Tobacco messages encountered in real-time among low socio-economic position groups: a descriptive study

Background Tobacco advertising disproportionately targets low socio-economic position (SEP) groups, causing higher rates of tobacco use in this population. Anti-tobacco public health education campaigns persuade against use. This study measured real-time exposure of pro- and anti-tobacco messages from low SEP groups in two American cities. Methods Individuals in low SEP groups (N = 95), aged 18–34 years old, who were smokers and non-smokers, from the Boston and Houston areas, took part in a mobile health study. They submitted images of tobacco-related messages they encountered via a mobile application for a 7-week period. Two coders analyzed the images for message characteristics. Intercoder reliability was established using Krippendorff’s alpha and data were analyzed descriptively. Results Of the submitted images (N = 131), 83 were pro-tobacco and 53 were anti-tobacco. Of the pro-tobacco messages, the majority were cigarette ads (80.7%) seen outside (36.1%) or inside (30.1%) a convenience store or gas station and used conventional themes (e.g., price promotion; 53.2%). Of the anti-tobacco messages, 56.6% were sponsored by public health campaigns or were signage prohibiting smoking in a public area (39.6%). Most focused on the health harms of smoking (28.3%). Conclusion Low SEP groups in this study encountered more pro-tobacco than anti-tobacco messages at places that were point-of-sale using price promotions to appeal to this group. Anti-tobacco messages at point-of-sale and/or advertising regulations may help combat tobacco use.

Ethnic inequalities in health in later life, 1993–2017: the persistence of health disadvantage over more than two decades

Ethnic inequalities in health and wellbeing across the early and mid-lifecourse have been well-documented in the United Kingdom. What is less known is the prevalence and persistence of ethnic inequalities in health in later life. There is a large empirical gap focusing on older ethnic minority people in ethnicity and ageing research. In this paper, we take a novel approach to address data limitations by harmonising six nationally representative social survey datasets that span more than two decades. We investigate ethnic inequalities in health in later life, and we examine the effects of socio-economic position and racial discrimination in explaining health inequalities. The central finding is the persistence of stark and significant ethnic inequalities in limiting long-term illness and self-rated health between 1993 and 2017. These inequalities tend to be greater in older ages, and are partially explained by contemporaneous measures of socio-economic position, racism, and discrimination. Future data collection endeavours must better represent older ethnic minority populations and enable more detailed analyses of the accumulation of socio-economic disadvantage and exposure to racism over the lifecourse, and its effects on poorer health outcomes in later life.

Socio-demographic factors associated with early antenatal care visits among pregnant women in Malawi: 2004-2016

INTRODUCTION: In 2016, the WHO published recommendations increasing the number of recommended antenatal care (ANC) visits per pregnancy from four to eight. Prior to the implementation of this policy, coverage of four ANC visits has been suboptimal in many low-income settings. In this study we explore socio-demographic factors associated with early initiation of first ANC contact and attending at least four ANC visits (ANC4+) in Malawi using the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) data collected between 2004 and 2016, prior to the implementation of new recommendations. METHODS: We combined data from the 2004/5, 2010 and 2015/16 MDHS using Stata version 16. Participants included all women surveyed between the ages of 15-49 who had given birth in the five years preceding the survey. We conducted weighted univariate, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis of the effects of each of the predictor variables on the binary endpoint of the woman attending at least four ANC visits and having the first ANC attendance within or before the four months of pregnancy (ANC4+). To determine whether a factor was included in the model, the likelihood ratio test was used with a statistical significance of P< 0.05 as the threshold. RESULTS: We evaluated data collected in surveys in 2004/5, 2010 and 2015/6 from 26386 women who had given birth in the five years before being surveyed. The median gestational age, in months, at the time of presenting for the first ANC visit was 5. The proportion of women initiating ANC4+ increased from 21.3% in 2004-5 to 38.8% in 2015-16. From multivariate analysis, there was increasing trend in ANC4+ from women aged 20-24 years to women aged 45-49 years compared to those aged 15-19 years. Women from richest socio-economic position were more likely to demonstrate ANC4+ than those from low socio-economic position. Additionally, women who had completed secondary and tertiary education were more likely to report having ANC4+ than those with no formal education. Conversely increasing parity was associated with a reduction in likelihood of ANC4+ with women who had previously delivered 2-3, 4-5 or greater than 6 children being less likely to demonstrate ANC4+. CONCLUSION: The proportion of women reporting ANC4+ and of key ANC interventions in Malawi have increased significantly since 2004. However, we found that most women did not access the recommended number of ANC visits in Malawi, prior to the 2016 WHO policy change which may mean that women are less likely to undertake the 2016 WHO recommendation of 8 contacts per pregnancy. Additionally, our results highlighted significant variation in coverage according to key socio-demographic variables which should be considered when devising national strategies to ensure that all women access the appropriate frequency of ANC visits during their pregnancy.

Relative poverty in female disability grant recipients in South Africa

It is a well-established fact that adequate social security measures are used as a tool to allow persons a measure of financial security and support in the event of certain contingencies. Historically, disability has been one of the "core" contingencies, which is covered by social security schemes. The purpose of social security in providing for this contingency is to compensate for income lost or reduced as a result of disability. The fact that more women in South Africa have disabilities than men leads to the conclusion that women with disabilities are more negatively affected by poverty than men with disabilities. This in turn makes a woman with a disability more likely to be dependent on the disability grant than a man with a disability. The link between gender, disability and poverty will be discussed to illustrate the socio-economic position of female disability grant recipients in comparison to male disability grant recipients. This article will address the relative poverty of female disability grant recipients and make recommendations to address this relative poverty.

The Impact of Socio-Economic Position on Perceived Oppression: Using Social Support as a Mediator

Within the continuing economic downturn, our society has been facing rapid dichotomization and bi-polarization between groups which reinforces social inequality. Young (2011) states that social inequality should be viewed as a concept of oppression, not by the distribution of resources, which has been considered as a general indicator of social inequality. Following her argument, she suggests exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence as sub-concepts of oppression. In this sense, this study uses the distribution of resources as an independent variable and the ‘perceived oppression’ presented by Young as a dependent variable to identify the role of social support as a factor that makes the difference between social-structural inequality and contextual inequality. Through hierarchical regression analyses and bootstrapping methods this paper looks at how the two different perspectives on inequality are related, and how the social support mediates the relationship between socio-economic position and perceived oppression. By shedding light on the meaning of socio-economic isolation of individuals, this study will contribute to the academia in searching for the alternatives to strengthen the stability of our society where the new paradigm of communication is being used to form network ties and corresponding sense of supports.

The Usage of Economic Position in Understanding Indonesia’s Economy and the Pandemic Effects

Before the global pandemic hit the economy in 2020, Indonesia had experienced two contractions in 1963 and 1998. These contractions come with hyperinflation, while the recent contraction of 2020 has not. This paper attempts to analyse the C-19 pandemic 2020 effects on the economy, which generates contraction but has a low inflation rate. On the opposite, the Asian Financial Crises (AFC) of 1998 caused negative economic growth andskyrocketing inflation. This paper applied descriptive data analysis and showed that the AFC affected the aggregate supply while the pandemic impacted the aggregate demand. This paper offers the usage of the proportion of inflation rate and economic growth rate and the annual sectoral growth rate comparison to describe Indonesia’s economic position and the pandemic effects.