While there is increasing interest in reducing obesity, relatively few of these efforts focus on rural communities. A multi-tiered model to reduce obesity risk factors was developed and implemented to change food behavior and health awareness in a rural West Texas community over a one year...

This paper investigates the relation between household income level and individual alcohol consumption behavior. Data from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) are tested utilizing a multinomial Logit method. The results show that alcohol consumption frequency positively correlates...

This paper explores the potential for the Georgia’s schools to participate in the Farm to School program. Primary and secondary data were used to establish a correlation between Farm to School, obesity, and food hardship. The results indicate that schools are more influenced by food hardship...

This paper examined cost efficiency differences between rural hospitals participating in the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program and a group of non-converting, prospectively paid rural hospitals using both a two-stage semi-parametric approach as well as stochastic frontier analysis (SFA)....

Worksite wellness programs improve the health and quality of life of workers, and result in higher productivity. Data from a regional health survey suggests that more than $32 million of labor income is lost annually because of poor health, effectively increasing unemployment by more than 40% in...

Replaced with revised version of paper 01/26/06.

This paper examines the reference-dependent and labelling effects when consumers make choices about functional foods, and explores how changes in reference points could alter individuals’ preferences. Functional food (Omega 3 milk) and regular food (regular milk) are used as examples to...

Research on environmental regulation’s effects on economic activity has largely focused on manufacturing, ignoring one of the major polluters in the U.S. – commercial agriculture. As livestock production has become increasingly mobile, regulation has become an important criterion in firm...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the economic impact of wage reductions that people experience from contracting diabetes. Incorporating wage reduction information into an input-output model reveals that as diabetics' wages decrease by $1.00, production and income in the local economy...