Older adults with dementia exhibit financial 'symptoms' up to six years before diagnosis

November 30, 2020

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors found that Medicare beneficiaries who go on to be diagnosed with dementia are more likely to miss payments on bills as early as six years before a clinical diagnosis.

The study also found that beneficiaries diagnosed with dementia who had a lower educational status missed payments on bills beginning as early as seven years before a clinical diagnosis as compared to 2.5 years prior to a diagnosis for beneficiaries with higher educational status.

The study, which included researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School, also found that these missed payments and other adverse financial outcomes lead to increased risk of developing subprime credit scores starting 2.5 years before a dementia diagnosis. Subprime credit scores fall in the fair and lower range.

The findings, published online November 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that financial symptoms such as missing payments on routine bills could be used as early predictors of dementia and highlight the benefits of earlier detection.

"Currently there are no effective treatments to delay or reverse symptoms of dementia," says lead author Lauren Hersch Nicholas, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School. "However, earlier screening and detection, combined with information about the risk of irreversible financial events, like foreclosure and repossession, are important to protect the financial well-being of the patient and their families."

The analysis found that the elevated risk of payment delinquency with dementia accounted for 5.2 percent of delinquencies among those six years prior to diagnosis, reaching a maximum of 17.9 percent nine months after diagnosis. Rates of elevated payment delinquency and subprime credit risk persisted for up to 3.5 years after beneficiaries received dementia diagnoses, suggesting an ongoing need for assistance managing money.

Dementia, identified as diagnostic codes for Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias in the study, is a progressive brain disorder that slowly diminishes memory and cognitive skills and limits the ability to carry out basic daily activities, including managing personal finances. About 14.7 percent of American adults over the age of 70 are diagnosed with the disease. The onset of dementia can lead to costly financial errors, irregular bill payments, and increased susceptibility to financial fraud.

For their study, the researchers linked de-identified Medicare claims and credit report data. They analyzed information on 81,364 Medicare beneficiaries living in single-person households, with 54,062 never receiving a dementia diagnosis between 1999 and 2014 and 27,302 with a dementia diagnosis during the same period. The researchers compared financial outcomes spanning 1999 to 2018 of those with and without a clinical diagnosis of dementia for up to seven years prior to a diagnosis and four years following a diagnosis. The researchers focused on missing payments for one or more credit accounts that were at least 30 days past due, and subprime credit scores, indicative of an individual's risk of defaulting on loans based on credit history.

To determine whether the financial symptoms observed were unique to dementia, the researchers also compared financial outcomes of missed payments and subprime credit scores to other health outcomes including arthritis, glaucoma, heart attacks, and hip fractures. They found no association of increased missed payments or subprime credit scores prior to a diagnosis for arthritis, glaucoma, or a hip fracture. No long-term associations were found with heart attacks.

"We don't see the same pattern with other health conditions," says Nicholas. "Dementia was the only medical condition where we saw consistent financial symptoms, especially the long period of deteriorating outcomes before clinical recognition. Our study is the first to provide large-scale quantitative evidence of the medical adage that the first place to look for dementia is in the checkbook."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201130131416.htm

Forest fires, cars, power plants join list of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease

Airborne pollution implicated in amyloid plaques, UCSF-led study shows

November 30, 2020

Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco

A new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco has found that among older Americans with cognitive impairment, the greater the air pollution in their neighborhood, the higher the likelihood of amyloid plaques -- a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The study adds to a body of evidence indicating that pollution from cars, factories, power plants and forest fires joins established dementia risk factors like smoking and diabetes.

In the study, which appears in JAMA Neurology on Nov.30, 2020, the researchers looked at the PET scans of more than 18,000 seniors whose average age was 75. The participants had dementia or mild cognitive impairment and lived in zip codes dotted throughout the nation. The researchers found that those in the most polluted areas had a 10 percent increased probability of a PET scan showing amyloid plaques, compared to those in the least polluted areas.

When applied to the U.S. population, with an estimated 5.8 million people over 65 with Alzheimer's disease, high exposure to microscopic airborne particles may be implicated in tens of thousands of cases.

"This study provides additional evidence to a growing and convergent literature, ranging from animal models to epidemiological studies, that suggests air pollution is a significant risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and dementia," said senior author Gil Rabinovici, MD, of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

Amyloid Plaques Not Indicative of All Dementias

The 18,178 participants had been recruited for the IDEAS study (Imaging Dementia -- Evidence for Amyloid Scanning), which had enrolled Medicare beneficiaries whose mild cognitive impairment or dementia had been diagnosed following comprehensive evaluation. Not all of the participants were later found to have positive PET scans -- 40 percent showed no evidence of plaques on the scan, suggesting non-Alzheimer's diagnoses like frontotemporal or vascular dementias, which are not associated with the telltale amyloid plaques.

Air pollution in the neighborhood of each participant was estimated with Environmental Protection Agency data that measured ground-level ozone and PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers. The researchers also divided locations into quartiles according to the concentration of PM2.5. They found that the probability of a positive PET scan rose progressively as concentrations of pollutants increased, and predicted a difference of 10 percent probability between the least and most polluted areas.

"Exposure in our daily lives to PM2.5, even at levels that would be considered normal, could contribute to induce a chronic inflammatory response," said first author Leonardo Iaccarino, PhD, also of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology and the Weill Institute of Neurosciences. "Over time, this could impact brain health in a number of ways, including contributing to an accumulation of amyloid plaques."

Overall concentrations of PM2.5 would not be considered very high for it to have a significant association with amyloid plaques, amounting to annual averages in San Francisco during the study time, added Rabinovici.

"I think it's very appropriate that air pollution has been added to the modifiable risk factors highlighted by the Lancet Commission on dementia," he said, referring to the journal's decision this year to include air pollution, together with excessive alcohol intake and traumatic brain injury, to their list of risk factors.

The study complements previous large-scale studies that tie air pollution to dementia and Parkinson's disease, and adds novel findings by including a cohort with mild cognitive impairment -- a frequent precursor to dementia -- and using amyloid plaques as a biomarker of disease. Other studies have linked air pollution to adverse effects on cognitive, behavioral and psychomotor development in children, including a UCSF-University of Washington study that looked at its impact on the IQ of the offspring of pregnant women.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201130113536.htm

No overall difference in concussion recovery time for male and female college athletes

January 26, 2021

Science Daily/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania found female and male collegiate athletes take approximately the same amount of time to recover from a concussion, with subtle differences in recovery time depending on the type of sports being played and the division level of the sport. The findings suggest that equity in access to sports medical care among college athletes may be contributing to these similar outcomes.

The findings, derived as part of the CARE (Concussion Assessment, Research and Education) Consortium, were recently published online by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Some previous studies have indicated that female athletes may experience longer times to recovery and more lost time from sports due to sport-related concussions. However, other studies have found no differences, but many of these studies were conducted with smaller cohorts and may not have comprehensively accounted for a variety of additional extrinsic factors, including injury setting (practice vs. competition), mechanism of injury (person vs. equipment), and timing of reporting and seeking medical care.

In order to provide a more definitive picture of potential differences between the sexes in concussion injury and recovery, this study examined data collected by the CARE Consortium, funded jointly by the NCAA and the Department of Defense, representing the largest multi-center prospective study of concussion in collegiate athletes to date. In this study, colleges collected extensive pre- and post-injury data in a large, prospective cohort of thousands of collegiate athletes.

