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Background: Advances in medicine and public health mean that people are living longer; however, a significant proportion of that increased lifespan is spent in a prolonged state of declining health and wellbeing which places increasing pressure on medical, health and social services. There is a social and economic need to develop strategies to prevent or delay age-related disease and maintain lifelong health. Several studies have suggested links between the gut microbiome and age-related disease, which if confirmed would present a modifiable target for intervention development. The MOTION study aims to determine whether and how changes in the gut microbiome are associated with physical and mental capacity. A comprehensive longitudinal multiparameter study such as this has not been previously undertaken. Methods: MOTION is a longitudinal prospective cohort study with a focus on gut health and cognitive function. 360 healthy individuals aged 60 years and older, living in East Anglia, UK will be recruited to the study, stratified into one of three risk groups (cohorts) for developing dementia based on their cognitive function. Participants will attend study appointments every six months over four years, providing stool and blood samples and a health questionnaire. Participants will also undergo physical measurements and cognitive tests at alternating appointments, and undergo Optical Coherence Tomography scans at 3 timepoints. Two subgroups of participants in the study will provide colonic tissue biopsies (n = ≥30 from each cohort), and brain imaging (n = 30) at two timepoints. Discussion: This study will provide new insights into the gut-(microbiota)-brain axis and the relationship between age-associated changes in gut microbe populations and cognitive health. Such insights could help develop new microbe-based strategies to improve lifelong health and wellbeing. Trial registration: This study is registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov Database with ID: NCT04199195 Registered: May 14, 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Savouring interventions aim to amplify the intensity and duration of positive feelings and positive affect. Research has shown that the potential benefits of savouring include the promotion of psychological well-being and diminution of negative affective states. Savouring strategies may be particularly useful amongst clinical populations in changing biobehavioural processes which can strengthen an individual's propensity to exert control over how to develop, intensify and promote psychological well-being, while simultaneously mitigating negative affective states. This paper outlines a protocol for a systematic review that will be used to identify, critically appraise and synthesise findings of studies examining the effectiveness of savouring interventions in adult clinical populations. Savouring interventions will be defined broadly, operationalised as any savouring strategy focusing on past, present or future events or experiences whereby participants are instructed to attend to and amplify positive affect relating to same. The goal of our review is to include the extent of the literature on this topic and contribute to the overall evidence to support savouring interventions. Methods: This protocol is carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Protocols Guidelines. The protocol has been registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023404857). The databases PsycINFO, PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and Scopus will be searched alongside a search of grey literature. An examination of the first 200 papers on Google Scholar will also be done to identify relevant papers. Studies describing randomised controlled trials evaluating the effects of savouring interventions as described within this article on adult clinical populations will be included in the review. Outcomes will include well-being, quality of life, depression, anxiety or stress. Study selection and data extraction will be completed by three independent reviewers to reduce risk of bias. Interrater percentage agreement and interrater reliability will be reported on same. The quality of studies will be assessed using criteria based on the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias and the Jadad scale. A narrative synthesis with tables of study characteristics will be provided. Separate considerations of the three time perspectives of savouring interventions (past-focused, present-focused, and future-focused) will also be described. Conclusions: This systematic review will provide important clinical insights into the potential efficacy of savouring interventions when working with adult clinical samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Resilience is a process of drawing on internal or external strengths to regain, sustain or improve adaptive outcomes despite adversity. Using a child resilience measure co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, we investigate: 1) children's personal, family, school and community strengths; 2) gender differences; and 3) associations between resilience and wellbeing. Methods: 1132 parent/caregivers of children aged 5–12 years were recruited to the Childhood Resilience Study, including through the Aboriginal Families Study. The Aboriginal Families Study is a population-based cohort of 344 mothers of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander child. This paper focuses on the wave 2 survey data on child resilience at age 5–9 years (n = 231). Resilience was assessed with the Child Resilience Questionnaire-parent/caregiver report (CRQ-P/C), categorised into tertiles of low, moderate and high scores. Child emotional/behavioural wellbeing and mental health competence was assessed with the parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. All Tobit regression models adjusted for child age. Outcomes: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls had higher resilience scores compared to boys (Adj.β = 0·9, 95%CI 0·9–1·4), with higher School Engagement, Friends and Connectedness to language scale scores. Resilience scores were strongly associated with wellbeing and high mental health competence. A higher proportion of girls with low resilience scores had positive wellbeing than did boys (73.3% versus 49.0%). High resilience scores were associated with lower SDQ total difficulties score after adjusting for child age, gender, maternal age and education and family location (major city, regional, remote) (Adj.β = -3.4, 95%CI -5.1, -1.7). Compared to the Childhood Resilience Study sample, Aboriginal Families Study children had higher mean CRQ-P/C scores in the personal and family domains. Interpretation: High family strengths can support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at both an individual and cultural level. Boys may benefit from added scaffolding by schools, family and communities to support their social and academic connectedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses cluster analysis to explore the results of the 2016 National Financial Well-Being survey. Our analysis identifies four groups, two of which have very similar levels of financial well-being but markedly different objective financial situations. These findings indicate there is a systematic bias between financial well-being and objective financial situation. Although it is understood that these two constructs do not evaluate exactly the same thing, the difference in objective financial situation between the two groups suggests that, for large subsets of the American population, these constructs may be more different than the existing literature seems to suggest. This underscores the importance of considering both objective and subjective measures when assessing an individual's overall financial situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health in the UK had deteriorated compared with pre-pandemic trends. Existing studies on heterogenous wellbeing changes associated COVID-19 tend to segment population based on isolated socio-economic and demographic indicators, notably gender, income and ethnicity, while a more holistic and contextual understanding of such heterogeneity among the workforce seems lacking. This study addresses this gap by 1) combining UK time use surveys collected before and during COVID-19, 2) identifying latent lifestyles within three working mode groups (commuter, homeworker and hybrid worker) using latent class model, and 3) quantifying nuanced experiential wellbeing (ExWB) changes across workers of distinct lifestyles. The direction and magnitude of ExWB changes were not uniform across activity types, time of day, and lifestyles. The direction of ExWB change during the daytime activities window varied in accordance with lifestyle classifications. Specifically, ExWB decreased for all homeworkers but increased significantly for certain hybrid workers. Magnitude of ExWB change correlated strongly with lifestyle. To understand the significant heterogeneity in ExWB outcomes, a spatial-temporal conceptualisation of working flexibility is developed to explicate the strong yet complex correlations between wellbeing and lifestyles. The implications to post-pandemic "back-to-work" policies are 1) continued expansion of hybrid working optionality, 2) provide wider support for lifestyle adaptation and transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how artificial-intelligence language analysis can inform understanding of human–nature relationships and other social phenomena. We demonstrate three techniques by investigating relationships within the popular word2vec word embedding, which is trained on a sample from over 50,000 worldwide news sources. Our first technique investigates what theory-generated analogies are most similar to nature:people. The resource:user analogy is most similar, followed by the playground:child and gift:receiver analogies. Our second technique explores whether nature-related words are affiliated with words that denote race, class, or gender. Nature words tend slightly toward associations with femininity and wealth. Our third technique demonstrates how the relationship between nature and wellbeing compares to other concepts' relationships to wellbeing—e.g., spirituality–wellbeing, social relations–wellbeing. Nature is more semantically connected to wellbeing than money, social relations, and multiple other wellbeing correlates. Findings are consistent with previous social science and humanities research on human-nature relationships, but do not duplicate them exactly; our results thus offer insight into dominant trends and prevalence of associations. Our analysis also offers a model for using word embeddings to investigate a wide variety of topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the early 2000s, there have been marked trends in adolescent health and wellbeing indicators across Europe, North America and Australia. In particular, there have been substantial declines in youth drinking. We know little about how these trends are underpinned by co-occurring indicators within individuals. This paper aims to analyse change over time in how indicators cluster within individuals and differences