Social determinates of health

The Aday Theory suggests that vulnerability, or increased risk of poor health outcomes, can be modeled by looking at ethical norms and values, health status, relative risk, resource availability, and policy (Aday, 2001). This theory looks at the tension between the rights and obligations of the individual versus the community while also recognizing the impact each has on the other.     

Workplace problems,mental health and substance use

Little is known about how workplace problems may influence diagnosable mental health and substance use (MHSU) disorders. We examine the associations between three common workplace problems (experiencing problems with co-workers, job changes and perceived financial strain) and three MHSU disorders (mood, anxiety and substance abuse/dependence). The analysis utilizes longitudinal data on a sample of working-age adults from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. These data are well suited for our research objective as the survey was specifically designed to study MHSU disorders. Results show that experiencing these workplace problems is associated with an increased risk for mental health disorders, but not substance use disorders. Importantly, various robustness checks and sensitivity analyses demonstrate that our findings cannot be not fully explained by omitted variables, reverse causality or sample attrition.     

Persistent high ambition and substance abuse: a rationalization of a vicious circle

While the current use of some mind-altering substances alleviates current level of depression, it facilitates future depression. Our analysis incorporates this intertemporal tradeoff and shows that the stationary status of a consistently overly ambitious sophisticated user is improved by impatience, and that this improvement is amplified by the ratio of the instantaneous depression-relief effect to the status-degradation effect of the mind-altering substance. The analysis also shows that the existence of a supportive personal community leads to permanent cyclical use of mind-altering substances.      

An analysis of substance abuse patterns, medical expenses and effectiveness of treatment in the workplace: long-term followup

This study of workplace substance abuse programs indicates that they are effective for many participants and also shows that these programs can significantly lower medical expenses for those who successfully complete them.     

Social networking: applications for health care recruitment

In today's competitive landscape for health care talent, nursing executives and human resource professionals need to assess and evaluate new avenues for recruitment. The strategy of filling positions by means of print advertising is becoming outmoded quickly. As an industry, health care typically lags behind other industries when it relates to technology. This is especially true in implementing any interactive strategies to target hard-to-fill positions. Social networking sites have appeared on the Internet landscape quickly and continue to flourish. Nurse leaders need to capitalize on this phenomenon.     

An analysis of substance abuse patterns, medical expenses and effectiveness of treatment in the workplace

This article examines the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment offered by the Members Assistance Program of a self-insured union welfare fund. The authors find that medical costs decreased dramatically for participants who were under treatment for at least one year.     

Of maps and territories : The use and abuse of socioeconomic modeling in support of decision making

While the need for better data and models to support environmental decision making is generally recognized, the need for new approaches to how those data and models are used in the policy-making process has received less attention. Yet the relationship between analysis and policy is often characterized by problems of misunderstanding and mistrust between analysts and decision makers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of socioeconomic models in forecasting and decision making about environmental problems, and to suggest ways in which such models can be developed and used so as to increase the chance of their playing not only a scientifically but also a politically useful and desirable role.     

Social capital, ICT use and company performance: Findings from the Medicon Valley Biotech Cluster

This study explores how some uses of ICTs, as well as having social capital and other means of access to knowledge resources, are related to company performance in a knowledge-intensive business cluster. Data were collected through a survey of companies in the Medicon Valley biotech region located in Denmark and Southern Sweden. Responding companies included established producers of biotechnology-related products as well as small biotechnology start-up firms emphasizing research and development. The results suggest that when ICT use was aimed at accessing and enhancing human and intellectual capital, such as use of online databases for recruitment, intranets to enhance employee access to information and education, and collaborative tools to connect with off-premise researchers, companies reported better performance outcomes. Social capital in the form of connections to people who can provide access to information and opportunity predicted company performance, particularly for small start-up companies. The pattern of results complements prior work that establishes the importance of social capital in regional business clusters by demonstrating how certain ICT uses complement personal relationships to enhance the likelihood of success among companies in the region.     

