A qualitative approach to the intangible cost of road traffic injuries

The consequences of fatal and non-fatal road traffic injuries (RTI) at the personal and household levels were analysed using qualitative interviews of 12 injured and of 12 relatives of people who died for this reason. Collisions change physical and mental health both of the injured and of their relatives. This leads to changes in daily activities and even to the redefinition of future life. RTI also changes the way people see and act in life, becoming an experience that teaches them. Survivors commonly transmit a road safety message afterwards. Changes in family life were evident (in extreme cases family's composition also changed), affecting intra-familial relationships. Associated unexpected and unplanned expenditures and loss of income have consequences in the short, medium and long term that unbalance household's economies and immerse people into a constant stress. Individuals and family's future plans are occasionally condition to whether they have or not debts. Household dependence in economic terms was sometimes observed, as well as uncertainty about future life and household's sustainability. Sometimes, households change and adapt their life to what they now are able to afford, having important repercussions in vital spheres.     

National burden of road traffic injuries in Argentina

More than 1.2 million people die and as many as 50 million people are injured or disabled due to road traffic injuries (RTIs) every year worldwide. The lack of reliable data hinders efforts to describe the characteristics of the issue and prioritise prevention activities. The objective was to provide a snapshot of fatal and non-fatal RTI in Argentina. We used the methodology proposed by the Global Burden of Disease Injury Expert group. External causes of deaths with unknown codes were proportionately redistributed over the known categories. In 2007 in Argentina, we estimated 5915 RTI deaths, compared with 3983 RTI deaths reported previously by the Ministry of Health, accounting for 1931 additional cases. The highest number of deaths occurred in young men (15-29 years old), although the highest RTI death rates were in the age group of 55 years and older. Four-wheeled vehicle occupants were the most common road user type killed (59.1%); vulnerable road users represented one third (29.5%) of deaths and 64% of non-fatal RTI. The national and regional estimates of RTI in Argentina should help policy makers and public-health researchers to understand the importance of RTI prevention and design specific interventions to further reduce these preventable deaths and injuries.     

An Exploration of Factors Relating to Non-Group Life Insurance Holdings of Families

Analyses of the demand for life insurance have seldom included any explanatory factors which measure a family's perceived need for postdeath financial resources. The study reported here includes these types of socio-economic variables with the findings indicating that the nearer to the present a perceived need is, the more likely it is to have an effect on a family's holdings of individually purchased life insurance.     

Self-expressiveness in shopping

Some people experience self-expressiveness in shopping. Self-expressiveness in shopping is defined as the degree to which consumers they think shopping activity is an important part of their self-concept. This paper reports on the testing of a model dealing with antecedents and consequences of self-expressiveness in shopping. Based on eudaimonistic identity theory, we hypothesized that feeling of self-expressiveness in shopping is influenced by consumers' flow experiences in shopping activities, self-realization potential through shopping, and effort expended through shopping. We also hypothesize that self-expressiveness in shopping increases overall life satisfaction, mediated by perceived impact of shopping on life satisfaction. The model was tested using a panel of 5440 shoppers. The results provide good support for the model. Managerial implications are discussed in addition to avenues for future research.     

Book review

Many households include a family member with a disability. For these households, who consumes together, where they consume and when the consumption occurs often represent a complicated, nuanced set of tradeoffs. Based on in-depth interviews with families that include a child with a disability, we examine how a family makes an inclusion/exclusion decision and how the decision factors into the ongoing project of creating the family that is uniquely theirs. The analysis suggests that the decision-making is closely tied to the nature of the child's disability and that the type of disability is central to the family's narrative regarding its decision. Also, an important driver of the family's inclusion/exclusion decision is the process of self-stigmatization by non-disabled family members. The analysis shows that the implications of who in the family is included in the consumption, and the experience the family has as a result of the inclusion/exclusion decision reflect and reinforce the collective family's identity.     

A hospital-initiated multisectoral road safety campaign with speed-adapted coconut drop test in Northern Laos

We investigate the efficacy of a multisectoral road safety campaign initiated at Luang Namtha Provincial Hospital (LNPH), North-Laos. Road safety days (RSD) with helmet promotion were organised prior to the Lao and International New Year 2007. Motorbike helmet protectiveness was demonstrated by dropping peeled versus unpeeled coconuts from 6-m high sticks simulating city speed-limit (40?km/h). The primary outcome was the number of road traffic injuries (RTI) needing admission (severe RTI) before and after the first RSD. Secondary outcomes were helmet usage, total RTI, hospital staff's behavioural changes and law enforcement. Neighbouring Bokeo Provincial Hospital (BPH) had no intervention. Severe RTI dropped by 34.7% within 12 months (from 449 to 293, p?≤?0.0001, BPH +123% [from 88 to 196]). Total RTI increased by 10.8% (from 772 to 855, p?=?0.0396, BPH +260.8% [from 186 to 671]). Police started the law enforcement right after the RSD. Helmet use increased from 11.2 to 42.5% (p?相似文献   

The environmental burden imposed by the family's activities

Calculations of the environmental burden from a model family's consumption show that family activities associated with eating make up more than one-third of the family's total consumption of resources and discharges to the surroundings. Car transport and residential heating together also account for one-third of the family's resource consumption and discharges to the surroundings. The remaining third of resource consumption and discharges to the environment relates especially to the consumption of goods during leisure activities around the home, clothing, hygiene and health as well as cleaning.     

