BACKGROUND: Previous studies have documented sex and racial/ethnic disparities in outcomes after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but the explanation of these disparities remains limited. In a setting that controls for access to medical care, we evaluated whether sex and racial/ethnic disparities in prognosis after AMI persist after consideration of socioeconomic background, personal medical history, and medical management.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of the members (20,263 men and 10,061 women) of an integrated health care delivery system in northern California who had experienced an AMI between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2002, and were followed up for a median of 3.5 years (maximum, 8 years). Main outcome measures included AMI recurrence and all-cause mortality.

RESULTS:  In age-adjusted analyses relative to white men, black men (hazard ratio [HR], 1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26-1.65), black women (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.26-1.72), and Asian women (HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.13-1.65) were at increased risk of AMI recurrence. However, multivariate adjustment for sociodemographic background, comorbidities, medication use, angiography, and revascularization procedures effectively removed the excess risk of AMI recurrence in these 3 groups. Similarly, the increased age-adjusted risk of all-cause mortality seen in black men (HR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.37-1.75) and black women (HR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.27-1.66) was greatly attenuated in black men and reversed in black women after full multivariate adjustment.

CONCLUSION: In a population with equal access to medical care, comprehensive consideration of social, personal, and medical factors could explain sex and racial/ethnic disparities in prognosis after AMI.

The procedural justice literature has grown enormously since the early work of Thibaut and Walker in the 1970s. Since then, the finding that citizens care enormously about the process by which outcomes are reached—even unfavorable outcomes—has been replicated a wide range of methodologies (including panel surveys, psychometric work, and experimentation), cultures (throughout North America, Europe, and Asia), and settings (including tort litigation, policing, taxpayer compliance, support for public policies, and organizational citizenship). We have learned a great deal about the antecedents and consequences of these judgments. In particular, the work of Tom Tyler and Allan Lind and their colleagues suggests that people care about voice, dignity, and respect for relational and symbolic reasons rather than (or in addition to) instrumental reasons. This finding has benevolent implications for governance and social cooperation, but also some troubling implications, leaving people susceptible to manipulation and exploitation.

Recent surveys among psychologists and historical accounts of the profession document important practice pattern differences among psychologists on the basis of years of postlicensure experience. Evidence for these differences across 4 groups of psychologists was examined from responses to the 2000 California Survey of Psychological Practice. Psychologists with fewer than 5 years of experience were found to treat on a weekly basis a greater percentage of patients with childhood disorders and substance abuse disorders and to spend a greater percentage of practice time in public health and/or mental health settings than other psychologists. No differences were found in the use of 3 dominant forms of psychotherapy. The implications of these results for practicing psychologists, graduate faculty and students, and representatives of state psychological associations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Explaining land use change in Mexico requires understanding the behavior of the local institutions involved. We develop two theories to explain deforestation in communities with and without forestry projects, where the former involves a process of side payments to non-members of the community and the latter of partial cooperation among community members. Data collected in 2002 combined with satellite imagery are used to test these theories. For the forestry villages, we establish a positive relationship between the distribution of profits as dividends instead of public goods and forest loss. For communities not engaged in forestry projects, deforestation is largely related to the ability of the community to induce the formation of a coalition of members that cooperates in not encroaching. This happens more easily in smaller communities with experienced leaders. A disturbing result of the analysis is that deforestation is higher when a community engages in forestry projects, even after properly accounting for self-selection into this activity. This suggests that forestry projects as they now exist in Mexico are not sustainable and contribute to the deforestation problem.

In the last decade, the study of social norms has become a major focus of theory and research in law and economics. Surprisingly, this "new norms" literature has almost completely ignored decades of systematic theory, experimentation, and field research on normative processes by social psychologists. We demonstrate that there are multiple mechanisms by which normative influence operates, each with its own principles and consequences. We also identify a host of situational and dispositional (individual-difference) moderators that either attenuate or amplify the effects of normative influence sources. Finally, we show that the internalization process is much less mysterious than some have suggested; it can occur through any of several well-studied processes. By taking these theoretical distinctions and moderators into account, the new norms literature will necessarily become more complex, but not necessarily chaotic or incoherent. Because these complexities are facts of social life, acknowledging them will allow the new norms theorist to improve their predictions and hence their norm-management implications.

This paper reviews the current status of the global pharmaceutical industry and its research and development focus in the context of the health care needs of the developing world. It will consider the attempts to improve access to critical drugs and vaccines, and increase the research effort directed at key public health priorities in the developing world. In particular, it will consider prospects for public-private collaboration. The challenges and opportunities in such public-private partnerships will be discussed briefly along with a look at factors that may be key to success. Much of the focus is on HIV/AIDS where the debate on the optimal balance between intellectual property rights (IPR) and human rights to life and health has been very public and emotive.