Population,Environment Dynamics,Poverty and Quality of Life in China

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Exploratory Study on Drug Users’ Perspectives on Quality of Life: More than Health-Related Quality of Life?

In drug treatment outcome literature, a focus on objective and socially desirable indicators of change (e.g. no drug use) has predominated, while outcome indicators that are important for drug users themselves (e.g. quality of life, satisfaction with treatment) have largely been neglected. Nonetheless, Quality of Life (QoL) has become an important concept to evaluate effectiveness of treatment in mental health care research and disability studies. Given the almost exclusive focus on Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in substance abuse research and the neglect of clients’ perspectives in this field, we explore in this study the concept of QoL as perceived by drug users. Focus group discussions (n = 9) were organised in various treatment settings and community services for drug users in the region of Ghent, Belgium to identify important dimensions of QoL and their interpretation by drug users. Data were clustered and analysed based on the theoretical framework of Robert Schalock (Quality of life. Volume 1: Conceptualization and measurement, 1996). The domains ‘personal relationships’, ‘social inclusion’ and ‘self-determination’ were discussed most frequently by the participants. They stressed the importance of a supportive social network in particular. It can be concluded that QoL is not primarily associated by drug users with health and it involves much more than the aspects typically represented in measures of HRQOL.     

More Participation,Happier Society? A Comparative Study of Civil Society and the Quality of Life

A ‘good society’ has recently been portrayed as one in which citizens engage in voluntary associations to foster democratic processes. Arguably, such a good society is considered as one where people are content with their own lives as well as public life. We consider whether participation in civil society leads to more satisfied individuals on the one hand and a better evaluation of society at a country level on the other. With data from the first round of the European Social Survey, we illustrate that participation in voluntary associations not only depends on individual characteristics, but that there is a clear country-level effect on civil society. This can be explained with measures of quality of society after socio-demographic determinants have been controlled for. Nonetheless, it remains difficult to say what comes first: a ‘good society’ or a thriving civil society.

Gendering Indicators of Health and Well-being: Is Quality of Life Gender Neutral?

The addition of social indicators and quality of life measures to the raft of traditional health indicators used to assess health and well-being has certainly provided a much-needed contextual understanding of health outcomes. However, most quality of life measures remain undifferentiated by gender. Outcomes can be disaggregated along age, class, ethnic, racial and gender dimensions but few quality of life measures (or social indicators for that matter) are sensitive to the subtle effects of gender socialization on health and well-being. Both social epidemiology and quality of life measures need to be gendered and differentiated to fully capture the diversity of womens and mens health experiences.     

“A La Recherche Du” Quality of Life

This essay examines the stages of inquiry when we seek to formulate quality of life in an era before our own. There arises the question of the extent to which today’s formulation of quality of life can be applied to an era far removed from our own. Implicitly, there is the nature of the time interval, T₁···T_n, and the causal significance of intervening events. Data of a numerical sort can be hard to retrieve due to fires, wars, and mishandling. Quantitative data can be found in censuses and military records. Information in its raw form is referred to here as protodata. Figure 1 provides a schematic overview of the search for quality of life by subjective and objective modes of inquiry.     

Which Life Domains Impact Most on Self-Rated Health? A Cross-Cultural Study of Switzerland and its Neighbors

General life satisfaction (GLS) is a strong health correlate and can be conceptualized as an aggregate of satisfactions in different life domains and as a proxy for quality of life. Little is known about which life domains—measured as domain satisfactions—contribute most to GLS and are the best predictors of self-rated health (SRH) and whether these associations differ between countries and/or language areas. We used stepwise logistic regression models to investigate how domain satisfactions, GLS and SRH are interrelated and compared German-speaking and French/Italian-speaking Switzerland with the corresponding neighboring countries of Germany, Austria, France and Italy. The associations of domain satisfactions with GLS and SRH varied significantly in magnitude and between countries and language areas. GLS was strongly related to self-rated health in all populations, but more so in the German-speaking than the French/Italian-speaking regions. Adjusted for all domain satisfactions, satisfaction with one’s financial situation and job satisfaction showed independent effects on SRH and were the most important predictors of GLS, although no clear geographical pattern emerged. Domain-specific satisfactions were similarly associated with GLS and SRH, but the strength of the association varied between German-, French- and Italian-speaking populations. Any similarity between Swiss language areas and neighboring countries was limited to German-speaking populations. Country- and language-specific life domain satisfactions may provide useful pointers for targeting policies in the respective domains.     

