Revisiting the role of education in attitudes toward immigration in different contexts in Europe.

Unlabelled: Among the individual determinants of attitudes toward immigration, the liberalising role of education is well known-those with higher levels of education tend to be more in favour of immigration. However, recent socioeconomic changes and idiosyncratic differences between European countries prompt us to reassess the role of education, given these contextual differences. Does it still apply, and is it universal? Moreover, does this relationship apply to both cultural and economic attitudes toward immigration? Using data from the European Social Survey, we analyse the role of education and socioeconomic changes in shaping economic and cultural attitudes toward immigration in 15 European countries over 16 years using a hierarchical model with cross-classified random effects.

Socioeconomic inequalities in depression and the role of job conditions in China.

Background: The rising prevalence of depression in China, coupled with a tightening job market, highlights concern for the workforce's mental health. Although socioeconomic inequalities in depression have been well documented in high-income countries, the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and depression, along with its work-related mediators, has not been sufficiently studied in China.

Methods: The study participants are 6,536 non-agriculturally employed working adults from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS).

The association of temperature extremes, ecosystem resilience, with child mortality: Novel evidence from India.

The present study investigates how ecosystem resilience affects children's health and acts as a protective shield against high temperature exposure. Ecosystem resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to absorb anthropogenic or climatic shocks and recover from those shocks. The study used various data sources to estimate the impact of temperature extremes on child mortality in India.

Alignment, Anticipation, Adaptation, or Lagging Behind? Age-Based Regulations in Assisted Reproduction and Late Fertility.

This paper focuses on age restrictions on access to infertility treatments and eligibility for their public reimbursement, exploring their relevancy in contexts of rising late birth rates (40+). I explore how age-based reimbursement policies for in vitro fertilization treatments have responded to these fertility trends in 27 high-income countries and in which regulatory frameworks for medically assisted reproduction (MAR) very late births (45+) have particularly increased. First, I show that while age limits for treatment reimbursement are well aligned with the prevalence of late fertility in some national contexts, in most countries, strict age restrictions are lagging behind the rise in late births.

A dataset of human capital-weighted population estimates for 185 countries from 1970 to 2100.

We provide a novel dataset of human capital-weighted population size (HCWP) for 185 countries from 1970 to 2100. HCWP summarizes a population's productive capacity and human capital heterogeneity in a single metric, enabling comparisons across countries and over time. The weights are derived from Mincerian earnings functions applied to multi-country census data on educational attainment.

Assessing groundwater quality and its association with child undernutrition in India.

Background And Objectives: Groundwater contamination poses a significant health challenge in India, particularly impacting children. Despite its importance, limited research has explored the nexus between groundwater quality and child nutrition outcomes. This study addresses this gap, examining the association between groundwater quality and child undernutrition, offering pertinent insights for policymakers.

Scenarios of Delayed First Births and Associated Cohort Fertility Levels.

Fertility rates among individuals in their 20s have fallen sharply across Europe over the past 50 years. The implications of delayed first births for fertility levels in modern family regimes remain little understood. Using microsimulation models of childbearing and partnership for the 1970-1979 birth cohorts in Italy, Great Britain, Sweden, and Norway, we implement fictive scenarios that reduce the risk of having a first child before age 30 and examine fertility recovery mechanisms for aggregate fertility indicators (the proportion of women with at least one, two, three, or four children; cohort completed fertility rate).

Informal and formal long-term care utilization and unmet needs in Europe: examining socioeconomic disparities and the role of social policies for older adults.

The rising number of older adults with limitations in their daily activities has major implications for the demands placed on long-term care (LTC) systems across Europe. Recognizing that demand can be both constrained and encouraged by individual and country-specific factors, this study explains the uptake of home-based long-term care in 18 European countries with LTC policies and pension generosity along with individual factors such as socioeconomic status. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe conducted in 2019, we apply a two-part multilevel model to assess if disparities in use of LTC are driven by disparities in needs or disparities in use of care when in need.

Change in the perceived reproductive age window and delayed fertility in Europe.

While extensive literature documents the massive fertility delay of recent decades, knowledge about whether and how attitudes towards the timing of births have changed in Europe remains limited. Using data from two rounds of the European Social Survey, we investigate these changes and their association with macro-level fertility indicators in 21 countries. Between 2006-07 and 2018-19, societal consensus regarding the existence of optimal childbearing ages remained strong and became more in favour of later parenthood.

Riding the waves from epidemic to endemic: Viral mutations, immunological change and policy responses.

Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are an important tool for countering pandemics such as COVID-19. Some are cheap; others disrupt economic, educational, and social activity. The latter force governments to balance the health benefits of reduced infection and death against broader lockdown-induced societal costs.

The optimal momentum of population growth and decline.

About 50 years ago, Keyfitz (1971) asked how much further a growing human population would increase if its fertility rate were immediately to be reduced to replacement level and remain there forever. The reason for demographic momentum is an age-structure inertia due to relatively many potential parents because of past high fertility. Although nobody expects such a miraculous reduction in reproductive behavior, a gradual decline in fertility in rapidly growing populations seems inevitable.

Parental sociodemographics of medically assisted reproduction births in the United States: a dyadic population-level study.

