How policy variables influence the timing of applications for Social Security Disability Insurance

This article analyzes the impact of policy variables--employer accommodations, state Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) allowance rates, and DI benefits--on the timing of an application for DI benefits by workers with a work-limiting health condition starting when their health condition first begins to bother them. The analysis uses a rich mixture of personal and employer characteristics from the Health and Retirement Study linked to Social Security administrative records. We find that most workers do not apply immediately for DI benefits when they are first bothered by a health condition. On the contrary, the median working-age man with a work-limiting condition waits 7 years after that time before applying, and the median working-age woman waits 8 years. Although the risk of applying for benefits is greatest in the year following onset, only 16 percent of men and 13 percent of women in our sample apply within the first year, and the risk of application falls thereafter. That finding suggests that institutional factors, in addition to health factors, may play a role in the timing of DI applications. Using kernel density estimates of the distribution of application and nonapplication ordered by state allowance rates (the rate of acceptance per DI determination in each state), we find that both men and women who live in states with high allowance rates are disproportionately more likely to apply for benefits in the first year after their condition begins to bother them than are those in states with low allowance rates. Using life-table analysis, we also find that men and women who are accommodated by their employers are significantly less likely to apply for DI benefits in each of the first few years after their condition begins to bother them than are those who are not accommodated. On the basis of this evidence, we include these policy variables in a model of the timing of DI application that controls for other socioeconomic variables as well as health. Using a hazard model, we find that workers who live in states with higher allowance rates apply for DI benefits significantly sooner than those living in states with lower allowance rates following the onset of a work-limiting health condition. Workers who are accommodated following the onset of a work-limiting health condition, however, are significantly slower to apply for DI benefits. Using the mean values of all explanatory variables, we estimate the relative importance of changes in these policy variables on the speed with which workers apply for benefits after onset. We find that the mean time until application for men is 10.22 years. Universal accommodations following onset would delay application by 4.36 years. In contrast, a 20 percent decrease in state allowance rates would delay application by only 0.88 years. For working-age women, the average expected time until application once a condition begins to bother them is 10.58 years. Universal accommodations would delay that by 3.76 years, and a 20 percent decrease in allowance rates would delay it by 1.47 years. A complication in this analysis is that the policy variables are to some degree endogenous. Accommodation is probably offered more often to workers who want to continue working. Allowance rates are chosen by states on the basis of federal policy and local choices and probably in part on the health condition of workers in the state. Therefore, our estimates are upper bounds of these policy effects. Still, we believe we provide evidence that the social environment faced by workers with work-limiting health conditions can significantly influence their decision to apply for DI benefits, holding their specific health conditions constant.     

Artifactual injuries of the larynx produced by resuscitative intubation

Over a period of 9 months we examined a series of 50 deaths due to natural and unnatural causes in which there had been endotracheal intubation and chest compression during resuscitation at the scene or in the emergency department shortly before death. In 37 of 50 cases (74%) there were airway injuries directly resulting from the intubation procedure which we documented using a standardized protocol and photography. Specific airway injuries, ranging from petechiae to contusions, included oral injury (28%), posterior pharyngeal injury (16%), epiglottic injury (22%), piriform recess injury (12%), laryngeal and tracheal mucosa injury (64%), strap muscle hemorrhage (14%), and cutaneous injury of the neck (4%). In addition, we recorded the presence of facial (6%) and conjunctival petechiae (21%) and attributed these changes to resuscitative chest compression. No cases had associated fractures of the hyoid or thyroid cartilage. Based on our findings, we conclude that resuscitative intubation can cause artifactual injury that may mimic inflicted injuries caused by neck compression, including strangulation and neck holds.     

Late-form hemorrhagic disease of the newborn: a fatal case report with illustration of investigations that may assist in avoiding the mistaken diagnosis of child abuse

Hemorrhagic disease of the newborn (HDN) is usually a self-limiting hemorrhagic disorder of childhood that occurs as a result of vitamin K deficiency. It may be defined as early or late form depending on the time of onset related to birth. HDN is recognized as one of several bleeding disorders that can mimic the findings of nonaccidental head injury and may lead to a mistaken diagnosis of child abuse. We present a single fatal case of late-onset HDN with illustration of hematologic assays that can be performed to assist the pathologist in making the correct diagnosis of HDN.     

Belgium's Anti-Sect War

Since the suicide—homicide of 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple in 1994 and the gas attempt by Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo's subway in 1995, a number of European states have decided to fight against sects. France and Belgium are in the forefront of this battle. Both countries have set up official observatories of sects and state agencies involving various ministries to combat them. Preventive policies targeting sects are being carried out. In Belgium, the Anthroposophic Society, a philosophical movement listed as 1 of 189 sects suspected of being dangerous, has sued one federal entity that printed unfounded accusations against their movement in a widely distributed brochure against sects. The same Anthoposophic Society has also petitioned the Court of Arbitration to have the law establishing an observatory of sects annuled. This report deals with both legal actions.