Browsing by Subject "health"
Now showing items 1-16 of 16
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(2019)Forestry is a hazardous industry globally. Physical conditions, legal frameworks and cultural norms can vary from country to country leading to different approaches to site safety management. There are international, national and regional legislation and guidelines which outline normative approaches land managers can utilise to protect forestry machine operators and the public from accident or injury. In this study, the approaches the health and safety management in forestry operations are assessed in two countries within the European Union –Scotland (as part of the UK member state) and Finland. While both countries practice sustainable forest management, it is shown that this is carried out under different legal frameworks leading to differences in approach to site safety planning. Other factors are shown to have an effect including cultural factors and land ownership patterns.
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(2021)Goals Length of human lifespan is an important measure of societal welfare. Mortality is largely linked to physical health, but psychological well-being has also been shown to predict mortality, happier people living longer lives. Psychological well-being can be construed as both subjective well-being (SWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB), and measures belonging to both of these constructs have been shown to individually predict mortality. No study to date has, however, compared these differing measures of psychological well-being as predictors of mortality. This study compares measures of life satisfaction (a part of SWB) and purpose in life (a part of EWB) as predictors of mortality. Methods The data used in this study comes from the Midlife in the US (MIDUS) survey, a large-scale longitudinal study spanning almost 20 years. MIDUS includes measures for life satisfaction and purpose in life, as well as data on mortality and many health behaviors with a sample of N=3768. Effects of life satisfaction and purpose in life on mortality were analysed with multiple Cox proportional hazards models. Results Life satisfaction predicts mortality when modeled alone, as does purpose in life. When modeled together, only purpose in life predicts mortality. This finding stands when additional health behavior variables are controlled, but when the sample is stratified by sex, the relation between life satisfaction and mortality also reaches marginal significance for women but not men. Conclusions This study shows that purpose in life might be a better predictor of mortality compared to life satisfaction. The results also give preliminary support for a hypothesis that purpose, and by proxy EWB, is closer to the evolutionary and physiological core of psychological well-being.
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(2021)Goals Length of human lifespan is an important measure of societal welfare. Mortality is largely linked to physical health, but psychological well-being has also been shown to predict mortality, happier people living longer lives. Psychological well-being can be construed as both subjective well-being (SWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB), and measures belonging to both of these constructs have been shown to individually predict mortality. No study to date has, however, compared these differing measures of psychological well-being as predictors of mortality. This study compares measures of life satisfaction (a part of SWB) and purpose in life (a part of EWB) as predictors of mortality. Methods The data used in this study comes from the Midlife in the US (MIDUS) survey, a large-scale longitudinal study spanning almost 20 years. MIDUS includes measures for life satisfaction and purpose in life, as well as data on mortality and many health behaviors with a sample of N=3768. Effects of life satisfaction and purpose in life on mortality were analysed with multiple Cox proportional hazards models. Results Life satisfaction predicts mortality when modeled alone, as does purpose in life. When modeled together, only purpose in life predicts mortality. This finding stands when additional health behavior variables are controlled, but when the sample is stratified by sex, the relation between life satisfaction and mortality also reaches marginal significance for women but not men. Conclusions This study shows that purpose in life might be a better predictor of mortality compared to life satisfaction. The results also give preliminary support for a hypothesis that purpose, and by proxy EWB, is closer to the evolutionary and physiological core of psychological well-being.
