Impact Of Socioeconomic Conditions Research Articles

Impact of socio-economic conditions on the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis in Bihar, India

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the world's worst parasitic killers, second only to Malaria, claiming thousands of lives every year. More than three fifths of the world's VL cases occur in the Indian state of Bihar alone. While some research has been conducted with emphasis on the effects of climatic variables on the VL incidence rate, rigorous analysis of the effects of socio-economic variables is still lacking. In this paper a regression model is developed that describes the relationship between VL incidence rate and a variety of socio-economic factors. It uses data from 2005 and explains 92% of the observed variance. In addition, a stepwise regression model is also used to identify the most important factors that facilitate the prevalence of the VL disease. A discussion on how to most effectively distribute Bihar's limited resources on various control measures to decrease the incidence of VL is also presented.

The Payne of Addressing Race and Poverty in Public Education: Utopian Accountability and Deficit Assumptions of Middle-Class America

Historically and currently, education discourse and policy are impacted by crisis rhetoric and utopian expectations for public education. Schools are failing, the narrative goes, but that failure is measured against a standard of success by all students without regard to the impact of socioeconomic conditions on student outcomes. Further, our educational approaches to children living in poverty are corrupted by deficit assumptions and practices as characterized by the workbooks and programs presented by Ruby Payne. Educational reform should be guided by a commitment to social reform and by a shift away from deficit perspectives and toward nuanced and realistic understandings of children living in poverty. The lives and education of children of color are disproportionately impacted by inequity and reduced practices, both reinforced by social assumptions driving educational discourse and policies that are doing more harm than good for an educational system designed to support a free people.

Your House, Your Car, Your Education: The Socioeconomic Situation of the Neighborhood and its Impact on Life Satisfaction in Germany

This study deals with the impact of socioeconomic conditions and social integration into a local neighborhood on individual life satisfaction in Germany. While the majority of ecological studies to date are based on very broad neighborhood concepts, using large research units for defining neighborhood the present study contains micro-geographic information on a representative sample of private households in Germany, including features of their respective residential environments. The data was derived from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study and enriched with data from the Micromarketing-Systeme and Consult GmbH (microm) for the years 2000–2006. Our analyses reveal neighborhood effects on various facets of life satisfaction. Controlling for several covariates at the household and individual level, life satisfaction increases when a person lives in a neighborhood with a higher socioeconomic status. In addition, the individual gap between a person’s economic status and the status of the neighborhood also affects individual well-being. However, when comparing with other neighborhood aspects, the strongest effects on individual life satisfaction have social networks.

Explaining Race Differences in Mortality among the Tennessee Medicare Elderly: The Role of Physician Services

We investigated the impact of socioeconomic conditions, patterns of morbidity, and physician service utilization on race differences in rates of mortality, and mortality associated with specific diagnoses. Longitudinal data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Billing File data and the Medicare Enrollment Database (EDB) were analyzed to assess physician-diagnosed morbidity, health service use, and mortality, among the population of Medicare beneficiaries in Tennessee (N=665,887). Proportional hazards models were used to examine the effects of race, socioeconomic status, morbidity, and physician service utilization on mortality. Race differences in physician visits explain the largest portion of mortality differentials between African Americans and Whites. Race disparities in mortality associated with particular forms of morbidity are also mostly a function of differences in physician service use. Our examination suggested that race differences in patterns of physician service use principally explain race disparities in mortality. Further, race differences in the use of physician services were substantially responsible for race disparities in mortality associated with particular forms of morbidity.

Protein Energy Malnutrition and the Nervous System: the Impact of Socioeconomic Condition, Weaning Practice, Infection and Food Intake, an Experience in Nigeria

2 Abstract: Parental socio-economic condition, childhood infection, weaning practices, and childhood intake of food adequate in protein are known to influence the evolution of protein energy malnutrition (PEM) but this is only scantily documented for our setting. To evaluate the impact of these factors on the development of PEM and its neurological sequel in our setting, sixty-seven malnourished children attending our nutritional rehabilitation centre were analyzed for demographics, weaning age, weaning diets, weights and weight-for-age deficits, parental socio-economic conditions, literacy levels and annual per capita income. They were categorized using modified Welcome classification into four classes of PEM. Predominant neurological manifestations included delayed walking skill, hyperreflexia, spinal ataxia and nutritional neuropathies. Their parents were graded into five socio-economic classes according to the Registrar-General's occupational classification. A survey of food items produced by the parents and the proportion utilized for childhood consumption was carried out. The 67 children, 42 females and 25 males aged 3 months to five years, were categorized as marasmus (18%), marasmic kwashiorkor (16%), kwashiorkor (15%), and underweight (51%). Female children out-numbered males in all age groups and were more often severely affected than males. Children suffering from marasmus (mean age =15.4 months) were significantly younger (p< 0.05) than cases of kwashiorkor (18.1 months) and marasmic kwashiorkor (23.2 months) and those who were underweight (18 months). The commonest predisposing infection was recurrent diarrhoea (24, 35.8%), followed by intestinal parasitic infestation (10, 14.9%) and measles (8, 11.9%). The Registrar-General's occupational grouping placed most (91.6%) of the fathers and all mothers in the low socio-economic classes. Only meager proportions of parents produced protein rich farm products and utilized them child care. Poor parental socio-economic condition, infections, faulty weaning practices and low intake of protein-rich diet are vital to the development of PEM in our setting.

Infant mortality in Denmark and Sweden: A comparison based on data in two national registries

Objectives: To study in detail the differences in infant mortality between Denmark and Sweden. Study design: Data retrieved from national health registers on infant death rates were compared for 1980–1988, supplemented with a study on the impact of socio-economic conditions in 1985–86 (Denmark) or 1986 (Sweden). Results: Even after stratification for maternal age, parity, and socio-economic group, the Danish mortality rate was higher in all age-at-death intervals except for stillbirths. Maternal age-parity distribution was more favourable in Denmark, the socio-economic distribution in Sweden. The most marked country differences was seen in young women. The difference in the rate of perinatal deaths but not of later deaths is explainable by a more favourable birth weight distribution in Sweden than in Denmark. Conclusions: The studied variables do not explain the difference in mortality risk but it may be due to life style factors so far not identified.