Biomedical subjects

Wilbur C Hadden

Publications and source records attributed to Wilbur C Hadden.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

The accuracy of address coding and the effects of coding errors.

Studies that estimate the influence of characteristics of place on health often use geocoded addresses to identify location of study subjects. This study uses housing built before 1990 selected for the 1995-2001 National Health Interview Survey (N=252,421) to develop a standard against which geocodes obtained from an address-coding program are compared. The results show that geocoding is generally accurate and is more successful in urban areas. Blockgroups with missing codes are more rural and somewhat poorer than blockgroups with correct codes. The effect of incorrect codes on statistical analyses depends on the proportion rural in a study population.

Censuses↗

PubMed2004

Social class, race/ethnicity and all-cause mortality in the US: longitudinal results from the 1986-1994 National Health Interview Survey.

BACKGROUND: Occupational social class has become a leading indicator of social inequalities in health. In the US, economic sectors are distinct with respect to wages, benefits, job security, promotion ladders and working conditions. The growing economic sector of self-employed workers is characterized by lower wages and benefits, and greater job insecurity. Little attention has been given to the association between economic sector measures of social class and all-cause mortality, and there have been no studies of mortality among the self-employed. METHODS: To determine risk of death associated with economic sector social class, this study entails a longitudinal analysis of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual household survey representative of the US population for the period 1986-1994 (n = 377,129). The sample includes 201,566 men and 175,563 women, aged 24-65 years of age, in the civilian labor force. RESULTS: Non- professionals are at higher risk of death than professionals across all sectors and self-employed professionals are at higher risk of death than professionals employed in government and production. Additional social class differences are accounted for by age, race, gender and marital status. Results are also partially explained by income. After controlling for income, Black professionals did not show a lower risk of death than Black non-professionals and self-employed Hispanic professionals had a higher risk of death than Hispanic professionals employed in the private sector. CONCLUSIONS: Given the growth of self-employment in the US, the noted increased risk of death among self-employed professionals merits further investigation and monitoring.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Influences of asthma and household environment on lung function in children and adolescents: the third national health and nutrition examination survey.

The authors examined influences of asthma and household environment (passive smoking, use of a gas stove, and having a dog or cat) on five measures of spirometric lung function among 8- to 16-year-old subjects, as measured cross-sectionally in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) (1988-1994). In regression models, independent variables included asthma status, household environmental factors, age, and anthropometric measurements. Regression analyses were weighted by the NHANES III examination sample weighting factor, and results were adjusted for clustering in the sampling design. There were distinct sex differences in the results. In girls, lung function was lowest among active asthmatics taking prescription respiratory medicine, whereas lung function in other active and inactive asthmatics did not differ greatly from that in nonasthmatics. In boys, however, all groups of asthmatics had substantially lower lung function than nonasthmatics. Differences in lung function between active asthmatics and nonasthmatics were stable with increasing age. However, the lung function of inactive asthmatic girls and boys returned to and diverged from nonasthmatics' levels, respectively. In asthmatic girls, passive smoking was associated with reduced lung function; having a dog or cat was associated with increased lung function; and gas stove use was associated with reduced lung function among subjects not taking prescription respiratory medicine.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Social stratification, development and health in Pakistan: an empirical exploration of relationships in population-based national health examination survey data.

There is a growing literature on an overall direct relationship between health and social position in developed countries. The relationship, however, is less well documented in developing countries where social hierarchies are changing more rapidly, demographic and health transitions are less advanced, and this topic has received less attention from researchers than in some developed countries. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the relationship between social stratification and social development and population health using data on over 6000 adults from the National Health Survey of Pakistan, a nationally representative health examination survey of people in that country. We analyze four indicators of poor nutrition in adults from this data set. The findings reveal complex relationships among social development, social stratification and the consequences for the health of the people of Pakistan. Underweight is related to economic status, anemia to education and social development, and both severe dental caries and a monotonous diet are related to both development and economic status which interact with each other. These results suggest that continued conceptual refinement and the development of standardized measures of stratification and development would contribute to building cross-nationally comparable data sets addressing issues of the relationship among health and economic development and health transitions.

Adolescent↗