Nationally-representative Survey Data Research Articles

The effects of exclusive breastfeeding on child health in Chad: evidence from national representative survey data

The effects of exclusive breastfeeding on child health in Chad: evidence from national representative survey data

Large and/or single‐parent families: Public attitudes towards pronatalist and anti‐poverty family policies in Hungary

AbstractIn the 2010s, new family benefits were introduced in Hungary, focusing on large families to halt population decline. However, poverty reduction became sidelined, as these schemes benefited higher‐income earners. Based on poverty statistics, the article investigates how two family types associated with a higher risk of poverty—large families and single‐parent families—fare under this new selective pronatalist system. Furthermore, based on new representative national survey data, the article explores public support for the reforms. Although the income poverty rate for large families significantly decreased during the 2010s, it remained persistently high for single‐parent families, especially large single‐parent families. The findings indicate strong public support for state assistance to large, single‐parent and poor families and state pronatalism. However, the public prioritises support for poor, single‐parent families. This underscores a partial mismatch between public attitudes and government policy. Nonetheless, this policy probably secured public legitimacy, chiefly due to the general support for state pronatalism and large families, which were vigorously implemented in family policies, albeit selectively.

National burden of gambling in Japan: an estimation from an online-based cross-sectional investigation and national epidemiological survey

BackgroundGambling is a popular leisure activity in many countries, often expected to boost regional economies. Nevertheless, its negative impacts remain a significant concern. Gambling disorder is recognized as the most severe consequence; however, even non- or low-risk gamblers may also face negative impacts. This study aimed to estimate the number of Japanese gamblers experiencing gambling-related harm (GRH) and its distribution across six life domains, financial, relational, emotional, health, social and other aspects, based on the severity of their problem gambling risk.MethodsThis cross-sectional study relied on an online survey conducted between August 5 and 11, 2020. Participants aged 20 years and above, who engaged in gambling during 2019 were recruited via a market research company. The survey assessed the prevalence of GRH 72 items among four gambler risk groups (non-problem, low-, moderate-, and high-risk), as categorized by the Problem Gambling Severity Index. The data was adjusted for population weighting using representative national survey data: the 2017 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions and the 2017 Epidemiological Survey on Gambling Addictions.ResultsOut of the 28,016 individuals invited to the survey, 6,124 participated in the screening, 3,113 in the main survey, and 3,063 provided valid responses. After adjusting the survey data, it was estimated that 39.0 million (30.8%) of Japan’s 126.8 million citizens gambled in 2019. Among them, 4.44 million (11.4%) experienced financial harm, 2.70 million (6.9%) health harm, 2.54 million (6.5%) emotional harm, 1.31 million (3.4%) work/study harm, 1.28 million (3.3%) relationship harm, and 0.46 million (1.2%) other harm. Although high-risk gamblers experienced severe harm at the individual level, over 60% of gamblers who experienced GRHs were non- and low-risk gamblers, with the exception of other harm, at the population level.ConclusionsThe study highlighted the prevention paradox of gambling in Japan. While national gambling policies primarily focus on the prevention and intervention for high-risk gamblers, a more effective approach would involve minimizing GRH across the entire population.

Extreme weather experience and climate change risk perceptions: The roles of partisanship and climate change cause attribution

Climate change risk perceptions are crucial in influencing individuals' behavioral changes and shaping policy preferences for climate change mitigation. Experience of recent extreme weather events may enhance people's awareness of climate change and thus alter their attitudes toward climate change. This study examines the correlations between extreme weather experience and climate change risk perceptions using Australia's most recent representative national survey data (2020 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes). The results demonstrate that the positive effect of extreme weather experience on climate change risk perceptions, both to the World and to Australia, became nonsignificant when all variables were controlled. Notably, extreme weather experiences amplified the perceptions of climate change risk among individuals without party affiliations, but they did not affect those with solid party affiliations, neither with the National-Liberal Coalition nor Labor or the Greens. Furthermore, the impact of extreme weather experiences on climate change risk perceptions is not direct but primarily indirect through individuals' cause attribution of climate change. This paper provides valuable insights into the linkage mechanism between extreme weather experience and climate change risk perceptions.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on subjective wellbeing in the Middle East and North Africa: A gender analysis.

