• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.421-425
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• 2012

Cancer can be a major cause of poverty. This may be due either to the costs of treating and managing the illness as well as its impact upon people's ability to work. This is a concern that particularly affects countries that lack comprehensive social health insurance systems and other types of social safety nets. The ACTION study is a longitudinal cohort study of 10,000 hospital patients with a first time diagnosis of cancer. It aims to assess the impact of cancer on the economic circumstances of patients and their households, patients' quality of life, costs of treatment and survival. Patients will be followed throughout the first year after their cancer diagnosis, with interviews conducted at baseline (after diagnosis), three and 12 months. A cross-section of public and private hospitals as well as cancer centers across eight member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will invite patients to participate. The primary outcome is incidence of financial catastrophe following treatment for cancer, defined as out-of-pocket health care expenditure at 12 months exceeding 30% of household income. Secondary outcomes include illness induced poverty, quality of life, psychological distress, economic hardship, survival and disease status. The findings can raise awareness of the extent of the cancer problem in South East Asia and its breadth in terms of its implications for households and the communities in which cancer patients live, identify priorities for further research and catalyze political action to put in place effective cancer control policies.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.234-242
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• 2009

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of accidental events, depression, and anxiety among workers with industrial accidents in South Korea. Methods: The participants were 510 workers with industrial accidents. Data were collected by personal interviews with structured questionnaires for three months from August to October in 2005. For analyses, frequencies and means were utilized. Results: The participants' average age was 44.9 years, and about 91%of them were male. Also, they had a greater risk of poverty after being injured. The most frequent cause of accidents was fall (32.2%), and the most frequent injured body area was extremities (73.9%). For around a half of the participants, the treatment period was 12 months or shorter. The participants were at great risk of experiencing a negative impact due to events, depression, and anxiety. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop: (a) strategies for injured workers to be financially stable during recuperation; and (b) supporting systems for them not to suffer and exacerbate mental health problems after being injured.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.5-29
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• 2010

This study examines the welfare dynamics in Korea under the scheme of National Basic Livelihood Protection Program(NBLP). Data are drawn from Korean Welfare Panel study 2005~2007. Main findings are summarized as follows. First, the exit probabilities show a declining tendency with time on welfare increases. If the exit probabilities indeed decline over time, the earlier years on welfare deserve more interest in the policy perspective. Moreover, the vast majority of recipients are long-termers. Further efforts are needed to increase self-sufficiency through providing genuine opportunity and necessary support for recipients. Second, out-of-poverty exit and out-of-system exit are quite different in their properties. The results from the multivariate analysis confirm that the dropouts through out-of-system exit are virtually the same with those who remain on welfare. These results imply that the government should not resort to the negative policy proposals such as time limit and strengthening sanctions. Third, several explanatory variables have anticipated effect on welfare exit probabilities. Age, education, health, marital status, the presence of children, employment status have a certain level of impact on exit, with the only exception of gender. Since the identification of the determinants can facilitate sensible targeting on the potential leavers, these results have some implications on policy proposals.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6965-6969
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• 2013

Background: Tobacco consumption has been identified as the single biggest cause of inequality in morbidity and mortality. Understanding pattern of socioeconomic equalities in tobacco consumption in India will help in designing targeted public health control measures. Materials and Methods: Nationally representative data from the India Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted in 2009-2010 was analyzed. The survey provided information on 69,030 respondents aged 15 years and above. Data were analyzed according to regions for estimating prevalence of current tobacco consumption (both smoking and smokeless) across wealth quintiles. Multiple logistic regression analysis predicted the impact of socioeconomic determinants on both forms of current tobacco consumption adjusting for other socio-demographic variables. Results: Trends of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption across wealth quintiles were significant in different regions of India. Higher prevalence of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption was observed in the medium wealth quintiles. Risk of tobacco consumption among the poorest compared to the richest quintile was 1.6 times higher for smoking and 3.1 times higher for smokeless forms. Declining odds ratios of both forms of tobacco consumption with rising education were visible across regions. Poverty was a strong predictor in north and south Indian region for smoking and in all regions for smokeless tobacco use. Conclusions: Poverty and poor education are strong risk factors for both forms of tobacco consumption in India. Public health policies, therefore, need to be targeted towards the poor and uneducated.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.143-151
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• 2020

