathers, custodial grandparents, and nonkin foster parents. Findings suggest that children's health varies by family structure. The authors find a key role for living with a biological father when predicting children's health. Children living with a single father are less likely to have poor health outcomes than most other groups, whereas those with a stepfather have reduced health outcomes. The same is not true for those living with a single mother or stepmother. Children being raised by a grandparent and those in foster care have particularly poor health outcomes. Mediation analysis suggests income and health insurance status do not explain these relationships.     

Ill-health as a household norm: Evidence from other people's health problems

This paper proposes that an individual's self-assessed health (SAH) does not only suffer from systematic reporting bias and adaptation bias but is also biased owing to confounding health norm effects. Using 13 waves of the British Household Panel Survey covering the period 1991–2005, I show that, while there is a negative and statistically significant correlation between SAH and individuals' own health problem index, this negative effect reduces with the average number of health problems per (other) family member. The relative health bias is small, however, which implies that measures of SAH may not suffer seriously from systematic health norm bias. This is an important finding for researchers working with SAH data as it indicates that we do not have to worry too much about controlling for confounding influences from the health of other household members when estimating SAH regression equations.     

Wives’ Domain‐Specific “Marriage Work” with Friends and Spouses: Links to Marital Quality*

This study examined the friendship experiences of 52 wives and mothers, with particular attention given to wives’ marriage work (discussions about concerns and problems in the marriage) in 10 domains with friends and spouses. A series of within‐subjects repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) indicated that in all but two domains, wives were equally likely to talk to their spouses and their close friends about marital concerns. A series of hierarchical regression analyses tested whether women's marriage work with their spouses moderated the link between marriage work with friends and reports of marital quality. Support for moderation was found for reports of conflict or negativity and satisfaction. Implications for family practitioners and programming are discussed.     

Effects of health insurance on birth weight in Mexico

This paper estimates the effect of mother's insurance coverage on neonatal outcomes in Mexico using hospital‐based administrative data. Using an instrumental variable approach to identify the causal effects of health insurance on infant health, we find that mother's insurance coverage has positive impacts on neonatal outcomes. Children born to insured mothers weighed 108 g higher and had reduced probability of low birth weight by 7.5 percentage points. These effects appear to be stronger for mothers with higher levels of education and in municipalities with a higher development index. Findings indicate that expanding insurance coverage could be helpful in improving neonatal outcomes in resource‐constrained countries.     

SARS Wars: An Examination of the Quantity and Construction of Health Information in the News Media

The media have the power to sway public perception of health issues by choosing what to publish and the context in which to present information. The media may influence an individual's tendency to overestimate the risk of some health issues while underestimating the risk of others, ultimately influencing health choices. Although some research has been conducted to examine the number of articles on selected health topics, little research has examined how the messages are constructed. The purpose of this article is to describe an examination of the construction of news reports on health topics using aspects of the social amplification of risk model and the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion for theoretical direction. One hundred news media reports (print, radio, television, and Internet) were analyzed in terms of message repetition, context, source, and grammar. Results showed that health topics were more often discussed in terms of risk, by credible sources using strong language. This content analysis provides an empirical starting point for future research into how such health news may influence consumer's perceptions of health topics.     

Using the person trade-off approach to examine differences between individual and social values

Health state valuations, elicited by methods such as the standard gamble and the time trade-off, give an indication of the value that an individual attaches to particular health states. As measures of individual values, it has been argued that such valuations serve as poor proxies for social preferences, which, it is suggested, are a function of other factors, such as the initial severity of the patient's health state. The person trade-off (PTO) method has been proposed as a technique which takes account of many of these other factors. This paper reports on a study using the PTO to investigate whether an individual's preferences over treatments for themselves differ from their preferences when they are asked to think about the treatment of other people. The results suggest that there is indeed a difference, although qualitative data suggests that health gain is an important determinant of social value. This latter finding runs counter to those of a number of other studies which suggest that concerns about pre-treatment severity are as, if not more, important. Possible explanations for the differences are put forward. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accessing emergency contraception: the role of friends in the adolescent experience

This paper focuses on the findings of a qualitative study that explored adolescent experiences of accessing emergency hormonal contraception (EHC). It describes how anticipated judgements and associated feelings of embarrassment and shame were dealt with through friendship. The paper outlines how, contrary to the notion of the ‘mean girl’, friends assumed crucial supporting roles which included confidante, advisor, and motivator. In some cases this included physically accompanying hesitant friends to sexual health services. The narrative brought to light how friends often kept each other on the straight and narrow, providing a sharp contrast to the image of irresponsible or shameless adolescents. Being this friend was transformative, offering a kind of reform that allowed a shift from the perceived label of promiscuous risk taker to that of informal advisor and supporter. The study concluded that friends were instrumental in the successful negotiation of the powerful discourses of risk and responsibility in the health arena and that this example of female solidarity at a time of crisis potentially plays a key role in adolescent sexual health.     

Health,health care,and the environment. Econometric evidence from German micro data

The paper develops and applies a Grossman-style health production model set up in discrete time to explain the impact of environmental pollution on the demand for both health and health care. In order to introduce the environment, our analysis takes changes in environmental conditions to influence the rate at which an individual's stock of health depreciates. While the theoretical part of our paper also contains a discussion of the full model, we restrict our empirical analysis to a submodel which is known as the pure investment model. This is because the other submodel, the pure consumption model, implies a rather implausible case of satiation with respect to the individual's preferences. Our empirical findings are based on data taken from the German Socio-economic Panel. The stock of health capital and environmental pollution are treated as latent variables and estimated using a Linear Covariance Structures model. The quality of the environment turns out to be an important determinant of health capital. From the point of view of health economics, improvements in environmental conditions can be interpreted as preventive measures. In terms of prevention, public policies designed to protect the environment also yield significant health effects. As regards health care demand the influence is not clearcut, i.e., one cannot necessarily expect a reduction in resource use.