Brief Report: The Role of Ego Development in Psychosocial Adjustment Among Boys With Delayed Puberty

This study examined the role of ego development, as measured with the Washington University sentence completion test, in the relationship between pubertal maturation and psychosocial adjustment (self-image and depression) in adolescent boys. The data consisted of 73 boys between 14 and 16 years of age. The results indicated that late maturing boys were also psychologically more immature, and that they experienced negative feelings about sexuality. Additionally, higher ego development was associated with elevated levels of anxiety and depression among late maturing boys. In boys with average pubertal maturation, higher ego development was associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression.     

Associations between stress at work and attitudes towards retirement in hospital physicians

Abstract

There is a need to understand the associations between attitudes towards retirement in specific occupations and various psychosocial and work-related factors. This study identified correlates of retirement thoughts and retirement preference in hospital physicians. The sample comprised 447 (251 male and 196 female) physicians from three hospital districts in Finland. After adjustment for gender, age and salary, minor psychiatric morbidity increased likelihood of retirement thoughts and retirement preference. Retirement thoughts and retirement preference were more common in doctors reporting low job control, poor teamwork and unjust supervision than in doctors perceiving their working conditions more favorably. Work preference was associated with high overwork. The associations of work characteristics with retirement thoughts and retirement preference largely persisted after control for indicators of health and social circumstances. In conclusion, in addition to demographic and financial factors and health, retirement attitudes in hospital physicians seem to be related to organizational and managerial factors that are potentially amendable to intervention. This has implications for retaining hospital physicians who might otherwise retire.     

Job demands and job control as correlates of early retirement thoughts in Finnish social and health care employees

Given the ageing workforce, there is an increasing interest in understanding the retirement process. This study examined whether early retirement thoughts can be explained by job demands, job control and their interaction, a hypothesis derived from the job demand-control model of Karasek (). The moderated hierarchical regression analyses of early retirement thoughts were based on a sample of 274 male and 2798 female employees aged 20 to 65 years in Finnish social and health care. Our results suggest that job demands and job control are independent predictors of early retirement thoughts even when adjusted for age, gender, educational level and self-rated health. Furthermore, our results offered support for the interaction effect of job demands and job control on early retirement thoughts. Among people over 45 years old, these associations were even stronger, compared to the whole sample. This indicates that one way to reduce the number of people taking early retirement would be to put the emphasis on psychosocial factors, such as job control, affecting the older workers.     

Associations between stress at work and attitudes towards retirement in hospital physicians

There is a need to understand the associations between attitudes towards retirement in specific occupations and various psychosocial and work-related factors. This study identified correlates of retirement thoughts and retirement preference in hospital physicians. The sample comprised 447 (251 male and 196 female) physicians from three hospital districts in Finland. After adjustment for gender, age and salary, minor psychiatric morbidity increased likelihood of retirement thoughts and retirement preference. Retirement thoughts and retirement preference were more common in doctors reporting low job control, poor teamwork and unjust supervision than in doctors perceiving their working conditions more favorably. Work preference was associated with high overwork. The associations of work characteristics with retirement thoughts and retirement preference largely persisted after control for indicators of health and social circumstances. In conclusion, in addition to demographic and financial factors and health, retirement attitudes in hospital physicians seem to be related to organizational and managerial factors that are potentially amendable to intervention. This has implications for retaining hospital physicians who might otherwise retire.     

Systematic handling of missing data in complex study designs – experiences from the Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys

We present a systematic approach to the practical and comprehensive handling of missing data motivated by our experiences of analyzing longitudinal survey data. We consider the Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys (BRIF8901) where increased non-response and non-participation from 2000 to 2011 was a major issue. The model assumptions involved in the complex sampling design, repeated measurements design, non-participation mechanisms and associations are presented graphically using methodology previously defined as a causal model with design, i.e. a functional causal model extended with the study design. This tool forces the statistician to make the study design and the missing-data mechanism explicit. Using the systematic approach, the sampling probabilities and the participation probabilities can be considered separately. This is beneficial when the performance of missing-data methods are to be compared. Using data from Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys and from national registries, it was found that multiple imputation removed almost all differences between full sample and estimated prevalences. The inverse probability weighting removed more than half and the doubly robust method 60% of the differences. These findings are encouraging since decreasing participation rates are a major problem in population surveys worldwide.     

Extreme Temperature and Mortality by Educational Attainment in Spain, 2012–2018

Extreme temperatures are a threat to public health, increasing mortality in the affected population. Moreover, there is substantial research showing how age and gender shape vulnerabilities to this environmental risk. However, there is only limited knowledge on how socioeconomic status (SES), operationalized using educational attainment, stratifies the effect of extreme temperatures on mortality. Here, we address this link using Poisson regression and administrative data from 2012 to 2018 for 50 Spanish Provinces on individuals aged above 65 matched with meteorological data provided by the E-OBS dataset. In line with previous studies, results show that hot and cold days increase mortality. Results on the interaction between SES and extreme temperatures show a positive and significant effect of exposure to heat and cold for individuals with medium and low SES level. Conversely, for high SES individuals we do not find evidence of a robust association with heat or cold. We further investigate how the local climate moderates these associations. A warmer climate increases risks with exposures to low temperatures and vice versa for hot temperatures in the pooled sample. Moreover, we observe that results are mostly driven by low SES individuals being particularly vulnerable to heat in colder climates and cold in warmer climates. In conclusion, results highlight how educational attainment stratifies the effect of extreme temperatures and the relevance of the local climate in shaping risks of low SES individuals aged above 65.     

Estimation of the SURE model

The paper presents the essentials of the SURE model and the estimation of its parameters β and ω. Two alternative compact representations of the model are being used. The parameter β is estimated by least squares (LS), generalized least squares (GLS) and maximum likelihood (ML) (under normality). For ω two estimators are being considered, viz an LS-related estimator and a maximum likelihood estimator (under normality). Attention is being given to the study of asymptotic properties of all estimators examined. It turns out that the LS-related and ML estimators of ω follow the same asymptotic (normal) distribution. Efficiency comparisons for the various estimators of β conclude the paper.     

Elevator planning with stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis

Modern elevator systems in high-rise buildings consist of groups of elevators with centralized control. The goal in elevator planning is to configure a suitable elevator group to be built. The elevator group must satisfy specific minimum requirements for a number of standard performance criteria. In addition, it is desirable to optimize the configuration in terms of other criteria related to the performance, economy and service level of the elevator group. Different stakeholders involved in the planning phase emphasize different criteria. Most of the criteria measurements are by nature uncertain. Some criteria can be estimated by using analytical models, while others, especially those related to the service level in different traffic patterns, require simulations.