The pathways through which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted population mental health are potentially gendered. Little research has explored these pathways in low- and middle-income country contexts, such as in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where socioeconomic roles are highly gendered. To address this gap, we examine the relationships between pandemic-related socioeconomic changes and subjective wellbeing in the MENA region. Our core hypothesis is that the COVID-19 pandemic affected men and women's subjective wellbeing differently in part because these effects were mediated by gendered socioeconomic roles. We exploit multiple waves of longitudinal, nationally-representative phone survey data across Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. The data were collected between November 2020 and August 2021 and include 32,296 observations of 20,256 unique individuals. Mental health is measured through the WHO-5 subjective wellbeing scale. Our key independent variables capture pandemic-related employment loss, income loss, experience of limitations on food access, enrollment of children in alternative schooling modalities, and receipt of formal and informal transfers. We find significantly worse subjective wellbeing for women in Egypt and Morocco during the pandemic, but not the three other countries. There were negative associations between employment and income loss during the pandemic and subjective wellbeing, but not gender-differentiated ones. In contrast, high levels of limitations on food access were associated with worse mental health for men than women. Receipt of transfers generally did not have any association with subjective wellbeing. Further research is needed into how social assistance programs implemented in response to pandemics may be designed so as to address the negative mental health consequences of such events.

Structural transformation and the gender pay gap in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The focus of this study is the implications of structural transformation for gender equality, specifically equal pay, in Sub-Saharan Africa. While structural transformation affects key development outcomes, including growth, poverty, and access to decent work, its effect on the gender pay gap is not clear ex-ante. Evidence on the gender pay gap in sub-Saharan Africa is limited, and often excludes rural areas and informal (self-)employment. This paper provides evidence on the extent and drivers of the gender pay gap in non-farm wage- and self-employment activities across three countries at different stages of structural transformation (Malawi, Tanzania and Nigeria). The analysis leverages nationally-representative survey data and decomposition methods, and is conducted separately among individuals residing in rural versus urban areas in each country. The results show that women earn 40 to 46 percent less than men in urban areas, which is substantially less than in high-income countries. The gender pay gap in rural areas ranges from (a statistically insignificant) 12 percent in Tanzania to 77 percent in Nigeria. In all rural areas, a major share of the gender pay gap (81 percent in Malawi, 83 percent in Tanzania and 70 percent in Nigeria) is explained by differences in workers' characteristics, including education, occupation and sector. This suggests that if rural men and women had similar characteristics, most of the gender pay gap would disappear. Country-differences are larger across urban areas, where differences in characteristics account for only 32 percent of the pay gap in Tanzania, 50 percent in Malawi and 81 percent in Nigeria. Our detailed decomposition results suggest that structural transformation does not consistently help bridge the gender pay gap. Gender-sensitive policies are required to ensure equal pay for men and women.

Livelihood Diversification and Household Vulnerability to Climate Shocks in Rural Kenya

This study tests the hypothesis that livelihood diversification mitigates vulnerability to climate shocks among rural households in Kenya. The study is based on two waves of nationally-representative household survey data collected in 2005/06 and 2015/16. A measure of livelihood diversification in the sampled households was computed using Simpson Diversity Index. Comparison of means and correlation analysis was used to test the study’s hypothesis on a sample of 8,483 and 12,217 rural households in 2005/06 and 2015/16 respectively. Consistent with the study’s hypothesis, results indicate lower mean values of livelihood diversification indices for rural households that reported loss in welfare due to climate shocks compared to those that reported no adverse effects in both 2005/06 and 2015/16. Correlation analysis results indicate an inverse relationship between livelihood diversification and vulnerability to climate shocks for all sampled households. Distinctive and nuanced differences in results were found when analysis was disaggregated along income classes and agro-ecological zones. Sensitivity analysis confirmed robustness of the results. Based on these results, it is recommended that rural households be supported to pursue a diverse portfolio of income generating activities and assets in order to build resilience against climate shocks.

