Impact of structural ageism on greater violence against older persons: a cross-national study of 56 countries

ObjectiveTo determine the association between country-level structural ageism and prevalence of violence against older persons.DesignCountry-level ecological study.SettingStructural ageism data were drawn from the nationally representative World Values Survey 2010–2014 (WVS), global databases from the WHO, United Nations and the World Bank. Violence data were based on the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study 2017.ParticipantsAnalysis of 56 countries that represented 63.1% of the world’s ageing population aged 60 and over across all six of WHO regions.ExposureStructural ageism, following established structural stigma measures, consisted of two components: (1) discriminatory national policies related to older persons’ economic, social, civil and political rights, based on the four core components of human rights protection in Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging and (2) prejudicial social norms against older persons, measured by negative attitudes toward older persons in 56 national polls in WVS aggregated to country-level. These components were z scored and combined such that higher score indicated greater structural ageism.Main outcomes and measuresPrevalence rates of violence per 100 000 persons aged 70 and over in each country was based on extensive epidemiological surveillance data, survey, clinical data and insurance claims in GBD and compiled by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington.ResultsThere was a wide variation in levels of structural ageism across countries. As predicted, structural ageism was significantly associated with the prevalence rates of violence in multivariate models (β=205.7, SE=96.3, p=0.03), after adjusting for relevant covariates. Sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of our findings. That is, structural ageism did not predict other types of violence and other types of prejudice did not predict violence against older persons.ConclusionsThis study provides the first evidence of the association between higher structural ageism and greater violence against older persons across countries.

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Impact of Structural Ageism on Greater Violence Against Older Persons: A Cross-National Study of 56 Countries

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.683 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 181-181

Author(s):

E-Shien Chang ◽

Joan Monin ◽

Daniel Zelterman ◽

Becca Levy

Keyword(s):

Older Persons ◽

Final Analysis ◽

Population Based ◽

Sensitivity Analyses ◽

National Study ◽

Political Rights ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Country Level ◽

Global Burden Of Diseases

Abstract Violence directed against older persons is recognized as a global health problem. However, structural drivers for violence remain under-studied. This country-level ecological study aimed to examine a previously unexplored link between structural ageism and violence against older persons. Following extensive structural stigma literature, structural ageism consisted of two components: (1) discriminatory national policies related to older persons’ economic, social, civil, and political rights, gathered from global databases including UN, WHO, and others; and (2) societal-level prejudicial social norms against older persons, measured by negative attitudes toward older persons by the World Values Survey. Two components were z scored and combined such that higher score indicated greater structural ageism. Prevalence rates of violence per 100,000 persons aged 70 and over in each country were drawn from the Global Burden of Diseases Study. Final analysis included 56 countries, representing 63% of the world’s aging population aged 60 and over across all six WHO regions. As predicted, structural ageism was significantly associated with the prevalence rates of violence in multivariate models (β =205.7, SE=96.3, P=.03), after adjusting for country-level sociodemographic and health covariates. Three sets of sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of our findings. That is, structural ageism did not predict other types of violence and other types of prejudice did not predict violence against older persons. Public health and population-based violence prevention policies may benefit from a targeted approach that tackles the harmful effects of structural ageism.

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Systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of depressive symptoms, dysthymia and major depressive disorders among homeless people

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040061 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. e040061

Author(s):

Getinet Ayano ◽

Asmare Belete ◽

Bereket Duko ◽

Light Tsegay ◽

Berihun Assefa Dachew

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Depressive Disorders ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Random Effect ◽

Homeless People ◽

Sensitivity Analyses ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Major Depressive ◽

Major Depressive Disorders

ObjectivesTo assess the global prevalence estimates of depressive symptoms, dysthymia and major depressive disorders (MDDs) among homeless people.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.Data sourcesDatabases including PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were systematically searched up to February 2020 to identify relevant studies that have reported data on the prevalence of depressive symptoms, dysthymia and MDDs among homeless people.Eligibility criteriaOriginal epidemiological studies written in English that addressed the prevalence of depressive problems among homeless people.Data extraction and synthesisA random-effect meta-analysis was performed to pool the prevalence estimated from individual studies. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were employed to compare the prevalence across the groups as well as to identify the source of heterogeneities. The Joanna Briggs Institute’s quality assessment checklist was used to measure the study quality. Cochran’s Q and the I2 test were used to assess heterogeneity between the studies.ResultsForty publications, including 17 215 participants, were included in the final analysis. This meta-analysis demonstrated considerably higher prevalence rates of depressive symptoms 46.72% (95% CI 37.77% to 55.90%), dysthymia 8.25% (95% CI 4.79% to 11.86%), as well as MDDs 26.24% (95% CI 21.02% to 32.22%) among homeless people. Our subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence of depressive symptoms was high among younger homeless people (<25 years of age), whereas the prevalence of MDD was high among older homeless people (>50 years of age) when compared with adults (25–50 years).ConclusionThis review showed that nearly half, one-fourth and one-tenth of homeless people are suffering from depressive symptoms, dysthymia and MDDs, respectively, which are notably higher than the reported prevalence rates in the general population. The findings suggest the need for appropriate mental health prevention and treatment strategies for this population group.

