What we can and cannot say about long-term longitudinal studies of childhood disorder

High blood pressure (BP) is considered as an important risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia. BP variability (BPV) may contribute to cognitive function decline or even dementia regardless of BP level. This study aims to investigate whether BPV is an independent predictor for cognitive impairment or dementia. Literature searches were performed in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science to May 2021. Longitudinal studies that assessed the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment with BPV as the predictor was included. Meta-analysis and meta-regression were performed to evaluate the effect of BPV on the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment. A total of 5919 papers were identified, and 16 longitudinal studies were included, which had >7 million participants and a median age from 50.9 to 79.9 years and a median follow-up of around 4 years. Thirteen studies reported visit-to-visit BPV and concluded that systolic BPV increases the risk of dementia with a pooled hazard ratio of 1.11 (95% CI, 1.05–1.17), and increases the risk of cognitive impairment with a pooled hazard ratio of 1.10 (95% CI, 1.06–1.15). Visit-to-visit diastolic BPV also increased the risk of dementia and cognitive decline. A meta-regression revealed a linear relationship between higher BPV and risks of dementia and cognitive impairment. Similar findings were observed in the studies with day-to-day BPV. This study suggests that long-term BPV is an independent risk factor for cognitive impairment or dementia, so an intervention plan for reducing BPV can be a target for early prevention of dementia.

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Long-Term Reactions to the Loss of a Close Friend in an Extreme Terror Incident

OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying ◽

10.1177/0030222818814052 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 82 (3) ◽

pp. 351-369 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Iren Johnsen ◽

Kari Dyregrov ◽

Stig Berge Matthiesen ◽

Jon Christian Laberg

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Quantitative Data ◽

Close Friend ◽

Traumatic Death ◽

Time Points ◽

Grief Reactions ◽

Over Time ◽

Avoidant Behavior

This article presents results from one of the first longitudinal studies exploring the effects of losing a close friend to traumatic death, focusing on complicated grief over time and how this is affected by avoidant behavior and rumination about the loss. The sample consists of 88 persons (76% women and 24% men, mean age = 21) who lost a close friend in the Utøya killings in Norway on July 22, 2011.Quantitative data were collected at three time-points; 18, 28, and 40 months postloss. Main findings are that bereaved friends are heavily impacted by the loss and their grief reactions are affected negatively by avoidant behavior and rumination. This indicates that close bereaved friends are a group to be aware of and that there is a need for better strategies for identifying individuals in need for follow-up.

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Understanding Long-Term Change in Rural Tanzania

10.1093/oso/9780198865872.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Dan Brockington ◽

Christine Noe

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Economic Policies ◽

Rural Tanzania ◽

Term Change ◽

The Subject ◽

To Come ◽

Study Sites

This chapter introduces the book as a whole. It explains the subject of interest—change in assets in rural areas. It also explains the methods used to examine them: longitudinal studies—revisits to previously surveyed villages and domestic units. It also outlines the argument. This is that contra to critics of smallholder farmers who decry their lack of activity and critics of neoliberal economic policies for the poverty they cause, the authors have found, surprisingly, that there is more wealth, in terms of assets than they were expecting to find. The chapter explains how the authors selected their study sites and presents brief summaries of each case and the chapters to come.

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The Importance of Childhood for Adult Health and Development—Study Protocol of the Zurich Longitudinal Studies

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2020.612453 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

Author(s):

Flavia M. Wehrle ◽

Jon Caflisch ◽

Dominique A. Eichelberger ◽

Giulia Haller ◽

Beatrice Latal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Study Protocol ◽

