ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND STRESS AS DETERMINANTS OF COVID-19 PREVENTIVE BEHAVIOUR IN DENPASAR

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has constituted concurrent public health and economic crises. An inter-correlation between economic and public health impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic needs to be studied to improve mitigation measures.Aims: This study identified a correlation of the economic insecurity and perceived stress with adherence to recommended preventive behaviours Methods: This across-sectional analytic study was conducted to adults in the working areas of East Denpasar Primary Healthcare Center I. Respondents were selected using consecutive sampling and given a self-administered questionnaire. The research variables included demographic characteristics, economic insecurity indicators, perceived stress, and adherence to handwashing, mask-wearing, physical distancing, and limitation on the social gathering. Correlations, linear regressions, and path analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS 23.0.Results: As many as 161 respondents of which 34.2% males were involved had a mean age of 36.31 (± 7.16) years. Sex, job insecurity, income insecurity, and perceived stress were found as independent determinants in females. Female sex and job insecurity was associated with better preventive behaviours with an adjusted β value of 0.276 and 0.306, while income insecurity and perceived stress had the opposite association with a β value of -0.247 and -0.224.Conclusion: There are correlations between economic insecurity and preventive behavioural practices during COVID-19. It is suggested that public health policies against COVID-19 cover measures of economic safety nets to improve adherenceKeywords: behaviour, COVID-19, economic insecurity, perceived stress, prevention.

Effect of Hypoxia on the Lethal Mortality Time of Adult Sitophilus oryzae L

Sitophilus oryzae is one of the most destructive pests of stored grains. It leads to significant quantitative and qualitative losses, resulting in food and income insecurity among farmers. Chemical pesticides are the most common methods used by farmers and other grain value chain actors to manage this pest. However, pesticides are increasingly becoming unattractive for pest control due to health hazards posed to applicators, consumers, the environment, and insect resistance. Modified atmospheres have the potential to manage stored insect pests as an alternative to pesticides. There is limited understanding of when insect pests die when grain is stored in airtight containers. This experiment was conducted to assess the time required to reach mortality of adult S. oryzae when exposed to 1, 3, and 5% oxygen levels. Results revealed that the LT50 for 1, 3, and 5% of oxygen were reached after 69.7 h, 187.8 h, and 386.6 h of exposure, respectively. No adult emergence was observed on infested grains following exposure to 1 and 3% oxygen levels. This result provides vital rationale for storing grain in hermetic storage conditions for at least 39 days to achieve adult S. oryzae mortality and minimize grain reinfestation.

"My Cancer Is Worth Only Fifteen Weeks?" A Critical Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Financial Toxicity and Cancer in Canada

Background: Cancer patients experience financial hardship due to rising expenses related to cancer treatment and declining income levels associated with reduced employability. Employment Insurance Sick Benefits (EI-SB) is a social income support program which provides temporary income replacement to Canadians when they fall ill. Although EI-SB is designed to maintain continuity of income during an illness, little is known about the perspectives of cancer patients who receive EI-SB. This knowledge can inform the development of public policies which are responsive to the needs and priorities of cancer patients. Methods: We conducted a theory-informed thematic analysis of data collected from twenty semi-structured interviews with participants who were receiving care in a cancer centre in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and had received EI-SB. A coding framework was developed using Taplin and colleagues’ intermediate outcomes of patient care across the cancer care continuum. Interpretation of findings was guided by the synergies of oppression theoretical lens. Results: Three overarching themes describe the experiences of cancer patients receiving social income support: Economic exclusion, in which the structure of the labour market and social welfare system determine access to workplace benefits and continuity of reasonable income; financial toxicity, a vicious cycle of financial burden and increasing financial distress; and constrained choices, where cancer influences employability and lowered income influences the need to be employed. Conclusion: Cancer patients need income support programs that are tailored to match their healthcare priorities. In addition, policies which strengthen working conditions and facilitate a reintegration to work when possible will be important in addressing the structural drivers of income insecurity experienced by cancer patients.

