scholarly journals Estimation of losses of quality-adjusted life expectancy attributed to the combination of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity among Chinese adults aged 45 years and older

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suting Xiong ◽  
Siyuan Liu ◽  
Yanan Qiao ◽  
Dingliu He ◽  
Yuxia Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Health Utility ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Elderly Chinese ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Additional Losses ◽  
Quality Adjusted Life

Abstract Objectives: This study aims to estimate the losses of quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) due to the joint effect of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity, and further to confirm additional losses attributable to their interaction among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Methods: The National Cause of Death Monitoring Data were linked with the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). A mapping and assigning method was used to estimate health utility values, which were further used to calculate QALE. Losses of QALE were measured by comparing the differences between subgroups. And all the losses of QALE were displayed at two levels: the individual and the population level.Results: At age 45, the individual-level and population-level losses of QALE (95% CI) attributed to the combination of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity were 7.606 (5.679, 9.566) years and 4.297 (3.425, 5.200) years. The losses (95% CI) for cognitive impairment alone were 3.104 (2.287, 3.954) years and 1.709 (1.318, 2.132) years at two levels. Similarly, the losses (95% CI) for multimorbidity alone were 3.526 (2.528, 4.556) years and 1.914 (1.235, 2.625) years at two levels. Additional losses due to their interaction were indicated by the 0.976 years of the individual-level gap and 0.674 years of the population-level gap. Conclusion: Among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese, cognitive impairment and multimorbidity resulted in much losses of QALE, and additional QALE losses were seen due to their interaction at both individual and population levels.

scholarly journals Estimation of losses of quality-adjusted life expectancy attributed to the combination of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity among Chinese adults aged 45 years and older

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suting Xiong ◽  
Siyuan Liu ◽  
Yanan Qiao ◽  
Dingliu He ◽  
Chaofu Ke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Elderly Chinese ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Additional Losses ◽  
Quality Adjusted Life

Abstract Objectives This study aims to estimate the losses of quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) due to the joint effects of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity, and to further confirm additional losses attributable to this interaction among middle-aged and elderly Chinese people. Methods The National Cause of Death Monitoring Data were linked with the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). A mapping and assignment method was used to estimate health utility values, which were further used to calculate QALE. Losses of QALE were measured by comparing the differences between subgroups. All the losses of QALE were displayed at two levels: the individual and population levels. Results At age 45, the individual-level and population-level losses of QALE attributed to the combination of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity were 7.61 (95% CI: 5.68, 9.57) years and 4.30 (95% CI: 3.43, 5.20) years, respectively. The losses for cognitive impairment alone were 3.10 (95% CI: 2.29, 3.95) years and 1.71 (95% CI: 1.32, 2.13) years at the two levels. Similarly, the losses for multimorbidity alone were 3.53 (95% CI: 2.53, 4.56) years and 1.91 (95% CI: 1.24, 2.63) years at the two levels. Additional losses due to the interaction of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity were indicated by the 0.98 years of the individual-level gap and 0.67 years of the population-level gap. Conclusion Among middle-aged and elderly Chinese people, cognitive impairment and multimorbidity resulted in substantial losses of QALE, and additional QALE losses were seen due to their interaction at both individual and population levels.

The Impact of Suicide on Life Expectancy

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. F. Yip ◽  
Yan Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Suicide Intervention ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Background: In Hong Kong, there have been significant changes in suicide rates during the period 1996–2015. Aim: We aimed to assess the impact of change in suicide rates on life expectancy in Hong Kong. Method: A decomposition method was used to quantify the impact of suicide on life expectancy in Hong Kong. Results: During 1996–2003, the increase in total suicide rate made negative contributions to the increase in life expectancy in Hong Kong (−0.15 years), with incidence component and age component accounting for −0.17 years and 0.02 years, respectively. However, during 2003–2015, the decrease in the number of suicide deaths contributed to the life expectancy by 0.16 years, with the incidence component still playing a predominant role. Furthermore, the contribution mechanism of suicide varied across suicide methods and gender. Limitations: Apart from suicide, the change in life expectancy could be affected by various factors, which needs to be considered. Moreover, conclusions of the study were made at the population level rather than the individual level. Conclusion: Suicide has a non-negligible impact on life expectancy in Hong Kong. Understanding the contribution pattern of suicide and sustaining effective strategies for suicide intervention would contribute positively to improvements in Hong Kong life expectancy.

