Low-educated Individuals Research Articles

On representative social capital

This paper analyzes the behavior of subjects randomly drawn from the Dutch population who reveal their capacity to provide and sustain social capital by their propensity to invest and reward investments in an economic experiment. We find that heterogeneity in behavior is characterized by several asymmetries—men, the young and elderly, and low educated individuals invest relatively less, but reward significantly more investments. The age effects are found to corroborate existing findings, whereas those of gender and education do not. Higher expected levels of investments by others are found to have a positive and significant effect on own investments. Finally, a laboratory experiment with student subjects is found to provide a lower bound of the population level of social capital.

The smoking epidemic in Switzerland - an empirical examination of the theory of diffusion of innovations

Cultural and sex differences in smoking rates among countries indicate different phases of the smoking epidemic. Their background is summarized in a four-stage model based on the Rogers Theory of Diffusion of Innovations. First, to test predictions of the Rogers theory and, second, to test whether, according to the theory, today's innovative process is smoking cessation, predicted by higher rates of cessation among the more highly educated and among men of all educational levels. Data covered respondents older than 24 years from two Swiss Health Surveys (1997 and 2002). Logistic regression models were on lifetime smoking versus never-smoking, and on former smoking versus current smoking. Declining smoking rates in both sexes over time, measured by birth cohorts, indicate that the epidemic has peaked, but women of all educational levels and men of lower education still show high prevalence rates. The gap between higher-educated and lower-educated individuals is widening. Smoking prevalence is expected to decline further, particularly among women and little educated men. The incidence of tobacco-related diseases in women is predicted to exceed that of men, owing to their lower cessation rates.

Influence of age and scholing on the performance in a modified Mini-Mental State Examination version: a study in Brazil Northeast

Performance in cognitive tests can be influenced by age and education level. In developing countries, formal education is limited for most people. Application of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) test, in its original version could have an adverse effect on the evaluation of low educated and elderly individuals. To assess the cognitive performance of low and middle educated old people in a modified version of the adapted to portuguese language MMSE. A study was carried out enrolling 253 individuals, aged 60 to 90 years included in different schooling levels. Four educational groups were studied: illiterate; 1-4 schooling years; 5-8 schooling years and over 8 schooling years. Besides, the sample was also studied according to six classes: 60-65, 66-70, 71-75, 76-80, 81-85 and 86-90 years. The modified version (mo-MMSE) included modifications in copy and calculation items from the adapted MMSE (ad-MMSE) to Portuguese language. The maximum possible score was the same in the two versions: total, 30; copy, 1 and calculation, 5. mo-MMSE scores were significantly higher than ad-MMSE for every age classes. A negative correlation was observed between age and scores in individuals of 1-4 and in individuals over eight schooling years, both in ad-MMSE and mo-MMSE. However, there was not a significant correlation between age and scores in illiterate group and in individuals of 5-8 schooling years. The modification of copy and calculation items of ad-MMSE, are responsible by the best performance in mo-MMSE. Cultural background could have influenced this result. Individuals with more than eight years of formal instruction are protected against a reduction of their capacity to solve cognitive tests. However, low instructed individuals have not this capacity and so they present signals of intellectual aging before they become elderly people.

Association between Educational Attainment and Ethnic Distance in Young Adults

Time and again, studies have shown that higher educated individuals are less inclined to avoid social contact with ethnic minorities than are lower educated individuals. This has been interpreted as the liberalizing effect of education: the school is considered to be the most important socializing agent transmitting liberal values that reduce ethnic intolerance and ethnic prejudice. However, parents too are considered to be important socializing agents. We set out to compare the effects of educational attainment with various kinds of parental influence. We analysed data on 201 young adults and their parents from a Dutch panel study. The results show that the relative influence of parents is fairly small compared to the effect of education. Moreover, controlling for parental influences hardly reduces young adults' educational effect on ethnic distance: education is (still) the most important determinant for young adults' ethnic distance.

On Representative Social Capital

This paper analyzes data for a random sample drawn from the Dutch population who reveal their propensity to invest and reward investments in building up social capital by means of an economic experiment. We find substantial heterogeneity in the propensity to invest and in the propensity to reward investments. In particular, we find strong evidence that the young, elderly, and low educated individuals invest relatively less, but are relatively more likely to reward investments in social capital. On the other hand, labor market participation, income, and religion do not have any significant impact on behavior in the experiment.

