scholarly journals Tracking changes in reporting of epidemiological data during the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia: an observational study during the first wave

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Maever L. Amit ◽  
Veincent Christian F. Pepito ◽  
Bernardo Gutierrez ◽  
Thomas Rawson
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Data Sharing ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Reporting Systems ◽  
The Impact

SummaryBackgroundWhen a new pathogen emerges, consistent case reporting is critical for public health surveillance. Tracking cases geographically and over time is key for understanding the spread of an infectious disease and how to effectively design interventions to contain and mitigate an epidemic. In this paper we describe the reporting systems on COVID-19 in Southeast Asia during the first wave in 2020, and highlight the impact of specific reporting methods.MethodsWe reviewed key epidemiological variables from various sources including a regionally comprehensive dataset, national trackers, dashboards, and case bulletins for 11 countries during the first wave of the epidemic in Southeast Asia. We recorded timelines of shifts in epidemiological reporting systems. We further described the differences in how epidemiological data are reported across countries and timepoints, and the accessibility of epidemiological data.FindingsOur findings suggest that countries in Southeast Asia generally reported precise and detailed epidemiological data during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, changes in reporting were frequent and varied across data and countries. Changes in reporting rarely occurred for demographic data such as age and sex, while reporting shifts for geographic and temporal data were frequent. We also found that most countries provided COVID-19 individual-level data daily using HTML and PDF, necessitating scraping and extraction before data could be used in analyses.InterpretationCountries have different reporting systems and different capacities for maintaining consistent reporting of epidemiological data. As the pandemic progresses, governments may also change their priorities in data sharing. Our study thus highlights the importance of more nuanced analyses of epidemiological data of COVID-19 within and across countries because of the frequent shifts in reporting. Further, most countries provide data on a daily basis but not always in a readily usable format. As governments continue to respond to the impacts of COVID-19 on health and the economy, data sharing also needs to be prioritised given its foundational role in policymaking, and the implementation and evaluation of interventions.FundingThe work was supported through an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (https://epsrc.ukri.org/) Systems Biology studentship award (EP/G03706X/1) to TR. This project was also supported in part by the Oxford Martin School.The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

scholarly journals Data Sharing in Southeast Asia During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Maever L. Amit ◽  
Veincent Christian F. Pepito ◽  
Bernardo Gutierrez ◽  
Thomas Rawson
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Data Sharing ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Temporal Data ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Reporting Systems ◽  
The Impact

Background: When a new pathogen emerges, consistent case reporting is critical for public health surveillance. Tracking cases geographically and over time is key for understanding the spread of an infectious disease and effectively designing interventions to contain and mitigate an epidemic. In this paper we describe the reporting systems on COVID-19 in Southeast Asia during the first wave in 2020, and highlight the impact of specific reporting methods.Methods: We reviewed key epidemiological variables from various sources including a regionally comprehensive dataset, national trackers, dashboards, and case bulletins for 11 countries during the first wave of the epidemic in Southeast Asia. We recorded timelines of shifts in epidemiological reporting systems and described the differences in how epidemiological data are reported across countries and timepoints.Results: Our findings suggest that countries in Southeast Asia generally reported precise and detailed epidemiological data during the first wave of the pandemic. Changes in reporting rarely occurred for demographic data, while reporting shifts for geographic and temporal data were frequent. Most countries provided COVID-19 individual-level data daily using HTML and PDF, necessitating scraping and extraction before data could be used in analyses.Conclusion: Our study highlights the importance of more nuanced analyses of COVID-19 epidemiological data within and across countries because of the frequent shifts in reporting. As governments continue to respond to impacts on health and the economy, data sharing also needs to be prioritised given its foundational role in policymaking, and in the implementation and evaluation of interventions.

scholarly journals How does area-level deprivation depress an individual’s self-rated health and life satisfaction? Evidence from a nationwide population-based survey in Japan

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Oshio ◽  
Hiromi Kimura ◽  
Toshimi Nishizaki ◽  
Takashi Omori
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Internet Survey ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Area-level deprivation is well known to have an adverse impact on mortality, morbidity, or other specific health outcomes. This study examined how area-level deprivation may affect self-rated health (SRH) and life satisfaction (LS), an issue that is largely understudied. Methods We used individual-level data obtained from a nationwide population-based internet survey conducted between 2019 and 2020, as well as municipality-level data obtained from a Japanese government database (N = 12,461 living in 366 municipalities). We developed multilevel regression models to explain an individual’s SRH and LS scores using four alternative measures of municipality-level deprivation, controlling for individual-level deprivation and covariates. We also examined how health behavior and interactions with others mediated the impact of area-level deprivation on SRH and LS. Results Participants in highly deprived municipalities tended to report poorer SRH and lower LS. For example, when living in municipalities falling in the highest tertile of municipality-level deprivation as measured by the z-scoring method, SRH and LS scores worsened by a standard deviation of 0.05 (p < 0.05) when compared with those living in municipalities falling in the lowest tertile of deprivation. In addition, health behavior mediated between 17.6 and 33.1% of the impact of municipality-level deprivation on SRH and LS, depending on model specifications. Conclusion Results showed that area-level deprivation modestly decreased an individual’s general health conditions and subjective well-being, underscoring the need for public health policies to improve area-level socioeconomic conditions.