"I think many people are concerned that, based on intrinsic biological differences, female athletes may have longer paths to recovery from concussions than their male counterparts," said Christina L. Master, MD, a sports medicine pediatrician and Co-Director of the Minds Matter Concussion Program at CHOP and first author of the study. "However, to better understand any potential biologically-based sex differences in concussion injury and recovery, we needed a large study like this that could better account for extrinsic factors that are not biological."

The study collected data on 1,071 concussions that occurred between 2014 and 2017 across more than 30 colleges, universities and service academies participating in the CARE Consortium. Among those concussions, there was no statistically significant difference in recovery between males and females. Female athletes had a median of 13.5 days before returning to play compared with 11.8 days for males (p=0.96).

Subtle differences were seen between certain subgroups in the study. Females took slightly longer to recover than males from concussions sustained in contact sports (12.7 days for females vs 11 days for males, p=0.00201), while male athletes took longer to recover than females from concussions they experienced in limited contact sports (16.85 days for males vs 13.8 days for females, p < 0.0001). While there was no difference between the sexes seen among Division I collegiate athletes, female athletes in Division II/III sports had a longer recovery time than male athletes in the same division (13.0 days for females vs 10.6 days for males, p = 0.0048).

Master said these subtle differences could be attributed to a variety of factors, including differential access to athletic training and sports medical resources. For instance, Division I sports may have greater levels of athletic training and sports medicine support compared with Division II and III sports. In the case of male athletes experiencing longer recovery time for limited contact sports, this may be related to fewer resources allocated to limited contact men's sports than contact men's sports where concussions are assumed to be more likely to occur. Another potential explanation may be that rules and regulations limiting exposure to impacts in men's contact sports may have had a mitigating effect on concussions in men's contact sports. This, coupled with the fact that women took longer than men to recover in contact sports, but not in limited contact sports, suggests that these differences between men and women cannot be entirely accounted for simply on the basis of biological sex.

"This study makes a strong case for equity in access to specialized athletic training and sports medical care," Master said. "Title IX, which mandates equal access for both women and men to resources, such as sports, including athletic training and sports medical care, may have potentially helped to close any gap that exists in outcomes between the sexes. In the instances where recovery times did differ between the sexes, a re-examination of resource allocation might achieve a more equitable distribution to maximize outcomes for all athletes."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210126082712.htm

Identifying strategies to advance research on traumatic brain injury's effect on women

January 6, 2021

Science Daily/NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Analysis from a workshop convened by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in 2017 reveals gaps in and opportunities for research to improve understanding of the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in women. A new paper in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation summarizes and updates the findings presented during the "Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury in Women" workshop and provides strategies for advancing research efforts in this area. NINDS is part of the National Institutes of Health.

"We are making advances in understanding the effects of head injury on the brain, but many of these studies have been done in males," said Patrick Bellgowan, Ph.D., program director at NINDS. "There is evidence that traumatic brain injury affects women differently, but we need focused research efforts to get a full understanding of those differences to help improve prevention and treatment strategies."

There are sex-based differences in TBI across the lifespan. For example, in children ages 0-4, boys are two times more likely to have a TBI than girls, but during the adolescent years, female athletes are likelier to experience concussions than male athletes. Among older populations, women who are 65 and older are most likely to experience mild TBI, and the majority of those result from falls.

Studies suggest that women may have different outcomes, depending on when during their menstrual cycle they were injured. For example, there is evidence that head injuries occurring during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, when levels of progesterone are high, may be associated with worse outcomes and decreased quality of life. Additional research on reproductive hormones, such as progesterone or estrogen, may provide important clues to recovery from head injury.

The report, written by Eva Valera, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School Boston, and her colleagues, highlights several opportunities for research looking at the biological effects of TBI, including imaging studies and examination of brain tissue for evidence of neuroinflammation and damage to neurons. Many preclinical studies have relied on male animals but including female animals will help inform researchers about sex differences in immediate response and recovery to TBI.

Not much is known about military-related TBI in female servicemembers, although studies have reported sex-based differences in symptoms as well as functional connectivity, which is the activity between brain regions. Increasing the number of female veterans in longitudinal research studies would increase knowledge about acute and long-term recovery of TBI in women.

"Discussions at the workshop identified a large gap in research efforts aimed at understanding the effects of violence-related TBI in women, in particular intimate partner violence," said Diana Cummings, Ph.D., NINDS scientific review officer.

Studies looking at the prevalence of brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence are needed to understand how often they occur and could lead to identifying prevention strategies. More information about outcomes may result in improved treatment options.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210106111955.htm

First meta-analysis shows promise for yoga, meditation, mindfulness in concussion

November 30, 2020

Science Daily/University of Connecticut

When Rebecca Acabchuk was studying mild traumatic brain injuries while working on her doctorate in physiology and neurobiology at UConn, she met a student athlete who had suffered multiple concussions.

"When I started doing research on concussions, people just started coming to me," Acabchuk says. "Families at my daughter's school, anytime somebody had a concussion, I would hear about it -- I would hear these personal stories and all the struggles of people who had concussions and their symptoms just didn't resolve."

So it was for the student athlete, who told Acabchuk that she would experience seizures when a smoke alarm went off in her dormitory.

"All of these symptoms she would have to struggle with -- really profound symptoms -- are an invisible injury," says Acabchuk, who earned her PhD in 2016 and is now a post-doctoral fellow with UConn's Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, or InCHIP. "People think you should be better, the injury happened so long ago. Why aren't you better? And then more frustration comes in when your doctor says just to rest, there's nothing else that can be done, but you're still getting headaches or feeling fatigued or depressed."

Chronic concussion symptoms are notoriously difficult to treat. But Acabchuk -- who is also a yoga instructor in Hebron, and has been teaching yoga for 17 years -- is hoping that a recently published InCHIP study, the first-ever meta-analysis looking at the use of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness-based interventions for the effective treatment of chronic concussion symptoms, will offer hope to those still struggling with their symptoms. The study was recently published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being.

"This was really a passion project for me in the sense that it combines these two areas of interest, concussion work with yoga and meditation," says Acabchuk, who is the study's lead author. "We know from other studies that yoga and meditation may be helpful for reducing systemic inflammation, and we know that they are helpful for increasing self-compassion and reducing rumination if people are dealing with symptoms of depression."

Most studies looking at the effectiveness of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness on concussions have been small. For their meta-analysis, Acabchuk and her team pulled together data from 22 different studies, including both published and unpublished work, that all together included a total of 539 study participants, and looked at the impact of the three interventions on outcome categories -- including mental health, physical health, cognitive performance, quality of life, and social/occupational performance -- and on specific health outcomes, like depression, attention, anxiety, and fatigue. The team then applied advanced meta-analytical methods to compile and assess the results of those studies.

"The main results that we saw were significant reductions in depression and fatigue," Acabchuk says. "Especially with fatigue, it was a large effect size, which is impressive in the sense that fatigue is a difficult symptom for patients to deal with."

The meta-analysis found that mind-body interventions consistently provided symptom improvement across nearly all measured outcomes. The trends were remarkable, the researchers noted, because of the variety of patients enrolled in the studies, and the known difficulty of relieving chronic concussion symptoms.

Acabchuk says more and larger studies are needed to further investigate the benefits of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness in concussion treatment plans. She also says that more study is needed to help researchers and the general public understand the mechanisms by which these types of interventions promote healing and reduce concussion symptoms.

But importantly, including some sort of yoga, meditation, or mindfulness practice as part of a treatment plan for a mild traumatic brain injury appears to involve no adverse effects for the patient, she says -- so there's little downside to giving it a try.

