scholarly journals BRAC initiative towards promoting gender and social equity in health: a longitudinal study of child growth in Matlab, Bangladesh

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 1071-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masuma Khatun ◽  
Hans Stenlund ◽  
Agneta Hörnell

AbstractObjective:To explore the effect of BRAC (formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) initiatives towards promoting gender and social equity in health among children of poor mothers who are BRAC members.Design:A cohort of 576 children from the prospective study of a BRAC– International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh joint research project was analysed. Data were collected three times during 1995–1996 with approximately 4-month intervals. Stunting, defined as height-for-age below minus two standard deviations from the reference median, was the outcome health measure. The study children were stratified into three groups according to their mother's social and BRAC membership status: poor and BRAC member (BM), poor non-member (TG) and non-poor non-member (NTG).Setting:Matlab, rural area of Bangladesh.Subjects:Children aged 6–72 months.Results:The overall prevalence of stunting was 76%; the highest prevalence was found among TG (84.6%) children and no significant difference was observed between BM and NTG children (67.3% and 69.4%, respectively). In all groups, a significantly larger proportion of girls was stunted compared with boys in the first round. Group-level analysis showed that stunting decreased among all children except BM boys at the end of third round, with the largest decline among BM girls. In contrast, stunting prevalence increased among BM boys. A similar trend was found in the individual-level analysis, where a larger proportion of BM girls recovered from stunting compared with other groups and no recovery was observed among BM boys. At the end of the third round, the nutritional status of BM girls was almost equal to that of the BM boys, while gender inequity remained large among TG and NTG children.Conclusion:The BRAC initiative appeared to contribute to a significant equity gain in health for girls, as well as to decreased differences in ill health between the poor and the non-poor.

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Thue Bjørndal ◽  
Live Steinnes Luteberget ◽  
Simen Holm

AbstractInternational competitions at the youth elite level have become an important part of attempts to identify, foster and develop sporting talent. However, sports science scholars disagree strongly about the value and importance of such competitions because little is known about the relationship between early performance, at both the team and individual level, and later success in adult elite sports. The first aim of this study was therefore to explore the relationship between international match experience at the youth international team level and subsequent match experience at the junior and the senior international team levels. The second aim of this study was to explore the relationship between youth national team results and subsequent junior and senior national team results in international competitions. The individual-level analysis was based on official match participation statistics of all Norwegian handball players with either youth, junior and/or senior national team experience (n = 657) between the years 1993 and 2017. The team level analysis was based on team result rankings from the handball European and World Championships at the youth, junior and senior national team levels during this period. Statistical analysis at the individual level showed a significant difference between those handball players who did and did not have international match exposure at the youth and junior levels, and the number of matches they played at the senior international team level. No to weak correlations were found between the number of matches played at the youth, junior and senior international team levels. Statistical analysis at the team level showed a strong correlation between result rankings at the youth, junior and senior international team levels. Collectively, these findings suggest that having youth and junior international experience is strongly associated with the number of matches played at the senior international level. However, the number of matches played at the youth and junior international levels does not appear to determine success or predict which players will or will not achieve success at the senior international level.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Moore

Two segmented methods of performing conjoint anal/sis, clustered and componential segmentation, are compared with each other as well as with individual level and totally aggregate level analyses. The two segmented methods provide insights to the data that (1) are not obtainable at the aggregate level and (2) are in a form that is more easily communicated than the information from the individual level analysis. The predictive power of the clustered segmentation method is higher than that of componential segmentation, and both are superior to the aggregate analysis but inferior to individual level analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-452
Author(s):  
Shotaro Shiba ◽  
Kazumi Shimizu

