scholarly journals Are Religiosity and Spirituality Related to Self-Reported Health Expectancy? An Analysis of the European Values Survey

Author(s):  
Gillian Libby ◽  
Zachary Zimmer ◽  
Andrew Kingston ◽  
Clove Haviva ◽  
Chi-Tsun Chiu ◽  
...  

AbstractResearch on religiosity and health has generally focussed on the United States, and outcomes of health or mortality but not both. Using the European Values Survey 2008, we examined cross-sectional associations between four dimensions of religiosity/spirituality: attendance, private prayer, importance of religion, belief in God; and healthy life expectancy (HLE) based on self-reported health across 47 European countries (n = 65,303 individuals). Greater levels of private prayer, importance of religion and belief in God, at a country level, were associated with lower HLE at age 20, after adjustment for confounders, but only in women. The findings may explain HLE inequalities between European countries.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beladenta Amalia ◽  
Xiaoqiu Liu ◽  
Alessandra Lugo ◽  
Marcela Fu ◽  
Anna Odone ◽  
...  

IntroductionExposure to secondhand aerosol from e-cigarette (SHA) may pose harmful effects to bystanders. This study aims to investigate the prevalence, duration and determinants of SHA exposure in various indoor settings in 12 European countries.MethodsIn 2017–2018, we conducted a cross-sectional study, the TackSHS survey, on a representative sample of the population aged ≥15 years in 12 European countries (Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain). We described the prevalence and duration of exposure to SHA in several indoor settings among 11 604 e-cigarette non-users. Individual-level and country-level characteristics associated with SHA exposure were also explored using multilevel logistic regression analyses.ResultsOverall, 16.0% of e-cigarette non-users were exposed to SHA in any indoor setting at least weekly, ranging from 4.3% in Spain to 29.6% in England. The median duration of SHA exposure among those who were exposed was 43 min/day. ‘Other indoor settings’ (eg, bar and restaurant) was reported as the place where most of e-cigarette non-users were exposed (8.3%), followed by workplace/educational venues (6.4%), home (5.8%), public transportation (3.5%) and private transportation (2.7%). SHA exposure was more likely to occur in certain groups of non-users: men, younger age groups, those with higher level of education, e-cigarette past users, current smokers, those perceiving SHA harmless and living in countries with a higher e-cigarette use prevalence.ConclusionsWe found inequalities of SHA exposure across and within European countries. Governments should consider extending their tobacco smoke-free legislation to e-cigarettes to protect bystanders, particularly vulnerable populations such as young people.Trial registration numberNCT02928536.


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice D. Donaldson ◽  
Lindsay M. Handren ◽  
Andrew Lac

Individual and cross-cultural factors associated with attitudes toward homosexual people were examined in this study. Using cross-sectional data from the sixth biennial European Social Survey, which represents 36,959 individuals nested within 28 European countries, successive nested models were tested using multilevel modeling (MLM). Results found that attitudes varied cross-culturally as a function of people’s country of residence—this clustering effect was controlled for in all subsequent models. Individual-level predictors (Level 1) of male gender, older age, less education, being an immigrant to one’s residing country, conservative political affiliation, high religiosity, perceptions that politics in one’s country were unfair, low openness to change values, low self-transcendence values, high conservation values, and high self-enhancement values were significantly linked with anti-homosexuality attitudes. At the country level (Level 2), a high emphasis on social conservatism and fewer civil rights for homosexuals was connected with more unfavorable attitudes. Findings indicate main effects of predictors at both levels; however, country-level variables tended to yield stronger coefficients than individual-level factors, highlighting the contributions of macro- and microfactors in simultaneously shaping attitudes toward homosexuality. Beyond these effects, interactions of country- and individual-level variables show political affiliation, religiosity, self-enhancement values as stronger predictors in liberal countries, but openness to change values, younger age, and higher education as stronger predictors in conservative countries. Implications are discussed for understanding the wide continuum of views toward homosexuality across people and countries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 073346482094408
Author(s):  
Alison R. Huang ◽  
Jennifer A. Deal ◽  
George W. Rebok ◽  
Jayant M. Pinto ◽  
Linda Waite ◽  
...  

