Social Support and Optimal Aging during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was thought to be especially difficult for older adults, with high risks for social isolation due to the lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic. This study sought to understand the extent to which these community-residing older adults were receiving and providing social support. Further, we sought to disentangle the associations between multiple facets of social support and optimal aging under the influence of a shared stressor, the COVID-19 pandemic. The multiple facets of social support under examination include directionality (received vs. provided), type of support (emotional vs. instrumental), sources and recipients of support (family and friends), social support satisfaction, and specific kinds of support (e.g., domestic tasks). We specifically focused on providing social support as a productive activity that is associated with optimal aging. We examined each facet of social support and its relationships to optimal aging, in terms of physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning, as well as the ability to find positive outcomes in a stressful situation. Following the optimal aging framework which specifies that optimal aging consists of good functioning within current limitations (Aldwin & Igarashi, 2016), this study included the number of chronic illnesses as current limitations of older participants. Thus, we investigated whether aging and social support facets are significantly associated with optimal aging, focusing on optimal functioning, controlling for current limitations. Thus, this study is test of one component of optimal aging framework. We based our hypotheses on esteem-enhancement theory and socioemotional selectivity theory. The former posits that providing social support is more beneficial than receiving social support; the latter assumes that in later life, the quality of friend relationships varies less than family relationships. We also took into consideration previous study results regarding positive effects of receiving emotional support. Consequently, we hypothesized that, in general, social support would have negative associations with negative health outcomes, with the exception of receiving instrumental support from family, which would have positive association with negative health outcomes. As qualitative/mixed-method research questions were primarily exploratory, there were no specific hypotheses. Participants were recruited from LIFE (Linking Individuals, Families, and Environments) Registry of the Center for Healthy Aging Research at Oregon State University. This consisted of Oregonians of age 50 or older who were interested in aging research. Data were collected from April 2020 to June 2020, with one baseline survey and seven weekly follow-ups. This study utilized the baseline quantitative and qualitative data. Of the 254 respondents who submitted the first survey, 238 participants (M = 71.20, SD = 7.32, age range = 51-95) provided sufficient data for baseline quantitative analyses. The baseline sample was 73.11% female, 96.55% White, and was highly educated, with 45.79% having a post-graduate degree. For the baseline qualitative data, 228 participants contributed at least one response to the four open-ended questions regarding social support activities. This sample was similar to the quantitative sample, 74.56% female, 97.29% White, and with 46.05% having a post-graduate degree. Additionally, pre-coded data from the same dataset will be used as well, regarding positive outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic (Igarashi et al., 2021). For the open-ended question concerning positive outcomes, 148 participants submitted a response. Their age ranging from 51 to 95 (M = 71.4, SD = 7.4), they were largely female (73.6%) and White (92.1%), with nearly half of the sample (47%) having a post-graduate degree. All quantitative analyses were conducted using SAS OnDemand Academics (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Descriptive analyses were performed to examine and compare participants’ received and provided support by types of support and sources and recipients of support. Depressive symptoms, cognitive lapses, and physical symptoms were used to define optimal aging as a latent variable. Then, four sets of structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships between social support and health outcomes, given the effects of age and the number of chronic illnesses. Participants reported receiving and providing more emotional support than instrumental support. They also reported that they provided more emotional support than they received to their family, implying an imbalance in support, but it was family members that they received and provided more instrumental support with than with friends. Participants were more satisfied with the support they received than provided, and the satisfaction was higher for received instrumental support than received emotional support. Regarding zero-order relations among variables of interest, age and education did not have any significant relationships with other variables, which was surprising. Marital status had positive relationships with family social support. The number of chronic illnesses was only correlated with physical symptoms. Being a female showed significant correlations with received and provided emotional support with friends, but not with family. The final analyses for the quantitative research questions produced interesting results: the mere act of receiving or providing support, whether emotional or instrumental, or whether it was family support or friend support, was not important concerning health outcomes. Rather, it was the satisfaction of social support, both received and provided and both emotional and instrumental, that was imperative in relation to health outcomes. However, the fact that not only satisfaction with received support, but also satisfaction with provided support was important for health outcomes supported our hypotheses that providing social support would be important for older adults’ well-being. As for the qualitative/mixed-method analyses, data were managed using ATLAS.ti version 22 (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany). Content analysis was employed and open coding was conducted by two doctoral candidates, as well as two senior researchers. Open codes were grouped into preliminary consolidated codes by the author. These preliminary codes were then discussed and consolidated into final codes. After reaching a .70 criterion for intercoder agreement, we discussed all disagreements into resolution and obtained final coded data. Specific social support activities were compared by age groups, the middle-aged, the young-old, and the old-old, and by gender. Then the pre-coded data from a published study was used to explore the relationships between received and provided social support and positive outcomes from the COVID-19 experience. Most participants reported receiving or providing some sort of social support, indicating that our sample was well-integrated into their social network. For emotional support, we identified 10 activity codes for received support and eight codes for provided support. Most of the codes were identical (e.g., interpersonal responses to distress, promoting social ties through positive interactions, and reciprocal support), but received support had two additional codes pertaining to pet support and professional support. There were nine codes for both received and provided instrumental support, all codes identical (e.g., domestic tasks, gifts, and offers of support). It is noteworthy that whereas some support was COVID-19-specific, such as helping with emotional distress that COVID-19 brought about, others were not, instead including activities such lending a hand for mundane domestic tasks or just socializing. However, these everyday activities, taking place in the absence of explicit distress, may have played an important role in maintaining stable relationships with others. Also, many support activities that participants answered as received support or provided support were reciprocal in nature. There were significant age differences for emotional support. The middle-aged participants were most likely to report responses to distress in received support, followed by the young-old and old-old. The middle-aged group were also more likely to promote social ties through positive interactions in provided support, followed by the old-old and the young-old. There were no age differences shown for instrumental support, which was surprising. Gender differences did not appear for received emotional support, but appeared in the code interpersonal responses to distress for provided emotional support, being marginal in significance and in the favor of females. While there were no gender differences in received instrumental support, the provided instrumental support codes domestic tasks and gifts showed differences, the former being marginal in significance and in favor of males. Females’ responses were coded more as gifts. The associations with positive outcomes from COVID-19 were investigated with a hierarchical regression analysis. This analysis included received and provided emotional/instrumental support from the quantitative data, representing the variety of social support network, and also their counterparts in the qualitative data, representing the variety of social support activities coded. None of the social support network variety variables showed significant associations with positive outcomes. However, qualitative data did: received emotional support had a marginally significant positive association, and providing instrumental support had a significant positive association with positive outcomes. Thus, we concluded that both receiving emotional support and providing instrumental support are associated with being able to perceive more positives in stressful situations. This study offered evidence that older adults received and provide social support from and to others even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that most of these community-residing residents were not socially isolated, despite being in lockdown. In doing so, this study identified providing social support as a productive activity that could benefit both older adults and society as a whole. This argues against the ageist notion that older adults are merely a vulnerable population in need, which was especially prevalent in the early period of COVID-19. The COVID-19 context allowed for controlling for the stressor in studying various facets of social support and their associations with optimal aging, specifically focusing on functioning and meaning in life. The insights obtained from this study will contribute to future research in further disentangling the complex associations between social support and well-being

