Indicators Of Human Well-being Research Articles

Violence, economic development, and knowledge production

The notion of economic violence has long been recognized in the work of Johan Galtung and others. The work of Thomas Pogge and the field of global justice have addressed the impact of economic disparities between the Global North and the Global South, and their impact on human well-being, and social and economic development more broadly. Patents, publication in scholarly journals, academic collaborations, access to academic journals, and so forth do not on their face seem to be closely tied to indicators of human well-being. However, disparities in knowledge production, including access to academic resources and publication venues, are tied directly or indirectly to infrastructure, food security, health and mortality rates, employment, and gender equity.

Well-being as a Prerequisite for Sustainability on a Macroeconomic Scale? Case of V4 Countries

Purpose: Human well-being is a necessary prerequisite for achieving sustainable development. This assumption aligns with the basis of Maslow´s pyramid of needs and the Kuznets curve in its ecological presentation. Therefore, the presented paper aims to clarify what impact specific indicators of human well-being have on the reported level of sustainability achieved on a macroeconomic scale in the Visegrad group in the years 2005-2021 and verify whether the author´s assumptions are correct. Methodology/Approach: Following the correlation analysis of selected variables, there is a linear regression model used to examine the relationship between the overall result of the V4 countries and the selected variables. Findings: People in V4 countries need to have their basic personal needs fulfilled to promote sustainability. Within the analyzed variables, the most significant influence on the country´s sustainability has the Employment rate, the Gender wage gap, and perceived Health. Research Limitation/implication: This study examines the situation within the Visegrad Group, and only 13 variables are selected for the analysis. Originality/Value of paper: The paper deals with the macroeconomic perception of sustainability and sustainable development connected to human well-being in V4 countries. The potential linkage between overall sustainable countries´ performance based on SDGs fulfilment and human well-being presented by OECD Social and Welfare Statistics is analyzed.

Quality of Life in Cancer Patients: The Modern Psycho-Oncologic Approach for Romania-A Review.

Quality of life (QOL) is an important indicator of human satisfaction and well-being. QOL is significantly and persistently affected for patients after a cancer diagnosis. Despite some evidence suggesting that psycho-oncologic interventions can provide lasting benefits, the inclusion of such interventions in cancer therapy is not universal. This article provides an overview of the known approaches to the evaluation of QOL in cancer patients and various interventions for improving patients' outcomes, with a focus on the eastern European regional and specific Romanian context. With a mortality rate above and cancer care performance below the EU average and unequally distributed, Romania urgently needs a national coordination program, which is discussed in our review, highlighting the main psychological tools needed for the assessment and the challenges involved in implementing the program. In the end, we suggest some directions for the future development of the psycho-oncologic approach in the context of social considerations, policy, and the unexpected financial challenges the nation provides.

Using Satellite Images and Deep Learning to Measure Health and Living Standards in India

Using deep learning with satellite images enhances our understanding of human development at a granular spatial and temporal level. Most studies have focused on Africa and on a narrow set of asset-based indicators. This article leverages georeferenced village-level census data from across 40% of the population of India to train deep models that predicts 16 indicators of human well-being from Landsat 7 imagery. Based on the principles of transfer learning, the census-based model is used as a feature extractor to train another model that predicts an even larger set of developmental variables—over 90 variables—included in two rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The census-based-feature-extractor model outperforms the current standard in the literature for most of these NFHS variables. Overall, the results show that combining satellite data with Indian Census data unlocks rich information for training deep models that track human development at an unprecedented geographical and temporal resolution.

Information Technologies for Real-Time Mapping of Human Well-Being Indicators in an Urban Historical Garden

The post-pandemic era has raised awareness on the importance of physical and psychological well-being for decreasing the vulnerability of both individuals and populations. Citizens in urban areas are subject to numerous stress factors which can be mitigated by green spaces such as parks and gardens. Sensor and internet technologies support nature-based solutions in various ways. In this paper, we show the results of ongoing research on the use of spatially distributed IoT sensors that collect climate data in an ~8 ha urban garden. The novelty resides in the method for merging the IoT data with a detailed 3D model created by a laser scan survey from a drone flight. The end products are 1 m resolution thermal comfort maps of user-defined scenarios, e.g., at specific times or aggregated in daily/monthly/yearly statistics that represent a thermal comfort distribution. For full replicability, the code is open source and available as an R package on Github.

