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Objectives: In subsistence populations, high physical activity is typically maintained throughout pregnancy. Market integration shifts activity patterns to resemble industrialized populations, with more time allocated to sedentary behavior. Daasanach semi-nomadic pastoralists living in northern Kenya face lifestyle heterogeneity due to the emergence of a market center. We investigate how Daasanach women manage the energetic demands of pregnancy with subsistence labor tasks and how market integration relates to variation in energetic demands, physical activity, and coping strategies., Methods: We conducted nine focus group discussions with 72 pregnant women. We also deployed wrist-worn fitness trackers with 21 pregnant women in two community types: central or peripheral to the market center to capture variation in market integration. Data from focus group discussions were analyzed using thematic analysis. We used multiple linear regression to examine the relationship between gestational age and physical activity., Results: We identified themes of increased fatigue, diet restrictions, and assistance with labor tasks during pregnancy. Gestational age negatively predicted mean daily steps, with a decrease of 1160 ± 437 steps per day with each consecutive pregnancy month. Stratified by community type, gestational age only negatively predicted mean daily steps for peripheral communities, with a decrease of 1443 ± 629 steps per day with each consecutive pregnancy month., Conclusions: Results suggest that physical activity differs with market integration early, but not late, in pregnancy. Daasanach women cope with the energetic demands of pregnancy by reducing physical activity late in pregnancy and receiving assistance with labor tasks from family and neighbors., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Climate change is triggering environmental mobility through chronic water problems and punctuated events. Thinking about moving locations, or "mobility ideation", is the precursor to migration intentionality and actual migration. Drawing on the embodiment construct, this study examines how the worst drought in recent history in the Horn of Africa affected water-related mobility ideation and, in turn, fingernail cortisol concentration (FCC), a chronic stress biomarker, among Daasanach semi-nomadic pastoralists in northern Kenya. To address these questions, we primarily draw on survey, anthropometric, water quality, and biomarker data among 175 adults living in seven communities in 2022. We used mixed-effects ordered logistic regression to test how livestock wealth, water insecurity, food insecurity, and anxiety/depression symptom scores were associated with household mobility ideation. We then used generalized linear models to test the association between mobility ideation on FCC. Thinking about moving at least once due to water problems increased from pre-drought in 2019 (55%) to during the drought in 2022 (92%), while actual mobility declined. Livestock wealth, while associated with actual mobility in the prior year, was protective against increased mobility ideation, while water insecurity, food insecurity, and anxiety/depression symptoms were associated with greater odds of thinking of leaving in 2022. Compared to adults who did not consider moving, those who considered moving rarely, sometimes, and often had FCC levels 18.1% higher (95% CI, 1.01-1.38; p = 0.039), 19.4% higher (1.01-1.41; p = 0.040), and 32.3% higher (1.01-1.73; p = 0.039), respectively, with results consistent in sensitivity analyses. Extreme climatic events in water scarce regions may increase mobility ideation through worsened experiential indicators of well-being and resource insecurity. Mobility ideation may capture measures of adversity suffered by pastoralists and signify climate distress. This research broadens understanding of how droughts get under the skin by leading to resource insecurity and triggering thoughts of moving, which increases chronic stress., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Hydration status and water intake are critical to physiological health. Despite a popular narrative that dehydration impairs cognitive performance, results are mixed in the literature. Therefore, we tested how hydration status was associated with cognitive performance in an ad libitum state over the course of 3 months., Methods: Data come from a short-term longitudinal study among middle-to-older aged US adults (n = 78) measured three times (207 observations). All participants were scheduled for 8:00 a.m. visits for the baseline, two-week, and 3-month examinations where they completed surveys, neuropsychological tests to measure cognitive performance, anthropometrics, and a blood draw for biomarker analysis. Serum osmolality (Sosm) was measured as a biomarker of hydration status using osmometry. Four cognitive performance tasks were assessed, including inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention., Results: Panel random effects linear regressions demonstrate that there was an inverse association between dehydration and sustained attention, whereas there were no significant relationships between dehydration and inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Adults who were dehydrated (defined as Sosm >300 mOsm/kg) performed substantially worse (B = 0.65 z-score; SE = 0.28; p = .020) on the sustained attention task than those who were not dehydrated adjusting for time fixed effects, age, body mass index, sex, and educational attainment., Conclusion: This short-term longitudinal study found that dehydration was only associated with poorer performance on a cognitive performance task that required sustained attention. Maintaining adequate hydration may be increasingly important for middle-to-older aged adults to ensure proper cognitive function, particularly as water needs increase in future climatic scenarios., (© 2024 The Authors. American Journal of Human Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Maintaining adequate hydration over the course of pregnancy is critical for