Looking at Population Health Beyond “Male” and “Female”: Implications of Transgender Identity and Gender Nonconformity for Population Health

Looking beyond binary measurements of “male” or “female” can illuminate health inequality patterns that correspond to gender identity rather than biological sex. This study examines disparities in overall health among transgender men, transgender women, gender-nonconforming adults, and cisgender (nontransgender) men and women in the U.S. population. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 32 U.S. states and territories between 2014 and 2016 yield an analytic sample that identifies 2,229 transgender and gender-nonconforming adults and 516,753 cisgender adults. Estimates from logistic regression models, using cisgender men as a reference group, show that gender-nonconforming respondents have significantly higher odds of reporting poor self-rated health than any other gender identity group. Transgender men also display higher odds of reporting poor health in some models, corresponding to their relative socioeconomic disadvantage. I find no apparent health disadvantage among transgender women and a persistent, if slight, disadvantage among cisgender women. Gender-nonconforming respondents’ predicted probabilities of reporting poor health remain nearly twice as high as those of cisgender men after adjustments for demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors. Their persistent patterns of health-related disadvantage underscore the need for higher-quality data on gender-nonconforming respondents that account for sex assigned at birth.     

Living Standards and Quality of Life

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The Impacts of Lower Population Growth on the Quality of Life and Economic Development：China＇s Experience

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Assessing Health Endowment,Access and Choice Determinants: Impact on Retired Europeans’ (In)activity and Quality of Life

A future for the E.U., dominated by an ever-increasing population of retired citizens represents a major challenge to social and health policy in European countries. Under Rowe and Kahn’s (Gerontol 37(4):433–440, 1997) perspective on positive aging, this paper is interested in exploring the role of health on citizens’ active participation after retirement and social engagement to life and quality of life. This paper also aims at finding whether Sen’s (Public health, ethics, and equity. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004) capability approach or cumulative disadvantage or advantage theory relative to the access to health also verifies in a context of multi-national developed economies. The first part of this study is therefore concerned with generating a health indicator that enables this, whilst controlling for individual heterogeneity in self-rated health responses from 10,859 retired individuals from the SHARE survey. Socioeconomic determinants of health are found not to be critical in determining health in such a developed context whilst cumulative advantage is found relevant for the positive aging of Europeans. Evidence is found that active engagement in activities and quality of life are most certainly a prerogative for the more educated and the healthier retirees, hinting a strategy for European policymakers: cumulative advantage, leveraged by education and health policy, might just be the long-term strategy for contouring an aging and unproductive European population, transforming what could be a ‘burden’ into an asset.     

Good Job,Good Life? Working Conditions and Quality of Life in Europe

Cross-national comparisons generally show large differences in life satisfaction of individuals within and between European countries. This paper addresses the question of whether and how job quality and working conditions contribute to the quality of life of employed populations in nine strategically selected EU countries: Finland, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Using data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2003, we examine relationships between working conditions and satisfaction with life, as well as whether spillover or segmentation mechanisms better explain the link between work domain and overall life satisfaction. Results show that the level of life satisfaction varies significantly across countries, with higher quality of life in more affluent societies. However, the impact of working conditions on life satisfaction is stronger in Southern and Eastern European countries. Our study suggests that the issue of security, such as security of employment and pay which provides economic security, is the key element that in a straightforward manner affects people’s quality of life. Other working conditions, such as autonomy at work, good career prospects and an interesting job seem to translate into high job satisfaction, which in turn increases life satisfaction indirectly. In general, bad-quality jobs tend to be more ‘effective’ in worsening workers’ perception of their life conditions than good jobs are in improving their quality of life. We discuss the differences in job-related determinants of life satisfaction between the countries and consider theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality,Happiness, Finances,and Health

This paper analyses the effect of income inequality on Europeans’ quality of life, specifically on their overall well-being (happiness, life satisfaction), on their financial quality of life (satisfaction with standard of living, affordability of goods and services, subjective poverty), and on their health (self-rated health, satisfaction with health). The simple bivariate correlations of inequality with overall well-being, financial quality of life, and health are negative. But this is misleading because of the confounding effect of a key omitted variable, national economic development (GDP per capita): Unequal societies are on average much poorer (r = 0.46) and so disadvantaged because of that. We analyse the multi-level European Quality of Life survey conducted in 2003 including national-level data on inequality (Gini coefficient) and economic development (GDP) and individual-level data on overall well-being, financial quality of life, and health. The individual cases are from representative samples of 28 European countries. Our variance-components multi-level models controlling for known individual-level predictors show that national per capita GDP increases subjective well-being, financial quality of life, and health. Net of that, the national level of inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has no statistically significant effect, suggesting that income inequality does not reduce well-being, financial quality of life, or health in advanced societies. These result all imply that directing policies and resources towards inequality reduction is unlikely to benefit the general public in advanced societies.     

Erratum to: Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality,Happiness, Finances,and Health

Social Indicators Research -     

Is Local Financial Health Associated with Citizens’ Quality of Life?

Few studies have analysed the results of public management in terms of social welfare. However, the financial health of local governments is in decline, which means that they are no longer able to provide public services that require financial obligations. This generally results in a reduction in the quality/quantity of public services provided by local governments, thus affecting citizens’ quality of life, since the most important welfare needs are usually related to public services. This study is an original approach to understanding the importance of the financial health of local governments in relation to social welfare. We selected a sample composed of 76 Spanish cities for the period 2008–2010. The results show that citizens who live in municipalities with good financial health have a higher quality of life than others. In general, citizens from municipalities governed by right-wing parties with low political competition tend to have higher levels of quality of life.     

