Cathy Kassab

Cultural correlates of self perceived health status among Chinese elderly

This study examines self-perceived physical and mental health among 213Chinese elderly who visited the Geriatric Outpatient Clinic of BeijingHospital, the People‘s Republic of China. The study hypothesizes thatcultural factors, specified by family relations, along with demographicfactors, number of diseases, economic well-being, and living conditionshave a significant impact on subjects self-perceived health status.Pearson correlation, linear and logistic regression analyses areperformed. Results indicate that age, number of diseases, perceived familyrespect, neighborhood relations, and percentage of income spent on rentare significant predictors of self-perceived physical health. These samefactors plus preference to live with a son and personal monthly income aresignificant predictors of self-perceived mental health. Socio-culturalimplications of these findings are examined.

The New Buffalo Hunt: Chasing the Service Sector

Expanding the service sector in rural and urban areas has become the new focus for strategies designed to promote local economic development. This study examines two issues related to this new Buffalo Hunt: (1) it critically assesses the quality of the service sector jobs available to rural workers, and (2) it compares the quality of these jobs with those found in the traditional manufacturing sector. Findings indicate that investments of capital and other resources by local communities to attract service sector jobs is appropriate, but first consideration should be given to the appropriate level of investment relative to the quality of jobs to be created. In addition, officials in small and rural localities need to understand that the development of jobs in the producer service sector has risks similar to those associated with those in manufacturing. Development of local businesses is one approach for reducing these risks.

Productivity Assessment of Volunteer Programs in Not-for-Profit Human Services Organizations

&dquo;The only thing worse than preparing for guests and having them cancel,&dquo; a host might observe, &dquo;is to invite important guests and not prepare to serve them properly.&dquo; &dquo;The only thing worse than having too much work, is to have too little work to do,&dquo; declares a responsible employee. These &dquo;worse case&dquo; scenarios can lead to a social embarrassment and to an unproductive work situation. Both may be said to result from &dquo;bad management.&dquo;

USE OF LISREL IN SCALE VALIDATION

A confirmatory factor analysis of items representing two dimensions of the locus of control construct was conducted with LISREL. In general, the analysis substantiated the hypothesized model by providing statistical tests of the loadings and the fit of the model to the data. Given the presence of several correlated error terms, a three-factor model was tested. While both the two-factor and three-factor models appeared to fit the data, the former provided a better fit. In addition, LISREL provided evidence of interfactor correlation; those with a stronger external expectation of control tend to be characterized by stronger powerful-others or fate orientations.

Occupational and nonoccupational farm fatalities among youth for 2000 through 2012 in Pennsylvania

ABSTRACT Agriculture is one of the most hazardous industries in the United States. It is crucial to analyze the previously collected farm fatality data in Pennsylvania involving youth to identify fatality sources and to delineate prevention strategies to mitigate future occurrences. The Penn State Farm and Agricultural Injury Database was updated to include the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) for source and event or exposure. Occupational and nonoccupational incidents were compared based on age groups, religious sect, source of injury, and the injury event or exposure. A total of 82 fatalities to youth under 20 years were identified. Youth under 5 years old had the highest fatality rate of 87.1 fatalities per 100,000 farm household youth per year. The percentages of occupational and nonoccupational fatalities were 30.5% and 62.2%, respectively. Three primary sources accounted for 76% of the 82 farm fatalities: vehicles, machinery, and structures and surfaces. The majority of fatally injured youth (78%) were Anabaptist. The Anabaptist youth were 7 times more likely to be involved in occupational incidents than the non-Anabaptist youth. Youth <10 years of age who were not alone at the time of the fatal incident accounted for about half of the deaths, indicating the peril of adults attempting to supervise youth in the workplace. This fatal injury analysis to youth has identified common fatality injury patterns and risk factors to youth. The data can be used to identify intervention strategies for youth and underserved populations (Anabaptists) and can be used to help motivate adults and parents to adopt safety practices to prevent future injury occurrences. This paper also helps to illustrate the value of state-based monitoring of farm injury to youth using methods available to many states and territories.

THREE-ITEM LOCUS OF CONTROL SCALE FOR CRIME VICTIMIZATION '

The purpose of this research is to contribute evidence regarding the construct validity of a three-item locus-of-control measure specific to crime victimization. The scale was used to determine whether specific populations were more likely than others to agree with one of the orientations to control suggested by Levenson, these being internal, powerful others, and chance. The latter two dimensions represent distinct types of external orientations. The analysis was based on results from a telephone survey of a randomly selected sample of 666 residents, aged 18 years or older, of a midwestern city. Logistic regression using continuation logits yielded results consistent in general with expectations derived from the literature, but several interaction effects involving demographic and crime-specific variables were apparent.

Injury risks for on-road farm equipment and horse and buggy crashes in Pennsylvania: 2010–2013

ABSTRACT Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics associated with farm equipment and horse and buggy roadway crashes in relation to person, incident, and injury characteristics to identify appropriate points for injury incident prevention. Methods: Information on crashes occurring on public roads during the years 2010–2013 was obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and analyzed. Results: There were 344 farm equipment and 246 horse and buggy crashes during the 4-year study period. These crashes involved 666 and 504 vehicles and 780 and 838 people, respectively. In incidents with farm equipment, the non-farm equipment drivers had an almost 2 times greater injury risk than farm equipment operators. Horse and buggy crashes were almost 3 times more injurious to the horse and buggy drivers than the drivers of the other vehicles. Conclusions: The average crash rate for farm equipment was 198.4 crashes per 100,000 farm population and for horse and buggy the crash rate was calculated as 89.4 crashes per 100,000 Amish population per year. This study suggests that road safety and public health programs should focus not only on farm equipment operators and horse and buggy drivers but on other motorists sharing the roadway with them.