Nurses more likely to suffer emotional exhaustion by working 12 hour shifts or longer

September 10, 2015
Science Daily/University of Southampton
Hospital nurses who work longer than 12 hour shifts have a higher risk of wanting to leave their job, are more dissatisfied and more likely to burnout in terms of emotional exhaustion, new research has found.

Research carried out by NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) Wessex has found that hospital nurses who work longer than 12 hour shifts have a higher risk of wanting to leave their job, are more dissatisfied and more likely to burnout in terms of emotional exhaustion.

Published in the online journal BMJ Open, the study by Chiara Dall'Ora at the University of Southampton examined survey results from a sample of more than 31,000 nurses based across 12 countries in Europe. It found that shifts lasting longer than 12 hours were common in Poland (99%), Ireland (79%) and in England. In England of the 2568 nurses who responded 32 per cent said they worked day shifts lasting 12 hours or more and 37 per cent worked 12 hours or more on night shift.

Nurses who had worked more than 12 hours on their last shift were 50% more likely to be dissatisfied with their job, than nurses working an 8 hour shifts.

Health managers have increasingly favoured 12 hour nursing shifts believing they improve efficiency by reducing the number of shift handovers. Nurses too were believed to prefer them because they allowed them to compress the working week, leaving more day's off-work, reducing commuting costs and allowing more flexibility. But these findings raise serious concerns over higher burnout rates which may pose a risk to the quality and safety of patient care.

Researchers write "Twelve-hour shifts are relatively common in some countries in Europe; nonetheless, these longer shifts are associated with more reports of burnout, dissatisfaction with work schedule flexibility, and intention to leave.

In the context of austerity measures leading to cuts in spending on public services in Europe, it is particularly important for policymakers and managers to have good evidence on which to base decisions on hospital nurse working hours to ensure that the well-being of workers and the quality of care is maintained and nurses retained in practice."

Peter Griffiths, Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Southampton and one of the authors of the report said "This study adds to a growing body of evidence showing that the organisation of shift work in many hospitals may be putting both patients and staff at risk. Longer shifts aren't necessarily bad in themselves but we need to be mindful of increased risks and make sure the effects are closely monitored and pay close attention to other aspects of shift work, such as ensuring proper breaks within and between shifts The low levels of job satisfaction are a surprise as many nurses still seem to prefer this shift pattern."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150910185107.htm

Focus on well-being improves worker health while lowering costs

September 23, 2015
Science Daily/Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
One company's program to improve employee well-being led to improvements in worker health and productivity while decreasing health care costs, reports a case study on the issue.

Following a "comprehensive, multi-year well-being improvement strategy," the company was able to reduce health care costs and create "more engaged, healthy, and productive employees" during the transition to a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP), according to the new research by Aaron Wells, PhD, of Healthways, Inc., in Franklin, Tenn.

The study evaluated the long-term impact of a plan offering employees a range of benefits to promote well-being: for example, on-site fitness activities and intensive smoking cessation and weight loss programs.

Analysis of more than 2,000 individuals over five years found significant improvements in employee (and dependent) health and well-being. Average scores on a well-being index increased by 13.5 percent, mainly in the first two years of the program.

The well-being improvement strategy was also associated with a 5.2 percent decrease in average health care costs. Obesity and smoking rates decreased by 4.8 and 9.7 percent per person per year, respectively.

Worker absenteeism declined, while productivity increased. All of these changes were significantly associated with the improvement in well-being scores.

As they prepare for the "Cadillac tax" provision of the Affordable Care Act, more companies are transitioning from self-insured to CDHPs, which call on employees to share more of the costs of care. By improving well-being, the company in the study hoped to offset the possible adverse impact of increased cost-sharing on worker health.

"Transitioning to a CDHP combined with a robust well-being improvement strategy is an effective means for both employer and employees to benefit," Dr. Wells and coauthors conclude. "Both entities save money and are more productive as a result."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150923134404.htm

Over half of workers with depression do not recognize need for treatment Researchers say unrecognized need for care among workers is a major barrier to treatment, contributes to productivity loss

October 7, 2015
Science Daily/Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
More than half of workers who reported symptoms of depression did not perceive a need for treatment, according to a study that investigated barriers to mental health care experienced by workers and the resulting impact on productivity.

The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, investigated barriers to mental health care experienced by workers and the resulting impact on productivity. As many as 40 per cent of participants were experiencing significant depressive symptoms and, of that group, 52.8 per cent did not recognize a need to seek help. Similar rates have also been observed in population studies in the United States and Australia.

"Our results suggest that a significant number of workers who are experiencing symptoms of depression do not recognize they could benefit from help, and so do not it," says Dr. Carolyn Dewa, head of CAMH's Centre for Research on Employment and Workplace Health and lead author of the study. "This barrier has a significant impact on health and work productivity, and is an area where employers can focus efforts to reduce work productivity loss."

The findings are based on responses from 2,219 Ontario adults who completed either a telephone questionnaire or a web-based survey. Participants were between 18-65 years old and had been in the workforce during the preceding 12 months.