Towards searching as a learning process: A review of current perspectives and future directions

We critically review literature on the association between searching and learning and contribute to the formulation of a research agenda for searching as learning. The paper begins by reviewing current literature that tends to characterize search systems as tools for learning. We then present a perspective on searching as learning that focuses on the learning that occurs during the search pro-cess, as well as search outputs and learning outcomes. The concept of ‘comprehensive search’ is proposed to describe iterative, reflec-tive and integrative search sessions that facilitate critical and creative learning beyond receptive learning. We also discuss how search interaction data can provide a rich source of implicit and explicit features through which to assess search-related learning. In conclu-sion, we summarize opportunities and challenges for future research with respect to four agendas: developing a search system that supports sense-making and enhances learning; supporting effective user interaction for searching as learning; providing an inquiry-based literacy tool within a search system; and assessing learning from online searching behaviour.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145734/1/Rieh et al Towards searching as a learning process JIS2016.pd

Maca (L. meyenii) for erectile dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) has been reported to improve erectile function (EF). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical evidence for or against maca as a therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. We searched 11 databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing any type of maca with a placebo in the treatment of ED in men. The primary endpoint was EF, while the secondary endpoints were quality of life and adverse events. Risk of bias (ROB) was assessed using the Cochrane ROB tool 2.0. Study selection, data extraction, and assessment were independently performed by two researchers. RevMan 5.4.1 software (Cochrane Collaboration, 2020) was used for data aggregation, and the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) assessment was used to evaluate the quality of the study outcomes. Only two RCTs met all the inclusion criteria. These RCTs examined the effects of maca on EF in patients with mild ED. One RCT showed a positive effect of maca on EF, whereas the other RCT did not. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that maca has positive effects on EF in men with mild ED (n = 79, MDs 1.13: 0.64 to 1.61, p = 0.01; p < 0.0001). Our comprehensive review found limited evidence for the benefits of maca in improving EF. Several limitations, including the total number of studies and their sample sizes, were insufficient to draw firm conclusions. Further studies are needed

