Search results

In this chapter, we draw on health lifestyle, human capital, and health commodity theories to examine the effects of educational attainment on a wide range of individual dietary behaviors and dietary lifestyles.

Using data from the 2005-2006 iteration of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 2,135), we employ negative binomial regression and binary logistic regression to model three dietary lifestyle indices and thirteen healthy dietary behaviors.

We find that having a college degree or higher is associated with seven of the thirteen healthy dietary behaviors, including greater attention to nutrition information (general nutrition, serving size, calories, and total fat) and consumption of vegetables, protein, and dairy products. For the most part, education is unrelated to the inspection of cholesterol and sodium information and consumption of fruits/grains/sweets, and daily caloric intake. We observe that having a college degree is associated with healthier dietary lifestyles, the contemporaneous practice of multiple healthy dietary behaviors (label checking and eating behaviors). Remarkably, household income and the poverty-to-income ratio are unrelated to dietary lifestyles and have virtually no impact on the magnitude of the association between education and dietary lifestyles.

Our findings are consistent with predictions derived from health lifestyle and human capital theories. We find no support for health commodity theory, the idea that people who are advantaged in terms of education live healthier lifestyles because they tend to have the financial resources to purchase the elements of a healthy lifestyle.

This chapter compares smoking among American women employed outside the home with those of full-time homemakers at two points in time: 1979 and 2014.

Data are from the 1979 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) and from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The NHSDA is the precursor to the present-day NSDUH and part of the same continuum of nationwide surveys on drug use. The analysis uses logistic regression models and the survey suite of commands in Stata 13 to include 1979/2014 sample weights and adjustments for the complex sample design.

Results show that smoking is most prevalent among homemakers in small communities. This outcome supports earlier studies citing smoking as a major causal factor for the decline in female life expectancy among less-educated white women in certain low-income and rural counties in the United States. The premise that female smoking is strongly associated with the workplace appears to be no longer true.

These data provide only a limited test of health lifestyle theory because many of the model’s structural variables are not included. Otherwise the findings support the model.

This study finds that smoking is greatest among women who are full-time homemakers in medium and especially small towns. This is a new development and suggests the locus of smoking among women has moved away from its association with the job in cities to the home in less populated areas.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether health lifestyles differ significantly between social classes within the Deep South. Relatively little is known about the health lifestyles practiced within this region. Results from this study show significant class differences in health lifestyles within the South (especially drinking alcohol, smoking, dietary practices, and exercise as well as self-reported health variables). The cultural and social features of this area have not facilitated dispersion of health promoting lifestyles. Therefore, “life chances” and especially “place” appear to be more important than “life choices” for positive health lifestyles.

During the last decades the socio‐political status of children in Western societies has become a focus of interest for researchers from various disciplines. As part of the more general trend of struggles for the human rights of specific sectors of society (e.g. African Americans, women, homosexuals) proponents established the “Children's Rights Movement” which has fought on behalf of the younger members of society, trying to secure them certain social rights and legal protection (e.g. Forer, 1973). Concern for children and their social status has been gradually institutionalised until gaining recognition also by major world organisations such as the United Nations which adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and established UNICEF, whose sole aim was to promote the welfare of children around the world. During the past decade extensive political as well as scholarly attention has been concentrated on problems of child abuse and neglect.

Outlines the problems faced by women with disabilities, stating that previous research has not usually singled out this category. States that this category faces double discrimination because of disability and gender, with few role models to follow. Discusses the early education of this group and the use of residential schools. Concludes that much more research is needed in this area.