1,102 research outputs found
Data supporting Deary & Hagenaars et al. Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness
No full textData supporting the paper Deary & Hagenaars et al. Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness. Molecular Psychiatry (2017). doi:10.1038/mp.2017.5
Data supporting Deary & Hagenaars et al. Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness
No full textData supporting the paper Deary & Hagenaars et al. Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness. Molecular Psychiatry (2017). doi:10.1038/mp.2017.5.Deary, V; Hagenaars, SP; Harris, SE; Hill, WD; Davies, G; Liewald, DCM; McIntosh, AM; Gale, CR; Deary, IJ. (2019). Data supporting Deary & Hagenaars et al. Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness, [dataset]. University of Edinburgh. Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/2563
'On the street where you live': neighbourhood deprivation and quality of life among community-dwelling older people in Edinburgh, Scotland
No full textIt is well established that neighbourhood quality is related to various aspects of people's health and coping, especially in old age. There have also been a few reports on the links between self-reported neighbourhood quality and quality of life in older age. However, it is not clear which aspects of quality of life in particular are related to neighbourhood quality and whether these associations are independent of the roles of cognitive, socioeconomic or health status, or rating biases. Using a large sample of Scots from the Edinburgh area (N = 1091, of whom 548 were men) aged between 68 and 71 years, this study shows direct associations of objectively and comprehensively determined neighbourhood deprivation with self-perceived quality of life in physical and environmental domains, but not in psychological or social relationship domains. In a path model, these associations were independent of the roles of childhood cognitive ability and change in it to age 70, educational attainment, and occupational social class. The count of adverse health conditions (cardiovascular disease, stroke history, high blood pressure, diabetes, or arthritis) was associated with both quality of life and neighbourhood deprivation, and mediated the indirect links from neighbourhood deprivation to physical, psychological and environmental domains of quality of life. It is concluded that the neighbourhood in which older people live plays a role in one of the most important outcomes-how satisfied they are with various aspects of their life including physical functioning
Advocating a utilitarian profession in a Kantian world? LIS ethical reflection and the challenges of political philosophy
No full textThe over-arching political philosophy of the past 30 years has seen a movement from the Utilitarian principles that had dominated since the mid to late Victorian period to a more Kantian, rights-based approach to justification of public services and professions. Political philosophy has a major impact on the ethical parameters in which professions operate. In publically-funded libraries a change in such philosophy can alter the aims and objectives of the organisation, and even the justification for its very existence. In a sector that grew out of the Utilitarian era, such as public libraries, old arguments for advocacy that have been used historically hold little sway with elected officials and managers inculcated within a rights-based framework. LIS professional education rarely fills such gaps; while many LIS courses contain modules that deal in professional ethics, a key tangential issue is the understanding of political philosophy and the motivations and beliefs of those who fund library services. Conversely many elected officials come to public service with an education that covers the broadest range of political philosophy. In the UK, North America and Europe, for instance, the PPE degree (politics, philosophy, and economics) and its variants are a staple of the ruling classes. Such a background sees them well able to understand and be able to rebut any arguments for justifying services that do not fit into the rights-based approach. LIS professionals’ ethical reflection must become more strategic and be aimed at advocacy that is effective and will be understood by elected officials influenced by rights-based arguments. Utilising the public library service as an example, this paper will identify how many in the profession may have strategically misfired in terms of their advocacy approach, and instead suggest how ethical reflection could be enhanced by presenting the justification of library services within the philosophical context of the day, and how in doing so fill a major gap in the knowledge of many library and information professionals. It will be argued that used in partnership with ethical codes, such a focused ethical reflection can take such static documents and apply them to myriad real scenarios, enabling them to become a living embodiment of active ethical reflection in library and information services
Reaction time and intelligence:Comparing associations based on two response modes
No full textPeople who score highly on intelligence tests also tend to have faster and less variable reaction times. Effect size estimates for the reaction time-intelligence association are larger in samples that are more representative of the population. However, such samples have often been tested on a reaction time device that requires reading a number and processing its association with a specific response location (Cox, Huppert, & Whichelow, 1993). Here, we use this device and another reaction time device (Dykiert et al., 2010) that is similar, except that the responses require less processing; subjects simply press a button that is adjacent to the stimulus light. We focus on the possibility that lights as stimuli require less higher-order cognitive engagement than numbers, and then test whether parameters from these two tasks are highly correlated and similarly associated with age and higher cognitive abilities. Both tasks measured simple and choice reaction times and their intra-individual variation across trials. The parameters of the two tasks were very highly correlated and parameters from both tasks were similarly associated with age, social factors, and differences in higher cognitive abilities. The respective choice reaction time parameters from either task accounted for much of the age- and higher cognitive ability-associations of the other task's parameters. These findings are important in establishing that the effect sizes of higher cognitive ability associations with processing speed measures may be found when the processing demands are minimal.(C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.</p
Sex differences in Cognitive Abilities Test scores: a UK national picture
No full textBackground and aims. There is uncertainty about the extent or even existence of sex differences in the mean and variability of reasoning test scores ( Jensen, 1998; Lynn, 1994, ; Mackintosh, 1996). This paper analyses the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) scores of a large and representative sample of UK pupils to determine the extent of any sex differences.