scholarly journals Revisiting Grade Retention: An Evaluation of Florida's Test-Based Promotion Policy

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay P. Greene ◽  
Marcus A. Winters
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public School ◽  
Grade Retention ◽  
School Students ◽  
Public School Students ◽  
Promotion Policy ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Retained Students ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Impact

In 2002, Florida adopted a test-based promotion policy in the third grade in an attempt to end social promotion. Similar policies are currently operating in Texas, New York City, and Chicago and affect at least 17 percent of public school students nationwide. Using individual-level data on the universe of public school students in Florida, we analyze the impact of grade retention on student proficiency in reading one and two years after the retention decision. We use an instrumental variable (IV) approach made available by the relatively objective nature of Florida's policy. Our findings suggest that retained students slightly outperformed socially promoted students in reading in the first year after retention, and these gains increased substantially in the second year. Results were robust across two distinct IV comparisons: an across-year approach comparing students who were essentially separated by the year in which they happened to have been born, and a regression discontinuity design.

scholarly journals When economic and cultural interests align: the anti-immigration voter coalitions driving far right party success in Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne Halikiopoulou ◽  
Tim Vlandas
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Party Support ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article contests the view that the strong positive correlation between anti-immigration attitudes and far right party success necessarily constitutes evidence in support of the cultural grievance thesis. We argue that the success of far right parties depends on their ability to mobilize a coalition of interests between their core supporters, that is voters with cultural grievances over immigration and the often larger group of voters with economic grievances over immigration. Using individual level data from eight rounds of the European Social Survey, our empirical analysis shows that while cultural concerns over immigration are a stronger predictor of far right party support, those who are concerned with the impact of immigration on the economy are important to the far right in numerical terms. Taken together, our findings suggest that economic grievances over immigration remain pivotal within the context of the transnational cleavage.

scholarly journals Regional Cultural Context as a Determinant of Entrepreneurial Behaviour: The Case of Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-118
Author(s):  
Kadri Arrak ◽  
Anneli Kaasa ◽  
Urmas Varblane
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Original Approach

This exploratory article aims to take first steps towards understanding whether a regional cultural background has, among other determinants, an influence on a person’s entrepreneurial behaviour, relying on the example of Germany. A multilevel approach is applied combining the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor individual-level data about entrepreneurship with up-to-date cultural dimensions indicators based on Hofstede’s original approach at the regional (NUTS 1) level. The results indicate that regional cultural context is an important determinant of entrepreneurial behaviour. At that, different cultural dimensions have different impacts, and the impact also differs across different stages of entrepreneurship. A lower level of uncertainty avoidance in a region could have a positive impact on early-stage entrepreneurship, whereas the established business ownership seems to be encouraged by a lower level of power distance.

Persistent Legacies of the Empires: Partition of Poland and Electoral Turnout

2020 ◽  
pp. 088832542090767
Author(s):  
Piotr Zagórski ◽  
Radosław Markowski
Keyword(s):  
Religious Service Attendance ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Service Attendance

During the long nineteenth century, Poland was divided among the Russian, Habsburg, and Prussian empires. The partition produced regional diversity in political culture and in institutional and economic development. We examine how the cultural legacies of the empires have influenced the propensity of Poles to cast a ballot in parliamentary elections since 1989. Polish National Election Study individual-level data are used to assess whether higher levels of electoral turnout in Galicia are indeed a legacy of the Habsburg rule. Our results confirm that, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors, there is a positive, substantive, and significant effect on turnout of living in the ex-Habsburg part of Poland. This effect can be explained by the frequency of religious service attendance and by ideology. Inhabitants of Galicia not only attend religious services more frequently and are more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of Poland, but also the more frequently they attend church and the closer to the radical right they place themselves, the more mobilized they are to vote. The impact of the legacies of the empires on political behavior in Poland seems persistent.

scholarly journals The Bright Side of the Economic Crisis: The Attribution of Political Responsibilities in Hard Times

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Cordero ◽  
Ignacio Lago
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Responsibility Attribution ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Bright Side ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decisions

AbstractWe examine the impact of the current economic crisis on the accuracy of responsibility attribution between levels of government within states. Using individual-level data from Spain, we show that learning about responsibility attribution depends on the saliency of the issue (in our study, unemployment) and economic self-interest. The (unintended) positive consequence of economic crisis is that citizens are now more able to accurately attribute the responsibility for political decisions than some years ago. Learning is particularly significant among those individuals more affected by the economic crisis.

