More trust among those who have moreThe impact of capital and perceived inequality on political trust

Í lýðræðisríkjum er mikilvægt að einstaklingarnir beri traust til stjórnmála við- komandi lands, sér í lagi til þjóðþingsins og þeirra sem þar sitja. Markmiðið með þessari rannsókn er að skoða, með yfirgripsmeiri hætti en áður hefur verið gert, hvernig staða einstaklinga í lagskiptingu íslensks samfélags mótar stjórn- málatraust þeirra. Gögnin koma úr Íslensku félagsvísindakönnuninni sem lögð var fyrir árið 2020. Niðurstöðurnar voru túlkaðar út frá stéttakenningu franska félagsfræðingsins Pierres Bourdieu, sem kveður á um að stéttarstaða ráðist ekki aðeins af efnahagslegu auðmagni heldur einnig menningarlegu, félagslegu og táknrænu auðmagni. Við kynnum jafnframt til sögunnar nýjar og ítarlegar mælingar okkar á þessum helstu víddum auðmagns. Niðurstöður okkar benda til þess að efna- hagslegt auðmagn (kaupgeta) og táknrænt auðmagn (huglæg virðingarstaða) auki stjórnmálatraust, að hluta til vegna þess að þeir sem búa yfir miklu auð- magni telja síður að tekjuójöfnuður hérlendis sé vandamál.Political trust is important in democratic societies, especially people‘s trust in the national parliament and its members. The aim of this study is to examine, in a more comprehensive manner than previously, how individual position in the Icelandic stratificaton system shapes political trust. The data come from the Icelandic Social Science Survey gathered in 2020. The findings are interepreted by drawing on the class theory of French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, which holds that class position is not only shaped by economic capital, but also cul- tural, social, and symbolic capital. Moreover, we introduce new measures of these major dimensions of capital. Our findings suggest that economic capital (purchasing power) and symbolic capital (subjective prestige) increase political trust, partly because those with high levels of capital are less likely to consider income inequality in Iceland a problemPeer reviewe

Smoking, obesity and education of Icelandic women by rural-urban residence

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn Skoða/Opna(view/open)OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of obesity and the association with smoking and education among young Icelandic women residing within and outside the capital area. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 28.000 Icelandic women, 18-45 years-old, in the period November 2004 to June 2005. The sample was randomly selected from The National Registry, response rate being 54.6%. The study was part of a large Nordic population-based cross-sectional study. Logistic regression was used for assessing the odds ratio of obesity (BMI > or = 30) in a multivariate analysis according to smoking and education, taking also into account age and alcohol consumption. The chi-square test was used for comparing percentages. RESULTS: Thirteen percent of women residing in the capital area were obese compared with 21% outside the capital. In the multivariate analysis obesity was increased among women living outside the capital (OR = 1.66; 95% CI 1,50-1,83), among smokers (OR=1,13; 95% CI 1.01-1.28), and among women who did not have university education (OR=1.53; 95%CI 1.36-1.71). Daily smokers within the capital area were more likely to be obese (OR=1.27; 95%CI 1.07-1.49) but not smokers outside the capital (OR=1.0). . CONCLUSIONS: Residence outside the capital area, daily smoking and non-university education are associated with an increased risk of obesity among young Icelandic women. The relationship between these factors is complex and differs between women residing within and outside the capital area.Tilgangur: Að kanna algengi offitu og tengsl hennar við reykingar og menntun meðal ungra kvenna innan og utan höfuðborgarsvæðisins. Efniviður og aðferðir: Spurningalisti var sendur til 28.000 íslenskra kvenna, 18-45 ára, frá nóvember 2004 til júní 2005. Lagskipt slembiúrtak var fengið úr Þjóðskrá, heildarsvörun var 54,6%. Könnunin er hluti af stórri, norrænni lýðgrundaðri þversniðsrannsókn. Beitt var lógistískri aðhvarfsgreiningu og reiknað gagnlíkindahlutfall (OR) fyrir offitu (BMI³30) og 95% öryggisbil (CI) þar sem tekið var tillit til búsetu, menntunar, aldurs, reykinga og áfengisneyslu. Notað var kí-kvaðratspróf til að bera saman hlutföll. Niðurstöður: 13% kvenna af höfuðborgarsvæðinu flokkuðust með offitu borið saman við 21% utan svæðisins. Fjölbreytugreining sýndi að líkur á offitu voru marktækt hærri meðal kvenna utan en innan höfuðborgarsvæðis (OR=1,66; 95% CI 1,50-1,83), meðal reykingakvenna (OR=1,13; 95% CI 1,01-1,28) og þeirra sem ekki voru með háskólamenntun (OR=1,53; 95% CI 1,36-1,71). Á höfuðborgarsvæðinu voru auknar líkur á offitu meðal kvenna sem reyktu daglega (OR=1,27; 95% CI 1,07-1,49), en ekki utan höfuðborgarsvæðis (OR=1,0). Ályktanir: Búseta utan höfuðborgarsvæðis, dag- legar reykingar og minni menntun tengjast auknum líkum á offitu meðal kvenna á Íslandi. Samspil þessara þátta er flókið og ólíkt eftir búsetu

