The middle-income class forms the bulk of the population in almost all OECD countries

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Chaloff

The growing complexity of selection criteria for discretionary labour migration in OECD countries has been accompanied by an expanded demand for labour market analysis and consultation with stakeholders. While some features of general or detailed criteria may be fixed in legislation, numerical quotas or targets, shortage lists, and multiple-criteria points-based systems are generally subject to periodic review and revision based on labour market data and consultation with stakeholders. Official government bodies have maintained co-ordination of this process, with varying degrees of externalization. In most countries expertise is internal, with recourse to external mandated bodies rare. In almost all cases, however, the process is designed to promote consensus around the policy while maintaining political control.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thália Velho Barreto de Araújo ◽  
Estela M. L. Aquino ◽  
Greice M. S. Menezes ◽  
Maria Teresa Seabra Soares de Britto e Alves ◽  
Maria-da-Conceição C. Almeida ◽  
...  

Abstract: Around 18 million unsafe abortions occur in low and middle-income countries and are associated with numerous adverse consequences to women’s health. The time taken by women with complications to reach facilities where they can receive appropriate post-abortion care can influence the risk of death and the extent of further complications. All women aged 18+ admitted for abortion complications to public-sector hospitals in three capital cities in the Northeastern Brazil between August-December 2010 were interviewed; medical records were extracted (N = 2,804). Nearly all women (94%) went straight to a health facility, mainly to a hospital (76.6%); the rest had various care-seeking paths, with a quarter visiting 3+ hospitals. Women waited 10 hours on average before deciding to seek care. 29% reported difficulties in starting to seek care, including facing challenges in organizing childcare, a companion or transport (17%) and fear/stigma (11%); a few did not initially recognize they needed care (0.4%). The median time taken to arrive at the ultimate facility was 36 hours. Over a quarter of women reported experiencing difficulties being admitted to a hospital, including long waits (15%), only being attended after pregnant women (8.9%) and waiting for a bed (7.4%). Almost all women (90%) arrived in good condition, but those with longer delays were more likely to have (mild or severe) complications. In Brazil, where access to induced abortion is restricted, women face numerous difficulties receiving post-abortion care, which contribute to delay and influence the severity of post-abortion complications.


Author(s):  
Ana Clariza Natanauan ◽  
Jenmart Bonifacio ◽  
Mikael Manuel ◽  
Rex Bringula ◽  
John Benedic Enriquez

This descriptive-exploratory study attempted to give the readers a portrait of cyber café gamers in Manila. It determined the profile of gamers, their gaming usage, and their purposes of cyber café gaming. Descriptive statistics revealed that most of the respondents were Manila settlers, students, pursuing or had obtained college degrees, male, young, Roman Catholic, single, belonged to middle-income class, and played games in cyber cafés in the afternoon once to twice a week. One-way chi-square showed that frequency of gaming was not equally distributed in a week and gamers showed tendency to play games in a cyber in a particular time of the day. Real-time strategy games were the most frequently played games in cyber cafés. To recreate, to relieve boredom, and to have fun were the top three reasons in playing games in cyber cafés. Conclusions and directions for future research were also presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e13514-e13514
Author(s):  
Abeid Mohamed Athman Omar ◽  
Marwa Ramadan ◽  
Yomna Khamis ◽  
Abdelsalam A. Ismail

e13514 Background: The unprecedented emergence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has disrupted the patients' and physicians' daily activities, including cancer care. However, little is known on how COVID-19 has impacted oncologists from low and middle-income countries. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among eighty-eight practicing oncologists in Alexandria governorate, Egypt. An electronic, anonymized self-reporting survey was distributed in February 2020 to collect information on occupational safety measures, the prevalence of COVID-19 among respondents, workload, and family support during the pandemic Results: Out of 88 contacted oncologists, 75% completed the survey (n=66). Nearly half (45%) of respondents were residents, 36% were specialists, and 18% were consultants. The mean age of respondents was 34.79 years (SD ±10.42). More than half of the respondents were not comfortable managing cancer patients during the pandemic (56%) and did not feel well-protected at the workplace (58%). However, most (79%) had managed a cancer patient with COVID-19 more than once. Furthermore, almost all participants (98%) have worked with an infected colleague. Nevertheless, to more than half (54%), it made no difference working with a colleague who was previously infected. Most physicians (79%) felt overwhelmed with workload than the pre-pandemic period. Despite being COVID-19 negative, nearly half reported their family members had reduced contact with them due to the fear of being infected. In contrast, 24% are now getting more family support, whereas 27% are experiencing the same contact level as before the COVID-19 era. Physicians lacking family support had a significantly higher burnout rate than those who had family support (p=0.038). However, the burnout rate was similar regardless of doctors' rank, or treating COVID-19 patients, or feeling protected at work. The majority of the participants (75%) had experienced COVID-19 like symptoms, and one third (n=21) were confirmed COVID-19 infected: residents - 52%, specialists - 33%, and consultants - 14%. Nevertheless, we found no association between the rank and being infected with COVID-19 (p=0.632). Most participants thought they were infected at the hospital (38% by patients; 24% by colleagues), and 14% by family members. However, there was no significant association between being infected and feeling protected at work (p=0.823). Most of the infected physicians (61%) received moral support from both the family and colleagues, and 33% received family support only. There was no association between burnout rate and being COVID-19 infected (p=0.719). Conclusions: One-third of the oncologists were COVID-19 positive. Besides, most oncologists feel overwhelmed with workload and experience more burnout than before the COVID-19 era, and it worsens if one lacks family support.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuhika Seth ◽  
Sharmishtha Nanda ◽  
Aishwarya Sahay ◽  
Ravi Verma ◽  
Pranita Achyut