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(2020)Previous research has shown that colonization had profound impacts on precolonial Indigenous communities in North America. From the first contact, the explorers’ perception was colored by Eurocentric ideas rooted in European social systems, religion, cultures, and values, which called into question the moral worth and very humanity of Indigenous peoples. In Canada, colonialism introduced Indigenous peoples with a new social order, including new political, social, cultural, and economic structures, as well as a new stigmatized Indigenous identity, which became foundational for subsequent laws, policies, and institutional practices that aimed to erase those very elements deemed problematic. In Canada, Indigenous people have since colonization persistently suffered from poorer health compared to settler and more recent immigrant populations. Research points to both proximal and distal determinants behind the disparities documented in Indigenous health, and suggests that along with contemporary socioeconomic conditions, the distal factors of colonialism, virgin soil epidemics, and policies of subjugation and assimilation have been traumatic and have contributed negatively to the contemporary Indigenous population’s health. This research thesis is located in the field of medical anthropology and examines health, illness, and healing as culturally shaped, personal, embodied, and shared experiences, meanings, and illness realities. The theory used this thesis rests on an embodied meaning-centered approach of illness, which suggests that elements from the psychobiological, sociocultural, symbolic, political, and historical experiential realms blend to form a network of meanings for a sufferer, an embodied experience of an illness world that is shared as part of a community. Situated in the context of colonial history and present health disparities, the research questions of this thesis center on discovering major themes of embodied experiences and meanings of health, illness, and healing in an urban Indigenous community. Altogether eight weeks of daily ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in an Indigenous urban community in Vancouver, Canada, in the spring of 2017. The data for this thesis consisted of fieldnotes, ten individual interviews and one group interview, taped public speeches, photographs, and videos. A thematic analysis identified six significant categories of embodied meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing in community narratives: colonization and colonialisms, colonization traumas, structural violence, survivance and resilience, reconciliation, and healing with culture. This thesis establishes that colonization and various colonialisms with policies of subjugation and assimilation are seen by community members as profoundly traumatic events with negative impacts on health that persist intergenerationally to this day. Collective memories of colonization and colonialisms inform what it once meant to be healthy, how communities became sick, and how they can become healthy again. Due to contemporary experiences of structural violence and racism, Indigenous community members continue to experience Canada as an enduring colonial space. Healing for community members is achieved by decolonizing minds from the once stigmatized identities introduced by colonization and by reindigenizing their world through reintroducing the original cultures and cultural identities back into their daily practices and healing their perceptions of the self.
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(2020)Previous research has shown that colonization had profound impacts on precolonial Indigenous communities in North America. From the first contact, the explorers’ perception was colored by Eurocentric ideas rooted in European social systems, religion, cultures, and values, which called into question the moral worth and very humanity of Indigenous peoples. In Canada, colonialism introduced Indigenous peoples with a new social order, including new political, social, cultural, and economic structures, as well as a new stigmatized Indigenous identity, which became foundational for subsequent laws, policies, and institutional practices that aimed to erase those very elements deemed problematic. In Canada, Indigenous people have since colonization persistently suffered from poorer health compared to settler and more recent immigrant populations. Research points to both proximal and distal determinants behind the disparities documented in Indigenous health, and suggests that along with contemporary socioeconomic conditions, the distal factors of colonialism, virgin soil epidemics, and policies of subjugation and assimilation have been traumatic and have contributed negatively to the contemporary Indigenous population’s health. This research thesis is located in the field of medical anthropology and examines health, illness, and healing as culturally shaped, personal, embodied, and shared experiences, meanings, and illness realities. The theory used this thesis rests on an embodied meaning-centered approach of illness, which suggests that elements from the psychobiological, sociocultural, symbolic, political, and historical experiential realms blend to form a network of meanings for a sufferer, an embodied experience of an illness world that is shared as part of a community. Situated in the context of colonial history and present health disparities, the research questions of this thesis center on discovering major themes of embodied experiences and meanings of health, illness, and healing in an urban Indigenous community. Altogether eight weeks of daily ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in an Indigenous urban community in Vancouver, Canada, in the spring of 2017. The data for this thesis consisted of fieldnotes, ten individual interviews and one group interview, taped public speeches, photographs, and videos. A thematic analysis identified six significant categories of embodied meanings and experiences of health, illness, and healing in community narratives: colonization and colonialisms, colonization traumas, structural violence, survivance and resilience, reconciliation, and healing with culture. This thesis establishes that colonization and various colonialisms with policies of subjugation and assimilation are seen by community members as profoundly traumatic events with negative impacts on health that persist intergenerationally to this day. Collective memories of colonization and colonialisms inform what it once meant to be healthy, how communities became sick, and how they can become healthy again. Due to contemporary experiences of structural violence and racism, Indigenous community members continue to experience Canada as an enduring colonial space. Healing for community members is achieved by decolonizing minds from the once stigmatized identities introduced by colonization and by reindigenizing their world through reintroducing the original cultures and cultural identities back into their daily practices and healing their perceptions of the self.