Sample. A nationally representative UK sample of over 320,000 school pupils aged 11-12 years was assessed on the CAT (third edition) between September 2001 and August 2003. The CAT includes separate nationally standardized tests for verbal, quantitative, and non-verbal reasoning. The size and recency of the sample is unprecedented in research on this issue.
Methods. The sheer size of the sample ensures that any sex difference will achieve statistical significance. Therefore, effect sizes (d) and variance ratios (VR) are employed to evaluate the magnitude of sex differences in mean scores and in score variability, respectively.
Results. The mean verbal reasoning score for girls was 2.2 standard score points higher than the mean for boys, but only 0.3 standard points in favour of girls for non-verbal reasoning (NVR), and 0.7 points in favour of boys for quantitative reasoning (QR). However, for all three tests there were substantial sex differences in the standard deviation of scores, with greater variance among boys. Boys were over represented relative to girls at both the top and the bottom extremes for all tests, with the exception of the top 10% in verbal reasoning.
Conclusions. Given the small differences in means, explanations for sex differences in wider domains such examination attainment at age 16 need to look beyond conceptions of `ability'. Boys tend to be both the lowest and the highest performers in terms of their reasoning abilities, which warns against the danger of stereotyping boys as low achievers
Lifestyle factors and cognitive ageing in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936: exploring the role of confounding by prior cognitive ability
No full textWith an increase in life expectancy, the number of older people affected by cognitive
decline and dementia is rising, causing major, global public health concerns. However,
there is substantial variation in the rate and magnitude of cognitive decline
experienced among ageing individuals. Evidence suggests that many age-associated
changes in cognitive functioning can be explained by modifiable lifestyle factors such as
smoking, physical activity and diet choices. The weight of the evidence supports the
promotion of a healthy lifestyle as an effective strategy for healthy cognitive ageing.
Many epidemiological studies have drawn causal conclusions with regard to the
positive and direct benefits of lifestyle, yet few have considered the possible
confounding role of prior cognitive ability in explaining the lifestyle and cognition
relationship in older age. Given the potential for reverse causation, whereby better
prior cognitive functioning leads to a greater uptake of healthy behaviours rather than
vice versa, it is a mechanism which should be studied, but rarely is.
The present thesis focuses on the possible confounding effect of prior cognitive ability
on the cross-sectional relationships between lifestyle factors and cognitive ability
domains in later-life. The core of the thesis is a series of independent, peer-reviewed
(six first-author and one co-author) journal articles in the public domain. Data were
derived from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study (n = 1091), a sample of relatively
healthy, community-dwelling men and women aged 70 years from Edinburgh, Scotland,
for whom childhood (age 11) mental test scores are available. The lifestyle factors
investigated were caffeine consumption, alcohol consumption, dietary patterns, body
mass index, smoking, serum cholesterol, and physical activity. Cognitive function was
assessed across five major ageing-related domains: age 70 IQ (based on the same test
that was taken in childhood), general cognitive ability (g), processing speed, memory,
and verbal ability. General linear models (ANCOVA) were adjusted for the following
covariates: age; sex; childhood cognitive ability; and socioeconomic status (SES). Other
potential covariates were additionally adjusted for as necessary.
