Research

Strengthening Urban Resilience in FOOD and nutrition security in Kenya (SURE-FOOD)

The name SURE-FOOD stands for:

Strengthening
Urban
REsilience in
FOOD and nutrition security in Kenya

It is a Kenyan-German research project on sustainable solutions to strengthen resilience systems against food insecurity and malnutrition in urban Kenya. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), funding period: 1 June 2021 – 31 May 2024 (AfResi-Call).

Nairobi is among the fastest growing cities in Africa, and will be among the African megacities in the next decades. Kenya is one of the countries in the world where urbanisation is progressing most rapidly. The population, especially women and children, is increasingly affected by hunger, hidden hunger, but also overweight and obesity, known as the triple burden of under- and malnutrition. Households in the informal settlements (or slums) of Nairobi are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition, making it crucially urgent to strengthen the resilience of the poorest of the poor.

The transdisciplinary African-German project team (Universities Hohenheim, Nairobi and Egerton, and the ATPS) aims at finding sustainable solutions for strengthening knowledge and resilience systems against food insecurity and malnutrition aggravated by rapid urbanization.The goal is to provide adequate, safe, nutrition-dense, preferred and affordable food to improve health and well-being of urban dwellers, with particular focus on the most vulnerable groups.

To do this, robust resilience analysis is needed to provide decision makers, academia, and broader social and policy stakeholders with data and results that enable evidence-based recommendations for action and solutions. Such an analysis can reduce the complexity of the problem and make resilience measurable and controllable. To this end, a longitudinal survey of urban households will be conducted, surveying low- and middle-income households in Nairobi to determine the extent and causes of malnutrition and the dietary habits of urban residents. Existing structures (e.g., informal markets, urban agricultural activities) will be included in this survey, assessed for resilience, and optimized.

Especially (young) women, who are mainly responsible for food production, processing and preparation, should be enabled to expand and pass on knowledge and skills as important multipliers in order to strengthen local resilience structures. With sound community-powered planning and management, cities can become incubators for innovation and growth and drivers of sustainable development, health and well-being. The project will help build more resilient urban areas not only in Africa but also worldwide.

 

For further information visit the project website.

 

Projektverantwortlicher: Prof. Dr. Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Projektbeteiligte: Dr. Hamid R. Oskorouchi, Katerina Potapova, Marta Parigi

Internationale Partner: University of Nairobi, Egerton University, African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS)

The various studies focus on the German nursing market and its nursing staff, whose employment relationships are analysed in terms of job satisfaction, job stickiness and working hour constraints. The studies are based on data from the socio-economic panel collected over a period of more than 20 years. The studies come to the conclusion that job satisfaction among German nurses has fallen sharply, even though job stickiness increases. Against this background, deteriorating working conditions and legal changes as well as restructuring play an important role. The study also examines the extent to which the discrepancy between the contractual, desired and actual working hours of nursing staff can explain this trend.

Researchers: Alfonso Sousa-Poza, Steffen Otterbach, Mohamad Alameddine, Bayan Rafii, Jan Michael Bauer, Martin Richter

Selected publications:

• Alameddine, M. / Otterbach, S. / Rafii, B. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2018). “Work hour constraints in the German nursing workforce: A quarter of a century in review”, Health Policy
• Alameddine, M. / Bauer, J.M. / Richter, M. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2017). “The paradox of falling job satisfaction with rising job stickiness in the German nursing workforce between 1990 and 2013”, Human Resources for Health, 15(1):55
• Alameddine, M. / Bauer, J.M. / Richter, M. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2016). “Trends in job satisfaction among German nurses from 1990 to 2012“, Journal of Helath Services Research & Policy, 21(2): 101-108.

A number of studies at the Institute of Health Care & Public Management address issues related to the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of individuals, with a focus on how SWB evolves with age and how SWB is affected by lifestyles.

Researchers: Micha Kaiser, Steffen Otterbach, Alfonso Sousa-Poza, Peng Nie

Selected Publications:

• Otterbach, S. / Sousa-Poza, A. / Møller V. (2018), “A cohort analysis of subjective wellbeing and ageing: heading towards a midlife crisis?”, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies 9 (4), 382-411.
• Nie, P. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2018), “Commute time and subjective well-being in urban China”, China Economic Review 48, 188-204.
• Nie, P. / Nimrod, G. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2017), "Internet Use and Subjective Well-Being in China", Social Indicators Research, 132 (1), 489-516.
• Bauer, J ./ Levin, V. / Munoz Boudet, A.M. / Nie, P. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2017), "Subjective Well-being Across the Lifespan in Europe and Central Asia", Journal of Population Ageing, 10(2):125-158.
• Bauer, J. / Cords, D. / Sellung, R. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2016), "Effects of Different Life Events on Life Satisfaction in the Russian Longitudimal Monitoring Survey", Economics Letters, 129:91-94.
• López Ulloa, B.F. / Moller, V. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2013), "How does subjective well-being evolve with age? A literature review", Journal of Population Ageing, 6:227-246.

Working-Time Mismatch and Mental Health

Steffen Otterbach, Mark Wooden, Yin King Fok

Nationally representative panel survey data for Germany and Australia are used to investigate the impact of working-time mismatches (i.e., differences between actual and desired work hours) on mental health, as measured by the Mental Component Summary Score from the SF-12. Fixed effects and dynamic linear models are estimated, which, together with the longitudinal nature of the data, enable person-specific traits that are time invariant to be controlled for. The incorporation of dynamics also reduces concerns about the potential effects of reverse causation. The results suggest that overemployment (working more hours than desired) has adverse consequences for the mental health of workers in both countries. Underemployment (working fewer hours than desired), however, seems to only be of significance in Australia.