Autonomous Innovations in the Rural Communities of Developing Countries I—A Narrative Analysis of Innovations and Synergies for Integrated Natural Resource Management

Vulnerable sectors of the population living in poverty in developing countries are highly dependent on renewable natural resources for their livelihoods and daily lives. Sustainable resource management, improving the well-being of vulnerable people, and building resilience to shocks are global challenges. This study analyzed the outcomes of various autonomous innovations by the people themselves and the enablers of these innovations in the communities of developing countries. This analysis of 20 autonomous innovations from six countries revealed that these innovations produced outcomes that simultaneously improved multiple indicators of human well-being, including “basic materials for a good life”, “safety”, “health”, and “good social relations”. The process of promoting public values, such as education, health improvement, and landscape conservation as a by-product of collective actions was an important enabler of these innovations, as well as the innovator’s proactive attitude toward continuous improvement. Public values and supporting ecosystem services were emphasized from the early stages of collective actions, to realize synergies toward integrated natural resource management. It is also important to achieve conditions in which collective actions could be practiced autonomously and adaptively. These results revealed the great potential of autonomous innovations emerging among socially vulnerable groups and the important mechanisms for promoting autonomous innovations for the transformation of social-ecological systems toward sustainable futures.

The human well-being and environmental degradation nexus in Africa.

Environmental degradation continues to attract interest from academics, policymakers, and other stakeholders. However, empirical studies have been limited in the choice of human well-being indicators. Therefore, this study extends the literature by broadening the nexus between human well-being and environmental degradation in 29 African countries from 1970 to 2019. Preliminary tests adaptable to effects of cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity in panel dataset were adopted, alongside the cross-sectional auto-regressive distributed lag model. Findings from the study showed that the adopted human well-being indicators such as globalisation, life expectancy, and human capital development were environmentally enhancing both in the short and long terms. In contrast, income growth was environmentally degrading in the short and long terms. At the same time, urbanisation was only environmentally detrimental in the long term with no significant short-term effect. Natural resource rent which served as a control variable was environmentally degrading both in the short and long terms. Consequently, this study confirms the synergy approach between the environment and human well-being and the trade-off hypothesis in African countries. Thus, African countries' general resource management policy significantly determines the impact their path to human well-being enhancement has on the environment.

Evaluation of the effect of intermittent fasting on human health and well-being indicators

Evaluation of the effect of intermittent fasting on human health and well-being indicators

The Role of Mediators in Science Museums: An Analysis of Conversations and Interactions of Brazilian Families in Free and Mediated Visits to an Interactive Exhibition on Biodiversity

The social interactions that take place in science museums, whether between family members or with mediators, are recognized as essential to visitors’ experience. However, there is still little empirical research in the Brazilian context on how families interact and converse on visits to science museums – and even less on the role of the mediator in the museum experience. In this exploratory study, the authors analyze the social interactions of families in an interactive exhibition on biodiversity: “Forest of the Senses”, at the Museum Science and Life (Brazil), characterized by having one of the lowest human well-being indicators in the country. In particular, the authors analyzed the ways in which the presence of human mediation influenced the experience of family visits to the exhibit. Video and audio of ten low-income families' visits were recorded and analyzed using a protocol based on social interactions that take place in museums. Results show that human mediation did not influence the amount or types of visitor-exhibit interactions or the amount of time spent at the exhibit, but increased the amount of conversation time among the groups, including the amount of time discussing science content, thus providing insights into mediator training and qualification.