Abstract Background: Across societies, gender norms often allow men to hold key decision-making power within relationships, households and communities. This extends to almost all domains, consisting of family planning (FP) as well. FP programmes have largely engaged men as clients and rarely as equal partners or influencers although across lower and middle income countries (LMICs), and especially in South Asia, men hold key decision-making power on the domain of family planning. The objective of this article is to explore couple dynamics through the lens of spousal communication and decision-making and unpacking male engagement and spousal dynamics in family planning.Methods: This review presents a synthesis of evidence from two peer-reviewed databases, PubMed and Jstor, and and insights from programmatic documents to shed light on gender equitable engagement of young married men in family planning. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for both these databases was set and search strategies were finalized. This was followed by title and abstract screening, data extraction, synthesis and analysis.Results: Study participants included unmarried men (16%, n= 8), married men (19%, n= 9), married women (19%, n=9), married couples (25%, n =12) or more than two respondent categories (21%, n= 10). Almost three-fourth (71%, n=34) of the studies selected had FP as the primary area of inquiry. Other prominent thematics on which the studies reported were around norms (n=9, 16%), couple dynamics and intimacies (n=12, 22%).Conclusion: The evidence presented provides sufficient impetus to expand on gender-equitable male engagement, viewing men as equal and supportive partners for informed, equitable and collaborative contraceptive uptake and FP choices by couples.


Toxins ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Ahlberg ◽  
Delia Grace ◽  
Gideon Kiarie ◽  
Yumi Kirino ◽  
Johanna Lindahl

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), a human carcinogen, is found in milk products and may have potentially severe health impacts on milk consumers. We assessed the risk of cancer and stunting as a result of AFM1 consumption in Nairobi, Kenya, using worst case assumptions of toxicity and data from previous studies. Almost all (99.5%) milk was contaminated with AFM1. Cancer risk caused by AFM1 was lower among consumers purchasing from formal markets (0.003 cases per 100,000) than for low-income consumers (0.006 cases per 100,000) purchasing from informal markets. Overall cancer risk (0.004 cases per 100,000) from AFM1 alone was low. Stunting is multifactorial, but assuming only AFM1 consumption was the determinant, consumption of milk contaminated with AFM1 levels found in this study could contribute to 2.1% of children below three years in middle-income families, and 2.4% in low-income families, being stunted. Overall, 2.7% of children could hypothetically be stunted due to AFM1 exposure from milk. Based on our results AFM1 levels found in milk could contribute to an average of −0.340 height for age z-score reduction in growth. The exposure to AFM1 from milk is 46 ng/day on average, but children bear higher exposure of 3.5 ng/kg bodyweight (bw)/day compared to adults, at 0.8 ng/kg bw/day. Our paper shows that concern over aflatoxins in milk in Nairobi is disproportionate if only risk of cancer is considered, but that the effect on stunting children might be much more significant from a public health perspective; however, there is still insufficient data on the health effects of AFM1.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-263
Author(s):  
Trygve Ottersen ◽  
Suerie Moon ◽  
John-Arne Røttingen

AbstractAfter years of unprecedented growth in development assistance for health (DAH), the DAH system is challenged on several fronts: by the economic downturn and stagnation of DAH, by the epidemiological transition and increase in non-communicable diseases and by the economic transition and rise of the middle-income countries. Central to any potent response is a fair and effective allocation of DAH across countries. A myriad of criteria has been proposed or is currently used, but there have been no comprehensive assessment of their distributional implications. We simulated the implications of 11 quantitative allocation criteria across countries and country categories. We found that the distributions varied profoundly. The group of low-income countries received most DAH from needs-based criteria linked to domestic capacity, while the group of upper-middle-income countries was most favoured by an income-inequality criterion. Compared to a baseline distribution guided by gross national income per capita, low-income countries received less DAH by almost all criteria. The findings can inform funders when examining and revising the criteria they use, and provide input to the broader debate about what criteria should be used.


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