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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of job satisfaction in Italy with particular emphasis on social relations.

This paper uses the data from the Multiscopo Survey of Households (MSH) conducted by the Italian Central Statistical Office for the years 1993-1995-1998-2000 for empirical investigations with ordered probit and robustness tests. A statistical matching procedure to impute missing values on household income in MSH is also performed.

The paper finds that social interactions matter. While visits to relatives are not statistically significant, volunteer work and the frequency of meetings with friends are significantly and positively correlated with job satisfaction, with church attendance having the biggest impact on job satisfaction. These results seem to confirm the main assumption of the paper: social relations are helpful in gaining more and in improving career prospects. The findings also show that meetings with friends increase job satisfaction through self-perceived health, suggesting a “buffering effect” of the networks of friends. In addition, results for Italy confirm findings gathered from job satisfaction studies with some novel evidence.

The role of social relations in job satisfaction has received no attention. The paper contributes to the literature by carrying out the first empirical analysis on the relationship between social relations and job satisfaction. Overall, the value-added of the study is twofold. First, it adds a new piece of evidence to the existing literature on job satisfaction, i.e. the effects of social relations. To the best of the knowledge, there are no studies which consider social interactions as determinants of job satisfaction. Second, it extends the country evidence on the determinants of job satisfaction.

This paper aims to investigate whether individuals’ planning horizon influences their decision to save privately for their retirement.

Focussing on Spain, this empirical research uses the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)[1]. Logit models are estimated considering variables related to demographic characteristics, economic situation, education and cognitive abilities and psychological and social factors.

The results confirm that the planning horizon significantly influences the decision to save for retirement. Long-term planners are more likely to save for retirement than short-term planners.

Although previous literature has identified the planning horizon as a relevant variable in the decision to save for retirement, few empirical studies have evaluated their impact. This paper shows that it is important to develop habits of financial planning in societies, especially in societies with a prominent orientation towards the present.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how limited care patients and comprehensive care patients differ in terms of consumers' behavior in the dentist selection process, in order to help healthcare providers and marketers better promote their practice depending on their patient type.

A survey of 1,150 dental school faculty private practice patients who recently chose their dentist was conducted and 221 responded. The respondents were divided to comprehensive care patients (n=120) and limited care patients (n=90) by self‐perceived need.

The comprehensive care patients were younger and more likely to be highly educated, have a healthcare related profession, and have private dental insurance (p<0.001). The comprehensive care patients were more likely to use information sources such as clinic website, the internet, and the insurance directory (p<0.05), while the limited care patients were more likely to use other dentists. Comprehensive care patients put more value on attributes such as, the dentist is in my insurance network and convenient physical location (p<0.05). In conclusion, comprehensive care patients and limited care patients differed significantly in characteristics and how and why they chose their dentist.

Healthcare marketers can use this study's findings to better promote their practice by selecting appropriate communication channels and focus on attributes that consumers value the most. It is important to apply different strategies to different consumer groups.

Many refugees and asylum seekers in Germany experience a high disease burden and low health literacy. The current study aims to focus on assessing these issues among African refugees and asylum seekers in Bavaria, Germany. The authors evaluated their self-perceived health status and health literacy, and identified barriers and gaps in health care utilization, intending to improve health care services for this group.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study involving 69 refugees and asylum seekers from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Nigeria. The authors performed descriptive and exploratory statistical analyses.

The authors found a substantial disease burden in the early stages of resettlement in Germany, particularly mental health symptoms (53.6%) and musculoskeletal problems (47.8%). Challenges in health literacy were observed, such as difficulties in understanding health information and managing emergency situations. Access to interpreters was limited, and understanding treatment certificates was more challenging than using electronic health cards, with 18.2% of participants reporting denial of medical treatment.

These findings highlight the need for early and tailored health support for refugees, with a particular focus on mental health. Efforts should be made to reduce language barriers and improve navigational skills within the health-care system, particularly in emergency situations. Addressing the restricted access to health care and bureaucratic obstacles is crucial for improved health outcomes among refugees.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to specifically explore the self-reported health status and health literacy of African refugees and asylum seekers in Bavaria, Germany, providing valuable insights into the unique healthcare challenges of this often underrepresented and overlooked population.