Changes in Eating Behaviors Following Taste Education Intervention: Focusing on Children with and without Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Their Families: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Funding Information: This research was funded by the University of Iceland’s Research fund (research grant and doctoral fund) and the Public Health Fund of the Directorate of Health. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.Fussy-eating children often display problematic behaviors around mealtimes, such as irritation, opposition, or may even throw tantrums. This may lead to reduced food variety and poor nutritional profiles, which may increase parents’ worries about their children’s diet, particularly when the children also have neurodevelopmental disorders (ND) such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). To investigate the effect of Taste Education on problematic mealtime behaviors, 81 children aged 8–12 years, with ND (n = 33) and without (n = 48), and their parents, participated in a 7-week Taste Education intervention. Children were matched on age, sex, and ND, and allocated at random into Immediate-intervention and Delayed-intervention groups. Parents completed the Meals in Our Household Questionnaire (MiOH). To examine changes in MiOH-scores, repeated-measures analysis-of-variance with time-points were used, with condition as factors (Immediate intervention and Delayed intervention). Baseline measures were adjusted for, and a robust linear mixed-model was fitted. Results showed superior outcomes for Intervention compared to waiting on all measures of MiOH, with stable effects through six-month follow-up. Differences were non-significant between children with and without ND. The Taste Education program suggests a promising, simple, and non-intrusive way to reduce children’s problematic mealtime behaviors in the long term.Peer reviewe

Extending cognitive-behavioural theory and therapy to medically unexplained symptoms and long term conditions:a hybrid transdiagnostic/problem specific approach

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are not only common and distressing, but are also typically poorly managed in general medical settings. Those suffering from these problems tend to incur significantly higher health costs than the general population. There are many effective treatments for different MUS; these are almost entirely based on cognitive-behavioural approaches. However, the wide range of treatment protocols tend to be ‘syndrome specific’. As such, they do not generalise well in terms of training and application, making them expensive and difficult to disseminate, suggesting the desirability of developing a transdiagnostic approach. The general basis of such a CBT grounded transdiagnostic approach is considered, and the particular need to incorporate cognitive elements of both anxiety or health anxiety (threat) and depression (loss) is highlighted. Key empirically grounded and evidence-based processes (both specific and general) previously identified as underpinning the maintenance of MUS are delineated. The way in which these can be combined in a transdiagnostic model that accounts for most MUS presentations is presented and linked to a formulation-driven transdiagnostic treatment strategy, which is described. However, the need to take more syndrome-specific issues into account in treatment is identified, suggesting that the optimum treatment may be a hybrid transdiagnostic/specific approach with formulation, shared understanding, belief change strategies, and behavioural experiments at its heart. The generalisation of such approaches to psychological problems occurring in the context of ‘long-term conditions’ is identified as a further important development that is now within reach

Non-Cardiac Chest Pain as a Persistent Physical Symptom : Psychological Distress and Workability

Funding Information: The authors thank the Graduate Program in Agricultural Engineering of the Federal University of Campina Grande, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the financial support in carrying out this research. Funding Information: The larger study, which this study is part of, was supported by Icelandic Research Fund under Grant 152207-051 and the University Hospital Science Fund under Grant A-2019-023, A-2018-047 and A-2017-051. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.Non-Cardiac Chest Pain (NCCP) is persistent chest pain in the absence of identifiable cardiac pathology. Some NCCP cases meet criteria for Persistent Physical Symptoms (PPS), where the symptoms are both persistent and distressing/disabling. This study aimed to identify patients that might need specialist treatment for PPS by examining cases of NCCP that meet PPS criteria. We analysed data from 285 chest pain patients that had received an NCCP diagnosis after attending an emergency cardiac department. We compared NCCP patients who did and did not meet the additional criteria for heart-related PPS and hypothesised that the groups would differ in terms of psychological variables and workability. We determined that NCCP patients who meet PPS criteria were more likely than other NCCP patients to be inactive or unable to work, reported more general anxiety and anxiety about their health, were more depressed, ruminated more, and, importantly, had a higher number of other PPS. A high proportion of NCCP patients meet PPS criteria, and they are similar to other PPS patients in terms of comorbidity and disability. This highlights the importance of focusing psychological interventions for this subgroup on the interplay between the range of physical and psychological symptoms present.Peer reviewe