"Think of the brain almost like an ACL -- if you tear your ACL, you're going to rest it, but you're also going to take steps to rehabilitate it," Acabchuk says. "If you think of the brain in that sense, a concussion is also like a rehabilitation injury in that, through rehabilitation, you can strengthen certain pathways in the brain. And we think the tools to help do that are breath-work, meditation, and mindful movement through poses from yoga."

She continues, "Maybe starting with a meditation app or online meditation group to learn the basics, and setting aside time to meditate 10 minutes a day. If you're a person who can't sit still, maybe yoga is better for you. If you're too tired at the end of the day, maybe a simple body scan with deep breathing exercises would be better for you. It's not going to be a miracle cure, but more of something that can provide benefits over time by incorporating these tools into daily life. I really do hope that this helps empower people who are struggling with their symptoms."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201130131439.htm

'Aging well' greatly affected by hopes and fears for later life

January 21, 2021

Science Daily/Oregon State University

If you believe you are capable of becoming the healthy, engaged person you want to be in old age, you are much more likely to experience that outcome, a recent Oregon State University study shows.

"How we think about who we're going to be in old age is very predictive of exactly how we will be," said Shelbie Turner, a doctoral student in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences and co-author on the study.

Previous studies on aging have found that how people thought about themselves at age 50 predicted a wide range of future health outcomes up to 40 years later -- cardiovascular events, memory, balance, will to live, hospitalizations; even mortality.

"Previous research has shown that people who have positive views of aging at 50 live 7.5 years longer, on average, than people who don't," said Karen Hooker, co-author of the study and the Jo Anne Leonard Petersen Endowed Chair in Gerontology and Family Studies at OSU.

Because self-perceptions of aging are linked to so many major health outcomes, Hooker and Turner wanted to understand what influences those perceptions. Their study looked specifically at the influence of two factors: self-efficacy associated with possible selves, meaning a person's perceived ability to become the person they want to be in the future; and optimism as a general personality trait.

The researchers measured self-perception of aging by having respondents say how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements such as, "Things keep getting worse as I get older," "I have as much pep as I had last year," "As you get older, you are less useful." They measured optimism in a similar way, with respondents ranking their agreement with statements like "In uncertain times I usually expect the best."

To measure self-efficacy, the study used a dataset that compiled survey responses from older adults where they listed two "hoped-for" future selves and two "feared" future selves, and ranked how capable they felt of becoming the person they hoped to be and avoiding becoming the person they feared to be.

Among the "hoped for" selves were things like "A social person with a strong network of friends" and "A healthy, active person." Examples of "feared" selves were "Chronically sick and in pain," "Being dependent on others for my day-to-day needs" and "A cranky, angry old woman."

Results showed that, as predicted, higher optimism was associated with more positive self-perception of aging. Both "hoped-for" self-efficacy and "feared" self-efficacy were also significantly associated with self-perception of aging, above and beyond optimism as a trait.

A major factor in how people see their own aging selves is internalizing ageist stereotypes, the researchers said. Examples of such stereotypes include assumptions that older adults are bad drivers, or suffer memory problems, or are unable to engage in physical activity anymore.

"Kids as young as 4 years old already have negative stereotypes about old people," Hooker said. "Then, of course, if you're lucky enough to live to old age, they eventually apply to you."

Those stereotypes get reinforced every time an older adult forgets something and jokes, "Another senior moment!" But the researchers say these thought patterns can do real harm.

"People need to realize that some of the negative health consequences in later life might not be biologically driven. The mind and the body are all interwoven," Hooker said. "If you believe these bad things are going to happen, over time that can erode people's willingness or maybe even eventually their ability to engage in those health behaviors that are going to keep them as healthy as they can be."

A way to mitigate those negative stereotypes about aging is to promote intergenerational relationships, so younger people can see older adults enjoying happy, healthy lives.

"The more you're around older people, the more you realize that it's not all bad," Turner said. "Older people can do some things better than young people do. Increasing opportunities for intergenerational relationships is one way we can make people more optimistic about aging."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210121150929.htm

Older adults in wealthier countries drink more alcohol

December 1, 2020

Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

A new global study finds older people in wealthy countries consume more alcohol than their counterparts in middle-income countries, on average, although a higher cost of alcohol is associated with less frequent drinking. Across counties, people drink less as they get older, but at different rates and starting points. The study was led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center. Findings are published in the journal Addiction.

Alcohol consumption among older adults is trending higher across numerous countries, and alcohol use disorders among adults 65 and older have more than doubled in the last ten years. Moreover, there are signs that alcohol consumption is further increasing during the pandemic. Age-related changes that slow metabolism and increase the odds of medication interactions make alcohol consumption likely more harmful among older than younger adults.

The researchers analyzed survey data collected from 100,000 individuals age 50 and older in 17 countries in Europe, as well as China, Mexico, Israel, South Korea, and the United States. Average weekly alcohol consumption ranged from 0.59 units in Mexico to 6.85 units in the Netherlands. In the United States, older adults consumed 2.07 standard units per week. One standard unit is equivalent to a small shot glass of vodka or a 12oz glass of 5 percent beer.

The price of alcohol -- measured by the cost of a bottle of red label Smirnoff vodka -- varied from a low of $7.92 in Mexico to $38.06 in Ireland (4.96 standard units/week).

In most countries drinking decreased with age (U.S., China, Chile), but some countries had sharper age-related decreases (England, Ireland, Czech Republic) and others were fairly stable and had brief increases in drinking after age 50 (Denmark, France). This variation across age and countries is explained both by the health and socioeconomic status of older adults living in each country and country-level factors like economic development and alcohol prices.

Heavy drinking among older adults was highest in the Czech Republic and lowest in Israel, with levels of heavy drinking in most countries declining by age or slightly increasing then declining by older ages. Economic development and the cost of alcohol did not influence levels of heavy drinking, which may be driven by factors such as gender and cultural norms. Heavy drinking is defined for men as having more than three drinks per day or binging more than five drinks in a single occasion, and for women as having more than two drinks per day or binging more than four drinks in a single occasion.

"Public concern over drinking largely focuses on young people, but alcohol is also a serious threat to the health of older adults. In fact, the majority of alcohol-related deaths occur among older people," says first author Esteban Calvo, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center. "While some studies purport to show a benefit to drinking in old age, these findings are likely distorted by the fact that older drinkers tend to remain drinking if they are healthy, while recent abstainers (as opposed to lifetime abstainers) may only quit when they are sick."

"As countries develop economically and older people living there can afford to drink more, these countries should consider policies to regulate alcohol consumption, potentially combining minimum alcohol prices, taxation, sale and marketing regulations, and cessation programs," adds senior author Katherine M. Keyes, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201201091834.htm

Mothers, but not fathers, with multiple children report more fragmented sleep

Study tracks sleep patterns of first-time and experienced parents

January 12, 2021

Science Daily/McGill University

Mothers with multiple children report more fragmented sleep than mothers of a single child, but the number of children in a family doesn't seem to affect the quality of sleep for fathers, according to a study from McGill University.

A total of 111 parents (54 couples and 3 mothers of single-parent families) participated in the study published in the Journal of Sleep Research led by McGill doctoral student Samantha Kenny under the supervision of Marie-Hélène Pennestri, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.

Participants' sleep patterns were studied for two weeks. Mothers with one baby reported having less interrupted and better-quality sleep than mothers with more than one child, although the total amount of sleep did not differ depending on the number of children. No difference was noted in fathers.