This study aims to illuminate self‐perceived health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) among newly‐arrived Arabic‐speaking refugees in Malmö, Sweden participating in a specific group Health Promotion activity.

Data consist of questionnaires, observations and oral evaluations in groups. Questions about HRQoL was measured by EQ‐5D self‐assessment containing five dimensions and three response options of severity, including a visual analog health rating scale. Participants' sleep patterns were measured by a sleep and recovery questionnaire with questions about sleep quality and sleep quantity.

The results show that disturbed sleep relates to EQ‐5D variables and to health rating scores. Moreover, there are changes over time and participants' perceptions of their health and quality of life in most EQ‐5D variables have significantly increased after the end of activity. In the variables pain and depression an improvement remains even at second follow up and health rating scores are higher at both follow ups relative to what it was originally. Sleep and recovery problems were perceived as less difficult at the course completion and second follow up.

Because of practical and ethical reasons there is an absence of a control group in this study.

The paper includes implications for education in medicine, health care and social work, for the design of the refugee reception programs and for the inter‐professional collaborations.

The paper shows that health promotion interventions in group setting in the first stage of resettlement turn out to be useful according to HRQoL and knowledge of the health care system.

Food allergy has potential to affect direct, indirect and intangible economic costs experienced by food allergic individuals and their families, resulting in negative impacts on welfare and well‐being. The purpose of this paper is to develop an instrument to assess these economic costs of food allergy at household level and to conduct an exploratory analysis of potential economic impact.

A case‐controlled postal pilot survey was conducted using a self‐completion instrument. Cases had either clinically or self‐diagnosed food allergy. Controls were obtained from households in which none of the members had food allergies.

The instrument appeared sensitive to the economic cost differences between households with and without food allergic members. Direct costs of health care were significantly higher for cases than for controls. Similar differences were identified for indirect cost of lost earnings, and costs due to inability to perform domestic tasks because of ill health. Intangible costs (self‐reported health status and well‐being), indicated significantly lower subjective well‐being for cases.

Larger sample sizes will be needed to reliably assess the size of impact, cross‐cultural variation in costs, and whether costs vary according to severity of food allergy or between diagnosed versus self‐reported food allergy. The costs effectiveness of diagnostic methods or interventions may also be assessed using this instrument. If economic costs of food allergy are significant in the population further consideration from a public health policy perspective will be required.

To date, economic impact of food allergy on individuals and households has not been quantified. The paper addresses this.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether employers’ attitudes towards older workers, especially regarding promotions, really affect their retirement intentions, distinguishing between men and women.

First, the author uses the 1992 wave of the Health and Retirement Study to estimate, through a Fields decomposition, the relative contribution of the feeling of an older worker to be discriminated against regarding promotions; and to explain the self‐reported probability to work full time after 62, decomposing by gender. Second, using the two first waves of HRS, the author removes any bias due to time‐constant unobserved heterogeneity, to test whether the individual feeling of being passed over for promotion may be misreported, owing to a strong preference for leisure. Finally, the author examines the effect of a change in this variable over time on the intentions to exit early.

The Fields decomposition shows that feeling passed over for promotion plays a non‐negligible role to predict retirement plans but only for women. In addition, using panel data allows a misreporting bias to be exhibited that may lead to underestimating of the negative effect of discriminatory practices towards older workers on their retirement plans. Lastly, an increase between 1992 and 1994 in the age‐discrimination towards older workers encouraged women to leave their job early, while it had no effect on retirement plans of men.

Empirical results put forward the idea that retirement intentions may differ across gender, owing to the different nature of the employer‐employee relation. While for men, this relation is characterized by delayed‐payment arrangements signed ex ante with the employer, as already shown by Adams, it is not true for women. Consequently, the age‐based preference of employers for promotion, leading to a lower probability of promotion for older workers, is treated by men as a consequence of ex ante arrangements and does not affect their retirement plans. However, women can attribute such attitudes of their employer to a kind of blatant discrimination, reducing therefore their attachment to their job.

