Trends in college students’ mental health diagnoses and utilization of services, 2009–2015

Abstract

Objective: To examine changes in diagnoses/treatment for 12 mental health (MH) conditions, previous use of campus MH services, and willingness to seek MH services in the future. Participants: ACHA–NCHA II participants from 2009 to 2015 (n?=?454,029). Methods: Hierarchical binary logistic regression with step 1 controlling for demographics and step 2 considering time. Results: Time was significant except for bipolar disorder, bulimia, and schizophrenia with increases for all conditions except substance abuse. Anxiety (OR?=?1.68), panic attacks (OR?=?1.61), and ADHD (OR?=?1.40) had the highest odd ratios. Use of MH services at current institution (OR?=?1.30) and willingness to utilize services in the future (OR?=?1.37) also increased over time. Conclusions: Based on a national sample, self-reported diagnoses/treatment of several MH conditions are increasing among college students. This examination of a variety of MH issues can aid college health professionals to engage institutional stakeholders regarding the resources needed to support college students’ MH.     

Breadth of Vocational Interests: The Role of Career Adaptability and Future Orientation

The authors examined the relationship between career adaptability, future orientation, and vocational interests. Specifically, they tested the role of career adaptability and future orientation in promoting a broader range of vocational interests, based on the principle that experiencing more interests can be useful in giving one's best in multiple occupations and in planning a broad range of career goals. A total of 762 Italian adolescents (383 males, 379 females) participated in the study. Results highlight the mediating role of future orientation in the relationship between 4 career adaptability resources and breadth of vocational interests. These results underscore that specific interventions in career adaptability and future orientation may foster a broader range of vocational interests, providing more opportunity for adolescents to respond to the demands of the current job market.     

Restricted tests for testing independence of time to failure and cause of failure in a competing-risks model

We consider the competing-risks problem without making any assumption concerning the independence of the risks. Maximum-likelihood estimates of the cause-specific hazard rates are obtained under the condition that their ratio is monotone. We also consider the likelihood-ratio test for testing the proportionality of two cause-specific hazard rates against the alternative that the ratio of these two hazard rates is monotonic. This testing problem is equivalent to testing independence against likelihood-ratio dependence of the time to failure and the cause of failure in the competing-risks setup. We allow for random censoring on the right. The asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic is obtained and is found to be of the chi-bar-square type. The problem is extended to the case of more than two risks. A numerical example is given to illustrate the procedure.     

Evolution of the Debate on Control Enhancing Mechanisms: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

This paper aims to assess the state of the art, the structure and the evolution of the debate on control enhancing mechanisms (hereafter CEMs). It combines bibliometric and qualitative methodologies to analyze 210 articles published in scientific journals up to 2014. The findings show that the academics’ interest has increased over time, and the research has simultaneously developed along two main poles: antecedents and consequences of the proportionality principle. The analyses also reveal that the debate stems from the US studies on the legal principles of disproportionate ownership devices at the end of 19th century, and has been strongly fueled by the ‘law and finance’ theorists. This paper has both theoretical and practical implications. First, it provides insights into underexplored issues where future research efforts could be focused. Second, it supports new policy‐making interventions to CEMs and encourages investor regulation and corporate transparency.     

National Differences in the Diffusion and Design of Technological Innovation: The Role of Inter-Organizational Networks

This paper reports results from a study of the design and diffusion of computer-aided production management (CAPM) technologies across four European countries (UK, France, The Netherlands and Sweden). The study combined surveys of members of professional operations management associations in each of these four countries and interviews with operations managers and technology suppliers (software suppliers and consultants). The findings revealed significant differences across countries in the design and diffusion of CAPM. For example, in the UK and France highly objectified 'best practice' technologies, supported by standardized software, had diffused more widely than in Sweden and The Netherlands, where solutions tended to be developed in-house and customized to the local context. This paper explains these findings in terms of differences in the structure and operation of these four professional association networks. These differences in inter-organizational networking encouraged different types of knowledge-sharing related to the design of CAPM in the four countries.     

Increased risk of emergency department presentations for bronchiolitis in infants exposed to air pollution

Air pollution has been linked to an increased risk of several respiratory diseases in children, especially respiratory tract infections. The present study aims to evaluate the association between pediatric emergency department (PED) presentations for bronchiolitis and air pollution. PED presentations due to bronchiolitis in children aged less than 1 year were retrospectively collected from 2007 to 2018 in Padova, Italy, together with daily environmental data. A conditional logistic regression based on a time-stratified case-crossover design was performed to evaluate the association between PED presentations and exposure to NO₂, PM2.5, and PM10. Models were adjusted for temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and public holidays. Delayed effects in time were evaluated using distributed lag non-linear models. Odds ratio for lagged exposure from 0 to 14 days were obtained. Overall, 2251 children presented to the PED for bronchiolitis. Infants’ exposure to higher concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in the 5 days before the presentation to the PED increased the risk of accessing the PED by more than 10%, whereas high concentrations of NO₂ between 2 and 12 days before the PED presentation were associated with an increased risk of up to 30%. The association between pollutants and infants who required hospitalization was even greater. A cumulative effect of NO₂ among the 2 weeks preceding the presentation was also observed. In summary, PM and NO₂ concentrations are associated with PED presentations and hospitalizations for bronchiolitis. Exposure of infants to air pollution could damage the respiratory tract mucosa, facilitating viral infections and exacerbating symptoms.     

Mapping the uninsured using secondary data: an environmental justice application in Dallas

Over the last 5 years, environmental justice (EJ) researchers have been calling for incorporation of health outcomes more directly into spatial studies of socio-demographics and environmental hazards. To date, researchers have not incorporated insurance status (an access to health care variable) in their models although access to care likely has an important association with the probability of health effects due to environmental exposures. As such, insurance status represents an important variable within spatial EJ studies focused on health, and the lack of spatially explicit access to care data is a critical limitation in the field. As a solution, we offer a method of using uninsured appendicitis cases, acquired secondarily from state hospital admissions data, to estimate rates of uninsurance at the zip-code level. We apply the technique to explore relationships between cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants and estimated rates of uninsurance, a previously unexplored phenomenon. Then, we compare the uninsurance findings to those related to poverty to illustrate how uninsurance, as a variable, compares to a more traditional socio-economic predictor used in EJ studies. The relationship between cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants and uninsurance is weaker than the relationship between risk and poverty, but both are statistically significant. As such, we conclude with a discussion of the importance of considering insurance status in spatial studies of EJ focused on health.     

Fathers' birth experience in relation to midwifery care

The aim was to identify the proportion of fathers having a positive experience of a normal birth and to explore factors related to midwifery care that were associated with a positive experience.

Background

Research has mainly focused on the father's supportive role during childbirth rather than his personal experiences of birth.

Methods

595 new fathers living in a northern part of Sweden, whose partner had a normal birth, were included in the study. Data was collected by questionnaires. Odds Ratios with 95% confidence interval and logistic regression analysis were used.

Results

The majority of fathers (82%) reported a positive birth experience. The strongest factors associated with a positive birth experience were midwife support (OR 4.0; 95 CI 2.0–8.1), the midwife's ongoing presence in the delivery room (OR 2.0; 1.1–3.9), and information about the progress of labour (OR 3.1; 1.6–5.8).

Conclusion

Most fathers had a positive birth experience. Midwifery support, the midwife's presence and sufficient information about the progress of labour are important aspects in a father's positive birth experience. The role of the midwife during birth is important to the father, and his individual needs should be considered in order to enhance a positive birth experience.