"Experienced mothers perceived their sleep to be more fragmented than that of first-time mothers. Tension in the marital relationship may transpire if childcare is one-sided and not discussed collaboratively," says Pennestri, who is also a researcher at the Hôpital en santé mentale Rivière-des-Prairies (CIUSSS-NIM).

According to the researchers, interventions developed by healthcare providers targeting an equal distribution of daytime and nighttime childcare tasks could be helpful. These interventions should be tailored to each family member, depending on their situation.

As next steps, the researchers aim to explain the differences between mothers and fathers, and determine why mothers with more than one child report worse sleep.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210112163627.htm

Can a mother's stress impact children's disease development?

Environmental health researcher says there is a connection between trauma and DNA mutation

January 11, 2021

Science Daily/University of Cincinnati

Stress on an expectant mother could affect her baby's chance of developing disease -- perhaps even over the course of the child's life, UC researchers have found.

Psychosocial factors creating stress -- such as lack of social support, loneliness, marriage status or bereavement -- may be mutating their child's mitochondrial DNA and could be a precursor to a host of diseases, according to a University of Cincinnati study.

"There are a lot of conditions that start in childhood that have ties to mitochondrial dysfunction including asthma, obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism," says Kelly Brunst, PhD, assistant professor of environmental and public health sciences in the UC College of Medicine and lead author of the study.

"The fetal and infant period is a vulnerable time for environmental exposure due to heightened development during these periods," says Brunst. "We don't just wake up one day and have asthma or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The programming effects resulting from environmentally induced shifts occur over time and likely start during gestation at the molecular and cellular level. These shifts alter physiological states that likely play a role in who is going to go on and develop adverse health outcomes."

As part of the study, researchers sequenced the mitochondrial genome and identified mutations in 365 placenta samples from birth mothers in Boston and New York City from 2013-18. A multivariable regression model was used to look at maternal lifetime stress in relation to the number of gene mutations in the placenta mitochondrial genome.

Women experiencing increased psychosocial stress -- that can range from sexual assault, domestic violence or serious injury to incarceration, physical or mental illness and family hardship -- over their lifetime exhibited a higher number of placental mitochondrial mutations. The strongest associations were observed among Black women. Higher stress-related DNA mutations in the placenta were seen in Black and white women, but not in Hispanic women.

The study's findings were published in the scholarly journal Biological Psychiatry.

"The idea behind this work is about understanding how our environment, in this case maternal stress and trauma, impact mitochondrial function and ultimately neurobehavioral development," says Brunst. "The hope is to gain insight as to why certain children are vulnerable to developing a range of complex conditions previously linked to environmental exposures such as chronic stress or air pollution."

"We ask about events that might have occurred prior to their pregnancy even during the mother's own childhood as part of our study," says Brunst. "So what this is telling us is that the stress that a woman has experienced even before she is pregnant might have an impact on the fetal mitochondrial genome."

Brunst said there are some diseases for which Black women are more at risk -- obesity, diabetes and certain cancers -- so they might be more affected by stress and subsequently develop these diseases which have also been linked to stress."

"What was interesting about the study was that Hispanics exposed to stress had fewer placental mitochondrial DNA mutations," says Brunst.

She says one explanation could be what researchers call the "Hispanic paradox." It is the epidemiological phenomenon documenting better health and lower mortality relative to non-Hispanic whites despite greater risk and lower socioeconomic status for Hispanics."

"Despite exposure to more stress and trauma, sociocultural dynamics specific to Hispanics may attenuate experiences of stress which in turn has downstream effects on psychophysiological mechanisms and better outcomes," says Brunst. "This is just one possible explanation."

Other co-authors of this study are Xiang Zhang, PhD, and Li Zhang, PhD, both associate professors in the UC College of Medicine, along with Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, and Tessa Bloomquist, both of Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, and Rosalind Wright, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.

The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under grants R01HL095606 and R01HL114396; the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences under grants R00ES024116, P30ES006096 and P30ES023515.

Brunst led a previous research study that looked at the correlation between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and childhood anxiety, by looking at the altered neurochemistry in pre-adolescents. She is also recipient of a recent $2.9 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health for the research project, "Epigenetics, air pollution, and childhood mental health."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210111143418.htm

Link between dietary fiber and depression partially explained by gut-brain interactions

New study suggests that higher daily dietary fiber intake is linked to lower risk for depression in premenopausal women

January 6, 2021

Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

Fiber is a commonly recommended part of a healthy diet. That's because it's good for your health in so many ways -- from weight management to reducing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancer. A new study also finds that it might be linked with a reduced risk of depression, especially in premenopausal women. Study results are published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

Depression is a common and serious mental health condition that not only affects a person's ability to perform daily activities but can also lead to suicide. It's estimated that more than 264 million people worldwide have depression, with numbers increasing over time. This debilitating condition is much more common in women, and there are a number of theories as to why this is the case. Changes in hormone levels in perimenopausal women have been linked to depression.

Because of the serious consequences and prevalence of depression, numerous studies have been undertaken to evaluate treatment options beyond the use of antidepressants. Lifestyle interventions, including diet, exercise, and mindfulness, may help to reduce the risk for depression. In this new study involving more than 5,800 women of various ages, researchers specifically sought to investigate the relationship between dietary fiber intake and depression in women by menopause status. Dietary fiber is found mainly in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

Previous studies have already suggested the benefits of fiber for mental health, but this is the first known study to categorize the association in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. It also included a broader range of ages in participants and involved women who underwent natural, as well as surgical, menopause.

The study confirmed an inverse association between dietary-fiber intake and depression in premenopausal women after adjusting for other variables, but no significant difference was documented in postmenopausal women. Research has suggested that estrogen depletion may play a role in explaining why postmenopausal women don't benefit as much from increased dietary fiber, because estrogen affects the balance of gut microorganisms found in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. The link between dietary fiber and depression may be partially explained by gut-brain interactions, because it is theorized that changes in gut-microbiota composition may affect neurotransmission. Fiber improves the richness and diversity of gut microbiota.

Results are published in the article "Inverse association between dietary fiber intake and depression in premenopausal women: a nationwide population-based survey."

"This study highlights an important link between dietary fiber intake and depression, but the direction of the association is unclear in this observational study, such that women with better mental health may have had a healthier diet and consumed more fiber, or a higher dietary fiber intake may have contributed to improved brain health by modulating the gut microbiome or some combination. Nonetheless, it has never been more true that 'you are what you eat,' given that what we eat has a profound effect on the gut microbiome which appears to play a key role in health and disease," says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210106111952.htm

Researchers find 'missing link' between stress and infertility

December 4, 2020

Science Daily/University of Otago

Otago researchers have found the "missing link between stress and infertility."

Published in The Journal of Neuroscience, and led by Professor Greg Anderson of the Centre for Neuroendocrinology, the research has confirmed in laboratory testing that a population of nerve cells near the base of the brain -- the RFRP neurons -- become active in stressful situations and then suppress the reproductive system.

"A revolutionary step forward that has become available to neuroscientists in recent years is the ability to control the activity of selected groups of neurons -- to either silence or ramp up their activity, and then monitor the outcomes," Professor Anderson says.

"We used cutting edge transgenic techniques to show that when the activity of the RFRP cells is increased, reproductive hormones are suppressed -- in a similar manner to what happens during stress, or during exposure to the stress hormone cortisol.

