Suicidal tendency,physical health problems and addictive behaviours among general practitioners: their relationship with burnout

The aim of this article is to analyse further the association of burnout with (poor) physical health, addictive behaviours and suicidal tendency among general practitioners (GPs). Four hypotheses were studied: (H1): burnout (i.e. emotional exhaustion, EE, and depersonalization, DP) will be positively associated with suicidal tendency; (H2): will be negatively related to physical health (i.e. large number of physical symptoms and long-lasting impairment); and (H3): positively linked to addictive behaviours (i.e. addiction to alcohol and psychotropic medication) of GPs. Based on the “spiral of losses” depicted by the conservation of resources theory, we also considered whether physical health mediates the relationships of burnout/suicidal tendency and burnout/addictive behaviours (H4). 1890 French GPs completed a questionnaire administered by phone. Information was collected on burnout, three physical health indicators (BMI, number of physical symptoms and lasting physical health problems), four health behaviours (consumption of tobacco, alcohol, anxiolytics and antidepressants) and suicidal tendency (ideation, plan and attempt). Concerning EE, the results supported the hypotheses, except for alcohol consumption. However, the findings showed that DP was associated with more positive outcomes when controlling for exhaustion. The difference in findings for EE and DP are discussed, together with the need for GPs to develop strategies for resilience.     

Festive traditions in modernity: the public sphere of the festival of the'Fallas'in Valencia (Spain)

Festive sociability is central for the transmission of tradition and is fundamental field of interaction between the festive tradition and modernity. This sociability has a reflexivity and a public sphere of its own. The dominant modernist opposition between tradition and modernity is questioned with the help of a recent study of the Fire Festival of the‘Fallas’(Valencia. Spain).     

A continuous rating method for preferential voting. The incomplete case

A method is given for quantitatively rating the social acceptance of different options which are the matter of a preferential vote. In contrast to a previous article, here the individual votes are allowed to be incomplete, that is, they need not express a comparison between every pair of options. This includes the case where each voter gives an ordered list restricted to a subset of most preferred options. In this connection, the proposed method (except for one of the given variants) carefully distinguishes a lack of information about a given pair of options from a proper tie between them. As in the special case of complete individual votes, the proposed generalization is proved to have certain desirable properties, which include:  the continuity of the rates with respect to the data,  a decomposition property that characterizes certain situations opposite to a tie,  the Condorcet–Smith principle,  and clone consistency.     

The cost–benefit analysis of food safety policies: is it useful?

This article investigates the usefulness of cost–benefit analysis for the assessment of food safety policies, drawing on the experience of professional economists at the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). After reviewing the history of Impact Assessment at the FSA, the example of the review of the over-thirty-months (OTM) rule is used to illustrate the advantages of the approach. We also highlight issues of uncertainty and intangibility, which create particular difficulties in applying cost–benefit analysis in the area of food safety. The paper concludes, however, that given the limited number of practical alternatives, cost–benefit analysis currently represents the best available approach to the assessment of food safety policies.     

Test de différence de contrastes et somme pondérée de khi-deux

After recalling the framework of minimum-contrast estimation, its consistency and its asymptotic normality, we highlight the fact that these results do not require any stationarity or ergodicity assumptions. The asymptotic distribution of the underlying contrast difference test is a weighted sum of independent chi-square variables having one degree of freedom each. We illustrate these results in three contexts: (1) a nonhomogeneous Markov chain with likelihood contrast; (2) a Markov field with coding, pseudolikelihood or likelihood contrasts; (3) a not necessarily Gaussian time series with Whittle's contrast. In contexts (2) and (3), we compare experimentally the power of the likelihood-ratio test with those of other contrast-difference tests.     

The Catalonia survey: Personality and intelligence structure in a sample of compulsive gamblers

A sample of fifty-seven pathological gamblers and one hundred and fifteen controls (two per pathological gambler, matched as regards age and sex) was investigated. This sample received a complex battery of psychometric tests designed to evaluate two different axes: psychopathology and intelligence. The results obtained show that pathological gamblers have an unstable family and work background, that pathological gambling correlates with other addictions (alcohol, illness prone behavior, absenteeism, risk working, living alone and bereavement), that all the general and specific psychopathology vectors were significant in the addicts, and that the pathological gamblers' intelligence has characteristic factors.We thank Ricardo Cayuela (Line Staff, Barcelona) for his help in collecting the sample; Jordi Daura for data processing work; Mercedes Lemonier, psychologist, for her help in administering and correcting the tests; Consol Marina and Teresa Ruiz for their secretarial assistance and contact with the 172 study subjects.     

Identification of Nonseparable Triangular Models With Discrete Instruments

We study the identification through instruments of a nonseparable function that relates a continuous outcome to a continuous endogenous variable. Using group and dynamical systems theories, we show that full identification can be achieved under strong exogeneity of the instrument and a dual monotonicity condition, even if the instrument is discrete. When identified, the model is also testable. Our results therefore highlight the identifying power of strong exogeneity when combined with monotonicity restrictions.