Under-five malnutrition among Palestine refugee children living in camps in Jordan: a mixed-methods study

BackgroundJordan hosts the largest Palestine refugee population in the world. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the primary healthcare provider for Palestine refugees. To better inform UNRWA’s health programme, we conducted this study to assess the prevalence and determinants of malnutrition among Palestine refugee children in Jordan and to analyse caregiver perceptions of food insecurity and structural barriers to accessing food.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted with a randomly selected sample of 405 households, for children under 5 years old in two refugee camps in Jordan, Jerash and Souf. Sociodemographic, food insecurity, diet quality and child anthropometric data were collected. Also, twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with children’s caregivers, along with two focus group discussions with UNRWA staff.ResultsOut of the 367 participants, the prevalence of stunting was 23.8% in Jerash and 20.4% in Souf (p=0.46), and overweight was 18.2% versus 7.1%, respectively (p=0.008). However, high food insecurity in Jerash was 45.7% and 26.5% in Souf (p=0.001), with no significant difference after multivariable adjustment. Qualitative perspectives saw food insecurity and low-quality children’s diets as largely mediated by job and income insecurity, especially marked in Jerash due to the lack of Jordanian citizenship.ConclusionWe found a moderate-to-high prevalence of stunting and overweight levels among Palestine refugee children, which are three times higher than the 2012 Demographic and Health Survey data for Jordanian non-refugee children. High rates of household food insecurity were closely tied to households’ lack of essential civil and economic rights. We call for international collective efforts to expand economic livelihoods for Palestine refugees and to support UNRWA’s ongoing operations.

De keukentafel en de keukendeur ‐ klassenverschillen in de verdeling van huishoudelijke arbeid

In the Netherlands, the redistribution of unpaid housework from women to men is very limited, despite the fact that women’s labour force participation and level of education have increased significantly over the past decade. We use the feminist economic household bargaining approach to analyse male partners’ contribution to housework, with primary data from heterosexual couples. We collected the data from two mutually exclusive groups who either supply or demand paid household services through two online agencies. The results show that, for the lower-class households (those supplying services), men do more unpaid housework when their female partner earns a relatively high income. For the higher-class households (those demanding services), we find no such effect for women’s income. Instead, we find that, when men earn relatively high incomes, they reduce their contribution to housework. Moreover, we find that, with a higher family income, more paid household services are hired. We conclude that, for the lower class, income insecurity seems to stimulate men to do more housework, allowing women to do more paid work, whereas, for the higher class, more personal and more family income appears to be an escape for men from doing more housework.

Mental Health Among the Korean Older Population: How is it Related to Asset-based Welfare?

Objective: This article aims to investigate how older adults’ income and housing tenure are concurrently associated with depression in Korea. Methods: Using the 2017 Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons, logistic regression was implemented to examine the association of housing tenure and income status with depression among 6,624 older adults. Also, the older adults’ satisfaction with their economic conditions was added to examine its mediation effects on this association. Results: Homeownership lowered the likelihood of depression, whereas lower income increased the likelihood of depression among older adults. Also, lack of income security was associated with depression even among older homeowners, being partially mediated through their satisfaction with economic conditions. Conclusion: This study contributes to articulating the mechanisms linking housing tenure, income insecurity, and mental health of the older population in Korea. Future studies are needed to investigate the social determinants of health among older adults.

Ontario Pension Policy Making and the Politics of CPP Reform, 1963–2016

After years of pension policy drift in a broader context of global austerity, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was enhanced for the first time in 2016 to expand benefits for Canadian workers. This article examines Ontario's central role in these reforms. The deteriorating condition of workplace plans, coupled with rising retirement income insecurity across the province's labour force, generated new sources of negative feedback at the provincial level, fuelling Ontario's campaign for CPP reform beginning in the late 2000s. The political limits of policy drift and layering at the provincial level is considered in relationship to policy making at the national level. As shown, a new period of pension politics emerged in Canada after 2009, in which the historical legacy of CPP's joint governance structure led to a dynamic of “collusive benchmarking,” shaped in large part by political efforts of the Ontario government, leading to CPP enhancement.

Living in a state of insecurity

This chapter begins by highlighting the circumstances and conditions of participants’ lives preceding the introduction of the Bedroom Tax policy. This serves as a starting point for the chapter, illustrating that the policy was introduced into lives that were already characterised by income insecurity, employment precarity, and ill-health. It charts the ways in which participants responded to the implementation of the policy and the impact it had in informing decisions about moving or absorbing the extra rental expenditure. This chapter is concerned with the impact at the household level documenting how life became more difficult as the extra financial outlay placed a strain on participants financially, socially, and psychologically. In the final section, the focus turns to how the policy worked to transmit insecurity into the lives of participants’ children, furthering the inter-generational transmission of inequality through the introduction of a precarious housing situation which had not been there previously.

The collective risk management of solo self-employed workers in the Netherlands

The growth of solo self-employed workers in the Netherlands (zzp’ers) has not yet triggered a debate on how to combine their income security and business autonomy. The extent to which the social protection system and interest groups promote zzp’ers to take up collective arrangements mitigating income insecurity due to work incapacity and preventing income insecurity due to poor employability is investigated using the social risk management framework. Correcting economic obstacles and irrational risk perceptions, collective arrangements are found to encourage the take-up of work incapacity insurance and training among zzp’ers.