Economic burden of tuberculosis and its coping mechanism at the household level in Pakistan

Despite the availability of free medicines under the Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) strategy, the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) still involves high costs that push people into poverty. This study aims to assess the resulting economic burden of TB and examine the coping mechanisms practiced at the household level in Pakistan. A cross-sectional study was conducted at TB centers by interviewing 269 patients. Statistical tests and binary logistic regression were used to explore the relationship between catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) and socio-economic factors. Results show that the incidence and intensity of CHE were higher for households in the lower income-quintile. Several coping strategies were practiced and varied among the different income-quintiles. The independent determinants of CHE were as follows: age >40 years, male-patient, location, earner-ratio, patient as the earner, caretaker visits, treatment delay, and co-morbidity. It is recommended that health policymakers develop post-MDGs TB-control strategies to ensure free TB-services with financial protection around the globe.     

Construction of organizational identity claim and understanding in nonprofits: Evidence from Pakistan's voluntary organizations

There is a substantial research literature on nonprofits identity claim and identity understanding but much less on how these identities are constructed in the first place. This article explores how identity claim and identity understanding are constructed in the nonprofits and reasons for such constructions. Exploratory multiple case study analysis was conducted with two voluntary organizations. The results showed that three factors play a significant role in construction of identity claim; founders, funding, and power of stakeholders. The construction of identity understanding is influenced by the claim and is often in sync until the funding source changes leading to a dissimilar identity understanding. The members, however, showed reluctance to embrace the new identity due to the power of stakeholders and fear of mission drift. The unsynchronized claim and understanding caused confusions among the members as they juggled between adopting the new identity understanding and keeping a dissimilar claim. This confusion hinders the nonprofits growth and they struggle to answer what they want to be in future.     

Ethnic Diversity,Social Exclusion and Economic Determinants of Crimes: A Case Study of Pakistan

The eventual objective of social disciplines is to ensure the existence of peaceful and prosperous societies through the provision and protection of property rights for all segments of society. The deprived and socially excluded persons attempt to violate the formal rules and informal norms of the society. Developing countries have been facing rapidly increased number of violators of rules and norms, causing to higher crime rate which confronts multifarious ethnic problems, religion, multi-lingual problems. The case of Pakistan dose not varies when our study consider socioeconomic causes of crimes i.e. ethnic diversity and social exclusion. Present study is a contribution in this blistering issue, particularly in case of Pakistan. Therefore, our study explores the socioeconomic determinants of crime rate in Pakistan, by using bound testing and auto regressive distributive lag technique for the data period of 1970–2015. The estimated results reveal that ethnic diversity, social exclusion and deterrence have positive and significant impact on property, violence crime rates, and on overall crimes in Pakistan. While per capita income and population density, both have negative and significant impact on property and violence crimes.     

Evaluative concerns and personal standards perfectionism as predictors of body dissatisfaction in Asian and European American female college students

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The present study examined perfectionism (viz, evaluative concerns and personal standards) and ethnicity as predictors of body dissatisfaction in female college students. Participants: Participants were 298 female college students sampled by December of 2013. Methods: A self-report survey with measures of body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, and demographics was conducted. Results: Regression analyses indicated that evaluative concerns perfectionism (ECP) was a significant predictor of body dissatisfaction. The inclusion of ethnicity was found to further augment the prediction model. Moreover, we found support for an ECP × Ethnicity interaction effect in predicting body dissatisfaction. Specifically, among high-ECP female students, European Americans, compared with Asian Americans, reported the highest level of body dissatisfaction. Conclusion: High ECP represents a potential marker of body dissatisfaction in female college students. However, the presence of high ECP is a more critical predictor of body dissatisfaction in European American female students, compared with Asian American female students.