Consuming to Conserve: A Multilevel Investigation of Sustainable Consumption

As the world grapples with the ever-worsening specter of climate change, it becomes important for various nations/governments to develop mitigating measures. One of the ways to ebb the march of climate decline is to educate the population in respective countries about sustainable consumption that reduces carbon emissions. While prior research has explored the key factors of sustainable consumption in several industries, such as consumer knowledge and personal norm, it has played relatively little attention to them macro-level variables such as level of post-materialism and innovation. To this end, we study the interplay between individual-level factors and national-level variables using a hierarchical linear model on consumers’ perceived value for sustainable products and subsequent sustainable behavior. We used a dataset from the World Value Survey, which includes over 34 thousand respondents covering 40 different nations. The finding suggests that differences in individual-level sustainable consumption are explained by national-level factors. Post-materialist societies were willing to make financial sacrifices for sustainable consumption. Our findings also emphasize that the national-level factor Green Innovation modifies the relationship between Preserved Value and Sustainable Consumption at the individual-level. The findings not only sharpen our sustainability knowledge from a hierarchical view, but also provide useful guidelines for policymakers to promote sustainable consumption. Our study emphasizes that sustainable behavior is the consequence of the interplay between multilevel factors.

Midterm impacts of a water drought experience: evaluation of consumption changes in São Paulo, Brazil

From late 2013 until the beginning of 2015, the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil, experienced a severe water shortage. During that period, economic incentives were implemented by the regional water provider in a successful attempt to reduce water consumption. We aimed to investigate whether such incentives, as well as the experience of a scarcity period itself, had a persistent impact on consumer behaviour after the water crisis was over. This study was conducted by means of a hierarchical linear model with three levels (HLM3) to verify if the reduction effect remained in the midterm and a regression using panel data to understand which factors influenced water consumption behaviour change before, during, and after the local severe water drought. The results indicate that the average water consumption level subsequent to the rain scarcity period was significantly lower than before and that, in addition to the economic incentives, the severity of the scarcity event explained the behaviour change verified in water consumption.

Cognitive Ability and Self-Control’s Influence on High School Students’ Comprehensive Academic Performance

This study uses a hierarchical linear model (HLM) to examine the effects of cognitive ability and self-control on comprehensive academic performance among students in a high school in Beijing. The study included 572 participating students, including 291 boys and 281 girls, ranging in age from 16 to 18 years old. In this study, the individual level of students’ cognitive abilities are used as the first-level variables, including memory ability (MA), information processing ability (IPA), representation ability (RA), logical reasoning ability (LRA), and thinking transformation ability (TCA). Consider self-control at the class level as the second-level variable. The research results show that the five cognitive abilities have a significant positive impact on comprehensive academic performance. Self-control plays an active role in regulating the relationship between RA, LRA, TCA, and comprehensive academic performance.

Age, Period, and Cohort Effects on Literacy Skills across Life Stages

Literacy skills are essential adult competencies for economic, social, political and cultural participation, which are linked to higher quality of life. Literacy skills are known to be lower for older age groups. However, relatively little is known about cohort and period effects, which provide clues to the sociohistorical impacts on literacy, in addition to the well-known age effects, over the life course. This study analyzed three nationally representative cross-sectional survey data of the U.S. adults at five time points, from the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), 2003 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL), and the 2012/2014/2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The total analytic sample was 17,450 adults age between 18 and 65 years old. The literacy measures were re-scaled (0-500 points) to be comparable across the surveys. An age-period-cohort hierarchical linear model (i.e., cross-classified random effects model) was constructed using the Bayes estimator. Individuals were cross-classified based on 14 five-year birth cohort and 5 periods (survey years) information. Results showed that literacy skills improved [95% credibility-interval (CI) for linear effect of age = (0.31, 1.07), but the rate of improvement declined over time, faster rates of decline in later life stages [95% CI for quadratic effect of age = (-0.17, -0.09)]. Additionally, the notable variability across the cohorts and periods [95% CI variances = (5.34, 52.52) and (2.30, 172.01), respectively] were identified. Possible explanations for the identified age, period and cohort effects on literacy and implications for adult competencies in later life are evaluated.