The paper presents a longitudinal approach towards the determinants of retirement intentions that allows the unobserved heterogeneity constant over time to be removed and to estimate to what extent the feeling of being passed over for promotion may be attributed, for each gender, to some arrangements signed ex ante with the employer.

Researchers have spent considerable time studying how racial-ethnic minorities experience poorer health than whites [Townsend, P., & Davidson, N. (Eds). (1990). Inequalities in health: The black report. England: Penguin Press; Platt, L. (2006). Assessing the impact of illness, caring and ethnicity on social activity. STICERD Research Paper No. CASE108 London England), and how low socioeconomic status (SES) can negatively influence health status (Lynch, J., & Kaplan, G. (2000). Socioeconomic position. In: L. F. Berkman & I. Kawachi (Eds), Social epidemiology (pp. 13–55). New York: Oxford University Press]. This research investigates the relationship between class and race and perceived health status among patients with chronic conditions. More specifically, we apply the concept of social capital to assess whether the quantity of health information seeking behaviors (HISB) via social networks mediates the relationship between race and health status, and between SES and health status. Regression, t-test and ANOVA analyses of 305 surveys completed at a chronic illness management clinic in a Northwest research hospital reveal three important findings: first, that social class affects perceived health status more strongly than race; second, that frequency and amount of HISB do not play a significant role in perceived health status, regardless of race or SES; and third, that an interaction effect between frequency and amount of HISB suggests that the way that patients seek health information, and the quality of that information, may be more useful indicators of the role of social capital in HISB than our study can provide.

River flood exposes the population to multiple attacks from the physical, mental, health risks and its related negative effects. This study focused on the Pahang River and the three worst-hit district population (Pekan, Kuantan and Temerloh). Tools on areas of self-perceived health symptoms, QOL, depression, PTSD and community empowerment were assessed. Semi-guided questionnaires were distributed to a total of 602 victims. Questions on health symptoms were asked to respondents (R) and household members (HM). PTSD screening, i.e., the Trauma Screening Questionnaire, was used. Depression was assessed through the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). WHOQOL-BREF assessed four domains of QOL, i.e., physical activity, psychological, social relationships and environment. Community empowerment using the Individual Community Related Empowerment tool to assess five domains, i.e., self-efficacy, participation, motivation, intention and critical awareness. Prevalent disease showed that majority suffered from hypertension (11.0%) and diabetes (7.3%). Two main symptoms experienced were cough (R = 47.2%, HM = 43.7%) and flu (R = 42.7%, HM = 40.4). Monthly health expenditure was higher post flood. Purchase of prescription medications rose from MYR24.40 to 31.02. A total of 33 people were suspected to suffer from PTSD. Through BDI assessment, it was estimated that as many as 104 (17.3%) suffered overt (high) depression. The prevalence of QOL domains are as such: low physical activity was highest at 59%, low psychological activity at 53.3%, low social relationships at 43% and low environment at 45.2%. On community empowerment, low empowerment was seen on four domains: self-efficacy at 52%, participation at 55%, motivation at 54.2% and critical awareness at 74.4%. The domain with good intention and willing to participate was at 54%. Results indicate that the community was not adaptable to flood events. This is evident from high amount of experienced symptoms, low QOL (physical and psychological aspects) and empowerment (except intention). Proportion of PTSD and overt (high) depression was however quite low.

This study aims to measure the level of satisfaction among women with childbirth services provided at public health facilities. Further, to analyse the impact of their socio-economic and obstetric characteristics on their level of satisfaction.

To accomplish these objectives a cross-sectional survey was conducted in two districts of an Indian state, Bihar. Structured questionnaire was developed based on the scale proposed by Okumu and Oyugi (2018) both for vaginal and caesarean birth patients. For empirical analysis multiple linear regression model was employed.

Results suggest that majority of mothers are satisfied with the care they received during childbirth, regardless of whether they chose a caesarean (55%) or vaginal delivery (53%). Women report the lowest levels of satisfaction with postpartum care and the privacy that was preserved by healthcare personnel at health facility. Further the study also confirms the association between patient’s socio-economic characteristics and their satisfaction level.

This is the first study of its kind to highlight the situation of public healthcare system in Bihar, which is the third most populated state in India with poor social and health indicators.