People versus machines: The impact of being in an automatable job on Australian worker’s mental health and life satisfaction

This study explores the effect on mental health and life satisfaction of working in an automatable job. We utilise an Australian panel dataset (HILDA), and take a fixed effects linear regression approach, to relate a person being in automatable work to proxies of their wellbeing. Overall, we find evidence that automatable work has a small, detrimental impact on the mental health and life satisfaction of workers within some industries, particularly those with higher levels of job automation risk, such as manufacturing. Furthermore, we find no strong trends to suggest that any particular demographic group is disproportionately impacted across industries. These findings are robust to a variety of specifications. We also find evidence of adaptation to these effects after one-year tenure on the job, indicating a limited role for firm policy.     

Is inconsistent reporting of self-assessed health persistent and systematic? Evidence from the UKHLS

In this paper, we investigate whether individuals provide consistent responses to self-assessed health (SAH) questions in the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), and the potential implications for empirical research in case of inconsistent reporting behaviour. We capitalise on an opportunity in the UKHLS, asking respondents the same SAH question twice: with a self-completion and an open interview mode, within the same household interview over four waves. We estimate multivariate models to explore which individual characteristics are systematically relevant for the likelihood and frequency of inconsistent reporting. About 11–24% of those reported a particular SAH category in the self-completion reported inconsistently in the open interview. The probability of inconsistency is systematically associated with individual’s demographics, education, income, employment status, cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The same characteristics also predict the frequency of inconsistent reporting across four UKHLS waves. Analysis of the implications of reporting inconsistencies shows no impact of SAH measurement on the association between income and health. A set of dimensions of people’s physiological and biological health, captured using biomarkers, is associated equally with both SAH measures, suggesting that the interview mode does not play a role in the relationship between SAH and more objective health measures.     

What doesn’t kill her,will make her depressed

In this paper we study the long run effects of the 1959–61 Chinese Famine on mental health outcomes. We focus on cohorts that were born during the famine and examine their mental health as adults, when they are roughly 55 years of age. We find that early-life exposure to this famine leads to a large statistically significant negative impact on women’s mental health, while there is limited effect on men. This gender differential effect is observed because male fetuses experience a stronger natural selection as compared to female fetuses, which implies that in the longer run, surviving females may exhibit larger detrimental effects of early-life famine exposure. Thus, the observed effects are a composite of two well-established factors, the survival of the fittest and the Fetal Origins hypothesis.     

How Does Dog-Walking Influence Perceptions of Health and Wellbeing in Healthy Adults? A Qualitative Dog-Walk-Along Study

The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of health and wellbeing related to dog-walking in healthy adults. Ten self-reported healthy adult dog-walkers took part in one dog-walk-along interview, and nine of the 10 participants also attended one follow-up participatory analysis session. All interviews took place within the metropolitan area of Dunedin, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Dog-walk-along interviews were participant-led, audio and video recorded, and transcribed. Participants’ input into the inductive generation of themes was sought during the follow-up participatory analysis session. Three themes were identified: participants had an “Emotional Connection” with their dog(s); dog-walking led to “Healthy Interactions” (social and environmental interactions); and participants had come to value dog-walking for its aggregate benefits for Psychological Wellbeing. Our dog-walk-along interviews have revealed novel insights about how the emotional connection between human and dog strengthens intrinsic motivation to exercise (through dog-walking) whilst concurrently enhancing human psychological wellbeing through the act of giving something that gives pleasure to the dog. Through the combined methods of dog-walk-along interviews and participatory analysis sessions, we were able to identify negative influences on human psychological well-being that included anxiety about both dog behaviors and social encounters with other humans. Positive and negative aspects of dog-walking that we identified can be used by health promotion advocates to refine dog-walking related advice, programs, and initiatives.     

主观健康测量及定量化估计方法的研究进展

健康风险评估是健康管理的基础工具、前提条件和关键技术.主观健康测量是健康风险评估的重要内容,已逐渐发展成为流行病学、医学统计学、行为医学、全科医学、心理学等多种学科的交叉学科,是健康风险评估研究的热点问题.本文总结了主观健康测量的优缺点,系统回顾了主观健康测量的两类定量化估计方法:计分方法和心理测量学方法,总结了主观健康测量的偏倚及控制方法.随着人类对健康和健康维度的认识已逐步深入,主观健康测量因其诸多优点,并具有较强的理论基础,且定量化估计方法已趋于成熟,目前在国外已被广泛用于健康风险评估和健康测量领域.我国亟需将主观健康测量理念和定量化估计方法引入健康风险评估和健康测量领域.     

Culpa por percibirse como una carga. Una variable relevante asociada al malestar psicológico de las personas mayores

AimsTo analyze the relationship between guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden and negative self-perceptions of aging, perceived control and anxious and depressive symptomatology in older people without cognitive or functional limitations.MethodsParticipants were 351 community-dwelling people over 60 years without explicit cognitive or functional limitation. Indirect effet analysis were conducted that examined the indirect effect of negative self-perceptions of aging through 1) perceived control and anxious symptomatology and 2) perceived control and depressive symptomatology in guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden.ResultsBoth models showed an indirect relationship between negative self-perceptions of aging and guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden through 1) perceived control and anxious symptomatology and 2) perceived control and depressive symptomatology, explaining 26.37% of anxious symptomatology, 48.51% of depressive symptomatology and 13.73% and 14.44% of guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden, respectively.DiscussionThe results obtained suggest that higher negative self-perceptions of aging is associated with a lower perception of control and greater psychological distress (anxiety and depression), and this process increases the feeling of guilt for perceiving oneself as burden to family members in older people without functional or cognitive limitations.     

Effect of an abrupt change in sexual and reproductive health policy on teen birth rates in Ecuador, 2008–2017

Several countries have implemented “family-centered” abstinence-only policies for teenagers, as opposed to encouraging utilization and expansion of reproductive health services and education. Little is known, however, about the effects of these more restrictive policies on adolescent birth rates at the national level or their differential effects by race and ethnicity. The extant literature is even scarcer in low- and middle-income countries. We analyze an unexpected policy change in Ecuador that abruptly reversed course and restricted reproductive health services for teenage women in 2014. We use a canton- and time-fixed effects difference-in-differences analysis of Ecuador’s 221 cantons with time-varying controls to analyze the impact of the abrupt policy change on the difference of teen (15−19 years) minus young adult (20−24 years) birth rates. In a difference-in-difference-in-differences analysis, the policy change increases birth rates by 8.5 births per 1000 women in cantons with higher indigenous concentration. Results are robust to changes in the comparison population (young adults vs. women in their late 20 s or in their early 30 s), pre-intervention control periods, population weighting, serial correlation, logarithmic model specification, adjustments for intervention year, definition of indigenous concentration, and potential delays in policy implementation.