Labor and women's nutrition : a study of energy expenditure, fertility, and nutritional status in Ghana

Economic approaches to health and nutrition have focused largely on measures of child nutrition and related variables (such as birth weight) as indicators of household production of nutritional outcomes. But when dealing with adult nutrition, economists have to address an issue that has generated tremendous controversy in the clinical nutrition literature. That issue is heterogeneity in an individual's energy expenditures. Preschoolers'energy expenditure also differs, but the differences are small enough to be ignored. Not so for adults, whose waking hours are devoted mostly to labor activities of which the energy costs vary enormously. Variables measuring time allocation to various types of labor tasks were used to proxy differences in energy expenditure. Parity has also been hypothesized to be an important determinant of female nutritional health in high fertility countries - with rapid reproductive cycling contributing to a cumulative nutritional decline. But the"maternal depletion syndrome"remains controversial. Much of the evidence to date has been impressionistic - or the results of studies based on small, nonrandom cohorts. Higgins and Alderman used a two-step instrumental variables technique to get consistent estimates of the structural parameters. Energy expenditure, as embodied in individual time allocations over the previous seven days, was found to be an important determinant of women's nutritional status. Time devoted to agricultural tasks, in particular, had a strong negative effect. The results also appear to confirm the existence of a maternal depletion syndrome. Perhaps more important, evidence was found of a substantial downward bias of the calorie-elasticity estimate when the energy expenditure proxies were excluded.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research

Groundwater trends in the Esperance sandplain and malleee sub-regions

The South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) has divided the South Coast region of Western Australia into six sub-regions. The Esperance Sandplain and Mallee subregions encompass the Esperance agricultural district, which contains about 1.5 million hectares of agricultural land. This publication describes the groundwater trends, risk of shallow watertables, and technical feasibility of salinity management in the soil-landscape zones within the Esperance agricultural district

Beaumont-Condingup area : catchment appraisal 2002

Using the Rapid Catchment Appraisal process, this report summarises current information for the Beaumont - Condingup area, east of Esperance. The object of the Rapid Catchment Appraisal is to assess the condition of, and future risks to agricultural and natural resources, and provide information for reducing those risks within geographic catchments and attempts to identify the most suitable options to manage these risks

Attrition in longitudinal household survey data

Longitudinal household data can have considerable advantages over much more widely used cross-sectional data. The collection of longitudinal data, however, may be difficult and expensive. One problem that has concerned many analysts is that sample attrition may make the interpretation of estimates problematic. Such attrition may be particularly severe in areas where there is considerable mobility because of migration between rural and urban areas. Many analysts share the intuition that attrition is likely to be selective on characteristics such as schooling and that high attrition is likely to bias estimates made from longitudinal data. This paper considers the extent of and implications of attrition for three longitudinal household surveys from Bolivia, Kenya, and South Africa that report very high per-year attrition rates between survey rounds. Our estimates indicate that (1) the means for a number of critical outcome and family background variables differ significantly between attritors and nonattritors; (2) a number of family background variables are significant predictors of attrition; but (3) nevertheless, the coefficient estimates for “standard” family background variables in regressions and probit equations for the majority of the outcome variables considered in all three data sets are not affected significantly by attrition. Therefore, attrition apparently is not a general problem for obtaining consistent estimates of the coefficients of interest for most of these outcomes. These results, which are very similar to results for developed economies, suggest that for these outcome variables—despite suggestions of systematic attrition from univariate comparisons between attritors and nonattritors, multivariate estimates of behavioral relations of interest may not be biased due to attrition.Household surveys Methodology ,

Attrition in longitudinal household survey data

Longitudinal household data can have considerable advantages over much more widely used cross-sectional data. The collection of longitudinal data, however, may be difficult and expensive. One problem that has concerned many analysts is that sample attrition may make the interpretation of estimates problematic. Such attrition may be particularly severe in areas where there is considerable mobility because of migration between rural and urban areas. Many analysts share the intuition that attrition is likely to be selective on characteristics such as schooling and that high attrition is likely to bias estimates made from longitudinal data. This paper considers the extent of and implications of attrition for three longitudinal household surveys from Bolivia, Kenya, and South Africa that report very high per-year attrition rates between survey rounds. Our estimates indicate that (1) the means for a number of critical outcome and family background variables differ significantly between attritors and nonattritors; (2) a number of family background variables are significant predictors of attrition; but (3) nevertheless, the coefficient estimates for “standard” family background variables in regressions and probit equations for the majority of the outcome variables considered in all three data sets are not affected significantly by attrition. Therefore, attrition apparently is not a general problem for obtaining consistent estimates of the coefficients of interest for most of these outcomes. These results, which are very similar to results for developed economies, suggest that for these outcome variables—despite suggestions of systematic attrition from univariate comparisons between attritors and nonattritors, multivariate estimates of behavioral relations of interest may not be biased due to attrition.Household surveys Methodology ,

