Psychological Well-Being and Restorative Biological Processes: HDL-C in Older English Adults

Rationale Psychological well-being is associated with better cardiovascular health, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Objective This study investigates one possible mechanism by examining psychological well-being\u27s prospective association with lipid levels, focusing on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Methods Participants were 4757 healthy men and women ages ≥50 from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with clinical data from three times, three to five years apart. Psychological well-being was assessed at baseline using the Control, Autonomy, Satisfaction, and Pleasure scale; HDL-C, triglycerides, and total cholesterol were assayed from blood samples. Descriptive statistics and linear mixed models were used to examine associations between psychological well-being and lipid levels over time; the latter controlled for confounders and health behaviours. Results In descriptive analyses, HDL-C levels were initially higher in people with greater psychological well-being. Among those who met recommended levels of HDL-C at baseline, fewer individuals with higher versus lower psychological well-being dropped below HDL-C recommendations over time. Mixed models indicated that HDL-C increased over time (β = 0.64; 95% CI = 0.58 to 0.69) and higher baseline psychological well-being was associated with higher baseline HDL-C (β = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.03 to 0.99). A significant well-being by time interaction indicated individuals with higher versus lower well-being exhibited a more rapid rate of increase in HDL-C over follow-up. Higher psychological well-being was also significantly associated with lower triglycerides, but main effects for both HDL-C and triglycerides were attenuated after accounting for health behaviours. Conclusion Higher psychological well-being is associated with healthier HDL-C levels; these effects may compound over time. This protective effect may be partly explained by health behaviours

Longitudinal Associations Between Psychological Well-Being and the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables

Background: Psychological well-being is associated with longevity and reduced risk of disease, but possible mechanisms are understudied. Health behaviors like eating fruits and vegetables may link psychological well-being with better health; however, most evidence is cross-sectional. Purpose: This study investigated psychological well-being’s longitudinal association with fruit and vegetable consumption across as many as 7 years. Method: Participants were 6,565 older adults from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which includes men and women aged 50 years or older. Psychological well-being was assessed with 17 items from the Control, Autonomy, Satisfaction, Pleasure Scale. Fruit and vegetable consumption was initially assessed during 2006–2007 and then approximately every 2 years through 2012–2013. Covariates included sociodemographic factors, health status, and other health behaviors. Results: Mixed linear models showed that higher baseline levels of psychological well-being were associated with more fruit and vegetable consumption at baseline (β = 0.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.02, 0.08]) and that fruit and vegetable consumption declined across time (β = −0.01, 95% CI [−0.02, −0.004]). Psychological well-being interacted significantly with time such that individuals with higher baseline psychological well-being had slower declines in fruit and vegetable consumption (β = 0.01, 95% CI [0.01, 0.02]). Among individuals who initially met recommendations to consume 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables (N = 1,719), higher baseline psychological well-being was associated with 11% reduced risk of falling below recommended levels during follow-up (hazard ratio = 0.89, 95% CI [0.83, 0.95]). Conclusions: Findings suggest that psychological well-being may be a precursor to healthy behaviors such as eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved

Psychological Well-being’s Link With Cardiovascular Health in Older Adults

Introduction Favorable cardiovascular health (FCH) is associated with healthy longevity and reduced cardiovascular mortality risk. However, limited work has investigated the distribution of FCH in older age or considered the antecedents of FCH. Based on prior work linking psychological well-being with cardiovascular endpoints, higher psychological well-being was hypothesized to be associated with increased likelihood of maintaining FCH over time. Methods Data were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The first study wave (2002–2003) included men and women aged ≥50 years. The analytic sample (N=4,925) was restricted to individuals without baseline cardiovascular disease and with clinical data from three follow-ups through 2013. Psychological well-being was assessed with 17 items from the Control, Autonomy, Satisfaction, and Pleasure scale. FCH was defined as being a non-smoker, diabetes-free, and having healthy levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI (FCH scores ranged from 0–5). Statistical analyses conducted in 2016–2017 used linear mixed models to examine associations between psychological well-being and FCH scores over time. Secondary analyses examined cardiovascular-related mortality. Results Only 1% of participants had achieved complete FCH at study baseline. Adjusting for sociodemographic factors and depression, greater psychological well-being was associated with higher FCH scores across time (β=0.05, 95% CI=0.02, 0.08), but not rate of change in FCH. Psychological well-being was also associated with a 29% reduced risk of cardiovascular-related mortality in multivariable-adjusted models. Conclusions Findings suggest that psychological well-being is associated with having FCH at older ages, and add to knowledge of assets that may increase likelihood of healthy aging

Suboptimal Vitamin D levels among adult survivors of childhood cancers

Purpose: Vitamin D plays an important role in many bodily systems, with increasing evidence suggesting its importance for the prevention of chronic diseases and cancer. The identification of vitamin D levels in childhood cancer survivors becomes, therefore, particularly relevant, given that optimizing levels may contribute to the prevention of secondary malignancies and chronic diseases.Methods: A cross - sectional analysis of serum 25 - hydroxyvitamin D levels among adult survivors of childhood cancers living in New York State and surrounding areas (n = 139) was performed. Independent variables included gender, race/ethnicity, cancer site, year of diagnosis, past medical and surgical history, prior radiation therapy; prior chemotherapy, age at diagnosis, age at last clinic visit, year of last clinic visit, height, weight, body mass index, and vitamin D supplementation.Results: Overall, 34% of survivors were vitamin D deficient (&lt; 20 ng/ml), 39% were classified as insufficient (20 - 29 ng/ml) and 27% (≥ 30 ng/ml) were classified as having sufficient levels. Despite vitamin D supplementation among 41 patients, 68.3% continued to have insufficient or deficient levels. Participants with a BMI &gt; 25 demonstrated lower levels of vitamin D (p &lt; 0.05). Vitamin D levels did not vary by age group, race, ethnicity, diagnosis, or years since diagnosis.Conclusion: Given the growing awareness of the role of vitamin D and the documented late effects of treatment for childhood cancers, the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency within the childhood cancer survivor population is of concern. Vitamin D represents an important target for surveillance and intervention to help improve long - term outcomes of childhood cancer survivors.</p

