A proposal to establish indicators for the evaluation of municipal councils' socio-cultural policies

How can municipal sociocultural policies stimulate and promote community empowerment, civic creativity or social cohesion? What objectives should be proposed at the municipal level to promote processes of sociocultural community development? How can we identify local needs in order to stimulate community development processes? In response to these questions, our paper proposes a creative solution: indicators to evaluate sociocultural policies. The proposal will enable us to obtain information about our own reality and, at the same time, contribute to producing changes and to outlining possible de intervention strategies for local administrations. The proposal describes a system of creative, flexible and rigourous indicators intended for municipal technicians and politicians interested in evaluating their sociocultural actions and strategies. We present the result of a research process whose methods included validation of the indicators by experts and technicians in or related to sociocultural community development, and the application of this system based on a case study of a Spanish municipality. Among the proposed indicators specific consideration is given to the support of local creators and the promotion of civic creativity, as well as the use, the creation and the articulation of sociocultural activities as strategies to contribute to cultural and civic diversity

Excess winter deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases are associated with both mild winter temperature and socio-economic inequalities in the U.S.

Mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) exhibits seasonal variation. For example, 30% more deaths occurred in winter compared to summer in a multicountry study [1]. The effect of cold temperature on several CVD risk factors and on seasonal influenza infection may partially underlie this seasonal variation [2] and [3]. However an unexplained paradox has been observed: seasonality in CVD mortality is larger in temperate mid-latitude countries (e.g. Portugal) than in colder northern countries (e.g. Scandinavian countries) [1]. This paradox has also been previously observed in Europe for overall mortality, and it may relate to uneven proportions between countries of people who are unable to adequately protect themselves against cold due to low socio-economic status (SES), e.g. inadequate clothing, housing insulation and heating systems [4] and [5]. We hypothesized that the seasonal variability in CVD mortality is larger in low socio-economic U.S. states experiencing mild winters compared to high socio-economic states experiencing cold winters.