Biomedical subjects

D Pattison

Publications and source records attributed to D Pattison.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

The distribution of OASDI taxes and benefits by income decile.

On average, persons receiving Social Security benefits tend to have lower current incomes than do persons paying Social Security taxes. This article documents OASDI's income distributional patterns by dividing the 1992 Current Population Survey population into 10 income deciles and tabulating benefits received and taxes paid by each decile. The benefits and taxes, when compared with non-Social Security income, are progressive: as income rises from decile to decile, the ratio of benefits to income falls, and, except at the highest deciles, the ratio of taxes to income rises. A large component of the current income distributional pattern is associated with age: the young on average receive more income and pay more taxes; the old on average receive more benefits. However, when benefits and taxes are tabulated for income deciles within specific age groups, a general progressivity is still observable, although it is weaker than that for the population as a whole.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

A behavioural approach to retraining bowel function after long-standing constipation and faecal impaction in people with learning disabilities.

The authors describe a behavioural programme--involving prompted toilet-sitting after meals, rewards for appropriate evacuation and increased fibre--for four people with severe learning disabilities. Although treatment times were long, such training resulted in near-normal bowel function. While this behavioural approach does not ignore the biological aspects of the problem, soiling in intellectually disabled people should not be attributed to the handicapping condition alone. Training at an earlier age should be considered.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Taxation of Social Security benefits under the new income tax provisions: distributional estimates for 1994.

The 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act raised the proportion of benefits includable in income for the Federal personal income tax. This article presents estimates of the income-distributional effects of the new provision in 1994, the first year for which it is effective. Under the pre-1993 law, up to 50 percent of benefits were included in taxable income for certain high-income beneficiaries. Under the new law, some of these beneficiaries are required to include an even higher proportion of benefits--up to 85 percent. Only 11 percent of beneficiary families, concentrated in the top three deciles by family income, include more of their benefits in taxable income under the new law than they would have under the old law. Another 8 percent include the same amount of benefits under either. The remaining beneficiary families, more than 80 percent, include no benefits in taxable income under either the old law or the new.

Forecasting↗

PubMed1994

Eye movement dysfunction vs. language delays in migrant children.

BACKGROUND: The Developmental Eye Movement Test (DEM) is a popular visual-verbal saccade test. An advantage of the DEM is that patients with below-average verbalization or automaticity can be distinguished from patients with eye movement coordination problems. The standardized norms for the DEM were previously determined in a sample of suburban and urban children with expected age to grade levels. We hypothesize that language difficulties common in some minority groups would be reflected by subnormal DEM automaticity but not eye movement dysfunction. METHODS: A group of children in the U.S. Department of Education's Massachusetts Migrant Summer Education Program were prospectively studied with the DEM. The sample included 84 subjects (age 7-12) from various ethnic and educational backgrounds. RESULTS: Significant difference was found for most age levels in automaticity in migrant children compared to the DEM norms (independent t tests p < 0.05 DEM vertical and horizontal). However, few differences in eye movement coordination was found (p > 0.05 DEM ratios and errors). CONCLUSIONS: The data supports the hypothesis that language barriers inherent in this population are reflected by lower automaticity, but not eye movement dysfunction, as measured by the DEM. The results are important for optometrists because they demonstrate the importance of taking language and cognitive development into account before diagnosing eye movement dysfunction in culturally different children.

Child↗

PubMed1993

Proposals to modify the taxation of Social Security benefits: options and distributional effects.

This article presents simulation estimates of the income-distributional effects in 1994 of several proposals to modify the taxation of Social Security benefits under the Federal personal income tax. Under the benefit-taxation provisions that have been in effect since 1984, up to 50 percent of benefits are included in taxable income for taxpayers with incomes above certain thresholds. In 1994 about 20 percent of beneficiary families will pay a larger income tax as a result of these provisions. Because of the benefit taxation thresholds, the affected families are concentrated in the upper half of the income distribution: about 70 percent of these families have incomes that put them in the top 30 percent of families by income. If the current taxation thresholds were kept and the percentage of benefits includable in taxable income were raised above 50 percent, the tax effect would remain concentrated on the upper income families. If, on the other hand, the percentage includable were kept at 50 percent while the taxation thresholds were lowered or eliminated, more beneficiary families with incomes in the middle deciles would become affected. The lowest income beneficiary families, however, would remain unaffected, because their benefits would be protected from income taxation by exemptions and the standard deduction. The simulations indicate that only a very few families in the bottom 20 percent of families by income would be affected even if the benefit taxation thresholds were eliminated entirely.

Insurance Benefits↗

PubMed1987

Policy analysis through microsimulation: the STATS model.

This article gives a nontechnical introduction to a microsimulation model developed by the Social Security Administration to consider the effects of tax and benefit proposals on the economic status of population groups. This model, the Simulated Tax and Transfer System (STATS) model, uses information from a nationally representative survey of households to calculate taxes or benefits for thousands of persons or families, case by case. Then the model aggregates across individual cases to produce estimates for economic and demographic groups of interest to policymakers. Groups are defined by such characteristics as family income, age, sex, and marital status. The article explains the model's microsimulation approach and its emphasis on the economic status of population groups. It describes the procedures for simulating taxes and benefits and then illustrates the use of the model by considering a proposal to change the way Social Security benefits are taxed. The article also discusses the primary data source and the extent to which it limits the types of estimates that the model can produce.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed1981

Hearing loss of Down syndrome adults.

Audiological hearing-test data were obtained for 51 Down syndrome adults. Depending upon hearing-loss criteria, from 51 to 74 percent of the subjects had some degree of hearing impairment. Correlation coefficients between these hearing-acuity measurements and receptive hearing vocabulary scores suggest a moderate relationship. These data indicate that Down syndrome adults are prone to a wide variety of hearing difficulties that may reflect a variety of ear pathologies. These data and other studies have shown that both Down syndrome adults and children need frequent hearing screening and, when indicated, otological and/or audiological management. When otological treatment will be of long duration, aural rehabilitation, including prescription amplification, may be indicated as an adjunctive therapeutic procedure.

Adolescent↗