scholarly journals Does variety of social interactions associate with frequency of laughter among older people? The JAGES cross-sectional study

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e039363
Author(s):  
Masato Nagai ◽  
Tetsuya Ohira ◽  
Kokoro Shirai ◽  
Katsunori Kondo

ObjectiveSeveral studies have reported that laughter is associated with health benefits. In addition, social interactions, such as social relationships, social participation and so forth, have shown the association with not only health but also individual emotion. In this study, we conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the association between variety of social interactions and the frequency of laughter.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingSampled from 30 municipalities in Japan.ParticipantsNon-disabled Japanese men (n=11 439) and women (n=13 159) aged ≥65 years using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, which was conducted during October to December in 2013.Primary outcome measuresLaughing almost every day by self-reported questionnaire.ResultsPoisson regression analysis with robust error variance was used to calculate prevalence ratios (PRs) for laughing almost every day according to each social relationship and its potential community-level environmental determinants. The prevalence of laughing almost every day tended to increase with increased variety in each social interaction after adjusting, instrumental activities of daily living, number of living together, working status, depression, self-reported economic status and residence year. Among men and women, multivariate-adjusted PRs (95% CIs) by comparing participants with the highest and lowest categories were 1.18 (1.04 to 1.35) and 1.16 (1.04 to 1.29) in positive life events; 1.26 (1.10 to 1.45) and 1.09 (0.96 to 1.24) in perceived positive changes in the area; 1.15 (1.04 to 1.28) and 1.17 (1.07 to 1.28) in social participations; 2.23 (1.57 to 3.16) and 1.47 (1.02 to 2.12) in social relationships and 1.25 (1.08 to 1.45) and 1.29 (1.15 to 1.45) in positive built environments. These associations were also preserved after the restriction of participants who were not in depression.ConclusionsThis study shows that a greater variety of each social relationships and the potential community-level environmental determinants are associated with higher frequencies of laughter in Japan.

2020 ◽  
pp. jech-2020-214545
Author(s):  
Ayaka Igarashi ◽  
Jun Aida ◽  
Tatsuo Yamamoto ◽  
Yoshimune Hiratsuka ◽  
Katsunori Kondo ◽  
...  

BackgroundDifficulties in communication due to vision, hearing and tooth loss have a serious impact on health. We compared the association between and attribution of each of these factors on social interaction.MethodsThis cross-sectional study examined data from the 2016 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (n=22 295) on community-dwelling people aged ≥65 years in Japan. The dependent variable was the frequency of meeting friends as a measure of social interaction, and less-than-monthly was defined as fewer social interactions. The independent variables were self-reported degrees of vision, hearing (5-point Likert scale) and tooth loss (five categories), with ‘poor’ or ‘0 teeth’ defined as the worst category. Sex, age, educational attainment, comorbidity and residential area were used as covariates. Poisson regression analysis with multiple imputations was used to estimate the prevalence ratios (PRs) of fewer social interactions by each status. Subsequently, the population attributable fraction (PAF) was calculated to assess the public health impact.ResultsThe number of participants with fewer social interactions was 5622 (26.9%). Proportions of fewer social interactions among those with the worst vision, hearing and number of teeth categories were 48.7%, 40.1% and 32.0%, respectively. Their corresponding PRs of fewer social interactions were 1.72 (95% CI 0.97 to 3.05), 1.35 (95% CI 0.99 to 1.85) and 1.23 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.37), respectively. The total PAF for vision, hearing and number of teeth was 8.3%, 5.0% and 6.4%, respectively.ConclusionSelf-reported vision, hearing and tooth loss were associated with fewer social interactions. The magnitude of these impairments was largest in vision, followed by tooth and hearing loss.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 342
Author(s):  
Bum Jung Kim ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Ling Xu ◽  
Yura Lee

This study examines the influence of self-rated health and subjective economic status on the life satisfaction of older Chinese immigrants in the United States. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 205 older Chinese immigrants aged 66 to 90 years living in Los Angeles and Honolulu. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis was employed to explore the independent effects of self-rated health and subjective economic status. The results demonstrated that self-rated health and subjective economic status were positively associated with life satisfaction. This cross-sectional study provides empirical evidence that self-rated health and subjective economic status are directly associated with subjective life satisfaction among older Chinese immigrants.


2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 682-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Asadi-Lari ◽  
Y. Salimi ◽  
M. R. Vaez-Mahdavi ◽  
S. Faghihzadeh ◽  
A. A. Haeri Mehrizi ◽  
...  

