[Tuberculosis and Socioeconomic Indicators: Systematic Review of the Literature.]

[Tuberculosis and socioeconomic indicators: systematic review of the literature.]

Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2013 Apr; 33(4): 294-301
San Pedro A, Oliveira RM

OBJECTIVE: To review the literature to determine the existence of associations between socioeconomic factors (individual and collective) and the presence of tuberculosis. METHODS: A systematic literature review was carried out in SciELO, Lilacs, Medline, and Scopus using the following search terms: poverty, social indicators, socioeconomic factors, and tuberculosis (in Portuguese, English, and Spanish). Studies having individuals as the unit of analysis were classified according to study design and dependent variable. Ecological studies were classified according to levels of spatial aggregation of data and dependent variable. For each article, the following were recorded: study title, country of origin, year the study was carried out, authors, language, objective, level of spatial aggregation, and indicators used in the analysis. RESULTS: For individual level studies, a direct statistical association was observed between tuberculosis and alcohol addiction, HIV coinfection, low schooling, marital status, low income, lack of food, immigration, and previous contact with tuberculosis patients. For collective analyses, an indirect association was observed for variables relating to gross domestic product per capita, human development index, and basic sanitation at the country level. Indicators relating to crowding, poverty density, schooling, decline in family income, and households receiving governmental cash support were directly associated with tuberculosis at different levels of spatial aggregation. CONCLUSIONS: The studies analyzed indicate a persisting relationship between socioeconomic indicators and the production of tuberculosis both at the individual and collective levels. The association between tuberculosis and socioeconomic indicators seems to be influenced by both the level of spatial aggregation and specific characteristics of geographic areas. HubMed – addiction

Social and Parasocial Relationships on Social Network Sites and Their Differential Relationships with Users’ Psychological Well-being.

Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2013 May 22;
Baek YM, Bae Y, Jang H

Abstract With the advent of social network sites (SNSs), people can efficiently maintain preexisting social relationships and make online friendships without offline encounters. While such technological features of SNSs hold a variety of potential for individual and collective benefits, some scholars warn that use of SNSs might lead to socially negative consequences, such as social isolation, erosion of social cohesion, or SNS addiction. This study distinguishes types of SNS relationships, and investigates their relationships with social isolation, interpersonal trust, and SNS addiction. We classify SNS relationships into two types: (a) social relationships based on reciprocity between a user and his/her friends, and (b) parasocial relationships in which an ordinary user is aware of activities of a celebrity (e.g., famous actors, athletes, and others) but not vice versa. Based on achievements in studies of media effect and social psychology, we constructed a set of hypotheses, and tested them using a subsample of SNS users drawn from representative survey data in South Korea. We found that dependency on parasocial relationships is positively related with loneliness but negatively correlated with interpersonal distrust, while dependency on social relationship is negatively correlated with loneliness but positively related with trust. However, more dependency on both social and parasocial relationships are positively related with SNS addiction. Implications based on findings are also discussed. HubMed – addiction

Basic epidemiology of opiate misuse substitution treatment in Belgium.

J Pharm Belg. 2012 Sep; 30-9
Ledoux Y

The Substitution Treatment National Registry provided from mid 2006 till mid 2009 an exhaustive documentation on all patients being prescribed methadone or buprenorphine in Belgium. This endeavour was possible through cooperation of all community pharmacies and their representative organizations was supported at the time by the former Health federal minister. The Liberal belgian opiate medical substitution process authorizes untill now de facto any doctor to prescribe methadone and pharmacists are supported to dispense it. Results show the regional, provincial and county numbers of professionals and patients prevalence in the population. Nationwide, n = 16974 patients (prevalence for population aged 20-64: 26/10000) have been offered substitution from mid 2008 till mid 2009, n = 3390 pharmacies 164,4% of all pharmacies) and n = 2937 MDs (16,75% of all MDs) have been involved. Subutex or Suboxone have been dispensed to 11,1% of substitution patients with 7,4% receiving only buprenorphine on a yearly basis. Number of substitution patients by MD and prevalence by gender, age group and region are presented. Important variations are observed locally, possibly mirroring heroin addiction due to widespread access to substitution treatment. Younger patients are more prevalent in semi rural or border areas. The exhaustivity of available data enables also to observe patients quitting substitution altogether and a strong difference of maintenance rate is observed favoring methadone over buprenorphine. HubMed – addiction

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