All That Was Not Her

While studying caregiving and chronic illness in families living in situations of economic and social insecurity in Baltimore, anthropologist Todd Meyers met a woman named Beverly. In All That Was Not Her Meyers presents an intimate ethnographic portrait of Beverly, stitching together small moments they shared scattered over months and years and, following her death, into the present. He meditates on the possibilities of writing about someone who is gone—what should be represented, what experiences resist rendering, what ethical challenges exist when studying the lives of others. Meyers considers how chronic illness is bound up in the racialized and socioeconomic conditions of Beverly’s life and explores the stakes of the anthropologist’s engagement with one subject. Even as Meyers struggles to give Beverly the final word, he finds himself unmade alongside her. All That Was Not Her captures the complexity of personal relationships in the field and the difficulty of their ending.

Experiencing pregnancy at an advanced maternal age in a private hospital

Objective: to describe the experiences of pregnant women at advanced maternal age assisted in a private hospital. Methods: a qualitative study, carried out with 17 women, by means of semi-structured interviews via telephone. The data was submitted to Thematic Content Analysis. Results: the participants were between 35 and 40 years old. Two categories emerged: Experiencing pregnancy as a couple and family: the preparation of the couple for pregnancy and childbirth (Pregnancy after 35 years old as an element of potentiality; Change in the family routine for the baby’s arrival) and Experiencing pregnancy and its changes: perceiving pregnancy as a healthy and calm experience (Change in emotional patterns related to the pregnancy process). Conclusion: experiencing pregnancy late in life was not a concern for women. Maturity and favorable socioeconomic conditions may have a protective influence on the course of healthy pregnancies in women attending the private health service.

Socioeconomic conditions on poverty levels a case study: Central Java Province and Yogyakarta in 2016

This study aims to analyze how the influence of infrastructure availability, socioeconomic conditions, and the effect of location on poverty levels. The descriptive analysis is used to give a general description of poverty by using thematic charts and maps. The poverty map is analyzed by spatial autocorrelation of poverty levels by using a Moran Scatterplot and the Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) Map. The results of the study indicate the existence of spatial linkages to poverty. The Increasing of other variables outside the model in neighboring regions will increase the level of poverty in a region. The infrastructures of road extension, clean water infrastructure, economic growth, quality of education, and health have a significant influence on the level of poverty, while the percentage of satisfactory sanitation did not demonstrate to affect the significant effect on poverty. The conclusion is that the level of poverty in the provinces of Central Java and Yogyakarta has an irregular distribution and a clustered spatial pattern.

Quantifying within-city inequalities in child mortality across neighbourhoods in Accra, Ghana: a Bayesian spatial analysis

ObjectiveCountries in sub-Saharan Africa suffer the highest rates of child mortality worldwide. Urban areas tend to have lower mortality than rural areas, but these comparisons likely mask large within-city inequalities. We aimed to estimate rates of under-five mortality (U5M) at the neighbourhood level for Ghana’s Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and measure the extent of intraurban inequalities.MethodsWe accessed data on >700 000 women aged 25–49 years living in GAMA using the most recent Ghana census (2010). We summarised counts of child births and deaths by five-year age group of women and neighbourhood (n=406) and applied indirect demographic methods to convert the summaries to yearly probabilities of death before age five years. We fitted a Bayesian spatiotemporal model to the neighbourhood U5M probabilities to obtain estimates for the year 2010 and examined their correlations with indicators of neighbourhood living and socioeconomic conditions.ResultsU5M varied almost five-fold across neighbourhoods in GAMA in 2010, ranging from 28 (95% credible interval (CrI) 8 to 63) to 138 (95% CrI 111 to 167) deaths per 1000 live births. U5M was highest in neighbourhoods of the central urban core and industrial areas, with an average of 95 deaths per 1000 live births across these neighbourhoods. Peri-urban neighbourhoods performed better, on average, but rates varied more across neighbourhoods compared with neighbourhoods in the central urban areas. U5M was negatively correlated with multiple indicators of improved living and socioeconomic conditions among peri-urban neighbourhoods. Among urban neighbourhoods, correlations with these factors were weaker or, in some cases, reversed, including with median household consumption and women’s schooling.ConclusionReducing child mortality in high-burden urban neighbourhoods in GAMA, where a substantial portion of the urban population resides, should be prioritised as part of continued efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goal national target of less than 25 deaths per 1000 live births.