Lopsided inclusion: The impact of multi‐employer bargaining and class‐based unionism on non‐regular employment in South Korea

AbstractThis study examines the impact of multi‐employer bargaining on non‐regular workers across different unions and types of non‐regular employment. Using national representative survey data from South Korea, I find that multi‐employer bargaining increases the likelihood that a workplace union would address a pay increase for non‐regular workers when the union was affiliated with a confederation espousing class‐based as opposed to business‐unionism. However, such a relationship was weaker for temporary agency workers and subcontractors than for direct‐hire fixed‐term workers. This mechanism is further illustrated through a second round of data collection and analysis, namely in‐depth interviews. I identify two factors that characterize the class‐based confederation: (1) centralized pressure from the union and (2) activists and their identity work. Altogether, these results further an understanding of how the identities of national union confederations can influence local representatives’ approach to representing non‐regular workers and how those influences are manifested through workplace‐level collective bargaining.

Maternal Centric Measurement and Data Gaps in Addressing Maternal Morbidities: A Scoping Review.

The objectives of this project were to (1) describe maternal-centric measures and survey data which are publicly available to evaluate the incidence, frequency, and distribution of maternal morbidity in the postpartum period, and (2) to identify postpartum care quality improvement targets and outline the types of measurement and data required to support them. We conducted a scoping review of two types of data sources: maternal health quality measures used by providers and payers and nationally-representative survey data sets administered by federal agencies. Each source was searched for keywords associated with pregnancy and the postpartum period. We included quality measures and survey questions that are maternal-centric and addressed the postpartum period. We excluded infant-centric measures and data. Quality measures were organized according to the Donabedian quality model. Our analysis demonstrates that existing maternal-centric quality measures and survey data offer limited insight into diagnosis and patient care delivery experiences associated with maternal morbidities during the postpartum period. There is inadequate maternal-centric data on the incidence, frequency, and distribution of postpartum maternal morbidities and associated care use. This gap reduces the ability of research to estimate the incidence of illness and injury among postpartum women and create targeted quality improvement efforts. Our findings highlight the need for quality measure stewards and data sponsors to enhance data collection and methods to become more inclusive of maternal-centric outcomes during the postpartum period.

Spatial and social mobility in England: The persistence of the ‘Escalator’ effect for the millennial generation

AbstractRegional disparities in social mobility have long been apparent in Britain. Recent decades have seen a growing level of spatial inequalities in terms of social, economic and employment opportunities. Empirical studies suggest not only what do your parents do, but also where do you come from, profoundly influences one's life opportunities, London and the Southeast are consistently shown to be areas with more social mobility than the rest of country. This study presents an updated estimate of the extent of social mobility across regions in England, and more importantly, how this has been conditional on cross‐region migration. By using national representative survey data covering a decade (2005–2015), the results show considerable variations in the regional estimates of both absolute and relative mobility. In particular, London was found to be leading on social mobility measures in nationwide comparisons, supporting previous findings that London plays an important national role in Britain's social mobility. In addition, separate analysis for samples of cross‐region ‘movers’ and ‘stayers’ suggests that migration is associated with social upward mobility, with London still functioning as an ‘escalator‘ region providing better opportunities for those who move there from elsewhere the country. This persistence of the ‘escalator region’ effect for the millennial generation in England underlines how unequal economic geography continues to shape opportunity and trajectories of mobility for individuals.

Agricultural Production Services, Farm Size and Chemical Fertilizer Use in China’s Maize Production

Although various previous studies have explored the relationship between agricultural service adoption and its economic impact, little is known about how it may affect environmental quality, especially chemical fertilizer application. Our study examines the effects of agricultural production services (APSs) on chemical fertilizer use, as well as the effects mediated by farm size, using a national representative survey data set comprising 1321 farm households from 132 villages in China. We show that farms adopting APSs tend to decrease the usage of chemical fertilizer and, thus, have less deviation from optimal chemical fertilizer application. Farms with large sizes are more likely to reduce the usage of chemical fertilizer. Moreover, farm size has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between APS adoption and chemical fertilizer use. In particular, farms adopting APSs are more likely to expand farm size, resulting in chemical fertilizer reduction. Our results suggest that APSs contribute to promoting the scale operation and environmental quality in agriculture.

