The Effects of Physical Activity on Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents

This thesis examines how physical activity influences suicidal ideation longitudinally in a population-based sample of adolescents in grades 7 through 12, as well as investigates potential mediating and moderating factors of this association. Physical activity has been found to be protective against depression and suicidal behaviors in various populations. Few studies have explored the relationship between physical activity and suicidal ideation in a representative sample of adolescents, and even fewer have examined this relationship prospectively. This study included measures of physical activity, self-esteem, social support, and suicidal ideation from Wave I and Wave 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health study. This thesis presents a comprehensive model examining self-esteem and social support as mediators of the relationship between physical activity and suicidal ideation, as well as the moderating effect of gender in all pathways. Self-esteem and social support were not found to mediate the relationship between physical activity and suicidal ideation, though both significantly predicted suicidal ideation separately. Gender moderation was found such that male adolescents reporting low physical activity levels were more likely to report higher levels of suicidal ideation than male adolescents with high physical activity levels. In contrast, female adolescents reporting low levels of physical activity were more likely to report lower levels of suicidal ideation than females with high physical activity levels, but this association was not significant The findings of this study illustrate that physical activity may serve as a protective factor of suicidal ideation in adolescents, though this effect may vary according to gender. Future research should focus on other potential mediating and moderating factors, as well as obtain more comprehensive measures of physical activity, to aid in the promotion of healthy behaviors and the development of prevention and intervention prot,\u3erams for adolescents experiencing suicidal ideation

Associations of suicidal ideation with opioid/prescription drug use, violence, food insecurity, and community factors among New Hampshire high school students

Purpose: Suicide is the second leading cause of death for New Hampshire (NH) youth. Evidence-based public health emphasizes the use of data for translating research into practice/policy. We utilized data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to support community-academic partnerships and inform suicide prevention interventions. Methods: Data from the 2011 NH YRBS, a cross-sectional survey of 9th-12th grade students, were analyzed. Gender-stratified, adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using logistic regression models (SAS 9.4, ProcSuveylogistic) to evaluate associations between suicidal ideation (seriously considering attempting suicide within the past 12 months), violence (e.g., physical bullying, cyber-bullying, forced sexual activity), opioid/prescription drug use, food insecurity, and perceptions of being valued by one’s community. Results: Overall, the prevalence of suicidal ideation was 14.3% (females 16.8%; males 12.2%). For both genders, higher prevalence of suicidal ideation was observed among students in grades 9 (15.6%) and 10 (17.8%) compared to grades 11 (11.6%) and 12 (11.3%). In adjusted models, among girls, suicidal ideation was positively associated with the use of opioid/prescription drugs (aOR: 1.38; CI: 1.13-1.67)), violence (being forced to have sex (aOR 2.32 (CI 1.12-4.81)); being bullied on school property (aOR 2.28 (CI 1.31-3.97)), and food insecurity ((aOR 1.36 (CI 1.02-1.81)). Among boys, suicidal ideation was positively associated with opioid/drug use (aOR 1.25 (CI 1.04-1.49)), cyberbullying (aOR 2.69(CI 1.17-6.18)), and food insecurity ((aOR 1.44 (CI 1.14-1.83). Youth who perceived that they did not matter to their community were more likely to report suicidal ideation (Girls: aOR: 1.62; CI: 1.27-2.08; Boys: aOR: 1.37; (CI: 1.10-1.71)), compared to those who felt that they mattered to their community. Conclusions: Drug use, violence, and food insecurity emerged as significant risk factors for suicidal ideation among NH youth. Interventions that make youth feel that they matter to their communities may protect against suicidal ideation

Association of suicidal ideation with demographic, lifestyle and health factors in Malaysians