Complete study available as IZA Discussion Paper

See also Boeckler Impuls 16/2016

Work Hours Constraints and Job Mobility

Michael Knaus und Steffen Otterbach

Collaborative research project between the Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research, Universität St. Gallen, and the Institute of Health Care and Public Management, Universität Hohenheim.

This project analyzes the possible relationship between work hours constraints and job mobility. More specifically, the study investigates whether employees whose actual work hours are not consistent with their desired work hours change their employers, change their jobs or leave the work force as a means to adjust their actual work time according to their preferences. Using nationally representative data, this is the first such study for Germany that analyzes this question in a longitudinal setting.

Complete study available as IZA Discussion Paper

Work Hours Constraints and Health

David Bell, Steffen Otterbach und Alfonso Sousa-Poza

The issue of whether employees who work more hours than they want to suffer adverse health consequences is important not only at the individual level but also for governmental formation of work time policy. Our study investigates this question by analyzing the impact of the discrepancy between actual and desired work hours on self-perceived health outcomes in Germany and the United Kingdom. Based on nationally representative longitudinal data, our results show that work-hour mismatches (i.e., differences between actual and desired hours) have negative effects on workers´ health. In particular, we show that “overemployment” – working more hours than desired − has negative effects on different measures of self-perceived health.

Results published in Annales d'Économie et de Statistique, 105-106, S. 35-54. Also available as IZA Discussion Paper

Hours Constraints in 21 Countries

Steffen Otterbach

Mismatches between Actual and Preferred Work Time: Empirical Evidence of Hours Constraints in 21 Countries.

This research project analyzes the discrepancy between actual and desired working hours in a multinational setting. Using the latest data of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) with a focus on work orientations hours constraints in 21 heterogeneous countries are analyzed. One major finding is that hours constraints are interrelated with macroeconomic variables such as (i) unemployment rates, (ii) GDP per capita as a measure of welfare, and (iii) income inequality. A subsequent multivariate analysis reveals that, on both macro- and microlevels, sociodemographic variables like prosperity and income, high risk of unemployment, and working conditions play an important role in determining working hours constraints. The results further suggest that, with respect to working conditions, such constraints are also affected by gender issues.

Results to be published in Journal of Consumer Policy (2010).

Current article in the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" (May 2010).

This project investigates the possible relationship between security of employment and health. The study examines whether employees who face job insecurity suffer adverse health consequences. In particular, the health effects of self-perceived and objective measures of job (in)security are analyzed. Based on nationally representative data for Germany this question is analyzed in a longitudinal setting.

Researchers: Dr. Steffen Otterbach und Dr. Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Results to be published in Applied Economics, 48:14, 1303-1316. Abstract.

(funded by the European Commission within the Seventh RTD Framework Programme Contract No. FP7 266044 (KBBE 2010-4), March 2012 – February 2017 http://www.ifamilystudy.eu/)

Two subprojects:

Sub-project 1: Values, Norms, and Peer Effects on Weight Status

Descriptions: Although it is widely accepted that peers affect individual’s weight and associated behaviours, little is known about how this effect differs among countries, cultures, and societies. This project uses data from the European Social Survey in order to test the Prinstein-Dodge hypothesis that posits that peer effects may be larger in collectivistic than in individualistic societies. In this project, this hypothesis is tested in the context of adulthood obesity.

Sub-project 2: Peer Effects on Weight Status, Dietary Behaviour and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Europe: Findings from the I.Family Study

Descriptions: The existing literature on peer effects in adolescence is strongly dominated by U.S. studies, and we need to be cautious in generalizing these across diverse cultures and institutional settings. European studies are limited and the potential mechanisms through which peer effects operate on individual weight status remain largely underexplored. To fill this gap, this project adopts survey data from the I.Family Study to test for peer effects on body fatness in a sample of adolescents aged 12–16 in six European countries. It identifies peer effects based on unique information about individuals that adolescents specifically designate as their friends. It also explores the underlying mechanisms of peer effects on adolescents’ bodyweight using a rich set of measures that identify dietary patterns (e.g. the Youth Healthy Eating Index (YHEI), consumption frequency of less healthy foods and time spent on leisure time physical activity (PA) and audio-visual media (AVM)).

Project: The effectiveness of a population-based skin cancer screening program: evidence from Germany 

In this study, we analyze how a nationwide population-based skin cancer screening program (SCS) implemented in Germany in 2008 has impacted the number of hospital discharges following malignant skin neoplasm diagnosis and the malignant melanoma mortality rate per 100,000 inhabitants. Our panel data, drawn from the Eurostat database, cover subregions in 22 European countries, measured at the lowest nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) level for 2000–2013. Applying fixed effects methods, we find a significantly positive and robust effect of the German SCS on the number of patients diagnosed with malignant skin neoplasm. However, the program does not significantly influence the melanoma mortality rate. This finding conflicts with the decreased melanoma mortality rate found for the pilot SCS program in northern Germany. Our results indicate that Germany’s nationwide SCS program is effective in terms of a higher diagnosis rate for malignant skin neoplasms and thus may contribute to an improvement in the early detection of skin cancer.  

Results to bepublished in The European Journal of Health Economics 2017.