scholarly journals Implications of COVID-19 Mitigation Policies for National Well-Being: A Systems Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 433
Author(s):  
Nikita Strelkovskii ◽  
Elena Rovenskaya ◽  
Leena Ilmola-Sheppard ◽  
Robin Bartmann ◽  
Yonat Rein-Sapir ◽  
...  

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis and measures aimed at curbing the pandemic have a widespread impact on various aspects of well-being, such as housing, social connections, and others. Moreover, COVID-19 does not affect all population groups equally. This study analyzes the impact of major COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on a set of national well-being indicators from the most recent version of the OECD Well-Being Framework. Using causal loop diagrams (systems maps), we consider direct and indirect effects of these policies on various components of the national well-being system. Our results show that business closures directly and/or indirectly impact more national well-being components than any other policy. The most affected national well-being components by all policies are life satisfaction, perceived health, and prevalence of depressive symptoms. In addition, we specify how the impact of the anti-pandemic measures differs for various population strata, using the degree of income and employment loss as key stratifying variables. Our insights can be helpful to identify and promote measures that can alleviate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the national well-being.

2021 ◽  
pp. 183933492199851
Author(s):  
Rory Mulcahy ◽  
Rebekah Russell-Bennett ◽  
Jo Previte

Understanding transformative services, where the consumer is not the primary well-being beneficiary, is fundamental to furthering the transformative service research (TSR) paradigm. Furthermore, it is imperative to understand the co-creation behaviors consumers can partake in during prosocial transformative services to improve their service experience and, ultimately, their repeat usage of the service. This study is one of the first to develop a model drawing together three key service frameworks (co-creation behavior, service quality, and consumer value), which is empirically validated using real consumers of a prosocial transformative service, namely blood donation. In addition, a key strength of the study is the objective measurement of behavioral loyalty using organizational records, which is an important extension to prior TSR studies that often measure attitudinal loyalty (behavioral intentions) as a proxy. The findings have important implications for furthering transformative scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of how services can improve individual and societal well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Oshio ◽  
Hiromi Kimura ◽  
Toshimi Nishizaki ◽  
Takashi Omori

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9597
Author(s):  
Gabriella Nagy-Pénzes ◽  
Ferenc Vincze ◽  
Éva Bíró

Mental disorders are common in adolescents, and for effective interventions we should be aware of their determinants. However, there are only a small number of studies investigating the combined effect of multiple factors. Therefore, our aim is to assess the impact of socioeconomic status, social support, and health behavior on adolescents’ mental well-being. A cross-sectional health survey of 1641 children was carried out in accordance with the study protocol of the Hungarian Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey. Multivariate multiple regression was used to analyze the main determinants of mental well-being. The boys’ mental well-being was favorable compared to girls; lower subjective family wealth was associated with lower life satisfaction and depressive mood. Life satisfaction was positively related to healthy eating, social support, and physical activity. Unhealthy eating, sedentary lifestyle, and lower social support were associated with higher depression scores. Higher social support reduces psychosomatic symptoms, while unhealthy eating and spending a lot of time in front of the computer increase them. Both social support and healthy lifestyle seem to be protective against mental health problems among adolescents, and thus interventions should focus on these factors regardless of the socioeconomic status of the participants, with special attention given to girls.


1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 477-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Goldberg-Glen ◽  
Roberta G. Sands ◽  
Ralph D. Cole ◽  
Carolyn Cristofalo

‘Skipped generation’ families, consisting of grandparents and grandchildren with parents absent from the home, are frequently served in social work agencies. These families have unique multigenerational patterns and family structures that are important for service providers to recognize. This paper uses a multigenerational systems perspective to highlight the diversity among grandparent-headed households. Twenty families who were previously part of a larger study of stress, well-being, and life satisfaction among caregiving grandparents constituted a follow-up case study involving videotaped family interviews one year after the first study. Three families representing the range of diversity among the twenty are described with accompanying genograms. Differences in structure, interactional processes, and links with prior generations are identified in each case. These examples reveal the strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as the diversity, of grandparent-headed families.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135910532110448
Author(s):  
Songli Mei ◽  
Tongshuang Yuan ◽  
Leilei Liang ◽  
Hui Ren ◽  
Yueyang Hu ◽  
...  