Area-level relative deprivation and alcohol use in Denmark: Is there a relationship?

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Bloomfield ◽  
Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff ◽  
Abdu Kedir Seid ◽  
Christiane Stock
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Area Deprivation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Housing Component ◽  
Disorder Identification ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Aims: Greater area-level relative deprivation has been related to poorer health behaviours, but studies specifically on alcohol use and abuse have been equivocal. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate how area-level relative deprivation in Denmark relates to alcohol use and misuse in the country. Methods: As individual-level data, we used the national alcohol and drug survey of 2011 ( n= 5133). Data were procured from Statistics Denmark to construct an index of relative deprivation at the parish level ( n=2119). The deprivation index has two components, which were divided into quintiles. Multilevel linear and logistic regressions analysed the influence of area deprivation on mean alcohol use and hazardous drinking, as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Results: Men who lived in parishes designated as ‘very deprived’ on the socioeconomic component were more likely to consume less alcohol; women who lived in parishes designated as ‘deprived’ on the housing component were less likely to drink hazardously. But at the individual level, education was positively related to mean alcohol consumption, and higher individual income was positively related to mean consumption for women. Higher-educated men were more likely to drink hazardously. Conclusions: Area-level measures of relative deprivation were not strongly related to alcohol use, yet in the same models individual-level socioeconomic variables had a more noticeable influence. This suggests that in a stronger welfare state, the impact of area-level relative deprivation may not be as great. Further work is needed to develop more sensitive measures of relative deprivation.

Demographic outcomes during colonisation: Migration and mortality among indigenous and non-indigenous populations in nineteenth-century Sweden

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-176
Author(s):  
Lotta Vikström ◽  
Emil Marklund ◽  
Glenn Sandström
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Event History Analysis ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Ethnic Origin ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
Level Data

Due to insufficient historical population data, there is limited knowledge about the demographic outcomes of colonisation. This study provides demographic evidence of the difficulties faced by the Sami – an indigenous population in Sweden – during nineteenth-century colonisation, as indicated by (1) high risks of migration and (2) low survival rates compared to non-Sami. The digitised parish registers of the Demographic Data Base (Umeå University) provide longitudinal, individual-level data on migration, mortality, and ethnic origin. Event history analysis reveals that the Sami were vulnerable, with a higher mortality rate than non-Sami, and that they were more prone to migrate from areas overcrowded due to an increased competition for land. However, regardless of ethnic origin, it was primarily the settlers who migrated, and who ran the lowest mortality risks. This result suggests a ‘healthy settler effect’, and diverse consequences of colonisation that did not always follow ethnic lines.

scholarly journals The inequity of morbidity: Disparities in the prevalence of morbidity between ethnic groups in New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 2235042X2097116
Author(s):  
Jason Gurney ◽  
James Stanley ◽  
Diana Sarfati
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
National Level ◽  
Morbidity Burden ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

Objective: The burden of chronic disease is not evenly shared within our society. In this manuscript, we use comprehensive national-level data to compare morbidity burden between ethnic groups in New Zealand. Methods: We investigated the prevalence of morbidity among all New Zealanders aged 18+ (n = 3,296,837), stratified by ethnic group (Māori, Pacific, Asian, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African, European/Other), using national-level hospitalisation and pharmaceutical data and two measures of morbidity (the M3 and P3 indices). Results and Conclusions: We observed substantial disparities for Māori and Pacific peoples compared to other ethnic groups for the vast majority of commonly-diagnosed morbidities. These disparities appeared strongest for the most-common conditions – meaning that Māori and Pacific peoples disproportionately shoulder an increased burden of these key conditions. We also observed that prevalence of these conditions emerged at earlier ages, meaning that Māori and Pacific peoples also experience a disproportionate impact of individual conditions on the quality and quantity of life. Finally, we observed strong disparities in the prevalence of conditions that may exacerbate the impact of COVID-19, such as chronic pulmonary, liver or renal disease. The substantial inequities we have presented here have been created and perpetuated by the social determinants of health, including institutionalised racism: thus solutions will require addressing these systemic issues as well as addressing inequities in individual-level care.

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