Suchergebnisse

"Proxy reports in survey research are widely used when the index individual is unavailable or somehow incapacitated by age or disability. Proxy reports are plagued by concerns about accuracy, however, and self-reports are generally preferred when objective measurement is not possible. This paper uses the Young Lives Study of International Child Poverty to assess the validity and utility of adolescent self-reported health (SRH) and the conventional parent's proxy report. Using multivariate regression models and the framework of convergent validity, I find evidence for the validity of both proxy and self-reports, although proxy reports appear to be slightly more robustly associated with available physical health information. Exploratory multiple imputation simulations suggest that researchers should request both proxy and self-reports in household surveys; having both substantially improves the imputation of one if it is missing or implausible. Along with a moderate correlation between the two reports, these results suggest that proxy and self-reports of adolescent's general health status are not interchangeable and may complement one another." (author's abstract)

Half the population of low‐ and middle‐income countries will live in urban areas by 2030, and poverty and inequality in these contexts are rising. Slum‐dwelling is one way in which to conceptualize and characterize urban deprivation, but there are many definitions of what constitutes a slum. This article presents four different slum definitions used in India, demonstrating that assessments of both the distribution and extent of urban deprivation depend on the way in which it is characterized, as does slum‐dwelling's association with common child health indicators. Using data from India's National Family and Health Survey from 2005–06, two indicators of slum dwelling embedded in the survey and two constructed from the household questionnaire are compared using descriptive statistics and linear regression models of height‐ and weight‐for‐age z‐scores. The results highlight discrepancies between international and local slum definitions, and underscore the importance of improving empirical representations of the dynamism of slum and city residents.

Poverty has a strong relationship to geography in the United States. Previous research has found that rural areas have higher average poverty rates than urban areas, but the new supplemental poverty measure (SPM) has shown in recent years that urban areas have higher average poverty. In this article, we analyze poverty trends from 1967 to 2014 in rural and urban America, using the improved SPM metrics. We find a dramatic decline in poverty in rural areas, and also show that the geographic adjustment of the poverty threshold in the SPM (which lowers poverty thresholds in less expensive areas and raises them in more expensive areas) is an important explanatory factor. We also find that changes in the demographic and economic characteristics of rural and urban residents help to explain the decline. Last, we investigate whether migration of the poor between rural and urban areas helps to account for differential poverty trends, but we find little evidence in support of that hypothesis.

In India, 52 98 million people live in urban slums, and 59% of slums are "non-notified" or lack legal recognition by the government. In this paper, we use data on 2,901 slums from four waves of the National Sample Survey (NSS) spanning almost 20 years to test the hypothesis that non-notified status is associated with greater deprivation in access to basic services, thereby increasing vulnerability to poor health outcomes. To quantify deprivation for each slum, we construct a basic services deprivation score (BSDS), which includes variables that affect health, such as access to piped water, latrines, solid waste disposal, schools, and health centers. In a regression analysis, we find a robust association between non-notified status and greater deprivation after controlling for other variables. Our analysis reveals a progressive reduction in deprivation the longer a slum has been notified. In addition, data from the 2012 NSS show that, despite suffering from greater deprivation, non-notified slums were much less likely to receive financial aid from government slum improvement schemes. Our findings suggest that legally recognizing non-notified slums and targeting government aid to these settlements may be crucial for improving health outcomes and diminishing urban disparities.

This paper investigates how and why DHS data were used in select health policy decision-making processes and how best the use of evidence can be supported in future. We use data from in-depth interviews with 22 professionals working in health and policy think-tanks, government agencies, foundations, survey research, and non-government organizations. We undertake a cross-case thematic analysis of the interview content and available documents to develop three case studies (Malawi, India, and Rwanda) of evidence-based policymaking. These case studies outline the way in which DHS data were used in a variety of policymaking contexts and how it facilitated policymakers' appreciation of the scope of problems, highlighted mismatch between population health needs and service provision, supported advocacy efforts, provided concise and compelling issue framing, and catalyzed high-level political commitments. The paper presents a framework that can be used to understand the use of evidence in health policy decision-making in developing countries.

In India, "non-notified" slums are not officially recognized by city governments; they suffer from insecure tenure and poorer access to basic services than "notified" (government-recognized) slums. We conducted a study in a non-notified slum of about 12,000 people in Mumbai to determine the prevalence of individuals at high risk for having a common mental disorder (i.e., depression and anxiety), to ascertain the impact of mental health on the burden of functional impairment, and to assess the influence of the slum environment on mental health. We gathered qualitative data (six focus group discussions and 40 individual interviews in July-November 2011), with purposively sampled participants, and quantitative data (521 structured surveys in February 2012), with respondents selected using community-level random sampling. For the surveys, we administered the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ) to screen for common mental disorders (CMDs), the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHO DAS) to screen for functional impairment, and a slum adversity questionnaire, which we used to create a composite Slum Adversity Index (SAI) score. Twenty-three percent of individuals have a GHQ score ≥5, suggesting they are at high risk for having a CMD. Psychological distress is a major contributor to the slum's overall burden of functional impairment. In a multivariable logistic regression model, household income, poverty-related factors, and the SAI score all have strong independent associations with CMD risk. The qualitative findings suggest that non-notified status plays a central role in creating psychological distress—by creating and exacerbating deprivations that serve as sources of stress, by placing slum residents in an inherently antagonistic relationship with the government through the criminalization of basic needs, and by shaping a community identity built on a feeling of social exclusion from the rest of the city.

The EU Horizon 2020 CICERONE project (2018-2021) is developing a platform for EU programme owners (POs, i.e. public funders of programmes related to circular economy) to coordinate and collaborate on priority research and innovation actions. Part of this process was the development of the Circular Economy Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). This SRIA is as a strategic guidance document that specifically focuses on the topic of CE in the European Union. The SRIA targets national, regional and local programme owners to identify joint priorities in research and innovation, co-implement joint programmes and guide further cooperation. Collaboration will be based on the SRIA's joint programmes, which provide a framework for a more systemic innovation aiming to create holistic, cross-cutting and systemic programmes with greater impacts.