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SUMMARY This article shows how mortality and morbidity patterns differ for women and men 45 years of age and older. The impact on disability-free life expectancy was calculated for selected risk factors and chronic conditions: low income, low education, abnormal body mass index, lack of physical activity, smoking, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. For each factor, the expected number of years free of disability was calculated for men and women using multi-state life tables. In terms of disability-free life expectancy, the greatest impacts on affected women were for diabetes (14.1 years), arthritis (8.8 years), and physical inactivity (6.0 years), while for affected men, the greatest impacts were for diabetes (10.5 years), smoking (6.9 years), arthritis (6.5 years), and cancer (6.4 years). The implications of these results are discussed from the perspective of developing programs designed to improve population health status.

The present study offers information about independence and life satisfaction over the lifespan for individuals with traumatic spinal cord injuries.The study uses the health expectancy methodology to estimate expectations of the remaining years of life that may be spent in states of independence and satisfaction with life.The cohort studied had all incurred a spinal cord injury between the ages of 25 and 34, between the years 1945 and 1990 in central and south-eastern Ontario.The study found that levels of independence and quality of life in the sample conformed closely to those found in other similar studies with the spinal cord injured population: 22% reported their own functional status as dependent, and 22% reported fair to poor life satisfaction. Expectations of independence appeared to decline steadily over the five decades studied, while expectations of modified independence increased proportionally. Estimates varied significantly for those with paraplegia vs. quadriplegia, and those with complete vs. incomplete lesions. Expectations of life satisfaction appeared to change after the 30 year mark; at that point, the balance changed so that expectations of dissatisfaction outweighed expectations of satisfaction. Multiple regression showed that independence was related to lesion level, completeness and recency of injury, and both independence and satisfaction were related to marriage and employment.

There is little research examining the attitudes of small business owners and managers toward labour relations and trade unions. Based on data from 149 owners and managers in small and medium-size manufacturing businesses, the results indicated that respondents favoured more laws limiting the power of unions, perceived that unions interfered with the efficient running of a business, and believed that dealing with a union makes managing a business more difficult. There was also strong support for the position that unionized firms are less productive and less profitable. Overall, respondents in nonunion firms tended to have more negative views of unions relative to executives from union organizations.