Objective: To determine the association of suicidal ideation with demographic, lifestyle, and health factors, using data from National Health and Morbidity Survey 2011 (NHMS 2011) of Malaysia. Methods: The NHMS 2011 included 10,141 respondents. Independent variables of suicidal ideation were income, age, household size, sex, ethnicity, education, marital status, smoking, physical activity, and self-rated health. The risk factors of suicidal ideation were determined using logistic regression analysis. Results: In the pooled sample, suicidal ideation was associated with age, sex, ethnicity, and self-rated health, but not associated with income, household size, education, physical activity, or smoking. Conclusion: The likelihood of having suicidal ideation is positively associated with young adults, women, Indians, and those with poor self-rated health

The neural correlates of ideation in product design engineering practitioners

In product design engineering (PDE), ideation involves the generation of technical behaviours and physical structures to address specific functional requirements. This differs from generic creative ideation tasks, which emphasise functional and technical considerations less. To advance knowledge about the neural basis of PDE ideation, we present the first fMRI study on professional product design engineers practising in industry. We aimed to explore brain activation during ideation, and compare activation in open-ended and constrained tasks. Imagery manipulation tasks were contrasted with ideation tasks in a sample of 29 PDE professionals. The key findings were: (1) PDE ideation is associated with greater activity in left cingulate gyrus; (2) there were no significant differences between open-ended and constrained tasks; and (3) a preliminary association with activity in the right superior temporal gyrus was also observed. The results are consistent with existing fMRI work on generic creative ideation, suggesting that PDE ideation may share a number of similarities at the neural level. Future work includes: functional connectivity analysis of open-ended and constrained ideation to further investigate potential differences; investigating the effects of aspects of design expertise/training on processing; and the use of novelty measures directly linked to the designer’s internal processing in fMRI analysis

Detecting Suicide Risk From Wristworn Activity Tracker Data Using Machine Learning Approaches

Suicide is a prevalent cause of death worldwide and depression is a primary concern of many suicidal acts. It is possible that an individual during depression never has any suicidal thoughts at all. On the other hand, some individuals in stable condition with no apparent symptoms of depression feel urges to commit suicide (suicidal ideation). Many such individuals never let anyone know what they are feeling or planning. Suicidal ideation considered an important precursor to suicidal acts. Detecting the suicide risk in individuals with mood disorders is a major challenge. The current clinical practice to assess suicide risk in these vulnerable individuals based on structured or semi-structured psychiatric interviews is inadequate as many of the suicidal behaviors often occur unpredictably especially during apparent clinical remission. Furthermore, some of these individuals are unable or unwilling to share their experiences with clinicians. An objective feature that can continuously monitor risk of suicidal thoughts would be advantageous in such situations. Our research focused on finding objective features in activity data for detecting suicidal ideation in a sample of individuals diagnosed with Bipolar I, Bipolar II, or Unipolar who were currently in a euthymic state. Euthymic state is considered a non-depressed and reasonably positive mood state, but individuals in this state may still have suicidal ideation. Hence, our work explores detecting risk of suicidal thoughts in euthymic individuals in a group of mood disorder subjects using machine-learning approaches. Statistically significant differences were observed between activity features of euthymic and depressed individuals. A strong negative correlation was observed between activity feature vulnerability index with self-rated suicidal ideation. This study demonstrates that we can use machine learning techniques to detect risk of suicide in euthymic individuals from activity data. The main advantage of using activity data is that it would be cost effective, since many people commonly use activity trackers

A Study of the Role of Visual Information in Supporting Ideation in Graphic Design

Existing computer technologies poorly support the ideation phase common to graphic design practice. Finding and indexing visual material to assist the process of ideation often fall on the designer, leading to user experiences that are less than ideal. To inform development of computer systems to assist graphic designers in the ideation phase of the design process, we conducted interviews with 15 professional graphic designers about their design process and visual information needs. Based on the study, we propose a set of requirements for an ideation-support system for graphic design

Motor expressions as creativity support: Exploring the potential for physical interaction