Changing your mind about seeing a brand that you never saw: Implications for brand attitudes

Two field experiments examine the attitudinal consequences of consumers changing their minds about previously seeing brands when in fact they have not. In the first study, an increase in false brand awareness, holding brand exposure constant, is found to result in more favorable brand attitudes. In the second study, changes in false brand awareness were found to mediate the development of defensive thoughts in which respondents self‐justify changing their minds. Defensive thoughts, in turn, mediate the development of brand attitudes. The results suggest that simple changes in one's subjective probability of previously seeing a brand independent of actual exposure can have significant attitudinal consequences for that brand. This is due to the generation of self‐justifying cognitions. Individual change scores are further found to have greater theoretical and empirical utility than static measures. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Aspirations and entrepreneurial motivations of middle-class consumers in emerging markets: The case of India

The world is eyeing emerging markets where increasing numbers of consumers are entering into a new segment called the middle class. In emerging markets, this new segment of the population, as it moves up the economic ladder and seeks a better life, is considered the backbone of the economy. In this study, India is chosen because its economic progress, and changing cultural and demographics shifts, have set the stage for fundamental change of the country's middle class consumers, who are exhibiting new life-aspirations and entrepreneurial pursuits. While India's middle class continues to grow in size and importance, the existing research fails to fully address questions regarding their aspirations or life goals, entrepreneurial motivations, and demographic characteristics.This study attempts to fill the void by focusing on life goals, attitudes, and behaviors of the middle class consumers. Specifically, this study focuses on their aspirations and entrepreneurial motivations. The data collected from India reveals interesting insights about this important segment of India's people. Their demographic profiles suggest that they are well-educated, employed full-time and own assets. Furthermore, these middle class consumers express their confidence in attaining life aspirations such as financial success and personal growth. They tend to seek more opportunities for accomplishing life goals and display entrepreneurial motivations.     

Characteristics of food‐wasting consumers in the Czech Republic

This paper investigates food waste at the consumer stage of the food chain. The authors conducted a questionnaire survey with 259 respondents to identify the key characteristics of food‐wasting consumers and to suggest strategies to improve food‐wasting behaviour. The results of the survey confirmed that the rate at which food is wasted depends on the age, economic status and education of the person managing food in a household, on the household's income per person and on total household income. Younger people, students, economically active people and people from higher‐income households (both per household and per person) waste more, while pensioners waste much less than other groups. However, the sex of the food manager is not associated with food waste. These demographic characteristics should be considered when designing consumer education campaigns focussed on changing consumer motivation and behaviour. This paper also recommends other solutions tailored for specific demographic groups: Younger people and students may be influenced by the actions of opinion leaders within social networks, and technical devices enabling better food management could help them reduce waste. Supporting work‐life balance, broadening the network of food delivery services and implementing corporate initiatives that support food waste prevention could help economically active people reduce their food waste. Additionally, offers of ready‐to‐eat food should be expanded for people with higher incomes.     

Retail change: effects on employees' job demands and home life

Causes and effects of occupational stress have received research attention for several decades, with increasing focus during the 1990s as organizations and individual workers attempt to adapt to economic change. Stress arising from either the work or home domain can have a variety of outcomes in the workplace, and similarly can impact in many ways on relationships and activities at home. This paper reports the first phase of a research study to identify the impact on work and home life of changes in retailing, a sector of the economy which has experienced significant change over the past few years. A qualitative methodology was adopted, using group discussions to allow staff to identify the specific changes in retailing most important for themselves, and then to explore how these changes related to satisfactions and dissatisfactions at work, and their impact on general aspects of home life. The results suggest that the 'spillover' relationship between work and home stress seems to be the most useful in describing the impact of change. This suggests that additional role demands at work brought about by change have an impact on relationships and social life outside work. However, some individuals described instances of 'compensation' between work and home, and independence between the two domains. This suggests that the issue of stress in the home/work interface is complex, and that the demands in each domain may be positively or negatively related depending on characteristics of the demands themselves, or may vary according to individual characteristics of the people in the study.     

