1,721,325 research outputs found
Life course psychological distress and cardiovascular disease risk factors in middle age: birth cohort study
No full textBright children become enlightened adults
Full text linkWe examined the prospective association between general intelligence (g) at age 10 and liberal and antitraditional social attitudes at age 30 in a large (N= 7,070), representative sample of the British population born in 1970. Statistical analyses identified a general latent trait underlying attitudes that are antiracist, pro-working women, socially liberal, and trusting in the democratic political system. There was a strong association between higher g at age 10 and more liberal and antitraditional attitudes at age 30; this association was mediated partly via educational qualifications, but not at all via occupational social class. Very similar results were obtained for men and women. People in less professional occupations-and whose parents had been in less professional occupations-were less trusting of the democratic political system. This study confirms social attitudes as a major, novel field of adult human activity that is related to childhood intelligence differences
Current state of psychosocial epidemiology: Where are we? What are the next steps?
No full textThe ultimate aim of epidemiological science is to improve population health by generating information that facilitates evidence-based guidelines and policies. As outlined in the chapters of this textbook, epidemiological research has already linked a number of psychosocial factors to health outcomes, including social networks, job stress, emotions, religious service attendance and personality types. Although researchers have explored the nature of the observed associations by assessing temporal relationships, the strength of the risk factor–disease link, biological plausibility and modifiability, crucially, for most psychosocial risk factors, causality remains elusive and their value as targets for disease prevention remains unclear. In this chapter, we identify opportunities to improve progress in this field. Three suggestions are made: large-scale collaborative research (‘big data’), precision phenotyping and interventional approaches
Psychosocial epidemiology: key concepts and methods
No full textIn this introductory chapter of The Routledge International Handbook of Psychosocial Epidemiology, we describe the concepts and methods used in the study of psychosocial factors, health and disease, including study designs to obtain robust information and minimise bias. In addition, we discuss the various strategies as well as the challenges of translating evidence into population health improvement. As living standards have improved, absolute deprivation in the material sense (e.g. lacking food and shelter for survival) has receded, at least in high-income countries. Regulatory standards also protect populations from the threat of pollution, contaminated food, and workplace physical hazards. In western societies, risk and protective factors for health are therefore becoming increasingly psychosocial in nature rather than physical. It is within this milieu that psychosocial epidemiology, a discipline linking psychological, social and medical sciences, has flourished. Opportunities for such research are now better than ever before. Assessment of psychosocial factors, such as social relations, life stresses and mood, has become easier with the development of digital survey technology and improved availability of information on social environments, both of which can be linked to individual medical records. The advent of electronic health records and wearable devices provides researchers with a practical way to monitor a person’s health over time and to identify those who are at risk of developing chronic conditions. We contend that psychosocial epidemiology is a growing scientific discipline, both in terms of discovery (i.e. as a study of disease causation and mechanisms) and delivery (as a study of cost-effective interventions)
Cognitive function in children and subsequent type 2 diabetes. Response to Ollson, Hulting, and Montgomery
No full textLocus of control at age 10 years and health outcomes and behaviors at age 30 years: the 1970 British Cohort Study
No full textOBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between locus of control at age 10 years and self-reported health outcomes (overweight, obesity, psychological distress, health, and hypertension) and health behaviors (smoking and physical activity) at age 30, controlling for sex, childhood IQ, educational attainment, earnings, and socioeconomic position. METHODS: Participants were members of the 1970 British Cohort Study, a national birth cohort. At age 10, 11,563 children took tests to measure locus of control and IQ. At age 30, 7551 men and women (65%) were interviewed about their health and completed a questionnaire about psychiatric morbidity. RESULTS: Men and women with a more internal locus of control score in childhood had a reduced risk of obesity (odds ratio, 95% CI, for a SD increase in locus of control, 0.86, 0.78-0.95), overweight (0.87, 0.82-0.93), fair or poor self-rated health (0.89, 0.81-0.97), and psychological distress (0.86, 0.76-0.95). Women with a more internal locus of control had a reduced risk of high blood pressure (0.84, 0.76-0.92). Associations between childhood IQ and risk of obesity and overweight were weakened by adjustment for internal locus of control. CONCLUSION: Having a stronger sense of control over one's own life in childhood seems to be a protective factor for some aspects of health in adult life. Sense of control provides predictive power beyond contemporaneously assessed IQ and may partially mediate the association between higher IQ in childhood and later risk of obesity and overweight
A questionnaire-wide association study of personality and mortality:The Vietnam Experience Study
