50 research outputs found
Fatness and muscularity as risk indicators of child mortality in rural Congo
OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship of anthropometrical indicators of
fatness and muscularity with mortality in children in a rural African
community. BACKGROUND: A prospective cohort study was carried out in the
rural health zone of Bwamanda, Northern Congo using a random cluster
sample of 5167 children, aged 0-5 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Short- and
long-term mortality rates, being deaths within 3 months and deaths in
3-month periods observed 3-30 months after enrolment. Rates of all cause
mortality and of mortality from kwashiorkor or marasmus, by level of
baseline fatness and muscularity. Indicators of fatness and muscularity
were obtained by correcting anthropometric arm fat and arm muscle areas
for age, sex, weight and height. RESULTS: The relationship of both the
fatness and muscularity scores with short-term mortality was marked by a
clear threshold (-0.5 SDS) below which there was a significant rise in
mortality from all causes as well as from kwashiorkor and marasmus. These
excess mortalities were also found in normal weight children. Fatness and
muscularity scores remained significant determining factors of short-term
mortality in a multiple logistic regression analysis with sex, age, season
and weight-for-age. A ROC curve analysis showed that fat and muscularity
scores had better predictive abilities than weight-for-age. Low fat status
had a bad prognosis on the long-term in underweight children. CONCLUSIONS:
Measures of current nutritional status should not be based on weight
indices alone. Objective and/or clinical evaluation of fat and muscle
status (also in normal weight children) should be added in order to detect
a higher proportion of malnourished children and to more accurately
evaluate mortality risk
Forecasting Tourist Arrivals Using Origin Country Macroeconomics
This study utilizes both disaggregated data and macroeconomic indicators in order to examine the importance of the macroeconomic environment of origin countries for analysing destinations’ tourist arrivals. In particular, it is the first study to present strong empirical evidence that both of these features in tandem provide statistically significant information of tourist arrivals in Greece. The forecasting exercises presented in our analysis show that macroeconomic indicators conducive to better forecasts are mainly origin country-specific, thus highlighting the importance of considering the apparent sharp national contrasts among origin countries when investigating domestic tourist arrivals. Given the extent of the dependency of the Greek economy on tourism income, but also, given the perishable nature of the tourist product itself, results have important implications for policy makers in Greece
The tourism and economic growth enigma: Examining an ambiguous relationship through multiple prisms
This paper revisits the ambiguous relationship between tourism and economic growth, providing a comprehensive study of destinations across the globe which takes into
account the key dynamics that influence tourism and economic performance. We focus on 113 countries over the period 1995-2014, clustered, for the first time, around six
criteria that reflect their economic, political and tourism dimensions. A Panel Vector Autoregressive model is employed which, in contrast to previous studies, allows the data to reveal any tourism-economy interdependencies across these clusters, without imposing a priori the direction of causality. Overall, the economic-driven tourism growth hypothesis seems to prevail in countries which are developing, non-democratic, highly bureaucratic and have low tourism specialization. Conversely, bidirectional relationships are established for economies which are stronger, democratic and with higher levels of government effectiveness. Thus, depending on the economic, political
and tourism status of a destination, different policy implications apply