Human well-being and natural capital indicators for Great Lakes waterfront revitalization

Revitalization of natural capital amenities at the Great Lakes waterfront can result from sediment remediation, habitat restoration, climate resilience projects, brownfield reuse, economic redevelopment and other efforts. Practical indicators are needed to assess the cultural, health, and socioeconomic benefits of these investments. We compiled U.S. census-tract scale data for five Great Lakes communities: Duluth/Superior, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cleveland. We downloaded data from the US Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and non-governmental organizations. We compiled a final set of 19 human well-being (HWB) metrics and 26 metrics representing attributes of natural and seminatural amenities (natural capital). We rated the reliability of metrics according to their consistency of correlations with metrics of the other type (HWB vs. natural capital) at the census-tract scale, how often they were correlated in the expected direction, strength of correlations, and other attributes. Among the highest rated HWB indicators were measures of mean health, mental health, home ownership, home value, life success, and educational attainment. Highest rated natural capital metrics included tree cover and impervious surface metrics, walkability, density of recreational amenities, and shoreline type. Two sociodemographic covariates, household income and population density, had a strong influence on the strength of associations between HWB and natural capital and must be included in any assessment of change in HWB benefits at the waterfront. Our findings are a starting point for applying already available HWB and natural capital indicators in a waterfront revitalization context.

The Contribution of Frailty to Participation of Older Adults.

Background: Participation, which is involvement in life situations, is an important indicator of human health and well-being of older adults. Frailty is known to be related to difficulties in activities of daily living (ADL) but the association with participation restriction has not been sufficiently researched. Therefore, we aimed to (1) to assess the correlations between frailty, ADL, and participation; and (2) to identify the contribution of frailty to explaining the participation restriction of older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study included home visits to community-dwelling older adults aged 75 and older. The Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNL-I) assessed participation, PRISMA-7 assessed frailty, and the Functional Independence Measure and IADL questionnaire assessed the basic and instrumental ADL. Cognition, which may explain participation, was also assessed (The Montreal Cognitive Assessment) and demographic information was collected. Results: Older adults (N = 121, 60 women), aged 75 to 91 years (mean (SD)—79.6 (3.1)), were included. Older adults demonstrated full to restricted participation (RNL-I-mean (SD)—78.2 (18.0)/100). Frailty was identified in 39 (32%) older adults (mean (SD) PRISMA-7—2.9 (1.4)/7points). A negative moderate significant correlation was found between participation and frailty (r = −0.634, p < 0.001). The variance of participation was significantly explained by frailty, 31.5%, and basic ADL, 5.6% (after controlling for age and cognition); the total model explained 44.6% (F = 23.29, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Frailty is significantly associated with participation restriction. Since participation has many health benefits, understanding which factors are associated to participation is central to developing interventions for older adults. These findings may help health professionals in the future develop interventions for maintaining and promoting the participation of older adults.

A study on nutritional status among the adult Garos' of West Garo Hills, North-East India (Meghalaya)

Health Status is the basic indicator of human wellbeing and nutritional status. Deficiencies or imbalance in nutrient intake leads to malnutrition which is associated with a number of short- and long-term health consequences that alleviate the ability of an individual to sustain economically productive work and ultimately hinder the development of the whole nation. Thus, study on nutritional status requires urgent attention in order to prevent malnutrition related complications. In this background, the present study examines nutritional status of the Garos of West Garo Hills, Meghalaya. To achieve this purpose, cross-sectional study was conducted among 43 females and 57 males of 'Garos' from Asananggre village, West Garo Hills, Northeast India (Meghalaya). The study divulge taller and heavier males compared to females. Body Mass Index status of male and female did not differ significantly (p&lt;0.05). Majority of females belong to normal (52.6%) followed by overweight category(35.1%) while males were more incline to overweight category (48.8%). According to MUAC, the nutritional status of both the males and females are normal. Significant (p&lt;0.05) difference was seen between males and females in terms of Hemoglobin level where, majority were mild anemic or normal.1.8% females were found to be severely anemic. From the study it can be envisaged that most adult males and females are well-nourished and only few females were severely anemic i.e., undernourished.

National development delivers: And how! And how?

National development is empirically necessary and sufficient for high levels of human wellbeing. Measures of three elements of national development: productive economy, capable administration, and responsive state, explain (essentially) all of the cross-national variation in the Social Progress Index (SPI), an omnibus indicator built from 58 non-economic indicators of human wellbeing. How national development delivers on human wellbeing varies, in three ways. One, economic growth is much more important for achieving wellbeing at low versus high levels of income. Two, economic growth matters more for “basic needs” than for other dimensions of wellbeing (like social inclusiveness or environmental quality). Three, state capability matters more for wellbeing outcomes dependent on public production. These findings highlight the key role of national development—and particularly economic growth—as instrumental to increased human wellbeing, which is increasingly challenged in favor of “small” programmatic and project design which is, at best, of third order of importance.