企业社会责任管理新理念:从社会责任到社会资本

当前,企业社会责任研究已经成为社会学界、经济学界和管理学界争相研究的课题,原因就在于,在经济快速稳定增长但同时又面临生态环境污染、员工利益受损、城乡差距扩大和社会秩序失范的今天,我们必须重新思考和定义为经济增长、扩大就业和商业文明做出巨大贡献的企业行为边界和价值规范。虽然不同学者对企业是否应该承担社会责任、承担哪些社会责任和如何承担社会责任尚存在不同的观点和看法,但不容置疑的是,企业不仅是市场经济的价值创造主体,而且是在一定伦理规范下运营的责任承担主体。因此,企业必须正视企业社会责任时代的企业应该主张什么样的管理理念、战略、结构和方法,以使企业能够抵御风险、提升能力和稳步发展。     

Deposit insurance scheme and banking crises: a special focus on less-developed countries

This study analyzes the effect of an explicit deposit insurance scheme (EDIS) on the probability of a banking crisis in a country while taking the country’s overall economic development into account. The panel data for the period of 1980–2003 include all the countries having the data on an EDIS. The major finding is that if the interaction between a country’s overall economic development and its use of an EDIS is not controlled for, the country’s use of the EDIS increases the probability of a banking crisis. This increase is greater the more inefficiently designed the EDIS is. However, once the interaction between the overall economic development and the use of the EDIS is controlled for, it is found that the EDIS itself is not a significant factor of a banking crisis. In that case, the less developed the country is that is using an EDIS, the higher the probability of a banking crisis.     

The journey to meaningful use of electronic health records

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its important Health Information Technology Act provision became law on February 17, 2009. Commonly referred to as "The Stimulus Bill" or "The Recovery Act," the landmark legislation allocated $787 billion to stimulate the economy, including $147 billion to rescue and reform the nation's seriously ailing health care industry. Of these funds, $19 billion in financial incentives were earmarked for the relatively short period of 5 years to drive reform through the use of advanced health information technology (HIT) and the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). he incentives were intended to help health care providers purchase and implement HIT and EHR systems, and the HITECH Act also stipulated clear penalties would be imposed beyond 2015 for both hospitals and physician providers who failed to adopt use of EHRs in a meaningful way. Nurses will be integral to achieving a vision that will require a nationwide effort to adopt and implement EHR systems in a meaningful way.     

Targeted characteristics and use of socially marketed preventive health goods: evidence from condoms in sub-Saharan Africa

Social marketing is a popular method for allocating targeted publicly funded preventive health goods in poor countries. However, low demand among targeted groups may inhibit take-up relative to non-targeted groups, ownership may not result in use, and there exists little large-scale evidence on how use of socially marketed goods varies by targeted characteristics. I assemble national household survey data from 27 sub-Saharan African countries to examine how use of one of the most common socially marketed preventive health goods (i.e. male condoms) varies by the main targeted characteristics (i.e. low income, low educational attainment, and high HIV risk).

The results suggest that the majority of condoms used are socially marketed condoms, engaging in transactional sex is associated with an increased likelihood of using a socially marketed condom brand, and low-income/low educational attainment are not associated with increased likelihoods of using socially marketed brands. The fact that distribution targets low socioeconomic status groups and relative use remains low suggests that weak demand for condoms among these groups inhibits use. Policymakers should consider mechanisms to increase demand and to further refine targeting efforts.     

Prenatal care: Mechanisms and impacts on infant health and health care utilization

We estimate that prenatal care has positive impacts on health measured at birth, shifts the distribution of future health care utilization away from inpatient care, and find that some of these impacts likely come from an informational mechanism. We also find well child visits are used in a complementary fashion with emergency department care in the production of infant health, suggesting that factors beyond barriers to access may drive the demand for emergency care. Finally, we find differential impacts of prenatal care across racial groups with evidence that the information mechanism may be particularly important for black mothers.