The impact of women's off-farm employment on depressive symptoms: Evidence from rural China

While China's economy has grown rapidly in recent decades, urban-rural inequalities in mental health have persisted, and depression is more prevalent among rural women. Using a nationally-representative survey data in China, this paper investigates the impact of women's off-farm employment on their depressive symptoms. Results from instrumental variable and individual fixed effects estimation show that women's participation in off-farm employment leads to a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. We further take into account the confounding effects of working conditions, and the main results are robust. Moreover, off-farm employment enhances women's mental health mainly through pathways including increased absolute income, higher self-perceived relative income, more frequent healthy behaviors, increased likelihood of health investment, and obtaining more formal social support. Further evidence suggests that the depression-reducing effect of off-farm employment is more effective for those with more severe depressive symptoms, middle-aged and elderly persons, and women with lower body mass index. The findings have important implications for preventing depressive disorders and improving mental health in China and other developing countries.

A latent class analysis of cognitive decline in US adults, BRFSS 2015-2020

BackgroundCognitive decline can be an early indicator for dementia. Using quantitative methods and national representative survey data, we can monitor the potential burden of disease at the population-level.MethodsBRFSS is an annual, nationally representative questionnaire in the United States. The optional cognitive decline module is a six-item self-reported scale pertaining to challenges in daily life due to memory loss and growing confusion over the past twelve months. Respondents are 45+, pooled from 2015-2020. Latent class analysis was used to determine unobserved subgroups of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) based on item response patterns. Multinomial logistic regression predicted latent class membership from socio-demographic covariates.ResultsA total of 54,771 reported experiencing SCD. The optimal number of latent classes was three, labeled as Mild, Moderate, and Severe SCD. Thirty-five percent of the sample belonged to the Severe group. Members of this subgroup were significantly less likely to be older (65+ vs. 45-54 OR = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.23-0.35) and more likely to be non-Hispanic Black (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.53-2.11), have not graduated high school (OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.34-1.91), or earned <$15K a year (OR = 3.03, 95% CI: 2.43-3.77).ConclusionsThis study determined three latent subgroups indicating severity of SCD and identified socio-demographic predictors. Using a single categorical indicator of SCD severity instead of six separate items improves the versatility of population-level surveillance.

Determinants of urban household choice of cooking fuel in Ghana: Do socioeconomic and demographic factors matter?

A greater proportion of Ghana's charcoal, which contributes to deforestation, is consume by urban households. To help inform interventions on clean cooking fuel use, this study explored the influence of socioeconomic and demographic factors on urban household choice of cooking fuel (clean vs. unclean) in Ghana, using the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, a national representative survey data. The factors explored were sex of household head (HH), age of HH, marital status of HH, household size, educational level of HH and household wealth. Data were analysed through simple percentages, chi-square test and binary logistic regression. A statistically significant association was found between all six socioeconomic and demographic factors, and urban household choice of cooking fuel. However, from the odds ratios, we identified household wealth as the main determinant of urban household choice of clean cooking fuel because clean cooking fuel and equipment are expensive compared to unclean cooking fuel. We recommend that interventions aimed at scaling up urban households use of clean cooking fuel in Ghana and similar environments should include price reduction and/or subsidization of clean cooking fuel and equipment as well as economic empowerment of poor households.

Whose AI? How different publics think about AI and its social impacts

Effective public engagement with complex technologies requires a nuanced understanding of how different audiences make sense of and communicate disruptive technologies with immense social implications. Using latent class analysis (LCA) on nationally-representative survey data (N = 2,700), we examine public attitudes on different aspects of AI, and segment the U.S. population based on their AI-related risk and benefit perceptions. Our analysis reveals five segments: the negative, perceiving risks outweighing benefits; the ambivalent, seeing high risks and benefits; the tepid, perceiving slightly more benefits than risks; the ambiguous, perceiving moderate risks and benefits; and the indifferent, perceiving low risks and benefits. For societal debates surrounding a deeply disruptive issue like AI, our findings suggest potential opportunities for engagement by soliciting input from individuals in segments with varying levels of support for AI, as well as a way to widen representation of voices and ensure responsible innovation of AI.

