An Economic Analysis of the Diet, Growth, and Health of Young Children in the United States

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which family income and education are obstacles to the provision of adequate diets for young children in the United States. An examination of the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reveals the following: 1. Average nutrient intakes of young children are well above recommended dietary standards, with the exception of iron. 2. Average nutrient intakes for children in households of lower economic status are very similar to intakes of children in households of higher economic status. Rates of children's growth are also similar in these households. 3. Family income and education of the household head have statistically significant but very small positive effects on the nutrient intake levels of young children. 4. There are substantial effects of protein intakes on children's height and head growth, even though protein is consumed in excess of dietary standards. This finding and the apparent correlation between children's growth and their intellectual development brings to question the adequacy of present protein standards. Could American mothers, who provide very high protein diets for their children in households at all levels of socioeconomic status know more about what constitutes an adequate diet for their children than the experts do?

Microeconomic theory of the household and nutrition programs

Lack of food is no longer the major cause of malnutrition. Many households and individuals remain malnourished when income and supplies of food are adequate. Nutrition policy and programs must be based on a sound knowledge of household behaviour patterns. The microeconomic theory of the household focuses on the household's decisionmaking about scarce food resources based upon such considerations as: (i) the size of the family; (ii) the purchasing power of the family; (iii) the availability of healthful foods; (iv) the family's food preferences; (v) environmental variables (such as ethnic traditions and the homemaker's level of education); and finally (vi) family health (disease can limit the absorption of nutrients). Such determinants should be monitored to anticipate malnutrition problems unrelated to the food.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Poverty Lines,Health Economics&Finance,Inequality

The Profamilia Family Planning Program, Colombia : an economic perspective

This paper evaluates the Profamilia's outreach effort of 1986. Profamilia is an affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and provides more than 60 percent of Colombia's family planning services. This paper focuses around the question of Profamilia's ability to provide more protection with the same resources. The authors found that: (i) operations tend to be constrained by limited personnel and supplies; (ii) the labor costs and unit costs of contraception are lower in the outreach and clinical programs, which can be expanded with available infrastructure; (iii) the clinical and outreach program is the least cost-effective because of the higher cost of sterilization; (iv) more resources should be targeted to areas where there are proportionately more mothers and where people are better educated; (v) experienced and married workers sell more in the outreach program thantheir junior unmarried colleagues; and (vi) in both the clinical and surgical programs, output would increase if there were proportionately more nurses and fewer doctors.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Pharmaceuticals&Pharmacoeconomics,Reproductive Health,ICT Policy and Strategies

Toward a Framework for Improving Health Care Financing for an Aging Population: The Case of Israel

The conventional wisdom is that because at any time the aged cost more than the young, there is a positive relationship between aging and health care spending. It is hard, however, to find evidence that aging correlates positively with such spending. Intrigued by the puzzle, we account for the factors that contribute to changes of the age distribution of medical costs and their potential effect on aggregate cost. As changes in costs are not age neutral, the health system needs to facilitate a dynamic shift of resources from those whose relative cost rise less -- the young -- to those whose relative costs rise more -- the old. As there is an apparent market failure associated with uncertainty about growth in longevity (no market for 'death insurance'), the private market does not seem to effectively facilitate this shift. Aging, and its known correlates and antecedents produce a complex picture about the potential effect of aging on total cost of medical care in Israel. Shifting morbidity and mortality to older age can lower cost of care, all other things equal. Growth in incomes and insurance coverage are likely to increase use of care particularly amongst the old. Rising levels of education would have the opposite effect, but among the relatively young. The effect of a key element, technology, remains unknown. The Israeli experience also points to the advantages of a unified publicly financed health system with a timely allocation mechanism.

The Choice of Diet for Young Children and Its Relation to Children's Growth

In this paper we analyze the choice of diet for young children in low income families in the United States and its relation to the children's growth. Our most important finding is that the education and income levels in low income households are generally sufficient for the provision of adequate diets for children in the household. This conclusion is based on empirical results which show that low income parents have pushed the growth of their children through choice of diet nearly as much as possible, and which also show that mother's education and family income are insignificant determinants of the nutrient intakes of children in low income households.

The Indonesian family planning program : an economic perspective

Indonesia has achieved one of the most impressive records in fertility reduction over the past two decades. The country's total fertility rate has declined froman estimated 5.5 in 1967 - 1970 to 3.4 in 1987. Population growth has been estimated at 2.1 percent during the eighties. Many observers credit Indonesia's National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) as being instrumental in this fertility reduction and slowdown of population growth. BKKBN is a public sector organization responsible for planning and coordination of almost all family planning activities in Indonesia. The study objective is to provide BKKBN and the government of Indonesia with data that can help improve the cost-effectiveness of family planning delivery. The study examines resource allocation, cost, funding institutions, and output of the program at grassroots level in selected regencies in three provinces: West Java, the Special District of Yogyakarta, and South Kalimantan. It is based on data about the program's field operations collected during November 1986 - March 1987, and routine service statistics of BKKBN.Business in Development,Business Environment,Adolescent Health,Agricultural Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Una evaluación de las tasas de mortalidad infantil en Colombia, 1980-2009

