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Background Early-life socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with lifestyle-related diseases in adulthood. However, evidence is lacking on the extent to which adult SEP mediates this association. Methods Time to either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease or diabetes were assessed in the Danish population born between 1961 and 1971 (n = 793 674) from age 30 until 2015. Early-life position was assessed in 1981 (by parental) and again at age 30 (own) by four markers; income, occupation, education—divided into high, middle, low—and a combined score for all markers. Using a counterfactual approach, we estimated the total effect of early-life position on disease onset and the degree to which adult position mediated this effect. Results Results of the time-to-event analysis showed a gradient of all early-life markers on the risk of developing all lifestyle-related diseases. Notably, comparing those in the lowest to the highest educational position, the hazard of COPD was 130% higher for women [hazard ratio = 2.30(95% confidence interval = 2.20–2.41)] and 114% higher for men [2.14 (2.05–2.25)]. About 67%(63–70%) of the effect of educational position was mediated through adult position for COPD, 55% for cardiovascular disease and 50% for diabetes. For the combined score 44, 29 and 33%, respectively, was mediated. Conclusion About one-tenth to two-thirds of the effect of early-life position is mediated by the position attained in adulthood. The degree mediated depend on the outcome investigated, gender and the social position marker used indicating that alternative pathways may play a key role in developing effective policies targeting early-life behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Improving the design and targeting of interventions is important for alleviating loneliness among older adults. This requires identifying which correlates are the most important predictors of loneliness. This study demonstrates the use of recursive partitioning in exploring the characteristics and assessing the relative importance of correlates of loneliness in older adults. Method: Using exploratory regression trees and random forests, we examined combinations and the relative importance of 42 correlates in relation to loneliness at age 68 among 2453 participants from the birth cohort study the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. Results: Positive mental well-being, personal mastery, identifying the spouse as the closest confidant, being extrovert and informal social contact were the most important correlates of lower loneliness levels. Participation in organised groups and demographic correlates were poor identifiers of loneliness. The regression tree suggested that loneliness was not raised among those with poor mental wellbeing if they identified their partner as closest confidante and had frequent social contact. Conclusion: Recursive partitioning can identify which combinations of experiences and circumstances characterise high-risk groups. Poor mental wellbeing and sparse social contact emerged as especially important and classical demographic factors as insufficient in identifying high loneliness levels among older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between transformational, transactional, and empowering leadership and the innovative behavior of public sector employees. Instead of investigating their association individually, this article focuses on the interaction between different types of leadership. The analysis is based on a survey from one of Denmark’s largest hospitals (n = 1,647). The main result is that empowering leadership, which focuses on employee capacity, moderates the association between transformational leadership, which is directed at motivation, and innovative behavior. The findings emphasize the importance of not only focusing on a single leadership style but also understanding how they work in combination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE) is an effective tool to handle missing data - an almost unavoidable problem in quantitative data analysis. However, despite the empirical and theoretical evidence supporting the use of MICE, researchers in the social sciences often resort to inferior approaches unnecessarily risking erroneous results. The complexity of the decision process when encountering missing data may be what is discouraging potential users from adopting the appropriate technique. In this article, we develop straightforward step-by-step graphical guidelines on how to handle missing data based on a comprehensive literature review. It is our hope that these guidelines can help improve current standards of handling missing data. The guidelines incorporate recent innovations on how to handle missing data such as random forests and predictive mean matching. Thus, the data analysts who already actively apply MICE may use it to review some of the newest developments. We demonstrate how the guidelines can be used in praxis using the statistical program R and data from the European Social Survey. We demonstrate central decisions such as variable selection and number of imputations as well as how to handle typical challenges such as skewed distributions and data transformations. These guidelines will enable a social science researcher to go through the process of handling missing data while adhering to the newest developments in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides guidelines and illustrates practical steps necessary for an analysis of results from the multinomial logit model (MLM). The MLM is a popular model in the strategy literature because it allows researchers to examine strategic choices with multiple outcomes. However, there seem to be systematic issues with regard to how researchers interpret their results when using the MLM. In this study, I present a set of guidelines critical to analyzing and interpreting results from the MLM. The procedure involves intuitive graphical representations of predicted probabilities and marginal effects suitable for both interpretation and communication of results. The practical steps are illustrated through an application of the MLM to the choice of foreign market entry mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early-life socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with lifestyle-related diseases in adulthood. However, evidence is lacking on the extent to which adult SEP mediates this association., Methods: Time to either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease or diabetes were assessed in the Danish population born between 1961 and 1971 (n = 793 674) from age 30 until 2015. Early-life position was assessed in 1981 (by parental) and again at age 30 (own) by four markers; income, occupation, education-divided into high, middle, low-and a combined score for all markers. Using a counterfactual approach, we estimated the total effect of early-life position on disease onset and the degree to which adult position mediated this effect., Results: Results of the time-to-event analysis showed a gradient of all early-life markers on the risk of developing all lifestyle-related diseases. Notably, comparing those in the lowest to the highest educational position, the hazard of COPD was 130% higher for women [hazard ratio = 2.30(95% confidence interval = 2.20-2.41)] and 114% higher for men [2.14 (2.05-2.25)]. About 67%(63-70%) of the effect of educational position was mediated through adult position for COPD, 55% for cardiovascular disease and 50% for diabetes. For the combined score 44, 29 and 33%, respectively, was mediated., Conclusion: About one-tenth to two-thirds of the effect of early-life position is mediated by the position attained in adulthood. The degree mediated depend on the outcome investigated, gender and the social position marker used indicating that alternative pathways may play a key role in developing effective policies targeting early-life behaviours., (© The Author 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.)