Hearing impairment impacts fluidity of communication and social interactions and thus may contribute to loneliness. We investigated the cross-sectional association between hearing impairment and loneliness in community-dwelling older U.S. adults using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project ( N = 3,196). Individuals reporting fair/poor hearing had 50% (95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.09–2.05]) higher odds of any loneliness compared with those reporting excellent hearing after adjusting for comorbidity index, functional and cognitive ability, self-reported health, and demographic characteristics. Test for trend suggests a dose–response relationship over levels of hearing impairment. Hearing impairment is highly prevalent and may be an important target for consideration in interventions to reduce loneliness. Further investigation of whether treatment of hearing impairment alleviates loneliness and its disabling effects is also needed.


Author(s):  
S. Nazrul Islam

Chapter 10 provides an overview of the Open approach, focusing on its merits, progress, and prospects and showing how it can be more conducive to sustainable development. It shows that the Open approach is not a passive approach but requires sustained activities along many dimensions, including both flood-proofing and flood-regulating measures. The chapter follows the progression of the Open approach. It discusses the reflection of this approach in the European Union’s Directive on Floods and its implementation. It takes note of country level initiatives in many European countries, such as the Netherlands’ “Room for River” project, that conform with the Open approach. The chapter then examines some recent policy changes in the United States regarding the Mississippi levee system that also reflect the Open approach. It also reviews the progress of the Open approach in other parts of the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-542
Author(s):  
Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos

PurposeThere have been strides in workplace incivility (WI), but in what direction, angles and theoretical streams are they taking place? In light of it, the purpose of this review is to analyze the overall WI research output yielded in the initial decades of this century.Design/methodology/approachThis investigation searched exclusively for empirical articles written in English that matched the terms incivility and WI in the websites of prominent peer-review publications covering the period of 19 years (i.e. 2000–2019). As a result, 93 peer-reviewed empirical studies were properly gathered and classified.FindingsWI is one of the most relevant topics in OB studies under scrutiny in this moment. Corroborating such a perception is the huge amount of outlets that have been publishing about WI. In this sense, it is a topic that has gained strong interdisciplinary status, given the manifested interest of very distinct areas. Cross-sectional studies have prevailed in terms of method preferences, yet other approaches have been used. Of noteworthy is the shortage of qualitative and meta-analytic studies. Data provided evidence that a very limited number of nations (only 18 countries) have been investigated and it is not exactly surprising that the United States be the target of the majority of studies in this field. The antecedents and consequences of WI are the major focus of the investigations. But I found some evidence that that WI has been tested as performing the role of measure, mediator and moderator.Research limitations/implicationsIt focused exclusively on peer-review journals and articles written in English.Originality/valueThis endeavor contributes to the theory of WI by encompassing crucial aspects such as time horizon, major outlets, study types, country-level output, samples features, constructs perused, theoretical function of WI and research outcomes. In addition, it points out new potential research streams.


2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mălina Voicu

European societies have experienced a decrease in the social importance of religious issues. Values and attitudes towards gender roles have also changed in the last decades. In European countries, people have become more egalitarian with respect to the position of women in society. The author tries to identify the relationship between secularization and changes in gender values. As a result of secularization, the individual value system has become fragmented and religious values have lost their coordinating role. The investigation employs cross-national and longitudinal analysis of European Values Survey data (1990, 1999), most of the European countries being included in the study. The results indicate the decreasing impact of traditional religious belief on values related to gender roles during the 1990s in Europe and a common pattern of relationships between gender values and religiosity in most European societies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-409
Author(s):  
Elena Damian

For the first time, this study examined both cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of contextual cultural and economic characteristics of individual formal volunteering. A study sample of 116,380 respondents from 33 countries and four waves from the European Values Study (1981-2008) was used. The hierarchical logistic models indicate that a long-standing theoretical idea regarding the positive relationship between contextual religiosity and formal volunteering is not supported by European data. Specifically, I found that people living in secular and economically equal countries are more likely to engage in voluntary activities. Longitudinally, there is a decrease in formal volunteering over 27 years; however, none of the cultural and economic country-level variables explain variation across time. These differential cross-sectional and longitudinal effects highlight the need to use repeated cross-sectional data.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110159
Author(s):  
Sascha Hölig ◽  
Uwe Hasebrink ◽  
Julia Behre

In recent years, the use of the Internet and social media as sources of news has risen all over the world. Using data from “The Peoples’ Internet” project, this article provides insights into the ways in which people use the Internet to access news in seven countries with very different media systems, digital economies and cultures. We found that news consumption patterns differ at the country level between China, the United States and five European countries – Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom – especially when it comes to online news. However, the relationships between news usage and sociodemographic variables at the individual level are strikingly similar across these countries. Our results indicate that cultural influences as well as media systems play a decisive role in people’s news use.


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