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Postneonatal mortality (PNM), which differs from infant and perinatal mortality, has been observed in the past 25 years with respect to the health outcomes of children. While infant and perinatal mortality have been well-evaluated regarding racial differentials, there are no substantial data on PNM in this perspective. The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not social determinants of health adversely affect racial/ethnic PNM differentials in the USA.

A cross-sectional, nonexperimental epidemiologic study design was used to assess race as an exposure function of PNM using Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data (2013). The outcome variable assessed PNM, while the main independent variables were race, social demographic variables (i.e. sex and age) and social determinants of health (i.e. marital status and maternal education). The chi-square statistic was used to assess the independence of variables by race, while the logistic regression model was used to assess the odds of PNM by race and other confounding variables.

During 2013, there were 4,451 children with PNM experience. The cumulative incidence of PNM was 23.6% (n = 2,795) among white infants, 24.3% (n = 1,298) among Black/African-Americans (AA) and 39.5% (n = 88) were American-Indian infants (AI), while 21.3% (n = 270) were multiracial, χ² (3) = 35.7, p < 0.001. Racial differentials in PNM were observed. Relative to White infants, PNM was two times as likely among AI, odds ratio (OR) 2.11 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.61, 2.78). After controlling for the confounding variables, the burden of PNM persisted among AI, although slightly marginalized, adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.70, (99% CI 1.10, 2.65).

In a representative sample of US children, there were racial disparities in PNM infants who are AI compared to their white counterparts, illustrating excess mortality. These findings suggest the need to allocate social and health resources in transforming health equity in this direction.

This study aims to analyze the paths and mechanisms of firms’ sustainable high growth. Firms’ high growth is susceptible to interruption, stagnation or reversal. Thus, how firms can achieve sustainable high growth is an important topic that requires urgent discussion and has significant implications for sustainable economic development and employment.

This study applies a longitudinal case study approach to portray the process by which Jiashu orchestrated digital elements with traditional resources to continuously fulfill their user demands and ultimately achieve sustainable high growth.

This study reveals three resource orchestration strategies: trust-oriented, demand-oriented and efficiency-oriented. These strategies are adopted in an organization’s startup, expansion and maturity periods, respectively. By dynamically integrating and orchestrating digital elements with traditional resources, firms implement a growth strategy with expanding and stacking dimensions, leading to sustainable high growth. The replicability and connectivity resulting from orchestrating digital elements and traditional resources encourage firms to expand their dimensions of growth and achieve sustainable high growth in multiple dimensions.

This study conducts a preliminary exploration of the relationship between the integration of digital and traditional elements and the sustainable high growth of enterprises. A more stable theoretical relationship between the two requires further multi-case studies and empirical analysis for substantiation.

This study first clarifies the concept of sustainable high growth and reveals a unique nonlinear path characterized by growth with expanding and stacking dimensions. The findings contribute to deepening the theories of sustainable high growth and resource orchestration in the digital economy era and offer practical implications for the sustainable high-growth practices of firms.

We wanted to find out how infant multinationals originating from Poland enact opportunities in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.

We conducted a comparative case study of four Polish firms operating in SSA.

We found that when entering SSA, studied firms employed effectual decision-making logic. Thus, their internationalization was means-driven, serendipitous, partnership-oriented, based on the “affordable loss” principle and focused on shaping opportunities in SSA, rather than predicting, analyzing and planning any firm-specific assets or capabilities.

We illuminated the nature of the means employed in effectual internationalization and the role of partners (“effectual stakeholders”) in this process. Thus, we contribute to a deeper understanding of how infant multinationals navigate extreme uncertainty in the emerging SSA markets.

This study aims to explore the link between prevalent risk factors for early childhood diarrhea, including hygiene, feeding, weaning practices and maternal education and the occurrence and severity of early childhood diarrhea in Saudi Arabia.

A case-control study was conducted, involving 98 mothers from the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia (51 cases and 47 controls). Data were collected from both hospital and community sources. The collected data were statistically analyzed and depicted using descriptive statistics and frequency tables.

Demographic data revealed that 60% of mothers were housewives, 75% had normal deliveries and all babies were full term. In the study cohort, 44% of children aged one to two years. Four domains were compared: diarrheal management, hygiene, weaning and feeding practices. Diarrheal management was suboptimal in some cases: 29% increased fluid intake, 10% maintained adequate food intake, 50% sought medical advice, 58% were familiar with oral rehydration solutions and only 37% used them. Hygiene practices were deficient, with 35% using wipes or sanitizers, 64% handwashing before feeding and 52% adhering to the recommended 10-s duration. Controls exhibited better hygiene practices. Weaning practices were generally similar, with no significant differences between the two groups.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to collectively report on the risk factors linked to early childhood diarrhea in Saudi Arabia. This study yields significant insights, highlighting the crucial role of managing diarrhea, educating mothers and implementing proper household practices in impacting the occurrence and severity of this perilous ailment.

In most Sub-Saharan African countries, a widely adopted policy to increase access to healthcare is the complete or partial removal of health user fees. This paper examines the effect of removing health user fees on the cognitive development of children in Ghana.

The study uses the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS) and a difference-in-differences method to analyze the impacts of free healthcare.

The findings show that improved access to healthcare enhances the cognitive ability of children. More importantly, children who received free healthcare in early life experienced significant improvement in their cognitive ability. The benefits are also huge for girls and children from low-income families. The findings further show that maternal health, the timely receipt of vaccinations and regular infant health visits are important operative channels through which improved access to healthcare affects children’s cognitive ability.