1970 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 180-184
Author(s):  
BJ Brown ◽  
AO Adeleye

Background: Socioeconomic factors are known to affect health quality, disease occurrence as well as health-seeking behaviors in several ways.Objectives: To determine the influence of socio-economic factors on awareness of cancer, healthseeking behaviors among parents of children with cancer in a developing country and occurrence of cancer using Burkitt lymphoma as index malignancy.Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study that involved children with cancer seen over a 2-year period in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Information was obtained by interview through administration of a questionnaire and retrieval of clinical data from patients’ case notes.Results: The caregivers of 91 children (46 boys, 45 girls) were interviewed including 86 biological parents. Majority (84.6%) of the children belonged to the low socio -economic classes 3-5; 45 of 86 parents (52.3%), more likely in parents from higher socioeconomic classes, were aware of cancer but only 7 (8.1%) knew it could occur in children. There was no association between Burkitt lymphoma and socio-economic class. Twenty-eight (30.8%) parents of the 91 children visited alternate sources of health care, most commonly traditional healers, followed by religious centers. There was no association between visits to such centers and the parents’ socio-economic status or with presentation with metastatic disease.Conclusions: Awareness of childhood cancer is low among this cohort of parents; their socioeconomic status seems to impact on this level of awareness but not on their health-seeking behaviors for their affected children. Focused health education is needed to increase childhood cancer awareness and appropriate healthseeking behavior among the population studied.Key words: socio-economic; childhood; cancer; health-seeking; behaviour; awareness


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 867
Author(s):  
Ayyappan Anitha ◽  
Suresh A. Poovathinal ◽  
Vijitha Viswambharan ◽  
Ismail Thanseem ◽  
Mahesh M. Vasu ◽  
...  

Background: Authors examined serum vitamin D status among the healthy school children belonging to the south Indian state of Kerala.Methods: A cross-sectional study, participants were recruited through medical camps organized in Thrissur and Palakkad districts of central Kerala during the months of March and April 2017. A 174 healthy school children (98 males and 76 females) aged 5-13 years were recruited for the study. The children were found to be healthy on the basis of physical examination by a Paediatrician. None of the children had any symptoms of skeletal deformities. All the children were drug-naive. Data on height, weight, skin color, food habits, physical activities and socio-economic status were recorded. A 2ml of peripheral blood samples were collected from the participants. Total vitamin D in the serum was estimated by chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA).Results: VDD was observed in 60.92% and insufficiency in 30.46% of the participants. Only 8.62% of the participants had normal vitamin D levels. The mean vitamin D level was 19.93 ng/ml. Males had significantly higher vitamin D levels compared to females. Factors such as age, height, weight, diet, skin color and socio-economic status did not influence vitamin D levels.Conclusions: This is the first study of vitamin D status among the school-age children of Kerala. This paper adds further evidence to the reports indicating high prevalence of subclinical VDD among children across India and calls for action.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Ramadhan ◽  
Yulidar Yulidar ◽  
Abidah Nur ◽  
Zain Hadifah ◽  
Yasir Yasir

Abstract Filariasis is still a global public health problem both in the world and in Indonesia. Aceh is include in one of the provinces with the most clinical cases in Indonesia. The aimed of this study was to determine the description of endemicity status and Related Factors to Instantaneous Transmissions period after Transmission Assessment Survey (TAS) 1 in Pidie district. This research is part of the filariasis elimination evaluation study in Indonesia (Multicenter Filariasis Study) Litbangkes Office Center, Ministry of Health in 2017. The research design was cross sectional study. The study was conducted from February to November 2017. The selected research sites were Buloh and Kambuk Payapi Village in Pidie district. Data was collected by interviewin respondent to obtained information about people's knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to filariasis. In addition, finger blood tests were also conducted on respondents who had been interviewed. The number of respondents by finger blood was 627 and 714 were interviewed. The risk of filariasis transmission still occurred with the finding of 10 positive cases of microfilaria as many as 10 people in Kambuk Payapi village  with B.malayi species. The average filarial density was 86.84 / μl blood.  Respondent’s knowledge about filariasis is still low, community attitudes towads the prevention and treatment of filariasis was positive. Only a portion of respondents were involved in mass treatment. Selective treatment and strengthening synergy across sectors and programs must be increased so that elimination of  filariasis can be achieved. In addition, it is necessary to increase public knowledge through various health promotion media to improve community behaviour to achieve  elimination of filariasis. Abstrak Filariasis masih menjadi masalah kesehatan baik di dunia maupun di Indonesia. Aceh termasuk dalam salah satu provinsi dengan kasus klinis kronis terbanyak di Indonesia. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengetahui gambaran status endemisitas filariasis dan faktor yang berpengaruh dengan transmisi setelah Transmission Assessment Survey (TAS) 1 di Kabupaten Pidie. Penelitian ini merupakan bagian dari studi evaluasi eliminasi filariasis di Indonesia (studi Multicenter Filariasis) Badan Litbangkes Kementerian Kesehatan tahun 2017. Desain penelitian adalah cross sectional study. Penelitian dilakukan dari Februari-November 2017. Tempat penelitian adalah di desa Buloh dan desa Kambuk Payapi di Kabupaten Pidie. Pengumpulan data dilakukan wawancara responden untuk mendapatkan informasi tentang pengetahuan, sikap, dan perilaku masyarakat terkait filariasis. Selain itu juga dilakukan pemeriksaan darah jari malam hari pada responden yang sudah diwawancarai.  Jumlah responden yang diperiksa darah jari 627 responden dan yang diwawancarai 714.  Resiko penularan filariasis masih terjadi dengan masih ditemukannya kasus positif mikrofilaria sebanyak 10 orang di desa Kambuk Payapi dengan spesies B.malayi. Rata-rata kepadatan filaria adalah 86,84/µl darah. Pengetahuan responden tentang penyebab filariasis masih rendah, sikap masyarakat terhadap upaya pencegahan dan pengobatan filariasis sudah positif. Namun demikian hanya sebagian responden yang ikut terlibat dalam pengobatan masal. Pengobatan selektif dan memperkuat sinergi lintas sektos dan lintas program harus ditingkatkan agar eliminasi filariasis dapat dicapai. Selain itu diperlukan peningkatan pengetahuan masyarakat melalui berbagai media promosi kesehatan untuk meningkatkan prilaku masyarakat untuk mencapai eliminasi filariasis.  


