Economics & Human Biology最新文献

{"title":"COVID-19, deaths at home and end-of-life cancer care","authors":"Anastasia Arabadzhyan,&nbsp;Katja Grašič,&nbsp;Peter Sivey","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101338","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101338","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic there was a period of high excess deaths from cancer at home as opposed to in hospitals or in care homes. In this paper we aim to explore whether healthcare utilisation trajectories of cancer patients in the final months of life during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal any potential unmet healthcare need. We use English hospital records linked to data on all deaths in and out of hospital which identifies the cause and location of death.</p><p>Our analysis shows that during the periods of peak COVID-19 caseload, patients dying of cancer experienced up to 42% less hospital treatment in their final month of life compared to historical controls. We find reductions in end-of-life hospital care for cancer patients dying in hospitals, care homes/hospices and at home, however the effect is amplified by the shift to more patients dying at home. Through the first year of the pandemic in England, we estimate the number of inpatient bed-days for end-of-life cancer patients in their final month reduced by approximately 282,282, or 25%.</p><p>For outpatient appointments in the final month of life we find a reduction in face-to-face appointments and an increase in remote appointments which persists through the pandemic year and is not confined only to the periods of peak COVID-19 caseload.</p><p>Our results suggest reductions in care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to unmet need, and future emergency reorganisations of health care systems must ensure consistent care provision for vulnerable groups such as cancer patients.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101338"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23001193/pdfft?md5=33817fccd9dee4cff6721931620da290&pid=1-s2.0-S1570677X23001193-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138745972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fertility and immigration: Do immigrant mothers hand down their fertility pattern to the next generation? Evidence from Norway","authors":"Jostein Grytten ,&nbsp;Irene Skau ,&nbsp;Rune Sørensen","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101339","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101339","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We examined whether the fertility pattern of immigrant mothers is handed down to the next generation. Our analyses were carried out on population register data. These data contained information on all immigrants to Norway from 123 countries during the period 1935–1995. We examined whether there was a relationship between the fertility rate in the country of origin and the number of children for generations 1.5 and 2 in Norway. We estimated three models: fixed effects for country of origin, fixed effects for region, and no fixed effects. The three specifications yielded estimates with overlapping confidence intervals. We interpret the estimates from the models with fixed effects for region, and the model with no fixed effects as upper-bound estimates. They show that an increase of 1.00 in the fertility rate in the country of origin leads to an average increase in the number of children of 0.12 (no fixed effects) or 0.14 (fixed effects for region) for immigrant women in generations 1.5 and 2. The estimate from the model with fixed effects for country of origin was small and not statistically significant at the conventional level. We interpret this as a lower-bound estimate. Our upper-bound estimates for generations 1.5 and 2 are smaller than the estimates for generation 1, i.e. there has been a decrease in the fertility rate from the first to the second generation. As a result, if the proportion of the population with an immigrant background continues to increase, it may increase at a slower rate in the future.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101339"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X2300120X/pdfft?md5=84c11eec362e946351338984d5659299&pid=1-s2.0-S1570677X2300120X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138562730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Changing the mindsets? Education and the intergenerational spread of tolerance for physical violence against women in Zimbabwe","authors":"Marshall Makate ,&nbsp;Chamunorwa Nyamuranga","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101345","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101345","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We investigate the relationship between childhood exposure to interparental violence and adult tolerance for violent beliefs against women. For individuals who have witnessed parental violence in childhood, our analysis suggests a 14.3–15.2 percentage point (pp) increase in tolerance, highlighting the transmission of violent beliefs across generations. Leveraging Zimbabwe’s 1980 education reform as a natural experiment through a regression discontinuity design, we explore the potential of increased education to disrupt this intergenerational transmission. The reform led to an approximately two-year increase in female education, with a more pronounced impact in rural areas. This educational boost is associated with an estimated 4.1–7.9 pp reduction in tolerance for violence, especially among those who witnessed parental violence in childhood. We identify four primary mechanisms contributing to this reduction in tolerance: enhanced access to information, increased help-seeking behaviours, improved labour market outcomes, and higher educational levels among partners. Our findings underscore the effectiveness of educational policies in reducing tolerance for violence against women within low-income contexts such as Zimbabwe, thereby disrupting its intergenerational transmission. Moreover, these results emphasise the potential of education-based interventions in addressing the broader issue of violence against women in low-income countries.