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Discrimination has been identified as a major stressor and influence on immigrant health. This study examined the role of perceived discrimination in relation to other factors, in particular, acculturation, in physical and mental health of immigrants and refugees. Data for US adults (18 +  years) were derived from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Mental and physical health was assessed with SF-12. Acculturation and perceived discrimination were assessed with multidimensional measures. Structural equation models were used to estimate the effects of acculturation, stressful life effects, perceived discrimination, and social support on health among immigrants and refugees. Among first-generation immigrants, discrimination in health care had a negative association with physical health while discrimination in general had a negative association with mental health. Social support had positive associations with physical and mental health and mediated the association of discrimination to health. There were no significant associations between discrimination and health among refugees, but the direction and magnitude of associations were similar to those for first-generation immigrants. Efforts aiming at reducing discrimination and enhancing integration/social support for immigrants are likely to help with maintaining and protecting immigrants’ health and well-being. Further research using larger samples of refugees and testing moderating effects of key social/psychosocial variables on immigrant health outcomes is warranted. This study used multidimensional measures of health, perceived discrimination, and acculturation to examine the pathways between key social/psychosocial factors in health of immigrants and refugees at the national level. This study included possibly the largest national sample of refugees.

Financial stress has been found to contribute to mental health deterioration associated with job loss. This study examined whether specific types of income support programs (e.g., unemployment benefits and welfare) reduce the negative impacts of job loss on middle-aged women’s mental health in the United States. Two samples of women previously employed before their mental health assessments in their 40s and 50s were selected from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). We conducted regression analysis to predict their mental health scores using employment and income support program status. The model also controlled for baseline health before job loss, socioeconomic status, and demographic and family life characteristics. Compared to their continuously employed counterparts, 50 +  women who had job loss without unemployment benefits had significantly worse mental health. However, those receiving unemployment benefits did not have significantly worse mental health. Unemployment benefits’ ameliorating effect was not found in the 40 +  sample; and welfare programs did not have similar mental health effects. Our findings suggest that certain types of income support policies are beneficial to the mental health of certain cohorts of middle-aged women. For different groups of women, additional and alternative measures are needed to reduce the mental health damage of job loss.

The purpose of this paper is to explore physical environmental, medical environmental, and individual factors in a sample of ethnic minority adults with or at-risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua.

The study used a cross-sectional descriptive design guided by a community-based participatory research framework. Three coastal communities in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) of Nicaragua were sampled. Inclusion criteria were: lay adult with or at-risk for T2D, ⩾21 years of age, self-identification as Creole or Miskito, and not pregnant. Convenience sampling procedures were followed. Data were collected via objective (A1C, height, and weight) and self-report (Pan American Health Organization surveys, Diabetes Care Profile subscales, and Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-12 (MOS SF-12) measures. Univariate and bivariate statistics were computed according to level of measurement.

The sample (N=112) was predominately comprised of Creoles (72 percent), females (78 percent), and mid-age (M=54.9, SD±16.4) adults with T2D (63 percent). For participants with T2D, A1C levels, on average, tended to be elevated (M=10.6, SD±2.5). Those with or at-risk for T2D tended to be obese with elevated body mass indices (M=31.7, SD±8.1; M=30.2, SD±6.0, respectively). For many participants, fresh vegetables (63 percent) and fruit (65 percent) were reported as ordinarily available but difficult to afford (91 and 90 percent, respectively). A majority reported that prescribed medication(s) were available without difficulty (56 percent), although most indicated difficulty in affording them (73 percent). A minority of participants with T2D reported receipt of diabetes education (46 percent). A1C levels did not significantly vary according to diabetes education received or not (M=10.9, SD±2.9; M=10.4, SD±2.5; t=−0.4, p=0.71). Participants at-risk for T2D were infrequently instructed, by a provider, to follow an exercise program (4.8 percent) or meal plan (4.8 percent) and receive diabetes education (2.38 percent). MOS SF-12 findings revealed participants with T2D (M=41.84, SD=8.9; M=37.8, SD±8.5) had significantly poorer mental and physical health quality of life relative to at-risk participants (M=45.6, SD±8.4; M=48.1, SD±9.5) (t=−2.9, p<0.01; t=−2.5, p=0.01).

Salient physical environmental, medical environmental, and individual factors were identified in a sample of adults with or at-risk for T2D on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.

Findings informed the development of community-based clinics to address the problem of T2D locally.

The community-based clinics, housed in trusted church settings, provide culturally competent care for underserved ethnic minority populations with or at-risk for T2D.

This is the first quantitative assessment of the T2D problem among diverse ethnic groups in Nicaragua’s underserved RAAS.

The purpose of this paper is to test a hypothesized structure of interrelations between pre-migration dispositional factors (cultural identity and optimism/pessimism) and immigration-related experiences (level of integration and perceived discrimination) in association with mental and physical components of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of Jewish people from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who immigrated to Germany.