Attrition in longitudinal household survey data - some tests for three developing-country samples

For capturing dynamic demographic relationships, longitudinal household data can have considerable advantages over more widely used cross-sectional data. But because the collection of longitudinal data may be difficult and expensive, analysts must assess the magnitudes of the problems, specific to longitudinal, but not to cross-sectional data. One problem that concerns many analysts is that sample attrition may make the interpretation of estimates problematic. Such attrition may be especially severe where there is considerable migration between rural, and urban areas. And attrition is likely to be selective on such characteristics as schooling, so high attrition is likely to bias estimates. The authors consider the extent, and implications of attrition for three longitudinal household surveys from Bolivia, Kenya, and South Africa that report very high annual attrition rates between survey rounds. Their estimates indicate that: 1) the means for a number of critical outcome, and family background variables differ significantly between those who are lost to follow-up, and those who are re-interviewed. 2) A number of family background variables are significant predictors of attrition. 3) Nevertheless, the coefficient estimates for standard family background variables in regressions, and probit equations for the majority of outcome variables in all three data sets, are not significantly affected by attrition. So attrition is apparently not a general problem for obtaining consistent estimates of the coefficients of interest for most of these outcomes. These results, which are very similar to those for industrial countries, suggest that multivariate estimates of behavioral relations may not be biased because of attrition. This wold support the collection of longitudinal data.Statistical&Mathematical Sciences,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Educational Sciences,Science Education,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Poverty Assessment,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences

The case for the development and use of "ecologically valid" measures of executive function in experimental and clinical neuropsychology

This article considers the scientific process whereby new and better clinical tests of executive function might be developed, and what form they might take. We argue that many of the traditional tests of executive function most commonly in use (e.g., the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; Stroop) are adaptations of procedures that emerged almost coincidentally from conceptual and experimental frameworks far removed from those currently in favour, and that the prolongation of their use has been encouraged by a sustained period of concentration on “construct-driven” experimentation in neuropsychology. This resulted from the special theoretical demands made by the field of executive function, but was not a necessary consequence, and may not even have been a useful one. Whilst useful, these tests may not therefore be optimal for their purpose. We consider as an alternative approach a function-led development programme which in principle could yield tasks better suited to the concerns of the clinician because of the transparency afforded by increased “representativeness” and “generalisability.” We further argue that the requirement of such a programme to represent the interaction between the individual and situational context might also provide useful constraints for purely experimental investigations. We provide an example of such a programme with reference to the Multiple Errands and Six Element tests

The Role of Personality, Self-Disclosure, and Envy in Maladaptive Social Media Engagement

Through online social networks, individuals establish and maintain social connections to satisfy their need to belong. Recent research suggests that taken too far, one’s need to belong can increase envy and lead to maladaptive social media behavior aligned with obsessive-compulsive disorder. This study examines the role of two personality traits, one’s intrinsic need to belong and trait reactance, on feelings of envy and the self-disclosure processes that lead to obsessive-compulsive disorder on social networks. A sample of 354 U.S. adult users of Facebook completed a survey measuring individuals’ need to belong, trait reactance, envy, self-disclosure, and online social network obsessive-compulsive disorder. Regression analyses reveal that need to belong and trait reactance both independently and interactively relate to envy, and that self-disclosure mediates the relationship between envy and obsessive-compulsive disorder on social networks. Those with low trait reactance appear at the lowest risk of online social network OCD no matter their need to belong. The highest risk profile for online OCD is found in those with both high trait reactance and high need to belong. Overall, our findings support further exploration of one’s intrinsic need to belong and trait reactance as personality indicators of risk for online social network OCD

Effect on weight gain of routinely giving albendazole to preschool children during child health days in Uganda: cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective: To estimate the effectiveness of delivering an anthelmintic through a community child health programme on the weight gain of preschool children in Uganda. Design: Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting: Eastern Uganda. Participants: 48 parishes participating in a new programme for child health: 24 offered children an additional service of anthelmintic treatment. The outcome is based on measurements from 27 995 children. Intervention: Treatment of children aged between 1 and 7 years with 400 mg albendazole added to standard services offered during child health days over a three year period. Main outcome measure Weight gain. Results: The provision of periodic anthelmintic treatment as a part of child health services in Uganda resulted in an increase in weight gain of about 10% (166 g per child per year, 95% confidence interval 16 to 316) above expected weight gain when treatments were given twice a year, and an increase of 5% when the treatment was given annually. Conclusion: Deworming of preschool children in Uganda as part of regularly scheduled health services seems practical and associated with increased weight gain