in these patterns between five countries with different trends in youth drinking. Methods: We analysed four waves of repeat cross-sectional survey data from 15-year-olds in England (n = 5942), Italy (n = 5234), the Netherlands (n = 5408), Hungary (n = 5274), and Finland (n = 7446), which were included in the Health Behaviours in School-aged Children (HBSC) study between 2001/02 and 2013/14. We defined clusters of individuals using multigroup latent class analyses which accounts for change over time. The class indicators included health behaviours, attitudes, wellbeing and relationships. We modelled associations between class membership, sex, and family affluence over time. Results: We identified four classes in all countries: Overall unhealthy, Overall healthy, Moderately healthy and Substance abstainers with behaviour risk indicators. The proportion of adolescents in the Overall unhealthy class declined between 2001/02 and 2013/14 by between 22.8 percentage points (pp) in England and 3.2pp in Italy. The extent to which indicators of health and wellbeing changed as linked clusters differed across countries, but changes in alcohol consumption, smoking, drug use and sexual activity were typically concurrent. Adolescents with low family affluence were more likely to be in the Overall unhealthy class in all years. Conclusions: Improvements in indicators of adolescent health and well-being are due mainly to concurrent declines in drinking, smoking, sexual activity, and cannabis use, but these declines are not consistently associated with improvements in other domains. They have also not led to reductions in inequalities in indicators of health and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education and literacy have long been associated with a range of economic and social outcomes in industrialized societies. Recent research based on large-scale national and international surveys has examined effects of education and literacy on individuals' social and economic outcomes. This paper takes a further step in understanding the importance of literacy for individuals' economic and social outcomes by disentangling the effects of two different aspects of literacy, literacy proficiency as measured by standardized tests and reading engagement as measured by self-reports of everyday reading activities. Using recent nationally representative survey data from New Zealand, multivariate regression models estimate the effects of reading engagement on earnings, health, social trust, political efficacy and civic engagement. Reading engagement has statistical and substantial positive effects on each of these outcomes with the effects of literacy proficiency, education and other important variables held constant. Although these results do not imply a causal relationship between reading engagement and the outcomes, they have important implications for policy and practice in adult education as well as for future research about the role of reading engagement in wellbeing more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work demonstrates that people serve themselves greater amounts of food when carrying heavier serving dishes. This effect occurs because increases in carried weight lower consumers' sensitivity to the weight of the food served. Decreased sensitivity to weight of food served in turn leads people to continue serving past the point where they would normally stop. The paper demonstrates this effect across two lab studies involving actual food serving (with a third lab study extending the outcomes to unhealthy food choices reported in the S1 Appendix). The studies also demonstrate liking for the food moderates the effect, such that carrying greater weight leads people to serve an increased amount of liked, but not of less well liked, foods. The findings extend prior research regarding the effects of dish weight on food judgment to provide a first demonstration of effects of weight not only on judgment but on behavior. In this, they help expand our understanding of the ways in which elements in the eating environment effects food consumption. In addition, the studies provide initial evidence for the mechanism behind the phenomenon: reduced sensitivity to weight. The research carries important implications for public well being, given that increases in serving sizes may contribute to obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research has demonstrated that transport infrastructure development can have positive and negative health-related impacts, most of this research has not considered mental health and wellbeing separately from physical health. There is also limited understanding of whether and how any effects might be experienced differently across population groups, whether this differs according to the stage of development (e.g. planning, construction), and how changes to planned infrastructure may affect mental health and wellbeing. This paper presents a protocol for the Wellbeing Impact Study of HS2 (WISH2), which seeks to address these questions using a high-speed rail development in the UK as an applied example. WISH2 is a 10-year, integrated, longitudinal, mixed-methods project using general practices (primary medical care providers in the UK) as an avenue for participant recruitment and for providing a geographically defined population for which aggregated data on mental health indicators are available. The research comprises: (i) a combined longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional cohort study involving multiple waves of survey data collection and data from medical records; (ii) longitudinal, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with residents and community stakeholders from exposed areas; (iii) analysis of administrative data aggregated at the general practice population level; and (iv) health economic analysis of mental health and wellbeing impacts. The study findings will support the development of strategies to reduce negative impacts and/or enhance positive mental health and wellbeing impacts of high-speed rail developments and other large-scale infrastructure projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: UniSA's Invictus Pathways Program (IPP), a service program, was originally developed to assist veterans to train for and participate in the Invictus Games. More recently, the scope of the IPP has widened to support and improve wellbeing and facilitate post traumatic growth and recovery among participants who are living with physical and mental health injuries and conditions. This paper describes the components of the IPP and reports its process evaluation. Methods: Underpinned by a pragmatic approach, data related to participant and student involvement in the IPP, the number of participant training sessions, session attendance, program activities and events, and program fidelity were compiled from process documentation that had been collected between 2017 and 2020, inclusive. Following ethics approval, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants of the IPP, members of their family support network, and university staff to understand the operations of the IPP and satisfaction with the program. Findings: There was high fidelity for the student-led exercise training aspects of IPP; however, data collection relevant to participants' psychological outcomes, and non-training IPP events and activities did not always occur as intended. Between 2017 and 2020, 53 veterans had participated in or were still participating in the IPP, and 63 allied health students had completed placements as student trainers. Fifty-three individual training sessions were delivered in 2017, increasing to 1,024 in 2020. Seventy-one interviews were completed with key IPP stakeholders. The qualitative analysis identified four higher order themes: Implementation and fidelity of the IPP, Satisfaction with the IPP, Areas of the IPP requiring improvement and suggestions for change, and Sustainability of the IPP. Satisfaction was generally high for the IPP, although there were factors that negatively impacted the experience for some participants and their family support network. Suggestions for improvement to program components and delivery aspects were made during the interviews, and the precariousness of IPP funding and sustainability was raised as an ongoing concern. Conclusion: This process evaluation has demonstrated that the physical activity training components of the IPP were delivered with high levels of fidelity, and that satisfaction with the IPP is mostly high, although there are areas that could be improved. There is a need for a more structured approach to the ongoing evaluation of the IPP. This includes ensuring that program staff have a shared understanding of the purpose of evaluation activities and that these activities occur as intended. Beyond this is the need to secure funding to support the sustainability of the IPP, so that it can continue to contribute to the wellbeing of veterans living with physical and mental health conditions, and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although yet to be clearly identified as a clinical condition, there is immense concern at the health and wellbeing consequences of long COVID. Using data collected from nearly half a million Americans in the period June 2022-December 2022 in the US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (HPS), we find 14 percent reported suffering long COVID at some point, half of whom reported it at the time of the survey. Its incidence varies markedly across the United States–from 11 percent in Hawaii to 18 percent in West Virginia–and is higher for women than men, among Whites compared with Blacks and Asians, and declines with rising education and income. It is at its highest in midlife in the same way as negative affect. Ever having had long COVID is strongly associated with negative affect (anxiety, depression, worry and a lack of interest in things), with the correlation being strongest among those who currently report long COVID, especially if they report severe symptoms. In contrast, those who report having had short COVID report higher wellbeing than those who report never having had COVID. Long COVID is also strongly associated with physical mobility problems, and with problems dressing and bathing. It is also associated with mental problems as indicated by recall and understanding difficulties. Again, the associations are strongest among those who currently report long COVID, while those who said they had had short COVID have fewer physical and mental problems than those who report never having had COVID. Vaccination is associated with lower negative affect, including among those who reported having had long COVID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Unmind Index is a 26-item, 7-subscale measure of mental health and wellbeing designed for use on the Unmind digital workplace mental health platform. The Unmind Index was developed and validated in the UK but is used internationally. This paper reports further psychometric validation of this measure for use in USA, Australia, and New Zealand (ANZ). Methods: Participants in four countries completed the Unmind Index and a battery of existing measures. In Study 1 (N = 770), we validated the Unmind Index separately in USA and in ANZ. In Study 2 (N = 600), we used multiple group confirmatory factor analysis to test the measurement invariance of the Unmind Index across the UK, USA, and ANZ. Results: Study 1 establishes the factor structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and measurement invariance by age and gender of the Unmind Index separately for USA and for ANZ. Study 2 further demonstrates measurement invariance across locations, and establishes benchmark scores by location, age, and gender. Conclusions: We conclude that the Unmind Index is valid and reliable as a measure of mental health and wellbeing in these locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the COVID-19 pandemic challenged the general public's health and well-being, it exacerbated the pre-existing well-being issues in the educational sector in many countries. Mindfulness-based interventions are often applied to protect and promote occupational well-being. To investigate how the well-being benefits of these interventions arise, we selected one accessible technique that is used in most of them: focused attention meditation. