Longitudinal Data Research Articles

Disease Course of Clinically Isolated Optic Neuritis.

Optic neuritis is the most common optic neuropathy in young adults and a frequent manifestation of multiple sclerosis. Its clinical course is pertinent to the design of visual pathway neuroprotection trials. This is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the TONE trial, which included 103 patients from 12 German academic tertiary centers with acute unilateral optic neuritis as a clinically isolated syndrome and baseline high-contrast visual acuity <0.5 decimal. Patients were randomized to 1,000 mg methylprednisolone i.v./d plus either erythropoietin (33,000 IU/d) or placebo (saline solution) for 3 days. They were followed up at standardized intervals with a battery of tests including high-contrast visual acuity, low-contrast letter acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, visual evoked potentials, and retinal optical coherence tomography. At 6 months, participants answered a standardized questionnaire on vision-related quality of life (NEI-VFQ 25). We describe the disease course with mixed-effects piecewise linear models and calculate structure-function correlations using Pearson r. Because erythropoietin had no effect on the visual system, we use pooled (treatment-agnostic) data. Patients experienced initial rapid and then decelerating improvements of visual function with thinning of inner and thickening of outer retinal layers. At 6 months, visual parameters were positively correlated with inner and negatively correlated with outer retinal thickness changes. Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thinning predominantly occurred in sectors without previous swelling. At 6 months, macular ganglion cell and inner plexiform layer thinning was weakly correlated with the P100 peak time (r = -0.11) and moderately correlated with the amplitude of visual evoked potentials (r = 0.35). Only functional outcomes were at least moderately correlated with vision-related quality of life. The longitudinal data from this large study cohort may serve as a reference for the clinical course of acute optic neuritis. The pattern of correlation between visual evoked potentials and inner retinal thinning may argue that the latter is mostly due to ganglion cell loss, rather than dysfunction. Visual pathway neuroprotection trials with functional outcomes are needed to confirm that candidate drugs will benefit patients' vision-related quality of life. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01962571.

Building resilience to crisis through slack resources: A longitudinal analysis of us hotels

Building on slack resources theory and industrial characteristics, this study explores how hotels develop and deploy slack resources to achieve resilience to crisis. It conceptualizes that hotels could build various slack resources based on the flexibility of functional operations, such as rooms, food and beverage, and marketing. Using longitudinal data, we analyze the effects of slacks on resilience over long periods of time involving crisis, recovery, and post-recovery. Findings reveal the diverse impacts of slacks on resilience, suggesting that hotels should strategically use and accumulate different slacks at different times to maximize their resilience. This study contributes to tourism research on resilience and slack resource theory by providing theoretical framework and empirical evidence for the long-term process of slack utilization.

Initiatives to facilitate the social inclusion of people with intellectual disability in physical activities with others in community-based sporting, recreation and leisure activities: A scoping review.

While barriers to participation in physical activity are well documented, there is no consolidated evidence on strategies promoting participation of people with intellectual disability in physical activities. We conducted a scoping review to examine initiatives used to facilitate the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in community-based sporting and recreation activities. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL+ and PsycINFO for articles published in English between 2000 and 2022. Eight articles were included. Initiatives included: (1) building knowledge, awareness and attitudinal change (2) organisational alliances/partnerships (3) relationship-building (4) modifications/adaptions to activities/environment (5) organisational policy (6) engagement with people with disability. Initiatives were implemented through international collaborations, in local fitness/recreational facilities and public spaces, and targeted athletes, coaches, volunteers and organisational leaders. While some increase in awareness and inclusion of people with intellectual disability was reported, no longitudinal data reported on the impact of initiatives on sustained social inclusion for people with intellectual disability.

