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SummaryThis study uses three key anthropometric measures of nutritional status among children (stunting, wasting and underweight) to explore the dual effects of household composition and dependency on nutritional outcomes of under-five children in Ghana. The objective is to examine changes in household living arrangements of under-five children to explore the interaction of dependency and nucleation on child health outcomes. The concept of nucleation refers to the changing structure and composition of household living arrangements, from highly extended with its associated socioeconomic system of production and reproduction, social behaviour and values, towards single-family households – especially the nuclear family, containing a husband and wife and their children alone. A negative relationship between levels of dependency, as measured by the number of children in the household, and child health outcomes is premised on the grounds that high dependency depletes resources, both tangible and intangible, to the disadvantage of young children. Data were drawn from the last four rounds of the Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (GDHSs), from 1993 to 2008, for the first objective – to explore changes in household composition. For the second objective, the study used data from the 2008 GDHS. The results show that, over time, households in Ghana have been changing towards nucleation. The main finding is that in households with the same number of dependent children, in nucleated households children under age 5 have better health outcomes compared with children under age 5 in non-nucleated households. The results also indicate that the effect of dependency on child health outcomes is mediated by household nucleation and wealth status and that, as such, high levels of dependency do not necessarily translate into negative health outcomes for children under age 5, based on anthropometric measures.

Sociologists and anthropologists have had a long interest in studying the ways in which cultures shaped different patterns of health, disease, and mortality. Social scientists have documented low rates of chronic disease and disability in non-Western societies and have suggested that social stability, cultural homogeneity and social cohesion may play a part in explaining these low rates. On the other hand, in studies of Western societies, social scientists have found that disease and mortality assume different patterns among various ethnic, cultural and social-economic groups. The role of stress, social change and a low degree of cohesion have been suggested, along with other factors as contributing to the variable rates among different social groups. Social cohesion has been implicated in the cause and recovery from both physical and psychological illnesses. Although there has been a large amount of work established the beneficial effects of cohesion on health and well-being, relatively little work has focused on HOW increased social cohesion sustains or improves health. This work is based on the premise that there are risk factors, including social cohesion that regulate health and disease in groups. One of the challenges is how to measure social cohesion – it can be readily observed and experienced but difficult to quantify. A better understanding of how social cohesion works will be valuable to improving group-level interventions.

The rapid growth and transmission of information in the digital age poses new challenges for individuals coping with the onslaught of communications from multiple sources. This research (a) conceptualizes and measures perceived information overload from cyber-based and place-based sources, (b) tests the reliability and validity of a newly developed Perceived Information Overload Scale, and (c) tests hypotheses concerning the psychological and health outcomes of information overload. A repeated-measures panel study design was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the hypothesized two-factor model of perceived information overload, encompassing cyber-based and place-based sources of stimulation. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that higher levels of perceived cyber-based overload significantly predicted self-reports of greater stress, poorer health, and less time devoted to contemplative activities, controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and baseline measures of stress and health status. Participants' sensation-seeking levels were found to significantly moderate the relationships between cyber-based, place-based, and composite perceived information overload and stress. Directions for further study are discussed.

This study analyzes the effect of fiscal decentralization on health outcomes in China using a panel data set with nationwide county-level data. We find that counties in more fiscal decentralized provinces have lower infant mortality rates compared with those counties in which the provincial government retains the main spending authority, if certain conditions are met. Spending responsibilities at the local level need to be matched with county government?s own fiscal capacity. For those local governments that have only limited revenues, their ability to spend on local public goods such as health care depends crucially upon intergovernmental transfers. The findings of this study thereby support the common assertion that fiscal decentralization can indeed lead to more efficient production of local public goods, but also highlights the necessary conditions to make this happen.

Individual differences play a salient and vital role in the person's responses to different stressors. Hence, various individuals are expected to differ in health outcome resulting from encountering stressful situations. This study aimed at identifying personality traits in Sudanese
university students and investigating the nature of the relationship between these traits and psychological disturbances measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28-item version, Goldberg & Williams, 1988). The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R, 48 items, Eysenck, Eysenck,&
Barrett, 1985) was used to assess personality traits. One hundred psychology students (mean age 23.7) participated in the study. The majority (80%) of the students were females. The results revealed a strong positive relationship between neuroticism (N) on one hand and somatic symptoms,
anxiety and depression on the other hand. Extraversion (E) was negatively related to anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms and social dysfunction. No significant sex or age difference was found in psychological disturbances measured by the GHQ or in personality traits – apart from a
positive association between E and age. Unlike studies carried out in other countries which showed females to be more anxious and more neurotic, the present study did not find sex differences in anxiety and neuroticism. When a cutoff point of 4 was used, 20% of the students were classified
as psychiatric cases. This may indicate the widespread prevalence of psychological disorders amongst Sudanese university students.

We estimate the effect of housing price changes on fertility and early-life child health in Denmark. Using rich population register data among women aged 20-44 who own a home, we find that for each 100,000 DKK increase in home prices (equivalent to $12,000), the likelihood of giving birth increases by 0.27 percentage points or 2.32%. These estimates are similar to findings from the US per dollar of home price change, which is surprising given the strong pro-natalist policies and generous government programs in Denmark. We also present the first estimates of the effect of home prices on infant health. Our findings indicate that housing price increases lead to better child health at birth in terms of low birth weight and prematurity, however most of these effects reflect changes in the composition of births. There is no evidence of an effect on health during the first five years of life. These findings are consistent with a lack of credit constraints among homeowner families and with both children and child health being normal goods that are similarly-valued in the US and Denmark.