The study aimed to investigate the level of life satisfaction (LS) among Chinese female workers after resuming work during the COVID-19 epidemic, and to further explore the potential mediating and moderating roles in the association between family stress and LS. Self-reported questionnaires were completed by 10,175 participants. Results showed that the level of LS decreased. The family stress had a negative effect on LS, and the effect was mediated by anxiety symptoms. Additionally, age moderated the direct and indirect effects within this relationship. Interventions aiming to improve LS should consider these aspects and younger workers should be given special attention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (158) ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
N. Denysenko

Problems of efficiency of tourism development for the urban economy should be considered on the basis of a systematic approach, which involves the establishment of different criteria and indicators for different levels of government, as well as a hierarchy of goals and corresponding efficiency criteria. Based on the analysis, the article summarizes the concept of "tourist potential of the city". It is determined that the main components of tourist potential are resource, economic and social potential. The main methods of determining the tourist potential are identified, including expert, comparative, cartographic, technological, aesthetic methods of analysis. The directions of tourism impact on the economy of the territory are considered. Direct and indirect effects, as well as induced effects of tourism development are considered separately. The interrelation and interaction of different spheres of the city economy and tourism are shown. In the analysis it is necessary to consider significant sectors of the urban economy: hotel, construction, catering, retail, tour operators, industry, wholesale, housing and communal services, communications, transport, insurance and banking, medicine, education and others. To calculate the gross tourist product, calculate the sum of all costs incurred for the production of tourist goods and services for a certain period. These are the costs of tourist consumption, private and public tourism investments. In addition, calculate the amount of all income from the sale of tourist goods and services for a certain period. This income from the sale of tourist goods and services, income from renting rooms, apartments, etc. The use of a multiplier to determine the impact of tourism development on the city economy is proposed. The calculation of tourism multipliers involves determining the total income from the tourism industry and related infrastructure. Comprehensive assessment allows to identify the economic level of tourism development in the territory, the effect, and is also the basis for justification and management decisions. The study showed that in the modern scientific literature there are several types of multipliers. These are multipliers of income, employment, investment, commercial operations, production and sales. The foreign experience of assessment of social and economic effects from the development of the tourist sphere is analyzed and the possibility of its use in the conditions of Ukraine is substantiated. Keywords: tourist potential of the city, direct and indirect effects, multiplier.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buyantungalag Battulga ◽  
Marc Reginald Benjamin ◽  
Hong Chen ◽  
Enkhmandakh Bat-Enkh

Background: Subjective well-being (SWB) has a protective role in mental health maintenance and is prone to change during short stressful moments, such as pregnancy. Longstanding research suggests that social support (SS) from the partner and family members of pregnant women directly or indirectly acts as a buffer against negative mental outcomes. For happier pregnancies, it is important to understand how SS and pregnancy affect the SWB.Objective: This review aims to examine the extended association of being pregnant and SS on the SWB of pregnant women.Methods: A systematic review was conducted in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Articles published in peer-reviewed journals were included regardless of the year and if they had assessed the impact of at least one SWB or SS outcome among healthy pregnant women. The tools of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute were used for quality assessment.Results: Thirty-four studies that assessed the domains of SWB measurements, such as happiness, quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction, positive and negative effects, and well-being, were included and its association with either pregnancy or SS was summarized. Variable results, such as life satisfaction, happiness, and mental component of QoL, were found to be high during pregnancy, but positive emotion and physical components of QoL had decreased. Almost universally, SS during pregnancy was found to have a positive association with all measurements of SWB.Conclusion: This study had found that, despite some arising trends, pregnancy itself does not necessarily have similar impacts on SWB across healthy pregnant women. However, SS had a significant effect on SWB.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 1071-1104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Hadavi

This study investigated the mediating role of neighborhood satisfaction and use of outdoor spaces in the effects of the physical environment on mental well-being. Four planning/design-related aspects of the environment were examined: perceived proximity of home to green/social spaces, open lawn with trees, and building-dominated spaces as well as perceived barriers to neighborhood use. A random sample of 434 Chicago residents participated in a photo survey. The results of linear regression modeling and mediation analyses support the hypothesis that satisfaction with quality of public space and frequency of use of green/social spaces have a significant mediating role in the relationship between nearby environmental attributes and mental well-being. Perceived barriers were also found to have both direct and indirect effects on mental well-being. Recognition of the differential roles played by environmental attributes, neighborhood satisfaction, and use patterns can help guide planners/designers to create outdoor spaces that enhance urban residents’ mental well-being.


Author(s):  
Charles Alessi ◽  
Larry W. Chambers ◽  
Muir Gray

This chapter starts by advising how to reduce the impact of stress. When stress becomes long term, the immune system becomes less sensitive to cortisol, and since inflammation is partly regulated by this hormone, this decreased sensitivity heightens the inflammatory response and allows inflammation to get out of control, increasing our risk of many diseases. You can reduce your stress yourself through a variety of methods, including physical activity and mindfulness-based stress reduction. Adequate sleep is also a major factor that can improve cognitive abilities and reduce the risk of dementia, and this chapter outlines what we need to know about sleep cycles, insomnia, and sleep disordered breathing, and how to sleep more and sleep better. The chapter then covers how to protect your brain from over medication (polypharmacy). It finishes by discussing how to maintain and indeed increase your levels of physical activity, and how increasing physical activity has both direct and indirect effects on the brain.


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