How does the local-scale relationship between ecosystem services and human wellbeing vary across broad regions?

Recent studies have shown that the relationships between ecosystem services (ES) and human wellbeing (HWB) can be positive, negative, or non-existent, but the underlying causes and processes remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate how and why the local level ES-HWB relationship would change geospatially and manifest on broad regions. Using data for Mainland China, we first calculated seven ES and Human Development Index (an indicator of HWB), then used geographically weighted regression and cluster analysis to quantify the county-level ES-HWB relationship, and finally adopted Wilcoxon test and random forest to investigate key influencing factors. We found that (1) the local-scale relationship between ES and HWB exhibited a great deal of spatial heterogeneity, varying from positive to negative or no correlations across broad regions; (2) the varying relationships merged spatially into three general types of regions: Positive Correlation-Dominant Region, Negative Correlation-Dominant Region, and No Correlation-Dominant Region; and (3) the variations and spatial patterns of the ES-HWB relationships were influenced by a number of social-ecological factors (e.g., population density and land cover compositions), and generally corresponded to different stages of land use transition and socioeconomic development: a positive ES-HWB relationship was found mainly in socioeconomically underdeveloped (rural or agricultural) regions with low ES production levels; a negative ES-HWB relationship occurred mostly in intermediately developed regions with abundant non-food ES; and ES and HWB had no relationships in socioeconomically well-developed (intensive agriculture/urbanized) societies with ample provisioning ES. These findings suggest that neither the “environmentalist's paradox” nor the “environmentalist's expectation” adequately accounts for the complexity of the ES-HWB relationship.

Measuring economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Asian economies.

This study aims to address the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing issues simultaneously by measuring the carbon intensity of wellbeing (CIWB) of Asian economies employing Prais-Winsten and pooled OLS estimator. The measure of CIWB is made taking into account a ratio of the two indicators-CO2 emissions per capita and life expectancy at birth. There is a paucity of studies that concentrate on human and social wellbeing indicators (i.e., water, sanitation, life expectancy) together applying the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Therefore, we have also investigated the EKC hypothesis as this theory hypothesizes the link involving human and environmental wellbeing and development. The findings utilizing the two econometric techniques indicate that in both the estimation models urban population access to an improved water source and total population access to improved water source has consistently negative and significant effects on CIWB. The fertility rate and prevalence of HIV pose no threat to CIWB. These findings demonstrate that social and human wellbeing indicators of the Asian economies are sustainable to this moment as they are lowering CIWB which is desirable. Contrary, GDP per capita, exports as a percent of GDP, and urban population have a significant and positive impact on CIWB which poses a challenge for the sustainability issue. We also have found the existence of the EKC hypothesis indicating environmental quality will increase past a turning point. The findings of the paper are well matched with the view of the "Economic and ecological modernization" theory and "human ecology" theory.

The Contribution of Outward Foreign Direct Investment, Human Well-Being, and Technology toward a Sustainable Environment

This study evaluates the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), human well-being, and other macro indicators of the public sector on carbon footprint. Empirical analysis has been carried out for newly industrialized economies that span the period 1990–2017. We used augmented mean group and bootstrap panel causality techniques to cogitate the cross-sectional dependence and country-specific heterogeneity. Based on cross-country analysis, study results show that growing OFDI reduces carbon footprint efficiently in Mexico and Turkey, human well-being decreases emissions in the Philippines, and urbanization reduces emissions in China. Further, technology reduces emissions in Malaysia and Turkey, trade openness reduces emissions in China and Malaysia, and natural resource rents reduce emissions in Indonesia and Mexico. In the case of panel analysis, the moderating role of OFDI with human well-being is contributing toward a sustainable environment. Moreover, the moderation of OFDI and urbanization has an insignificant impact on CFP. Findings depict that interaction terms of OFDI with technology and trade openness have a positive association with the environment quality. Finally, OFDI and natural resources have positive moderation on CFP. This study contributes to the existing literature by suggesting policy implications for a sustainable environment.

