Resolving inconsistencies in trends in old-age disability: Report from a technical working group

In September 2002, a technical working group met to resolve previously published inconsistencies across national surveys in trends in activity limitations among the older population. The 12-person panel prepared estimates from five national data sets and investigated methodological sources of the inconsistencies among the population aged 70 and older from the early 1980s to 2001. Although the evidence was mixed for the 1980s and it is difficult to pinpoint when in the 1990s the decline began, during the mid- and late 1990s, the panel found consistent declines on the order of 1%-2.5% per year for two commonly used measures in the disability literature: difficulty with daily activities and help with daily activities. Mixed evidence was found for a third measure: the use of help or equipment with daily activities. The panel also found agreement across surveys that the proportion of older persons who receive help with bathing has declined at the same time as the proportion who use only equipment (but not personal care) to bathe has increased. In comparing findings across surveys, the panel found that the period, definition of disability, treatment of the institutionalized population, and age standardizing of results were important to consider. The implications of the findings for policy, national survey efforts, and further research are discussed.     

藏族大学生认知风格研究——以对西藏大学农牧学院180名藏族大学生的测验为例

本研究采用认知风格<镶嵌图形测验>,测试了西藏大学农牧学院180名藏族大学生的认知风格类型.结果表明,该学院藏族大学生的认知风格主要表现为场依存型.这主要是由其所处的社会生态文化、独特的自然环境和特殊的受教育条件造成的.针对这种情况,应采取适合其认知风格特点的教学方式,同时,根据不同学习阶段与任务,引导、培养其形成多种认知风格,以完成不同的学习任务,提高学习效率.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Olkin, R. (1999). What phychotherapists should know about disablity.
Almeda. R. V.(Ed.). (1998). Transformation of gender and race: Family and developmental perspectives.
Raser, J. (1999).Raising childeren you can live with: A guide for frustrated parents.     

Protecting Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees: From International Norms to National Protection?

Little attention is paid in most national asylum policies and legislation to the specific position of female asylum seekers, and to gendered aspects of refugee and asylum situations. Further, even in those countries that have adopted asylum legislation to specifically address the question of women asylum seekers and victims of gender specific persecution, problems still remain in the implementation of these policies and in the full recognition of persecutions specific to women. Whilst the issue of protection of women victims of this type of violence have been put on the international agenda, at least to some extent, through directives on the defence of women’s human rights and on the protection of female refugees and asylum seekers, the international norms which have thus been created have been implemented unevenly and unequally in different national contexts. This article seeks to analyse the extent to which national asylum legislation and policies have integrated a concern with the protection of women victims of gender specific forms of persecution, and how effective this implementation has been. The article will engage critically with existing accounts of global norm creation to examine the uneven diffusion and implementation of norms on the protection of female refugees, pointing to the importance of discursive opportunity structures open to actors in mobilising around these issues at local and national levels. It will also argue that even where policies and legislation dealing specifically with women refugees and asylum seekers do exist, they may not actually address some of the important insecurities facing these women because of an approach that does not fully comprehend and act upon gendered structures and relations of power.     

Union magazines’ coverage of the NAFTA controversy before congressional approval

Congressional consideration of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993 drew intense labor lobbying. Unions acted to motivate members to contact their representatives and senators, including use of their magazines as advocacy and informational tools. Union magazines, which are littlestudied but potentially influential advocacy tools, attacked the pact and urged readers to take political action. Their coverage focused on jobrelated critiques, especially predictions of a job drain to Mexico and lower wages for U.S. workers. Much less attention went to environmental and other perceived flaws of NAFTA. Language in those articles was frequently more heated than in the mainstream media.     

A 'Technological Idiot'? Raymond Williams and Communications Technology

Raymond Williams was a prolific cultural commentator and historian and his writing on communications technology provides a particularly relevant framework for understanding contemporary information-society innovations. Williams sought to distinguish questions of technique and technical invention from their realization in the fundamentally social organization of technologies themselves and emphasized the importance of agency and intention in structuring the uses to which technologies are put. Far from technology having an inescapable internal logic of development, innovation takes place within specific social and economic contexts. For Williams, this meant that there was no pre-determined outcome to the evolution of communications innovations but a series of complex interactions between innovations and the world into which they emerge. This article will provide an assessment of Williams' work on technological innovation, his critique of determinism and his commitment to democratic communications. Williams helps us to challenge the simplistic proposition that 'the Internet has changed our world' and enables us to understand instead the ways in which contemporary social relations set limits on the development of the Internet as a democratic medium.     

Demographic aspects of lactation and postpartum amenorrhea

Interrelations between lactation and post-partum amenorrhea are studied from the reports of about 5,000 married women included in a 1966 Follow-up Survey of Acceptors of an Intrauterine Device (IUD) in Taiwan. The length of post-partum amenorrhea and of breastfeeding are positively associated. On an average, breastfeeding delayed the resumption of menstruation by about 7 months. The association between lactation and amenorrhea is not accounted for by differences in mother’s age, parity, education and her place of residence. A multiple regression analysis suggests that (1) age affects amenorrhea both directly and through lactation, (2) parity has no independent effect on either lactation or amenorrhea, and (3) education and place of residence affect amenorrhea mainly through the cultural variations in the practice of breastfeeding.     

Assessing school effectiveness

The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) program measures value added in colleges and universities, by testing the ability of freshmen and seniors to think logically and write clearly. The program is popular enough that it has attracted critics. In this paper, we outline the methods used by the CLA to determine value added. We summarize the criticisms, which revolve around the question of which students take the CLA tests. Typically, samples are not random, so that selection bias is a concern, as is confounding. We respond by showing that criticisms of CLA procedures are not supported by the data.     

Obesity and Food Choices Among Faculty and Staff at a Large Urban University

Abstract

Objective: In order to address increasing health care costs associated with obesity, this study sought to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity and examine eating behaviors, food choices, health beliefs, and attitudes of university employees. Participants and Methods: An online survey was distributed to > 3,800 faculty and staff at a large public metropolitan university in Winter 2008. Results: Almost half (48%) of 806 respondents were classified as overweight or obese. Compared to those with normal weights, overweight and obese respondents consumed fewer fruits and vegetables (p < .05), were less confident in making healthful food choices (p < .001), and were more influenced by food choices available in on-campus dining facilities (p < .05). Conclusions: Obesity among university employees warrants attention. Because these employees have less self-efficacy and consume less healthful diets than their normal weight colleagues, universities need to improve on-campus access to healthful foods.