Human-centric cyber security: Applying protection motivation theory to analyse micro business owners’ security behaviours

Purpose The current advancements in technologies and the internet industry provide users with many innovative digital devices for entertainment, communication and trade. However, simultaneous development and the rising sophistication of cybercrimes bring new challenges. Micro businesses use technology like how people use it at home, but face higher cyber risks during riskier transactions, with human error playing a significant role. Moreover, information security researchers have often studied individuals’ adherence to compliance behaviour in response to cyber threats. The study aims to examine the protection motivation theory (PMT)-based model to understand individuals’ tendency to adopt secure behaviours. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on Australian micro businesses since they are more susceptible to cyberattacks due to the least security measures in place. Out of 877 questionnaires distributed online to Australian micro business owners through survey panel provider “Dynata,” 502 (N = 502) complete responses were included. Structural equational modelling was used to analyse the relationships among the variables. Findings The results indicate that all constructs of the protection motivation, except threat susceptibility, successfully predict the user protective behaviours. Also, increased cybersecurity costs negatively impact users’ safe cyber practices. Originality/value The study has critical implications for understanding micro business owners’ cyber security behaviours. The study contributes to the current knowledge of cyber security in micro businesses through the lens of PMT.

Academic rank, socioeconomic rank, and educational outcomes: longitudinal evidence from Chile

ABSTRACT Whilst a growing literature has documented the link between academic rank and educational progression, the effect of socioeconomic rank on these outcomes has been largely neglected. Using longitudinal data and exploiting the idiosyncratic variation in test score distributions across secondary school classes, I analyze the impact of within-class academic and socioeconomic rank on educational outcomes in Chile. I show that being relatively advantaged (socioeconomically or academically) compared to one’s classmates leads to a greater likelihood of positive educational progression outcomes. Results suggest socioeconomic rank is not simply proxying the influence of within-class academic rank on young people’s educational progression.

Capital Flight: Examining Teachers’ Socioeconomic Status and Early Career Retention

This article investigates the understudied relationship between teacher socioeconomic status (SES) and retention. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction and longitudinal data from 378 mathematics teachers, we use logistic regression to examine whether teacher SES, conceptualized and measured in terms of their economic, social, and cultural capital, is associated with their school, district, and professional retention at five years. We find teacher SES to be significantly related to retention at five years, and this is independent of teacher race. Practically, the study suggests that incorporating teacher SES into teacher recruitment and selection efforts, as has been done with teacher race, might be a valuable next step for schools and districts in which teacher retention has been a long-standing, serious issue.

A lost land of opportunity? The geography of intergenerational educational mobility in China

AbstractDespite the significant political, economic and geographical diversity in China, there is limited research on spatial differences in intergenerational mobility in China. This research aims to fill this gap by exploring the spatial and temporal dimensions of intergenerational educational mobility in China. The data used for the analysis is the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationally representative longitudinal general social survey. The analysis incorporates both relative and absolute mobility measures to provide a comprehensive description of intergenerational educational mobility. The results reveal substantial regional differences in intergenerational educational mobility across various economic zones in China, with a rising geographic inequality over time. The southwest and northeast regions stand out as the areas where the educational prospects of the young generation have become not only bleaker but dependent more on their parents. Additionally, this study presents the first education Great Gatsby Curve for China, highlighting the strong relationship between intergenerational mobility and education inequality at the regional level, particularly after China's market reform. The findings highlight the need for regionally targeted policies and levelling up agendas to promote educational opportunities in low‐mobility regions.

Estimating dynamic treatment regimes for ordinal outcomes with household interference: Application in household smoking cessation.

The focus of precision medicine is on decision support, often in the form of dynamic treatment regimes, which are sequences of decision rules. At each decision point, the decision rules determine the next treatment according to the patient's baseline characteristics, the information on treatments and responses accrued by that point, and the patient's current health status, including symptom severity and other measures. However, dynamic treatment regime estimation with ordinal outcomes is rarely studied, and rarer still in the context of interference - where one patient's treatment may affect another's outcome. In this paper, we introduce the weighted proportional odds model: a regression based, approximate doubly-robust approach to single-stage dynamic treatment regime estimation for ordinal outcomes. This method also accounts for the possibility of interference between individuals sharing a household through the use of covariate balancing weights derived from joint propensity scores. Examining different types of balancing weights, we verify the approximate double robustness of weighted proportional odds model with our adjusted weights via simulation studies. We further extend weighted proportional odds model to multi-stage dynamic treatment regime estimation with household interference, namely dynamic weighted proportional odds model. Lastly, we demonstrate our proposed methodology in the analysis of longitudinal survey data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study, which motivates this work. Furthermore, considering interference, we provide optimal treatment strategies for households to achieve smoking cessation of the pair in the household.