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(2017)Highly sensitive people feel things deeper and more intensely, and they sense nuances and details more precisely than other people. In addition, they process their observations and in-formation more deeply. Our society has been built largely by non highly sensitive people that make the conditions more favorable for them. The performance-driven society with its pres-sure and the tremendous amount of stimuli in the environment are driving highly sensitive people´s health and well-being to their limits. The aim of the thesis was to increase the awareness of sensory processing sensitivity and highly sensitive people`s health and to find ways to cope with the demands of society. The research examines which factors affect the health of highly sensitive people and how their health can be promoted. The thesis was implemented as an integral literary review, which is quite permissible for im-plementation, and can be used to look at the subject of the study in a variety of ways. The material consists of one research article and three books and one guide. The title was ob-tained by retrieving research articles from electronic databases and by manually adding other related literature. The selected material was analysed by material-based content analysis. Based on the analysis of the material, there was found a causal relationship between highly sensitive people and their more sensitive nervous system. A more sensitive nervous system expose highly sensitive people to over-stimulation and stress. Long-term over-stimulation and stress can lead to fatigue, depression, and other stress-related illnesses. Based on the cause-effect on health, it was concluded that the major health determinants were over-stimulation and stress. Based on this guideline, over-stimulation and stress management could be con-sidered to be a health-promoting activity for highly sensitive people. According to the data, over-stimulation and stress management can be accomplished, for example, by exercise, nu-trition and rest, and by looking for a balance on how much is involved with the world. The re-sults indicate that the health of highly sensitive people can be promoted by the choices and actions one makes during their daily life.
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(2020)Food literacy is a noteworthy topic to be studied due to food’s considerable environmental and health effects. When food literacy and its characteristics are known, food literacy can be used as a tool to improve people’s health and the condition of the environment. Thus, this thesis aims to reveal the extent of food literacy among Finnish upper secondary school students. In this context, food literacy emphasises food-related environmental and health knowledge. Environmental knowledge is understanding of the global environmental impact of food. Health knowledge, on the other hand, is the familiarity with the relationship between excessive meat consumption and Finnish common diseases along with beliefs regarding diets and food products as a source of protein. This thesis also aims to identify to what extent does the food literacy differ based on gender, study year and living area. This study was performed as a quantitative sample survey and the data was collected using an online Typeform -questionnaire. The questionnaire reached respondents from many different Finnish localities, mainly from cities. The final data consisted of 1320 individuals and it was analysed using IMB SPSS Statistics 24 software. The following methods were used to analyse data: frequency analysis, an Independent Samples t Test, a One-way ANOVA, and a Post-hoc LSD test. Gender, study year and living area were used as grouping variables to examine the differences between groups. The results show that the students named school as the main source of food literacy. Moreover, the results indicate that awareness regarding food production, dietary health and proteins increase significantly from the first to the third study year. The students acknowledged food production causing environmental problems and that the share of food in the consumer’s climatic impact is considerable. Nevertheless, the students underestimated the climatic impact of cheese and they were unaware of the more specific characteristics of food’s environmental impacts. They also had food-related environmental misconceptions considering packaging, transportation and meat consumption. Moreover, approximately half or more of the students were aware of the connection between excessive meat consumption and the increased risk of distinct common diseases. Most of the students acknowledged a versatile vegetarian diet as being a healthy choice. The study also reveals that female students had notably higher dietary health knowledge than male students. This Master’s thesis study mainly supports the findings of previous studies on food-related knowledge. The results elucidate the extent, characteristics, gaps and misconceptions of students’ food literacy. These findings may be utilized to improve school education on food literacy, alter misconceptions and fill the gaps of knowledge in pursuit of improving the health of people and the condition of the environment.