Abstract
Does health expenditure decentralization improve a nation's health? Should countries care about governance quality when they decentralize healthcare spending to local governments? We answer these questions using cross-country data comprising fifty countries from 1996 to 2018. We find that health spending decentralization worsens health outcomes, which are offset by better governance of government. We calibrate the maximum feasible degree of health expenditure decentralization to have positive effects on health outcomes for a given percentile distribution of governance quality. Countries should be mindful of this negative consequence of health spending decentralization and should ensure that the quality of their governance exceeds a certain threshold to offset this negative externality. We also find that vertical fiscal imbalance is negatively associated with health outcomes, underscoring the role of revenue decentralization in improving the fiscal discipline of local governments by avoiding moral hazard caused by soft budget constraints and the common pool problem.

"Alcohol policies have potentially far-reaching impacts on risky sexual behavior, prenatal health behaviors, and subsequent outcomes for infants. We examine whether changes in minimum drinking age (MLDA) laws affect the likelihood of poor birth outcomes. Using data from the National Vital Statistics (NVS) for the years 1978-88, we find that a drinking age of 18 is associated with adverse outcomes among births to young mothers -- including higher incidences of low birth weight and premature birth, but not congenital malformations. The effects are largest among black women. We find suggestive evidence from both the NVS and the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) that the MLDA laws alter the composition of births that occur. In states with lenient drinking laws, young black mothers are more likely to have used alcohol 12 months prior to the birth of their child and less likely to report paternal information on the birth certificate. We suspect that lenient drinking laws generate poor birth outcomes because they increase the number of unplanned pregnancies"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

Good health is essential to achieve sustainable development in any economy. Nigeria is no exception. No wonder it is the third goal in the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. Achieving good health also needs to be well funded with institutional quality, hence this study. This paper examined the effect of health financing and governance quality on health outcomes in Nigeria from 1980 to 2018 using secondary data sourced from World Development Indicators (WDI). A co-integration test and a vector error correction model (VECM) were employed to analyse the data. Short- and long-term results of an analysis based on life expectancy and infant mortality as a measure of health outcomes and dependent variables demonstrate that institutions empowered with good governance could produce positive health outcomes in the country.

Abstract Health has a major contribution in attaining better human capital and wellbeing both at the individual as well as at country levels. Although military spending may boost economic growth through multiplier and spillover effects, yet tradeoffs exist between military expenditures and health outcomes. Grossman (1972) explains health as output which depends on many input variables. By covering a panel of 156 countries ranging from the time period 1970 to 2014, this study incorporates military expenditures, GDP per capita, urbanization, access to the improved drinking water source, number of physicians, and secondary school enrollment as determinants of health (life expectancy and infant mortality). OLS, fixed effects, random effects, and system GMM have been used as estimation techniques. The study reveals that countries with low military expenditures have a comparatively high life expectancy and low infant mortality as compared to countries with high military expenditures. Robustness of results was checked through sensitivity analyses performed on the bases of determinants of health, international geopolitical scenario, and the development status of the country. The evidence of sensitivity analysis suggests that overall results are robust in life expectancy model but somehow sensitive in case of infant mortality. The study affirms the explicit tradeoff between military expenditures and welfare spending and concludes that hefty defense expenditures lower life expectancy and enhance infant mortality.

Health has a major contribution in attaining better human capital and wellbeing both at the individual as well as at country levels. Although military spending may boost economic growth through multiplier and spillover effects, yet tradeoffs exist between military expenditures and health outcomes. Grossman (1972) explains health as output which depends on many input variables. By covering a panel of 156 countries ranging from the time period 1970 to 2014, this study incorporates military expenditures, GDP per capita, urbanization, access to the improved drinking water source, number of physicians, and secondary school enrollment as determinants of health (life expectancy and infant mortality). OLS, fixed effects, random effects, and system GMM have been used as estimation techniques. The study reveals that countries with low military expenditures have a comparatively high life expectancy and low infant mortality as compared to countries with high military expenditures. Robustness of results was checked through sensitivity analyses performed on the bases of determinants of health, international geopolitical scenario, and the development status of the country. The evidence of sensitivity analysis suggests that overall results are robust in life expectancy model but somehow sensitive in case of infant mortality. The study affirms the explicit tradeoff between military expenditures and welfare spending and concludes that hefty defense expenditures lower life expectancy and enhance infant mortality.

Background: Syria is the main country of origin for refugees in the world. The prevalence of mental disorders in this population is high, but there is a lack of more comprehensive data on mental health issues in this population. Aim: This study aims to review the literature for mental health outcomes in Syrian refugees. Methods: We performed a systematic quantitative literature review of original observational studies indexed on the MEDLINE via PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, LILACS, and SciELO databases with quantitative data reporting mental health outcomes in Syrian refugees. A descriptive analysis was conducted, and the quality of the included studies was assessed using an adaptation from The National Institutes of Health (NIH) quality assessment tool for observational studies. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Results: A total of 64 studies were included. The majority were published between 2019 and 2020, and focused on the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety, with a wide range of variations. Other outcomes were difficulties in the post-migration period and promotive factors for mental health, such as resilience, positive coping strategies, and psychosocial well-being. Conclusions: High prevalence rates of mental disorders were observed, as well as risk factors for their occurrence. Studies showed a very high variability of prevalence rates and heterogeneity in methodologies. There is a need for research focusing on other determinants and specific necessities for mental health, especially in the post-resettlement period.