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Patterns of multimorbidity and risk of disability in community-dwelling older persons

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research ◽

10.1007/s40520-020-01773-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandra Marengoni ◽

Roselyne Akugizibwe ◽

Davide L. Vetrano ◽

Albert Roso-Llorach ◽

Graziano Onder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Daily Living ◽

Older Persons ◽

Healthcare Resource ◽

Resource Planning ◽

Total Sample ◽

Community Dwelling ◽

National Study ◽

Sensory Impairment ◽

Multinomial Models

AbstractThe aim was to analyze the association between specific patterns of multimorbidity and risk of disability in older persons. Data were gathered from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K); 2066 60 + year-old participants living in the community and free from disability at baseline were grouped according to their multimorbidity patterns and followed-up for six years. The association between multimorbidity patterns and disability in basic (ADL) and instrumental (IADL) activities of daily living was examined through multinomial models. Throughout the follow-up, 434 (21.0%) participants developed at least one ADL and 310 (15.0%) at least one IADL. Compared to the unspecific pattern, which included diseases not exceeding their expected prevalence in the total sample, belonging to the cardiovascular/anemia/dementia, the sensory impairment/cancer and the musculoskeletal/respiratory/gastrointestinal patterns was associated with a higher risk of developing both ADL and IADL, whereas subjects in the metabolic/sleep disorders pattern showed a higher risk of developing only IADL. Multimorbidity patterns are differentially associated with incident disability, which is important for the design of future prevention strategies aimed at delaying functional impairment in old age, and for a better healthcare resource planning.

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International R&D Spillovers and Innovation Efficiency

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10113974 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 3974 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jianping Liu ◽

Kai Lu ◽

Shixiong Cheng

Keyword(s):

Capital Stock ◽

Stochastic Frontier Analysis ◽

Stochastic Frontier ◽

Sensitivity Analyses ◽

Frontier Analysis ◽

Country Level ◽

Scientific Papers ◽

Catch Up ◽

The Right ◽

The Impact

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of international research and development (R&D) spillovers on innovation efficiency of specific R&D outcomes, employing the country-level panel data for 44 countries in the 1996–2013 period. Fully considering the heterogeneity of different R&D outputs, scientific papers, PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patents, US patents, and domestic patents are observed separately, which enriches the angles of measuring international R&D spillovers. By applying a stochastic frontier analysis to knowledge production function, we find that foreign R&D capital stock positively contributes to the innovation efficiency of scientific papers, but suppresses the productivity of domestic patents, whereas it does not really matter for PCT or US patents. These results are robust to control for a set of institutional factors and also in sensitivity analyses. Hence, dependence on international R&D spillovers seems neither to be the right way for emerging economies to catch up, nor to be a sustainable model for developing countries to fill the technical gap. Local R&D capital stock, instead, keeps an essential contributor to all four R&D outputs, so raising internal R&D expenditure is actually the key to improving innovation level and sustainable development ability.

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Data Analysis and Forecasting of Tuberculosis Prevalence Rates for Smart Healthcare Based on a Novel Combination Model

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app8091693 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (9) ◽

pp. 1693 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jiyang Wang ◽

Chen Wang ◽

Wenyu Zhang

Keyword(s):

Prevalence Rate ◽

Medical Information ◽

Global Perspective ◽

Ageing Population ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Epidemic Disease ◽

Combination Model ◽

Smart Healthcare ◽

Income Groups ◽

Tuberculosis Prevalence

In recent years, healthcare has attracted much attention, which is looking for more and more data analytics in healthcare to relieve medical problems in medical staff shortage, ageing population, people living alone, and quality of life. Data mining, analysis, and forecasting play a vital role in modern social and medical fields. However, how to select a proper model to mine and analyze the relevant medical information in the data is not only an extremely challenging problem, but also a concerning problem. Tuberculosis remains a major global health problem despite recent and continued progress in prevention and treatment. There is no doubt that the effective analysis and accurate forecasting of global tuberculosis prevalence rates lay a solid foundation for the construction of an epidemic disease warning and monitoring system from a global perspective. In this paper, the tuberculosis prevalence rate time series for four World Bank income groups are targeted. Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance and multiple comparison tests are conducted to determine whether the differences of tuberculosis prevalence rates for different income groups are statistically significant or not, and a novel combined forecasting model with its weights optimized by a recently developed artificial intelligence algorithm—cuckoo search—is proposed to forecast the hierarchical tuberculosis prevalence rates from 2013 to 2016. Numerical results show that the developed combination model is not only simple, but is also able to satisfactorily approximate the actual tuberculosis prevalence rate, and can be an effective tool in mining and analyzing big data in the medical field.