Behind the Mask: Analyzing the Dual Influence of Social Norms on Pandemic Behavior in Japan1

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between social norms and mask‐wearing behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Japan from two distinct normative perspectives: injunctive norms (governmental recommendations) and descriptive norms (observed behavior in others). Data were collected from a panel survey of Japanese residents from February to October 2023. Contrary to the study's hypothesis, which was based on system justification theory, no significant relationship was found between system justification motivation and individual mask‐wearing rates, either before or after the relaxation of governmental rules in March 2023. Additionally, a cross‐lagged panel model analysis conducted after the rule relaxation indicated a relationship between descriptive norms (societal estimates of mask‐wearing rates) and individual behavior. However, the influence of descriptive norms on individual mask‐wearing behavior was not as pronounced as was anticipated. The study highlights the complexities in the interplay between societal norms and individual behavior in public health crises, underscoring the importance of considering various factors, including cultural predispositions.

Negative religious coping versus spiritual struggles: Moderator or main effect?

While previous research indicates that negative religious coping relates with distress, it is unclear if this represents generalized spiritual struggles or a specific vulnerability activated by negative events. Moreover, past research treats coping as a stable phenomenon, although it likely fluctuates. This research simultaneously tested both models longitudinally and examined the relationship between coping and distress. The current study is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected online over 3 years from 397 participants. Life events, negative religious coping, and depressive symptoms were assessed on six occasions, and linear mixed-effect models were used to analyze data. Negative religious coping was largely stable with increases at times of stress. Participants with higher mean negative coping reported more depressive symptoms regardless of life circumstances (i.e., main effect), likely reflecting generalized spiritual struggles. In addition, those with higher mean coping or with particularly high levels at a given time reported even higher levels of symptoms when they experienced more negative life events (i.e., moderation effect). Results suggest that previous research merges two distinct phenomena-spiritual struggles and negative coping. This has important theoretical and research implications and suggests that integrating spirituality and religion into treatment can be warranted.

Longitudinal microbiome changes in children exposed to proton pump inhibitors.

Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use has been associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal and upper respiratory infections in children. There are limited longitudinal data on the effect of PPI in children. The goal of this prospective observational study was to compare the stool and oropharyngeal microbiome of children before and after starting PPIs. We prospectively recruited participants from a gastroenterology clinic. Consented pariticpants provided stool samples and oropharyngeal swabs at baseline and after eight weeks of PPI therapy. Microbiome changes were measured by analyzing 16S sequencing from both body sites at both timepoints. Thirty-four participants completed the study and provided samples both at baseline and after eight weeks on PPI therapy. Of those, 24 participants had sufficient sequencing from both stool and oropharyngeal samples at both time points. There were no differences between the pre- vs post-PPI samples using beta-diversity metrics in either the oropharynx or stool. There were, however, significant changes in specific taxa. There was an enrichment of Streptococcus in the stool in after PPI-use and a reduction in the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium, Peptostreptococcus and Turicibacter (p-values < 0.01). Furthermore, there was an increase in the relative abundance of oropharyngeal bacteria in the stool after PPI therapy. This enrichment of oropharyngeal bacteria in the stool was most prominent in younger participants. Further investigation is needed to determine the clinical and microbial factors that predispose or protect against microbiome changes due to PPI-use, and why young children are more susceptible to this PPI effect.

The Forgotten People: The Impact of Land-Loss on Chinese Farmers’ Happiness

Since the 1980s, China’s development and urbanization have led to many farmers losing their land. Most of those land-lost farmers live in urban areas. This paper uses data from the 2018 China Family Panel Study to explore the factors that impact the happiness of land-lost farmers. After controlling for eight variables from three aspects - demographic variables, socioeconomic variables, and social helping variables - it is clear that the experience of land loss hurts farmers’ happiness. This is because the experience of land loss contributes to the loss of social status and psychological health issues caused by the imbalance of low fees paid for land expropriation. The government should consider slowing down the pace of urbanization since it brings less happiness for farmers on average.

Federated Fuzzy Clustering for Decentralized Incomplete Longitudinal Behavioral Data.