Objective: To study how men's and couples' sociodemographic characteristics predict the probability of having a birth conceived using medically assisted reproduction (MAR) in the United States.

Design: Population-based study.

Setting: Not applicable.

The impact of interpersonal reporting heterogeneity on cross-country differences in Healthy Life Years in Europe.

Background: The European Union has used Healthy Life Years (HLY) as an indicator to monitor the health of its aging populations. Scholarly and popular interest in HLY across countries has grown, particularly regarding the ranking of countries. It is important to note that HLY is based on self-assessments of activity limitations, raising the possibility that it might be influenced by differences in health reporting behaviours between populations, a phenomenon known as differential item functioning (DIF).

Trends in cancer-free working life expectancy based on health insurance data from Germany-Is the increase as strong as in working life expectancy?

Background: Against the backdrop of population ageing, governments are facing the need to raise the statutory retirement age. In this context, the question arises whether these extra years added to working life would be spent in good health. As cancer represents a main contributor to premature retirement this study focuses on time trends and educational inequalities in cancer-free working life expectancy (WLE).

The hammer and the jab: Are COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccinations complements or substitutes?

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated lives and economies around the world. Initially a primary response was locking down parts of the economy to reduce social interactions and, hence, the virus' spread. After vaccines have been developed and produced in sufficient quantity, they can largely replace broad lock downs.

Childbirth timing and completed family size by the mode of conception-the role of medically assisted reproduction: a population-based cohort study in Australia.

Background: With declining total fertility rates to below replacement levels amongst all high-, middle- and low-income countries, coupled with increasing use of medically assisted reproduction (MAR) treatments globally, we describe the impact of these treatments on completed family size and childbearing timing in a country with unlimited publicly funded access to MAR.

Methods: We utilised a unique longitudinal propensity score-weighted population-based birth cohort that included nulliparous mothers who gave birth after all major forms of MAR treatments (assisted reproductive technologies [ART], ovulation induction [OI], and intrauterine insemination [IUI]) and after natural conception (reference category) in Australia, 2003-2017. We followed first-time mothers over their reproductive lifespan (15-50 years).

The effect of sample attrition in the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions on the estimates of Eurostat's Healthy Life Years.

Eurostat's official Healthy Life Years (HLY) estimates are based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) cross-sectional data. As EU-SILC has a rotational sample design, the largest part of the samples are longitudinal, health-related attrition constituting a potential source of bias of these estimates. Bland-Altman plots assessing the agreement between pairs of HLY based on total and new rotational, representative samples demonstrated no significant, systematic attrition-related bias.

Financial incentives and antibiotic prescribing patterns: Evidence from dispensing physicians in a public healthcare system.

To ensure sufficient access to healthcare in remote areas, some countries allow physicians to directly dispense prescribed drugs through on-site pharmacies. Depending on the medication prescribed, this may pose a significant financial incentive for physicians to over-prescribe. This study, therefore, explored the effect of on-site pharmacies on antibiotic dispensing in a social health insurance system.

Differential impact of maternal education on under-five mortality in rural and urban India.

Under-five mortality rate (U5MR) differs by rural-urban place of residence and mother's education; however, the rural-urban gap in U5MR by mother's educational attainment is unclear in the existing literature. Using five rounds of the national family health surveys (NFHS I-V) conducted between 1992-93 and 2019-21 in India, this study estimated the main and interaction effects of rural-urban and maternal education on U5MR. The mixed effect Cox proportional hazard (MECPH) model was used to predict the risk of under-five mortality (U5M).

Projecting the Contribution of Assisted Reproductive Technology to Completed Cohort Fertility.

Unlabelled: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is increasingly influencing the fertility trends of high-income countries characterized by a pattern of delayed childbearing. However, research on the impact of ART on completed fertility is limited and the extent to which delayed births are realized later in life through ART is not well understood. This study uses data from Australian fertility clinics and national birth registries to project the contribution of ART for cohorts of women that have not yet completed their reproductive life and estimate the role played by ART in the fertility 'recuperation' process.

Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on immigration in receiving high-income countries.

Previous studies have examined the impact of COVID-19 on mortality and fertility. However, little is known about the effect of the pandemic on constraining international migration. We use Eurostat and national statistics data on immigration and ARIMA time-series models to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on immigration flows in 15 high-income countries by forecasting their counterfactual levels in 2020, assuming no pandemic, and comparing these estimates with observed immigration counts.

Well-Being Adjusted Health Expectancy: A New Summary Measure of Population Health.

Unlabelled: We propose a new summary measure of population health (SMPH), the well-being-adjusted health expectancy (WAHE). WAHE belongs to a subgroup of health-adjusted life expectancy indicators and gives the number of life years equivalent to full health. WAHE combines health and mortality information into a single indicator with weights that quantify the reduction in well-being associated with decreased health.

Cross-sectional estimates of population health from the survey of health and retirement in Europe (SHARE) are biased due to health-related sample attrition.

Cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) are a common source of information in comparative studies of population health in Europe. In the largest part, these data are based on longitudinal samples, which are subject to health-specific attrition. This implies that estimates of population health based on cross-sectional SHARE datasets are biased as the data are selected on the outcome variable of interest.