Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta‐analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well‐being

Abstract Obesity has been shown to intensify the decline of physical function and lead to frailty. Nutrition is an important method in managing obesity and frailty, while seldom reviews have ever explored the effects of nutritional education interventions. We conducted a systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42019142403) to explore the effectiveness of nutritional education interventions in managing body composition and physio-psychosocial parameters related to frailty. Randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies were searched in CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus from 2001 to 2019. Hand search for the reference lists of included papers was conducted as well. We assessed the quality of included studies by Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses and narrative synthesis were used to analyse the data. Two studies with low risk of bias were screened from 180 articles, which involved 177 older people with an average age of 69.69±4.08 years old. The results showed that nutritional education was significantly effective in reducing body weight and fat mass than exercises, and it was beneficial to enhancing physical function and psychosocial well-being. But the effects of nutritional education in increasing muscle strength were not better than exercises. The combined effects of nutritional education and exercises were superior than either exercises or nutritional education interventions solely in preventing the loss of lean mass and bone marrow density, and in improving physical function. Due to limited numbers of relevant studies, the strong evidence of effectiveness of nutritional education interventions on reversing frailty is still lacking.

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The effectiveness of hope-fostering interventions in palliative care: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Palliative Medicine ◽

10.1177/0269216321994728 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026921632199472

Author(s):

Natalia Salamanca-Balen ◽

Thomas V Merluzzi ◽

Man Chen

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Palliative Care ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Symptom Burden ◽

Well Being ◽

Medium Effect ◽

Spiritual Well Being ◽

Quasi Experimental

Background: The concept of hope is an important theme in chronic illness and palliative care and has been associated with increased psycho-spiritual well-being and quality of life. Psycho-spiritual interventions have been described in this population, but no systematic review of hope-enhancing interventions or hopelessness-reducing interventions has been conducted for persons with palliative care diseases. Aim: To describe and assess the effectiveness of interventions in palliative care that measure hope and/or hopelessness as an outcome. Design: This systematic review and meta-analysis was pre-registered (Prospero ID: CRD42019119956). Data sources: Electronic databases, journals, and references were searched. We used the Cochrane criteria to assess the risk of bias within studies. Results: Thirty-five studies (24 randomized controlled trials, 5 quasi-experimental, 6 pre-post studies) involving a total of 3296 palliative care patients were included. Compared with usual/standard cancer care alone, interventions significantly increased hope levels at a medium effect size ( g = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28–0.93) but did not significantly reduce hopelessness ( g = −0.08, 95% CI = −0.18 to 0.02). It was found that interventions significantly increase spirituality ( g = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.02–1.37) and decrease depression ( g = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.51 to −0.07), but had no significant effect over anxiety, quality of life, and symptom burden. Overall, quality of evidence across the included studies was rated as low. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that interventions can be effective in increasing hope in palliative care patients.

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Left Out But “In Control”? Culture Variations in Perceived Control When Excluded by a Close Other

Social Psychological and Personality Science ◽

10.1177/1948550620987436 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 194855062098743

Author(s):

Sasha Y. Kimel ◽

Dominik Mischkowski ◽

Yuki Miyagawa ◽

Yu Niiya

Keyword(s):

Asian Americans ◽

Perceived Control ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Well Being ◽

Control Culture ◽

Good Friend ◽

Cultural Groups ◽

Cultural Variations ◽

European Americans

Research and theorizing suggest two competing—yet untested—hypotheses for how European Americans’ and Asians’ feeling of being “in control” might differ when excluded by a close other (e.g., a good friend). Drawing on different national contexts (i.e., United States, Japan), cultural groups (i.e., Japanese, Asian/Asian Americans, European Americans), and exclusion paradigms (i.e., relived, in vivo), four separate experiments ( N = 2,662) examined feelings of control when excluded by a close- or distant-other. A meta-analysis across these experiments indicated that Asians and Asian Americans felt more in control than European Americans when the excluder was a close other. In contrast, no consistent pattern emerged when the excluder was a distant other. This research has implications for cultural variations in aggressiveness as well as health and well-being following exclusion’s threat to perceived control.

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