Private Contributions and Public School Resources

In the wake of school finance reforms that limit local tax revenue and, more recently, state budget cuts that have threatened K-12 education spending, an increasing number of schools and school districts have appealed to parents and communities for voluntary contributions to augment school resources. Of course, not all schools benefit equally from these contributions leading to a common concern that voluntary contributions create inequities in school funding across communities. In this paper we examine the size and distribution of voluntary contributions to California’s K-12 public schools in 2001. In addition, we examine how contributions have affected the distribution of resources across schools. Our results indicate that while some schools have been quite successful in raising voluntary contributions, overall, contributions have not led to large inequities in the distribution of resources among high- and low-income schools. Specifically, schools raising particularly high levels of contributions, over $500 per pupil, do tend to have more resources, but these schools are rare and very small. Over ninety-nine percent of California elementary students attend schools where contributions have almost no effect on inputs.Voluntary Contributions, Public School Finance, School Resources

Does Less Income Mean Less Representation?

We assemble a novel dataset of matched legislative and constituent votes and demonstrate that less income does not mean less representation. We show 1) The opinions of high and low income voters are highly correlated; the legislator’s vote often reflects the desire of both. 2) What differences in representation by income exist, vary by legislator party. Republicans more often vote the will of their higher income over their lower income constituents; Democratic legislators do the reverse. 3) Differences in representation by income are largely explained by the correlation between constituent income and party affiliation.

Food patterns associated with blood lipids are predictive of coronary heart disease : the Whitehall II study

Analysis of the epidemiological effects of overall dietary patterns offers an alternative approach to the investigation of the role of diet in CHD. We analysed the role of blood lipid-related dietary patterns using a two-step method to confirm the prospective association of dietary pattern with incident CHD. Analysis is based on 7314 participants of the Whitehall II study. Dietary intake was measured using a 127-item FFQ. Reduced rank regression (RRR) was used to derive dietary pattern scores using baseline serum total and HDL-cholesterol, and TAG levels as dependent variables. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to confirm the association between dietary patterns and incident CHD (n 243) over 15 years of follow-up. Increased CHD risk (hazard ratio (HR) for top quartile: 2&middot;01 (95 % CI 1&middot;41, 2&middot;85) adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity and energy misreporting) was observed with a diet characterised by high consumption of white bread, fried potatoes, sugar in tea and coffee, burgers and sausages, soft drinks, and low consumption of French dressing and vegetables. The diet-CHD relationship was attenuated after adjustment for employment grade and health behaviours (HR for top quartile: 1&middot;81; 95 % CI 1&middot;26, 2&middot;62), and further adjustment for blood pressure and BMI (HR for top quartile: 1&middot;57; 95 % CI 1&middot;08, 2&middot;27). Dietary patterns are associated with serum lipids and predict CHD risk after adjustment for confounders. RRR identifies dietary patterns using prior knowledge and focuses on the pathways through which diet may influence disease. The present study adds to the evidence that diet is an important risk factor for CHD. <br /

Dietary assessment in Whitehall II: comparison of 7d diet diary and food-frequency questionnaire and validity against biomarkers

The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to examine the agreement and disagreement between a 7 d diet diary (7DD) and a self-administered machine-readable food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) asking about diet in the previous year, and to validate both methods with biomarkers of nutrient intake. The subjects were an age- and employment-grade-stratified random subsample of London-based civil servants (457 men and 403 women), aged 39–61 years, who completed both a 7DD and a FFQ at phase 3 follow-up (1991–1993) of the Whitehall II study. Mean daily intakes of dietary energy, total fat, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid, total carbohydrate excluding fibre, sugars, starch, dietary fibre, protein, vitamin C, vitamin E (as α-tocopherol equivalents), folate, carotenes (as total β-carotene activity), Fe, Ca, Mg, K and alcohol were measured. Serum cholesteryl ester fatty acids (CEFA), plasma α-tocopherol and β-carotene were also measured as biomarkers. Estimates of mean energy intake from the two methods were similar in men, and some 10 % higher according to the FFQ in women. Compared with the 7DD, the FFQ tended to overestimate plant-derived micronutrient intakes (carotenes from FFQ v. 7DD men 2713 (SD 1455) V. 2180 (sd 1188) μg/d, women 3100 (sd 1656) v. 2221 (sd 1180) μg/d, both differences P<0·0001) and to underestimate fat intake. Against plasma β-carotene/cholesterol, carotene intake was as well estimated by the FFQ as the 7DD (Spearman rank correlations, men 0·32 v. 0·30, women 0·27 v. 0·22, all P≤0·0001, energy-adjusted data). Ranking of participants by other nutrient intakes tended to be of the same order according to the two dietary methods, e.g. rank correlations for CEFA linoleic acid against FFQ and 7DD estimates respectively, men 0·38 v. 0·41, women 0·53 v. 0·62, all P≤0·0001, energy-adjusted % fat). For α-tocopherol there were no correlations between plasma level and estimated intakes by either dietary method. Quartile agreement for energy-adjusted nutrient intakes between the two self-report methods was in the range 37–50 % for men and 32–44 % for women, and for alcohol, 57 % in both sexes. Disagreement (misclassification into extreme quartiles of intake) was in the range 0–6 % for both sexes. The dietary methods yielded similar prevalences (about 34 %) of low energy reporters. The two methods show satisfactory agreement, together with an expected level of systematic differences, in their estimates of nutrient intake. Against the available biomarkers, the machine-readable FFQ performed well in comparison with the manually coded 7DD in this study population. For both methods, regression-based adjustment of nutrient intake to mean dietary energy intake by gender appears on balance to be the optimal approach to data presentation and analysis, in view of the complex problem of low energy reporting