Overall, the positive and significant associations observed between ‘healthy’ lifestyle
factors and better cognitive functions at age 70 were consistent with previous research;
their effect size was around 1% of the variance in cognitive tests scores. However, these
relationships were markedly attenuated (by on average 80%) by a higher childhood
cognitive ability and adult SES; for the most part, associations were reduced to non-significance.
None of the lifestyle factors were consistent predictors of performance
across cognitive domains, though smoking avoidance, a physically active lifestyle, and
moderate intake of alcohol, appeared to have the most potential.
The key novel finding of this thesis is that, in addition to having predictive value for
lifestyle choices over 60 years later, cognitive ability at age 11 accounted for the
majority of the cross-sectional associations between lifestyle factors and cognitive
abilities in later-life. This finding is consistent with the theory of confounding or even
reverse causation. That is, individuals with higher lifetime ‘trait’ cognitive ability may
be more likely to adopt a lifestyle which protects against cognitive decline. Rather than
a unidirectional or indirect effect of health behaviours on cognitive function, the
present findings suggest there may be a dynamic cycle involving cognition, self-management
of health and ultimate cognitive outcomes
Genetic contributions to self-reported tiredness
No full textSelf-reported tiredness and low energy, often called fatigue, are associated with poorer physical and mental health. Twin studies have indicated that this has a heritability between 6 and 50%. In the UK Biobank sample (N=108 976), we carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of responses to the question, 'Over the last two weeks, how often have you felt tired or had little energy?' Univariate GCTA-GREML found that the proportion of variance explained by all common single-nucleotide polymorphisms for this tiredness question was 8.4% (s.e.=0.6%). GWAS identified one genome-wide significant hit (Affymetrix id 1:64178756_C_T; P=1.36 × 10(-11)). Linkage disequilibrium score regression and polygenic profile score analyses were used to test for shared genetic aetiology between tiredness and up to 29 physical and mental health traits from GWAS consortia. Significant genetic correlations were identified between tiredness and body mass index (BMI), C-reactive protein, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, forced expiratory volume, grip strength, HbA1c, longevity, obesity, self-rated health, smoking status, triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, waist-hip ratio, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, neuroticism, schizophrenia and verbal-numerical reasoning (absolute rg effect sizes between 0.02 and 0.78). Significant associations were identified between tiredness phenotypic scores and polygenic profile scores for BMI, HDL cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, coronary artery disease, C-reactive protein, HbA1c, height, obesity, smoking status, triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, waist-hip ratio, childhood cognitive ability, neuroticism, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia (standardised β's had absolute values<0.03). These results suggest that tiredness is a partly heritable, heterogeneous and complex phenomenon that is phenotypically and genetically associated with affective, cognitive, personality and physiological processes.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 14 February 2017; doi:10.1038/mp.2017.5.</p
Acute hypoglycemia impairs executive cognitive function in adults with and without type 1 diabetes
No full textOBJECTIVE Acute hypoglycemia impairs cognitive function in several domains. Executive cognitive function governs organization of thoughts, prioritization of tasks, and time management. This study examined the effect of acute hypoglycemia on executive function in adults with and without diabetes.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Thirty-two adults with and without type 1 diabetes with no vascular complications or impaired awareness of hypoglycemia were studied. Two hyperinsulinemic glucose clamps were performed at least 2 weeks apart in a single-blind, counterbalanced order, maintaining blood glucose at 4.5 mmol/L (euglycemia) or 2.5 mmol/L (hypoglycemia). Executive functions were assessed with a validated test suite (Delis-Kaplan Executive Function). A general linear model (repeated-measures ANOVA) was used. Glycemic condition (euglycemia or hypoglycemia) was the within-participant factor. Between-participant factors were order of session (euglycemia-hypoglycemia or hypoglycemia-euglycemia), test battery used, and diabetes status (with or without diabetes).RESULTSCompared with euglycemia, executive functions (with one exception) were significantly impaired during hypoglycemia; lower test scores were recorded with more time required for completion. Large Cohen d values (>0.8) suggest that hypoglycemia induces decrements in aspects of executive function with large effect sizes. In some tests, the performance of participants with diabetes was more impaired than those without diabetes.CONCLUSIONS Executive cognitive function, which is necessary to carry out many everyday activities, is impaired during hypoglycemia in adults with and without type 1 diabetes. This important aspect of cognition has not received previous systematic study with respect to hypoglycemia. The effect size is large in terms of both accuracy and speed.</p
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