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101345"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23001260/pdfft?md5=4d2fc6fc447557d8b37507a9fc4baa92&pid=1-s2.0-S1570677X23001260-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139022421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exposure to Islamophobia: The impacts of an increased risk of bullying victimization on human capital","authors":"J. Gabriel Romero-Ciavatto,&nbsp;Serafima Chirkova","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101344","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101344","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We use the shock caused by terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, to study the short- and long-term consequences of exposure to Islamophobia in high-school-aged youths. Our estimates show an immediate sharp increase in rates of identity-based bullying against Arab/Muslim youths relative to youths of other ethnic groups during the years 2001-2003. We also find exposure to Islamophobia increased school dropout rates by 4.11% among US-born male youths of Arab-Muslim origin, which is a large effect from a baseline of 4.6% of school dropout rate in the affected population. In the long term, however, we find no significant effect on educational attainment among the affected population. The data suggest Arab-Muslim male youths born in 1989 were 8.34% more likely to resort to GED tests as a means of obtaining high school credentials after the attacks. We find full-time male workers born in 1984 earn 12.8% less than similar workers who were unexposed to Islamophobia. Moreover, full-time male Arab-Muslim workers born between 1983 and 1985 are between 9% and 12.5% more likely to be in the first quintile of the state-of-residence-year-wage distribution than similar workers who were not exposed to Islamophobia.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101344"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23001259/pdfft?md5=39e50001aeca95527e336d9a42c517e7&pid=1-s2.0-S1570677X23001259-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138988795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the effectiveness of international government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Héctor López-Mendoza ,&nbsp;María A. González-Álvarez ,&nbsp;Antonio Montañés","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101353","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101353","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical measures adopted by governments to control the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a Panel VAR model for the OECD countries, we test for Granger causality between the 7-day cumulative incidence, mortality rate, and government response indexes. Granger-type statistics reveal evidence that the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the measures taken by governments. However, limited or nonexistent evidence supports the reverse situation. This suggests that government measures were not highly effective in controlling the pandemic. While not implying total ineffectiveness, our results indicate a considerable lack of efficacy, emphasizing a lesson for governments to learn from and correct in preparation for similar events in the future.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101353"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X24000054/pdfft?md5=6ff2320721304a68b3b13ccde5aff6fa&pid=1-s2.0-S1570677X24000054-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139507558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Health inequality and health insurance coverage: The United States and China compared","authors":"Joan Costa-Font ,&nbsp;Frank Cowell ,&nbsp;Xuezhu Shi","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101346","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101346","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study inequality<span> in the distribution of self-assessed health (SAH) in the United States and China, two large countries that have expanded their insurance provisions in recent decades, but that lack universal coverage and differ in other social determinants<span> of health. Using comparable health survey data from China and the United States, we compare health inequality trends throughout the period covering the public health insurance coverage expansions in the two countries. We find that whether SAH inequality is greater in the US or in China depends on the concept of status and the inequality-sensitivity parameter used; however, the regional pattern of SAH inequality is clearly associated with health-insurance coverage expansions in the US but not significant in China.</span></span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101346"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139022422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The illness trap: The impact of disability benefits on willingness to receive HCV treatment","authors":"Marta Giachello ,&nbsp;Lucia Leporatti ,&nbsp;Rosella Levaggi ,&nbsp;Marcello Montefiori","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101352","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101352","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Health care<span> is assumed to be a primary good, implying that patients should always demand or accept treatments<span> that may enhance their life expectancy and quality of life<span>, especially if the risks associated with the treatment are low. We argue that, especially in countries with a well-developed welfare state, treating an invalidating condition may lead to opportunity costs in terms of reduced disability allowances that may represent a barrier to treatment for low-income individuals. We test this hypothesis by applying a recursive bivariate probit approach to population data from an ad hoc administrative database for Liguria (an Italian administrative region). The dataset includes data for more than 8 thousand people affected by hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection between 2013 and 2020. After the discovery of new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) in 2014, HCV eradication may now be possible. However, despite the national and international efforts, several patients diagnosed with HCV choose not to undergo drug therapy despite the adverse consequences for their personal health and relevant costs to the national </span></span></span></span>health system<span>. We show that five years after the implementation of the new drugs<span>, approximately 41 % of the diagnosed population in Liguria remains untreated. This percentage increases to 64 % within the subgroup entitled to disability benefits and characterized by lower income levels. The “illness trap” effect is more substantial for older people but also low-income patients. Moreover, we find that this effect is higher in patients with an intermediate range of comorbidities; indeed, these patients are at a higher risk of losing economic benefits if they recover from HCV. These results suggest the need for healthcare policies addressing this distorting effect when designing benefit programs and granting financial benefits to patients.