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, 199 teachers voluntarily practiced five to ten minutes of meditation together with their pupils, every morning for six months. We employed a three-wave longitudinal design to follow any changes in the meditating teachers' well-being and compared these changes to a waitlist control condition of 42 teachers. Three dimensions of well-being were measured at baseline, half-time, and post-intervention: emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being. Latent growth curve models revealed that the meditation technique not only improves well-being but also prevents the development of well-being problems. The practice of focused attention meditation resulted in improvements in emotional and physical well-being and prevented the development of cognitive well-being problems that were observed within the control condition. The effects were strongest for emotional and cognitive well-being and followed a linear trend. This paper shows that the well-being effects of mindfulness-based interventions are at least in part due to the focused attention meditation that is practiced in them. Occupational groups that experience emotional, cognitive, or physical well-being issues can benefit from a few minutes of focused attention meditation per day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What people eat affects public health and human wellbeing, agricultural production, and environmental sustainability. This paper explores the heterogeneity of food consumption patterns in an ecologically and culturally diverse country. Using a latent class approach (which creates clusters of individuals with homogeneous characteristics), we analyse a food questionnaire (from the National Health and Nutrition Survey) applied across Mexico. We identify four clusters of food consumption (staple, prudent, high meat and low fruit) and find that belonging to these clusters is determined by socioeconomic, demographic (age, sex) and geographic (region, urban/rural) characteristics. Maize and pulses tend to constitute a larger proportion of the diet of poor, rural populations living in the south, while urban populations eat more varied foods, including ingredients whose production systems tend to exert more pressure on natural resources (for instance, meat). Despite the importance given in the literature to the Mexican gastronomy and its diverse traditional regional diets, we find that only 6% of the population adopts a food consumption pattern resembling the traditional Mexican diet. Instead, most of the Mexican population has a food consumption pattern resembling a western diet, which is problematic in terms of public health and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Menopause and the changes it brings to a woman's life necessitate a comprehensive approach to face and experience the transition. This paper aims at synthesizing results from qualitative studies of menopausal experiences among Chinese and other women of similar ethnicity and culture. Design and method: A comprehensive search strategy of multiple databases along with bibliographic hand searches was employed to identify qualitative studies published in English peer-reviewed journals between 2008 and 2022 focused on the menopausal experiences (peri and post-menopause) of Chinese and other women of similar ethnic backgrounds. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. The final sample consisted of 238 women aged between 40 to 60 years who had experienced menopausal symptoms. This qualitative systematic literature review adopted Noblit and Hare's seven-stage theoretical meta-ethnographic approach to construct an inductive and interpretive form of synthesis and subsequent analysis. Syntheses of findings: The synthesis of primary data identified four key concepts that entitle women's menopausal experiences: being menopausal, ramifications on well-being, family and social support around menopause, and healthcare throughout menopause. The subsequent second-order interpretation revealed that women accepted the inevitability of the natural aging process in the decline of sexual drive, reinvented relationships with partners, and expressed the significance of a supportive environment in order to successfully navigate the transition. Third-order interpretations sought to establish a link between physiological complications, loss of femininity, patriarchal-dominated societal norms, and a support system that spans the entire menopause experience. Healthcare's contribution has also been deemed to be insufficient due to a lack of information and empathy from health experts. Negligence or reluctance to seek healthcare and skepticism toward hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had also been a source of concern, as they have had the potential to exacerbate medical difficulties and emotional turmoil. Conclusions and implications for practice: A comprehensive approach that considers women's physiological and psychological well-being and major attempts to change cultural beliefs and norms about women's sexual health may be effective in aiding menopausal women during their transition. Additionally, appropriate guidelines and management should be in place to enable women to address menopause difficulties effectively with the assistance of healthcare experts and the support of their families and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaching population-level impact for families in poverty requires moving beyond a sole focus on individuals, to a wider focus on interactions between individuals and their broader environmental contexts. Place-based initiatives have emerged as a policy response to promote community-level change around these broader interactions between individuals and their local communities through addressing long-standing disparities in housing, employment, education, and health. Together Growing Strong (TGS) is one such place-based initiative focused on transforming the health, wellbeing, and development of young children and their families in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The Children, Caregivers, and Community (C3) Study is an outcomes-based study designed to assess the trajectories of children and families in Sunset Park along indicators such as family health and wellbeing and child development in relation to TGS program participation. The aims, scope, and protocol of the C3 Study are the subjects of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism industry is the first of the five happiness industries, playing a crucial role in enhancing people's well-being and happiness. Its high-quality development cannot be achieved without the use of emerging technologies, and today people have greatly improved the quality and happiness of tourism through smartphones, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technologies. Building smart marine tourism also requires widespread use of smart tourism technology. The study aims to examine the implications of perceived smart tourism technologies for tourist well-being in marine tourism, as well as the mediating role memorable tourism experiences play. We collected 445 valid questionnaires through a combination of offline and online methods and developed a theoretical model based on the results. The SPSS 26 statistical software package and Amos were applied in data analysis. There is a significant positive impact of perceived smart tourism technology on both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being of tourists in marine tourism, which is partially mediated by memorable tourism experiences. This paper provides certain suggestions and insights into the construction of smart marine tourism, so that managers can pay more attention to the experience and well-being of tourists and build a humanized, diversified, intelligent and innovative marine tourism. For smart tourism technology suppliers, it can provide them with new ideas for technological improvement, so that they can provide better services and attract more tourists in a market-oriented environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: It is well established that the actions and behaviour of dementia care workers are fundamental to the wellbeing of the people they care for. Not only do they deal with basic healthcare needs, but they also perform a vital psycho-social function by providing–through their regular presence–an underlying continuity for residents. This has been shown to improve well-being, particularly for those in the advanced stages of dementia. It has also been suggested that there are additional psycho-social benefits of such contact which can directly influence the need for anti-psychotic medication. However, unlike most other healthcare and medical settings, the specialised and often difficult interactions that dementia care workers handle every day have not yet been the subject of detailed micro-level analysis. This is particularly significant because much of the impact that care-workers have relates to the way in which they interact with the people they care for. Not having a clear understanding of how their interactions 'work' at the micro-level–particularly ones that are specific to dementia care settings, and that care workers report to be difficult or challenging–means that any training interventions that are developed may not resonate with their real-world experience, and ultimately run the risk of failing. This video-based observational study aims to provide a detailed micro-exploration of problematic and challenging interactions involving care-workers and people living with dementia. Setting and methods: The study is based in the UK and will involve up to 20 dementia care staff and 60 people living with dementia. Fieldwork will be conducted in 5 dementia care home and community-based dementia day care settings using naturalistic observational methods (primarily video-ethnography). Data will be analysed using Conversation Analysis (CA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Humanitarian crises and disasters affect millions of people worldwide. Humanitarian aid workers are civilians or professionals who respond to disasters