| 1. |
- Arnold, Oliver, et al.
(författare)
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Capturing the Environmental Impact of Individual Lifestyles : Evidence of the Criterion Validity of the General Ecological Behavior Scale
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environment and Behavior. - : SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC. - 0013-9165 .- 1552-390X. ; 50:3, s. 350-372
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do behavioral measures of ecological lifestyles reflect actual environmental impact? Three convenience samples of German adults (N = 881) completed such a measure, the General Ecological Behavior (GEB) scale. Their household electricity consumption was self-reported (Study 1), assessed by a smart-meter (Study 2), or reported by the power company (Study 3). The latter two studies controlled for income, which can boost consumption just as it opens possibilities for behaving ecologically. Within and across studies, analyses revealed a negative association between self-reported ecological behavior and electricity consumption (-.18 rs -.22), even with adjustment for income. Furthermore, customers in a green electricity program reported more ecological engagement and consumed one third less electricity than did regular customers. These results indicate the criterion validity of the GEB scale for a highly practically relevant criterion and encourage the use of generic behavior measures in efforts to understand and foster more ecological lifestyles.
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| 2. |
- Astell-Burt, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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More green, less lonely? : A longitudinal cohort study
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Epidemiology. - : Oxford University Press. - 0300-5771 .- 1464-3685. ; 51:1, s. 99-110
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundUrban greening may reduce loneliness by offering opportunities for solace, social reconnection and supporting processes such as stress relief. We (i) assessed associations between residential green space and cumulative incidence of, and relief from, loneliness over 4 years; and (ii) explored contingencies by age, sex, disability and cohabitation status.MethodsMultilevel logistic regressions of change in loneliness status in 8049 city-dwellers between 2013 (baseline) and 2017 (follow-up) in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study. Associations with objectively measured discrete green-space buffers (e.g. parks) (<400, <800 and <1600 m) were adjusted for age, sex, disability, cohabitation status, children and socio-economic variables. Results were translated into absolute risk reductions in loneliness per 10% increase in urban greening.ResultsThe absolute risk of loneliness rose from 15.9% to 16.9% over the 4 years; however, a 10% increase in urban greening within 1.6 km was associated with lower cumulative incident loneliness [odds ratio (OR) = 0.927, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.862 to 0.996; absolute risk reduction = 0.66%]. Stronger association was observed for people living alone (OR = 0.828, 95% CI = 0.725 to 0.944). In comparison to people with <10% green space, the ORs for cumulative incident loneliness were 0.833 (95% CI = 0.695 to 0.997), 0.790 (95% CI = 0.624 to 1.000) and 0.736 (95% CI = 0.549 to 0.986) for 10–20%, 20–30% and >30% green space, respectively. Compared with the <10% green-space reference group with 13.78% incident loneliness over 4 years and conservatively assuming no impact on incident loneliness, associations translated into absolute risk reductions of 1.70%, 2.26% and 2.72% within populations with 10–20%, 20–30% and >30% green space, respectively. These associations were stronger again for people living alone, with 10–20% (OR = 0.608, 95% CI = 0.448 to 0.826), 20–30% (OR = 0.649, 95% CI = 0.436 to 0.966) and >30% (OR = 0.480, 95% CI = 0.278 to 0.829) green space within 1600 m. No age, sex or disability-related contingencies, associations with green space within 400 or 800 m or relief from loneliness reported at baseline were observed.ConclusionsA lower cumulative incidence of loneliness was observed among people with more green space within 1600 m of home, especially for people living alone. Potential biopsychosocial mechanisms warrant investigation.
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| 3. |
- Bellini, Diego, et al.
(författare)
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Social support in the company canteen : A restorative resource buffering the relationship between job demands and fatigue
- 2019
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Ingår i: Work. - : IOS PRESS. - 1051-9815 .- 1875-9270. ; 63:3, s. 375-387
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The quality of the places where workers take their breaks may affect the completeness of recovery in the time available. Little is known about how characteristics of a company canteen buffer the relationship between job demands and fatigue. OBJECTIVE: We addressed the possibility that the company canteen buffers the relationship between job demands and fatigue to the extent that workers perceive it to hold restorative quality. Further, we considered how the restorative quality of the canteen signals the provision of organizational support, another job resource thought to buffer the demands-fatigue relationship. METHODS: A questionnaire was completed by 141 male blue collars workers during their lunch break in the factory canteen of an Italian industrial organization. RESULTS: Canteen restorative quality correlated positively with organizational support. In multivariate regression analyses, the demands-fatigue association was weaker among workers who saw greater restorative quality in the canteen. This buffering effect was accounted for by a buffering effect of organizational support. CONCLUSIONS: When settings for rest in the workplace have higher restorative quality, they may better function as job resources in two respects: serving the immediate needs of workers for recovery from job demands, and signaling the interest of the organization in their well-being.
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| 4. |
- Bringslimark, Tina, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptation to windowlessness : Do office workers compensate for a lack of visual access to the outdoors?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Environment and Behavior. - : SAGE. - 0013-9165 .- 1552-390X. ; 43:4, s. 469-487
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- If office workers lack a view to natural features outdoors, do they compensate by bringing plants and pictures of nature indoors? The authors used cross-sectional survey data from 385 Norwegian office workers to investigate whether such compensation occurs. The authors found that workers without windows had roughly five times greater odds of having brought plants into their workspaces than workers with windows, independent of age, gender, type of office, job demands, control over work, and personalization. Windowless workers also had three times greater odds of having brought pictures of nature into their workspaces. The authors consider implications of the findings for environmental design that offers contact with nature to people who spend much of their time indoors.