"Amazingly, when we used cortisol to suppress the reproductive hormones but also silenced the RFRP neurons, the reproductive system continued to function as if cortisol wasn't there at all -- proving that the RFRP neurons are a critical piece of the puzzle in stress-induced suppression of reproduction."

The reaction was most evident in females.

Professor Anderson started researching the role of RFRP neurons in controlling fertility in mammals about a decade ago.

"I became interested in whether these neurons might be what causes fertility to be suppressed during chronic stress, after reading that these cells become active during stress. This is a question that has remained stubbornly unanswered over the past decades.

"Although it is known that stress steroids -- like cortisol -- are probably part of the mechanism involved, it is also known that the brain cells that control reproduction are unable to respond to cortisol, so there seemed to be a missing link in the circuit somewhere.

"We have now shown that the RFRP neurons are indeed the missing link between stress and infertility. They become active in stressful situations -- perhaps by sensing the increasing levels of cortisol -- and they then suppress the reproductive system."

It is possible drugs could be used to block the actions of the RFRP neurons, and that will be the focus of further research for Professor Anderson.

"We'd like to see if we can overcome stress-induced infertility using drugs which block the actions of the RFRP neurons.

"For women struggling with infertility, drugs which block the actions of the RFRP neurons may prove to be a novel therapy. From what we know about these neurons, such a drug wouldn't have any side-effects.

"There are such drugs available, but they're not approved for human use and they would likely need refining," he says.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201204110230.htm

Mothers' stress may lead to preterm births, faster aging in children

How stress before and during pregnancy may adversely affect offspring

November 30, 2020

Science Daily/University of California - Los Angeles

Why do some people age faster than others? One potential answer, a new UCLA-led study indicates, is that a mother's stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child's biological aging.

The researchers found evidence that maternal stress adversely affects the length of a baby's telomeres -- the small pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that act as protective caps, like the plastic tips on shoelaces. Shortened telomeres have been linked to a higher risk of cancers, cardiovascular and other diseases, and earlier death.

The findings are reported this month in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

"Research on aging is beginning to identify some factors that might put a person on an accelerated aging path, potentially leading to diseases of aging such as metabolic disorder and cardiovascular disease much earlier in life than would be expected," said the study's lead author, Judith Carroll, an associate professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "What our research tells us is that we may have early environmental and maternal factors influencing where a person starts in life, which may set them on course to age faster."

While several studies have reported that telomere length is shorter in newborns whose mothers reported high stress during either the first or third trimester of pregnancy, the new study tracked maternal stress prior to conception and followed up in the second and third trimesters. The researchers identified an especially important period in the third trimester -- but not earlier -- during which children are at higher risk for shortened telomeres.

Overall, the study followed 111 mothers and their children from preconception into early childhood. The women were from seven counties in North Carolina, one in Illinois and Washington, D.C. Between the ages of 3 and 5, the children provided cell samples from inside their cheeks, from which the researchers extracted DNA, including telomeres. The team was then able to compare childhood telomere length with the stress measurements they had taken while the children were in utero.

"This allows us to determine the contribution of stress at each of these times on the child's telomere length," Carroll said. "Past studies looked at newborn telomere length, and our findings look years later, when the child is 3 to 5 years old. We see evidence into childhood that telomere length continues to be shorter in those children exposed in utero to maternal stress. We think this finding is quite notable."

How does maternal stress alter cellular aging?

"We have hypotheses," Carroll said. "We know that stress can activate inflammation and metabolic activity, both of which, in high amounts, can contribute to damage to DNA. Telomeres are vulnerable to damage and, if unrepaired before cell division, they can become shortened by this damage. During in utero development, we know there is rapid cell replication, and we suspect there is increased vulnerability to damage during this time."

High maternal stress often leads to preterm births

A second UCLA-led study from the same research group found that women suffering from high stress during the months and even years before conception -- defined as feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope -- had shorter pregnancies than other women. Women who experienced the highest levels of stress gave birth to infants whose time in utero was shorter by one week or more.

"Every day in the womb is important to fetal growth and development," said Christine Dunkel Schetter, a distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry and senior author of both studies. "Premature infants have higher risk of adverse outcomes at birth and later in life than babies born later, including developmental disabilities and physical health problems."

Dunkel Schetter, who heads the Stress Processes in Pregnancy Lab, which conducted the studies, noted that premature birth rates are unusually high in the U.S., compared to other nations with similar resources, and that low-income and African American women have higher rates of preterm birth. "Preventing preterm birth, with its adverse consequences for mothers and children worldwide and in the U.S., is a top priority," she said.

These results, which appear in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine, are based on extensive in-home interviews with 360 mothers from largely low-income, racially diverse areas, many of whom live near or below the poverty level. In addition to collecting data on these women's general stress levels, the interviewers obtained information about various types of environmental stress, including financial worries, job loss, a lack of food, chronic relationship troubles, parenting challenges, interpersonal violence and discrimination.

The researchers found that women who were exposed to the lowest or highest amounts of stress in their environment had the shortest pregnancies, while women who had a moderate level of environmental stress before conception had the longest pregnancies.

"Women exposed to moderate stressors in their environment may have developed coping strategies that serve them well both before and during pregnancy, while exposure to more severe stress challenges even women who normally cope very effectively," said lead author Nicole Mahrer, who conducted the research as a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in health psychology and is now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of La Verne. She is also a co-author of the other study.

A moderate amount of stress in utero may help prepare the developing fetus for the environment to come, Mahrer said, especially if the mother has developed effective coping strategies.

"What we have not known until now," Dunkel Schetter said, "is whether a mother's psychosocial health before conception matters for her birth outcomes. This study is among the first to point out that, yes, it does matter.

"It may even be more influential than prenatal health because some of what is put in motion before conception may be hard to stop during pregnancy," she added. "For example, a mother with dysregulated immune function due to stress may be at risk when she becomes pregnant. The abundance of stress for low-income parents is potent and potentially high risk for them and their children."

These findings, Dunkel Schetter said, support the case for devoting more resources to programs for preconception health and well-being.

Both studies were funded by the National Institutes of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute for Nursing Research.

The scientists say their research just scratches the surface of the impact of mothers' preconception health and the fetal environment on biological factors that affect children's health.

"An important takeaway from this work is that prenatal and preconception maternal health and well-being are critically important for the health of the infant," Carroll said. "If we as a society can make changes to help give pregnant women the resources they need and provide them with a safe and supportive environment before and during pregnancy, we may have a significant impact on the health of their children."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201130131427.htm

Air pollution poses risk to thinking skills in later life

Exposure to air pollution in childhood is linked to a decline in thinking skills in later life

February 2, 2021

Science Daily/University of Edinburgh

A greater exposure to air pollution at the very start of life was associated with a detrimental effect on people's cognitive skills up to 60 years later, the research found.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh tested the general intelligence of more than 500 people aged approximately 70 years using a test they had all completed at the age of 11 years.

The participants then repeated the same test at the ages of 76 and 79 years.

A record of where each person had lived throughout their life was used to estimate the level of air pollution they had experienced in their early years.

The team used statistical models to analyse the relationship between a person's exposure to air pollution and their thinking skills in later life.

They also considered lifestyle factors, such as socio-economic status and smoking.

Findings showed exposure to air pollution in childhood had a small but detectable association with worse cognitive change between the ages of 11 and 70 years.

This study shows it is possible to estimate historical air pollution and explore how this relates to cognitive ability throughout life, researchers say.

