Problem behavior of dementia patients predicts low-grade hypercoagulability in spousal caregivers

Low-grade hypercoagulability might be one pathway to explain how the chronic stress of dementia caregiving increases cardiovascular disease risk, but the specific aspects of caregiver stress that elicit hypercoagulability are elusive. We hypothesized that dementia patients' problem behaviors and negative reactions of caregivers to these behaviors would relate to hypercoagulability in caregivers.

Ways of coping and biomarkers of an increased atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease risk in elderly individuals

Objective. To investigate the relationship between coping and atherothrombotic biomarkers of an increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in the elderly. Methods. We studied 136 elderly caregiving and noncaregiving men and women who completed the Ways of Coping Checklist to assess problem-focused coping, seeking social support (SSS), blamed self, wishful thinking, and avoidance coping. They had circulating levels of 12 biomarkers measured. We also probed for potential mediator and moderator variables (chronic stress, affect, health behavior, autonomic activity) for the relation between coping and biomarkers. Results. After controlling for demographic and CVD risk factors, greater use of SSS was associated with elevated levels of serum amyloid A (P = 0.001), C-reactive protein (CRP) (P = 0.002), vascular cellular adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 (P = 0.021), and D-dimer (P = 0.032). There were several moderator effects. For instance, greater use of SSS was associated with elevated VCAM-1 (P < 0.001) and CRP (P = 0.001) levels in subjects with low levels of perceived social support and positive affect, respectively. The other coping styles were not significantly associated with any biomarker. Conclusions. Greater use of SSS might compromise cardiovascular health through atherothrombotic mechanisms, including elevated inflammation (i.e., serum amyloid A, CRP, VCAM-1) and coagulation (i.e., D-dimer) activity. Moderating variables need to be considered in this relationship.

Consumer Behavior in Moral Markets. On the Relevance of Identity, Justice Beliefs, Social Norms, Status and Trust in Ethical Consumption

This article addresses ethical consumer behavior and uses the purchase of Fair Trade (FT) coffee to gain insights into determinants of ‘moral behavior’ in the marketplace. Our primary concern is to clarify which theoretical concepts and determinants are more useful than others in explaining FT consumption. We compare the explanatory power of consumer budget restrictions, consumer identity, social and personal norms, social status, justice beliefs, and trust. Our second aim is methodological; we contrast data on self-reported consumption of FT coffee with experimental data on hypothetical choices of different coffee products. To gain insights into the robustness of our measurement and findings, we test our propositions using two samples of undergraduate students from Germany and the United States. Our data show that consumer identity and personal norms are the major determinants of FT consumption in both samples, the results from survey-based data and from our experimental data are similar in this regard. Further, we demonstrate that studies based on a limited number of determinants might overestimate effects; the effect of justice beliefs for instance vanishes if other determinants are taken into account.

Sind die empirischen Ergebnisse zum Umweltverhalten Artefakte? Ein Beitrag zum Problem der Messung von Umweltverhalten

In Untersuchungen zum Umweltbewusstsein und Umweltverhalten werden die zentralen Variablen in der Regel auf der Basis von Selbstauskünften und mittels Itembatterien erhoben. Fraglich ist dabei, ob die Items zur Messung ökologischen Handelns mehr als nur \"symbolisches Verhalten\" erfassen. Bodenstein, Spiller und Elbers (1997) haben kürzlich einen Index vorgeschlagen, der sich am tatsächlichen Energie- und Materialverbrauch eines Haushalts orientiert. Wir vergleichen dieses Konzept mit anderen Skalen und untersuchen empirisch anhand der Daten des Surveys \"Umweltbewusstsein in Deutschland 1998\", in welchem Ausmaß die Ergebnisse von Regressionsmodellen des Umwelthandelns von den jeweils zugrunde gelegten Skalen abhängen. Es zeigt sich, dass gerade bezüglich der zentralen Determinanten \"Umweltbewusstsein\" und \"Einkommen\" beträchtliche Unterschiede bestehen.