The consumers' (mis)perceptions of ecolabels' regulatory schemes for food products: insights from Canada

PurposeEcolabels will undoubtedly play a central role in promoting more sustainable production methods and consumption behaviors. Although numerous recent studies have explored consumer awareness, interpretation and preferences toward ecolabels and certifications, little is yet known about how they perceive the regulatory schemes that underpin them.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a survey answered by a representative random sample of 1,032 Canadian consumers. Unconstrained partial-proportional odds models were used to perform statistical analyses.FindingsThe results suggest that consumers generally do not differentiate between regulatory schemes for organic, local and non-GMO products. The level of perceived control and strictness appears to be influenced by multiple variables involving risk perception, trust and motivations, although this influence varies across labels.Research limitations/implicationsIn addition to geographical specificities, this survey includes self-reported variables that might be subject to desirability biases and intention variables which do not necessarily predict behavior. Finally, this study does not consider interaction effects, since claims and ecolabels have not been studied in relation to specific products.Practical implicationsThese misperceptions about ecolabels' regulatory schemes could be addressed through better communication about schemes and certifications, although the authors agree that information alone would not be enough to deal with the trust issue suggested by the results. Deliberative and behavioral approaches might be more efficient to embed consumers' values, perceptions and concerns related to food labeling and certifications into the policymaking process.Originality/valueThis work explores the role played by risk perceptions, trust, egoistic and altruistic motives, and the importance of third-party certifications in the consumer's understanding of ecolabels' regulatory schemes.

Vulnerability and resilience of the road transport industry in Poland to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

The research aims to examine the vulnerability and resilience of road transport enterprises in Poland to a crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In theory, we refer to the Schumpeterian perspective of creative destruction. In the empirical analysis, survey data on 500 transport companies randomly selected from the database were used. We estimated partial proportional odds models to show the factors responsible for the enterprises' vulnerability and resilience to unforeseen shock. The perspective refers to the total sample size and the division into two subgroups: micro and small and medium enterprises. To justify the results, we calculated a set of statistical indicators and tests. These models enable separating enterprises according to the vulnerability level. Transport enterprises occurred significantly vulnerable to the COVID-19 crisis, particularly the demand shock. The only factor that influenced resilience was the decrease in fuel prices, which allowed a cost reduction. The crisis showed that government aid was helpful in the short run, particularly for micro and small enterprises. The medium-sized enterprises were more resilient than micro and small ones. We formulated several recommendations to help transport enterprises to adjust in the medium term.

Undesirable Weight Change and Reduced Sleep Quality in University Older Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study investigated the occurrence of undesirable weight change (UDWC) and reduced sleep quality (RSQ), and major factors associated with these changes during COVID-19 pandemic amongst university older employees (age 50+). Participants (n = 846) were recruited throughout campus and completed an online survey. Summary statistics were used to describe characteristics of the study participants and frequency and level of UDWC and RSQ. Proportional odds models were used to assess major factors associated with UDWC and RSQ. The results showed 416 (43.2%) participants reported UDWC and 474 (49.2%) RSQ. Age was inversely, and obesity positively associated with UDWC and RSQ. With each 5-year increase in age, the OR (95% CI) was 0.87 (0.78, 0.97) for reporting UDWC and 0.90 (0.81, 1.00) for reporting RSQ. Obese individuals were significantly more likely to report a worse UDWC and RSQ (OR (95% CI) = 1.58 (1.18, 2.11) and 1.56 (1.16, 2.10) respectively).

The number of response categories in ordered response models

The choice of the number m of response categories is a crucial issue in categorization of a continuous response. The paper exploits the Proportional Odds Models’ property which allows to generate ordinal responses with a different number of categories from the same underlying variable. It investigates the asymptotic efficiency of the estimators of the regression coefficients and the accuracy of the derived inferential procedures when m varies. The analysis is based on models with closed-form information matrices so that the asymptotic efficiency can be analytically evaluated without need of simulations. The paper proves that a finer categorization augments the information content of the data and consequently shows that the asymptotic efficiency and the power of the tests on the regression coefficients increase with m. The impact of the loss of information produced by merging categories on the efficiency of the estimators is also considered, highlighting its risks especially when performed in its extreme form of dichotomization. Furthermore, the appropriate value of m for various sample sizes is explored, pointing out that a large number of categories can offset the limited amount of information of a small sample by a better quality of the data. Finally, two case studies on the quality of life of chemotherapy patients and on the perception of pain, based on discretized continuous scales, illustrate the main findings of the paper.

Smoothing in Ordinal Regression: An Application to Sensory Data

The so-called proportional odds assumption is popular in cumulative, ordinal regression. In practice, however, such an assumption is sometimes too restrictive. For instance, when modeling the perception of boar taint on an individual level, it turns out that, at least for some subjects, the effects of predictors (androstenone and skatole) vary between response categories. For more flexible modeling, we consider the use of a ‘smooth-effects-on-response penalty’ (SERP) as a connecting link between proportional and fully non-proportional odds models, assuming that parameters of the latter vary smoothly over response categories. The usefulness of SERP is further demonstrated through a simulation study. Besides flexible and accurate modeling, SERP also enables fitting of parameters in cases where the pure, unpenalized non-proportional odds model fails to converge.