Dr Tom Russ, Director of the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh, said: "For the first time we have shown the effect that exposure to air pollution very early in life could have on the brain many decades later. This is the first step towards understanding the harmful effects of air pollution on the brain and could help reduce the risk of dementia for future generations."

Researchers say until now it has not been possible to explore the impact of early exposure to air pollution on thinking skills in later life because of a lack of data on air pollution levels before the 1990s when routine monitoring began.

For this study researchers used a model called the EMEP4UK atmospheric chemistry transport model to determine pollution levels -- known as historical fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations -- for the years 1935, 1950, 1970, 1980, and 1990. They combined these historical findings with contemporary modelled data from 2001 to estimate life course exposure

The participants were part of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study, a group of individuals who were born in 1936 and took part in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210202113744.htm

Teaching pupils empathy measurably improves their creative abilities

February 2, 2021

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Teaching children in a way that encourages them to empathise with others measurably improves their creativity, and could potentially lead to several other beneficial learning outcomes, new research suggests.

The findings are from a year-long University of Cambridge study with Design and Technology (D&T) year 9 pupils (ages 13 to 14) at two inner London schools. Pupils at one school spent the year following curriculum-prescribed lessons, while the other group's D&T lessons used a set of engineering design thinking tools which aim to foster students' ability to think creatively and to engender empathy, while solving real-world problems.

Both sets of pupils were assessed for creativity at both the start and end of the school year using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking: a well-established psychometric test.

The results showed a statistically significant increase in creativity among pupils at the intervention school, where the thinking tools were used. At the start of the year, the creativity scores of pupils in the control school, which followed the standard curriculum, were 11% higher than those at the intervention school. By the end, however, the situation had completely changed: creativity scores among the intervention group were 78% higher than the control group.

The researchers also examined specific categories within the Torrance Test that are indicative of emotional or cognitive empathy: such as 'emotional expressiveness' and 'open-mindedness'. Pupils from the intervention school again scored much higher in these categories, indicating that a marked improvement in empathy was driving the overall creativity scores.

The study's authors suggest that encouraging empathy not only improves creativity, but can deepen pupils' general engagement with learning. Notably, they found evidence that boys and girls in the intervention school responded to the D&T course in ways that defied traditional gender stereotypes. Boys showed a marked improvement in emotional expression, scoring 64% higher in that category at the end of the year than at the start, while girls improved more in terms of cognitive empathy, showing 62% more perspective-taking.

The research is part of a long-term collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge called 'Designing Our Tomorrow' (DOT), led by Bill Nicholl and Ian Hosking. It challenges pupils to solve real-world problems by thinking about the perspectives and feelings of others.

The particular challenge used in the study asked pupils at the intervention school to design an asthma-treatment 'pack' for children aged six and under. Pupils were given various creative and empathetic 'tools' in order to do so: for example, they were shown data about the number of childhood asthma fatalities in the UK, and a video which depicts a young child having an attack. They also explored the problem and tested their design ideas by role-playing various stakeholders, for example, patients, family-members, and medical staff.

Nicholl, Senior Lecturer in Design and Technology Education, who trains teachers studying on the University's D&T PGCE course, said: "Teaching for empathy has been problematic despite being part of the D&T National Curriculum for over two decades. This evidence suggests that it is a missing link in the creative process, and vital if we want education to encourage the designers and engineers of tomorrow."

Dr Helen Demetriou, an affiliated lecturer in psychology and education at the Faculty of Education with a particular interest in empathy, and the other researcher involved in the study, said: "We clearly awakened something in these pupils by encouraging them to think about the thoughts and feelings of others. The research shows not only that it is possible to teach empathy, but that by doing so we support the development of children's creativity, and their wider learning."

The gender differences charted in the study indicate that the intervention enabled students to overcome some of the barriers to learning that assumed gender roles often create. For example, boys often feel discouraged from expressing emotion at school, yet this was one of the main areas where they made significant creative gains according to the tests.

In addition to the Torrance Tests, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with pupils at both the intervention school and a third (girls-only) school who also undertook the asthma challenge. This feedback again suggested that pupils had empathised deeply with the challenges faced by young asthma-sufferers, and that this had influenced their creative decisions in the classroom.

Many, for example, used phrases such as 'stepping into their shoes' or 'seeing things from another point of view' when discussing patients and their families. One boy told the researchers: "I think by the end of the project I could feel for the people with asthma... if I was a child taking inhalers, I would be scared too."

Another responded: "Let's say you had a sister or brother in that position. I would like to do something like this so we can help them."

Overall, the authors suggest that these findings point to a need to nurture 'emotionally intelligent learners' not only in D&T classes, but across subjects, particularly in the context of emerging, wider scientific evidence that our capacity for empathy declines as we get older.

"This is something that we must think about as curricula in general become increasingly exam-based," Demetriou said. "Good grades matter, but for society to thrive, creative, communicative and empathic individuals matter too."

Nicholl added: "When I taught Design and Technology, I didn't see children as potential engineers who would one day contribute to the economy; they were people who needed to be ready to go into the world at 18. Teaching children to empathise is about building a society where we appreciate each other's perspectives. Surely that is something we want education to do."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210202192751.htm

Drink and drug risk is lower among optimistic pupils with 'happy' memories

Students who are nostalgic are less likely to use marijuana or skip class

January 25, 2021

Science Daily/Taylor & Francis Group

Teenagers with happy childhood memories are likely to drink less, take fewer drugs and enjoy learning, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction Research & Theory.

The findings, based on data from nearly 2,000 US high school students, show a link between how pupils feel about the past, present and future and their classroom behavior. This in turn influences their grades and risk of substance misuse, according to the study.

The authors say action is needed now because Covid-19 has left many teenagers struggling with online study, suffering mentally and turning to drink and drugs.

They are calling on teachers -- and parents -- to help students develop more positive mindsets and become motivated to learn so they are less likely to binge drink or use marijuana.

"School often seems a source of stress and anxiety to students," says John Mark Froiland from Purdue University in Indiana, US.

"This puts them at greater risk of not participating in lessons, getting lower grades and of substance misuse.

"Many teenagers also aren't engaging with online learning during Covid or have lower engagement levels.

"But they're more likely to be enthusiastic learners and not use drink and drugs if teachers take time to build more positive relationships with them. They can help students see that everything they're learning is truly valuable. Parents have a role to play too."

Teenagers with a balanced attitude towards their childhoods and other time periods have already been shown by studies to be more likely to abstain from drink and drugs and achieve academically. This is compared to those with a pessimistic outlook.

The aim of this study was to establish how substance misuse and behaviors towards learning are affected by students' feelings about the past, present and future.

The data was based on assessments and questionnaires completed by 1,961 students at a high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. More than half (53%) of the pupils included in the study were female.

The study authors looked at responses from pupils where they rated how nostalgic they were towards their childhood, current happiness levels in life and how much they look forward to future happiness.

They also analysed marijuana and alcohol habits over the past 30 days including binge drinking, and average academic grades. They analysed motivation levels, and behavior in lessons such as how much teenagers paid attention and listened.

Statistical techniques were used by the researchers to assess the associations between all these different factors and establish the key predictors for alcohol and marijuana misuse.

In general, the study found that positive attitudes towards the past, present and future put adolescents at lower risk for alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana.

The opposite was true for those displaying pessimistic or negative ways of thinking or feeling about their life in the past, now or ahead of them.

The reason for this was that a content and optimistic outlook increased the likelihood they would be motivated and behave in a focused way on the chance to learn.

Other findings include girls having stronger levels of behavioral engagement than boys, and students who drank being most likely to use cannabis.

