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This paper examines the factors that influence rural household decisions to clear forestland. We use a large dataset comprising 7172 households from 24 developing countries. Twenty-seven percent of sampled households had converted forest to agriculture during the previous 12 months, clearing on average 1.21 ha. Male-headed households with abundance of male labor, living in recently settled places with high forest cover, unsurprisingly tended to clear more, but regional peculiarities abounded. Households with medium to high asset holdings and higher market orientation were more likely to clear forest than the poorest and market-isolated households, questioning popular policy narratives about poverty-driven forest clearing.

The aim of the present study was to prospectively examine risk of cutaneous melanoma (CM) according to measured anthropometric factors, adjusted for exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR), in a large population-based cohort in Norway. The Janus Cohort, including 292,851 Norwegians recruited 1972-2003, was linked to the Cancer Registry of Norway and followed for CM through 2014. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of CM with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Restricted cubic splines were incorporated into the Cox models to assess possible non-linear relationships. All analyses were adjusted for attained age, indicators of UVR exposure, education, and smoking status. During a mean follow-up of 27 years, 3,000 incident CM cases were identified. In men, CM risk was positively associated with body mass index, body surface area (BSA), height and weight (all p < 0.001), and the exposure-response curves indicated an exponential increase in risk for all anthropometric factors. Weight loss of more than 2 kg in men was associated with a 53% lower risk (HR 0.47, 95% CI: 0.39, 0.57). In women, CM risk increased with increasing BSA (p = 0.002) and height (p < 0.001). The shape of the height-CM risk curve indicated an exponential increase. Our study suggests that large body size, in general, is a CM risk factor in men, and is the first to report that weight loss may reduce the risk of CM among men.

A commonality in the economics of happiness literature is that absolute income matters more for the subjective wellbeing of people at low income levels. In this article, we use a large sample of people in rural areas of developing countries with relatively low income levels to test whether subjective wellbeing an increasing function of absolute income in our sample, and to analyze the existence of adaptation and social comparison effects on subjective wellbeing. Our sample includes 6973 rural households in 23 countries throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The average total income per adult equivalent in our sample was US$1555, whereas levels of subjective wellbeing resembled levels found in previous research using cross-country data. We find that, despite low levels of absolute income, levels of subjective wellbeing of our respondents resemble levels found in previous research using cross-country data. We also find remarkable similarities in many of the determinants of subjective wellbeing previously tested. Our data show that absolute income covariates with subjective wellbeing, but -as for richer samples-the magnitude of the association is lower once we control for adaptation and social comparison. Finally, our results suggest that social comparison has a stronger effect than adaptation in explaining the subjective wellbeing of our sample. Our findings highlight the importance of adaptation and social comparison even at low levels of absolute income.

Introduction: Several studies have shown an association between socioeconomic status and incidence of cancer. In this study, we have examined the association between socioeconomic factors, using income and education as proxies, and cancer incidence in Norway, a country known to be egalitarian, with universal access to health care and scoring high on the human development index. Methods: We linked individual data for the total Norwegian population with information on all cancer patients registered in the Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN) with any cancer diagnosed between 2012 and 2016. Data on education, and individual income, were provided from Statistics Norway. We used Poisson regression to obtain incidence rate ratios (IRR) across education and income levels for 23 cancer sites. Results: A total of 9 cancers among men and 13 cancers among women were observed to have significantly higher incidence rates in cases with the lowest level of education. Melanoma for both sexes, testis and prostate cancer in men, and breast cancer in women were found to have a higher incidence rate among those with the highest level of education. The largest differences in IRR were found for lung cancer, where men and women with college or university education as their highest completed education had a two-to threefold decreased risk, compared to those with primary school (IRR men; 0.40 [0.37-0.43], women 0.34 [0.31-0.37]). The results for income mirrored the results for education among men, while for women we did not observe many differences in cancer risk across income groups. Conclusion: Our findings were consistent with findings from other studies showing that the incidence rate of cancer differs across levels of socioeconomic status. We may need behavioral change campaigns focused on lifestyle changes that lower the risk of cancer and target perhaps to those with lower socioeconomic status.

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Cancer stage at diagnosis is the most important prognostic factor for survival. We conducted a nationwide, population-based cohort study to investigate cancer stage distribution in immigrants compared to the host population of Norway. All patients recorded in the Cancer Registry of Norway in 1990-2014 were included (17,709 immigrants and 431,936 Norwegians). Individual level sociodemographic data was obtained from Statistics Norway. Ordered logistic regression was used to estimate if immigrants were diagnosed with cancer at a more advanced stage than Norwegians. Seven cancer sites were analyzed (breast, cervix, colorectal, liver, lung and trachea, prostate and stomach). With exception of breast cancer, we did not observe a clear pattern of more advanced cancer stage distribution in immigrants compared to Norwegians. Odds ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals for being diagnosed with a more advanced stage of breast cancer for non-Western immigrant groups compared to Norwegians were: Eastern Europe: 1.41 (1.20-1.65), Middle East: 1.58 (1.19-2.10), sub-Saharan Africa: 1.44 (0.99-2.08), South Asia: 1.40 (1.07-1.83) and East Asia: 0.90 (0.72-1.13). Sub-analyses showed that late detection of breast cancer in young non-Western immigrants might be of particular concern. Young (<50 years) non-Western immigrants had an odds ratio of 1.40 (1.21-1.62) for more advanced stage breast cancer compared to young Norwegians.