A questionnaire in Russian, including items about the immigration background, level of integration, perceived discrimination as well as cultural identity, dispositional optimism/pessimism (Life Orientation Test-R) and HRQoL (SF-12) was handed out to Jewish immigrants from the FSU living in Germany. The data of 153 participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Whereas no significant associations between Jewish identity and HRQoL could be found, both a positive association between optimism and level of integration with a link to physical and mental health, and an inverse relation between optimism and perceived discrimination with a link to mental health, were observed. Opposite associations were found for pessimism.

The results replicate prior research findings on Jews from the FSU living in Israel and the USA and suggest more detailed assessment methods for further investigations on integration processes and cultural identity in the selected group of immigrants. Additionally, HRQoL is significantly lower in the Jewish sample than in the general population. These findings underline the need for a better integration policy, especially for Jewish people from the FSU.

Understanding the determinants of health services use is essential for planning for effective services, particularly health care policies in a newly independent state, the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relative importance of social capital factors in affecting the variation in health status and use of health services, using structural equation modeling. The results show that health status is a strong predictor of health services use when the effect of social capital is held constant; and that social capital is directly linked with health status.

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether the inclusion of physical activity (PA) in a community programme setting is more beneficial than the benefit obtained from social participation for older adults.

A cross-sectional study conducted with a sample of 105 adults age 65+ and older that take part in community activities organised by the Bristol based charity LinkAge. Participants took part in either solely social groups or social groups with a PA component. A self-report questionnaire was composed of measures assessing functional health and well-being, health-related quality of life, functional ability, outcome expectation for exercise, and social support.

A significantly different and higher score on physical health measures was reported by the physically active group for role physical, physical function, bodily pain, and the physical capacity score. No significant difference was found for health measures that include a mental component. The physically active group reported higher outcome expectations for exercise.

Social activity in community programmes may provide a method to maintain a healthy mental state in older adults, but participation in PA in the same environment is associated with better scores for physical health measures.

Providing greater support for older people to engage in physical and social activities may enable them to maintain a higher quality of life.

Probleme des Plastizitätsthcorie (Problems of the Theory of Plasticity). By William Prager [Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel and Stuggart, Sf 12.50].

The purpose of this paper is to analyze numerically forced convective conjugate heat transfer characteristics for laminar flow through a wavy minichannel.

The mass and momentum conservation equations for the flow of water in the fluidic domain and the coupled energy conservation equations in both the fluid and solid domain are solved numerically using the finite element method. The exteriors of both the walls are subjected to a uniform heat flux.

The results reveal that the theoretical model without consideration of the effect of wall thickness always predicts a lower value of average Nusselt number ( Nu¯) as compared to the case of conjugate analysis, although it varies with the thickness as well as material of the wall. For the low amplitude of the wall (α = 0.2), the performance factor (PF) becomes very high for Re in the regime of 5 (⩽) Re (⩽) 15. For any geometrical configurations, conjugate heat transfer analysis predicts higher PF as compared to that of nonconjugate analysis.

The present study finds relevance in several applications, such as solar collectors and heat exchangers used in chemical industries and heating-ventilation and air-conditioning, etc.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the analysis of combined influences of the thickness and the material of the wall of the channel together with the geometrical parameters of the channel, namely, amplitude and wavelength on the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics for flow through wavy minichannel in the laminar regime is reported first time in the literature.

Identifying factors that impact workers’ health and performance is extremely important for companies and, in particular, for companies in the construction sector. Despite the evidence, knowledge about the relationship between commuting, health and worker performance is still limited. More specifically on the relationship with work engagement, studies focus on work-related aspects, neglecting individual and behavioral factors. This study aims to verify the relationship between the commuting patterns of workers, their health and their work engagement in a civil construction company located in São José dos Campos, Brazil.

A structured questionnaire was applied to 43 civil construction workers. The participants’ physical and mental health was evaluated using the 12-item short-form health survey. Employees’ work engagement was assessed through the UWES-17 scale. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed on the relationship between physical and mental health, engagement and commuting to work.

The result corroborated the literature showing that the use of active transport positively influenced the mental health of construction workers and negatively affected those who use individual motorized transport. People working from home had the lowest values for total engagement, vigor and dedication.

This study provides evidence and a prior understanding of this relationship, serving as a basis for decision-making processes in the area of transport that contribute to the health and better functioning of companies in the construction sector. This work also contributes to the state of the art on the relationship between commuting, health and worker engagement.

This paper investigates the influences of temporary contracts along several dimensions of well-being (physical and mental health, self-assessed health and happiness) for young Italian workers. Our paper contributes to the literature exploring some new aspects of the relationship between temporary jobs and well-being in a country not frequently analysed in previous literature. We focus on the gender gap in the well-being consequences of non-permanent jobs, the influence of financial support by family in reducing well-being effects caused by temporary contracts and the interaction between gender gap and family support. We find that temporary contracts are damaging in terms of psychological health and happiness mostly for young men and individuals without family economic support. On the other hand, women’s mental health is not affected by temporary contracts and they are even better off in terms of their mental health and well-being when receiving family economic support.