The study did not examine the long term relationship between positive attitudes, levels of student engagement and their substance misuse. The authors say this is an area for future research.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210125144617.htm

Many parents say teens with anxiety, depression may benefit from peer confidants at school

Teens talking to teens: 1 in 3 parents strongly support schools having mental health programs like peer support leaders, new national poll suggests

January 18, 2021

Science Daily/Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

An estimated one in five teenagers has symptoms of a mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety, and suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens.

But the first person a teen confides in may not always be an adult -- they may prefer to talk to another teen.

And three-quarters of parents in a new national poll think peers better understand teen challenges, compared to teachers or counselors in the school. The majority also agree that peer support leaders at school would encourage more teens to talk with someone about their mental health problems, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at Michigan Medicine.

"Peers may provide valuable support for fellow teens struggling with emotional issues because they can relate to each other," says Mott Poll Co-Director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

"Some teens may worry that their parents will overreact or not understand what they're going through. Teachers and school counselors may also have limited time to talk with students in the middle of other responsibilities."

Previous research suggests that as many as half of children and teens who have at least one treatable mental health disorder may not receive treatment due to several barriers. But teens who don't have a diagnosed condition may still experience occasional problems with emotions, peer and family relationships, anxiety, academic challenges, substance abuse or other issues negatively impacting self-esteem.

These type of situations may increase risk of developing or triggering depression during tween and teen years, experts say.

Some schools have instituted peer support leaders to give teens safe channels to share problems. Teens who serve as mentors in these programs are trained with oversight from teachers, counselors or mental health professionals. They are available to talk with their fellow students on a walk-in basis at a designated place at school or by referral from school staff.

"We have seen strong examples of school programs that prepare teens to be good listeners and to identify warning signs of suicide or other serious problems," Clark says.

"The peer support mentors' role is to listen, suggest problem solving strategies, share information about resources, and, when appropriate, encourage their fellow student to seek help. The most essential task is to pick up on signs that suggest the student needs immediate attention, and to alert the adults overseeing the program. While this doesn't replace the need for professional support, these programs offer young people a non-threatening way to start working through their problems."

The nationally-representative poll report included responses from 1,000 parents of teens ages 13-18 about their views on programs like peer support leaders.

Weighing Benefits and Concerns of Peer Support

Most parents say they see benefits to peer mentor programs. Thirty-eight percent believe if their own teen was struggling with a mental health problem, their teen would likely talk to a peer support leader and 41% of parents say it's possible their teen would take advantage of this option. Another 21% say it's unlikely their child would seek support from a peer mentor.

However, parents did express some concerns about peers providing mental health support to fellow teens as well. Some worried about whether a peer would keep their teen's information confidential (62%), if the peer leader would know when and how to inform adults about a problem (57%), if the peer leader would be able to tell if their teen needs immediate crisis help (53%), and if teens can be trained to provide this kind of support (47%).

"Some of parents' biggest concerns pertained to whether the peer leader would be able to tell if their teen needed immediate professional intervention and how to initiate those next steps," Clark says.

Despite these concerns, a third of parents still say they "definitely favor" having a peer support leaders program through their teen's school, while 46% say they would probably support such a program.

A quarter of parents also say their teen's school already has some type of peer support program -- and these parents are twice as likely to favor such efforts.

"This suggests that parent support increases once they understand how peer support programs work," Clark says. "Most parents agree with the rationale for peer support programs but may be uncertain until they see how they operate and benefit students."

Two in three parents, or 64%, would also allow their teen to be trained as a peer support leader, recognizing the benefits to the community, the school and their child's individual growth.

However, roughly half of parents worried whether there would be sufficient training and that their teen may feel responsible if something bad happened to a student using the program. About 30% weren't sure if their teen was mature enough to serve as a peer support leader.

"Most parents approve of their teen being trained as a peer support leader, seeing it at as an opportunity to develop leadership skills and better understand the challenges that different teens face," Clark says. "But many also wanted reassurance that teens in these roles would have the adult guidance and support necessary to deal with difficult emotional situations."

"Close connection to knowledgeable adults is an essential part of any school-based peer mental health program, particularly in regards to suicide prevention," she says.

Clark says parents of teens considering service as a peer support leader may want to learn more about the training and resources offered, including whether the peer support leaders receive counseling and support in the event of a negative outcome.

She adds that when it comes to young people's mental health, "it takes a village" to support them and help identify warning signs that they may be in trouble.

"The adults in teens' lives -- including parents, teachers and other mentors -- serve critical roles during challenging times," Clark says. "But peers may also be an untapped resource to help teens who need someone to talk to."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210118103458.htm

Conflict between divorced parents can lead to mental health problems in children

January 12, 2021

Science Daily/Arizona State University

Conflict between divorced or separated parents increases the risk of children developing physical and mental health problems.

A new study from the Arizona State University Research and Education Advancing Children's Health (REACH) Institute has found that children experience fear of being abandoned when their divorced or separated parents engage in conflict. Worrying about being abandoned predicted future mental health problems in children. The work will be published in Child Development on January 12.

"Conflict is a salient stressor for kids, and the link between exposure to interparental conflict and mental health problems in children is well established across all family types -- married, cohabitating, separated and divorced," said Karey O'Hara, a research assistant professor of psychology at ASU and first author on the paper. "Conflict between divorced or separated parents predicted children experiencing fear that they would be abandoned by one or both parents. This feeling was associated with future mental health problems, especially for those who had strong relationships with their fathers."

Based on studies including children from families with married or cohabitating parents, the researchers knew that children view interparental conflict as a threat, often wondering if their parents will get divorced.

To understand how children with divorced or separated parents interpreted interparental conflict, the researchers surveyed families participating in the New Beginnings Program, asking 559 children (aged 9-18 years) about their exposure to conflict. The questions included topics like whether their parents fought in front of them, spoke poorly of the other parent or asked children to carry messages. Children exposed to interparental conflict were more likely to report worrying about being abandoned by one or both of their parents.

"When parents who are married or cohabitating engage in conflict, the child might worry about their parents separating," O'Hara said. "But children whose parents are divorced or separated have already seen the dissolution of their family. The idea that they might be abandoned might be unlikely, but it is not illogical from their perspective."

The fear of abandonment was persistent: Exposure to parental conflict predicted fear of abandonment three months later. And, worrying about abandonment predicted mental health problems, as reported by the children themselves and their teachers, 10 months later.

Because quality parent-child relationships are known to buffer children against stress, the researchers expected children who had strong relationships with a parent to experience less fear of abandonment and mental health problems. But the team did not find a general buffering effect of parenting.

"A strong father-child relationship came at a cost when interparental conflict was high," O'Hara said. "Having a high quality parenting relationship is protective, but it is possible that quality parenting alone is not enough in the context of high levels of interparental conflict between divorced parents."

The goal of ASU's REACH institute is to bring research promoting children's well-being from the lab into practice, and the research team is currently working on designing an intervention to help children cope with parental conflict after divorce.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210112110157.htm

Self-controlled children tend to be healthier middle-aged adults

January 5, 2021

Science Daily/Duke University

Self-control, the ability to contain one's own thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and to work toward goals with a plan, is one of the personality traits that makes a child ready for school. And, it turns out, ready for life as well.

In a large study that has tracked a thousand people from birth through age 45 in New Zealand, researchers have determined that people who had higher levels of self-control as children were aging more slowly than their peers at age 45. Their bodies and brains were healthier and biologically younger.

