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The urbanization of poverty is a structural trend embodied in the sprawling urban slums of the developing countries. It remains a largely unacknowledged dynamic. This is particularly true in terms of the population-level patterns of social well-being derived from urban slum prevalence or proportion of the total population living in urban slum conditions. In particular, there is increasing evidence of an “urban penalty” wherein urban slum dwellers exhibit poorer health outcomes than non-slum urban residents and even rural populations. We articulate the proposition that urban slum prevalence is a key factor shaping population-level rates of social well-being in the developing countries, measured at the national level. Further, we develop the proposition drawn from political economy of health theorization suggesting cross-national dependency relations substantially influence urban slum conditions. In turn, the structural dynamics of the world economy underlie urban slum prevalence which itself has a direct influence on population-level patterns of social well-being as measured by infant and under-five mortality, maternal mortality, and life expectancy at birth. We conclude by arguing for greater empirical attention focusing upon the consequences of dependency relations as expressed in the built urban environment and the impact of urban slum prevalence as a key social condition impacting well-being in the less developed countries.

This article describes the use of the National Health Interview Survey-Disability Supplement (NHIS-D) to estimate the prevalence and general characteristics of persons with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in the non-institutionalized U.S. population. It provides estimates of the populations of non-institutionalized persons with intellectual disability (defined categorically), with developmental disabilities (defined functionally) and with both. It describes how the prevalence of intellectual and/or developmental disabilities varies by age, poverty status and other demographic variables. It describes how intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities are operationally different, and how the people identified in those groups differ substantially both in number and in demographic characteristics. An analysis of poverty status among adults reveals that poverty is significantly more common for women, people who were not white, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, adults with less than 12 years of education, and people living with a spouse or alone (as compared to people living with relatives such as parents or siblings).

This study examined the prevalence of domestic violence against men as viewed by literate married adults in Kwara State, Nigeria. Moderating variables of gender, length of marriage, and highest educational attainment were also examined for their influence on the respondents’ views. The study employed a descriptive survey method. A total of 386 literate married adults were selected through proportional and accidental sampling techniques. For the demographic data, percentage was employed while t-test and analysis of variance statistical tools were employed to test all the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. Results showed that domestic violence against men was prevalent in the form of wives issuing verbal threats to their husband 96.0%, starving their husbands of sex to serve as punishment 94.0%, starving their husbands of food to show their anger, 91.0%, calling their husbands all sorts of bad names among others. Also, there were significant differences in the prevalence of domestic violence against men as viewed by literate married adults in Kwara State based on gender and length of marriage. It is therefore concluded that as viewed by literate married adults in Kwara State, domestic violence against men is prevalent.

Purpose – To examine the influence of changing diagnostic tools and the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries' practices on perceptions of depression prevalence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Approach – This is a general review of the sociohistorical shifts in depression diagnosis and pharmaceutical and health insurance industry practices during this time period as they impact professional and lay perceptions of changes in depression prevalence.

Findings – Shifts in the definition of depression to an increasingly medically oriented, social context-free definition along with the interaction of the pharmaceutical industry, health care, and health insurance industries in the U.S. system of mental health care have become major organizers of professional and lay perceptions of the nature of depression, its treatment, and prevalence. These sociohistorical and economic influences need to be factored into debates on depression prevalence.

Contribution of paper to the field – This chapter provides an introductory-level synthesis of basic psychiatric epidemiology concepts and social science critiques of professional and lay perceptions of depression prevalence as “epidemic.”

Currently, most research about the autism spectrum has examined Caucasian autistics. Consequently, African American autistics have not received much attention from scholars. This chapter begins with an overview of statistics from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the population of Black and Latino autistics in the United States from 2000 to 2016. Plausible reasons for why there is a lack of research about African American autistics are then presented along with a section about the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in autism spectrum research. Four strategies that can improve the production of research about African American autistics are then presented. The purpose of presenting these strategies is to help stimulate the production of research about African American autistics.

The original contribution that this chapter makes to the field of autism spectrum research is to inform the reader about the lack of research about African American autistics in comparison to other ethnicities.

Purpose – To examine potential sex differences among American Indian and Alaska Native peoples (AIANs) in diabetes prevalence, comorbidities, healthcare utilization, and treatment costs within the Indian Health Services (IHS).

Methodology/Approach – Data were drawn from the IHS Improving Healthcare Delivery Data Project with 437,608 persons in our analytical sample. We described sex and age differences in diabetes, comorbidities, healthcare utilization, and treatment costs among the adults with diabetes. We evaluated the statistical differences between men and women using confidence intervals calculated at the 95% level, with nonoverlapping confidence intervals indicating statistical significance.

Findings – The prevalence of diabetes among females was somewhat higher than that of males (10.82 vs 9.16%, respectively, p < 0.05). Among adults with diabetes, males had statistically higher prevalence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and substance use disorders and fewer mental health disorders compared to females. Although males had overall lower average cost of services than females, males had higher utilization for hospital inpatient services than females, and females used more outpatient services.

Research limitations/implications – We are limited to one fiscal year of data and thus cannot predict the influence of healthcare utilization patterns on the overall health of this population. Although a large sample, the findings are only generalizable to the active users of the participating IHS Service Units.

Originality/Value of Paper – This study fills a major gap in our knowledge of sex differences in diabetes prevalence, comorbidities, healthcare utilization, and treatment costs among AIANs. Differences in the comorbidities that characterized the AIAN adult males and females with diabetes in this sample have important implications for mortality and cost of care. Diabetes management that addresses such gender-specific comorbidities, particularly substance use disorders among men and mental health disorders among women, promises to reduce these comorbidities and related complications.

The aim of the paper is to review the experiences of developing countries in collecting disability data with regard to the methods and definitions used. The review is based on data in the United Nations Disability Statistics Database, version 2 (DISTAT-2). We analyze the prevalence rates of disability in relation to the characteristics of questions used to identify persons with disabilities and the relationship between disability prevalence and other social and economic indicators. The wide difference in approaches used by countries to identify persons with disabilities result in very different rates of disability prevalence, thus making the comparison of these rates very problematic. The paper gives suggestions on how to improve methods to collect data on disability.

We exploit the international comparability and the longitudinal dimension of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to look at regional and cohort differences in disease prevalence across European regions. We find a significantly higher probability of reporting cardiovascular diseases among older Eastern European women than among other Europeans. Moreover, we observe a worsening in health conditions for younger cohorts.

In the field of autism spectrum research, there has been a tendency to examine autistics without intellectual disabilities. This focus has come at the expense of examining their peers with intellectual disabilities, who are generally regarded as needing more assistance due to more complex support needs. This chapter begins by defining intellectual disability, followed by an examination of the literature about the prevalence of intellectual disability in the autistic population. The results from the American Government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Autism and Developmental Monitoring (ADDM) Network about the proportion of autistics with intellectual disabilities are then outlined. Following this, the results from studies about the proportion of autistics with intellectual disabilities are presented. The goal of this section is to show that despite there being evidence that about a quarter of the autistic population have an intellectual disability, this cohort is underrepresented within research about the autism spectrum. Two reasons for this discrepancy are then outlined. This chapter concludes with three suggestions for where more research can be conducted into autistics who have an intellectual disability.

The original contribution that this chapter makes to the field of autism research is to highlight the lack of literature about members of the autistic community who have an intellectual disability as well as presenting several reasons for this lack of research and directions for research in the future.