JUST A MINUTE: THE EFFECT OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT WAIT TIME ON THE COST OF CARE

Wait times are rising in U.S. emergency departments (EDs). The longer a patient waits to be seen, the more their condition may worsen. Notably, patients in worse condition can cost more to care for. This study estimates the effect of ED wait time on the cost of care by exploiting the quasi-random assignment of patients to triage nurses in an instrumental variables framework. The results suggest that prolonging the wait of a patient who arrives with a serious condition by 10 minutes will increase the hospital's cost to care for the patient by an average of 6%. The magnitude of this effect dissipates (fading to zero) among patients who arrive with less serious conditions.(JEL D24, H41, I10)     

Information Source Reliance and Charitable Giving Decisions

This study examines the relationship between donor reliance on information and donors’ subsequent charitable giving decisions of both time and money. To examine this relationship, we utilize data from an original survey of residents in San Diego County, California (n = 1,002), asking donors about their charitable activities and the information sources that they use to facilitate their charitable decisions. Our findings reveal that relying on information from both nonprofit accrediting agencies and personal experiences positively influences donors’ decision to give time to nonprofit organizations (that is, volunteer), but has no significant impact on decisions to give money. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Injurious Relationship Between Racial Microaggressions and Physical Health: Implications for Social Work

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the study of racial microaggressions (or subtle forms of racial discrimination) has increased significantly in the social sciences, particularly highlighting the negative impact of racial microaggressions on individuals’ mental health. Despite this, there is a dearth of literature that has examined the relationship between racial microaggressions and physical and psychological health. Using two self-reported measures—the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS) and the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey—with a diverse group of participants (N = 277), results suggest that racial microaggressions are significantly correlated with poorer health conditions. Furthermore, racial microaggressions were found to predict various types of physical health conditions, such as general health problems, pain, lower energy levels, and fatigue. Finally, different types of microaggressions (e.g., microaggressions in school or the workplace, environmental microaggressions) were found to be predictors of specific health issues. Implications for social work are discussed.     

Using the wellness inventory to assess health and well-being in college students at the end of the semester

Abstract

Objective: The authors examined the end of semester outcomes (December, 2017) on the Wellness Inventory and demographics among college students taking a Physical Education (PED 101) course at a university in the southeast United States. Participants: College students were assessed at the end of the semester for health and well-being outcomes according to the Wellness Inventory. Results: Results showed that there were few gender or age differences for the dimensions of well-being. However, there were significant differences for most of the dimensions of health and well-being between frequent exercisers and infrequent exercisers. There were also significant differences between students who reported being in excellent health versus students who reported being in fair or poor health. Conclusions: Consistent exercise throughout the week may play a role in overall health and well-being. The results from this study warrant further investigation into the relationship between the exercise frequency and the dimensions of health and well-being.     

Mutual Positive Emotion with Peers,Emotion Knowledge,and Preschoolers' Peer Acceptance

Preschool children's emotion knowledge was examined as a possible mediator of the link between their mutual positive emotional expressiveness with peers and peer acceptance. Data were collected from 122 preschool children (57 boys, 65 girls; 86 European American, 9 African American, 17 Hispanic, and 10 other ethnicity; M age = 57.61 months) over a period of 2 years. In year 1 observations were made of children's emotional expressiveness with peers, and children completed sociometric interviews. In year 2, children completed emotion knowledge interviews and sociometric interviews. Analyses revealed that children who expressed more mutual positive emotion with peers in year 1 were better liked by peers in year 2, after controlling for year 1 peer acceptance. Mutual positive emotion in year 1 was associated with children's emotion knowledge in year 2. Both year 1 mutual positive emotion and year 2 emotion knowledge made independent contributions to peer acceptance in year 2.     

Investigating the effects of trauma-related research on well-being

Using an experimental design, we investigated the impact of participation in trauma-related research on well-being in a sample of 219 higher education students. We created five conditions that exposed participants to questions about life events. A sixth condition represented a control condition. Exposure conditions varied according to whether they contained yes/no questions about events that entailed stress, stigma, trauma, or sexual violation. We operationalized well-being by measuring positive and negative affect, state anxiety, and positive reactions to research. Across exposure conditions, participants reported low levels of negative affect and generally positive reactions immediately after participation. The most negative and least positive responses followed exposure conditions that contained questions about stressful events and sexual violation. We discuss implications of our findings for ethics review board practices.     

Investigating the Effects of Trauma-Related Research on Well-Being

Using an experimental design, we investigated the impact of participation in trauma-related research on well-being in a sample of 219 higher education students. We created five conditions that exposed participants to questions about life events. A sixth condition represented a control condition. Exposure conditions varied according to whether they contained yes/no questions about events that entailed stress, stigma, trauma, or sexual violation. We operationalized well-being by measuring positive and negative affect, state anxiety, and positive reactions to research. Across exposure conditions, participants reported low levels of negative affect and generally positive reactions immediately after participation. The most negative and least positive responses followed exposure conditions that contained questions about stressful events and sexual violation. We discuss implications of our findings for ethics review board practices.     

Where do underage college students get alcohol?

Alcohol consumption and related problems are common among underage college students, yet qualitative, in-depth information on how/where these students obtain alcohol is limited. We conducted focus groups pertaining to access to alcohol and related issues with 19 underage college students. They reported that alcohol is easy to obtain from a variety of sources, with friends/acquaintances who are of legal age or those with a false ID being the most common. Parties were also common sources, but "shoulder tapping" (i.e., asking a stranger to purchase alcohol) was not common. Disagreement arose over whether underage fraternity/sorority members have greater access to alcohol than non-Greeks. Our results provide updated information on the various sources of alcohol and associated issues among underage college students.