Neighbourhood social capital and individual mental health

Neighbourhood social capital is often claimed benecial for health, yet evidence of this contextual eect in the UK has been thin. To examine this eect, I draw upon Grossman health production model and Blume-Brock-Durlauf social interaction model underpinning the effects of neighbourhood social capital on individual health. This study uses two most recent independent surveys on neighbourhood social capital and on individual mental health in Wales. Both are linked based on neighbourhood. I nd that many forms of neighbourhood social capital, measured with widely used questions, improve resident's mental health (SF36). Public health practitioners have these measures as additional tools to draw upon in formulating public health policy.social capital; SF36; quality of life

Recall error and recall bias in life course epidemiology

OBJECTIVES I propose a distinction between recall error and recall bias and examine the the effect of childhood financial hardship on adult health, subject to such recall problems. Studying the effect of childhood hardship on adult health is a prototypical investigation in life course studies where both non-clinical factors and long-duration processes are at play in determining health outcome. These factors and processes are often elicited retrospectively. Unfortunately, retrospective information on childhood hardship is often subject to recall error and recall bias. There is surprisingly little methodological work on how to purge their effects in retrospective life course studies. METHODS I recast a variant of generalised latent variable models as covariate error measurement model to purge recall error in life course study. Additionally, I recast the endogeneous treatment model as a solution to the problem of recall bias. I apply both models to examine the effect of childhood financial hardship on adult health status of more than 359,000 European respondents from 23 countries. In addition, I validate the solutions using the National Child Development Study cohort where both prospective and restrospective information are available. RESULTS Childhood financial hardship has a strong effect on adult health status. Once recall error is accounted for in a generalised latent variable model, the effect reduced by an order of magnitude though remain statistically significant. Applying the endogeneous treatment model of recall bias suggests that childhood hardship is systematically misreported by respondents. Once this bias is purged, the effect of childhood deprivation on adult health increased markedly. Such an increase is consistent with multiple direct and indirect pathways linking childhood hardship and adult health. CONCLUSION Problems of recall error and recall bias are common in life course retrospective studies. Applied to data from 23 European countries, the proposed solutions recover the effect of childhood hardship on adult health outcome.recall bias; generalised latent variable model; life course; childhood hardship; European Survey of Income and Living Conditions; EUSILC; NCDS

Distinction in Britain, 2001-2004? Unpacking homology and the 'aesthetics' of the popular class

This study delineates a scheme for examining Bourdieu's theory which relates social structure and cultural consumption (the homology thesis). Interpreting homology as the exclusive mapping between the space of cultural consumptions and social structure e.g., 'high' art as the exclusive domain of the upper class, is inadequate. Bourdieu's theory allows a more refined scheme which incorporates habitus. I elaborate this scheme and derive some propositions regarding the pattern of music consumptions and social structure. A Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause model is used to examine the homology thesis directly; where in the measurement part, a latent class model is used to derive types of consumers (or space of cultural consumption), and simultaneously, in the structural part, a logistic model is used to estimate stratification effects of being in one of the types. Using survey data sponsored by Arts Council England, it is shown that the space of music consumptions is inhabited by two types of music consumers: the popular and the dominant class. Furthermore, this space is shown to be structured by social class thereby lending some support to the homology thesis. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down

Recall error and recall bias in life course epidemiology

OBJECTIVES I propose a distinction between recall error and recall bias and examine the the effect of childhood financial hardship on adult health, subject to such recall problems. Studying the effect of childhood hardship on adult health is a prototypical investigation in life course studies where both non-clinical factors and long-duration processes are at play in determining health outcome. These factors and processes are often elicited retrospectively. Unfortunately, retrospective information on childhood hardship is often subject to recall error and recall bias. There is surprisingly little methodological work on how to purge their effects in retrospective life course studies. METHODS I recast a variant of generalised latent variable models as covariate error measurement model to purge recall error in life course study. Additionally, I recast the endogeneous treatment model as a solution to the problem of recall bias. I apply both models to examine the effect of childhood financial hardship on adult health status of more than 359,000 European respondents from 23 countries. In addition, I validate the solutions using the National Child Development Study cohort where both prospective and restrospective information are available. RESULTS Childhood financial hardship has a strong effect on adult health status. Once recall error is accounted for in a generalised latent variable model, the effect reduced by an order of magnitude though remain statistically significant. Applying the endogeneous treatment model of recall bias suggests that childhood hardship is systematically misreported by respondents. Once this bias is purged, the effect of childhood deprivation on adult health increased markedly. Such an increase is consistent with multiple direct and indirect pathways linking childhood hardship and adult health. CONCLUSION Problems of recall error and recall bias are common in life course retrospective studies. Applied to data from 23 European countries, the proposed solutions recover the effect of childhood hardship on adult health outcome

Does reporting behaviour bias the measurement of social inequalities in self-rated health in Indonesia? An anchoring vignette analysis

PURPOSE: Studies on self-rated health outcomes are fraught with problems when individuals’ reporting behaviour is systematically biased by demographic, socio-economic, or cultural factors. Analysing the data drawn from the Indonesia Family Life Survey 2007, this paper aims to investigate the extent of differential health reporting behaviour by demographic and socio-economic status among Indonesians aged 40 and older ([Formula: see text] ). METHODS: Interpersonal heterogeneity in reporting style is identified by asking respondents to rate a number of vignettes that describe varying levels of health status in targeted health domains (mobility, pain, cognition, sleep, depression, and breathing) using the same ordinal response scale that is applied to the self-report health question. A compound hierarchical ordered probit model is fitted to obtain health differences by demographic and socio-economic status. The obtained regression coefficients are then compared to the standard ordered probit model. RESULTS: We find that Indonesians with more education tend to rate a given health status in each domain more negatively than their less-educated counterparts. Allowing for such differential reporting behaviour results in relatively stronger positive education effects. CONCLUSION: There is a need to correct for differential reporting behaviour using vignettes when analysing self-rated health measures in older adults in Indonesia. Unless such an adjustment is made, the salutary effect of education will be underestimated

Neighbourhood social capital and individual mental health

Neighbourhood social capital is often claimed benecial for health, yet evidence of this contextual eect in the UK has been thin. To examine this eect, I draw upon Grossman health production model and Blume-Brock-Durlauf social interaction model underpinning the effects of neighbourhood social capital on individual health. This study uses two most recent independent surveys on neighbourhood social capital and on individual mental health in Wales. Both are linked based on neighbourhood. I nd that many forms of neighbourhood social capital, measured with widely used questions, improve resident's mental health (SF36). Public health practitioners have these measures as additional tools to draw upon in formulating public health policy

Neighbourhood social capital improves individual health quality of life in a national sample from Wales

Neighbourhood social capital is often claimed to improve health but in Britain this claim finds little support. I examine the effects of neighbourhood social capital on the Welsh health quality of life in 2007 using instrumental variable estimator. By extending the influential Grossman health production model and borrowing from the Blume-Brock-Durlauf statistical mechanics of social interactions model, suitable instruments for identification are readily obtained. Instruments (neighbourhood ethnic diversity and residence length) were collected from separate survey. Neighbourhood social capital and deprivation measures were likewise independently gathered from measures of individual socioeconomic status and health (SF-36). In the national sample there are 13,557 respondents residing in 1,152 neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood deprivations invariably reduce individual health quality of life but neighbourhood social capital more than compensate for this. Because the instruments are strong enough to identify the effects, I show that friendly neighbourhood and friendly neighbours, sense of community in the neighbourhood, trust, ready exchange of information and goods, and sense of belonging improve residents' health. Public health practitioners have these measures as additional tools in their box when formulating policy to improve public health