Temporal evolution of homicide mortality in Brazilian capitals from 2005 to 2019

Purpose This study aims to improve our understanding of violence, focusing on the analysis of the relation between socioeconomic factors and homicide rates from 2005 to 2019 in Brazilian capitals. Design/methodology/approach Multilevel Poisson models were used to estimate the homicide risk in men and women. The response variable was the homicide rate. Fixed effects were estimated for age group, year and gross domestic product (GDP). Findings The average homicide rate over the 2005–2019 period was 5.83/100,000 and 83.72/100,000 for women and men, respectively. In both sexes, the homicide rates increased over the period. The highest mortality rates were observed in North and Northeastern capitals. The peak homicide rates were 2010–2014, the risk of homicide decreased as age increased, and the capitals with GDP lower than US$5,000 showed a greater homicide rate. Originality/value Brazil remains among the countries with the highest risk of homicide, especially in the north and northeast regions, where socioeconomic conditions are more unfavorable. The improvement of socioeconomic conditions may contribute to changing this situation.

Low weight at birth can be an indicative in childhood as a marker of metabolic syndrome and hypertension

As low weight at birth can be a marker for future risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, public school children who had this positive history were studied S to nutritional status, lipids, glucose, uric acid, blood pressure and socioeconomic conditions. The main interest of the investigation is to find statistically significant correlations among data collected from young public school children from a city outside of the capital of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Results: risk factors for metabolic syndrome presented higher impact considering blood pressure and socioeconomic conditions, calling for better prenatal care and surveillance plus intervention in the low weight at birth children.

Associations between life course socioeconomic conditions and the Pace of Aging

Background Socioeconomic disadvantage is a well-established predictor of morbidity and mortality, and is thought to accelerate the aging process. This study examined associations between life course socioeconomic conditions and the Pace of Aging, a longitudinal measure of age-related physiological decline. Methods Data were drawn from a Swiss population-based cohort of individuals originally recruited between 2003 and 2006, and followed up for 11 years (2834 women, 2475 men aged 35 – 75 years (mean 52)). Pace of Aging was measured using three repeated assessments of 12 biomarkers reflecting multiple body systems. Analysis tested associations of socioeconomic conditions with physiological status at baseline and with the Pace of Aging. Results Participants with more life course socioeconomic disadvantage were physiologically older at baseline and experienced faster Pace of Aging. Effect-sizes (β) for associations of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage with baseline physiological status ranged from 0.1-0.2; for adulthood socioeconomic disadvantage, effect-sizes ranged from 0.2-0.3. Effect-sizes were smaller for associations with the Pace of Aging (< 0.05 for childhood disadvantage, 0.05-0.1 for adulthood disadvantage). Those who experienced disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions from childhood to adulthood aged 10% faster over the 11 years of follow-up as compared with those who experienced consistently advantaged socioeconomic conditions. Covariate adjustment for health behaviors attenuated associations, but most remained statistically significant. Conclusions Socioeconomic inequalities contribute to a faster Pace of Aging, partly through differences in health behaviors. Intervention to slow aging in at risk individuals is needed by midlife, before aetiology of aging-related diseases become established.

Human gut microbiota – its diversity and impact on our health

The human digestive tract is the living environment for billions of cells of various microorganisms that are part of the human microflora. The use of modern molecular biology techniques, such as NGS (Next Generation Sequencing), made it possible to study the microorganisms inhabiting the intestines and to understand their impact on human health. The gut microbiota plays a significant role in the synthesis and metabolism of many nutrients and metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), amino acids, lipids, bile acids and vitamins. Many factors such as diet, age, climate, and socioeconomic conditions influence the diversity of the microbiota. Rapid changes in the composition of the microbiota (disturbance of homeostasis) can lead to dysbiosis - a condition associated not only with intestinal disorders, but also with numerous extraintestinal diseases. The present work is a review of current reports on: research techniques used to analyze microbiota, the impact of various factors on its diversity and the impact of microbiota on our health.

Comparative Analysis of Spatial Disparities Based on Infrastructure Development and Socioeconomic Indices: A Case Study of Lahore

Infrastructure development and socioeconomic factors are directly related to the opulence and economic growth of any region. Disparity in the allocation of resources within a city has a huge influence on the socioeconomic factors of the population. Cities in developing countries manifesta vast disparity in the provision of infrastructural facilities and it leads to curbing the socioeconomic development of their residents. The current research aims to study the impact of disparity in infrastructure development on the socioeconomic factors has been assessed in the city of Lahore. Two towns of the city, that is, Johar town and Shalamar town were selected based on two different criteria to examine the impact of disparity in infrastructure development on the prevailing socioeconomic conditions. Primary data was collected with the help of a questionnaire encompassing major infrastructure development factors and socioeconomic indicators. Surveys were conducted in these towns with the disproportionate technique of stratified sampling. Data was analyzed through SPSS. Statistical Linear Regression Model was applied to determine whether a relationship exists among the infrastructural and socioeconomic indicators or not. The results showed that the town with better infrastructure development has far better socioeconomic conditions as compared to the less developed town within the same city. Keywords: inequality, infrastructural development, socio-economic indices, spatial disparities