As part of the study, researchers also developed a model to help employers identify key barriers to treatment. Strategies could be targeted to these barriers to increase the use of mental health services among workers with symptoms of depression. Dr. Dewa and her team calculated that by removing the barrier caused by the unrecognized need for treatment, there would be a 33 per cent decrease in work productivity loss.

"It's important for employers to know where to start when it comes to tackling productivity loss related to untreated depression," says Dr. Dewa. "Our study suggests that helping workers understand when they should be seeking help would significantly boost work productivity."

In addition to treatment need, researches also assessed attitudinal and structural barriers to accessing mental health services. Attitudinal barriers include stigma of mental illness and belief that treatment is ineffective. Structural barriers include financial limitations and difficulty accessing appropriate mental health care. When all three types of barriers were removed, researchers found that loss of work productivity was reduced by nearly 50 per cent.

"Improving recognition for treatment is not the only opportunity for employers," says Dr. Dewa. "The most effective workplace mental health strategies will acknowledge the complexity of the problem and address all aspects in a comprehensive way."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151007124812.htm

Workplace mentors benefit female employees more than men

October 12, 2015
Science Daily/University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business
The success of online networking sites such as LinkedIn illustrates the popularity of building a wide-ranging contact list. Yet when it comes to raising one's profile within the workplace, female employees stand much to gain from formal, face-to-face mentoring programs, according to a new study.

The success of online networking sites such as LinkedIn illustrates the popularity of building a wide-ranging contact list. Yet when it comes to raising one's profile within the workplace, female employees stand much to gain from formal, face-to-face mentoring programs, according to a new study.

In the paper, "Network Intervention: A Field Experiment to Assess the Effects of Formal Mentoring on Workplace Networks," Assistant Professor Sameer Srivastava of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business documents the results of a field experiment involving 139 "high potential" employees at a software development lab for a U.S.-based company in China. The paper reports that women gained more social capital from affiliation with a high-status mentor than their male counterparts.

Srivastava says that formal mentoring can expand professional networks in a variety of ways -- for example, by building social skills and providing access to the elite members of an organization. Notably, simply being publicly affiliated with a high-status mentor appeared to benefit women more than it did the men in the program. Qualitative interviews pointed to one main reason: women experienced a greater increase in visibility and legitimacy as a result of their mentor affiliations than did male participants. As a result, women became more attractive network partners for their colleagues.

"It is well understood that networks form organically. In contrast, I am interested in understanding how managers can actively shape workplace networks," says Srivastava. "In this company, as in many other comparable companies, technical employees tended to build relatively small networks, mostly within their own groups. Senior leadership believed that the people who did well in the organization were those who had not only depth but also breadth of social capital."

The company had been experimenting with different ways to help employees develop this breadth of social capital and tried, among other things, a formal mentoring program. The program assigned employees to shadow a more senior person in another part of the organization for about a dozen days over a two-to-three-month period.

During this time, the protégés attended meetings with their mentors and worked on short project assignments. The senior employees' objective: transfer some of their organizational social capital to their protégés.

"Most mentoring research is based on cross-sectional surveys that are ill-suited to assessing whether formal mentoring programs actually work. The goal of this study was to provide more credible evidence about whether these programs can work, and if so, for which kinds of employees," says Srivastava.

The study provided this evidence by comparing the size of participants' reported networks before and after their mentoring assignments. Srivastava then assessed this change relative to a control group of employees with similar past performance and perceived potential who did not participate in the program. He also compared network changes across two groups of employees who participated in the program at different times.

Because the study was based on one particular organization and set of employees, Srivastava says that care must be taken in generalizing the findings to other contexts. Nevertheless, he believes the findings support the idea of formal mentoring programs as a means of addressing differences in the kinds of organizational networks that women and men tend to form, which, in turn, contribute to gender inequality in the workplace.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151012180930.htm

Can work stress be linked to stroke?

October 14, 2015
Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology (AAN)
Having a high stress job may be linked to a higher risk of stroke, according to an analysis of several studies.

"Having a lot of job stress has been linked to heart disease, but studies on job stress and stroke have shown inconsistent results," said Dingli Xu, MD, with Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China. "It's possible that high stress jobs lead to more unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking and a lack of exercise."

The analysis looked at all of the available research on job strain and stroke risk. The six studies analyzed involved a total of 138,782 participants who were followed for three to 17 years.

Jobs were classified into four groups based on how much control workers had over their jobs and how hard they worked, or the psychological demands of the job. The job demands included time pressure, mental load and coordination burdens. Physical labor and total number of hours worked were not included.

Passive jobs were those with low demand and low control. Examples include janitors, miners and other manual laborers. Low stress jobs are those with low demand and high control. Examples are natural scientists and architects. High stress jobs, which are high demand and low control, are found in the service industry and include waitresses and nursing aides. Active jobs with high demand and high control include doctors, teachers and engineers. In the six studies, the percentage of those with high stress jobs ranged from 11 percent to 27 percent of participants.

The analysis found that people with high stress jobs had a 22 percent higher risk of stroke than those with low stress jobs. Women with high stress jobs had a 33 percent higher risk of stroke than women with low stress jobs. People with high stress jobs were 58 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke than those with low stress jobs. Ischemic stroke, which is the most common type of stroke, is caused by blockage of blood flow. People in passive and active jobs did not have any increased risk of stroke.