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(2020)Food literacy is a noteworthy topic to be studied due to food’s considerable environmental and health effects. When food literacy and its characteristics are known, food literacy can be used as a tool to improve people’s health and the condition of the environment. Thus, this thesis aims to reveal the extent of food literacy among Finnish upper secondary school students. In this context, food literacy emphasises food-related environmental and health knowledge. Environmental knowledge is understanding of the global environmental impact of food. Health knowledge, on the other hand, is the familiarity with the relationship between excessive meat consumption and Finnish common diseases along with beliefs regarding diets and food products as a source of protein. This thesis also aims to identify to what extent does the food literacy differ based on gender, study year and living area. This study was performed as a quantitative sample survey and the data was collected using an online Typeform -questionnaire. The questionnaire reached respondents from many different Finnish localities, mainly from cities. The final data consisted of 1320 individuals and it was analysed using IMB SPSS Statistics 24 software. The following methods were used to analyse data: frequency analysis, an Independent Samples t Test, a One-way ANOVA, and a Post-hoc LSD test. Gender, study year and living area were used as grouping variables to examine the differences between groups. The results show that the students named school as the main source of food literacy. Moreover, the results indicate that awareness regarding food production, dietary health and proteins increase significantly from the first to the third study year. The students acknowledged food production causing environmental problems and that the share of food in the consumer’s climatic impact is considerable. Nevertheless, the students underestimated the climatic impact of cheese and they were unaware of the more specific characteristics of food’s environmental impacts. They also had food-related environmental misconceptions considering packaging, transportation and meat consumption. Moreover, approximately half or more of the students were aware of the connection between excessive meat consumption and the increased risk of distinct common diseases. Most of the students acknowledged a versatile vegetarian diet as being a healthy choice. The study also reveals that female students had notably higher dietary health knowledge than male students. This Master’s thesis study mainly supports the findings of previous studies on food-related knowledge. The results elucidate the extent, characteristics, gaps and misconceptions of students’ food literacy. These findings may be utilized to improve school education on food literacy, alter misconceptions and fill the gaps of knowledge in pursuit of improving the health of people and the condition of the environment.
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(2020)Objectives: Some individuals who live near wind farms have reported symptoms which they attribute to wind turbine infrasound (WTIS). The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether these individuals are perceptually sensitive to WTIS and thus possibly susceptible to WTIS-induced symptoms. A secondary aim was to investigate whether sham WTIS elicits stress, thus providing support for a nocebo explanation of symptom attributions. Methods: A series of laboratory experiments was conducted with participants who attributed experienced symptoms to wind turbines (symptomatic group, n = 11) and controls who did not (asymptomatic group, n = 13). Discrimination ability (d’) for wind turbine noise with and without infrasound (≤ 20 Hz) and low-frequency sound (≤ 100 Hz) was estimated with a two-interval same–different forced-choice task. Participants were also blindly exposed to WTIS for 7.5 minutes. Finally, participants underwent a sham infrasound exposure experiment without acoustic stimuli. Participants’ perceived stress level and electrodermal activity were measured to evaluate participants’ reactivity to WTIS and sham infrasound. Results: Participants were not found to discriminate wind turbine noise with infrasound from wind turbine noise without infrasound or to react to WTIS exposure. Participants could discriminate wind turbine noise with low-frequency sound from wind turbine noise without low-frequency sound. No differences were observed between groups. Sham infrasound did not elicit stress in either group. The symptomatic group generally reported greater levels of perceived stress and more pre-existing symptoms than the asymptomatic group. Conclusions: The results do not suggest an association between symptoms attributed to wind turbines and perceptual sensitivity to WTIS. Sham infrasound did not increase stress, and so symptomatic individuals may not associate symptoms with WTIS strongly enough for a nocebo response to occur. The greater reports of stress and pre-existing symptoms in the symptomatic group imply that symptoms might be misattributed to WTIS. Disturbance caused by audible low-frequency wind turbine noise might also influence symptom attributions.