The use of medical data for machine learning, including unsupervised methods such as clustering, is often restricted by privacy regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Medical data is sensitive and highly regulated and anonymization is often insufficient to protect a patient's identity. Traditional clustering algorithms are also unsuitable for longitudinal behavioral health trials, which often have missing data and observe individual behaviors over varying time periods. In this work, we develop a new decentralized federated multiple imputation-based fuzzy clustering algorithm for complex longitudinal behavioral trial data collected from multisite randomized controlled trials over different time periods. Federated learning (FL) preserves privacy by aggregating model parameters instead of data. Unlike previous FL methods, this proposed algorithm requires only two rounds of communication and handles clients with varying numbers of time points for incomplete longitudinal data. The model is evaluated on both empirical longitudinal dietary health data and simulated clusters with different numbers of clients, effect sizes, correlations, and sample sizes. The proposed algorithm converges rapidly and achieves desirable performance on multiple clustering metrics. This new method allows for targeted treatments for various patient groups while preserving their data privacy and enables the potential for broader applications in the Internet of Medical Things.

Sustainable entrepreneurship: A catalyst for unemployment reduction and economic growth in Anglophone and Francophone countries

AbstractThe purpose of the study is in two fold. First, the study examines the impact of language, history, and culture in Anglophone and Francophone countries on the rate of unemployment and economic growth. Second, the study explores the extent to which sustainable entrepreneurship influences the rate of unemployment, and economic growth in Anglophone and Francophone (A&amp;F) countries. The study employed a descriptive and quantitative research design where a longitudinal data were sourced from the World Development Indicators and World Bank Entrepreneurship databases on 12 and 9 Francophone and Anglophone countries respectively. The random effect and the generalized method of moments (GMM) regression models were employed to attain the objectives of the study. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant negative effect of sustainable entrepreneurship on unemployment; sustainable entrepreneurship has a positive significant effect on economic growth; and also, history and culture were found to have a significant impact on unemployment reduction and economic growth. However, language was found to have an insignificant influence between A&amp;F countries suggesting that the ability of sustainable entrepreneurship to minimize the rate of unemployment and boost economic growth is generic irrespective of linguistic factors.

Global Financial Investment Connectedness, ICT, and Intellectual Property Strategies: A Country-Level Empirical Analysis

This study investigated the direct and indirect impacts of financial investment connectedness and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on countries’ intellectual property (IP) strategies. By utilizing the panel logit model on longitudinal country-level data, we found that countries’ positions in the global financial investment network significantly affect their IP strategies. Furthermore, ICT usage weakens the IP strategies’ reliance on global financial investment connectedness. This study is among the first to link financial investment connectedness and ICT to intellectual property strategy. The implications for governments managing financial investment portfolios and making intellectual property strategies are derived.

Decoding Immuno-Competence: A Novel Analysis of Complete Blood Cell Count Data in COVID-19 Outcomes

Background: While ‘immuno-competence’ is a well-known term, it lacks an operational definition. To address this omission, this study explored whether the temporal and structured data of the complete blood cell count (CBC) can rapidly estimate immuno-competence. To this end, one or more ratios that included data on all monocytes, lymphocytes and neutrophils were investigated. Materials and methods: Longitudinal CBC data collected from 101 COVID-19 patients (291 observations) were analyzed. Dynamics were estimated with several approaches, which included non-structured (the classic CBC format) and structured data. Structured data were assessed as complex ratios that capture multicellular interactions among leukocytes. In comparing survivors with non-survivors, the hypothesis that immuno-competence may exhibit feedback-like (oscillatory or cyclic) responses was tested. Results: While non-structured data did not distinguish survivors from non-survivors, structured data revealed immunological and statistical differences between outcomes: while survivors exhibited oscillatory data patterns, non-survivors did not. In survivors, many variables (including IL-6, hemoglobin and several complex indicators) showed values above or below the levels observed on day 1 of the hospitalization period, displaying L-shaped data distributions (positive kurtosis). In contrast, non-survivors did not exhibit kurtosis. Three immunologically defined data subsets included only survivors. Because information was based on visual patterns generated in real time, this method can, potentially, provide information rapidly. Discussion: The hypothesis that immuno-competence expresses feedback-like loops when immunological data are structured was not rejected. This function seemed to be impaired in immuno-suppressed individuals. While this method rapidly informs, it is only a guide that, to be confirmed, requires additional tests. Despite this limitation, the fact that three protective (survival-associated) immunological data subsets were observed since day 1 supports many clinical decisions, including the early and personalized prognosis and identification of targets that immunomodulatory therapies could pursue. Because it extracts more information from the same data, structured data may replace the century-old format of the CBC.