Dynamic Longitudinal Associations Between Social Support and Cognitive Function: A Prospective Investigation of the Directionality of Associations

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the reciprocity of social support and cognitive function in late life. METHOD: Analyses were based on three parallel repeat measures of social support and cognition from the Whitehall II cohort, providing 10-year follow-up of 6,863 participants (mean age 55.8 years, SD 6.0 at baseline). Alternative hypotheses were evaluated via four bivariate dual change score models: Full coupling model estimated mutual influences of social support and cognition on subsequent changes in each other; social causation model assumed a unidirectional influence from social support onto changes in cognition, while the opposite assumption was tested by health selection model; last, no coupling model suggested independent growth of these two sets of variables. RESULTS: A better cognition at the preceding stage was related to less positive changes in confiding support and less negative changes in practical support. In contrast, influences from social support on subsequent changes in cognition were not detected. DISCUSSION: This empirical study provides some evidence for the health selection mechanism, such that cognition modified changes in social support. The hypothesized neuroprotective effect of social support was not detectable

Persistent financial hardship, 11-year weight gain, and health behaviors in the Whitehall II study.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain prospectively gender-specific associations between types and amounts of financial hardship and weight gain, and investigate potential behavioral mechanisms. METHODS: Prospective study of 3701 adult British civil servants with repeated measures of difficulty paying bills or insufficient money to afford adequate for food/clothing (1985-1988; 1989-1990; 1991-1993; 1997-1999), and weight (1985-1988; 1997-1999). RESULTS: Persistent hardships were associated with adjusted mean weight change in women over 10.9 years, but no consistent pattern was seen in men. During follow-up, 46% of women gained ≥5 kg. Women reporting persistent insufficient money for food/clothing had a significantly greater odds of gaining ≥5 kg (1.42 [1.05, 1.92]) compared to no hardship history, which remained after socioeconomic status (SES) adjustment (1.45 [1.05, 2.01]). The association between persistent difficulty paying bills and odds of excess weight gain was also significant (1.42 [1.03, 1.97]) but attenuated after considering SES (1.39 [0.98, 1.97]). Four health behaviors as single measures or change variables did not attenuate associations. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggested strategies to tackle obesity must address employed women's everyday financial troubles which may influence weight through more biological pathways than classical correlates of economic disadvantage and weight.This is the final version, originally published in the journal Obesity here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20875/abstract;jsessionid=EDA4F761217B492D16E7384EB67A7399.f02t02

Comparison of physical, public and human assets as determinants of socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive use in Colombia - moving beyond the household wealth index

Background: Colombia is a lower-middle income country that faces the challenge of addressing health inequalities. This effort includes the task of developing measures of socioeconomic position (SEP) to describe and analyse disparities in health and health related outcomes. This study explores the use of a multidimensional approach to SEP, in which socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive use are investigated along multiple dimensions of SEP. We tested the hypothesis that provision of Public capital compensated for low levels of Human capital.Methods: This study used the 2005 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) dataset. The outcome measures were 'current non-use' and 'never use' of contraception. Inequalities in contraceptive behaviour along four measures of SEP were compared: the Household wealth index (HWI), Physical capital (housing, consumer durables), Public capital (publicly provided services) and Human capital (level of education). Principal component analysis was applied to construct the HWI, Physical capital and Public capital measures. Logistic regression models were used to estimate relative indices of inequality (RII) for each measure of SEP with both outcomes.Results: Socio-economic inequalities among rural women tended to be larger than those among urban women, for all measures of SEP and for both outcomes. In models mutually adjusted for Physical, Public and Human capital and age, Physical capital identified stronger gradients in contraceptive behaviour in urban and rural areas (Current use of contraception by Physical capital in urban areas RII 2.37 95% CI (1.99-2.83) and rural areas RII 3.70 (2.57-5.33)). The impact of women's level of education on contraceptive behaviour was relatively weak in households with high Public capital compared to households with low Public capital (Current use of contraception in rural areas, interaction p = < 0.001). Reduced educational inequalities attributable to Public capital were partly explained by differences in household wealth but not at all by health insurance cover.Conclusions: A multidimensional approach provides a framework for disentangling socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive behaviour. We provide evidence that material circumstances indexed by Physical capital are important socioeconomic determinants while higher provision of Public capital may compensate for low levels of Human capital with respect to modern contraceptive behaviour

Economics and Ideology: Causal Evidence of the Impact of Economic Conditions on Support for Redistribution and Other Ballot Proposals

Using California ballot proposition returns and exogenous shifts to labor demand, we provide the first large-scale causal evidence of the impact of economic conditions on policy preferences. Consistent with economic theory, we find that positive economic shocks decrease support for redistributive policies. More notably, we find evidence of a need for cognitive consistency in voting behavior as economic shocks have a smaller significant impact on voting on non-economic ballot issues. While we also demonstrate that positive shocks decrease turnout, we present evidence that our results reflect changes to the electorate’s preferences and not simply to its composition.