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Corruption and corporate governance: a cross-national study

Corporate Ownership and Control ◽

10.22495/cocv5i3c2p6 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 299-315

Author(s):

David Ng ◽

Kun Qian ◽

Adam Dix

Keyword(s):

Corporate Governance ◽

Standard Deviation ◽

Negative Impact ◽

National Study ◽

Firm Level ◽

Standard Deviation Increase ◽

Country Level ◽

Governance Analysis ◽

Significant Negative Impact ◽

Cross National Study

This paper examines the importance of country-level corruption in explaining the variation of firm-level corporate governance. Analysis of firm-level corporate governance data and country level corruption data on over 400 companies in 26 countries confirms the hypothesis that corruption has a statistically significant negative impact on the quality of a firm’s corporate governance. One standard deviation increase in country-level corruption is associated with a 0.5 to 0.7 standard deviation decrease in firm-level corporate governance scores

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The development and process evaluation of the ACTION study: A person-centred communication intervention targeting nurse assistants in home care for older persons

10.21203/rs.2.17948/v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Tanja Gustafsson ◽

Annelie J Sundler ◽

Elisabeth Lindberg ◽

Pernilla Karlsson ◽

Hanna Maurin Söderholm

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Home Care ◽

Process Evaluation ◽

Educational Intervention ◽

Older Persons ◽

Complex Interventions ◽

Implementation Process ◽

Ageing Population ◽

Web Based ◽

The Web

Abstract Background A rapidly ageing population challenges the health care system in general and home care services in particular. Communication is a cornerstone of person-centred care. However, little research has been conducted on how to improve communication between health care professionals and older persons in home care contexts, despite research showing the importance of such interactions. The increasing demands on how to best and efficiently improve competence in health professionals is the reason why the ACTION intervention was conducted. This paper aims to describe the development and process evaluation of an educational intervention for nurse assistants (NAs) in home care and highlights the potential of self-directed web-based learning as well as the pitfalls of conducting complex interventions in home care. Methods A web-based educational intervention focusing on person-centred communication was developed that targeted NAs in home care for older persons. Twenty-seven NAs from two units in Sweden were recruited, and 23 NAs were offered the educational intervention. Data were collected from multiple sources before, during and after the intervention and were analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Data were extracted from the web platform and analysed to determine the NAs´ engagement in the intervention. Additionally, interviews, evaluation forms and field notes were used to evaluate the feasibility of the intervention. Results The main findings suggest that web-based education seems to be an appropriate strategy in the home care context. The majority of the NAs (91%) participated in full or in part in the intervention. During the implementation process, some adaptions were required to fit the local circumstances regarding technical support, scheduling, and the design of the lectures. The NAs perceived the format to be easy to use and flexible and appreciated the stepwise modules. The content was perceived as valuable. Conclusions Our findings show that the benefits of the web-based educational intervention included the short and focused lectures as well as its accessibility. Challenges with the implementation process included gaining access to the NAs and motivating and involving the NAs. This study emphasizes the environmental support needed to successfully conduct complex interventions, including physical, organizational and cultural aspects.

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Exploring the Relation Between the Digital Divide and Government's Effort to Develop E-Participation

10.4018/978-1-6684-3706-3.ch054 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 997-1018

Author(s):

Rosario Perez-Morote ◽

Carolina Pontones Rosa ◽

Esteban Alfaro Cortes

Keyword(s):

Digital Divide ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Political Freedom ◽

Ageing Population ◽

Technological Infrastructure ◽

Political Processes ◽

Country Level ◽

Participation Index ◽

The Relationship ◽

Practical Implications

According to the digital divide theory, the provision of opportunities to broaden participation in political processes pose a challenge for governments worldwide. In this research, the authors analyze the relationship between the evolution governments' effort to develop citizen e-participation in public policy—measured through the UN's e-participation index—and that of national contexts variables identified by the digital divide theory at country level, using panel data for 178 countries over the period 2008-2016. The results confirm the strong and positive connection between EPI and economic development and technological infrastructure of the countries, ageing population associated to higher life standards, as well as a negative impact of rurality, gender, and political freedom and democracy result not influential, as well as education. Some practical implications derive from the findings, contributing to explain performance differences across different national settings and identifying current inequalities that still require public action to bridge the divide.

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25. International Human Rights Law

International Law ◽

10.1093/he/9780198791836.003.0025 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Nigel Rodley

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Human Rights Law ◽

Political Rights ◽

Political Factors ◽

International Protection ◽

Human Rights Protection ◽

Cultural Rights ◽

Rights Protection ◽

Human Rights Treaties ◽

Protection Of Human Rights

This chapter considers the background to, and current developments concerning the manner in which international law has engaged with the protection of human rights, including both civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. It looks at historical, philosophical, and political factors which have shaped our understanding of human rights and the current systems of international protection. It focuses on the systems of protection developed by and through the United Nations through the ‘International Bill of Rights’, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN human rights treaties and treaty bodies, and the UN Special Procedures as well as the work of the Human Rights Council. It also looks at the systems of regional human rights protection which have been established.

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