Unequal and Unsupportive: Exposure to Poor People Weakens Support for Redistribution among the Rich

Abstract Do the rich become more or less supportive of redistribution when exposed to poor people in their local surroundings? Most existing observational studies find that exposure to poor individuals is positively associated with support for redistribution among the well-off, but one prominent field experiment found a negative link. We seek to resolve these divergent findings by employing a design closer to the studies that have found a positive link, but with more causal leverage than these; specifically, a three-wave panel survey linked with fine-grained registry data on local income composition in Denmark. In within-individual models, increased exposure to poor individuals is associated with lower support for redistribution among wealthy individuals. By contrast, between-individual models yield a positive relationship, thus indicating that self-selection based on stable individual characteristics likely explains the predominant finding in previous work.

Order selection for heterogeneous semiparametric hidden Markov models.

Hidden Markov models (HMMs), which can characterize dynamic heterogeneity, are valuable tools for analyzing longitudinal data. The order of HMMs (ie, the number of hidden states) is typically assumed to be known or predetermined by some model selection criterion in conventional analysis. As prior information about the order frequently lacks, pairwise comparisons under criterion-based methods become computationally expensive with the model space growing. A few studies have conducted order selection and parameter estimation simultaneously, but they only considered homogeneous parametric instances. This study proposes a Bayesian double penalization (BDP) procedure for simultaneous order selection and parameter estimation of heterogeneous semiparametric HMMs. To overcome the difficulties in updating the order, we create a brand-new Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm coupled with an effective adjust-bound reversible jump strategy. Simulation results reveal that the proposed BDP procedure performs well in estimation and works noticeably better than the conventional criterion-based approaches. Application of the suggested method to the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative research further supports its usefulness.

A new data infrastructure for family research and demographic analysis: the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA)

Abstract This data brief introduces the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA; https://www.freda-panel.de/), a longitudinal, multi-actor database for family research. Major substantive fields addressed in the questionnaire include fertility-related attitudes and behaviours, reproductive health, work-family conflict, couples’ division of labour, gender roles, intimate relationships, separation and divorce, parenting and intergenerational relations, and well-being. FReDA is based on two initially independent samples: the newly drawn FReDA-GGS sample (n_recruitment = 37,777 respondents, aged 18–49 years), constituting the German contribution to the Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS-II), and the FReDA-pairfam sample (n = 6,216 respondents who originally participated in the German Family Panel [pairfam]). Both samples are fully integrated, using one survey instrument consisting of the harmonized GGS-II and pairfam questionnaires. Mainly web-based interviews, complemented by paper-based interviews, are conducted biannually, with one wave being split across two subwaves. We provide a short description of FReDA’s forerunners—the GGS and pairfam—and give an overview of FReDA’s design and content, its baseline wave (collected in 2021) and data releases, as well as a brief outlook on FReDA’s road ahead.

Cumulative Exposure to Natural Hazards and Mental Health in China: Are Older People More Vulnerable or More Resilient Than Younger and Middle-Aged Adults?

AbstractDespite the well-documented impacts of single natural hazards like earthquakes, less is known about the psychological adaptation to multiple natural hazards, particularly in rural areas. This study investigated the associations of multiple natural hazards with depression among Chinese adults. Data were retrieved from the China Family Panel Studies conducted during 2010–2018. With a sample of 11,633 Chinese adults, multilevel logistic regression was employed to examine the relationships between natural hazard exposure and depression in the total sample and different age groups. Overall, experiencing four or more natural hazards was associated with a higher risk of being depressed. Regarding hazard type, the number of hydrometeorological and biological hazards was associated with a higher likelihood of depression, whereas the number of geologic and other hazards was related to a lower risk of depression. Middle-aged adults from villages were more likely to be affected by natural hazard exposure than older and younger adults. The findings of this study show that cumulative exposure to natural hazards can generate lasting effects on depressive symptoms, particularly in middle adulthood. The findings also suggest that older adults from rural areas may have accumulated more resilience to mitigate the adverse well-being effects of hazard events. Policies and interventions should enhance disaster awareness and preparation for aging residents from multi-hazard communities.