Does a Brochure About Pathological Gambling Provide New Information?

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate whether a brochure on pathological gambling provides new information and knowledge to the general population. A total of 115 randomly chosen people from shopping malls and municipal parks were randomly distributed to control and experimental groups. Results indicated that the brochure provided new information concerning problem gambling, at risk behaviors, and the availability of specialised help.     

Brief Communications Analysis of a Casino's Self-Exclusion Program

As gambling facilities become more available, the number of pathological gamblers increases. Effective therapeutic and preventive interventions should be developed and systematically evaluated. Self-exclusion programs may be a useful means to facilitate self-control among problem gamblers. This paper describes the characteristics of individuals who decided to bar themselves from a Canadian casino. Two hundred twenty individuals participated in the present study and completed a questionnaire including four sections: (1) socio-demographic data, (2) the South Oaks Gambling Screen, (3) gambling habits, and (4) prior experiences with the self-exclusion program. According to the SOGS, 95% of the participants were classified as severe pathological gamblers on the SOGS (Mean score = 9.87). Furthermore, based on self-reported observation, 30% of the participants completely stopped gambling once enrolled in this program. No one scored within the interval of non-problem gamblers. Suggestions to improve self-exclusion programs are discussed.     

Investigating non-gamblers: another step toward identifying potential protective factors against problem gambling

In this article it is argued that knowing more about non-gamblers could help researchers discover novel protective factors against problem gambling. The purpose of this study was to therefore to identify the sociodemographic, psychological and behavioural characteristics that are more prevalent among non-gamblers than among gamblers. Results from a logistic regression analysis with a representative sample of adults in the province of Quebec (Canada) revealed 12 significant predictors of non-gambling status. Among these predictors, seven were sociodemographic variables (i.e. birthplace, mother tongue, childhood religion, civil status, education, family income and family history of gambling problems), four were psychological variables (i.e. perception of one's financial situation relative to others, optimism concerning one's financial situation, beliefs concerning chances of winning, and suicidal ideation) and one variable was behavioural (i.e. church attendance). Further research including different types of variables and a common operational definition of non-gamblers is necessary to better understand this subgroup and its potential for possessing protective factors against gambling problems.     

Arrow’s theorem of the deductible: Moral hazard and stop-loss in health insurance

The logic of Arrow’s theorem of the deductible, i.e. that it is optimal to focus insurance coverage on the states with largest expenditures, remains at work in a model with ex post moral hazard. The optimal insurance contract takes the form of a system of “implicit deductibles”, resulting in the same indemnities as a contract with full insurance above a variable deductible positively related to the elasticity of medical expenditures with respect to the insurance rate. In a model with a predefined ceiling on expenses, there is no reimbursement for expenses below the stop-loss amount. One motivation to have some insurance below the deductible arises if regular health care expenditures in a situation of standard health have a negative effect on the probability of getting into a state with large medical expenses.     

Refusal Bias in the Estimation of HIV Prevalence

In 2007, UNAIDS corrected estimates of global HIV prevalence downward from 40 million to 33 million based on a methodological shift from sentinel surveillance to population-based surveys. Since then, population-based surveys are considered the gold standard for estimating HIV prevalence. However, prevalence rates based on representative surveys may be biased because of nonresponse. This article investigates one potential source of nonresponse bias: refusal to participate in the HIV test. We use the identity of randomly assigned interviewers to identify the participation effect and estimate HIV prevalence rates corrected for unobservable characteristics with a Heckman selection model. The analysis is based on a survey of 1,992 individuals in urban Namibia, which included an HIV test. We find that the bias resulting from refusal is not significant for the overall sample. However, a detailed analysis using kernel density estimates shows that the bias is substantial for the younger and the poorer population. Nonparticipants in these subsamples are estimated to be three times more likely to be HIV-positive than participants. The difference is particularly pronounced for women. Prevalence rates that ignore this selection effect may be seriously biased for specific target groups, leading to misallocation of resources for prevention and treatment.     

A concentration approach to sensitivity studies in statistical estimation problems

It is shown that the concept of concentration is of potential interest in the sensitivity study of some parameters and related estimators. Basic ideas are introduced for a real parameter θ>0 together with graphical representations using Lorenz curves of concentration. Examples based on the mean, standard deviation and variance are provided for some classical distributions. This concentration approach is also discussed in relation with influence functions. Special emphasis is given to the average concentration of an estimator which provides a sensitivity measure allowing one to compare several estimators of the same parameter. Properties of this measure are investigated through simulation studies and its practical interest is illustrated by examples based on the trimmed mean and the Winsorized variance.     

Projection Pursuit Through Relative Entropy Minimization

Projection Pursuit methodology permits to solve the difficult problem of finding an estimate of a density defined on a set of very large dimension. In his seminal article, “Projection Pursuit”, Huber (1985 Huber , P. ( 1985 ). Projection pursuit . The Annals of Statistics 13 ( 2 ): 435 – 525 With discussion .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) evidenced the interest of the Projection Pursuit method thanks to the factorization of a density into a Gaussian component and some residual density in a context of Kullback–Leibler divergence maximisation.

In the present article, we introduce a new algorithm, and in particular, a test for the factorisation of a density estimated from an iid sample.     

Parenting,emotion regulation,and externalizing symptomatology as adolescent antecedents to young adult health risk behaviors

This study used longitudinal data to elucidate how trajectories of negative parenting across adolescence are associated with young adult health risk behaviors (HRBs) by testing difficulties with emotion regulation and externalizing symptomatology as sequential underlying mediators. The sample included 167 adolescents (53% males, M_age = 14 at Time 1 and M_age = 18 at Time 5) who were assessed five times. Adolescents self-reported on negative parenting, emotion regulation, externalizing symptomatology, and engagement in HRBs. Results suggest that increasingly negative parenting across adolescence has adverse consequences for emotion regulation development and in turn, externalizing symptomatology, which confers risk for young adult HRBs. Results offer insights towards mechanisms for prevention and intervention and public health policy aimed at reducing the prevalence and consequences of engagement in HRBs.