Quality of diet of working college students

Considering the scarcity of studies with young workers and the role of diet in the prevention of chronic diseases, the objective of the study was to assess the quality of diet of working college students. The present study investigated 43 university students, aged between 18 and 25 years old who had systematically being involved in a working activity in the past 6 months, paid or unpaid, at least 6 hours daily, five days a week. Dietary intake measured by seven dietary records covering every day of the week was used to calculate the Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised (B-HEIR). It was observed a low B-HEIR score (53.43,±7.81) indicating a risk of a poor quality of diet, with high intake of sodium and sugar and low consumption of fruits and whole grains. This poor quality of diet can result in an inadequate nutritional status that may increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases.     

Work situation operative model MOST: linking diagnosis and intervention to improve work conditions

This paper presents the model "Work Situation Operative Model" - MOST (after its Spanish acronym). It offers a comprehensive, systemic approach to analysing work stations and/or work processes, serving also as a framework for pursuing various ergonomic and occupational health and safety goals. Originally produced for a food sector company, the model has been extended and successfully applied in several industries in Colombia and Ecuador, including cement, oil, and paper industries. Based on a systemic understanding of work systems and tasks, the model not only allows different, commonly-used methods and tools for evaluating or assessing the risk of muscular-sketetal disorders to be included, but also supports occupational risk management strategies. Hence, one of its more important contributions relies on providing meaningful information that is useful for improving the work station and/or work process through design and re-design, by focusing on the interactions between all system elements.     

The Economic Organization of Extended Family Households by Race or Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status

This study examines differences in the amount of economic support or mutual benefit derived from extended family living arrangements by studying differences in monetary contributions to essential household expenditures across family units in extended family households. Using the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation, multivariate regression and selection models are estimated to assess racial differences in family contributions toward household expenses in extended family households. Extended family households have very unequal monetary contributions toward household rent and utilities, although Hispanics have less unequal monetary contributions when compared with other racial groups. Hispanic and Asian extended family households experience decreasing inequality in financial contributions as the income of each family increases, whereas no relationship between financial contributions and income is found for Whites or Blacks. This suggests a different cultural orientation to extended family living arrangements for Asians and Hispanics when compared with non‐Hispanic Whites.     

Time,Work, and Family Life: Reconceptualizing Gendered Time Patterns Through the Case of Children’s Organized Activities1

This article considers the understudied phenomenon of children’s organized leisure as it relates to the division of labor in the family. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we first ask whether the labor entailed by children’s organized leisure is divided evenly between mothers and fathers. Both data sets indicate that this is not the case, with the majority of the work falling to mothers; they also indicate that at least some employed mothers face a tradeoff between time devoted to paid work and time devoted to facilitating their children’s leisure. Subsequently, we consider key qualitative aspects of these leisure activities, including deadline sensitivity, authority over scheduling, and degree of predictability. These factors, we find, serve to exacerbate the inequity of the allocation of responsibility between mothers and fathers. We conclude by suggesting that organized leisure has become an important part of the familial landscape and thus warrants further attention. We also suggest that research on the gender division of labor would be enhanced in important ways by greater attention to qualitative dimensions of time use. Researchers should not simply assume that “an hour is an hour.”