The researchers calculated that 4.4 percent of the stroke risk was due to the high stress jobs. For women, that number increased to 6.5 percent.

"Based on this study, it is reasonable to consider testing interventions aimed at increasing job control, such as decentralization of decision-making and flexibility in job structure, such as telecommuting. If effective, such workplace changes could have a major public health impact," said Jennifer J. Majersik, MD, MS, with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, who wrote a corresponding editorial.

Xu said limitations of the research were that job stress was measured at only one point in time and that other factors, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, were not adequately adjusted for in the original studies.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151014163632.htm

Burnout, depression: Two entities or one?

October 19, 2015
Science Daily/City College of New York
Burnout and depression overlap considerably, according to the latest study on the subject. The findings are based on a survey taken by 1,386 public school teachers, from pre-K to 12th grade across the United States during the 2013-14 academic year.

Burnout and depression overlap considerably, according to the latest study on the subject led by psychology Professor Irvin S. Schonfeld of The City College of New York's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership and his colleague, Renzo Bianchi, of the Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. The findings are based on a survey taken by 1,386 public school teachers, from pre-K to 12th grade across the United States, including New York, during the 2013-14 academic year.

Based on their responses to a burnout measure, the teachers were categorized as belonging to either a burnout or no-burnout group. Less than one percent of the no-burnout group met criteria for a provisional diagnosis of depression, whereas 86 percent of the burnout group met these criteria.

In addition, the teachers in the burnout group were about three times as likely to have a history of depression and almost four times as likely to be currently taking antidepressant medication. Teachers in the burnout group were also more than twice as likely to report a history of anxiety disorders. When burnout and depression were treated as continuous dimensions, they were very highly correlated.

"Our purpose was not to determine the prevalence of burnout or depressive symptoms in a representative sample of teachers," explain Schonfeld and Bianchi. "Our analytic purpose was to determine the extent to which burnout and depression overlap, both dimensionally and categorically."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151019142936.htm

Feeling emotionally attached to work leads to improved well-being

October 20, 2015
Science Daily/Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Workers who feel emotionally attached to and identify with their work have better psychological well-being, reports a study.

Efforts to increase affective organizational commitment (AOC) may lead to a happier, healthier workforce -- and possibly contribute to reducing employee turnover, suggests the new research by Thomas Clausen of the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, and colleagues.

Affective organizational commitment is defined as "the employee's emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization." The new study looked at how AOC affected psychological well-being and other health-related outcomes in approximately 5,000 Danish eldercare workers, organized into 300 workgroups.

The results showed significantly higher well-being for employees in workgroups with higher AOC. Workgroups with high AOC also had lower sickness absence rates and fewer sleep disturbances, as reported by workers.

The relationship between group-level AOC and psychological well-being was completely explained by individual-level AOC. But group AOC contributed to the differences in sick days and sleep problems, independent of individual AOC.

Previous studies have suggested that employees' emotional attachment to and identification with their work is an important motivating factor that affects absenteeism and other key organizational outcomes. The new study adds evidence that group-level AOC "is an important predictor of employee well-being in contemporary healthcare organizations."

Within workgroups, high AOC may act like an "emotional contagion" -- with "effects on individual-level well-being that are relatively independent of the level of AOC of the individual," Dr. Clausen and colleagues write. They suggest that strategies aimed at enhancing AOC might help to address the high rates of burnout and turnover among employees in healthcare and eldercare services.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151020141546.htm

Could your job be making you obese?

October 28, 2015
Science Daily/Elsevier
Research reveals link between having to make lots of decisions at work and increased BMI. The findings suggest for the first time that these two psychological measures of control at work may actually have very different effects on our waistlines, so should be assessed separately.
    
The new study, by researchers at the University of Adelaide, Central Queensland University and the University of South Australia, shows that having skills and the freedom to use them at work is linked to lower BMI and smaller waist size, whereas needing to make a lot of decisions is linked to bigger waist size.

The findings suggest for the first time that these two psychological measures of control at work may actually have very different effects on our waistlines, so should be assessed separately.

Control in your job can come in two broad forms: skill discretion -- having and being able to apply skills -- and decision authority. Traditionally, increasing an employee's level of job control has been seen as a good thing and the two factors have been considered together when looking at their effect on people's health. However, the new study suggests that the two aspects of job control should be considered separately in terms of their effects on health, and obesity in particular.

In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults worldwide were overweight; of these, more than 600 million were obese. One area of interest for researchers has been how the kinds of work people do, and their experience of their work, can contribute to obesity.

"Many people point to 'eating too much and not moving enough' as the cause of obesity," said lead author Mr. Christopher Bean, a health psychology PhD candidate from the University of Adelaide. "While this might explain how weight gain often happens, it does not acknowledge things such as environmental, psychological, social or cultural factors -- these are some of the important why reasons that obesity happens."

