Health and medical services use: a matched case comparison between CCRC residents and national health and retirement study samples

Little is known about the health status of adults living in continuing care retirement communities (CCRC). Using matched-case control, 458 adults from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) or a CCRC-based sample were compared on total comorbidity, self-rated health, home health services use, and hospitalizations. At year 2, the CCRC sample reported more comorbidities (96%) but significantly better self-rated health (96% good/excellent) than the HRS sample (93% comorbidity, 73% good/excellent; p < .01). There were no significant differences in frequency of home health use or hospitalization. Living in a CCRC appears to be associated with higher self-ratings of health in this sample.     

Marie Rozette and her world: class, ethnicity, gender, and race in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Mauritius

In 1790, Marie Rozette, a freedwoman of Indian origin on Mauritius, executed a series of notarial acts which revealed that she possessed a small fortune in cash assets as well as slaves and substantial landed property in one of the island’s rural districts. The life of this former slave between 1776, when she first appears in the archival record, and her death in 1804 provides a vantage point from which to gain a subaltern perspective on aspects of Mascarene social and economic history, as well as developments in the wider Indian Ocean world during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Marie Rozette’s life history challenges the notion that free persons of color in Mauritius were little more than an “unappropriated” people, and invites us to consider how supposedly marginalized individuals were able to cross various socio-economic and cultural boundaries. More specifically, her life affords an opportunity to consider the ways in which class, ethnicity, and gender, as well as race, interacted to create a distinctive Creole society in Mauritius, the nature and dynamics of which bear directly on our knowledge and understanding of the free colored experience elsewhere in the European colonial slave plantation world.     

Context of Acceptability of Topical Microbicides: Sexual Relationships

Domains central to the effects of sexual relationships on the acceptability of a vaginal protection method were explored in 14 focus groups and 38 in-depth interviews with women and men recruited from a health department's sexually transmitted infections (STI) and family planning clinics. Findings indicate that acceptability depended on a couple's relationship type, classified as serious, casual, or "new." Potential barriers to communication about product use may be overcome through direct or indirect covert use, depending on relationship type. More men than women thought women should always tell their partners if they use microbicides, regardless of relationship type. Results indicate the importance of the relationship context in understanding the likely acceptability of using microbicides, and perhaps any method of STI/HIV protection .     

Social workers' use of spiritual practices in palliative care

Numerous studies have examined client use of spiritual and/or religious practices to cope with illness and adversity. This study explores social workers' use of spiritual practices as reflected in their work with palliative care clients. Survey results (n = 327) indicated significant relationships of spiritual practices such as yoga, prayer and meditation to working with palliative care clients. The total number of these approaches is predicted by factors such as theoretical orientation and the social workers' own struggles with palliative care and other issues. Our study supports the need for additional investigation of spiritual issues in practice.     

Pediatric palliative and end-of-life care: the role of social work in pediatric oncology

Pediatric oncology social workers are often engaged in the psychosocial care of dying children and their families. Despite their participation on the interdisciplinary team, the role for social work in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care has not been clearly defined. This survey of 131 pediatric oncology social workers identified current and best social work practices for care of children and their families at the end of life. Implications for practice, education, and research are discussed.     

Information Frictions in Trade

It is costly to learn about market conditions elsewhere, especially in developing countries. This paper examines how such information frictions affect trade. Using data on regional agricultural trade in the Philippines, I first document a number of observed patterns in trade flows and prices that suggest the presence of information frictions. I then incorporate information frictions into a perfect competition trade model by embedding a process whereby heterogeneous producers engage in a costly sequential search process to determine where to sell their produce. I show that introducing information frictions reconciles the theory with the observed patterns in the data. Structural estimation of the model finds that information frictions are quantitatively important: roughly half the observed regional price dispersion is due to information frictions. Furthermore, incorporating information frictions improves the out‐of‐sample predictive power of the model.     

From Freud to Feminism: Gendered Constructions of Blame Across Theories of Child Sexual Abuse

Most theories of child sexual abuse are, to some degree, gendered, with nonoffending mothers bearing the burden of blame, ideologically and legally, for the transgressions of predominantly male offenders. This article explores the social construction of blame for child sexual abuse via critical analyses of evolving theoretical perspectives on maternal culpability for the inception and maintenance of abuse dynamics. Drawing on selected conceptual and research knowledge that supports and refutes anecdotal claims, this synthesis of the literature culminates in the proposal of an evidence-informed, feminist-grounded, multitheoretical child sexual abuse framework that disrupts dominant mother-blaming discourse and guides socially just and ethically responsive policy, practice, and research.     

Infants born full term and preterm increase the height of anti-gravity leg movements during a kick-activated mobile task using a scaffolded task environment

Prior research supports that infants born very preterm (PT), compared with full term (FT), have early differences in rate of learning and motor control that may hinder their ability to learn challenging motor tasks. Four-month-old infants born FT (n = 18) and PT (n = 18) participated in an infant kick-activated mobile task that was scaffolded to motivate progressively higher kicks. We found the FT group learned the association between their leg movements and mobile activation on the second day, but the PT group learned the association on the third day. Both groups of infants increased the height of their kicks on the day they learned the task, compared with their spontaneous kicking height. These findings suggest that infants born PT have the ability to learn challenging motor tasks, such as kicking high, when participating in a task environment that uses scaffolding.     

Population responses to environmental change: looking back,looking forward

Population and Environment - Over the past two decades, population researchers have engaged in a far-reaching and productive program of research on demographic responses to changes in the natural...