scholarly journals Migration, acculturation, and the maintenance of between-group cultural variation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Learning Processes

AbstractHow do migration and acculturation (i.e. psychological or behavioral change resulting from migration) affect within- and between-group cultural variation? Here I answer this question by drawing analogies between genetic and cultural evolution. Population genetic models show that migration rapidly breaks down between-group genetic structure. In cultural evolution, however, migrants or their descendants can acculturate to local behaviors via social learning processes such as conformity, potentially preventing migration from eliminating between-group cultural variation. An analysis of the empirical literature on migration suggests that acculturation is common, with second and subsequent migrant generations shifting, sometimes substantially, towards the cultural values of the adopted society. Yet there is little understanding of the individual-level dynamics that underlie these population-level shifts. To explore this formally, I present models quantifying the effect of migration and acculturation on between-group cultural variation, for both neutral and costly cooperative traits. In the models, between-group cultural variation, measured using F statistics, is eliminated by migration and maintained by conformist acculturation. The extent of acculturation is determined by the strength of conformist bias and the number of demonstrators from whom individuals learn. Acculturation is countered by assortation, the tendency for individuals to preferentially interact with culturally-similar others. Unlike neutral traits, cooperative traits can additionally be maintained by payoff-biased social learning, but only in the presence of strong sanctioning institutions. Overall, the models show that surprisingly little conformist acculturation is required to maintain realistic amounts of between-group cultural diversity. While these models provide insight into the potential dynamics of acculturation and migration in cultural evolution, they also highlight the need for more empirical research into the individual-level learning biases that underlie migrant acculturation.

scholarly journals General intelligence disentangled via a generality metric for natural and artificial intelligence

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Hernández-Orallo ◽  
Bao Sheng Loe ◽  
Lucy Cheke ◽  
Fernando Martínez-Plumed ◽  
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh
Keyword(s):  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
General Intelligence ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cognitive Efficiency ◽  
Comprehensive Performance ◽  
Individual Measure ◽  
Level Of Difficulty ◽  
The Individual

AbstractSuccess in all sorts of situations is the most classical interpretation of general intelligence. Under limited resources, however, the capability of an agent must necessarily be limited too, and generality needs to be understood as comprehensive performance up to a level of difficulty. The degree of generality then refers to the way an agent’s capability is distributed as a function of task difficulty. This dissects the notion of general intelligence into two non-populational measures, generality and capability, which we apply to individuals and groups of humans, other animals and AI systems, on several cognitive and perceptual tests. Our results indicate that generality and capability can decouple at the individual level: very specialised agents can show high capability and vice versa. The metrics also decouple at the population level, and we rarely see diminishing returns in generality for those groups of high capability. We relate the individual measure of generality to traditional notions of general intelligence and cognitive efficiency in humans, collectives, non-human animals and machines. The choice of the difficulty function now plays a prominent role in this new conception of generality, which brings a quantitative tool for shedding light on long-standing questions about the evolution of general intelligence and the evaluation of progress in Artificial General Intelligence.

scholarly journals Ecology and Prediction of Compensatory Growth: From Theory to Application in Forestry

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Li ◽  
Hugh Barclay ◽  
Bernard Roitberg ◽  
Robert Lalonde
Keyword(s):  
Compensatory Growth ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Common Phenomenon ◽  
Partial Mortality ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Dependent Model ◽  
Accelerated Growth ◽  
The Individual