No more trouble: An economic strategy to protect taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of continental turtles

One key strategy to publicise the benefits of nature more effectively to people is to correlate indicators of human well-being with conservation needs. Turtles are important and publicly visible ecological indicator groups. We use continental turtles as flagship umbrella species in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest hotspot to design a conservation strategy that incorporates taxonomic (TD), functional (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) for improved cost-effective outcomes. We first analyse the effectiveness of the current arrangement of protected areas (PAs) in safeguarding species by calculating the mean percentage overlap of each species range and the PAs network. We create three conservation models that differ in the amount of TD, FD and PD preserved. Each model defines a distinct plan (and cost) of paying landowners to participate in set-aside programs to preserve local habitats. We also analyse the performance of indicator species in representing TD, FD and PD gains and economic costs induced by payments for ecosystem services. The results show that species of continental turtles are not well conserved in the PAs. The spatial distribution of TD is highly correlated with that of FD and PD in the biome, with high values in the central region, in the extreme North, and in the South of the Atlantic Forest, due to the co-existence of the evolutionary lineages. We suggest a program for conservation planning to protect a threatened biodiversity hotspot, the ecosystem functions provided by flagship umbrella species, and its associated ecological and evolutionary values. Our findings are providing a representation of ecological and evolutionary values of continental turtles with annual economic benefits from environmental management tools.

Social indicators of ecosystem restoration for enhancing human wellbeing

This study implements the ecosystem service framework to link the concepts of farming activity and ecosystem restoration within the circular economy. It proposes a method for identifying social indicators of ecosystem restoration that can be taken into account in the transition towards more circular and sustainable agricultural systems. Using a case study located in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes, we conducted a social sampling with 350 respondents to explore how an almond tree restoration changes perceptions and preferences for ecosystem services, and how these socio-ecological changes translate into indicators of natural capital and human wellbeing. Results not only indicated that the almond tree restoration induced changes in people´s preferences and perceptions for ecosystem services, such as an increase in ecosystem service diversity (i.e., local identity and erosion control), but they also demonstrated how the social and cultural benefits associated to ecosystem services can be used as indicators of human well-being (i.e., human health and access to goods). We suggest that the inclusion of social indicators of ecosystem restoration must be included in policies and initiatives for a transition to circular economy, and to achieve the challenges of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Factors of Quality of Life in a Group of Selected European Union and OECD Countries

This work focuses on the evaluation of the factors of quality of life in a sample of 26 countries. Quality of life is a complex, multidimensional concept, which includes various social, cultural, economic, political, demographic and environmental aspects. Regarding this, principal component analysis and regression analysis were chosen as relevant methods to analyse relationships among twenty-five variables related to quality of life, and their rela-tionships with three composite indices reflecting crucial aspects of quality of life, wellbeing and sustainability. These indices, applied as the response variables in the regression analysis, include the inequality-adjusted alter-native of the Human Development Index (IHDI), the Happy Planet Index (HPI), and Healthy Life Years (HLY). The IHDI represents an objective indicator of human development and wellbeing. HLY reflects quality of life in terms of health. The HPI combines the ecological efficiency with which human wellbeing is delivered, while it also includes a subjective measure of wellbeing. Since each of these indices represent different aspects of quality of life to a certain extent, some of the factors (represented by selected indicators) affected them in different ways. After applying a Lasso regression, nine of the 25 indicators – representing crucial factors of quality of life – were identified. Homicide rate (representing the factor of safety) affected all three indices in a negative way, whereas Years in education (representing the factor of education) and Life satisfaction – a subjective indicator of wellbeing representing the dimension of the same name, affected them positively. JEL Classification: I10, I13, I15, I18, Q01

Putting the economic indicators of society wellbeing on the agenda

The author considers three indicators which characterize the development of national economies: energy intensity of GDP, labor productivity and the index of human development (an indicator of quality of life of the population). Some other indicators are discussed characterizing a macroeconomic imbalance and estimating sustainable development of the economy and wellbeing of society. The indicator of human wellbeing is connected with desires (preferences) of people or satisfaction with life.