and provide humanitarian assistance. In doing so, they face several stressors and traumatic exposures. Humanitarian aid workers also face unique challenges associated with working in unfamiliar settings. Objective: To determine the occurrence of and factors associated with mental ill-health among humanitarian aid workers. Search strategy: CINAHL plus, Cochrane library, Global Health, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science were searched from 2005–2020. Grey literature was searched on Google Scholar. Selection criteria: PRISMA guidelines were followed and after double screening, studies reporting occurrence of mental ill-health were included. Individual narratives and case studies were excluded, as were studies that reported outcomes in non-humanitarian aid workers. Data analysis: Data on occurrence of mental ill-health and associated factors were independently extracted and combined in a narrative summary. A random effects logistic regression model was used for the meta-analysis. Main results: Nine studies were included with a total of 3619 participants, reporting on five types of mental ill-health (% occurrence) including psychological distress (6.5%-52.8%); burnout (8.5%-32%); anxiety (3.8%-38.5%); depression (10.4%-39.0%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (0% to 25%). Hazardous drinking of alcohol ranged from 16.2%-50.0%. Meta-analysis reporting OR (95% CI) among humanitarian aid workers, for psychological distress was 0.45 (0.12–1.64); burnout 0.34 (0.27–0.44); anxiety 0.22 (0.10–0.51); depression 0.32 (0.18–0.57) and PTSD 0.11 (0.03–0.39). Associated factors included young age, being female and pre-existing mental ill-health. Conclusions: Mental ill-health is common among humanitarian aid workers, has a negative impact on personal well-being, and on a larger scale reduces the efficacy of humanitarian organisations with delivery of aid and retention of staff. It is imperative that mental ill-health is screened for, detected and treated in humanitarian aid workers, before, during and after their placements. It is essential to implement psychologically protective measures for individuals working in stressful and traumatic crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused tremendous loss of life and health but has also greatly disrupted the world economy. The impact of this disruption has been especially harsh in urban settings of developing countries. We estimated the impact of the pandemic on the occurrence of food insecurity in a cohort of women living in Mexico City, and the socioeconomic characteristics associated with food insecurity severity. Methods: We analyzed data longitudinally from 685 women in the Mexico City-based ELEMENT cohort. Food insecurity at the household level was gathered using the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale and measured in-person during 2015 to 2019 before the pandemic and by telephone during 2020–2021, in the midst of the pandemic. Fluctuations in the average of food insecurity as a function of calendar time were modeled using kernel-weighted local polynomial regression. Fixed and random-effects ordinal logistic regression models of food insecurity were fitted, with timing of data collection (pre-pandemic vs. during pandemic) as the main predictor. Results: Food insecurity (at any level) increased from 41.6% during the pre-pandemic period to 53.8% in the pandemic stage. This increase was higher in the combined severe-moderate food insecurity levels: from 1.6% pre-pandemic to 16.8% during the pandemic. The odds of severe food insecurity were 3.4 times higher during the pandemic relative to pre-pandemic levels (p<0.01). Socioeconomic status quintile (Q) was significantly related to food insecurity (Q2 OR = 0.35 p<0.1, Q3 OR = 0.48 p = 0.014, Q4 OR = 0.24 p<0.01, and Q5 OR = 0.17 p<0.01), as well as lack of access to social security (OR = 1.69, p = 0.01), and schooling (OR = 0.37, p<0.01). Conclusions: Food insecurity increased in Mexico City households in the ELEMENT cohort as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results contribute to the body of evidence suggesting that governments should implement well-designed, focalized programs in the context of economic crisis such as the one caused by COVID-19 to prevent families from the expected adverse health and well-being consequences associated to food insecurity, especially for the most vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pursuing wellbeing is an essential part of human life and plays a determining role in public health and social sustainability. Prior research identified objective socioeconomic status (O-SES), such as real income and homeownership, as facilitators of human subjective wellbeing (SWB). However, not all humans with better SES reported high SWB. This paper expects that subjective socioeconomic status (S-SES) is the key path through which O-SES shapes SWB and that this indirect relationship varies by household registration status, length of residentship, and type of migrant status. Based on a national representative survey dataset-China General Social Survey 2010 (CGSS), the results of generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) show that household income and homeownership as O-SES are positively related to SWB. Self-evaluated household SES as an important indicator of S-SES not only has a positive relationship with SWB but also significantly mediates the relationship between O-SES and SWB, especially for the new-local residents (NLRs), urban-to-urban migrants (UUMs) and rural-to-urban migrants (RUMs). This study has substantial implications for targeting the comparative psychology and sustainable productivity of Chinese migrants and the local labor force since it is currently facing a growing aging society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every day lawyers provide counsel and advocacy to individuals, groups, and businesses in a multitude of settings. From court room to board room, attorneys are relied upon to guide their clients through difficult situations. In doing this, attorneys all too often internalize the stresses of those that they help. The legal system has long been considered a stressful occupation. This stressful environment was further taxed by the wider societal disruptions in 2020 as we dealt with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the illness itself, the pandemic forced widespread court closures and made it more difficult to communicate with clients. Based upon a survey of the membership of the Kentucky Bar Association, this paper considers the impact of the pandemic on attorney wellness in a variety of categories. These results demonstrated marked negative impacts on a variety of wellness measures which may result in significant reductions in service provision and efficacy for the people who need legal services. The pandemic made the practice of law harder and more stressful. Attorneys suffered increased incidence of substance abuse, alcohol consumption, and stress during the pandemic. These results were generally worse among those practicing in the areas of criminal law. In light of these adverse psychological effects facing attorneys, the authors argue the need for increased mental health support resources for attorneys, as well as establishing clear steps to raise awareness among the legal community about the importance of mental health and personal wellness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor employee mental health and wellbeing are highly prevalent and costly. Time-related factors such as work intensification and perceptions of time poverty or pressure pose risks to employee health and wellbeing. While reviews suggest that there are positive associations between time management behavior and wellbeing, there is limited rigorous and systematic research examining the effectiveness of time management interventions on wellbeing in the workplace. A thorough review is needed to synthesize time management interventions and their effectiveness to promote employee mental health and wellbeing. Method: A systematic search will be conducted using the following databases: PsychINFO via OVID (1806-Present), Web of Science, Scopus via Elsevier (1976-Present), Academic Search Complete (EBSCO), Cochrane Library via Wiley (1992-Present), and MEDLINE via OVID (1946-Present). The review will include experimental and quasi-experimental studies that evaluate the effects of time management interventions on wellbeing outcomes on healthy adults in a workplace context. Only studies in English will be included. Two authors will independently perform the literature search, record screening, data extraction, and quality assessment of each study included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Data will be critically appraised using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tools. Depending on the data, a meta-analysis or a narrative synthesis will be conducted. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed in the development of this protocol. The protocol has been registered in PROSPERO (CRD4202125715). Discussion: This review will provide systematic evidence on the effects of time management interventions on wellbeing outcomes in the workplace. It will contribute to our understanding of how time management approaches may help to address growing concerns for employee mental health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within non-clinical samples the relationship between paranormal belief (PB) and well-being varies as a function of level of psychopathology. Accordingly, believers are best conceptualised as a heterogeneous set of sub-groups. The usefulness of previous findings has been restricted by conceptual methodological limitations. Specifically, overreliance on cross-sectional design, the assumption that believers constitute a homogeneous group, and consideration of direct effects. Acknowledging these limitations, the present study investigated whether profile membership derived from PB and psychopathology (schizotypy and manic-depressive experience) predicted well-being (i.e., stress, somatic complaints, life satisfaction and meaning in life) across time. Concurrently, analysis assessed the mediating effect of theoretically important variables (transliminality, happiness orientation, fearful and skeptical attitude). A sample of 1736 (Mage = 52, range = 18 to 88; 883 females, 845 males, eight non-binary) completed self-report measures indexing study constructs across time points. Latent profile analysis at baseline, identified three sub-groups varying in level of PB and psychopathology at baseline: Profile 1, moderate PB and high psychopathology; Profile 2, moderate PB and psychopathology; and Profile 3, moderate PB and low psychopathology. Path analysis demonstrated that Profile 1 (the highest psychopathology scoring profile) predicted higher negative and lower positive well-being over time in comparison with the other profiles. Moreover, Transliminality and Fearful Attitude positively mediated this relationship, whereas Skeptical Attitude produced negative mediation. These outcomes supported the presence of a sophisticated process underpinning the PB and well-being relationship. Overall, PB in the absence of psychopathology had no