Child Growth ◽

Childhood And Adolescence ◽

Adult Health ◽

Aging Research ◽

Study Protocols ◽

Health And Development ◽

Childhood Antecedents

Evidence is accumulating that individual and environmental factors in childhood and adolescence should be considered when investigating adult health and aging-related processes. The data required for this is gathered by comprehensive long-term longitudinal studies. This article describes the protocol of the Zurich Longitudinal Studies (ZLS), a set of three comprehensive cohort studies on child growth, health, and development that are currently expanding into adulthood. Between 1954 and 1961, 445 healthy infants were enrolled in the first ZLS cohort. Their physical, motor, cognitive, and social development and their environment were assessed comprehensively across childhood, adolescence, and into young adulthood. In the 1970s, two further cohorts were added to the ZLS and assessed with largely matched study protocols: Between 1974 and 1979, the second ZLS cohort included 265 infants (103 term-born and 162 preterm infants), and between 1970 and 2002, the third ZLS cohort included 327 children of participants of the first ZLS cohort. Since 2019, the participants of the three ZLS cohorts have been traced and invited to participate in a first wave of assessments in adulthood to investigate their current health and development. This article describes the ZLS study protocol and discusses opportunities, methodological and conceptual challenges, and limitations arising from a long-term longitudinal cohort recruited from a study about development in early life. In the future, the ZLS will provide data to investigate childhood antecedents of adult health outcomes and, ultimately, will help respond to the frequent call of scientists to shift the focus of aging research into the first decades of life and, thus, to take a lifespan perspective on aging.

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HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF OLDER ADULTS IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES: LESSONS FROM LONGITUDINAL STUDIES.

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.907 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S242-S242

Author(s):

Robert O Barker ◽

Andrew Kingston ◽

Fiona Matthews ◽

Barbara Hanratty

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Term Care ◽

Complex Needs ◽

People With Dementia ◽

Care Facilities

Abstract Older adults in long-term care facilities (LTCF) have complex needs for health care and support. There is a perception that residents’ needs are increasing over time, but little research evidence to back this up. In this study we brought together data on 1640 residents in LTCFs from three longitudinal studies, and conducted repeated cross-sectional analyses across a 25 year period. We found that the prevalence of severe disability amongst residents has increased from 56% to 80% over a 20 year period, driven by increases in difficulties in bathing and dressing. The prevalence of multimorbidity also increased from 29% to 56% between 2006 and 2014. A growth in the number of people with dementia, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases contributed to this. We conclude that residents in LTCFs have become a selected subset of the population, characterised by increasing needs for support. This poses an important challenge for future care provision.

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Dimensions of Psychological Problems

10.1093/med/9780197607909.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin B. Lahey

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Psychological Functioning ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Psychological Problems ◽

One Dimension ◽

Professional Help ◽

Natural Processes ◽

Highly Correlated ◽

Long Term Studies

A long-brewing revolution in how people think about psychological problems has finally reached a tipping point. Extensive scientific evidence now portrays psychological problems as problematic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that lie on continuous dimensions from insignificant to severe, with there being no hard line between “normal” and “abnormal.” These dimensions of psychological problems are highly correlated and overlapping. This means that people often experience psychological problems on more than one dimension at the same time. New longitudinal studies, in which the same people provide information about themselves over long parts of their lives, now indicate that the dimensions of psychological problems are dynamically changing rather than constant. Perhaps most important, these long-term studies reveal that psychological problems are commonplace and ordinary aspects of human lives. Surprisingly, nearly all people experience some distressing and impairing psychological problems at some time during their lives. These psychological problems range from simply uncomfortable to extremely distressing, problematic, and sometimes tragic. Nonetheless, psychological problems arise through the same natural processes as all aspects of behavior. That is, both adaptive and maladaptive patterns of psychological functioning are the result of the same natural interplay of genes and environments. Understanding these things about psychological problems should reduce people’s tendency to stigmatize these problems in themselves and in others. It will often be sensible for people to seek professional help to change them, but psychological problems are simply ordinary and commonplace parts of people’s lives.

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Hypertension in Children

Pediatrics in Review ◽

10.1542/pir.3.8.235 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 3 (8) ◽

pp. 235-246

Author(s):

David Goldring ◽

Antonio Hernandez

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Studies ◽

Pediatric Patient ◽

Therapeutic Intervention ◽

Pediatric Patients ◽

Primary Hypertension ◽

Careful Evaluation ◽

Specific Chemical ◽

Hypertension In Children

The pathogenesis of primary hypertension remains unknown despite extensive investigative contributions. Evidence is mounting that the disease may have its inception in childhood or possibly in infancy. What is needed are long-term longitudinal studies to determine whether the child with primary hypertension eventually becomes the adult hypertensive. A method for the identification of the hypertensive either by specific chemical or physiologic characteristics is very much needed. Nonpharmacologic therapeutic intervention needs careful evaluation, especially in the pediatric patient, to determine whether the disease can be arrested. A thorough study of pediatric patients with primary hypertension should be strongly encouraged. It may be that the solution to the complex puzzle of primary hypertension may have a higher probability of being solved at the inception of the disease in infancy or childhood rather than in the later irreversible stage in adulthood.

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