TUNCELI, KAAN, KEMENG LI, AND L. KEOKI WILLIAMS. Long-term effects of obesity on employment and work limitations among U. S. adults, 1986S. adults, to 1999S. adults, .Obesity. 200614:1637-1646. Objective: To determine the relationships between BMI and workforce participation and the presence of work limitations in a U.S. working-age population. Research Methods and Procedures:We used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a nationwide prospective cohort, to estimate the effect of obesity in 1986 on employment and work limitations in 1999. Individuals were classified into the following weight categories: underweight (BMI Ͻ 18.5), normal weight (18.5 Յ BMI Ͻ 25), overweight (25 Յ BMI Ͻ 30), and obese (BMI Ն 30). Using multivariable probit models, we estimated the relationships between obesity and both employment and work disability. All analyses were stratified by sex. Results: After adjusting for baseline sociodemographic characteristics, smoking status, exercise, and self-reported health, obesity was associated with reduced employment at follow-up [men: marginal effect (ME) Ϫ4.8 percentage points (pp); p Ͻ 0.05; women: ME Ϫ5.8 pp; p Ͻ 0.10]. Among employed women, being either overweight or obese was associated with an increase in self-reported work limitations when compared with normal-weight individuals (overweight: ME ϩ3.9 pp; p Ͻ 0.01; obese: ME ϩ12.6 pp; p Ͻ 0.01). Among men, the relationship between obesity and work limitations was not statistically significant.Discussion: Obesity appears to result in future productivity losses through reduced workforce participation and increased work limitations. These findings have important implications in the U.S., which is currently experiencing a rise in the prevalence of obesity.

Background. Caregiver productivity costs are an important component of the overall cost of care for individuals with birth defects and developmental disabilities, yet few studies provide estimates for use in economic evaluations. Objective. This study estimates labor market productivity costs for caregivers of children and adolescents with spina bifida. Methods. Case families were recruited from a state birth defects registry in Arkansas. Primary caregivers of children with spina bifida (N = 98 ) reported their employment status in the past year and demographic characteristics. Controls were abstracted from the Current Population Survey covering the state of Arkansas for the same time period (N = 416 ). Estimates from regression analyses of labor market outcomes were used to calculate differences in hours worked per week and lifetime costs. Results. Caregivers of children with spina bifida worked an annual average of 7.5 to 11.3 hours less per week depending on the disability severity. Differences in work hours by caregivers of children with spina bifida translated into lifetime costs of $133,755 in 2002 dollars using a 3% discount rate and an age- and sex-adjusted earnings profile. Including caregivers' labor market productivity costs in prevention effectiveness estimates raises the net cost savings per averted case of spina bifida by 48% over the medical care costs alone. Conclusions. Information on labor market productivity costs for caregivers can be used to better inform economic evaluations of prevention and treatment strategies for spina bifida. Cost-effectiveness calculations that omit caregiver productivity costs substantially overstate the net costs of the intervention and underestimate societal value.

Quality assessment of 3D images encounters more challenges than its 2D counterparts. Directly applying 2D image quality metrics is not the solution. In this paper, we propose a new full-reference quality assessment for stereoscopic images by learning binocular receptive field properties to be more in line with human visual perception. To be more specific, in the training phase, we learn a multiscale dictionary from the training database, so that the latent structure of images can be represented as a set of basis vectors. In the quality estimation phase, we compute sparse feature similarity index based on the estimated sparse coefficient vectors by considering their phase difference and amplitude difference, and compute global luminance similarity index by considering luminance changes. The final quality score is obtained by incorporating binocular combination based on sparse energy and sparse complexity. Experimental results on five public 3D image quality assessment databases demonstrate that in comparison with the most related existing methods, the devised algorithm achieves high consistency with subjective assessment.

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