Validation of a Frailty Ladder Using Rasch Analysis: If the Shoe Fits

The current measurement approach to frailty is to classify people on frailty status, rather than measure the degree to which they are frail. Here, we test the extent to which a set of items identified within the frailty concept fits a hierarchical linear model (Rasch model) and form a true measure reflective of the frailty construct and confirm the model using the NuAge dataset. The development sample included 234 individuals (aged 57 to 97) drawn from three sources: at-risk seniors (n=141); post-colorectal surgery (n=47); and post-rehabilitation hip fracture (n=46). We defined our frailty construct based on items commonly used in frailty indices, self-report measures, and performance tests. Of the 68 items, 29 fit the Rasch Model: 19 self-report items on physical function and 10 performance tests including one for cognition. Items typically identified as reflecting the frailty concept fit the Rasch model. The Frailty Ladder would facilitate personalized intervention.

Neck Stabilization Exercises Enhance Respiratory Function after Stroke: Respiratory Function Index Change Trajectory Analyzed Using a Hierarchical Linear Model

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effect of neck stabilization exercise on respiratory function in stroke patients through longitudinal observation and determine whether there is a difference in its effect based on the side of paralysis in the patients. It is difficult to observe the amount of change observed in individuals and groups as most intergroup comparison studies only use mean values. To address these shortcomings, this study adopted a hierarchical linear model (HLM) in our trajectory analysis. Materials and Methods: We conducted neck stabilization training three times a week for four weeks in a single group of 21 stroke patients. To evaluate respiratory function, their forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), forced expiration ratio (FEV1/FVC), and peak cough flow (PCF) were measured. Data analysis was performed using HLM 8.0. Results: A significant increase was found in the respiratory function after neck stabilization training (p < 0.05). While neck stabilization training overall was longitudinally effective, the growth rate of respiratory function in left-sided paralytic patients was less than the whole group value. Conversely, the growth rate of respiratory function in right-sided paralytic patients was greater than the whole group value. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that neck stabilization training is longitudinally effective in improving respiratory function in stroke patients. Additionally, the growth rate of respiratory function was greater in patients with right side paralysis than in patients with left side paralysis.

Cross-Level Impact of Macro Social Capital on Workers’ Health: The Mediating Role of Workers’ Status and the Regulating Role of Medical Security System

Based on the definition of macro social capital in the field of health, this paper explores the impact of macro social capital on laborers’ health, the intermediary role of laborers’ status, and the regulatory role of medical security system by using the data of China Labor Force Dynamic Survey (CLDS) in 2016 and hierarchical linear model (HLM). The results show that improving the level of regional economic development and increasing the government total investment in health are helpful to improve the health of local people and further verify that improving personal health depends more on the government health expenditure than on private health expenditure. At the same time, the empirical results show that only the subjective well-being of laborers and the satisfaction of family economic status partially mediate the promotion of macro social capital on health; although macro social capital helps to improve individual health, its influence is declining with the improvement of the type of health insurance. When making policies, we should focus on strengthening the improvement of the overall health level of the society, rather than investing more human and material resources in some special groups. In the future, the government should further increase the government’s expenditure on public health, build a livelihood network of basic medical insurance, and promote the health of workers.

From Cognition to Behavior: Associations of Workplace Health Culture and Workplace Health Promotion Performance With Personal Healthy Lifestyles

Introduction: The aim of this study was to explore associations of workplace health culture and workplace health promotion (WHP) performance with employees' healthy lifestyles and health statuses.Methods: In total, 27 enterprises and 1,732 participants were recruited for a cross-sectional designed survey. At the group level, Workplace Health Scorecard was used to measure WHP performance, and it was filled out by the WHP representative at each workplace. At the personal level, a personal questionnaire was used to measure workplace health culture, healthy lifestyles, and health statuses. A hierarchical linear model analysis was used to assess correlations between these variables.Results: Workplace health culture was significantly related to WHP performance, healthy lifestyles, and health statuses. In particular, the peer support domain was greatly related to healthy behaviors like physical activity (β = 0.596, p &lt; 0.001), vegetable consumption (β = 0.291, p &lt; 0.001) and fruit consumption (β = 0.285, p &lt; 0.05), and it may illustrate the importance of establishing peer support to promote healthy behaviors.Conclusions: WHP performance was significantly related to workplace health culture especially health policies, health climate, and peer and supervisor support. Hence, building a good workplace health culture should be taken seriously, and more studies exploring associations of health culture and WHP performance with employees' health are needed.