There are several studies on the effects of eliminating health user fees on various outcomes, but only a few focus on children’s outcomes. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on a vital child outcome, cognitive ability and exploring the timing and pathways through which abolishing health user fees affect cognitive development in children. Because cognitive ability is crucial for educational and labor market outcomes, the findings are useful for policymakers in determining the population to target and the timing of interventions that yield huge impacts when designing health intervention programs in developing countries.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0739.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a compound commonly used in the production of plastic bottles and containers, where it is used as a plasticizer and can migrate into food. Its intake may impair the functioning of endocrine glands and have a negative impact on the health of human, especially infants. Because it is also found in baby bottles. Generally BPA can enter the body through daily, cumulative and long-term consumption of various foods. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of BPA and its migration through some food containers and bottles. It also explains the potential risks associated with its consumption.

In this study, some of the research conducted in this field has been used by searching in various Web databases, including ScienceDirect, Scopus and PubMed. Therefore, this study provides an overview of the migration of BPA from different packages and compares the obtained values with standard ranges.

Most studies showed samples below the reference value. However, the use of containers made with BPA should be controlled and government policies should be implemented to eliminate or reduce the use of these containers.

This paper collects evidence of migration of BPA to some foods through bottles and food containers.

This study explored how institutional quality influences the relationship between military spending and education in Africa.

This study used data from 43 African countries spanning the years 2000–2021. Two estimation methods were employed to address various issues: Fixed Effects with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors and the Two-Step System Generalised Method of Moments. The Fixed Effects with Driscoll-Kraay standard error method was used to obtain reliable standard errors and inferences from the estimated coefficients of the fixed effects model. Meanwhile, the problem of endogeneity between military spending and education was addressed using the Two-Step System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM).

The results indicated that military spending negatively impacts both the quality and quantity of education. However, both institutional quality and the interaction term (institutional quality*military spending) have positive effects on both measures of education, suggesting that better institutional quality mitigates the negative effect of military spending on education outcomes.

This study shows that institutional quality dampens the negative effect of military spending on education, especially the quality of education. Hence, African countries should prioritize strengthening their institutions to ensure optimal allocation and utilization of government funds for the benefit of their citizens.

This is the first study to examine the moderating role of institutional quality in the relationship between military spending and education, focusing on both the quantity and quality of education.

Stunting is a major multifactorial health problem in Indonesia that negatively impacts children. Among Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia had the highest prevalence of child stunting (0–59 months old). As Indonesia has also the largest population in Southeast Asia, it is crucial to assess measures to decrease the prevalence of stunting in the country. Therefore, this study aims to examine the prevalence and determinants of stunting among children 6–23 under two years old in Indonesia.

The study used a cross-sectional design using the national database. A total of 15,641 children aged 6–23 months were included in the study. A multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify the association between the dependent and independent variables.

The prevalence of stunting was 18% (95% CI = 17.5%–18.7%). This study found that children aged 12–23 months were the dominant factor in stunting (OR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.92–2.36). Factors associated with stunting include being male (OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.26–1.49), low birth weight (LBW) (OR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.68–2.27), short birth length (SBL) (OR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.64–2.01), history of infection (OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.06–1.26) and lack of dietary diversity (OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.04–1.00) consumption of empty calorie drinks (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.01–1.24), unimproved sanitation (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.04–1.30), middle socioeconomic status (OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.16–1.55), low maternal education (OR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.08–2.10) and living in a rural area (OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.06–1.26).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the prevalence and determinants of stunting among children under two years old in Indonesia using a national which represented a population of interest.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)’s expenses in the health and social fields and the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) 1 (elimination of poverty) and 3 (good health and well-being). This paper also examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on these expenses and goals.

This paper observes the public expenses and the targets of the SDGs of KSA during 1981–2022. This paper tests the stationarity of the variables and then uses the ordinary least square model or the autoregressive distributed lag model, depending on the unit root test results. This paper also observes the change in target goals between the two years of the pandemic and the two preceding years.

The results show the influence of social expenditure on the progress of SDG-1, whereas the impact of health expenditure on SDG-3 is not significant. This paper also proves the impact of the pandemic on public expenses and social SDGs.

This paper attracts the attention of policymakers to the importance of assessing their SDG initiatives and the consequent outcomes. Additionally, this paper documents the initiatives for sustainable development in KSA, an important emerging country. Given the universal nature of the SDGs and the importance of KSA as an economic power with a large youth human capital potential, the findings offer insights applicable beyond KSA and provide valuable lessons for governments worldwide regarding the optimization of public spending for SDG achievement. Moreover, monitoring SDG advancement in this important country helps assess the progress of the the United Nations (UN)’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Therefore, This paper helps boost the completion of this agenda and contributes to the bottom-up approach of the UN 2030 Vision, implicating all categories of stakeholders, including the academic community.

This paper furthers the literature on SDG achievement by analyzing the relationship between public expenses and SDGs. This paper contributes to the debate concerning the best methodology suitable for SDG valuation and adds to the few studies using autoregressive tests. Moreover, this paper enriches the scarce studies dealing with emerging countries and reviews the assessment of SDGs in KSA. Additionally, this paper investigates the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the assigned resources for SDGs and, consequently, on the related indicator scores.