</span></span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101352"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139495865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Birth order and children’s health and learning outcomes in India","authors":"Arjita Chandna ,&nbsp;Priya Bhagowalia","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101348","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101348","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>India has a high prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age, despite marginal improvement over the years. In 2019–21, 35.5 per cent of children below five years were stunted (National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 2019–21). This has been attributed to several factors including open defecation, poor maternal nutrition and food insecurity. This paper examines if the birth order of children is associated with variation in height among them, using nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS 2005 &amp; 2011). The objectives of this paper are to: (i) assess the association of a child’s birth order with height (ii) test if the association of birth order with height changes with the degree of son preference (iii) analyse the relationship between birth order and educational outcomes of children. Our results suggest that (i) the height-for-age z score is negatively associated with the birth order of the child (ii) the negative association of birth order with height is stronger for mothers who have a moderate or high degree of son preference, especially when children have an older brother (iii) maternal characteristics such as education could mitigate the negative relationship between birth order and height when son preference is low but not when son preference is high (iv) birth order has a negative association with the reading, writing and mathematical ability of children, especially if the child was stunted in childhood. This indicates that the fertility behaviour of families has both a direct and an indirect impact, which could influence both long term nutrition and education of children.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101348"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139068933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Deforestation and child health in Cambodia","authors":"Gabriel Fuentes Cordoba","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101343","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101343","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>The impact of deforestation<span><span> on child nutrition and health in poor regions of the world is a crucial topic to understand some of the implications of climate change on the </span>wellbeing of the most vulnerable populations. I combine precise forest loss data with geocoded data from the Cambodian Demographic Health Surveys to investigate the impact of deforestation around the time of </span></span>birth on child heath. In the baseline analysis I find that exposure to prenatal deforestation lowers birth weight, height-for-age z-scores and weight-for-age z-scores. I explore whether malaria exposure in utero is a potential channel to understand the baseline results. The findings indicate that pregnant women in areas with high rates of deforestation are more likely to be anemic, a proxy for malaria infection.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101343"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138743699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cigarette packaging, warnings, prices, and contraband: A discrete choice experiment among smokers in Ontario, Canada","authors":"G. Emmanuel Guindon ,&nbsp;Emmanouil Mentzakis ,&nbsp;Neil J. Buckley","doi":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In Canada, despite substantial decline, tobacco use remains the leading risk factor responsible for mortality and morbidity. There is overwhelming evidence that higher tobacco taxes reduce tobacco use, even if high taxes create an incentive to avoid or evade tobacco taxes. Recently, in addition to taxes, plain and standardized packaging and printing a warning on each cigarette have been lauded to reduce tobacco use. In November 2019, Canada became the country with the most comprehensive cigarette packaging regulations; and in June 2022, Canada proposed to print health warnings on individual cigarettes, the first jurisdiction to ever do so. The regulations came into force on August 1, 2023, and are being implemented through a stepwise approach. Our objective was to examine the effects of plain and standardized packaging, warning on cigarettes, price, and the availability of illicit cigarettes on intention to purchase and risk perceptions. We conducted a discrete choice experiment, and examined heterogeneity in preferences using latent class models among smokers in Ontario, Canada. We found that using latent class analyses was essential in quantifying preferences for attributes of cigarettes and cigarette packs. First, nearly half of smokers stated a preference for cheaper illicit cigarettes in a branded pack without any health warnings, regardless of the licit cigarette alternatives. For about 20% of respondents, plain packaging and especially warning on cigarette sticks decreased the probability of stating a purchasing preference for these alternatives. Third, about a third of respondents chose competing alternatives with mostly one attribute in mind, price. Lastly, none of the products and attributes seem to have significantly influenced risk perception. Our findings attest to the importance of prices and taxes, to the potential of warnings on cigarette sticks to control tobacco use, and indicate that efforts to restrict the availability of illicit cigarettes may yield substantial benefits.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50554,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Human Biology","volume":"52 ","pages":"Article 101340"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23001211/pdfft?md5=020361c0f589b4d1064ff4743a355bc6&pid=1-s2.0-S1570677X23001211-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138685081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}