Life change,health status and life satisfaction: A reconsideration

Recent research has suggested that life changes may be unrelated to health status indices and to overall satisfaction with life. Yet research has also reported that life changes appear to be related to measures of psychological distress. To attend further to clarification of the role of life change as a predictor of health status and life satisfaction, this paper examines the relationship between negative life change self-reports and indices of health status and life satisfaction. The data come from a survey of 1423 Northwestern Wisconsinites interviewed in 1974 by the Wisconsin Survey Research Laboratory. The findings indicate that self-reports of negative life changes were related to overall life satisfaction, controlling for health status, feelings of alienation/attachment, and personal disruption. Implications of the findings are discussed in conclusion.     

Robust hierarchical Bayes estimation of exchangeable means

Estimation of the mean of a multivariate normal distribution is considered. The components of the mean vector θ are assumed to be exchangeable; this is modelled in a hierarchical fashion with independent Cauchy distributions as the first-stage prior. The resulting generalized Bayes estimator is calculated and shown to be robust with respect to the presence of outlying means. Alternative estimators that have similar behaviour but are cheaper to compute are also derived.     

CHARLES HENRY WICKENS: 1872–1939

An account of the life of the second Commonwealth Statistician, Charles Henry Wickens (1872–1939), has been given. After a primary school education in a Victorian country centre, Wickens became Associate of the Institute of Actuaries. Having joined the public service of Western Australia in 1897, he was appointed Compiler in the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics in 1906; he served as Commonwealth Statistician and Actuary, 1922 to 1932, giving outstanding service as government adviser and head of an important government department. He was a leader among theoretical and practical economists. His contributions to the study of Australian demography, especially life tables and vital statistics, were of the highest quality and permanent value. He made also scholarly contributions to actuarial theory and to the popularization of the work of the Bureau.     

Statistical issues in epidemiologic studies of the health effects of ambient acid aerosols

Although the ecologic effects of acid rain have been widely reported, relatively little is known about the effects of acidic air pollution on human health. Some epidemiologic and animal studies suggest, however, that acidity is an important determinant of the respiratory health effects of aerosols. This paper reviews some of that evidence and discusses its implications for the design and analysis of epidemiologic studies. We contrast two types of exposure patterns: peak exposures associated with air pollution episodes, and chronic exposures resulting from persistently high levels of air pollutants. Recent work on the analysis of repeated categorical outcome variables provides new methods for the analysis of episode studies. Studies of long-term exposure require comparisons among population groups, and these comparisons can be subject to the design effects characteristic of multistage sample surveys. We examine the implications of these design effects for epidemiologic studies. Finally, the paper discusses the measurement errors induced by the use of outdoor measurements to quantify personal exposure to air pollutants. Recent work on methods for errors-in-variables problems may aid in assessing the effects of such errors on conventional analyses of air-pollution studies.     

Community Participation and Rural Water Supply Development in Sierra Leone

Provision of improved water wells is part of the integratedapproach to rural development, currently undertaken by developmentagencies in Sierra Leone. Community self-help in meeting partof the cost of input to be provided is essential in promotingthe effective utilization of the service provided. This studysurveys the improved water wells programme of Plan InternationalRural Development Project in Makari-Gbanti Chiefdom, NorthernProvince of Sierra Leone. The improved wells were found to be least effective in meetingdry season water supplies to villagers. Among the factors responsiblefor this situation is the illconceived nature of the communityself-help development strategy adopted. Villagers were foundto meet part of the cost of the improved well not because ofthe genuine felt need for the system, but because they are interestedin the associated benefits of the integrated package –roads, schools, health centres, community centres etc. The final section introduces a case study village of a successfulwater supply scheme through a well-conceived community involvementstrategy. Lively community self-help is the key to promotingeffectively manned schemes in Sierra Leone.     

Système de soins et mortalité régionale: une analyse causale

Nous examinons l'impact du système de soins sur les différences régionales de mortalité adulte en Espagne, en distinguant l'offre et la demande de soins. Nous avons utilisé un modèle d'analyse des covariances, ajusté aux données par le logiciel LISREL 7. La distinction faite entre l'offre et la demande de soins conduit à observer un impact spatial significatif de l'utilisation du système de soins sur la mortalité des adultes. Hormis le cas des accidents, le signe de la relation est toutefois opposé à celui prévu! Une meilleure spécification du modèle permettrait peut-être de modifier cette conclusion.We examine the impact of the health care system on regional adult mortality differences in Spain, distinguishing between the demand and supply of health care. We have used a covariance analysis model, fitted to the data using LISREL 7. The distinction made between supply and demand of medical care leads to a significant spatial impact of the use of the health care system on adult mortality. Except for accidents, however, the sign of the relation is opposite to what is expected! Better specification of the model could possibly reverse this conclusion.     

Transmitting Ideals: Constructing Self and Moral Discourse on Loveline

Loveline is a late‐night radio advice show currently airing on progressive rock stations in the United States. Callers present their most intimate troubles to the show's DJ–doctor advice‐giving team, revealing themselves to an audience of faceless millions. I analyze three distinct interactional phases through which Loveline callers and hosts symbolically transform troubled selves: with each problem revealed, each embarrassing joke made, each specific recommendation given, a moral discourse is constructed. Loveline incrementally builds a distinctive way of conceptualizing right and wrong, closely tied to standards of a whole, happy, healthy selfhood. And while the notions of a moral discourse and an ideal self are fundamentally modern, Loveline's distinctive combination of mass‐mediated anonymity, intimate subject matter, satiric tone, and fragmented interaction patterns conveys these modern concepts over the radio waves and into a postmodern world.