Isolation and functional characterization of CE1 binding proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone that controls seed germination, protective responses to various abiotic stresses and seed maturation. The ABA-dependent processes entail changes in gene expression. Numerous genes are regulated by ABA, and promoter analyses of the genes revealed that <it>cis</it>-elements sharing the ACGTGGC consensus sequence are ubiquitous among ABA-regulated gene promoters. The importance of the core sequence, which is generally known as ABA response element (ABRE), has been demonstrated by various experiments, and its cognate transcription factors known as ABFs/AREBs have been identified. Although necessary, ABRE alone is not sufficient, and another <it>cis</it>-element known as "coupling element (CE)" is required for full range ABA-regulation of gene expression. Several CEs are known. However, despite their importance, the cognate transcription factors mediating ABA response via CEs have not been reported to date. Here, we report the isolation of transcription factors that bind one of the coupling elements, CE1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To isolate CE1 binding proteins, we carried out yeast one-hybrid screens. Reporter genes containing a trimer of the CE1 element were prepared and introduced into a yeast strain. The yeast was transformed with library DNA that represents RNA isolated from ABA-treated Arabidopsis seedlings. From the screen of 3.6 million yeast transformants, we isolated 78 positive clones. Analysis of the clones revealed that a group of AP2/ERF domain proteins binds the CE1 element. We investigated their expression patterns and analyzed their overexpression lines to investigate the <it>in vivo </it>functions of the CE element binding factors (CEBFs). Here, we show that one of the CEBFs, AtERF13, confers ABA hypersensitivity in Arabidopsis, whereas two other CEBFs enhance sugar sensitivity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate that a group of AP2/ERF superfamily proteins interacts with CE1. Several CEBFs are known to mediate defense or abiotic stress response, but the physiological functions of other CEBFs remain to be determined. Our <it>in vivo </it>functional analysis of several CEBFs suggests that they are likely to be involved in ABA and/or sugar response. Together with previous results reported by others, our current data raise an interesting possibility that the coupling element CE1 may function not only as an ABRE but also as an element mediating biotic and abiotic stress responses.</p

Alcohol induces cell proliferation via hypermethylation of ADHFE1 in colorectal cancer cells

BACKGROUND: The hypermethylation of Alcohol dehydrogenase iron containing 1 (ADHFE1) was recently reported to be associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) differentiation. However, the effect of alcohol on ADHFE1 hypermethylation in CRC is still unclear. METHODS: The methylation status and expression levels of ADHFE1 were investigated in primary tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues of 73 patients with CRC, one normal colon cell line, and 4 CRC cell lines (HT-29, SW480, DLD-1, and LoVo) by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (QMSP) and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real time PCR), respectively. The effect of alcohol on the methylation status of ADHFE1 was analyzed in HT-29, SW480, DLD-1, and CCD18Co cells using QMSP, real-time PCR, immunoblot, and cell proliferation assay. RESULTS: ADHFE1 was hypermethylated in 69 of 73 CRC tissues (95%) compared to adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.05). The mRNA expression of ADHFE1 was significantly reduced in CRC compared to adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.05) and its expression was decreased in the alcohol consumption group (p < 0.05). ADHFE1 was hypermethylated and its expression was decreased in 4 CRC cell lines compared with normal colon cell line. Alcohol induced hypermethylation of ADHFE1, decreased its expression, and stimulated cell proliferation of HT-29, SW480, and DLD-1cells. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that the promoter hypermethylation of ADHFE1 is frequently present in CRC and alcohol induces methylation-mediated down expression of ADHFE1 and proliferation of CRC cells

Comparative effectiveness of acupuncture in sham-controlled trials for knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

Objectives: Although many trials have assessed the effect of acupuncture on knee osteoarthritis (KOA), its efficacy remains controversial. Sham acupuncture techniques are regarded as representative control interventions in acupuncture trials and sometimes incorporate the use of sham devices (base units) to support a non-penetrating needle. To achieve successful blinding, these trials also use acupuncture base units in the verum acupuncture group. Base units are not used in real-world clinical settings. We aimed to assess the effect sizes of verum and sham acupuncture for KOA in sham-controlled trials with or without base units. Methods: A total of 10 electronic databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the efficacy of verum manual acupuncture and sham acupuncture for the treatment of KOA were searched for articles published before April 12, 2022. The primary outcome was pain intensity, and the secondary outcomes included physical function. The first assessment after the end of treatment was chosen for analysis. Effect sizes are reported as standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool, and publication bias was evaluated using a funnel plot and Egger’s test. The quality of evidence for estimates was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) approach. Results: Fifteen RCTs were included. There was generally a low risk of bias except for the difficulty in blinding acupuncture therapists (performance bias). Compared to verum acupuncture in sham-controlled trials using base units, verum acupuncture in sham-controlled trials without base units was more effective for improving pain (SMD −0.56, 95% CI −1.09 to −0.03) and function (SMD −0.73, 95% CI −1.36 to −0.10) in KOA. The quality of evidence for network estimates was moderate to low due to the risk of bias and imprecision. Conclusion: These findings suggest that verum acupuncture in different types of sham-controlled trials has different effect sizes for KOA. Because base units are not used in clinical settings, the results of verum acupuncture in sham-controlled trials with base units need to be interpreted carefully