maternal and fetal health and reducing risks for adverse pregnancy outcomes (e.g., preeclampsia, low placental and amniotic fluid volume). Recent evidence suggests that women may be at risk for under-hydration in the second and third trimesters when water needs begin to increase. Scant research has examined pregnant women's knowledge of hydration recommendations, water intake behaviors, and willingness to use digital tools to promote water intake. This study aimed to: 1) describe hydration recommendation knowledge and behaviors by the overall sample and early vs late pregnancy, and 2) identify habits and barriers of using digital tools. Pregnant women (N = 137; M age = 30.9 years; M gestational age = 20.9) completed a one-time, 45-minute online survey. Descriptive statistics quantified women's knowledge of hydration recommendations, behaviors, and attitudes about utilizing digital tools to promote adequate intake, and Mann-Whitney U and chi-squared tests were used to determine group differences. Most women lacked knowledge of and were not meeting hydration recommendations (63%, 67%, respectively) and were not tracking their fluid consumption (59%). Knowledge of hydration recommendations differed by time of pregnancy, such that women in later pregnancy reported 82 ounces compared to women in early pregnancy (49 ounces). Common barriers included: forgetting to drink (47%), not feeling thirsty (47%), and increased urination (33%). Most were willing to use digital tools (69%) and believed a smart water bottle would help them achieve daily fluid recommendations (67%). These initial findings suggest that pregnant women may benefit from useful strategies to increase knowledge, decrease barriers, and maintain adequate hydration, specifically earlier in pregnancy. These findings will inform the design of a behavioral intervention incorporating smart connected water bottles, wearables for gesture detection, and behavior modification strategies to overcome barriers, promote proper hydration and examine its impact on maternal and infant health outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Pauley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Pastoralists live in challenging environments, which may be accompanied by unique activity, energy, and water requirements., Aim: Few studies have examined whether the demands of pastoralism contribute to differences in total energy expenditure (TEE) and water turnover (WT) compared to other lifestyles., Subjects and Methods: Accelerometer-derived physical activity, doubly labelled water-derived TEE and WT, and anthropometric data were collected for 34 semi-nomadic Daasanach adults from three northern Kenyan communities with different levels of pastoralist activity. Daasanach TEEs and WTs were compared to those of other small-scale and industrialised populations., Results: When modelled as a function of fat-free-mass, fat-mass, age, and sex, TEE did not differ between Daasanach communities. Daasanach TEE (1564-4172 kcal/day) was not significantly correlated with activity and 91% of TEEs were within the range expected for individuals from comparison populations. Mean WT did not differ between Daasanach communities; Daasanach absolute (7.54 litres/day men; 7.46 litres/day women), mass-adjusted, and TEE-adjusted WT was higher than most populations worldwide., Conclusions: The similar mass-adjusted TEE of Daasanach and industrialised populations supports the hypothesis that habitual TEE is constrained, with physically demanding lifestyles necessitating trade-offs in energy allocation. Elevated WT in the absence of elevated TEE likely reflects a demanding active lifestyle in a hot, arid climate.

Objectives: Short sleep duration is associated with poor physical health in college students. Few studies examine the effects of sleep extension on physical health in this population, who are susceptible to sleep loss. We examined health effects of a 1-week, 1-hour nightly sleep extension in college students., Methods: Twelve healthy undergraduate college students (83% female; age 20.2 ± 1.5years) completed a study consisting of sleeping typically for 1week ("Habitual"), then extending sleep by ≥1 hour/night during the second week ("Extension"). Sleep and physical activity actigraphy were collected throughout. Following each week, participants completed cardiometabolic assessments including a meal response and provided a urine sample for markers of hydration., Results: In Extension compared to Habitual, average sleep duration increased (mean change±SEM, +42.6 ± 15.1 minutes; p = .005), while subjective sleepiness (-1.8 ± 0.8 units; p = .040), systolic blood pressure (-6.6 ± 2.8 mmHg; p = .037), postprandial glucose area under the curve (-26.5 ± 10.2 mg/dL × h; p = .025) and time to baseline (-83.0 ± 46.4 minutes; p = .031) after the meal response, sedentary time (-44.3 ± 15.7 minutes; p = .018), and percentage of wake in moderate-to-vigorous activity (-0.89% ± 0.35%; p = .030) decreased. Participants who increased average sleep duration by ≥20 minutes (n = 9) were better hydrated according to urine osmolality (-187.0 ± 68.4 mOsm/kg; p = .026) and specific gravity (-0.01 ± 0.002 g/mL; p = .012) and had reduced odds of dehydration according to urine osmolality (≥800 mOsm/kg; -67%; OR=0.03; p = .035)., Conclusions: This pilot study's findings suggest that sleep extension may improve cardiometabolic functioning and hydration, and alter sedentary behavior and physical activity, in college students. Sleep extension may be employed to improve multiple aspects of health in this sleep-deprived population., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicts of interest None of the authors have conflicts of interests related to the material presented. Outside of the current work, DA is supported by the Prevention and Methodology Training Program (T32 DA017629) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A-MC has received a grant to the Pennsylvania State University from Kunasan and honoraria/travel support for lectures from University of Miami., (Copyright © 2024 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)