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(2020)Objectives: Some individuals who live near wind farms have reported symptoms which they attribute to wind turbine infrasound (WTIS). The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether these individuals are perceptually sensitive to WTIS and thus possibly susceptible to WTIS-induced symptoms. A secondary aim was to investigate whether sham WTIS elicits stress, thus providing support for a nocebo explanation of symptom attributions. Methods: A series of laboratory experiments was conducted with participants who attributed experienced symptoms to wind turbines (symptomatic group, n = 11) and controls who did not (asymptomatic group, n = 13). Discrimination ability (d’) for wind turbine noise with and without infrasound (≤ 20 Hz) and low-frequency sound (≤ 100 Hz) was estimated with a two-interval same–different forced-choice task. Participants were also blindly exposed to WTIS for 7.5 minutes. Finally, participants underwent a sham infrasound exposure experiment without acoustic stimuli. Participants’ perceived stress level and electrodermal activity were measured to evaluate participants’ reactivity to WTIS and sham infrasound. Results: Participants were not found to discriminate wind turbine noise with infrasound from wind turbine noise without infrasound or to react to WTIS exposure. Participants could discriminate wind turbine noise with low-frequency sound from wind turbine noise without low-frequency sound. No differences were observed between groups. Sham infrasound did not elicit stress in either group. The symptomatic group generally reported greater levels of perceived stress and more pre-existing symptoms than the asymptomatic group. Conclusions: The results do not suggest an association between symptoms attributed to wind turbines and perceptual sensitivity to WTIS. Sham infrasound did not increase stress, and so symptomatic individuals may not associate symptoms with WTIS strongly enough for a nocebo response to occur. The greater reports of stress and pre-existing symptoms in the symptomatic group imply that symptoms might be misattributed to WTIS. Disturbance caused by audible low-frequency wind turbine noise might also influence symptom attributions.
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(2021)Childhood health is strongly connected with the health later in life. Healthy children are likely to grow up as healthy adults and health in general relates to many positive dimensions of life. However, a shock such as civil war encountered in childhood can have long lasting consequences for later health. The aim of the thesis was to examine how the civil war of 1918 in Finland impacted in the children’s health from four different schools in Helsinki. In addition, the thesis examined were the children’s living environment and previous disease history significant for the health and did there occur differences between the health of girls and boys. The data of the thesis consists of 1 781 elementary school children’s school health records from Kallio, Vallila, Töölö and Tehtaankatu schools in Helsinki, Finland. The data of the thesis is a subsample of historical data which consists of approximately 18 000 Helsinki elementary school student’s health records from the period of 1910-1932. The thesis describes the children’s disease history before the school age and the diseases that occurred during the school years. Height and weight growth curves were formed from the data to visualize the growth patterns of the children over time. In addition, height and weight curves were formed for three different birth cohorts that had gone to school before, during and after the civil war of 1918 to examine the possible differences in growth between the cohorts. Lastly, linear regression analysis was used to analyse were the age, the place of birth, the year of inspection, previous disease history and the school connected with the height and weight growth of the children. The height and weight growth curves showed that the children’s weight and height growth declined in the years 1918-1919. When comparing three birth cohorts, the children who went to school during the civil war of 1918 were shorter than those who went to school before and after the conflict. The most typical diseases that occurred among the children before the school age were measles and whooping cough. Based on the results of the regression analyses the girl’s height growth declined in the year 1919 with 0.82 cm which can indicate that the shock of 1918 became evident in the girl’s height growth in 1919. Having had measles before the school age reduced the height and weight of the boys with 0.86 cm and 0.77 kg. When height’s and weight’s standard deviation scores were regressed with the interaction of boy and measles variables, the connection of the interaction was negative and statistically significant indicating differences between boys and girls: measles was in connected with the boy’s height and weight but not girl’s. Boys who went Töölö and Tehtaankatu schools were taller and heavier than those who went to Kallio and Vallila schools and the results were statistically significant. Among girls, there were no statistically significant differences between students from different schools. The height and weight curves evidently showed that the civil war of 1918 had a negative affect for the children’s growth and therefore also for their health. Results of the regression analyses indicate, that for girl’s height the meaning of the civil war of 1918 was more significant than for boys. For boys, on the other hand, the meaning of having had measles before the school was significant as it reduced their height and weight growth. However, the mechanism behind the measles and reduced growth is ambiguous and there can be various explanations for it. For boys there were also statistically significant differences between students from different schools which reinforces the previous findings from the early 20th century studies concerning the health of the elementary school children. It is not however clear why the differences were only seen among boys and not girls and it is possible that a bigger sample size would have given different results.