significant influence on well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, a growing body of evidence has emerged regarding the positive impact of boardgames in promoting life skills and well-being in various settings including health, education, and military schooling. However, the use of boardgames with inmates for cultural and educational purposes is still an unexplored and fragmented area of research. Incorporating boardgames into correctional settings can be a complex challenge for correctional stakeholders who seek to identify innovative tools to enhance inmate education and promote integration into society after incarceration. This article outlines our scoping review protocol designed to map and evaluate published and grey literature on the motivational, psychological, and pedagogical considerations involved in the design and use of boardgames as an innovative approach to promoting life skills and well-being among inmates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research demonstrates the potential of mindfulness to reduce employee stress. However, with work increasingly migrating from the physical to the digital workplace, evidence is lacking on how mindfulness might help employees live healthy digital working lives. In addition, employees' confidence when using the digital workplace is seen as important for productivity but may also play a role in reducing well-being impacts from digital working. Using the Job-Demands Resources model as a theoretical foundation, 142 workers were surveyed regarding their levels of trait mindfulness and digital workplace confidence, along with their experiences of the dark side effects (stress, overload, anxiety, Fear of Missing Out and addiction) and well-being outcomes (burnout and health). 14 workers were also interviewed to provide qualitative insights on these constructs. Results from regression analyses indicated that more digitally confident workers were less likely to experience digital workplace anxiety, while those with higher mindfulness were better protected against all of the dark side of digital working effects. Interview data indicated ways in which digital mindfulness helps protect well-being, as well as how digital workplace confidence enables healthier digital habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings account for approximately 40% of the energy consumption across the European Union, so there is a requirement to strive for better energy performance to reduce the global impact of urbanised societies. However, energy performant buildings can negatively impact building occupants (e.g., comfort, health and/or wellbeing) due to a trade-off between airtightness and air circulation. Thus, there is a need to monitor Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) to inform how it impacts occupants and hence redefine value within building performance metrics. An individualised study design would enable researchers to gain new insights into the effects of environmental changes on individuals for more targeted e.g., health interventions or nuanced and improved building design(s). This paper presents a protocol to conduct longitudinal monitoring of an individual and their immediate environment. Additionally, a novel approach to environmental perception gathering is proposed that will monitor environmental factors at an individual level to investigate subjective survey data pertaining to the participant's perceptions of IEQ (e.g., perceived air quality, thermal conditions, light, and noise). This protocol has the potential to expose time-differential phenomena between environmental changes and an individual's behavioural and physiological responses. This could be used to support building performance monitoring by providing an interventional assessment of building performance renovations. In the future it could also provide building scientists with a scalable approach for environmental monitoring that focuses specifically on individual health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurse, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), along with other health and social care colleagues are the backbone of healthcare services. They have played a key role in responding to the increased demands on healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper compares cross-sectional data on quality of working life, wellbeing, coping and burnout of nurses, midwives and AHPs in the United Kingdom (UK) at two time points during the COVID-19 pandemic. An anonymous online repeated cross-sectional survey was conducted at two timepoints, Phase 1 (7th May 2020-3rd July 2020); Phase 2 (17th November 2020-1st February 2021). The survey consisted of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, the Work-Related Quality of Life Scale, and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (Phase 2 only) to measure wellbeing, quality of working life and burnout. The Brief COPE scale and Strategies for Coping with Work and Family Stressors scale assessed coping strategies. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions examined the effects of coping strategies and demographic and work-related variables on wellbeing and quality of working life. A total of 1839 nurses, midwives and AHPs responded to the first or second survey, with a final sample of 1410 respondents -586 from Phase 1; 824 from Phase 2, (422 nurses, 192 midwives and 796 AHPs). Wellbeing and quality of working life scores were significantly lower in the Phase 2 sample compared to respondents in Phase 1 (p<0.001). The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on psychological wellbeing and quality of working life which decreased while the use of negative coping and burnout of these healthcare professionals increased. Health services are now trying to respond to the needs of patients with COVID-19 variants while rebuilding services and tackling the backlog of normal care provision. This workforce would benefit from additional support/services to prevent further deterioration in mental health and wellbeing and optimise workforce retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper's aim is to propose a mediation framework and test whether lifestyle choices and social capital are pathways through which locus of control (LoC) affects subjective well-being. Using longitudinal data for Australia, we find that life satisfaction and mental health are explained by direct and indirect effects of LoC. The direct effect is positive, indicating that individuals with an internal LoC have higher levels of life satisfaction and mental health. We also show that physical activity and social interaction are two pathways linking an internal LoC to higher levels of well-being. Our findings provide new insights into the relationship between LoC and subjective well-being and suggest that, if the aim of policy is to improve well-being, the focus should be on enabling people to develop an internal LoC. This may lead to higher well-being both through the identified channels and, more importantly, through the direct channel of LoC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place-based arts initiatives are regarded as rooted in local need and as having capacity to engage local assets. However, many place-based arts initiatives remain poorly funded and short-lived, receiving little attention on how to scale up and sustain their activities. In this study we make a unique contribution to knowledge about scaling up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing through focusing on the example of 'Arts for the Blues', an arts-based psychological group intervention designed to reduce depression and improve wellbeing amongst primary care mental health service users in deprived communities. Methodologically, we used realist evaluation to refine the study's theoretical assumptions about scaling up, drawing on the lived and professional experiences of 225 diverse stakeholders' and frontline staff through a series of focus groups and evaluation questions at two stakeholders' events and four training days. Based on our findings, we recommend that to scale up place-based arts initiatives which support mental health and wellbeing: (i) the initiative needs to be adaptable, clear, collaborative, evidence-based, personalised and transformative; (ii) the organisation has to have a relevant need, have an understanding of the arts, has to have resources, inspiration and commitment from staff members, relevant skillsets and help from outside the organisation; (iii) at a policy level it is important to pay attention to attitude shifts towards the arts, meet rules, guidelines and standards expected from services, highlight gaps in provision, seek out early intervention and treatment options, and consider service delivery changes. The presence of champions at a local level and buy-in from managers, local leaders and policy makers are also needed alongside actively seeking to implement arts initiatives in different settings across geographical spread. Our theoretically-based and experientially-refined study provides the first ever scaling up framework developed for place-based arts initiatives that support the mental health and wellbeing, offering opportunities for spread and adoption of such projects in different organisational contexts, locally, nationally and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of financial wellbeing is a current concern within the realm of personal and household finance. This study aims to examine the influence of cognitive factors, specifically financial literacy, mental budgeting, and self-control, on subjective financial wellbeing. While there exist multiple determinants of financial wellbeing, this research focuses on these particular cognitive factors. The present study aims to examine the mediating role of investment decision-making behavior in the association between cognitive factors and financial well-being. The study employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data collected from a sample of 449 Chinese university students, with the aim of assessing the empirical associations. The results indicate that financial literacy, mental budgeting, and self-control exert a favorable and noteworthy influence on an individual's financial well-being. The results indicate that individuals with a greater degree of financial literacy are more prone to achieving superior financial well-being. Moreover, individuals who practice mental budgeting, a technique that entails mentally classifying and monitoring their expenditures, demonstrate elevated levels of financial well-being. Likewise, the exercise of self-regulation is identified as a pivotal element that impacts an individual's financial wellbeing. The findings indicate that there is evidence to support the mediator, investment decision-making behavior. This mediator partially mediates the association between the independent variables, namely financial literacy, mental budgeting, and self-control, and financial well-being. The results suggest that individuals with elevated levels of financial literacy, proficient mental budgeting skills, and self-regulatory abilities are inclined towards demonstrating favorable investment decision-making conduct. Consequently, this contributes to their general