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Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been used extensively in sustainability studies to model relationships among latent and manifest variables. This paper provides a tutorial exposition of the SEM approach in food security studies and introduces a basic framework based on family food security and children’s environment sustainability. This framework includes family food security and three main concepts representing children’s environment, including children’s BMI, health, and school performance. A detailed description is provided of how SEM is applied in this type of study. The proposed model contains dependent, independent, mediator, and moderator variables. Three latent variables categorized include family food security, children’s health, and children’s school performance, and two manifest variables are children’s body mass index and children’s gender. The samples for this study involve 452 Chinese children aged 7–12. The data analysis outcome indicates that the introduced model is capable of estimating the impact of family food security on children’s environment. The results from this study confirm that the combination of children’s body mass index with children’s health acts as a strong mediator in the relationship between family food security and children’s school performance.

Sharing facilities with other households offers the most realistic opportunity for access to sanitation for many households in low-income settings. However, questions remain about the safety of shared toilets, including those shared at the household level. This study sought to compare the usage and microbial safety of household-level shared and unshared toilets in a Ghanaian rural district to investigate any association between their microbial safety and sharing status. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the user characteristics of the sampled toilets, while common contact surfaces (door handles and toilet seats) were assessed for faecal contamination following standard swab sampling and analytical protocols. The results of the study indicate that sharing toilets affords about 90% more household-level access to sanitation as compared to single-household toilets. Toilet sharing mostly occurred between two households, with a maximum user population of 14 per toilet. Generally, there was a high prevalence of faecal contamination on the door handles and seats of both shared and unshared toilets, but this had no association with the sharing status of the toilets. The median concentration of Escherichia coli (E. coli) on the door handles and seats of shared toilets was 34.3 × 105 and 103.2 × 105 CFU/mL, respectively, as compared to 54.7 × 105 and 125.0 × 105 CFU/mL, respectively, on unshared toilets. In conclusion, the sharing of toilets at the household level nearly doubles access to sanitation at home without necessarily exposing the users to a higher risk of faecal–oral disease transmission.

This article aims to identify occupations at risk of climate change, and explore their spatial distribution by investigating their spatial concentration and cluster patterns in Korea. In order to identify professions vulnerable to climate change, we used three criteria: (1) exposure to the risks of job activities; (2) sensitivity to work environments; and (3) adaptive capacities based on the socioeconomic conditions of a person’s occupation. We identified 26 vocations as vulnerable, which corresponds to 16.5% of the total number of careers. Then, we used exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) techniques to examine the spatial distribution of jobs at risk of climate change effects. Endangered occupations show the extremely uneven spatial distributions across regions, indicating that there is a wide range of values for the proportion of endangered occupations across regions. The regions with high proportions of professions in jeopardy show clear spatial clustering based on the large geographic belt from the southwest to the northeast. Our results suggest that policymakers should consider the specific geographies of vulnerable occupations. The current work provides helpful hints on regional policy coordination to promote a virtuous circle of sustainable regional development.

Nighttime light guarantees outdoor work, leisure, and other activities, and its convenience and security greatly improve the quality of human life. However, the negative effects of outdoor artificial light at night (ALAN) on humans are also being proven. This study aimed to examine the relationships between outdoor nighttime lighting and human behaviors (i.e., outdoor nighttime behaviors such as jogging and meeting friends) and health (i.e., physical and mental health, including sleep quality and stress) through how individuals feel about outdoor ALAN (i.e., ALAN perceptions) in their living environment. Two online questionnaire surveys were conducted among residents of Tokyo (Survey 1, N = 2000) and Tsukuba City (Survey 2, N = 500), Japan. Structural equation modeling results show that both positive and negative ALAN perceptions increase nighttime outdoor behavior in both surveys. In Survey 1, this association led to a deterioration in sleep quality and physical and mental health. The current findings contribute to understanding the controversial relationships between the pros and cons of nighttime light perceptions and behaviors and health. They also contribute to designing better nighttime lighting in outdoor public and private spaces with relevant restrictions by balancing the benefits and harms of outdoor ALAN.

The ways in which we travel—by what mode, for how long, and for what purpose—can affect our sense of happiness and well-being. This paper assesses the relationships between measures of the sustainability of transportation systems in U.S. metropolitan areas and subjective well-being. Associations between self-reported happiness levels from the Gallup Healthways Well-being Index and commute data were examined for 187 core-based statistical areas (CBSA). We also supplement this quantitative analysis through brief case studies of high- and low-performing happiness cities. Our quantitative results indicate that regions with higher commute mode shares by non-automobile modes generally had higher well-being scores, even when controlling for important economic predictors of happiness. We also find that pro-sustainable transportation policies can have implications for population-wide happiness and well-being. Our case studies indicate that both high and low scoring happiness cities demonstrate a dedicated commitment to improving sustainable transportation infrastructure. Our study suggests that cities that provide incentives for residents to use more sustainable commute modes may offer greater opportunity for happiness than those that do not.

The development of mental health among students has become a crucial objective and focus in numerous countries, with teachers serving as the primary guardians of their mental well-being. As such, enhancing teachers’ mental health literacy has emerged as a key strategy and priority in this endeavor. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the experimental effects associated with improving teachers’ mental health literacy. The study seeks to provide substantiated evidence and innovative strategies for enhancing teachers’ mental health literacy. A systematic search was conducted using five English databases (PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, Springer Link, ProQuest) and three Chinese databases (WanFang, CNKI, and VIP) to identify controlled trials evaluating the immediate effect and tracking effect of the intervention experiment on enhancing teachers’ mental health knowledge, anti-stigma, willingness, or behavior to seek help. Relevant peer-reviewed articles (n = 20) were selected for further analysis through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-P), with a total of 7446 subjects. The findings revealed that the immediate effect of the intervention on teachers’ mental health literacy, knowledge, stigma, and assistance-seeking had significant moderate to substantial effects. The tracking effect value for knowledge was only moderately significant, and the others were not significant. The analysis of subgroup moderating variables revealed that differences in national economic development level and cultural type did not have a significant impact on the intervention of teachers’ mental health literacy. The results of this review revealed that intervention experiments can effectively improve teachers’ mental health literacy. Hence, it is prudent to pay more attention to the intervention of teachers’ mental health literacy and strengthen the scientific design of experiments to improve the effectiveness of the intervention.

Dengue fever disease increases alongside urbanization rate in tropical countries. Hence, the need to visualize the distribution pattern of increases is vital for the management of dengue cases, especially in Malaysia. Thus, the dengue surveillance system is proposed for the monitoring of dengue cases using computer-generated modeling for spatial distribution patterns, which is important for management and control. The present study performed distribution and spatial pattern analysis of dengue cases reported in the growing Seremban district in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia in 2008 and 2009. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the pattern of distribution and determine whether it is clustered or dispersed. A total of 1401 and 1056 cases for dengue-related diseases were reported by the Ministry of Health Malaysia in Seremban district in the years 2008 and 2009, respectively. Three spatial statistical analysis were conducted: Spatial mean center, directional distribution, and standard distant on distribution of dengue cases reported. This study found that the distribution pattern for dengue cases is clustered. Spatial mean center and directional distribution for both sets of years have slight differences. Meanwhile, standard distance for dengue cases reported in the year 2008 is 22,085.82 m, which is bigger than dengue cases reported in 2009, showing a standard distance of 20,318.35 m. More sets of cases throughout years are required in further studies to identify factors that contribute to dengue epidemiology in the Seremban district undergoing urbanization.