Religiosity as a predictor of mortality: A retrospective cohort study in 1519 rural citizens in Greece

Objective: Investigating the role of religiosity in mortality.

Design: A retrospective cohort study (mean follow-up period 131.2 ± 30.8 months) in 1519 rural citizens in Greece (57.1% women, mean age 56.9 ± 20.4 years).

Main outcome measures: Measurements included education, disease status, body mass index, lifestyle, sleep-quality and self-rated health (SRH). Religiosity was assessed as composite score of praying and church attendance. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Results: A total of 293 deaths were recorded, 59.2% of which had occurred due to cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer diseases (17%). All-cause mortality was found increased for older people (aHR: 1.10, 95%CI: 1.08–1.11, p < .0001), for males (aHR: 1.44, 95%CI: 1.14–1.83, p = .002), for people reporting good SRH (aHR: .66, 95%CI: .51–.87, p = .003). Moreover, with increasing age the practice of regular exercise decreases all-causes mortality by approximately 3.5% by each year. Participants in the moderate category of religiosity were found to have decreased risk for all-cause mortality (aHR: .61, 95%CI: .46–.83, p = .001) compared to those in the low religiosity category. Cardiovascular mortality was also significantly associated with SRH and religiosity.

Conclusion: Religiosity predicts mortality, in a rural population in Greece. Deciphering the mediators of religiosity and mortality relationship could facilitate future health policies.     

The mediating effects of time structure on the relationships between time management behaviour,job satisfaction,and psychological well‐being

This article examined the relationship between time structure and Macan's process model of time management. This study proposed that time structure—‘appraisal of effective time usage’—would be a more parsimonious mediator than perceived control over time in the relationship between time management behaviours and outcome variables, such as job satisfaction and psychological well‐being. Alternative structure models were compared using a sample of 111 university students. Model 1 tested Macan's process model of time management with perceived control over time as the mediator. Model 2 replaced perceived control over time by the construct of time structure. Model 3 examined the possibility of perceived control over time and time structure as being parallel mediators of the relationships between time management and outcomes. Results of this study showed that Model 1 and Model 2 fitted the data equally well. On the other hand, the mediated effects were small and partial in both models. This pattern of results calls for reassessment of the process model.     

情绪失调如何引起情绪枯竭？

当服务行业员工内心情感与工作所期望情绪不一致时,如何调节更容易陷入情绪枯竭？该研究抽取服务业员工352名,采用问卷法测量工作环境中的情绪失调、情绪劳动策略及情绪枯竭程度,并探究三者的关系。结果表明,负情绪失调通过较多的表层扮演和失调扮演,导致更多的情绪枯竭;正情绪失调则通过较少的表层扮演和失调扮演,引起较少情绪枯竭。研究对服务业员工招聘、心理培训及人性化管理有一定指导意义。     

Towards a Psychology of Rural Development Processes and Interventions

A psychosocial approach to rural development and development interventions, which we designate as ‘psychology of rural development’ (PsyRD), does not yet exist as an area of research or intervention within the field of psychology or development studies, even though rural development is in part obviously shaped by psychosocial factors. Thus, in this discussion paper, we argue the need for PsyRD, explore how it may provide new insights and tools for analysis vis‐à‐vis rural development scenarios and issues of social equity and outline the shape that, in our view, such a psychology should take. First, the multiple dimensions of rural development and the many practical problems faced by rural development agents contain strong psychosocial elements that require contributions from psychology. Yet at the same time, the psychological literature on this topic contains many limitations and biases, which leads us to, in the second part of the paper lay the groundwork for a PsyRD that focuses on the importance of adopting a critical and interdisciplinary approach capable of dealing with complexity and multidetermination. Finally, we conclude by outlining the challenges of PsyRD. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intersecting heterologies

The author proposes that it has largely been underestimated that the therapeutic community is placed within two discourses – that of therapy and that of community – and has almost exclusively focused on the first. In so doing, it has been restricted within a medical or pseudo-medical conceptual framework. In an appeal to re-frame the discussion about the therapeutic community in relation to its forgotten discourse reference is principally made to the work of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and to two of his sources – Heidegger and Socrates – and more specifically to Lacan’s notion of lack which is contrasted to modernity’s trope of expectation which corresponds to the Imaginary phallus.     

农村医疗救助的目标探讨

为探讨新形势下农村医疗救助制度目标机制的设计,提高制度靶向的准确性及效果,利用定性分析方法,结合医疗救助制度的功能分析,对现阶段该制度的目标对象及纳入依据进行了分析.研究认为,农民的医疗需求具有必需品性质,救助的水平以新农合为基本依托,同时,农村城镇化发展带来新的弱势人群的医疗保障问题提示,需因时、因地、因阶段设计医疗救助制度目标人群的纳入机制,提出按城乡划分、按阶层划分、按收入划分作为目标机制设计的依托是解决当前农村救助制度不公平问题的有效方式.     

Good design as design for good: exploring how design can be ethically and environmentally sustainable by co-designing an eco-hostel within a Mayan community

Designers acknowledge that their skills can assist the visualization and materialization of a desirable future and have gone as far as proposing that design can achieve societal change. Designing for a better world is associated with decreasing environmental depletion impacts while making good for both people and the environment, if possible. Evidently, this is a space where design deals with ethical matters, defining what is good or questioning if good has a universal meaning. This paper discusses the case of Aalto LAB Mexico's (ALM) Eco-hostel project, a practical and ethical design exploration. It shares the impressions of the design team when co-designing with(in) the Mayan community of ‘20 de Noviembre’ (20 Nov), located in Calakmul, Campeche, México. The Eco-hostel project was proposed as an element which can play a central role in achieving betterment of several aspects of the community's daily life. Several of those aspects were communicated by the inhabitants of 20 Nov, and some others were identified by ALM's experts. Whereas some universal principles were applicable to the construction, the context-centred approach of ALM generated a unique proposal, conceptualized to achieve harmony with the local environmental and cultural conditions.     

Tele‐web Psychology in Rural South Australia: The Logistics of Setting Up a Remote University Clinic Staffed by Clinical Psychologists in Training

There is a significant shortage of clinical psychology services in rural and remote Australia. It is proposed that tele‐web psychology may provide one potential solution to this inequity in health provision. A tele‐web psychology project was developed through a partnership between a university and country health service setting in rural South Australia. Tele‐web psychology was conducted by Provisional Psychologists on their first clinical placement, with patients attending sessions in a community mental health team hub in a regional centre north of Adelaide. This article describes the logistics of setting up a collaborative tele‐web psychology service and makes recommendations on how to expedite the success of this type of venture.     

Health-related quality of life among people living with hiv disease in small communities and rural areas

Abstract

While many studies have examined the life quality of HIV-infected persons in large metropolitan areas, few studies have investigated quality of life issues among persons living with HIV disease in America's small and rural communities. In the present study, 78 people living with HIV/AIDS in small and rural communities (i.e., populations <25,000) reported on their health-related quality of life. Many respondents reported decreased social, emotional, functional, and physical well-being. Results revealed that participants' emotional well-being and the quality of their relationship with their doctor were related to their overall quality of life. The majority of participants (73%) expressed interest in participating in a telephone-linked support group involving other people living with HIV designed to improve quality of life.