The impact of health on professionally active people's incomes in Poland. Microeconometric analysis

The outcome of the research confirms the occurrence of positive interaction between professionally active people's incomes and the self-assessed state of health. People declaring a bad state of health have incomes by 20% on average lower than people who enjoy good health (assuming that the remaining characteristics of the surveyed person are the same). In case of men, the impact of health state on incomes is slightly greater than in case of women.Wyniki badań potwierdzają istnienie pozytywnej zależności dochodów osób aktywnych zawodowo od stanu zdrowia mierzonego jego samooceną. Osoby deklarujące zły stan zdrowia osiągają dochody przeciętnie o 20% niższe niż osoby, które cieszą się dobrym stanem zdrowia (przy założeniu, że pozostałe charakterystyki badanej osoby są takie same). W przypadku mężczyzn zależność dochodów od stanu zdrowia jest nieznacznie silniejsza niż w przypadku kobiet

Mechanical and structural characterization of tibial prosthetic interfaces before and after aging under simulated service conditions

Prosthesis interface is one of the most important components to promote individual's health and comfort, as it establishes direct contact with the skin and transfers loads generated during gait. The aim of this study was to mechanically characterize, three commercial interfaces (block copolymer, silicone gel and silicone elestomer), under static and dynamic conditions, before and after undergoing a process of chemical aging in synthetic sweat for periods up to 90 days. Static mechanical compression tests were performed on the materials, as well as fatigue tests to assess their static and dynamic mechanical behaviors, respectively. For the second, a sinusoidal load was applied with an appropriate range of deformation for each material. Several analytical techniques were also used to characterize the materials, namely Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and morphology characterization by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). All the tested materials have strong viscoelastic behavior, showing a linear response for small deformations, followed by a nonlinear behavior for higher deformation. The block copolymer and the silicone gel are affected by aging in synthetic sweat in a similar way, with a significant increase of their rigidity after 30 days, followed by a progressive reduction. The silicone elastomer displays a continuous increase of rigidity along the 90 days of storage, being the most sensitive to aging affects. It also exhibits the lowest stiffness value, being suitable for uses that require maximum comfort. All materials demonstrate chemical and structural stability under service simulated conditions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Opposite poles: A comparison between two Spanish regions in health-related quality of life, with implications for health policy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although health is one of the main determinants of the welfare of societies, few studies have evaluated health related quality of life in representative samples of the population of a region or a country. Our aim is to describe the health-related quality of life of the inhabitants of two quite different Spanish regions (Canary Islands and Catalonia) and to compare the prevalence of health problems between age-sex groups.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We use data obtained from the 2006 Health Survey of Catalonia and the 2004 Canary Islands Health Survey. With an ordinal composite variable measuring HRQOL we identify the association of characteristics of individuals with self-reported quality of life and test for differences between the regions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of problems in the five EQ-5 D dimensions increases with age and is generally higher for women than for men. The dimension with the highest prevalence of problems is "anxiety/depression", and there is noteworthy the extent of discomfort and pain among Canary Island women. Education, especially among the elderly, has an important effect on health-related quality of life.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There are substantial structural and compositional differences between the two regions. Regional context is a significant factor, independent of the compositional differences, and the effects of context are manifest above all in women. The findings show the importance of disease prevention and the need for improving the educational level of the population in order to reduce health inequalities.</p

Blood pressure and cholesterol level checks as dynamic interrelated screening examinations

This study analysed the determinants of screening uptake for blood pressure and cholesterol level checks. Furthermore, it investigated the presence of possible spillover effects from one type of cardiovascular screening to another type of cardiovascular screening. A dynamic random effects bivariate panel probit model with initial conditions (Wooldridge-type estimator) was adopted for the estimation. The outcome variables were the participation in blood pressure and cholesterol level checks by individuals in a given year. The balanced panel sample of 21,138 observations was constructed from 1,626 individuals from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) between 1996 and 2008. The analysis showed the significance of past screening behaviour for both cardiovascular screening examinations. For both cardiovascular screening examinations state dependence exist. The study also shows a significant spillover effect of the cholesterol level check on the blood pressure check and vice versa. Also a poorer health status led to a higher uptake for both types of screening examinations. Changes in recommendations have to consider the fact that taking part in one type of cardiovascular screening examination can influence the decision to take part in the other type of cardiovascular screening examination