Compensatory growth has been observed in forests, and it also appears as a common phenomenon in biology. Though it sometimes takes different names, the essential meanings are the same, describing the accelerated growth of organisms when recovering from a period of unfavorable conditions such as tissue damage at the individual level and partial mortality at the population level. Diverse patterns of compensatory growth have been reported in the literature, ranging from under-, to compensation-induced-equality, and to over-compensation. In this review and synthesis, we provide examples of analogous compensatory growth from different fields, clarify different meanings of it, summarize its current understanding and modeling efforts, and argue that it is possible to develop a state-dependent model under the conceptual framework of compensatory growth, aimed at explaining and predicting diverse observations according to different disturbances and environmental conditions. When properly applied, compensatory growth can benefit different industries and human society in various forms.

scholarly journals Opposite outcomes of coinfection at individual and population scales

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (29) ◽  
pp. 7545-7550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin E. Gorsich ◽  
Rampal S. Etienne ◽  
Jan Medlock ◽  
Brianna R. Beechler ◽  
Johannie M. Spaan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
African Buffalo ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Secondary Infections ◽  
The Individual

Coinfecting parasites and pathogens remain a leading challenge for global public health due to their consequences for individual-level infection risk and disease progression. However, a clear understanding of the population-level consequences of coinfection is lacking. Here, we constructed a model that includes three individual-level effects of coinfection: mortality, fecundity, and transmission. We used the model to investigate how these individual-level consequences of coinfection scale up to produce population-level infection patterns. To parameterize this model, we conducted a 4-y cohort study in African buffalo to estimate the individual-level effects of coinfection with two bacterial pathogens, bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and brucellosis, across a range of demographic and environmental contexts. At the individual level, our empirical results identified bTB as a risk factor for acquiring brucellosis, but we found no association between brucellosis and the risk of acquiring bTB. Both infections were associated with reductions in survival and neither infection was associated with reductions in fecundity. The model reproduced coinfection patterns in the data and predicted opposite impacts of coinfection at individual and population scales: Whereas bTB facilitated brucellosis infection at the individual level, our model predicted the presence of brucellosis to have a strong negative impact on bTB at the population level. In modeled populations where brucellosis was present, the endemic prevalence and basic reproduction number (R0) of bTB were lower than in populations without brucellosis. Therefore, these results provide a data-driven example of competition between coinfecting pathogens that occurs when one pathogen facilitates secondary infections at the individual level.

scholarly journals Smart Sanitation—Biosensors as a Public Health Tool in Sanitation Infrastructure

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (14) ◽  
pp. 5146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Rary ◽  
Sarah M. Anderson ◽  
Brandon D. Philbrick ◽  
Tanvi Suresh ◽  
Jasmine Burton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Emergent Technologies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sanitation Infrastructure

The health of individuals and communities is more interconnected than ever, and emergent technologies have the potential to improve public health monitoring at both the community and individual level. A systematic literature review of peer-reviewed and gray literature from 2000-present was conducted on the use of biosensors in sanitation infrastructure (such as toilets, sewage pipes and septic tanks) to assess individual and population health. 21 relevant papers were identified using PubMed, Embase, Global Health, CDC Stacks and NexisUni databases and a reflexive thematic analysis was conducted. Biosensors are being developed for a range of uses including monitoring illicit drug usage in communities, screening for viruses and diagnosing conditions such as diabetes. Most studies were nonrandomized, small-scale pilot or lab studies. Of the sanitation-related biosensors found in the literature, 11 gathered population-level data, seven provided real-time continuous data and 14 were noted to be more cost-effective than traditional surveillance methods. The most commonly discussed strength of these technologies was their ability to conduct rapid, on-site analysis. The findings demonstrate the potential of this emerging technology and the concept of Smart Sanitation to enhance health monitoring at the individual level (for diagnostics) as well as at the community level (for disease surveillance).

scholarly journals Discordant Chronic Conditions and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Associations Among Middle-Aged and Older Couples