Abstract Several studies on time preference have found time inconsistency in both gain and loss preferences. However, the relationship between the two within the same person remains unclear; that is, does an individual who demonstrates time inconsistency for gain outcomes do so for losses as well? This paper reports on individuals’ time inconsistency for gains and losses in a laboratory setting. To obtain a precise comparison of individuals’ time inconsistency for gains and losses, we used Rohde’s “DI (decreasing impatience)-index” (Manag Sci 65(4):1700–1716, 2018) and measured the level of time inconsistency, rather than merely identifying whether TI was present. This index represents how strongly a person exhibits present bias, and easily extends to the comparison between gain and loss preferences within the same person. Further, it allows the experiment to test for so-called future bias, which has been a focus area in recent time inconsistency literature. It is elicited through a non-parametric method, which avoids any specification errors in the analysis. Our findings are as follows: first, we found future bias in preferences for not only gains but also losses, and we confirmed that this tendency is consistent with previous findings on preferences for gains. Second, a positive correlation between time inconsistency for gains and losses was found at the individual level. Indeed, we could not find a significant difference between the two in most cases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (6) ◽  
pp. 11-43
Author(s):  
Vahram Atayan

The goal of this contribution is the analysis of selected expressions of immediate posteriority in German and Italian from a comparative and translation-related perspective. In the present study, which was carried out as part of a joint research project (Nachzeitigkeit in Sprachvergleich und Übersetzung i. e. ‘Expression of Posteriority in Language Comparison and Translation’) at Heidelberg University and the University of Jena, these linguistic expressions are analysed using manual annotations of abstract semantic and pragmatic features on authentic instances using various statistical methods. Occurrences of the adverbs gleich, sofort, immediatamente or subito in the Europarl and OpenSubtitles corpora, in original or translated text material, serve as a source for the analysis. Typical use contexts of the four adverbs will be identified on a language-specific basis, possible influences of the text types/corpus sources on the use of the adverbs will be determined. Moreover, the use contexts of the adverbs will be analysed cross-linguistically as to correspondences and differences between the two languages, and typical translation options for the individual adverbs will be investigated as a result of various influencing parameters. At a general methodological level, the study intends to test rich semantic and pragmatic annotations and their statistical evaluation as approaches to comparative linguistics and translation studies as far as onomasiologically and functionally defined phenomena are concerned.


Author(s):  
Niklas D. Neumann ◽  
Nico W. Van Yperen ◽  
Jur J. Brauers ◽  
Wouter Frencken ◽  
Michel S. Brink ◽  
...  

Purpose: The study of load and recovery gained significant interest in the last decades, given its important value in decreasing the likelihood of injuries and improving performance. So far, findings are typically reported on the group level, whereas practitioners are most often interested in applications at the individual level. Hence, the aim of the present research is to examine to what extent group-level statistics can be generalized to individual athletes, which is referred to as the “ergodicity issue.” Nonergodicity may have serious consequences for the way we should analyze, and work with, load and recovery measures in the sports field. Methods: The authors collected load, that is, rating of perceived exertion × training duration, and total quality of recovery data among youth male players of a professional football club. This data were collected daily across 2 seasons and analyzed on both the group and the individual level. Results: Group- and individual-level analysis resulted in different statistical outcomes, particularly with regard to load. Specifically, SDs within individuals were up to 7.63 times larger than SDs between individuals. In addition, at either level, the authors observed different correlations between load and recovery. Conclusions: The results suggest that the process of load and recovery in athletes is nonergodic, which has important implications for the sports field. Recommendations for training programs of individual athletes may be suboptimal, or even erroneous, when guided by group-level outcomes. The utilization of individual-level analysis is key to ensure the optimal balance of individual load and recovery.


Author(s):  
Jongho Heo ◽  
Aditi Krishna ◽  
Jessica M. Perkins ◽  
Hwa-young Lee ◽  
Jong-koo Lee ◽  
...  