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| 5. |
- Byrka, Katarzyna, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental attitude as a mediator of the relationship between in nature and self-reported ecological behavior
- 2010
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Ingår i: Psychological Reports. - 0033-2941 .- 1558-691X. ; 107:3, s. 847-859
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental attitude and ecological behavior were investigated in relation to the use of nature for psychological restoration. Specifically, with survey data from 468 German university students, the role of environmental attitude was investigated as a mediator of the restoration-behavior relationship. Assuming that positive experiences in nature can have a broad influence on environmental attitudes, the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, an attitudinal measure with broad scope, was adopted. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated partial mediation by environmental concern. The study helps to consolidate the restoration theme in the growing literature on positive motivations for ecological behavior.
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| 6. |
- Catalano, Ralph A., et al.
(författare)
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Collective Optimism and Selection Against Male Twins in Utero
- 2020
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Ingår i: Twin Research and Human Genetics. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1832-4274 .- 1839-2628. ; 23:1, s. 45-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scholarly literature claims that health declines in populations when optimism about investing in the future wanes. This claim leads us to describe collective optimism as a predictor of selection in utero. Based on the literature, we argue that the incidence of suicide gauges collective optimism in a population and therefore willingness to invest in the future. Using monthly data from Sweden for the years 1973-2016, we test the hypothesis that the incidence of suicide among women of child-bearing age correlates inversely with male twin births, an indicator of biological investment in high-risk gestations. We find that, as predicted by our theory, the incidence of suicide at month t varies inversely with the ratio of twin to singleton male births at month t + 3. Our results illustrate the likely sensitivity of selection in utero to change in the social environment and so the potential for viewing collective optimism as a component of public health infrastructure.
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| 7. |
- Catalano, Ralph, et al.
(författare)
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A novel indicator of selection in utero
- 2023
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Ingår i: Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. - : Oxford University Press. - 2050-6201. ; 11:1, s. 244-250
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and objectives: Selection in utero predicts that population stressors raise the standard for how quickly fetuses must grow to avoid spontaneous abortion. Tests of this prediction must use indirect indicators of fetal loss in birth cohorts because vital statistics systems typically register fetal deaths at the 20th week of gestation or later, well after most have occurred. We argue that tests of selection in utero would make greater progress if researchers adopted an indicator of selection against slow-growing fetuses that followed from theory, allowed sex-specific tests and used readily available data. We propose such an indicator and assess its validity as a dependent variable by comparing its values among monthly birth cohorts before, and during, the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden.Methodology: We apply Box-Jenkins methods to 50 pre-pandemic birth cohorts (i.e., December 2016 through January 2020) and use the resulting transfer functions to predict counterfactual values in our suggested indicator for selection for ten subsequent birth cohorts beginning in February 2020. We then plot all 60 residual values as well as their 95% detection interval. If birth cohorts in gestation at the onset of the pandemic lost more slow-growing fetuses than expected from history, more than one of the last 10 (i.e. pandemic-exposed) residuals would fall below the detection interval.Results: Four of the last 10 residuals of our indicator for males and for females fell below the 95% detection interval.Conclusions and implications: Consistent with selection in utero, Swedish birth cohorts in gestation at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic included fewer than expected infants who grew slowly in utero. Lay Summary Our findings suggest that the risk of spontaneously aborting a slow-growing fetus will increase during relatively stressful times.
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| 10. |
- Catalano, Ralph, et al.
(författare)
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Sildenafil and suicide in Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: European Journal of Epidemiology. - : Springer Nature. - 0393-2990 .- 1573-7284. ; 36:5, s. 531-537
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Much theory asserts that sexual intimacy sustains mental health. Experimental tests of such theory remain rare and have not provided compelling evidence because ethical, practical, and cultural constraints bias samples and results. An epidemiologic approach would, therefore, seem indicated given the rigor the discipline brings to quasi-experimental research. For reasons that remain unclear, however, epidemiologist have largely ignored such theory despite the plausibility of the processes implicated, which engender, for example, happiness, feelings of belonging and self-worth, and protection against depression. We use an intent-to-treat design, implemented via interrupted time-series methods, to test the hypothesis that the monthly incidence of suicide, a societally important distal measure of mental health in a population, decreased among Swedish men aged 50-59 after July 2013 when patent rights to sildenafil (i.e., Viagra) ceased, prices fell, and its use increased dramatically. The test uses 102 pre, and 18 post, price-drop months. 65 fewer suicides than expected occurred among men aged 50-59 over test months following the lowering of sildenafil prices. Our findings could not arise from shared trends or seasonality, biased samples, or reverse causation. Our results would appear by chance fewer than once in 10,000 experiments. Our findings align with theory indicating that sexual intimacy reinforces mental health. Using suicide as our distal measure of mental health further implies that public health programming intended to address the drivers of self-destructive behavior should reduce barriers to intimacy in the middle-aged populations.
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