Modeling the probability of occurrence of events

This paper introduces the event-probability function, a measure of occurrence of an event of interest over time, defined as the instantaneous probability of an event at a given time point conditional on having survived until that point. Unlike the hazard function, the event-probability function is a proper probability. This paper describes properties and interpretation of the event-probability function, presents its connection with other popular functions, such as the hazard and survival functions, proposes practical flexible proportional-odds models for estimating conditional event-probabilities given covariates with possibly censored and truncated observations, discusses the theoretical and computational aspects of parameter estimation, and applies the proposed models for assessing mortality in patients with metastatic renal carcinoma from a randomized clinical trial.

Spatial inequalities of retail food stores may determine availability of healthful food choices in a Brazilian metropolis

Objective: To examine the association between economic residential segregation and food environment. Design: Ecological. Food stores categorized according to the NOVA classification were geocoded, and absolute availability was calculated for each neighborhood. Segregation was measured using local Gi* statistic, a measure of the standard deviation (SD) between the economic composition of a neighborhood (the proportion of heads of households in neighborhoods earn monthly income of 0 to 3 minimum wages) and larger metropolitan area, weighted by the economic composition of surrounding neighborhoods. Segregation was categorized as high [most segregated], medium [integrated], and low [less segregated or integrated]. A proportional odds models were used to model the association between segregation and food environment. Setting: Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Participants: Food stores. Results: After adjustment for covariates, neighborhoods characterized by high economic segregation had fewer food stores overall compared to neighborhoods characterized by low segregation [OR=0.56;CI95%=0.45-0.69]. In addition, high segregated neighborhoods were 49% (OR=0.51;95%CI=0.42–0.61) and 45% (OR=0.55;95% CI=0.45–0.67) less likely to have a high number of food stores that predominantly marketed ultra-processed foods and mixed food stores, respectively, as compared to their counterparts. Conclusions: Economic segregation is associated with differences in the distribution of food stores. Both low and high segregation territories should be prioritized by public policies to ensure healthy and adequate nutrition as a right for all communities. The former must continue to be protected from access to unhealthy commercial food outlets while the latter must be the locus of actions that limit the availability of unhealthy commercial food store.

Preparation for the next major incident: are we ready? Comparing major trauma centres and other hospitals

ObjectivesA major incident is any emergency requiring special arrangements by the emergency services. All hospitals are required by law to keep a major incident plan (MIP) detailing the response to such events. In 2006 and 2019, we assessed the preparedness and knowledge of key individuals in hospitals across England and found a substantial gap in responding to the MIP. In this report, we compare responses from doctors at major trauma centres (MTCs) and other hospitals (non-MTCs).MethodsWe identified trusts in England that received over 30 000 patients through the ED in the fourth quarter of 2016/2017. We contacted the on-call anaesthetic, emergency, general surgery and trauma and orthopaedic registrar at each location and asked three questions assessing their confidence in using their hospital’s MIP: (1) Have you read your hospital’s MIP? (2) Do you know where you can access your hospital’s MIP guidelines? (3) Do you know what role you would play if an MIP came into effect while you are on call?We compared data from MTCs and non-MTCs using multinomial mixed proportional odds models.ResultsThere was a modest difference between responses from individuals at MTCs and non-MTCs for question 2 (OR=2.43, CI=1.03 to 5.73, p=0.04) but no evidence of a difference between question 1 (OR=1.41, CI=0.55 to 3.63, p=0.47) and question 3 (OR=1.78, CI=0.86 to 3.69, p=0.12). Emergency medicine and anaesthetic registrars showed significantly higher preparedness and knowledge across all domains. No evidence of a systematic difference in specialty response by MTC or otherwise was identified.ConclusionsConfidence in using MIPs among specialty registrars in England remains low. Doctors at MTCs tended to be better prepared and more knowledgeable, but this effect was only marginally significant. We make several recommendations to improve education on major incidents.

Associations between continuous glucose monitoring-derived metrics and diabetic retinopathy and albuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes

IntroductionPreventing the development and progression of diabetic microvascular complications through optimal blood glucose control remains an important challenge. Whether metrics based on continuous glucose monitoring are useful for the management of diabetic microvascular complications is not entirely clear.Research design and methodsThis is an exploratory analysis of an ongoing prospective, multicenter, 5-year follow-up observational study. Study participants included 999 outpatients with type 2 diabetes who underwent continuous glucose monitoring at baseline. Associations between continuous glucose monitoring-derived metrics and the severity of diabetic retinopathy or albuminuria were investigated using multivariable proportional odds models.ResultsThe overall prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was 22.2%. Multivariate analysis with proportional odds models demonstrated that continuous glucose monitoring-derived metrics related to intraday and interday glucose variability are significantly associated with the severity of diabetic retinopathy, even after adjusting for various possible risk factors. However, significant relationships were not observed after adjusting for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. The prevalence of microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria was 20.3% and 6.7%, respectively. Similarly, multivariate analysis demonstrated that those metrics are significantly associated with the severity of albuminuria. These relationships remained significant even after further adjusting for HbA1c levels.ConclusionsContinuous glucose monitoring-derived metrics related to intraday and interday glucose variability are significantly associated with the severity of diabetic retinopathy or albuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes. Thus, evaluating these metrics might possibly be useful for risk assessment of diabetic microvascular complications.Trial registration number UMIN000032325.