Determinants Of Human Well-being Research Articles

Determinants of Human Wellbeing and its Prospect Under the Role of Financial Inclusion in South Asian Countries

This study aims to examine the impact of financial inclusion on human well-being in South Asian countries from 1996 to 2020. Specifically, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh were selected for this investigation. Human well-being is treated as the dependent variable, while financial inclusion, health facilities, voice & accountability, income inequality, corruption, education facilities, and the unemployment rate are considered independent variables. The study's findings indicate that financial inclusion, health facilities, and education facilities have a positive and significant impact on human well-being. The improvement of health and educational facilities not only creates more employment opportunities but also contributes to the enhancement of income, education, and health status within a nation. These results explain that selected South Asian countries should prioritize the promotion of education and health facilities to elevate the overall level of human well-being. Voice & accountability, along with corruption, exhibit an inverse and significant influence on human well-being in selected South Asian countries. Income inequality, on the other hand, shows an inverse but insignificant impact on human well-being, while unemployment has a significant and positive influence. Based on the estimated results, it is recommended that to enhance the level of human well-being in South Asian countries, there is a need to improve financial inclusion, health facilities, and educational facilities.

Role of Natural Capital Economics for Sustainable Management of Earth Resources

Natural capital is the wealth of nations that determine their economic status. Worldwide, vulnerable people depend on natural capital for employment, salaries, wealth, and livelihoods and, in turn, this determines the developmental index of the nation to which they belong. In this short review, we have tried to sum up the ideas and discussions over natural capital’s role in ascribing economic status to countries as well as the need for natural resource management and sustainability. This paper aimed to discuss how humanity’s prosperity is intertwined with the services that ecosystems provide, and how poor natural resource management (NRM) has adversely affected human well-being. Our preselected criteria for the review paper led us to evaluate 96 peer-reviewed publications from the SCOPUS database, which is likely the most comprehensive archive of peer-reviewed scientific literature as well as WoS, PUBMED, and Google Scholar databases. Our review revealed that the availability of ecological services is crucial for clean water and air, food and fodder, and agricultural development. We further discussed important concepts regarding sustainability, natural capital and economics, and determinants of human well-being vis-à-vis the intergenerational security of natural wealth. To ensure current and future human well-being, we conclude that an in-depth understanding of the services that ecosystems provide is necessary for the holistic management of the Earth system.

Editorial

Editorial

A Genetic Investigation of the Well-Being Spectrum

The interrelations among well-being, neuroticism, and depression can be captured in a so-called well-being spectrum (3-phenotype well-being spectrum, 3-WBS). Several other human traits are likely linked to the 3-WBS. In the present study, we investigate how the 3-WBS can be expanded. First, we constructed polygenic risk scores for the 3-WBS and used this score to predict a series of traits that have been associated with well-being in the literature. We included information on loneliness, big five personality traits, self-rated health, and flourishing. The 3-WBS polygenic score predicted all the original 3-WBS traits and additionally loneliness, self-rated health, and extraversion (R2 between 0.62% and 1.58%). Next, using LD score regression, we calculated genetic correlations between the 3-WBS and the traits of interest. From all candidate traits, loneliness and self-rated health were found to have the strongest genetic correlations (rg = − 0.79, and rg= 0.64, respectively) with the 3-WBS. Lastly, we use Genomic SEM to investigate the factor structure of the proposed spectrum. The best model fit was obtained for a two-factor model including the 5-WBS traits, with two highly correlated factors representing the negative- and positive end of the spectrum. Based on these analyses we propose to include loneliness and self-rated health in the WBS and use a 5-phenotype well-being spectrum in future studies to gain more insight into the determinants of human well-being.

Detecting and Attributing Health Burdens to Climate Change.

Background:Detection and attribution of health impacts caused by climate change uses formal methods to determine a) whether the occurrence of adverse health outcomes has changed, and b) the extent to which that change could be attributed to climate change. There have been limited efforts to undertake detection and attribution analyses in health.Objective:Our goal was to show a range of approaches for conducting detection and attribution analyses.Results:Case studies for heatwaves, Lyme disease in Canada, and Vibrio emergence in northern Europe highlight evidence that climate change is adversely affecting human health. Changes in rates and geographic distribution of adverse health outcomes were detected, and, in each instance, a proportion of the observed changes could, in our judgment, be attributed to changes in weather patterns associated with climate change.Conclusions:The results of detection and attribution studies can inform evidence-based risk management to reduce current, and plan for future, changes in health risks associated with climate change. Gaining a better understanding of the size, timing, and distribution of the climate change burden of disease and injury requires reliable long-term data sets, more knowledge about the factors that confound and modify the effects of climate on health, and refinement of analytic techniques for detection and attribution. At the same time, significant advances are possible in the absence of complete data and statistical certainty: there is a place for well-informed judgments, based on understanding of underlying processes and matching of patterns of health, climate, and other determinants of human well-being. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1509

Depicting community perspectives: repeat photography and participatory research as tools for assessing environmental services in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal

Efforts have been made to provide a scientific basis for using environmental services as a conceptual tool to enhance conservation and improve livelihoods in protected mountain areas (MtPAS). Little attention has been paid to participatory research or locals’ concerns as environmental service (ES) users and providers. Such perspectives can illuminate the complex interplay between mountain ecosystems, environmental services and the determinants of human well-being. Repeat photography, long used in geographical fieldwork, is new as a qualitative research tool. This study uses a novel application of repeat photography as a diachronic photo-diary to examine local perceptions of change in ES in Sagarmatha National Park. Results show a consensus among locals on adverse changes to ES, particularly protection against natural hazards, such as landslides and floods, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. We argue that our methodology could complement biophysical ecosystem assessments in MtPAS, especially since assessing ES, and acting on that, requires integrating diverse stakeholders’ knowledge, recognizing power imbalances and grappling with complex social-ecological systems.

Why Europe Has to Offer a Better Deal Towards its Muslim Communities: A Quantitative Analysis of Open International Data

Why Europe Has to Offer a Better Deal Towards its Muslim Communities: A Quantitative Analysis of Open International Data