Purpose. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is a key indicator of human welfare and development. However, in Colombia, the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) has set the registered rate for 2009 as 13.69 per 1,000 live births, while the estimated rate is 20.13, suggesting the presence of inconsistencies in the data, as in many other transitional economies. This paper aims to set the record straight on Colombia’s IMR reporting since 1980 by using all available data that have recently become public. Methodology. The study analyzes 8,636,510 records of live births (1998–2009) and 443,338 records of deaths (1979–2009), and considers information from various other sources such as the statistical yearbooks and survey results. An exponential function is used to estimate the IMRs in Colombia for 1980–2009 while resolving internal inconsistencies in the data from all sources. Findings. The analysis demonstrates that the registered and the estimated rates for 2009 are incompatible since they follow inconsistent long-term rates of decline in IMR. While the registered rate underestimates the real situation, the estimated rate appears to grossly overestimate it. Analyses, based on other sources, put the IMR between 15.81 and 17.58 in 2009, with rates of decline between 3.0 and 5.0 percent for the period 1980–2009. Value. The study concludes that during the period 1980–2009, the IMR for Colombia on average fell from about 54 to about 17, suggesting a long-term annual rate of decline of about 4.0 percent.Research Resources Icesi Universit

Risk adjustment and risk selection on the sickness fund insurance market in five European countries

From the mid-1990s citizens in Belgium, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland have a guaranteed periodic choice among risk-bearing sickness funds, who are responsible for purchasing their care or providing them with medical care. The rationale of this arrangement is to stimulate the sickness funds to improve efficiency in health care production and to respond to consumers' preferences. To achieve solidarity, all five countries have implemented a system of risk-adjusted premium subsidies (or risk equalization across risk groups), along with strict regulation of the consumers' direct premium contribution to their sickness fund. In this article we present a conceptual framework for understanding risk adjustment and comparing the systems in the five countries. We conclude that in the case of imperfect risk adjustment-as is the case in all five countries in the year 2001-the sickness funds have financial incentives for risk selection, which may threaten solidarity, efficiency, quality of care and consumer satisfaction. We expect that without substantial improvements in the risk adjustment formulae, risk selection will increase in all five countries. The issue is particularly serious in Germany and Switzerland. We strongly recommend therefore that policy makers in the five countries give top priority to the improvement of the system of risk adjustment. That would enhance solidarity, cost-control, efficiency and client satisfaction in a system of competing, risk-bearing sickness funds. [Authors]]]> Health Care Reform ; Insurance Selection Bias ; Managed Competition ; National Health Programs ; Risk Adjustment eng oai:serval.unil.ch:BIB_C1056E4EB1E1 2022-05-07T01:26:22Z openaire documents urnserval <oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd"> https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_C1056E4EB1E1 Accurate Estimation of Running Temporal Parameters Using Foot-Worn Inertial Sensors info:doi:10.3389/fphys.2018.00610 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3389/fphys.2018.00610 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/29946263 Falbriard, M. Meyer, F. Mariani, B. Millet, G.P. Aminian, K. info:eu-repo/semantics/article article 2018 Frontiers in physiology, vol. 9, pp. NA info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/1664-042X urn:issn:1664-042X <![CDATA[The aim of this study was to assess the performance of different kinematic features measured by foot-worn inertial sensors for detecting running gait temporal events (e.g., initial contact, terminal contact) in order to estimate inner-stride phases duration (e.g., contact time, flight time, swing time, step time). Forty-one healthy adults ran multiple trials on an instrumented treadmill while wearing one inertial measurement unit on the dorsum of each foot. Different algorithms for the detection of initial contact and terminal contact were proposed, evaluated and compared with a reference-threshold on the vertical ground reaction force. The minimum of the pitch angular velocity within the first and second half of a mid-swing to mid-swing cycle were identified as the most precise features for initial and terminal contact detection with an inter-trial median ± IQR precision of 2 ± 1 ms and 4 ± 2 ms respectively. Using these initial and terminal contact features, this study showed that the ground contact time, flight time, step and swing time can be estimated with an inter-trial median ± IQR bias less than 12 ± 10 ms and the a precision less than 4 ± 3 ms. Finally, this study showed that the running speed can significantly affect the biases of the estimations, suggesting that a speed-dependent correction should be applied to improve the system's accuracy

La desagregación de los gastos privados en atención médica en Colombia; Implicaciones políticas

El documento hace un análisis descriptivo y comparativo entre distintos elementos de tres escenarios (un modelo estatizado, privatizado o combinado) hacia los cuals puede evolucionar el Sistema general de Seguridad Sociel en Salud (SGSSS) de Colombia. La presentación de estas distintas perspectivas tiene el objetivo de fundamentar un debate público informado sobre las dificultades presentes en el sistema de salud actual y qué se puede hacer al respecto. Dentro de los elementos de cada escenario, se hace mención a mecanismos de financiación, vigilancia (regulación), qué beneficios abarca la afiliación al sistema, entre otros