For the study, which was part of the North West Adelaide Health Study, Bean and colleagues looked at a sub-set of data from 450 mostly middle-aged participants (230 women, 220 men), who worked in a variety of different occupations, both blue and white-collar. They measured participants' height, weight and waist circumference in a clinic and conducted telephone interviews to collect information about their work. They used a model called the Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) model to assess the psychosocial qualities of their work.

Traditionally, high job demands are considered stressful, while high job control has been considered useful in mitigating the effects of high demands. However, skill discretion and decision authority are usually assessed together. In the new study, the team took these two factors separately. After controlling for sex, age, household income, work hours and job nature, these two factors were comparatively strongly associated with obesity, with surprisingly opposite effects.

"When looking at the wide system of factors that cause and maintain obesity, work stress is just a small part of a very large and tangled network of interactive factors," said Mr. Bean. "On the other hand, work is a fundamental part of life for many, so it is important to find innovative ways of extending our understanding of how factors at work may be implicated in the development and maintenance of obesity. It is important to challenge the status quo and explore unexpected or counter-intuitive findings with curiosity."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151028084927.htm

Weighing the options

"If you experience a strong calling, you need to be cognizant of your relative preferences for intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards and potential trade-offs between the two, then decide accordingly," said Dr. Heller. "However, we found that, in certain fields, one's drive or passion afforded a competitive advantage over others, even when unrelated to objective ability or talent.

"In general, society benefits from an excess of talented people competing for a limited number of positions in winner-take-all labor markets," Dr. Heller continued. "Individuals who 'win' in this market are exemplary. Although individuals entering this type of market eventually 'lose' in extrinsic terms by definition, they still benefit from intrinsic rewards and garner subjective value and well-being, such as the satisfaction derived from attempting to fulfil their calling, even for a short time."

The researchers are currently examining the implications of career choice on overall wellbeing.

Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029134256.htm

The head vs. the heart

"Given the economic reality today, people commonly face trade-offs as they make decisions that pit the two sides of careers -- the 'heart,' or intrinsic side, and the 'head,' or extrinsic side -- against one another," said Dr. Heller, "We wanted to examine people who chose to follow more challenging career paths, such as those in the arts, and assess their chances of 'making it.'"

Dr. Heller and Dr. Riza surveyed some 450 high-school music students at two elite US summer music programs over the course of 11 years (2001-2012) as they developed from adolescents to young adults to professional musicians.

"We found that participants with stronger callings toward music in adolescence were likely to assess their musical abilities more favorably and were more likely to pursue music professionally as adults regardless of actual musical ability," said Dr. Heller.

Even so, difficulties in pursuing their dreams were still evident. According to the study, participants who were involved in music professionally, even at a minimum, earned considerably less (a gap of $12,000 per year on average) than freelancers or amateurs who pursued their musical interests outside of work. But they also reported similar or greater satisfaction with their jobs and lives. For those with strong callings, personal rewards such as satisfaction may matter more than professional rewards such as income
 

Follow your heart as you pursue your career Study finds talent is less important than passion when it comes to professional success

October 29, 2015
Science Daily/American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Young people with strong callings are more likely to take risks, persist, and ultimately get jobs in their chosen fields, satisfying both their personal and professional career needs. Researchers also found that those who exhibit a passion for these interests in their teens are more likely to be successful later on, regardless of their inherent talent.

More than half of working Americans feel disengaged from their jobs, according to Gallup's latest State of the American Workplace poll. Unenthusiastic, uncommitted, and uninvolved, male and female workers alike are now, more than ever before, unlikely to be "doing what they love" at work. Should you pursue your passion or strive toward a secure living?

A new Tel Aviv University study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology finds that the two objectives are not mutually exclusive -- in fact, each feeds the other. Young people with strong callings are more likely to take risks, persist, and ultimately get jobs in their chosen fields, satisfying both their personal and professional career needs. The researchers also found that those who exhibit a passion for these interests in their teens are more likely to be successful later on, regardless of their inherent talent.

The research was conducted by by Dr. Daniel Heller of TAU's Recanati School of Business, in collaboration with Dr. Shoshana Dobrow Riza of the London School of Economics
 

White matter

Analysis of the white matter in the two groups also revealed major differences.

Local differences in white matter are evident between high and low risk-takers as illustrated by the coloured areas adjacent to the prefrontal cortex, within interhemispheric tracts, and in the rear of the brain that controls vision.

"Daring and risk-willingness activate and challenge the brain's capacity and contribute towards learning, coping strategies and development," says Moe. "They can stimulate behaviour in the direction of higher levels of risk-taking in people already predisposed to adapt to cope optimally in such situations. "We must stop regarding daring and risk-willingness simply as undesirable and uncontrolled behaviour patterns," he says.

Together with the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Turku, Moe is currently planning a new study to investigate educational approaches directed towards both high and low risk-seekers.

"This project will be incorporated within the 'Mind, Brain and Education (MBE)' concept, in which knowledge about the brain is more closely integrated into our understanding of educational methods and teaching outcomes," he says.

