Psychological characteristics of volunteers in studies on gambling

Advertisements were published in local newspapers asking for volunteers to participate in a study on gambling. A battery of eleven questionnaires was mailed to the subjects assessing pathological gambling behavior, sociodemographic characteristics, motivation to gamble, erroneous perceptions about gambling, superstitious beliefs, depressive symptoms, social anxiety and avoidance, alcohol and drug abuse, problem-solving skills, and marital satisfaction. Subjects received $10 when they returned the questionnaires fully completed. Response rate was over 95%. Surprisingly, 29% of the respondents met the criterion for probable pathological gambling (score of 5 or more on the SOGS) and a further 16% were identified as potential pathological gamblers (scores of 3 or 4). The potential and probable pathological gamblers showed significant differences on motivational and cognitive variables related to gambling compared to those subjects who showed no signs of pathological gambling. The probable pathological gamblers reported significantly more signs of poor psychosocial functioning than the other two groups, including depressive symptoms, poor problem orientation, drug and alcohol abuse, and interpersonal conflict. The practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

Reconstructing Long-Term Coherent Cause-of-Death Series,a Necessary Step for Analyzing Trends

Every time the classification of causes of death is changed, time series of deaths by cause are disrupted in more or less profound ways. When changes involve only the merging of several items or splitting a single item into several new categories, the problems caused by these ruptures are not too difficult to solve. A more or less severe imbroglio occurs, however, each time a new item results from recombining portions of different split items. Sometimes, but very rarely, some countries proceed to a bridge coding during the year of transition, which can help reconstruct coherent time series. This article first summarizes the general principles of the method developed for France by Meslé and Vallin to reconstruct complete series for France from 1925 to 1999 in the detailed list of the 9th WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD), doing so by successively bridging a posteriori the five versions of the ICD that were in use during that period. Second, it reports on several methodological improvements that have been developed with the aim to reconstruct and analyze mortality trends by cause in sixteen industrialized countries.     

WebStress: A web interface to explore a multidatabase bibliographic corpus on occupational stress

A bibliographic study on a multidisciplinary subject, such as occupational stress, requires a multidatabase query facility. Given this, we searched eight databases belonging to different fields (medicine, psychology, etc.) and from different countries. Thus, more than 26000 references on occupational stress were gathered. A bibliographic corpus of this sort is unusable because of the heterogeneous format of the records and the number of duplicate entries. Considering the limitations of commercial programs, we have developed a system, called WebStress, for reformatting the data and removing duplicates. The huge number of references and the research needs of updating and searching have necessitated the addition of several other functions to WebStress. Therefore WebStress comprises a web interface that makes it possible to search the corpus with advanced features (using clustering, a specialized thesaurus on stress and Boolean queries). In addition to the usual bibliographic queries on a specific database such as Medline, WebStress provides bibliometric analysis of the corpus, which might contribute to a detailed analysis on occupational stress in order to highlight the networks of researchers and to find the main topics studied in this area. WebStress is not yet available to researchers in general. It is being further developed, and also permission needs to be obtained from the eight commercial bibliographic databases that it consults.     

Variations of Sexual Scripts Relating to Concurrency by Race,Class, and Gender in South Africa

It is unclear whether higher rates of sexual partner concurrency in Black South Africans are due to socioeconomic or cultural factors. We used a nationally representative sample of 9,728 individuals aged 16 to 55 from a study conducted in 2009 to examine how the norms pertaining to concurrency and the practice of concurrency vary by race, class, and gender. The percentage of men reporting point concurrency was 14%, 6.5%, and 2.5% in Blacks, coloreds, and Whites, respectively (p < 0.001). These percentages increased to 45.7%, 24.7%, and 11.7%, respectively, for those reporting lifetime concurrency (p < 0.001). In all the racial groups, men exhibited more favorable attitudes toward concurrency than women did. For a range of indicators, White men and women had less favorable attitudes toward concurrency than Black men and women. These differences remained after controlling for a range of confounding variables. In the adjusted logistic regression model, reported concurrency in men was associated with a younger age, Black race, being in the lowest income tertile, not being in a stable relationship, and expressing various positive attitudes toward concurrency.     

Referrals and Resources for Chemically Dependent Gay and Lesbian Clients

The article investigates issues surrounding same-sex relationships in an African context. Many countries on the continent outlaw such partnerships, creating complex dimensions for people trapped in a no-man's land of socially unacceptable reality. Furthermore, criminalization of same-sex practices results in a lack of targeted health and welfare programs, creating a dangerous lacuna in service delivery. To address this, academic programs, field supervisors, and practitioners, particularly in the field of social work, must be sensitive to the needs of sexual minorities, and those behind whose acceptability they are forced to hide, especially in an alien environment.     

Impact of the Format,Arrangement and Availability of Electronic Gaming Machines Outside Casinos on Gambling

Abstract

This study evaluates the influence of the format, arrangement and availability of Electronic Gaming Machines Outside Casinos (EGMOC) on gambling behaviour and perceptions. Two studies comprising occasional, at-risk and probable pathological gamblers were conducted. The first study used focus groups, while the second was conducted in a laboratory setting reproducing a bar. The results of the former study indicate that while format does not influence gambling behaviours, the arrangement of EGMOC in a gambling setting is a critical factor: in general, gamblers perceive isolated areas in a gambling venue as a factor contributing to impaired control. However, behavioural results obtained in the laboratory setting do not corroborate subjective data. Finally, gamblers suggested almost unanimously that the availability of EGMOC should be limited to a small number of sites. The results are discussed in the perspective of responsible gambling policies.     

The Segmented Trend Line of Highest Life Expectancies

The well‐known Oeppen–Vaupel straight line of maximum female life expectancies showed that the highest life expectancy observed in a given year increased linearly from 1840 to 2000. Their analysis fueled major controversy, especially when used to extrapolate future improvements in life expectancy at the same pace. We improve on the empirical analysis by enriching the dataset, expanding the period to 1750–2005, and considering both maximum life expectancy at birth and lowest age‐specific survival rates. It clearly appears that the original Oeppen–Vaupel straight line must be divided into several segments characterized by different slopes and that each segment corresponds to a major advance in the health transition. There is room to push life expectancy higher, but unless some new breakthrough increases the human life span, progress will very likely decelerate as mortality reduction affects individuals at older and older ages. The main key to the future lies not in knowing whether the observed straight line can be extrapolated but in anticipating the next major health improvement that will lead to an additional increase in life expectancy.