Objective: Bidi is an inexpensive, low-processed, hand-rolled tobacco product. In Bangladesh, especially in Rangpur, tobacco farming and bidi processing are common. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of bidi making on children working in bidi factories. Methods: This qualitative(walk-through survey) and quantitative(questionnaire-based survey and a urine cotinine level quantitation) study was conducted in Rangpur, Bangladesh in 2017. Study population included child-workers aged ≤14 years who were regularly employed as bidi makers. Findings: The results of the walk-through survey revealed hazardous working environments at bidi factories. For the quantitative survey, 171 child-workers were categorized into "less-working"(<5 hours/day) and "more-working"(≥5 hours/day) groups; additionally, "forced-working"(forced into work by parents) and "voluntary-working"(working voluntarily) groups were delineated within the same population. In the logistic regression analysis, odds ratios(ORs) of respiratory symptoms and unusual absence(absent ≥5 days/month) were higher in the "more-working" group than in the "less-working" group(unusual absence: OR, 2.91; 95% confidence interval[CI], 1.43-5.94), and this association became higher in the "forced-working" group with longer working hours(OR, 5.68, 95%CI 2.30-14.00). Conclusions: Cheap, hand-rolled tobacco(bidi) is harmful to the health of bidi-making child-workers. Children in poverty bow to the demands of cheap labor and poverty and jeopardize their health and future prospects by working in bidi factories. Tobacco control policies should consider the social effects of tobacco beyond its biological effects.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.57-80
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• 2010

This study aims at the evaluation of procedural changes and policy outcome caused by the Open Method of Coordination(OMC) on Social Inclusion in the European Union. The policy instruments of the OMC introduced by the Lisbon Council can be divided into two groups: the outcome-oriented New Public Management(NPM) and the process-oriented Directly Deliberative Polyarchy(DDP). By considering the adoption process of the NPM instruments, it can be said that OMC could not be effective due to the vagueness of its objectives, the institutional barriers in decentralized decision-making, and the rejection of benchmarking by the Member States. The intended learning by deliberation and peer review as indicated by the normative DDP, is hard to achieve because they are not so reflexive due to relatively restricted and closed participation. We also cannot find any significant reduction of poverty after the long implementation of the OMC. Considering the higher recognition of poverty problem and expanding NGOs concerned with it, however, we may see some significant impact in the future.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.399-405
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• 2016

Poor subsistence farmers who live in a semi-arid area of northern Ethiopia build irrigation systems to overcome water shortages. However, there is a high risk of malaria transmission when increased standing water provides more favorable habitats for mosquito breeding. This is a serious problem because there are many barriers to malaria control measures and health care systems in the area. Using a causal loop diagram and computer simulations, the author attempted to visually illustrate positive and negative feedbacks between mosquito and human populations in the context of Simret, which is a small village located in northern Ethiopia and is generally considered a malaria-free area. The simulation results show that the number of infectious mosquitos increases to 17,215 at its peak, accounting for 3.5% of potentially dangerous mosquitos. At the same time, the number of sick people increases to 574 at its peak, accounting for 15% of local population. The malaria outbreak is controlled largely because of a fixed number of vulnerable people or local population that acts as an intermediate host.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.21-40
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• 1999

Path analysis was used to determine variables influencing the self-esteem of 222 4th, 5th, and 6th grade children in law-income families. The children and their mothers responded to questionnaires on self-esteem, child psychological traits, mother psychological characteristics, economic hardship, and child rearing practices. Mothers' warmth-acceptance child rearing behavior was facilitating of children's self-esteem. However, mothers' economic stress had an indirect impact via their depression on decrease in the warmth-acceptance variable. Permissive-nonintervention child rearing behavior decreased the level of children's self-esteem. However, mothers' depression and marital confilct(??) deriving from economic stress increased both rejection-restriction and permissive-nonintervention styles of child rearing. Mothers who experienced much stress due to economic hardship influnced(??) children's perception of their family's poverty and thereby lowered their children's self-esteem.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Nigeria like many other developing countries' eagerness to accelerate socio-economic development has prompted her to adopt several approaches over the years since independence. These have ranged from the import substitution scheme, the indigenisation policy, and structural adjustment programme to the national economic empowerment development strategy. Nigeria has sought to widen her economic base by engaging in increased cross-border trade and investment activities. This is with a view to spurring the process of industrialization and ultimately lowering the level of poverty in the country. This has led to the formulation of various industrial policies and processes, all geared towards integration into the world economy. Using secondary sources, this paper seeks to analyze Nigeria's journey towards industrial development especially within the context of globalization. It concludes by explaining the impact of the new economic paradigm on the country's quest to industrialize and recommends alternative path towards development and growth.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.39-50
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• 2021

We investigate competition and its impact on borrowers' indebtedness (BI) in South Asian microfinance. Our empirical investigations are based on a comprehensive panel dataset of 355 MFIs located in seven countries in South Asia. The empirical results revealed that microfinance in South Asia is imperfectly competitive and the existing industry shows a monopolistic competition during the period under consideration. Also, the competition increased after the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2007-08 which implies that microfinance uses hostile lending behavior through the adverse selection that is highly risky and it can induce repayment crisis. The empirical findings also show that increased competition has significant negative effects on borrowers' indebtedness, particularly in large-scale and regulated microfinance organizations (MFIs). Instead of using equity financing, debt financing could be a better option. Finally, we find that while competition seems to have some positive effects in economic discourse by channeling technological improvements in products and services, its negative effects in microfinance outweigh the benefits over costs, particularly in poverty-stricken nations. The findings are helpful for the policymakers, microfinance industry, investors, borrowers, and Central Bank of South Asian markets.