Study objective: To propose a definition of health equity to guide operationalisation and measurement, and to discuss the practical importance of clarity in defining this concept. Design: Conceptual discussion. Setting, Patients/Participants, and Main results: not applicable. Conclusions: For the purposes of measurement and operationalisation, equity in health is the absence of systematic dispa...

There is increasing policy recognition that the alleviation of social isolation and loneliness in older people should be prioritised. Recently, technology, such as telephone networks and the Internet, has received attention in supporting isolated and lonely older people. Despite lack of evidence, telephone befriending has been considered an effective low-level method to decrease loneliness amon...

A huge research literature, across the behavioral and social sciences, uses information on individuals' subjective well-being. These are responses to questions--asked by survey interviewers or medical personnel--such as, "How happy do you feel on a scale from 1 to 4?" Yet there is little scientific evidence that such data are meaningful. This study examines a 2005-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Su...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between psychological well-being and social solidarity of apartment residents in Shahrekord, Iran. METHODS A sample of 200 apartment dwellers was selected randomly. Fessler Social Solidarity Inventory and General Health Questionnaire were used to gather data. RESULTS Using partial correlation test and having controlled the effect of age, sex and educati...

Standard economic analysis assumes that people make choices that maximise their utility. Yet both popular discourse and other fields assume that people sometimes fail to make optimal choices and thus adversely affect their own happiness. Most social sciences thus frequently describe some patterns of decision as suboptimal. We review evidence of suboptimal choices that arise for two reasons. Fir...

Preface The authors are very grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for supporting this work as part of a wider project, 'Births out of Wedlock and Cognitive and Social Development throughout Childhood: A Quantitative Analysis' (grant number CPF/37467). The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and innovatio...

We define social support as "an exchange of resources between two individuals perceived by the provider or the recipient to be intended to enhance the wellbeing of the recipient.'' We then discuss the assumptions and implications of this definition and address several gaps in the support literature. Specifically, we consider the costs and benefits of supportive exchanges for both participants, ...

Public Health 2016, the Canadian Public Health Association's annual conference, was held from June 13 to 16, 2016, in Toronto, Canada, and showcased a wide variety of public health issues that fostered considerable discussion at the conference and on social media. The four plenary sessions, while on seemingly disparate topics including technology, violence prevention, racism and harm reduction,...

BACKGROUND The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for information sharing among family members is increasing dramatically. However, little is known about the associated factors and the influence on family well-being. OBJECTIVE The authors investigated the pattern and social determinants of family life information sharing with family and the associations of different meth...

Currently, around one in five children in the United Kingdom and the United States live in poverty. This has a devastating effect on their wellbeing, education and broader socio-political participation, and life chances. In this paper, Scottish policy documentary data are used to discuss the effects of relations amongst categories of children in poverty, migrant child status, and academic under...