In interviews, the higher self-control group also showed they may be better equipped to handle the health, financial and social challenges of later life as well. The researchers used structured interviews and credit checks to assess financial preparedness. High childhood self-control participants expressed more positive views of aging and felt more satisfied with life in middle age.

"Our population is growing older, and living longer with age-related diseases," said Leah Richmond-Rakerd, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who is the first author on the study. "It's important to identify ways to help individuals prepare successfully for later-life challenges, and live more years free of disability. We found that self-control in early life may help set people up for healthy aging."

The children with better self-control tended to come from more financially secure families and have higher IQ. However, the findings of slower aging at age 45 with more self-control can be separated from their childhood socio-economic status and IQ. Their analyses showed that self-control was the factor that made a difference.

And childhood is not destiny, the researchers are quick to point out. Some study participants had shifted their self-control levels as adults and had better health outcomes than their childhood assessments would have predicted.

Self-control also can be taught, and the researchers suggest that a societal investment in such training could improve life span and quality of life, not only in childhood, but also perhaps in midlife. There is ample evidence that changing behaviors in midlife (quitting smoking or taking up exercise) leads to improved outcomes.

"Everyone fears an old age that's sickly, poor, and lonely, so aging well requires us to get prepared, physically, financially, and socially," said Terrie Moffitt, the Nannerl O. Keohane Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke, and last author on the paper. "We found people who have used self-control since childhood are far more prepared for aging than their same-age peers."

The study appears the week of Jan. 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, based in New Zealand, has tracked these people since they were born in 1972 and 73, putting them through a battery of psychological and health assessments at regular intervals since, the most recent being at age 45.

Childhood self-control was assessed by teachers, parents and the children themselves at ages 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. The children were measured for impulsive aggression and other forms of impulsivity, over-activity, perseverance and inattention.

From ages 26 to 45, the participants also were measured for physiological signs of aging in several organ systems, including the brain. In all measures, higher childhood self-control correlated with slower aging.

The people with the highest self-control were found to walk faster and have younger-looking faces at age 45 as well.

"But if you aren't prepared for aging yet, your 50's is not too late to get ready," Moffitt added.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210105130117.htm

Why an early start is key to developing musical skill later in life

December 22, 2020

Science Daily/Association for Psychological Science

Is there, as some have suggested, a developmental period early in life when the brain is especially receptive to musical training? The answer, according to new research, is probably not.

Among the many holiday traditions scuttled by pandemic restrictions this year are live concerts featuring skilled musicians. These gifted performers can often play with such ease that it is easy to underestimate the countless hours of practice that went into honing their craft.

But could there be more to mastering music? Is there, as some have suggested, a developmental period early in life when the brain is especially receptive to musical training? The answer, according to new research published in the journal Psychological Science, is probably not.

"It is a common observation that successful musicians often start their musical training early," said Laura Wesseldijk, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and first author on the paper. "One much-discussed explanation is that there may be a period in early childhood during which the brain is particularly susceptible to musical stimulation. We found, however, that the explanation to why an early start matters may be more complicated and interesting than previously believed."

While the new study supports the idea that an early start is associated with higher levels of musical skills and achievement in adulthood, the underlying reasons for this may have more to do with familial influences -- such as genetic factors and an encouraging musical family environment -- along with accumulating more total practice time than those who start later in life.

To untangle these effects, Wesseldijk and her colleagues recruited 310 professional musicians from various Swedish music institutions, such as orchestral and music schools. The researchers also used data from an existing research project, the Study of Twin Adults: Genes and Environment (STAGE). Participants from both studies were tested on musical aptitude and achievement. They also answered a series of questions that gauged how often they practiced and the age of onset of musical training. The STAGE data also provided genetic information on its participants.

By comparing the results from these two independent studies, the researchers were able to show that an earlier start age is associated with musical aptitude, both in amateurs and professional musicians, even after controlling for accumulated practice time. They then evaluated starting age in a manner that accounted for the genetic data from the STAGE study.

The results indicate that genetic factors -- possibly related to musical interest and talent -- have a substantial influence on the age individuals start music practice and their future musical aptitude. When controlling for familial factors, namely shared genetic and environmental influences, such as a home environment that is steeped in music, there was no additional association between an earlier start age and musicality.

A possible explanation for these results could be that children who display more talent in a particular field, such as music, are encouraged to start practicing earlier. Another possibility is that a musically active, interested, and talented family provides a musical environment for the child, while also passing on their genetic predispositions to engage in music.

"I think we have really investigated effects of the age you start musical training to the fullest," said Wesseldijk. "Personally, as someone who practices music, it is always great to shed light on some of the factors, within the gene environmental interplay, that influence music skills."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201222192933.htm

Low-income preschoolers exposed to nurturing care have with higher IQ scores later on

December 18, 2020

Science Daily/University of Maryland School of Medicine

Preschoolers living in impoverished communities who have access to a nurturing home environment have significantly higher intelligence quotient (IQ) scores in adolescence compared to those raised without nurturing care. That is the finding of a new international study conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers, which examined data from more than 1600 children from Brazil and South Africa who were followed from birth through their teenage years. Results were published this week in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Healthjournal.

The researchers analyzed data from long-running studies conducted in Brazil and South Africa to assess whether children exposed to early adversities (such as extreme poverty, low birth weight, or pre-term birth) could reach their full learning potential by experiencing responsive caregiving and opportunities to learn in their home. They found that prenatal and early life adversities matter throughout life. Adolescents who had been exposed to multiple adversities early in life had lower IQ scores, were more likely to have difficulties adjusting socially and psychologically, and achieved a lower physical height compared to adolescents exposed to fewer adversities. They also found that being raised in a nurturing environment could significantly counteract the detrimental effect of early adversities on IQ and help children achieve their full intellectual potential.

"We found that adolescents who were raised in nurturing environments had IQ scores that were on average 6 points higher than those who were not. This is a striking difference that has profound implications by increasing the intelligence of entire communities," said study corresponding author Maureen Black, PhD, the John A Scholl and Mary Louise Scholl Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at UMSOM. "A nurturing environment also led to better growth and fewer psycho-social difficulties in adolescence, but it did not mitigate the effects of early adversities on growth and psycho-social difficulties."

Globally, more than 250 million children younger than 5 years are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential because of adversities that co-occur early in life and accumulate with age. In the U.S, almost one in five children are raised in poverty and 15 percent do not complete high school, with higher rates for children in Black and Hispanic families. Exposing these children to a nurturing environment, whether at home or in daycare or pre-school settings, can lead to cognitive benefits that last into adolescence and beyond.

"I think our findings could apply to communities here in the U.S. where children are hungry, living in poverty or lacking in access to medical care," Dr. Black said.

Added study lead author Angela Trude, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in the UMSOM Department of Pediatrics, "Parents want to provide nurturing environments and we need to help them." She said this includes interacting with young children in a positive way such as reading children's books from the library, singing songs together, and playing games with numbers and letters. Children who engage in age-appropriate chores with adult supervision like picking up toys and clearing the table gain skills and feel good about helping.

"Get children involved in friendly activities as much as possible rather than parking them in front of a screen," Dr. Black said. "Children love to learn and in a nurturing environment they can grow into adolescents and adults with the abilities to care for themselves, their families, and their communities."

The research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"As the world continues to suffer through a global pandemic, we must not let our youngest children fall through the cracks," said E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "This research highlights the importance of nurturing caregivers, both at home and at school to help children lead more productive lives as adults."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201218152721.htm