Evolution of deformation and stress changes during the caldera collapse and dyking at Bárdarbunga, 2014–2015: Implication for triggering of seismicity at nearby Tungnafellsjökull volcano

Stress transfer associated with an earthquake, which may result in the seismic triggering of aftershocks (earthquake–earthquake interactions) and/or increased volcanic activity (earthquake–volcano interactions), is a well-documented phenomenon. However limited studies have been undertaken concerning volcanic triggering of activity at neighbouring volcanoes (volcano–volcano interactions). Here we present new deformation and stress modelling results utilising a wealth of diverse geodetic observations acquired during the 2014–2015 unrest and eruption within the Bárdarbunga volcanic system. These comprise a combination of InSAR, GPS, LiDAR, radar profiling and optical satellite measurements. We find a strong correlation between the locations of increased seismicity at nearby Tungnafellsjökull volcano and regions of increased tensile and Coulomb stress changes. Our results suggest that stress transfer during this major event has resulted in earthquake triggering at the neighbouring Tungnafellsjökull volcano by unclamping faults within the associated fissure swarm. This work has immediate application to volcano monitoring; to distinguish the difference between stress transfer and new intrusive activity

Health Inequalities in the Nordic Countries : What We Know and What We Can Do. (2021)

Health inequalities represent a major societal threat and research has established that as long as we have social inequalities, we will have health inequalities. The Nordic countries currently lead the world in creating more equal societies. They have done so across multiple axes of inequalities, especially class- and gender-based inequalities. Despite this, research consistently finds persistent health inequalities in the Nordic countries and what is perhaps more puzzling is that these inequalities are sometimes larger than in countries with higher levels of inequality. In response, the Nordic Arena for Public Health Issues initiated a collection of indicators for health inequalities in 2017, and after reviewing 170 possible indicators, selected seven: life expectancy, self-assessed health, vegetable consumption, smoking, risk of social exclusion, physical activity among 15-year-olds, and a summary measure of income inequality. The goal is that all Nordic countries collect these indicators regularly and over-time, to enable monitoring and comparison of inequalities. To start with a good understanding of what each indicator means, this report provides a scientific overview of each. This includes discussions of why each indicator matters, and provides insights into what we know about the indicator within and outside of the Nordic countries. While the selection of the indicators represents an important first step in understanding health inequalities across the Nordic countries, they can only serve as the beginning. It is important to consider both other indicators and other sources of inequalities, for example based on immigration status. Similarly, the Nordic countries like the rest of the world face multiple challenges that are likely to increase societal inequalities. This report highlights global climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic as specific threats to our societies and consequently our health. While the exact consequences of these two ongoing, urgent crises are still unknown, one thing is certain: They will not affect all groups in society equally. The Nordic countries are in a leading position to reduce these consequences and promote social equality, but that requires careful policymaking grounded in scientific evidence on how social inequalities become health inequalities.

Þróun vinnutíma á Íslandi. Eru Íslendingar enn þrælar yfirvinnunnar?

Lögbundin vinnuvika á Íslandi er 40 klukkustundir. Þrátt fyrir þessi lög hafa Íslendingar, í gegnum árin, verið að vinna yfir 40 stundir á viku í fullu starfi. Miðað við önnur Norðurlönd eru Íslendingar að vinna flesta tíma á viku í fullu starfi. Þegar litið er til hlutastarfa eru þeir að vinna svipað marga tíma á viku og önnur Norðurlönd. Í þessari ritgerð er fjallað um þróun vinnutíma á Íslandi á árunum 1991-2013. Vinnutími er skoðaður út frá fullu starfi og hlutastarfi. Bakgrunnsbreyturnar kyn, aldur, menntun og búseta eru sérstaklega skoðaðar í sambandi við vinnutíma. Notast er við gögn frá Hagstofu Íslands til að skoða þessa þróun. Athugunin leiðir í ljós að vinnutími í fullu starfi á Íslandi er meiri en 40 tímar. Þróunin sýnir þó að fjöldi vinnutíma á viku fer fækkandi. Einnig kemur í ljós að ákveðnir hópar innan samfélagsins eru líklegri en aðrir til að vinna við hlutastörf. Þeir sem vinna helst við hlutastörf á Íslandi eru konur, 16-25 ára einstaklingar, grunnmenntaðir og einstaklingar búsettir á höfuðborgarsvæðinu