Suboptimal Vitamin D levels among adult survivors of childhood cancers

Purpose: Vitamin D plays an important role in many bodily systems, with increasing evidence suggesting its importance for the prevention of chronic diseases and cancer. The identification of vitamin D levels in childhood cancer survivors becomes, therefore, particularly relevant, given that optimizing levels may contribute to the prevention of secondary malignancies and chronic diseases.Methods: A cross - sectional analysis of serum 25 - hydroxyvitamin D levels among adult survivors of childhood cancers living in New York State and surrounding areas (n = 139) was performed. Independent variables included gender, race/ethnicity, cancer site, year of diagnosis, past medical and surgical history, prior radiation therapy; prior chemotherapy, age at diagnosis, age at last clinic visit, year of last clinic visit, height, weight, body mass index, and vitamin D supplementation.Results: Overall, 34% of survivors were vitamin D deficient (&lt; 20 ng/ml), 39% were classified as insufficient (20 - 29 ng/ml) and 27% (≥ 30 ng/ml) were classified as having sufficient levels. Despite vitamin D supplementation among 41 patients, 68.3% continued to have insufficient or deficient levels. Participants with a BMI &gt; 25 demonstrated lower levels of vitamin D (p &lt; 0.05). Vitamin D levels did not vary by age group, race, ethnicity, diagnosis, or years since diagnosis.Conclusion: Given the growing awareness of the role of vitamin D and the documented late effects of treatment for childhood cancers, the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency within the childhood cancer survivor population is of concern. Vitamin D represents an important target for surveillance and intervention to help improve long - term outcomes of childhood cancer survivors

A review of air pollution impact on subjective well-being: Survey versus visual psychophysics

Air pollution is a worldwide environmental and health issue, especially in major developing countries. A recent World Health Organization report shows about 3 million deaths in the world in 2012 are due to ambient air pollution and China and India are the countries with the most severe challenge. Air pollution influences people's thought and experience of their lives directly by visual perceptions. This reduces people's subjective well-being (SWB) to a significant degree. Empirical researchers have made efforts to examine how self-reported well-being varies with air quality typically by survey method - matching SWB data with monitored air pollution data. Their findings show NO2, particles, lead, SO2 and O3 have significant negative impact on SWB. However, it is very hard to match air pollution characteristics from monitor stations with each respondent's state of SWB at the moment a survey is conducted. Also it is very hard to find the detailed trend impact from only air pollution factor on SWB. This review illustrates the features and limitations of previous survey studies on quantifying the effects of air pollution on subjective well-being. This review further displays the progress of psychophysics and its application in landscape and air quality research. We propose using psychophysics application to quantify air pollution impact on SWB

Person-Specific Non-shared Environmental Influences in Intra-individual Variability : A Preliminary Case of Daily School Feelings in Monozygotic Twins

Most behavioural genetic studies focus on genetic and environmental influences on inter-individual phenotypic differences at the population level. The growing collection of intensive longitudinal data in social and behavioural science offers a unique opportunity to examine genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual phenotypic variability at the individual level. The current study introduces a novel idiographic approach and one novel method to investigate genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual variability by a simple empirical demonstration. Person-specific non-shared environmental influences on intra-individual variability of daily school feelings were estimated using time series data from twenty-one pairs of monozygotic twins (age = 10 years, 16 female pairs) over two consecutive weeks. Results showed substantial inter-individual heterogeneity in person-specific non-shared environmental influences. The current study represents a first step in investigating environmental influences on intra-individual variability with an idiographic approach, and provides implications for future behavioural genetic studies to examine developmental processes from a microscopic angle

A modern network approach to revisiting the positive and negative affective schedule (PANAS) construct validity

Introduction: The factor structure of the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule (PANAS) is still a topic of debate. There are several reasons why using Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) for scale validation is advantageous and can help understand and resolve conflicting results in the factor analytic literature. Objective: The main objective of the present study was to advance the knowledge regarding the factor structure underlying the PANAS scores by utilizing the different functionalities of the EGA method. EGA was used to (1) estimate the dimensionality of the PANAS scores, (2) establish the stability of the dimensionality estimate and of the item assignments into the dimensions, and (3) assess the impact of potential redundancies across item pairs on the dimensionality and structure of the PANAS scores. Method: This assessment was carried out across two studies that included two large samples of participants. Results and Conclusion: In sum, the results are consistent with a two-factor oblique structure.Fil: Flores Kanter, Pablo Ezequiel. Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Garrido, Luis Eduardo. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; República DominicanaFil: Moretti, Luciana Sofía. Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; República Dominicana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Medrano, Leonardo. Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; República Dominicana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Childs Cup Full Toy Development Intern

Child\u27s Cup Full provides meaningful work to women in Palestine by making educational children\u27s toys under a project called Zeki Learning. Zeki Learning\u27s products support cognitive development and language learning in English, Spanish, and Arabic. As a toy development intern I designed and pitched new toy ideas. I also reached out to small business, schools, and museums to try to sell the toys

Outside architecture: Outdoor rooms. Designed by Architects

London191 p.: illus.; 30 cm