"We believe that this result is a very important contribution towards our understanding of how important factors such as curiosity, daring and play are for the development of the brain, as well as our physical and mental skills," he says, referring to Fridtjof Nansen's characterisation of the phenomenon: 'A spirit of daring is deeply ingrained in our nature -- in each and every one of us. But accidents will befall those who are unprepared'.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151130113545.htm

Risk-takers are smarter

November 30, 2015
Science Daily/SINTEF
Do you often take chances and yet still land on your feet? Then you probably have a well-developed brain.
https://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/11/151130113545_1_540x360.jpg
The researchers employed a driving game in which participants were awarded points according to the level of risk they were willing to take.
Credit: Image courtesy of SINTEF

This surprising discovery has been made as part of a project studying the brains of young male high and low risk-takers. The tests were carried out at the University of Turku in Finland under the direction of SINTEF, using both the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) techniques to measure activation-related and structural correlates of risky behaviour, respectively.

The aim of the project was to investigate the decision-making processes within the brains of 34 young men aged 18 or 19. Based on psychological tests, they were divided into two groups of low and high risk-takers, respectively.

"We expected to find that young men who spend time considering what they are going to do in a given risk situation would have more highly developed neural networks in their brains than those who make quick decisions and take chances," says SINTEF researcher and behavioural analyst Dagfinn Moe. "This has been well documented in a series of studies, but our project revealed the complete opposite," he says.
 

Older people getting smarter, but not fitter

August 31, 2015

Science Daily/International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Older populations are scoring better on cognitive tests than people of the same age did in the past -- a trend that could be linked to higher education rates and increased use of technology in our daily lives, say population researchers.

People over age 50 are scoring increasingly better on tests of cognitive function, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. At the same time, however, the study showed that average physical health of the older population has declined.

The study relied on representative survey data from Germany which measured cognitive processing speed, physical fitness, and mental health in 2006 and again in 2012. It found that cognitive test scores increased significantly within the 6-year period (for men and women and at all ages from 50 to 90 years), while physical functioning and mental health declined, especially for low-educated men aged 50-64. The survey data was representative of the non-institutionalized German population, mentally and physically able to participate in the tests.

In recent years, population experts at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) have been exploring new ways to measure age that focus on people's characteristics rather than the number of years they have lived. Cognition normally begins to decline with age, and is one key characteristic that demographers use to understand how different population groups age more successfully than others.

Previous studies have found elderly people to be in increasingly good health--"younger" in many ways than previous generations at the same chronological age--with physical and cognitive measures all showing improvement over time. The new study is the first to show divergent trends over time between cognitive and physical function.

"We think that these divergent results can be explained by changing lifestyles," says IIASA World Population Program researcher Nadia Steiber, author of the PLOS ONE study. "Life has become cognitively more demanding, with increasing use of communication and information technology also by older people, and people working longer in intellectually demanding jobs. At the same time, we are seeing a decline in physical activity and rising levels of obesity."

A second study from IIASA population researchers, published last week in the journal Intelligence found similar results suggesting that older people have become smarter also in England.

"On average, test scores of people aged 50+ today correspond to test scores from people 4-8 years younger and tested 6 years earlier," says Valeria Bordone, a researcher at IIASA and the affiliated Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital.

The studies both provide confirmation of the "Flynn effect" -- a trend in rising performance in standard IQ tests from generation to generation. The studies show that changes in education levels in the population can explain part, but not all of the effect.

Bordone says, "We show for the first time that although compositional changes of the older population in terms of education partly explain the Flynn effect, the increasing use of modern technology such as computers and mobile phones in the first decade of the 2000s also contributes considerably to its explanation."

The researchers note that the findings apply to Germany and England, and future research may provide evidence on other countries.

Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150831144100.htm

Active body, active mind: The secret to a younger brain may lie in exercising your body

October 23, 2015

Science Daily/University of Tsukuba

It is widely recognized that our physical fitness is reflected in our mental fitness, especially as we get older. How does being physically fit affect our aging brains? Neuroimaging studies, in which the activity of different parts of the brain can be visualized, have provided some clues. Until now, however, no study has directly linked brain activation with both mental and physical performance.

http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/10/151023084456_1_540x360.jpg

Stroop-interference-related cortical activation patterns.

Credit: Image courtesy of University of Tsukuba

As reported in the latest volume of the journal NeuroImage, an exciting new study led by Dr Hideaki Soya from the University of Tsukuba in Japan and his colleagues show, for the first time, the direct relationship between brain activity, brain function and physical fitness in a group of older Japanese men. They found that the fitter men performed better mentally than the less fit men, by using parts of their brains in the same way as in their youth.

As we age, we use different parts of our brain compared to our younger selves. For example, when young, we mainly use the left side of our prefrontal cortex (PFC) for mental tasks involving short term memory, understanding the meaning of words and the ability to recognize previously encountered events, objects, or people. When older, we tend to use the equivalent parts of our PFC on the right side of the brain for these tasks. The PFC is located in the very front of the brain, just behind the forehead. It has roles in executive function, memory, intelligence, language and vision.

With tasks involving the temporary storage and manipulation of memory, long term memories and inhibitory control, young adults favor the right side of the PFC, while older adults engage both the right and left PFC. In fact, with aging, we tend to use both sides of the PFC during mental tasks, rather than just one. This phenomenon has been coined HAROLD (hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults) and reflects the reorganisation of the brain as compensation for reduced brain capacity and efficiency due to age-related structural and physiological decline.