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(2016)Previous studies have examined quality of life among people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) using quantitative measures and/or structured questionnaires. Recently some studies have focused on the patient's own perception of TBI and used the International Classification of Functioning, Disabilities and Health (ICF) framework to examine quality of life from a wider perspective of functioning. The aim of this study was to examine: What kind of occasions do the participants report as the happiest or unhappiest after TBI, and how are these related to the life areas within the ICF framework. An additional aim was to examine how are these life areas, as well as demographics variables, injury severity, and emotional state associated with the individuals' quality of life. A total of 233 Finnish persons with TBI participated in the Wave 1 of the international QOLIBRI (Quality of Life after Brain Injury) validation study in 2004—2006. The individuals' own descriptions about the happiest/unhappiest occasions were linked to the most precise ICF categories. Correlation and regression analysis were used to examine the association with demographic variables, injury related variable, emotional state, most frequently reported life areas and perceived quality of life. The most frequently reported life areas for both happy and unhappy occasions were Interpersonal interactions and relationships, followed by Community, social and civic life in happy occasions, and Mental functions and Services, systems and policies in both happy and unhappy occasions. Regression analysis showed that younger age, longer post-traumatic amnesia, fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, happy occasion related Mental functions and Community, civic and social life, and not reporting an unhappy occasion related to Mental functions, yet reporting unhappy occasions related to Interpersonal interactions and relationships, were associated with higher perceived quality of life. The results of this study are in line with previous studies that have shown emotional state, age, and injury severity as factors relevant to quality of life after TBI. Additionally, this study informs clinicians about the life areas that individuals with TBI themselves experience as most relevant to their quality of life. From the individuals' perspective, rehabilitation should focus on supporting social relationships, participation in community activities, using services and helping the persons to cope with the demands of the environment. Furthermore, individuals need emotional support to adapt to their new life situation.
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(2018)The thesis is about the relationship between health and wealth. The goal is to show that they are connected to each other, and that improving health can lead to improve of wealth. The first part discusses the effect of health on wealth and vice versa. It shows that better wealth is connected to better health and health increase lead to the wealth increase. Then there is a theoretical model by Grossman (1972) and which was modified by Jacobson (2000). The model shows that the health is seen as a stock and that individual can invest into the health during the lifetime. The model shows also the change, when there is a family without children (partners can invest into each other’s health) and the family with a child (parents invest into child’s health). The wage and education effect is shown and developed by Grossman (1972). The increase in wage leads to increase in health, individual has more money to visit the doctors. The increase in education also leads to increase in health, but in this case individual gets more information on healthy lifestyle and follows it. The literature review shows how education, social status, early childhood, family and nutrition affect the health. Better educated have better health and higher income. An additional year of education increases the life. Lower socioeconomic status increases the probability of consuming unhealthy goods and being less educated. The subjective social status affects the childhood, the mental health and the income. Family plays a crucial role: the mother’s health, parents education, family’s socioeconomic status effect the health of a child and the future income. The low birth weight, mental health problems in childhood and bad nutrition lead to problems in health in the future and lower income. When the connection between health and wealth, and factors affecting the health are known, it is easier to implement policies to increase the total health and wealth. The healthy individual is more productive and it leads to economic growth, what is another topic and also widely discussed.
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(2018)The thesis is about the relationship between health and wealth. The goal is to show that they are connected to each other, and that improving health can lead to improve of wealth. The first part discusses the effect of health on wealth and vice versa. It shows that better wealth is connected to better health and health increase lead to the wealth increase. Then there is a theoretical model by Grossman (1972) and which was modified by Jacobson (2000). The model shows that the health is seen as a stock and that individual can invest into the health during the lifetime. The model shows also the change, when there is a family without children (partners can invest into each other’s health) and the family with a child (parents invest into child’s health). The wage and education effect is shown and developed by Grossman (1972). The increase in wage leads to increase in health, individual has more money to visit the doctors. The increase in education also leads to increase in health, but in this case individual gets more information on healthy lifestyle and follows it. The literature review shows how education, social status, early childhood, family and nutrition affect the health. Better educated have better health and higher income. An additional year of education increases the life. Lower socioeconomic status increases the probability of consuming unhealthy goods and being less educated. The subjective social status affects the childhood, the mental health and the income. Family plays a crucial role: the mother’s health, parents education, family’s socioeconomic status effect the health of a child and the future income. The low birth weight, mental health problems in childhood and bad nutrition lead to problems in health in the future and lower income. When the connection between health and wealth, and factors affecting the health are known, it is easier to implement policies to increase the total health and wealth. The healthy individual is more productive and it leads to economic growth, what is another topic and also widely discussed.