This research explores the effects of physical interactions designed on the basis of motor expressions to support creative ideation in creativity support technologies. The presented research looks into the effects on creative ideation of incompatibility between motor expressions and problem situations, and appraisals of (un)pleasantness. We report the results of a preliminary study which suggests that affective incompatibility between a problem situation and a motor expression benefits creative ideation, and that pleasantness motor expressions enhance task enjoyment, which in turn leads to a beneficial effect on the originality of ideas generated. Based on these results, we conclude with two new directions for the design of physical interactions with novel creativity support technologies

Narrative in design development

This paper describes the value of narrative used with ideation tools in aiding the rapid production of product concepts and designs for masters students of graphics, fine art, product and industrial design. The ideation tools used alongside narrative included elements of divergent and convergent thinking in combination with reverse engineering and functional analysis, and practical prototyping using a range of readily adapted artefacts. Narrative was introduced and used by the students in order to ensure the development of a context and purpose for the product, artefact or system developed or proposed and to stimulate original product concepts, ideas and thinking. The concept of narrative is familiar in design. Here however the concept was reinforced using structures associated with fictional narrative. Reverse engineering exploring the deconstruction and identification of function for each component in a product was used to aid students ensure practicality in their idea implementation. This paper describes positive experiences resulting from this activity, with a particular focus on the value of narrative in developing robust concepts. The use of physical prototyping provided tangible and instant feedback for divergent and convergent phases of idea development

Nutritional and lifestyle risk behaviors and their association with mental health and violence among Pakistani adolescents: results from the National Survey of 4583 individuals

Background: Unhealthy behaviors are associated with mental health problems and violence in adolescents, yet their combined association has been understudied. Using the Global School Health Survey, this study examined the association between combined unhealthy behaviors (including fast food, soft drink, smoking, other tobacco products and physical inactivity) and anxiety, suicidal ideation and involvement in physical fight among Pakistani adolescents. Methods: Data were obtained from the Global School Health Survey conducted in Pakistan (2009). The study population consisted of school going adolescents aged 13 to 15 years. Association of combined unhealthy behaviors with anxiety, suicidal ideation and involvement in physical fight were studied through secondary analysis. We used univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis by complex sample method, accounting for cluster sampling technique used for data collection. Results: Of the total 4583 students, weighted percentage and unweighted count for one, two, three and four or more unhealthy behaviors was 39.4% (n = 1770), 22.1% (n = 963), 5.9% (n = 274) and 1.2% (n = 62) respectively. The weighted prevalence for anxiety, suicidal ideation and involvement in physical fight were 8.4%, 7.3% and 37.4% respectively. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjustment showed that students who had four or more unhealthy behaviors had higher odds of; being anxious (OR 2.45, 95% CI 1.31-4.59, p value 0.004), suicide ideation (OR 4.56, 95% CI 2.58-8.07, p value &lt;0.001) and being involved in physical fight (OR 3.15, 95% CI 1.63–6.08, p value &lt;0.001) as compared to those who had not adopted any unhealthy behaviors. Conclusions: This study suggests that the co-occurrence of unhealthy behaviors is associated with anxiety, suicidal ideation and physical fight among adolescents. These findings should be considered when developing interventions to combat detrimental outcomes of unhealthy behaviors during adolescence.</p

Ideation as an intellectual information acquisition and use context: Investigating game designers’ information-based ideation behavior

Human Information Behavior (HIB) research commonly examines behavior in the context of why information is acquired and how it will be used, but usually at the level of the work or everyday-life tasks the information will support. HIB has not been examined in detail at the broader contextual level of intellectual purpose (i.e. the higher-order conceptual tasks the information was acquired to support). Examination at this level can enhance holistic understanding of HIB as a ‘means to an intellectual end’ and inform the design of digital information environments that support information interaction for specific intellectual purposes. We investigate information-based ideation (IBI) as a specific intellectual information acquisition and use context by conducting Critical Incident-style interviews with ten game designers, focusing on how they interact with information to generate and develop creative design ideas. Our findings give rise to a framework of their ideation-focused HIB, which systems designers can leverage to reason about how best to support certain behaviors to drive design ideation. These findings emphasize the importance of intellectual purpose as a driver for acquisition and desired outcome of use