In the NeuroImage study, 60 older men (aged 64-75 years) underwent an exercise test to measure their aerobic fitness. The men, whose physical fitness was found to vary widely, then performed a test to measure their selective attention, executive function and reaction time. This well-known 'color-word matching Stroop test' involved showing the men words meaning color, such as blue, green, red, but asking them to name the color of the letters rather than read the word itself. This is harder than it sounds. When the color of the letters does not match the word -- blue, red, green -- it takes the brain longer to react. This reaction time is used as a measurement of brain function. Activity in the PFC region of the mens' brains was measured throughout the test using a unique neuroimaging technique called functional near infrared spectroscopy or fNIRS. This technique provides a measure of blood oxygen concentration in surface blood vessels, indicative of activity in the brain's outer layers, using a set of wearable probes in a cap that is placed on the head. Active brain cells require fresh oxygenated blood which dislodges the deoxygenated blood from that region. fNIRS measures the changes in color between oxygenated red blood and blue deoxygenated blood and thus indirectly measures brain activity.

The results from these tests were combined and extensively statistically analysed to explore the associations between aerobic fitness, Stroop reaction time and brain activity during the Stroop test. As predicted for older adults, during the Stroop test both sides of the PFC are active, with no difference between right and left, verifying the HAROLD phenomenon amongst this group of men. Previous studies have shown that young adults favour the left side of the PFC for this task.

Analysis of the relationship between brain activity and Stroop reaction time revealed that those men that favored the left side of the PFC while performing the Stroop test had faster reaction times. This indicates that older adults who use the more youth-like, task-related side of the brain perform better in this test.

Next, the association between aerobic fitness and Stroop reaction time was analysed. Fitter men had shorter reaction times.

Based on these findings, the researchers correctly predicted that higher aerobic fitness would be associated with higher left-PFC activity. In other words, fitter men tend to use the more youth-like side of their brains, at least while performing the Stroop test.

Previous studies have not examined the interaction between the three factors under investigation in this study -- aerobic fitness, mental performance and brain activation. Using clever statistical tests called mediation analyses to look at these interactions, the researchers found that aerobically fitter older men can perform better mentally than less fit older men by using the more important brain regions when needed. In fact, the fitter older men are using parts of their brains in the same way as when they were younger.

How do they do this? Professor Soya says "one possible explanation suggested by the research is that the volume and integrity of the white matter in the part of brain that links the two sides declines with age. There is some evidence to support the theory that fitter adults are able to better maintain this white matter than less fit adults, but further study is needed to confirm this theory."

If you are an aging woman, you will be wondering if these results can be applied to your female brain. Both aging sexes might also wonder whether increasing aerobic fitness later in life can increase mental fitness. The results aren't in, but I'm heading off for a brisk walk just in case.

Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151023084456.htm

Long-term aerobic exercise prevents age-related brain changes

October 29, 2015

Science Daily/PLOS

A study of the brains of mice shows that structural deterioration associated with old age can be prevented by long-term aerobic exercise starting in mid-life, according to new research. Structural changes that make the blood-brain barrier leaky and result in inflammation of brain tissues in old mice can be mitigated by allowing the animals to run regularly, providing a potential explanation for the beneficial effects of exercise on dementia in humans.

Old age is the major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, like many other diseases. Age-related cognitive deficits are due partly to changes in neuronal function, but also correlate with deficiencies in the blood supply to the brain and with low-level inflammation. In this study, the authors set out to investigate the changes in the brains of normal young and aged laboratory mice by comparing by their gene expression profiles using a technique called RNA sequencing, and by comparing their structures at high-resolution by using fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy. The gene expression analysis indicated age-related changes in the expression of genes relevant to vascular function (including focal adhesion, vascular smooth muscle and ECM-receptor interactions), and inflammation (especially related to the complement system, which clears foreign particles) in the brain cortex. These changes were accompanied by a decline in the function of astrocytes (key support cells in brain) and loss of pericytes (the contractile cells that surround small capillaries and venules and maintain the blood-brain barrier) and of major components of the basement membrane, which forms an integral part of the blood-brain barrier, as well as an increase in the density and functional activation of the immune cells known as microglia/monocytes, which scavenge the brain for infectious agents and damaged cells. Dr. Soto, lead author on the study, says: "Collectively, our data suggests that normal aging causes significant dysfunction to the cortical neurovascular unit, including basement membrane reduction and pericyte loss. These changes correlate strongly with an increase in microglia/monocytes in the aged cortex,"

Physical activity is already known to ameliorate the cognitive decline and sensorimotor deficits seen in old age in humans as well as in mice. To investigate the impact of long-term physical exercise on the brain changes seen in the aging mice, the researchers provided the animals with a running wheel from 12 months old (equivalent to middle aged in humans) and assessed their brains at 18 months (equivalent to ~60yrs old in humans, when the risk of Alzheimer's disease is greatly increased). Young and old mice alike ran about two miles per night, and this physical activity improved the ability and motivation of the old mice to engage in the typical spontaneous behaviors that seem to be affected by aging. This exercise significantly reduced age-related pericyte loss in the brain cortex and improved other indicators of dysfunction of the vascular system and blood-brain barrier. Exercise also decreased the numbers of microglia/monocytes expressing a crucial initiating component of the complement pathway that others have shown previously to play are role in age-related cognitive decline. Interestingly, these beneficial effects of exercise were not seen in mice deficient in a gene called Apoe, variants of which are a major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. The authors also report that Apoe expression in the brain cortex declines in aged mice and this decline can also be prevented by exercise.