financial welfare. In general, the study's theoretical implications augment the current knowledge repository, while its practical implications provide feasible perspectives for policymakers, financial institutions, and individuals to foster financial wellness and enhance financial results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing recognition that young people should be given opportunities to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, such as advisory groups, representative councils, advocacy or activism. Positive youth development theory and sociopolitical development theory propose pathways through which youth participation can influence mental health and wellbeing outcomes. However, there is limited empirical research synthesising the impact of participation on youth mental health and/or wellbeing, or the characteristics of activities that are associated with better or worse mental health and/or wellbeing outcomes. This scoping review seeks to address this gap by investigating the scope and nature of evidence detailing how youth participation initiatives can influence mental health and/or wellbeing outcomes for participants. To be eligible, literature must describe youth (aged 15–24) in participation activities and the impact of this engagement on participant mental health and/or wellbeing outcomes. A systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature will be conducted using Scopus, PsycINFO, Embase, Medline and grey literature databases. The scoping review will apply established methodology by Arksey and O'Malley, Levac and colleagues and the Joanna Briggs Institute. Title, abstract, and full text screening will be completed by two reviewers, data will be extracted by one reviewer. Findings will be reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), including a qualitative summary of the characteristics of youth participation and their influence on youth mental health outcomes. Youth advisory group members will be invited to deliver governance on the project from the outset; participate in, and contribute to, all stages of the review process; reflect on their own experiences of participation; and co-author the resulting publication. This scoping review will provide essential knowledge on how participation activities can be better designed to maximise beneficial psychosocial outcomes for involved youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the influence of community capitals on well-being through a Community Capital Index (CCI) within coffee-growing families in southern Colombia. Our results show different farm typologies, with different levels of capital endowment translated into well-being that, in our case, were represented in the CCI. Specifically, social and political capitals positively affect coffee-growing families' decisions in terms of life strategies. The results of this study increase our understanding of welfare enhancement and its relationship with capital endowment according to the type of coffee producer, having implications for the planning of more effective programs towards the improvement of quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is about managing human behaviours, but decision-making processes have traditionally focussed on ecological aspects, treating social aspects as secondary. It is now becoming more evident that an equal focus on the ecological and social aspects is required. Without the collection of information about social aspect such as impacts and sharing this as well as ecological information with communities, MPAs are at higher risk of opposition and social acceptability problems. This paper explores the development of a wellbeing framework to understand the social aspects, including the impacts of MPAs on the wellbeing of local communities. This research investigates two case study MPAs: Cape Byron and Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Parks in New South Wales, Australia. The MPAs are multiple-use and were implemented in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The research began with a review of the literature, followed by fieldwork, including semi-structured qualitative interviews with community members. Through thematic coding of the interview transcripts in light of the literature on assessing the social impacts of MPAs, a community wellbeing framework of domains and associated attributes was developed to investigate social impacts. Our analysis shows; first, local perspectives are crucial to understanding social impacts. Second, understanding social impacts gives insight into the nature of trade-offs that occur in decision-making regarding MPAs. Third, the intangible social impacts experienced by local communities are just as significant as the tangible ones for understanding how MPAs operate. Fourth, governance impacts have been the most influential factor affecting the social acceptability of the case study parks. We argue that failure to address negative social impacts can undermine the legitimacy of MPAs. We propose that the framework will support policymakers to work towards more effective, equitable and socially sustainable MPAs by employing much-needed monitoring of human dimensions of conservation interventions at the community level to shape adaptive management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals call for the end of poverty and the equitable provision of healthcare. These goals are often at odds, however: health seeking can lead to catastrophic spending, an outcome for which cancer patients and the poor in resource-limited settings are at particularly high risk. How various health policies affect the additional aims of financial wellbeing and equity is poorly understood. This paper evaluates the health, financial, and equity impacts of governmental and charitable policies for surgical oncology in a resource-limited setting. Methods: Three charitable platforms for surgical oncology delivery in Uganda were compared to six governmental policies aimed at improving healthcare access. An extended cost-effectiveness analysis using an agent-based simulation model examined the numbers of lives saved, catastrophic expenditure averted, impoverishment averted, costs, and the distribution of benefits across the wealth spectrum. Findings: Of the nine policies and platforms evaluated, two were able to provide simultaneous health and financial benefits efficiently and equitably: mobile surgical units and governmental policies that simultaneously address surgical scaleup, the cost of surgery, and the cost of transportation. Policies that only remove user fees are dominated, as is the commonly employed short-term “surgical mission trip”. These results are robust to scenario and sensitivity analyses. Interpretation: The most common platforms for increasing access to surgical care appear unable to provide health and financial risk protection equitably. On the other hand, mobile surgical units, to date an underutilized delivery platform, are able to deliver surgical oncology in a manner that meets sustainable development goals by improving health, financial solvency, and equity. These platforms compare favorably with policies that holistically address surgical delivery and should be considered as countries strengthen health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the impacts of infrastructure service disruptions on the well-being of vulnerable populations during disasters. There are limited studies that empirically evaluate the extent to which disruptions in infrastructure system services impact subpopulation groups differently and how these impacts relate to the wellbeing of households. Being able to systematically capture the differential experiences of sub-populations in a community due to infrastructure disruptions is necessary to highlight the differential needs and inequities that households have. In order to address this knowledge gap, this study derives an empirical relationship between sociodemographic factors of households and their subjective well-being impacts due to disruptions in various infrastructure services during and immediately after Hurricane Harvey. Statistical analysis driven by spearman-rank order correlations and fisher-z tests indicated significant disparities in well-being due to service disruptions among vulnerable population groups. The characterization of subjective well-being is used to explain to what extent infrastructure service disruptions influence different subpopulations. The results show that: (1) disruptions in transportation, solid waste, food, and water infrastructure services resulted in more significant well-being impact disparities as compared to electricity and communication services; (2) households identifying as Black and African American experienced well-being impact due to disruptions in food, transportation, and solid waste services; and (3) households were more likely to feel helpless, difficulty doing daily tasks and feeling distance from their community as a result of service disruptions. The findings present novel insights into understanding the role of infrastructure resilience in household well-being and highlights why it is so important to use approaches that consider various factors. Infrastructure resilience models tend to be monolithic. The results provide empirical and quantitative evidence of the inequalities in well-being impacts across various sub-populations. The research approach and findings enable a paradigm shift towards a more human-centric approach to infrastructure resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare autosomal recessive disease with low prevalence in pediatrics. Health studies have not sufficiently analyzed the role of psychological variables in rare diseases such as PCD. This paper studies the psychological characteristics of a group of pediatric patients diagnosed with PCD compared to their healthy peers. The sample consisted of 48 preadolescents-adolescents, aged 9–18 years (M = 12.96; SD = 2.71), with similar distribution by sex, and 25% of the patients having dyskinesia. Clinical anxiety-depression, self-esteem and psychological well-being were evaluated using questionnaires: the Adolescent Psychological Well-being Scale (BIEPS-J), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE). Data were analysed using descriptive, mean comparison (t-test) and diffuse comparative qualitative analysis (QCA). The results show no differences were found between healthy and PCD patients in the variables analyzed, except for social ties showing the latter greater well-being in this aspect. In QCA models, the variables that best explained the high or low levels of well-being were depression and self-esteem, and primary ciliary dyskinesia was not a necessary condition for presenting low levels of well-being. In conclusion, our results highlight the need to explore psychological aspects in pediatric patients with rare diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper identifies predictors of recovery trajectories of quality of life (QoL), health status and personal wellbeing in the two years following colorectal cancer surgery. Methods: 872 adults receiving curative intent surgery during November 2010 to March 2012. Questionnaires at baseline, 3, 9, 15, 24 months post-surgery assessed QoL, health