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(2022)This thesis discusses various depictions of women’s mental illness and disability in Roman Stoic philosophy, historiography, medical texts, and legislation. The aim of this thesis is to show how mentally ill and disabled women are portrayed in the Roman prose and how healthy women are associated with the masculine ideals. The Roman medicine based itself on a long Greek tradition and native cultural influences and traditions. This synthesis created a medical field in which women are treated as anomalies and as inferior to men. This thinking is reflected in the Roman philosophy, jurisdiction, and historiography as well; women are described as absent-minded and childlike, or uncontrollable, emotional, and even insane. Women’s illness and disability are often used as moral examples in prose. This research aims to show an aspect of illness and disability in Rome that is rarely discussed and less well-known. Male illness and disability are often referred to in Roman literature; it is important to also shed light on the female experience. Lately, disability has become a more popular topic in the research of Antiquity, and so has the focus on marginalised groups such as women, children, and the elderly. The Roman concept of virtue, virtus, that fundamentally defined Roman health, is associated with men and masculinity in the original texts. Thus, an essential viewpoint to women’s illness and disability in this thesis is the concept of virtus. The research is based on the primary sources and research literature that consisted of research on women, disability, mental illness, and health in the Roman context. Methods of various fields were applied, from close reading and narrative analysis to the methods of historical research. The main results of this research show that women existed in a grey zone legally and medically. Philosophy offers a depiction of a perfect and an ideal Roman woman. This character hardly existed in reality, but the virtuous ideal is often contrasted with the unvirtuous, even wicked women of the Roman historiography. The evidence lies in the primary sources that describe healthy and ill women in different contexts. This thesis concludes that mentally ill and disabled women existed in the Roman prose and they were recognised in multiple ways; their professions, backgrounds, treatment, and legal rights are discussed in multiple sources. This information is scattered, vague, and often influenced by the personal opinions of the authors. Mentally ill and disabled women were considered different from healthy women but neither group is considered capable of achieving virtues inherent to men and masculinity in the primary sources. Healthy women could theoretically achieve virtue but in reality, women existed outside the Roman understanding of virtuous health.
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(2022)This thesis discusses various depictions of women’s mental illness and disability in Roman Stoic philosophy, historiography, medical texts, and legislation. The aim of this thesis is to show how mentally ill and disabled women are portrayed in the Roman prose and how healthy women are associated with the masculine ideals. The Roman medicine based itself on a long Greek tradition and native cultural influences and traditions. This synthesis created a medical field in which women are treated as anomalies and as inferior to men. This thinking is reflected in the Roman philosophy, jurisdiction, and historiography as well; women are described as absent-minded and childlike, or uncontrollable, emotional, and even insane. Women’s illness and disability are often used as moral examples in prose. This research aims to show an aspect of illness and disability in Rome that is rarely discussed and less well-known. Male illness and disability are often referred to in Roman literature; it is important to also shed light on the female experience. Lately, disability has become a more popular topic in the research of Antiquity, and so has the focus on marginalised groups such as women, children, and the elderly. The Roman concept of virtue, virtus, that fundamentally defined Roman health, is associated with men and masculinity in the original texts. Thus, an essential viewpoint to women’s illness and disability in this thesis is the concept of virtus. The research is based on the primary sources and research literature that consisted of research on women, disability, mental illness, and health in the Roman context. Methods of various fields were applied, from close reading and narrative analysis to the methods of historical research. The main results of this research show that women existed in a grey zone legally and medically. Philosophy offers a depiction of a perfect and an ideal Roman woman. This character hardly existed in reality, but the virtuous ideal is often contrasted with the unvirtuous, even wicked women of the Roman historiography. The evidence lies in the primary sources that describe healthy and ill women in different contexts. This thesis concludes that mentally ill and disabled women existed in the Roman prose and they were recognised in multiple ways; their professions, backgrounds, treatment, and legal rights are discussed in multiple sources. This information is scattered, vague, and often influenced by the personal opinions of the authors. Mentally ill and disabled women were considered different from healthy women but neither group is considered capable of achieving virtues inherent to men and masculinity in the primary sources. Healthy women could theoretically achieve virtue but in reality, women existed outside the Roman understanding of virtuous health.
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