Leveraging Free Public Use Data for Aging and Life Course Research

This symposium will showcase life course and aging research that is possible using freely available integrated census and survey data available via IPUMS. This session is organized by the Network for Data-Intensive Research on Aging (NDIRA) initiative at the University of Minnesota’s Life Course Center. NDIRA seeks to build and support an interdisciplinary community of scientists leveraging powerful data resources in innovative ways to understand health outcomes at older ages, as well as the demography and economics of aging. The session features papers that illustrate how to examine aging-related topics including health at older ages, work and socioeconomic conditions, and living conditions with a common thread of examining heterogeneity within groups. These papers all leverage freely available census and nationally-representative survey data, highlighting the potential value of these data for studying aging and the life course. By combining papers on an array of topics from a variety of data sources, this symposium highlights exemplar papers that demonstrate the types of novel research possible using public use census and survey data that NDIRA seeks to foster.

Pray, vote, and money: The double-edged sword effect of religions on rural political participation in China

This paper studies the impacts of religions on political participation in rural China. Using a representative national survey data, we show that an increase in the share of religion believers in a village significantly raises the voting participation of individual believers but reduces the voting participation of individual nonbelievers. Instrumental variable estimation and robustness checks support our main empirical results. Consistent with the theory, we show that religion believers groups affect voter turnout decisions through expected pivotality, informational transmission, and increased private benefits from being religious. In particular, an individual believer is significantly more likely to receive poverty-targeting subsidies if there are more believers in the village, indicating the local capture by religion believers groups.

Access to finance and difference in family farm productivity in Benin: Evidence from small farms

In most of developing countries, agricultural finance is weak and there is a great constraint for family farmers to access credit. In that context, this article aims to analyze the effect of access to finance on the productivity of smallholders family farmers. Using a rich national representative survey data covering the 2016–2017 agricultural season, we estimated an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model. The results show that access to credit has a positive impact on the productivity of smallholder farmers, with a gain of 15%. Small farmers manage to achieve a 13% increase in productivity, which is a very significant performance. These findings suggest the establishment of a policy to support small farms, so that they are more productive and more favorable to agricultural growth.

Did Covid-19 Kill Trump Politically? The Pandemic and Voting in the 2020 Presidential Election.

ObjectiveThis article investigates the impact of public reactions to the Covid‐19 panemic on voting for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 American presidential election.MethodsThe impact of the pandemic on voting is assessed by multivariate statistical analyses of representative national survey data gathered before and after the 2020 presidential election.ResultsAnalyses show that voters reacted very negatively to Trump's handling of the pandemic. Controlling for several other relevant factors, these reactions affected voting for Trump and exerted a significant impact on the election outcome.ConclusionBefore the onset of Covid‐19 Trump had a very narrow path to victory in 2020, and the pandemic did much to ensure his defeat.

Intimate Partner Violence and Pregnancy Termination in Armenia: Evidence from Nationally-Representative Survey Data

Intimate partner violence has been associated with numerous consequences for women, including pregnancy termination. This study examined the association between predictive capacity of intimate partner violence and pregnancy termination among women in Armenia. The study analyzed the 2015–16 Armenia Demographic and Health Survey (ADHS) data on women aged 15–49 (Mean: 31.49; Standard Deviation, SD: 9.51). Marital control exercised by husbands, ever experienced physical violence, sexual violence, and emotional violence by husbands were the four indicators of intimate partner violence used in this study. To assess the association between intimate partner violence and pregnancy termination, a binary logistic regression model was fitted. After controlling for confounders, we found that women whose husbands exercised marital control were 26% more likely to experience pregnancy termination, compared to women whose husbands did not exercise marital control (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.26, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.03–1.53). Women who ever experienced sexual violence were about 10 times likely to experience pregnancy termination than women who did not experience sexual violence (aOR: 9.76, 95% CI: 1.91–49.96). Both ever experienced physical violence and emotional violence did not have any significant associations with pregnancy termination. Forms of intimate partner violence are associated with pregnancy termination. The findings of this study provide evidence for government and policymakers to formulate, modify, and implement policies and program that target both men and women regarding the prevailing intimate partner violence and its consequences. Strengthening the policy implementation will ensure that women are empowered to make decisions about their reproductive health. Making husbands and their family members aware of the basics and consequences of intimate partner violence and focusing on child cognitive development which can be hampered due to the prevalence violence in families are recommended.