No full textWe examined the association between the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and all-cause mortality in 4462 middle-aged Vietnam-era veterans
Cognitive ability and risk of death from lower respiratory tract infection:Findings from UK Biobank
Full text linkDementia increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infection, but it is unclear whether risk varies across the normal range of cognitive ability. People with higher cognitive ability tend to behave in a healthier fashion as regards risk factors for lower respiratory tract infection and there is evidence that they have a lower risk of dying from respiratory disease as a whole. We therefore investigated the relationship between cognitive ability and mortality from lower respiratory tract infection. Participants were 434,413 people from UK Biobank (54% female). Cognitive ability was measured using tests of reaction time and reasoning. Data on deaths from lower respiratory infection were obtained from death certificates. Over a mean follow-up period of 6.99 years, 1,282 people died of lower respiratory infection. Mortality from lower respiratory tract infection fell as cognitive ability increased. For a standard deviation faster reaction time, the age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) was 0.80 (0.76, 0.83) and the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio was 0.87 (0.83, 0.91). There were similar though weaker associations when cognitive ability was assessed using a reasoning test. These findings suggest that variation across the normal range of cognitive ability increase risk of dying from lower respiratory tract infection
Suicide
No full textWe provide an overview of the evidence linking psychosocial factors with future suicide risk. To do so, we aggregated results from published reports of prospective cohort studies with verified suicide events (mortality or, less commonly, hospitalization) alongside analyses of new data. There is a good deal of evidence indicating that low socioeconomic status (in both affluent and resource-poor countries) is associated with an increased risk of suicide, including the suggestion that the recent global economic recession has been responsible for an increase in suicide deaths and, by proxy, attempts. Low scores on tests of intelligence (particularly strongly), serious mental illness, chronic psychological distress, social isolation and lower height (a marker of childhood insults, including poverty, poor diet) were also consistently related to suicide risk. Although there is a reasonable prima facie case for personality type, psychosocial stress and pre-adult factors (e.g. bullying) being risk indices for suicide, the paucity of studies means it is not possible to draw clear conclusions about their status. Most suicide intervention strategies have not focused on the modification of psychosocial factors, partly because evidence linking psychosocial factors with suicide risk is, as we have demonstrated herein, in its infancy, or, where it does exist (e.g. cognition, personality type), selected factors are not obviously modifiable
Assessment of Relative Utility of Underlying vs Contributory Causes of Death.
Full text linkImportance: In etiological research, investigators using death certificate data have traditionally extracted underlying cause of mortality alone. With multimorbidity being increasingly common, more than one condition is often compatible with the manner of death. Using contributory cause plus underlying cause would also have some analytical advantages, but their combined utility is largely untested. Objective: To compare the relative utility of cause of death data extracted from the underlying cause field vs any location on the death certificate (underlying and contributing combined). Design, Setting, and Participants: This study compares the association of 3 known risk factors (cigarette smoking, low educational attainment, and hypertension) with health outcomes based on where cause of death data appears on the death certificate in 2 prospective cohort study collaborations (UK Biobank [N = 502 655] and the Health Survey for England [15 studies] and the Scottish Health Surveys [3 studies] [HSE-SHS; N = 193 873]). Data were collected in UK Biobank from March 2006 to October 2010 and in HSE-SHS from January 1994 to December 2008. Data analysis began in June 2018 and concluded in June 2019. Main Outcomes and Measures: Death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, and injury. For each risk factor-mortality end point combination, a ratio of hazard ratios (RHR) was computed by dividing the effect estimate for the underlying cause by the effect estimate for any mention. Results: In UK Biobank, there were 14 421 deaths (2.9%) during a mean (SD) of 6.99 (1.03) years of follow up; in HSE-SHS, there were 21 314 deaths (11.0%) during a mean (SD) of 9.61 (4.44) years of mortality surveillance. Established associations of risk factors with death outcomes were essentially the same irrespective of placement of cause on the death certificate. Results from each study were mutually supportive. For having ever smoked cigarettes (vs never having smoked) in the UK Biobank, the RHR for cardiovascular disease was 0.98 (95% CI, 0.87-1.10; P value for difference = .69); for cancer, the RHR was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.93-1.05; P value for difference = .69). In the HSE-SHS, the RHR for cardiovascular disease was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.87-1.01; P value for difference = .09); for cancer, it was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.94-1.10; P value for difference = .75). Conclusions and Relevance: Risk factor-end point associations were not sensitive to the placement of data on the death certificate. This has implications for the examination of the association of risk factors with causes of death where there may be too few events to compute reliable effect estimates based on the underlying field alone
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