status, wellbeing, confidence to manage illness-related problems (self-efficacy), social support, co-morbidities, socio-demographic, clinical and treatment characteristics. Group-based trajectory analyses identified distinct trajectories and predictors for QoL, health status and wellbeing. Results: Four recovery trajectories were identified for each outcome. Groups 1 and 2 fared consistently well (scores above/within normal range); 70.5% of participants for QoL, 33.3% health status, 77.6% wellbeing. Group 3 had some problems (24.2% QoL, 59.3% health, 18.2% wellbeing); Group 4 fared consistently poorly (5.3% QoL, 7.4% health, 4.2% wellbeing). Higher pre-surgery depression and lower self-efficacy were significantly associated with poorer trajectories for all three outcomes after adjusting for other important predictors including disease characteristics, stoma, anxiety and social support. Conclusions: Psychosocial factors including self-efficacy and depression before surgery predict recovery trajectories in QoL, health status and wellbeing following colorectal cancer treatment independent of treatment or disease characteristics. This has significant implications for colorectal cancer management as appropriate support may be improved by early intervention resulting in more positive recovery experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The capacity of higher education students to comprehend and act on health information is a pivotal factor in attaining favourable health outcomes and well-being. Assessing the health literacy of these students is essential in order to develop targeted interventions and provide informed health support. The aim of this study was to identify the level of health literacy and to analyse its relationship with determinants such as socio-demographic variables, chronic disease, perceived health status, and perceived availability of money for expenses among higher education students in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal. Methodology: An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between 22 June and 12 September 2023. An online structured questionnaire consisting of the Portuguese version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire—16 items (HLS-EU-PT-Q16), including socio-demographic data, presence of chronic diseases, perceived health status, and availability of money for expenses. Data were analysed using independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, post-hoc Gabriel's test, and multivariate logistic regression analyses at a significance level of 0.05. Regression models were used to investigate the relationship between health literacy and various determinants. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Évora, and all participants gave written informed consent. Results: Analysis of the HLS-EU-PT-Q16 showed that 82.3% of the 1228 students sampled had limited health literacy. The mean health literacy score was 19.3 ± 12.8 on a scale of 0 to 50, with subscores of 19.4 ± 13.9 for health care, 19.1 ± 13.1 for disease prevention, and 19.0 ± 13.7 for health promotion. Significant associations were found between health literacy and several determinants. Higher health literacy was associated with the absence of chronic diseases. Regression analysis showed that lower health literacy was associated with not attending health-related courses, not living with a health professional, perceiving limited availability of money for expenses, and having an unsatisfactory health status. Conclusion: This study improves the understanding of health literacy levels among higher education students in Alentejo, Portugal, and identifies key determinants. Higher education students in this region had relatively low levels of health literacy, which may have a negative impact on their health outcomes. These findings highlight the need for interventions to improve health literacy among higher education students and to address the specific needs of high-risk subgroups in the Alentejo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) affects nearly half of infants. Parents play a crucial role in management but more understanding of their attitudes and experiences is needed to inform future education, support and research. This study aims to explore parental experiences, attitudes and understanding of the symptoms, diagnosis and management of infant GOR. Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews with 9 parents of infants with GOR in the UK, analysed by thematic analysis. Results: 8 participants were mothers and median age was 34 years. Over half identified as White ethnicity. Parents described that GOR can affect all aspects of life, including mental wellbeing and bonding with their baby. Medications are time-consuming to prepare and can cause challenging side effects such as constipation. It is crucial that health professionals manage parental expectations in that treatments are not curative and symptoms do not last forever. Attitudes about healthcare professionals varied: some were perceived as dismissive, whilst some showed understanding. There were differences depending on whether the child was a first or second born child, with more understanding shown where the child was not the parents' first born. Parents felt more education could be beneficial for parents and clinicians. Conclusions: Infant GOR can affect infants and parents in a variety of ways, impacting both physical and mental health. Parents play a vital role in the management of infant reflux, but there is lack of consistency of information and levels of knowledge among healthcare professionals vary. More education could be beneficial, and further research is needed into health professionals' perceptions and fathers' experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: The public health workforce faces a wide range of challenges related to people's health. Thus, they need a combination of different professional skills and competencies to perform essential public health operations and provide services to people. The present study was conducted to determine the competencies needed for the public health workforce to implement health transformation plan programs at Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences in the capital of Khuzestan province in Iran. Methods: This research was a descriptive cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2020 among 51 managers and experts of the health deputy and faculty members of the public health school. STROBE guideline was used for the present study. The research tools were two researcher-made questionnaires based on the chain of Programs, Operations, and Competencies (POC). Additionally, the validity and reliability of the questionnaires were checked. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was equal to 0.87 for the first questionnaire (programs-operations) and 0.85 for the second questionnaire (operations-competencies). Results: The operations of surveillance of population health and well-being, monitoring and responding to health hazards and emergencies, and disease prevention, including early detection of illness, obtained the highest mean total score (3.9 (95% CI: 3.6 to 4.2)). Respect for and adherence to ethical principles and confidentiality in any professional activity obtained the highest mean total score (4.0 (95% CI: 3.7 to 4.3)) among the needed competencies. Conclusion: To properly implement public health programs, managers must plan and take necessary measures to improve such operations as surveillance of population health and well-being, monitoring and responding to health hazards and emergencies, disease prevention (including early detection of illness), and promotion of the workforce competencies in the field of respect for and adherence to ethical principles and confidentiality in any professional activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the association between migration and deteriorated refugee mental health is well-documented, existing research overwhelmingly centers on adult populations, leaving a discernible gap in our understanding of the factors influencing mental health for forcibly displaced children. This focus is particularly noteworthy considering the estimated 43.3 million children who are forcibly displaced globally. Little is known regarding the association between family processes, parental and child wellbeing for this population. This study addresses these gaps by examining the relationship between parental mental health and child mental health among refugees experiencing transmigration. We conducted in-person structured survey interviews with 120 parent-adolescent dyads living in the Trichy refugee camp in Tamil Nadu, India. Descriptive, multivariate analysis (hierarchical regression), and Machine Learning Algorithm (XGBOOST) were conducted to determine the best predictors and their importance for child depressive symptoms. The results confirm parental mental health and child behavioral and emotional factors are significant predictors of child depressive symptoms. While our linear model did not reveal a statistically significant association between child mental health and family functioning, results from XGBOOST highlight the substantial importance of family functioning in contributing to child depressive symptoms. The study's findings amplify the critical need for mental health resources for both parents and children, as well as parenting interventions inside refugee camps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human well-being and functioning depend on two fundamental mental states: Relaxation and sleepiness. Relaxation and sleepiness are both assumed to be states of low physiological arousal and negatively correlated. However, it is still unclear how consistent this negative relationship is across different settings and whether it changes before and after an intervention. Here we investigated this intricate relationship between subjective momentary sleepiness and relaxation states by meta-analytically analyzing several data sets from studies using the Relaxation State Questionnaire. We discovered that subjective sleepiness and relaxation were in fact anti-correlated pre-intervention. This anti-correlation provides a quantitative dissociation between sleepiness and relaxation. Thus, even though sleepiness and relaxation both implicate a low arousal level, the two mental states are subjectively experienced in a qualitatively different fashion, and thus reflect distinct underlying constructs. For the post-intervention relationship, this negative correlation could not be consistently found. This indicates that there are aspects of the experimental setting or intervention that introduce changes in the dynamics of the relationship of the two constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Routine health check-ups may improve adolescent health, but global guidelines are lacking. Phase 1 of the WHO-coordinated Y-Check Research Programme involved three African cities to co-produce a programme of adolescent health check-ups. We describe a systematic approach to developing a routine adolescent health check-ups and wellbeing programme (Y-Check) to contribute evidence on whether adolescent health check-ups should be part of routine health services in