Inadequate child physical growth and cognitive development share common individual-level risk factors. Less understood is how outcomes co-cluster at the community level and to what extent certain community-level characteristics influence the clustering. This study aims to quantify the extent to which child growth and development co-occur across communities, and to identify community-level characteristics associated with the clustering of the two development dimensions. We used longitudinal data from 1824 children (aged 5 years) across 98 communities in Andhra Pradesh, India in round 2 (2006) of the Young Lives study, who were followed up 3 years later in round 3 (2009). A multivariate, multilevel statistical model was estimated wherein the responses were nested within individuals, and communities. We used z-scores of height-for-age, weight-for-age, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and a mathematics test in 2009 as outcome variables. At the community level, we included compositional variables representing community characteristics while controlling for child socio-demographic characteristics at the individual level. At the community level, children’s physical growth and cognitive development were strongly correlated (coefficient: 0.55–0.76) and, even after controlling for individual-level covariables, a more pronounced correlation was shown at the community level than individual level correlation. Greater local healthcare resources were associated with better physical growth. More local programs run by government and NGOs/charities were associated with higher child language skills. Local social problems were inversely associated with math scores. Our study showed that physical growth and cognitive development tended to be clustered and co-occurred within communities as well as individual children.


2020 ◽  
pp. 001872672095772
Author(s):  
Mustafa Bilgehan Ozturk ◽  
Aykut Berber

This article explores how racialised professionals experience selective incivility in UK organisations. Analysing 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, we provide multi-level findings that relate to individual, organisational and societal phenomena to illuminate the workings of subtle racism. On the individual level, selective incivility appears as articulated through ascriptions of excess and deficit that marginalise racialised professionals; biased actions by white employees who operate as honest liars or strategic coverers; and white defensiveness against selective incivility claims. On the organisational level, organisational whitewashing, management denial and upstream exclusion constitute the key enablers of selective incivility. On the societal level, dynamic changes relating to increasing intolerance outside organisations indirectly yet sharply fuel selective incivility within organisations. Finally, racialised professionals experience intersectional (dis-)advantages at the imbrications of individual, organisation and society levels, shaping within-group variations in experiences of workplace selective incivility. Throughout all three levels of analysis and their interplay, differences in power and privilege inform the conditions of possibility for and the continual reproduction of selective incivility.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikkyu Choi ◽  
Spiros Papageorgiou

Stakeholders of language tests are often interested in subscores. However, reporting a subscore is not always justified; a subscore should provide reliable and distinct information to be worth reporting. When a subscore is used for decisions across multiple levels (e.g., individual test takers and schools), it needs to be justified for its reliability and distinctiveness at every relevant level. In this study, we examined whether reporting seven Reading and Listening subscores of the TOEFL Primary® test, a standardized English proficiency test for young English as a foreign language learners, could be justified for reporting at individual and school levels. We analyzed data collected in pilot administrations, in which 4776 students from 51 schools participated. We employed the classical test theory (CTT) based approaches of Haberman (2008) and Haberman, Sinharay, and Puhan (2009) for the individual and school-level investigations, respectively. We also supplemented the CTT-based approaches with a factor analytic approach for the individual level analysis and a multilevel modeling approach for the school-level analysis. The results differed across the two levels: we found little support for reporting the subscores at the individual level, but strong evidence supporting the added-value of the school-level subscores when the sample size for each school exceeds 50.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1069031X2110366
Author(s):  
Stanford A. Westjohn ◽  
Peter Magnusson ◽  
George R. Franke ◽  
Yi Peng

Does collectivism influence an individual's willingness to trust others? Conflicting empirical results from past research and the role of trust in international marketing make this question important to resolve. We investigate this question across cultures and at the individual level with four studies using multiple methods. Study 1 establishes correlational evidence between societal-level collectivism and individual-level trust propensity with results from a multi-level analysis of data from over 6,000 respondents in 36 different countries. Study 2 offers an individual-level analysis using the trust game, introducing a more rigorous behavioral outcome variable. Study 3 contributes causal evidence at the individual level based on experiments in both the US and China and offers evidence of social projection as the explanatory mechanism. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates managerial relevance by using advertising to prime collectivism and assessing its effect on trust in the firm.


2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 724-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chester S. Spell ◽  
Todd J. Arnold

This study uses a sample of 483 employees to investigate how fairness assessments and organizational structure relate to employee mental health. The authors explain these effects using a social contagion framework, which describes the creation of group effects that would occur in addition to individual-level influences. They found that the interactive effects of distributive and procedural justice climates significantly influence individual feelings of both anxiety and depression. This effect goes beyond the main effects of justice at the individual level.


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