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney A Polenick ◽  
Kira S Birditt ◽  
Angela Turkelson ◽  
Benjamin C Bugajski ◽  
Helen C Kales
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Objectives Individuals often manage chronic conditions in middle and later life that may diminish well-being. Little is known, however, about discordant conditions (i.e., two or more conditions with competing self-management requirements) among older couples and their links to depressive symptoms. We considered discordant conditions at both the individual level and the couple level (i.e., between spouses), along with their long-term implications for depressive symptoms. Methods The U.S. sample included 1,116 middle-aged and older couples drawn from five waves (2006–2014) of the Health and Retirement Study. Longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models evaluated whether individual-level and couple-level discordant chronic health conditions were concurrently linked to depressive symptoms, and whether these associations became stronger over time. Models controlled for age, minority status, education, prior wave depressive symptoms, and each partner’s baseline report of negative marital quality and number of chronic conditions in each wave. Results Wives and husbands reported significantly greater depressive symptoms when they had individual-level discordant conditions about 2 years after baseline, and these links intensified over time. Beyond this association, husbands had significantly greater depressive symptoms when there were couple-level discordant conditions. Discussion Individual-level and couple-level discordant conditions may have lasting implications for depressive symptoms during midlife and older adulthood.

scholarly journals Individual-Level and Population-Level Lateralization: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Symmetry ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Frasnelli ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

Lateralization, i.e., the different functional roles played by the left and right sides of the brain, is expressed in two main ways: (1) in single individuals, regardless of a common direction (bias) in the population (aka individual-level lateralization); or (2) in single individuals and in the same direction in most of them, so that the population is biased (aka population-level lateralization). Indeed, lateralization often occurs at the population-level, with 60–90% of individuals showing the same direction (right or left) of bias, depending on species and tasks. It is usually maintained that lateralization can increase the brain’s efficiency. However, this may explain individual-level lateralization, but not population-level lateralization, for individual brain efficiency is unrelated to the direction of the asymmetry in other individuals. From a theoretical point of view, a possible explanation for population-level lateralization is that it may reflect an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) that can develop when individually asymmetrical organisms are under specific selective pressures to coordinate their behavior with that of other asymmetrical organisms. This prediction has been sometimes misunderstood as it is equated with the idea that population-level lateralization should only be present in social species. However, population-level asymmetries have been observed in aggressive and mating displays in so-called “solitary” insects, suggesting that engagement in specific inter-individual interactions rather than “sociality” per se may promote population-level lateralization. Here, we clarify that the nature of inter-individuals interaction can generate evolutionarily stable strategies of lateralization at the individual- or population-level, depending on ecological contexts, showing that individual-level and population-level lateralization should be considered as two aspects of the same continuum.

Changes in wild red squirrel personality across ontogeny: activity and aggression regress towards the mean

Behaviour ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 152 (10) ◽  
pp. 1291-1306 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.D. Kelley ◽  
M.M. Humphries ◽  
A.G. McAdam ◽  
Stan Boutin
Keyword(s):  
Structural Stability ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Behavioural Syndrome ◽  
Red Squirrels ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Personality Changes ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Differential Stability ◽  
The Individual

Both juvenile and adult animals display stable behavioural differences (personality), but lifestyles and niches may change as animals mature, raising the question of whether personality changes across ontogeny. Here, we use a wild population of red squirrels to examine changes in activity and aggression from juvenile to yearling life stages. Personality may change at the individual level (individual stability), population level (mean level stability), and relative to other individuals (differential stability). We calculated all three types of stability, as well as the structural stability of the activity–aggression behavioural syndrome. Within individuals, both activity and aggression scores regressed towards the mean. Differential stability was maintained for activity, but not aggression. Structural stability was maintained; however, the activity–aggression correlation increased in squirrels that gained territories later in the season. These results suggest that personality undergoes some changes as animals mature, and that the ontogeny of personality can be linked to environmental changes.

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