Ghana. Methods: Y-Check Phase 1 was conducted in four communities in Cape Coast Ghana, over two stages using a variety of methods: (a) needs assessment and landscape analysis on the health of adolescents (existing policies/programmes, school system, adolescent health conditions) was conducted through desk-review and interviews with key informants to identify the potential content, delivery strategy and settings for adolescent health check-ups in this context; (b) co-designing the Y-Check intervention framework through person-centred participatory workshops and a consensus-building workshop with multiple stakeholders, including adolescents (10–19 years) and their parents. The study was conducted between January 2020 and October 2020. Results: The Y-Check intervention consists of two check-ups with content that is tailored to the needs of younger adolescents and older adolescents; delivered at both school and community settings by a team of trained staff in multiple steps involving up to four stations. Y-Check includes a referral system for adolescents with any problems that cannot be investigated or treated on-the-spot. Conclusions: Our systematic approach to co-producing Y-Check has resulted in an intervention whose content and structure is determined by the local context, and which was adjudged by multiple stakeholders to be likely to be both useful and acceptable, and which builds on best practice. As a logical next step, the Y-Check will be subjected to pilot testing and implementation research to rigorously evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, coverage, yield of previously undiagnosed conditions and cost of these health check-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the extent to which people believe that people can change (incremental beliefs) suggests that incrementalist beliefs are positively related to well-being, whereas entity beliefs (people cannot change) are not. One explanation for this relationship is that incremental beliefs are associated with a mastery orientation, whereas entity beliefs are not. If this is the case, then autonomous and competence motives should mediate relationships between incrementalism and well-being because these motives reflect different aspects of mastery. The present study examined the possibility that autonomous and competence motives mediate relationships between self-theories and well-being. Participants were adult community members (n = 428) who completed the Life Engagement Test (eudaimonic well-being), the Satisfaction with life Scale (hedonic well-being), the Mental Health Continuum Scale (eudaimonic, subjective, and psychological well-being), the Basic Needs Satisfaction scale (autonomy, competence, relatedness), and a measure of implicit theories of the self (incremental and entity beliefs). Regression analyses found that incremental beliefs were significantly related (positively) to all three measures of well-being, whereas entity beliefs were not significantly related to well-being. Regression analyses also found that incremental beliefs were positively related to satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs but were not related to satisfaction of relatedness needs. Entity beliefs were not related to the satisfaction of any of the three basic needs. A series of mediational analyses found that competence and autonomy motives mediated relationships between incremental beliefs and all three measures of well-being. In all but one case, satisfaction with life, the direct effects of incremental beliefs on well-being were rendered non-significant when satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs were included as mediators. The present results confirm and extend to the general domain the supposition that a mastery orientation is responsible for relationships between well-being and incremental theories of the self. They also conform the importance of the tenants of Self-Determination Theory in understanding self-theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the UK, there are currently 800 000 people living with dementia. This number is expected to double in the next 20 years. Two-thirds of people with dementia live in the community supported by informal carers. Caring for a person with dementia has adverse effects on psychological, physical, social wellbeing and quality of life. The measurement of quality of life of carers of people with dementia is increasingly of interest to health and social care practitioners and commissioners, policymakers, and carers themselves. However, there is lack of consensus on the most suitable instrument(s) for undertaking this. Methods: A systematic review of the literature using COSMIN methodology. Searching of electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science), reference list and citation searching of key papers was undertaken. COSMIN methodology was used to simultaneously extract data from and assess methodological quality of included studies, and make a recommendation for the instrument with the most high quality evidence for its measurement properties. Results: Ten instruments were suitable for inclusion in this review. The Carer well-being and support questionnaire (CWS) has the best quality evidence for the greatest number of measurement of properties. The Caregiver Well-Being Scale is also worthy of consideration. There is not presently a measure which could be recommended for use in economic evaluations, however the Impact of Alzheimer’s Disease on the Caregiver questionnaire (IADCQ) could potentially be used following further investigation of its measurement properties in a representative population. Conclusion: The CWS is the most appropriate instrument to recommend for the assessment of quality of life in informal carers of people with dementia at present. All instruments included in this review would benefit from more rigorous evaluation of their measurement properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health can affect young people’s sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction, their ability to participate in employment and education, and their onward opportunities in life. This paper offers a rare opportunity to longitudinally examine mental health in a population-representative study of children aged 4–5 years to 14–15 years. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), this study examined maternally-reported child mental health over a 10 year period, in order to understand their initial mental health status early in life and its change over time, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Longitudinal models were fitted from ages 4–5 to 14–15 years. Results showed that child sex, maternal mental health, socio-economic status (family income, maternal education, neighbourhood disadvantage), maternal hostility, and child temperament (persistence, sociability, reactivity) are all independent contributors to child mental health at age 4. These effects largely persist over time, with the effects of maternal mental health increasing slightly over time. Persistence of these effects suggests the need for early intervention and supports. The independent contribution of these factors to child mental health suggests that multi-faceted approaches to child and maternal mental health are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wild brown bears, likely factors triggering hibernation response to harsh environmental conditions are temperature, photoperiod, and food resources availability. In fact, constantly fed captive brown bears are described as skipping hibernation being active all year-round. Is the hibernation response so flexible and subordinate to contingencies, or else is an adaptation that, if dismissed, may negatively impact on bear well-being? This study investigates the potential hibernation response in captive brown bears under unvaried management conditions using an integrative approach simultaneously analyzing multiple animal-based variables together with environmental covariates. Data from a mid-latitude zoo revealed distinct behavioral, fecal glucocorticoids, and body condition score seasonal fluctuations, resembling natural hibernation cycles, despite constant food access. Environmental variables like photoperiod and visitor numbers significantly influenced activity levels. Bears exhibited behaviors indicative of hyperphagia and fall transition, such as appetitive feeding and denning behaviors. Hormonal analyses revealed high fecal cortisol metabolites levels during hyperphagia, suggesting physiological responses to seasonal changes. Findings underscore the importance of environmental cues and food availability in shaping zoo bear behavior and physiology. Considering that the hibernating vs. non-hibernating description might represent an oversimplification, management strategies should deal with captive bear potential need to freely express their adaptive predispositions by accommodating their natural behaviors, such as providing denning spots and adjusting diet composition as soon as typical hyperphagic and predenning behaviors emerge, ultimately enhancing their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of menstruation and the menstrual cycle to health, human rights, and sociocultural and economic wellbeing, the study of menstrual health suffers from a lack of funding, and research remains fractured across many disciplines. We sought to systematically review validated approaches to measure four aspects of changes to the menstrual cycle—bleeding, blood, pain, and perceptions—caused by any source and used within any field. We then evaluated the measure quality and utility for clinical trials of the identified instruments. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and four instrument databases and included peer-reviewed articles published between 2006 and 2023 that reported on the development or validation of instruments assessing menstrual changes using quantitative or mixed-methods methodology. From a total of 8,490 articles, 8,316 were excluded, yielding 174 articles reporting on 94 instruments. Almost half of articles were from the United States or United Kingdom and over half of instruments were only in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Most instruments measured bleeding parameters, uterine pain, or perceptions, but few assessed characteristics of blood. Nearly 60% of instruments were developed for populations with menstrual or gynecologic disorders or symptoms. Most instruments had fair or good measure quality or clinical trial utility; however, most instruments lacked evidence on responsiveness, question sensitivity and/or transferability, and only three instruments had good scores of both quality and utility. Although we took a novel, transdisciplinary approach, our systematic review found important gaps in the literature and instrument landscape, pointing towards a need to examine the menstrual cycle in a more comprehensive, inclusive, and standardized way. Our findings can inform the development of new or modified instruments, which—if used across the many fields that study menstrual health and within clinical trials—can contribute to a more systemic and holistic understanding of menstruation and the menstrual cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]