A multiple cohort study of the gender gradient of life satisfaction during adolescence: longitudinal evidence from Great Britain*

This study is unique in exploiting 12 youth cohorts (aged 11–15) from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) spanning 1996–2017 to investigate the gender gradient of adolescent life satisfaction. We find robust evidence of a cross-cohort gender gap particularly at the extremes of the adolescent life satisfaction distribution. Male adolescents are significantly more likely to report complete life satisfaction (by around 6%–14%) and females to report dissatisfaction (by around 3%–7%) indicating a higher female depression propensity. An intra-household gender gap is found for female adolescents raised with opposite sex siblings. Previous period life satisfaction is the strongest determinant of prospective higher self-reported male satisfaction levels

How We Fall Apart: Similarities of Human Aging in 10 European Countries

We analyze human aging, understood as health deficit accumulation, for a panel of European individuals. For that purpose, we use four waves of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE dataset) and construct a health deficit index. Results from log-linear regressions suggest that, on average, elderly European men and women develop about 2.5 percent more health deficits from one birthday to the next. In non-linear regression (akin to the Gompertz-Makeham model), however, we find much greater rates of aging and large differences between men and women as well as between countries. Interestingly, these differences follow a particular regularity (akin to the compensation effect of mortality). They suggest an age at which average health deficits converge for men and women and across countries

Self-Assessed Health as a Key Determinant of Lifestyles: An Application to Tobacco Consumption in Argentina

The relationship between lifestyle choices and health has been widely studied in the epidemiological and economic literature. In the last years, empirical research was directed towards the use of recursive systems with structural equations for a health production function and reduced form equations for lifestyles. As a result, behaviors toward health are taken to be determined by exogenous socio-economic variables. In this article, we show that health is a key determinant of health habits. When people feel well, they adopt less healthy behaviors. We use maximum simulated likelihood for a multivariate 5 equation probit model. In that model, lifestyles (diet, exercise, alcohol consumption and smoking) are a function of exogenous socioeconomic variables and self-reported health. Self-reported health varies with socio-economic characteristics and depends on health indicators that are the consequence of lifestyles undertaken in the past (i.e., overweight, blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol levels). Data is that of adults in Argentina's 2005 Risk Factors National Survey. We find that health partial effects on lifestyle are much larger having accounted for health endogeneity. Accounting for unobservable variables that jointly determine all lifestyles does not change much the magnitude of our results. Our findings are robust to different specifications

Determinants of a GP visit and cervical cancer screening examination in Great Britain.

Objective: In the UK, women are requested to attend a cervical cancer test every 3 years as part of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme. This analysis compares the determinants of a cervical cancer screening examination with the determinants of a GP visit in the same year and investigates if cervical cancer screening participation is more likely for women who visit their GP. Methods: A recursive probit model was used to analyse the determinants of GP visits and cervical cancer screening examinations. GP visits were considered to be endogenous in the cervical cancer screening examination. The analysed sample consisted of 52,551 observations from 8,386 women of the British Household Panel Survey. Results: The analysis showed that a higher education level and a worsening self-perceived health status increased the probability of a GP visit, whereas smoking decreased the probability of a GP visit. GP visits enhanced the uptake of a cervical cancer screening examination in the same period. The only variables which had the same positive effect on both dependent variables were higher education and living with a partner. The probability of a cervical cancer screening examination increased also with previous cervical cancer screening examinations and being in the recommended age groups. All other variables had different results for the uptake of a GP visit or a cervical cancer screening examination. Conclusions: Most of the determinants of visiting a GP and cervical cancer screening examination differ from each other and a GP visit enhances the uptake of a smear test