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Samjhana Shakya ◽  
J Bhattarai ◽  
K Rawal ◽  
AR Kunwar ◽  
YR Shakya ◽  
...  

Hypertension is an important public health challenge in the developing and the developed world alike. This worksite based descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken in Sahid Gangalal National Heart Centre in 2010 with 50 subjects were recruited by multistage purposive cluster sampling. The primary aim of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to assess the socioeco­nomic status and to measure the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and correlates of hypertension. The prevalence of pre-hypertension is 38% and hypertension is 34%. Among the hypertensive 53% are aware of their condition and 66.66% of them are under treatment and 16.66% have con­trol over the condition. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 22% and 4% respectively. The prevalence of central obesity was 29.72% among male and 69% among female. Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on hypertension was satisfactory. Fourteen percent understood hypertension as a raised blood pressure during blood flow in the arteries. Majority of them (72%) have posi­tive attitude towards use of medicine in hypertension. Majority of them (86%) had checked their blood pressure in last 2 years. Difference in prevalence of hypertension was found among the tobacco users and non- users (65% vs 40%), who do regular exercise and those who do not (28% vs. 38%) and sleep disturbance was higher among hypertensive than non-hypertensive (48% vs. 10%). Patients with Dislipidemia (32%) had higher prevalence of hypertension than those without Dislipidemia (44% vs 30 %) Similar finding were found between overweight participants (26%) and normal weight participants (46% vs 34%). The prevalence of hypertension is higher with the higher socio-economic status. Nepalese Heart Journal | Volume 7 | No.1 | November 2010 (special issue) | Page 15-19 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njh.v7i1.8496


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 92-99
Author(s):  
Tran Quynh Anh ◽  
Le Thi Huong Ly ◽  
Nguyen Thi Lien Huong

Handwashing with soap (HWWS) practice among mothers is critical in preventing childhood illnesses. This study aims to describe HWWS knowledge and practice among mothers of children aged under 11 and associated factors. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 319 mothers in 4 provinces in Vietnam, namely Dien Bien, Tuyen Quang, Hoa Binh, and Dak Lak, representing the region Northern Mountains and Central Highlands 2019. Knowledge of HWWS is measured through questionnaire interviews. HWWS practice is measured by the “Sticker Diary” method. Results show that while the proportion of mothers with knowledge on HWWS after defecation/toilet/using latrine is 84.6%, only 19.4% of mothers said that they need to HWWS after cleaning a child’s bottom/child’s feces, 17.6% before feeding children, and 39.2% HWWS before cooking/serving food. Less than 50% of mothers practice washing their hands with soap at critical times. The study shows a signifcant association between attributes such as educational level, occupation, economic status, and knowledge of HWWS. The study also fnds an association between the ethnic group, fnancial situation, knowledge, and practice HWWS among mothers of children under age 11.


2021 ◽  
pp. 55-56
Author(s):  
Vishnu G. Ashok ◽  
Pretty Venis ◽  
Glannie A.R.

The uncertainty and dread linked with COVID-19 has contributed to a rise in mental health disorders among the general population showing high rates of anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and psychological discomfort. The current study aims to assess the prevalence of psychological distress among undergraduate students of an Arts college in rural Tamilnadu. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 100 undergraduate students of an arts college selected by convenient sampling technique using GHQ-12 questionnaire via online platforms. Among the 100 medical students who participated in the study, 78% were found have severe problems with psychological distress. Leisure time activity like smartphone usage was found to have a signicant association with psychological distress (p<0.05) while other factors like gender, socio-economic status, physical activity, dietary preferences, junk food consumption and sleep habits were not associated statistically. Early recognition of students under stress and counselling will go a long way in helping students adjust to the demands of the educational curriculum.


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