Numerous studies have correlated the development of Alzheimer's disease with vascular dysfunction during aging. This study suggests that this dysfunction might be driven by astrocyte dysfunction and/or pericyte loss leading to a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. But further work will be required to establish the mechanism(s): what is the role of the complement-producing microglia/macrophages, how does Apoe decline contribute to age-related neurovascular decline, does the leaky blood-brain barrier allow the passage of damaging factors from the circulation into the brain?

Previous studies showing that exercise is beneficial for the human brain suggest the effects on mice are relevant for human health. The authors conclude that, "Our data, supported by data from human studies, point towards focusing efforts on understanding the impact of aging and lifestyle choices on neurovascular unit decline and neuroinflammation, particularly astrocyte and pericyte dysfunction. Dr. Howell believes as a society we need to work hard to ensure we maintain an active lifestyle wherever possible. "In this day and age, with so many distractions and conveniences, it is easy to fall into a lifestyle that does not include enough exercise. With an aging population, I hope our study helps in encouraging a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise." He goes on to say that: "For those that are unfortunately unable to exercise, our study provides insight into a possible mechanism by which exercise may benefit the aging brain and may one day lead to improved treatments for age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders."

Science Daily/SOURCE http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029150301.htm

Strength of brain connectivity varies with fitness level in older adults

November 5, 2015

Science Daily/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A new study shows that age-related differences in brain health -- specifically the strength of connections between different regions of the brain -- vary with fitness level in older adults.

Michelle Voss led the study while a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois with Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer and kinesiology and community health professor Edward McAuley. Voss now is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa.

"Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that fitness in an older adult population can have substantial benefits to brain health in terms of the functional connections of different regions of the brain," Kramer said.

There are many ways to measure brain health across the lifespan. One popular technique measures the strength of connections between different parts of the brain while the person is completing a task or during wakeful rest. The latter is known as resting-state functional connectivity. Research has shown that some of these connections weaken with increasing age and indicate deteriorating brain health.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, Voss and colleagues measured the strength of these connections throughout the brain in younger and older adults at rest. As expected, the team confirmed that most connections were weaker for older adults when compared with younger adults.

Building on these findings, the researchers examined the role of cardiorespiratory fitness on resting-brain connectivity in older adults. Fitness is determined by how efficiently someone uses oxygen during physical activity such as running on a treadmill. Other factors aside from habitual physical activity may alter how fitness affects brain health. For example, a person's genetic makeup can influence his or her fitness and general brain health.

The researchers found a relationship between fitness and the strength of the connections between certain brain regions in older adults at rest that was independent of their level of physical activity.

"An encouraging pattern in the data from our study and others is that the benefits of fitness seem to occur within the low-to-moderate range of endurance, suggesting that the benefits of fitness for the brain may not depend on being extremely fit," Voss said.

The study concludes that there is a positive role of cardiorespiratory fitness, beyond habitual physical activity, on brain health as people age.

"The idea that fitness could be related to brain health regardless of one's physical activity levels is intriguing because it suggests there could be clues in how the body adapts for some people more than others from regular activity. This will help our understanding of how fitness protects against age-related cognitive decline and dementia," Voss said

Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151105121735.htm

Not so happy old age?

Depressive symptoms increase with age

November 13, 2015

Science Daily/University of Bradford

The notion that older people are happier than younger people is being challenged following a recent study. In fact it suggests that people get more depressed from age 65 onwards

In fact it suggests that people get more depressed from age 65 onwards.

The study, led by psychology lecturer Dr Helena Chui and recently published in the international journal Psychology and Aging, builds on a 15-year project observing over 2,000 older Australians living in the Adelaide area.

Previous studies have shown an increase in depressive symptoms with age but only until the age of 85. This is the first study to examine the issue beyond that age.

Both men and women taking part in the study reported increasingly more depressive symptoms as they aged, with women initially starting with more depressive symptoms than men. However, men showed a faster rate of increase in symptoms so that the difference in the genders was reversed at around the age of 80.

Key factors in these increases include levels of physical impairment, the onset of medical conditions, particularly chronic ones, and the approach of death. Half of those in the study suffered with arthritis and both men and women with the chronic condition reported more depressive symptoms than those without.

Dr Chui said: "These findings are very significant and have implications for how we deal with old age. It's the first study to tell us depressive symptoms continue to increase throughout old age. We are in a period of unprecedented success in terms of people living longer than ever and in greater numbers and we should be celebrating this but it seems that we are finding it hard to cope.

"It seems that we need to look carefully at the provision of adequate services to match these needs, particularly in the area of mental health support and pain management. Social policies and aging-friendly support structures, such as the provision of public transport and access to health care services are needed to target the 'oldest-old' adults as a whole."

Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151113115607.htm

Negative beliefs about aging predict Alzheimer's disease in study

December 7, 2015

Science Daily/Yale University

Individuals who hold negative beliefs about aging are more likely to have brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease, newly published research demonstrates.

https://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/12/151207145906_1_540x360.jpg

The study suggests that combatting negative beliefs about aging, such as elderly people are decrepit, could potentially offer a way to reduce the rapidly rising rate of Alzheimer's disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that causes dementia in more than 5 million Americans.

Credit: © Ivelin Radkov / Fotolia

The study suggests that combatting negative beliefs about aging, such as elderly people are decrepit, could potentially offer a way to reduce the rapidly rising rate of Alzheimer's disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that causes dementia in more than 5 million Americans.

The study led by Becca Levy, associate professor of public health and of psychology, is the first to link the brain changes related to Alzheimer's disease to a cultural-based psychosocial risk factor. The findings were published online Dec. 7 in the journal Psychology and Aging.

"We believe it is the stress generated by the negative beliefs about aging that individuals sometimes internalize from society that can result in pathological brain changes," said Levy. "Although the findings are concerning, it is encouraging to realize that these negative beliefs about aging can be mitigated and positive beliefs about aging can be reinforced, so that the adverse impact is not inevitable."

Study authors examined healthy, dementia-free subjects from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, the nation's longest-running scientific study of aging. Based on MRIs, the researchers found that participants who held more negative beliefs about aging showed a greater decline in the volume of the hippocampus, a part of the brain crucial to memory. Reduced hippocampus volume is an indicator of Alzheimer's disease.

Then researchers used brain autopsies to examine two other indicators of Alzheimer's disease: amyloid plaques, which are protein clusters that build up between brain cells; and neurofibrillary tangles, which are twisted strands of protein that build up within brain cells. Participants holding more negative beliefs about aging had a significantly greater number of plaques and tangles. The age stereotypes were measured an average of 28 years before the plaques and tangles.

In both stages of the study, Levy and her colleagues adjusted for other known risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, including health and age.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151207145906.htm

Two studies from England, 20 years apart, show increase in healthy aging

December 8, 2015

Science Daily/The Lancet

Two studies conducted 20 years apart in England reveal an apparent increase in healthy aging, or years lived healthily, reflecting less cognitive impairment; and an increase in the proportion of life lived healthily, through a larger proportion of years lived with disability but less rather than more severe disability.

Whether rises in life expectancy result in increases in good quality years of life is of profound importance worldwide, with population ageing occurring in many countries. Jagger and colleagues investigated how expectancies in various domains of health have changed in England between 1991 and 2011, with identical study design and methods in each decade.

The research used baseline data from the Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies (study I in 1991 and II in 2011) which were led by the University of Cambridge, and which interviewed people aged 65 years or older in three geographically defined centres in England (Cambridgeshire, Newcastle, and Nottingham). Prevalence estimates for three health measures: self-perceived health (defined as excellent-good, fair, or poor); cognitive impairment (defined as moderate-severe, mild, or none, as assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination score); and disability in activities of daily living (defined as none, mild, or moderate-severe) were combined with mortality data to produce health expectancies for the three regions together.

Between 1991 and 2011, gains in life expectancy at age 65 years (4·5 years for men and 3·6 years for women) were accompanied by equivalent gains in years free of any cognitive impairment (4·2 years for men and 4·4 years for women) and decreased numbers of years with mild or moderate-severe cognitive impairment. Gains were also identified in years in excellent or good self-perceived health (3·8 years for men and 3·1 years for women).

Gains in disability-free years were much smaller than gains in excellent-good self-perceived health or in years free from cognitive impairment, especially for women (0·5 years compared with 2·6 years for men), mostly because of increased mild disability.

Further analysis showed that, despite a 20% lower prevalence of ill health in each age group in 2011, the overall prevalence in 2011 (9·7%) was higher than that in 1991 (9·3%), and, because of the increased numbers of people at the greatest risk, the absolute number of unhealthy individuals was larger.

The authors say: "During the past two decades in England, we report an absolute compression (meaning reduction) of cognitive impairment, an increase in the proportion of years of life spent in good health, and changes to the pattern of disability -- less severe disability is increasing but more severe disability is not. Reasons for these patterns are unknown but might include increasing obesity during previous decades. Our findings have wide-ranging implications for health services and for extension of working life."

They add: "Our findings of increases in the proportion of life spent healthily from age 65 years are in line with others across Europe. Evidence of expansion of mild disability has been reported in Spain and France, although some countries like Norway and the United States have experienced compression of disability."

Discussing the better medical management for various conditions such as heart disease and stroke over the past two decades, they say: "We need to quantify whether our findings are due to diseases and disorders becoming less disabling during the past two decades."

In a linked Comment, Dr Kenneth Rockwood, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, and Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, UK, says: "Even if the "problems of old age come as a package," quantification of the package in which those problems come is a challenge for ageing research...Policy makers must consider how health expectancy as, for example, disability prevalence, plays out against a background of an increasing number of older adults."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151208204244.htm