Delays in diagnosis and melanoma prognosis (I): The role of patients

A prospective survey was conducted to assess the role of patients in the melanoma prognosis. Consecutive patients with primary melanoma were interviewed and examined using a comprehensive questionnaire including a psychological instrument. Main outcome measures were the delay before medical intervention and the tumor thickness. Of 590 melanomas, 70.8% were detected by patients and this proportion was higher in females. Relatives were involved in the detection of half of the cases. Median delays before the patient realized he had a suspicious lesion, before this lesion was seen by a doctor, and before the melanoma was removed were 4 months, 2 months, and 1 week, respectively. Delays up to several years were observed in some cases. The rate of self-detection tended to be lower, the delays before seeking medical advice to be longer, and the tumor thickness to be higher in old people, in males, in lower-educated individuals, in those living out of towns, and in people with a low awareness about melanocytic tumors than in other cases. Conversely, individuals with a high number of atypical nevi, those who were aware to be at risk, and those who regularly visited a dermatologist tended to detect their melanoma more rapidly. No specific psychological traits were associated with a late reaction, although negligence and anxiety tended to prolong the delays. Knowledge about melanoma was poor in many patients, especially in males, and wrong beliefs were widespread. This study provides the targets of future education programs.

Neuropsychological Assessment of Psychogeriatric Patients with Limited Education

Traditional published norms for neuropsychological tests that do not consider demographic effects can lead to spuriously high false positive rates among low-educated elderly individuals. This problem may be compounded when trying to identify dementia in psychogeriatric patients whose cognitive functioning is also compromised by psychiatric illness. This study investigated the clinical utility of low education neuropsychological test norms to discriminate amongst demented and nondemented psychogeriatric inpatients and healthy community elderly with limited education. Results indicated that the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS), the Fuld Object Memory Evaluation (FOME), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and a Clock drawing task had high discriminability in differentiating the three groups. Application of demographically corrected norms has important implications for diagnosis and treatment planning, especially when neuropsychological status is complicated by psychiatric illness.

Magnitude, determinants and impact of under-reporting of energy intake in a cohort study in Greece.

To investigate the frequency and the determinants of under-reporting in a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire used in the Greek segment of the European Prospective Study on Nutrition, Cancer and Health (EPIC study). A food frequency questionnaire was completed by 9262 adult men and women. The questions included in this questionnaire covered the average intake of approximately 150 food items and beverages over 1 year. Evaluation of under-reporting was conducted on an individual basis taking into account the expected daily variation of nutritional intakes during the time period of recording. Individuals whose energy intake was lower than 1.14*BMR (basal metabolic rate) were defined as under-reporters. Urban and rural population of Greece. The data indicated underestimation of energy intake by 11.8% of individuals enrolled. Results from a logistic regression model indicated that body mass index (BMI), gender, age and educational level were significant predictors of under-reporting. The proportion of overweight participants (BMI >30) who tend to under-report energy intake was more than twice that of normal-weight individuals. Men were significantly more prone to under-reporting compared to women, while low education individuals under-report more often than others. Exclusion of under-reporters generated, as expected, mean nutrient values that were significantly higher (by about 6%) than those derived from the total number of participants. When the nutrient values were energy-adjusted, however, or were expressed as percentages of energy intake for macronutrients or as nutrient densities for micronutrients, the emerging differences were minimal and generally statistically not significant. Under-reporting does exist and it is more extensive among men, those with low education levels and the overweight participants. Adjustment for energy intake minimizes the bias generated by under-reporting with respect to particular nutrients and their association with various disease outcomes in the cohort.

Obesity and heart disease awareness: a note on the impact of consumer characteristics using qualitative choice analysis 1

This note examines the impact of socio-economic and demographic factors on the likelihood that an individual is aware of the link between being overweight and heart disease. Results indicate that nonwhites, lower educated individuals, and those with lower income are less likely to be aware of the link between being overweight and heart disease. Considering the extent of the obesity problem in the United States, these results should be used as a guide in the design of food policy and health education campaigns about obesity and heart disease.

Did the “Magic” Work? Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis

The knowledge gap hypothesis, which argues that individuals with higher levels of education are able to process and understand information in the news media better than those with less education and thus learn more from news accounts, was examined on the topic of AIDS through a two-wave trend study. Wave one was completed in March 1991 and wave two was completed in November 1991 in the ten days immediately following Magic Johnson's announcement that he had tested positive for HIV. The hypothesis was not supported. The initial knowledge gap found in wave one between high- and low-educated individuals remained relatively constant in wave two. However, lower educated individuals did increase their knowledge of HIV dramatically as a proportion of the knowledge held by better educated groups. Thus, all individuals moved from fairly low knowledge levels equally to higher levels, but the knowledge gap narrowed as a proportion of the difference between high and low education groups.