Collectivism, Cultural Identity and Employee Mental Health: A Study of New Zealand Māori

Māori are a collectivistic people living within a largely individualistic country. The present study tested whether Māori who practice higher levels of workplace collectivism feel greater alignment with their overall cultural beliefs, and report better mental health results because of their lower levels of anxiety and depression. Three hundred and thirty-six Māori employees were surveyed, and a regression analysis showed significant direct effects, with collectivism accounting for a sizable 20 % of the variance in both anxiety and depression. Two moderators relating to cultural knowledge and cultural language were also tested. Significant two-way interactions were found: high collectivism and high cultural knowledge led to low depression, and high cultural knowledge and high cultural language skills led to low depression and anxiety. A three-way interaction was found between anxiety, collectivism and cultural knowledge and/or language: low anxiety was reported by respondents with high collectivism and either high cultural knowledge or cultural language. Overall, the study highlights the importance of collectivism and cultural identity for Māori employees’ mental health.     

Does Cultural Capital Matter?: Cultural Divide and Quality of Life

Since the remarkable work of Pierre Bourdieu, the concept of cultural capital has gained wide popularity along with theoretical and conceptual debates. This trend represents the social-structural change from materialism to postmaterialism. However, there are few empirical studies which find the cause and effect of cultural capital. Based on empirical survey data, this paper will analyze “how cultural capital and cultural divide influence the subjective well-being at the individual level.” Our analysis includes the following: First, we explore to what extent the cultural divide between haves and have-nots of cultural capital has impacted their subjective well-being, which consists of happiness and life satisfaction at the individual level. Second, we analyze what factors cause those cultural divides. Sociodemographic, social-relational, and economic variables are included in the regression models to test their relative explanatory power. Third, we discuss the implication for cultural policy.     

How Migration in Later Life Shapes Their Quality of Life: A Qualitative Investigation of the Well-Being of the “Drifting Elderly” in China

Social Indicators Research - China has experienced an increasing number of “drifting elderly” (elderly inter-province migrants because of non-employment reasons) due to urbanization and...     

Measuring the Effect of Tourism Services on Travelers’ Quality of Life: Further Validation

Neal, Sirgy and Uysal (1999) developed a model and a measure to capture the effect of tourism services on travelers quality of life (QOL). They hypothesized that travelers overall life satisfaction is derived from satisfaction with the primary life domains (e.g., family, job, health). Specifically, overall life satisfaction is derived from two sources of satisfaction, namely satisfaction with non-leisure life domains and satisfaction with leisure life. Satisfaction with leisure life is derived from satisfaction with leisure experiences that take place at home and satisfaction with travel/tourism experiences. Satisfaction with travel/tourism experiences results from satisfaction with trip reflections of the traveler (e.g., what the traveler remembers regarding perceived freedomfrom control, perceived freedom from work, involvement, arousal, mastery, and spontaneity experienced during the trip) and satisfaction with travel/tourism services. Satisfaction with travel/tourism services was hypothesized further to be derived from satisfaction with the service aspects of travel/tourism phases – pre-trip services, en-route services, destination services, and return-trip services. The model was tested using a study of university faculty and staff. The original model was extended by hypothesizing the moderation effect of length of stay. Specifically, we hypothesized that the relationshipsin the model are likely to be more evident in relation to travelers who have more time to experience the tourism services than those who do not. A survey of 815 consumers of travel/tourism services who reside in Southwest Virginia was conducted. As predicted, the data confirmed hypotheses as established in the original model. Satisfaction with tourism services affects travelers QOL through the mediating effects of satisfaction with travel/tourism experiences, and satisfaction with leisure life. Furthermore, the moderating effect of length of stay was confirmed by the data. In sum, this replication and extension study provided additional validational support of the original tourism services satisfaction measure in relation to QOL-related measures.     

Population,Reproductive Health and Poverty Alleviation in China

~~Population,Reproductive Health and Poverty Alleviation in China     

Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students in Turkey: Students’ Life Satisfaction and Identification

Understanding the complexities of a students’ quality of life has become essential in order for universities to plan their spending most efficiently. This study tests a model which was used to judge the satisfaction of college life and evaluates the overall impact of quality of college life (social, academic, and service satisfaction), life satisfaction, and identification. Secondly, the study assesses the impact of a university’s academic program, social life, facilities, and services on the students’ college life quality in this sample in relation to similar studies from Turkey and other countries. The survey included 1,260 students attending a public university in northwestern Turkey. Measurement tools included the quality of college life scale (QCL), Satisfaction with college life scale, identification scale satisfaction with life scale and personal information form. The results show social satisfaction has the strongest positive impact on QCL. This study found that life satisfaction and university identification had a positive impact on a university student’s satisfaction with college life. According to survey results it is also suggested that University administrators can primarily focus on improving the social satisfaction of the students then improve facilities and services, in order to raise academic satisfaction levels.