Young adults’ consideration of their food choices a propos consequences for their future health

Many researchers have devoted much time and effort to explain the undesirable health outcomes associated with an excessive intake of certain types of fast foods. Particularly vulnerable, are young adults who move out of their parents' homes to live on their own, and then begin to rely on the multitude of so‐called “food away from home” options which are convenient, available and even desirable in their social circles. This study investigated young adults' consideration of the consequences of their consumption of food eaten away from home due to concern about unacceptable habitual behaviour that might negatively affect their future households. The survey involved 395 young adults up to 25 years of age who completed a structured questionnaire which relied on an established Consideration of Future Consequences scale. Data analysis involved exploratory factor analysis, t‐tests and Anova. Findings revealed some concern about the immediate consequences of respondents' fast food consumption, but concern about the future consequences seemed rather distant in their minds. Although significant differences were confirmed within gender and among population groups with regard to immediate concern about their fast food consumption, the means were nevertheless low throughout indicating that much needs to be done to sensitize young people about every day food consumption that might have dire consequences for their future health.     

Young People Are the Front Lines of Financial Inclusion: A Review of 45 Years of Research

Amidst concerns about percentages of households that remain unbanked or underbanked, policy endeavors have emerged to promote financial inclusion by making financial products such as savings accounts readily available. While these endeavors have primarily concentrated on households, young people may be the front lines of financial inclusion because they may be more likely to be banked in young adulthood and beyond when they start off with savings accounts earlier in life. This article addresses young people's financial inclusion by comprehensively reviewing 60 research studies on young people's savings, discussing the role of the family in young people's financial inclusion, discussing financial inclusion from an institutional perspective, presenting policy implications, and identifying gaps in knowledge and opportunities for research. Policies that open savings accounts for young people early in life may be a promising strategy for extending financial inclusion and preventing unbanked or underbanked status later in life.     

The dietary and health behaviour of young people aged 18–25 years living independently or in the family home in Liverpool,UK

An individual's dietary habits are largely developed during childhood and adolescence, and are likely to be determined by both nature (the development of sensory perceptions) and nurture (parental influence, and later on the influence of peers). However, diet is likely to evolve throughout the life cycle as circumstances change and new influences are introduced to an individual's lifestyle. An example of this is the changes in diet that occur as a result of the transition young people make away from the family home into independent living. Leaving behind the meals provided and cooked by parents/guardians and learning how to shop on a budget and prepare and cook for themselves may result in the adoption of poor eating habits, which is likely to have a detrimental effect on health. Leaving behind the restrictions of parental control may also result in the adoption of unhealthy lifestyle practices such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. This study therefore seeks to investigate the effect of leaving home on a young person's diet and lifestyle. Health behaviour and food intake was assessed by questionnaire. Findings suggest that a young person's diet may change after leaving home, but these changes are not necessarily negative. More negative health behaviour was observed in young people living independently.     

Accounting Principles in Bond Covenants: Policy Perspectives and Canadian Evidence

Ratio constraints in companies' bond covenants often are based on the same generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that are used in their financial statements. If GAAP change to satisfy the needs of other financial-statement users and if covenants based on GAAP are literally interpreted, then changes in GAAP are tantamount to changes in the provisions of the covenants. This paper analyses the possible legal and economic consequences of such changes and their significance for management. Canadian lessees with public bond issues are examined to see whether reliance on GAAP in bond indentures caused observable economic consequences when lease capitalization was mandated by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1979. Support is found for the hypothesis that firms that had debt-to-asset constraints in their covenants, and that would have shown large changes in that ratio if all of their leases had been capitalized, tended to apply the new accounting rules only prospectively, not retroactively apparently to avoid increasing their accounting-based debt-to-asset ratios more than necessary. However, owing to data limitations, reliance on GAAP in the covenants cannot be singled out as the only possible reason for that tendency. Résumé Les contraintes de ratio imposées dans les conventions relatives aux obligations des sociétés sont fréquemment déterminées d'après les měmes principes comptables généralement reconnus (PCGR) qui sont utilisés dans leurs états financiers. Si les PCGR sont modifiés pour satisfaire aux besoins des autres utilisateurs des états financiers et si les conventions établies selon les PCGR sont interprétées littéralement, des changements à ces principes sont synonymes de changements aux dispositions des conventions. Ce mémoire analyse les conséquences économiques possibles de ces modifications, ainsi que leur impact pour la direction. Les sociétés canadiennes locataires qui émettent des obligations au public sont étudiées pour déterminer si le respect des PCGR dans les actes de fiducie a eu des conséquences économiques observables lorsque la capitalisation des baux a été permise par I'Institut canadien des comptables agrées en 1979. Les données semblent corroborer l'hypothèse selon laquelle les sociétés dont les conventions comportaient des contraintes d'endettement, et dont les ratios auraient changé substantiellement si tous les baux avaient été capitalisés, appliquaient les nouvelles règies de comptabilité prospectivement plutǒt que rétroactivement. Cette application prospective des nouvelles méthodes comptables semblait avoir pour but d'éviter l'augmentation inutile des ratios comptables d'endettement. Toutefois, en raison du manque d'informations, le respect des PCGR dans les conventions ne peut ětre identifé comme seul responsable de cette tendance.