Amount Of Social Activity Research Articles

COVID-19 Home Confinement Negatively Impacts Social Participation and Life Satisfaction: A Worldwide Multicenter Study.

Public health recommendations and governmental measures during the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have enforced numerous restrictions on daily living including social distancing, isolation, and home confinement. While these measures are imperative to mitigate spreading of COVID-19, the impact of these restrictions on psychosocial health is undefined. Therefore, an international online survey was launched in April 2020 to elucidate the behavioral and lifestyle consequences of COVID-19 restrictions. This report presents the preliminary results from more than one thousand responders on social participation and life satisfaction. Methods: Thirty-five research organizations from Europe, North-Africa, Western Asia, and the Americas promoted the survey through their networks to the general society, in 7 languages (English, German, French, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, and Slovenian). Questions were presented in a differential format with questions related to responses “before” and “during” confinement conditions. Results: 1047 participations (54% women) from Asia (36%), Africa (40%), Europe (21%), and others (3%) were included in the analysis. Findings revealed psychosocial strain during the enforced COVID-19 home confinement. Large decreases (p < 0.001) in the amount of social activity through family (−58%), friends/neighbors (−44.9%), or entertainment (−46.7%) were triggered by the enforced confinement. These negative effects on social participation were also associated with lower life satisfaction (−30.5%) during the confinement period. Conversely, the social contact score through digital technologies significantly increased (p < 0.001) during the confinement period with more individuals (+24.8%) being socially connected through digital technology. Conclusion: These preliminary findings elucidate the risk of psychosocial strain during the early COVID-19 home confinement period in 2020. Therefore, in order to mitigate the negative psychosocial effects of home confinement, implementation of national strategies focused on promoting social inclusion through a technology-based solution is strongly suggested.

Presenting approaches to stress management in the elderly in Qazvin

Background: Based on the opinions of the World Health Organization (WHO), the elderly period begins at the age of 60 in third world countries. During this period the amount of social activities are reduced and as a result of which, the person is far more exposed to solitude and physical problems (i.e. high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) and mental illnesses (i.e. depression etc.). Therefore, considering the continuous growth in the population of the elderly in Iran, management of stress is crucial in order to lengthen their quality life-time, and reduce direct and indirect compensations to the government and also to families.&#x0D; Methods: This survey was conducted in a descriptive- analytical method in Qazvin in 2019, and the questionnaires were filled by eligible participants after reforming the questionnaire twice based on 0.71 (Cronbach’s alpha) confirmation. In order to prove the validity and reliability of the data, mentioning any personal information were strictly avoided, and later 30 participants were taken part in the research.&#x0D; Results: Considering the fact that in order to manage the stress, the participants’ mental conditions need to be mainly addressed, which are indeed source of numerous diseases, conducting daily activities, trusting families and societies is very effective in their self-acceptance. Addressing personal requirements including: 1. Individual quality life-time. 2. Medical facilities and services, 3. Public transportation services, and self-care, are potentially the most important issues to the elderly.&#x0D; Conclusion: Based on the conducted survey, many activities have been done to help the elderly manage their stress. However, considering the increasing population of the elderly, there are many more activities yet to be done operationally and tangibly. Although holding training sessions might be promising and motivating, but as a result of countless social difficulties, caused by lack of facilities, and lack of positive or supportive view by the community, the role of such phenomenon will most probably be passive and fleeting. Doing physical exercise can be an effective and cheerful element, and also preventive to the occurrence of many physical and mental illnesses. It should also be noted that many of the current problems are actually caused by urban factors (e.g. sidewalks, sport centers, etc.) which need to be immediately addressed by the government.&#x0D; Keywords: Stress management, Life satisfaction, Elderly

Exploring the link between behaviour and health

Mobile and wearable sensors are increasingly permeating our lives, and information gathered from them can provide unprecedented insights into diverse aspects of human behaviour. Analysis of human behaviour is of special interest in health care, as there exists dual relationship between behaviour and health. On one hand, our health is influenced by our behaviour, including physical activity levels, amount of social activity, and work–life balance amongst others, while on the other hand, symptoms of various disorders are manifested as behaviour changes. This is especially prominent for mental disorders [11]. Therefore, human behaviour understanding has significant value for health care, from the point of view of both maintaining good health and helping in the diagnosis of the diseases. While the link between various aspects of behaviour and health has been explored in clinical settings, use of technology to automatically measure behaviour is still in its infancy. Considering enormous potential of automatic behaviour understanding in health care, this Theme Issue explores the link between automatic understanding of human behaviour and how it can inform decisions of range of stakeholders in the health ecosystem. Sensing modalities, data processing methods, and behaviour capturing techniques that facilitate this exploration received a particular focus in the contents of this Theme Issue. As such, authors in [8] present an automated behaviour analysis system, consisting of a sensor network set-up in a home setting. Experiments performed showed how sensor readings can be used to automatically detect anomalous behaviour. This anomalous behaviour can be a sign of health changes in the user, and automatic detection could offer the possibility for intervention if required. In the same theme of detecting anomalous behaviour, authors in [5] propose an activity recognition system based on the Markov logic network. The performance and use of the method in dementia care is demonstrated by applying it to a dataset recorded in a smart home environment. Results indicate that the hierarchical approach presented has higher accuracy in recognition and a faster response time than existing approaches. As one of the first step in detecting activities, segmentation of data is typically required. In this regard, the paper in [9] presents an approach that enables segmentation of continuous sensor data in real time. The proposed dynamic segmentation is based on a two-layer strategy—sensor correlation and time correlation manipulation. The methodology was validated utilising two different datasets recorded in smart home settings. Performance measurement of machine learning methods in order to understand human behaviour was considered in [1]. The authors have evaluated the performance of two machine learning methods on five real-world datasets. They show that the commonly used metrics such as F. Gravenhorst A. Muaremi Wearable Computing Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland e-mail: gravenhorst@ife.ee.ethz.ch

Detecting components of hearing aid fitting using a self-assessment-inventory

The evaluation of hearing-aid fitting includes numerous assessments such as electro- and psychoacoustic tests. The subjective estimation of the hearing aid user can be elicited with self-assessment inventories encompassing various parameters, e.g., benefit, satisfaction and usage. A questionnaire comprising 11 domains (disability, handicap, frequency and significance of the listening situation, importance of the hearing aid, expectation, demand, aided performance, benefit, satisfaction and usage) within three different conditions (speech in quiet and in noise and listening to sounds) was used to detect components underlying hearing aid fitting. The data show a three-factor structure (situation-, restriction- and aid-related variables) independent from the conditions. Usage depends on all of the three factors. Disability and handicap reveal the highest values for speech in noise, whereas the aid-related factor shows the lowest values for this condition. Global satisfaction with the hearing aid is significantly correlated with the aid-related factor, but independent from the restriction of hearing. The aid-related factor is positively influenced by the amount of social activity because more active persons report higher benefit and satisfaction for all listening conditions. Age does not exhibit a significant relationship to one of the components. Basically, all correlation coefficients are only intermediate, revealing that inter-individual differences of the patients are rather high. The data indicate that extra-audiological factors might also play an important role in the success of hearing aid fitting.

The Fruit of Urban Nature

What makes a neighborhood space vital? This article explores the possibility that the presence of trees and grass may be one of the key components of vital neighborhood spaces. We report on 758 observations of individuals in 59 outdoor common spaces in a residential development. Twenty-seven of the neighborhood common spaces were relatively green, whereas 32 were relatively barren. Results indicate that the presence of trees and grass is related to the use of outdoor spaces, the amount of social activity that takes place within them, and the proportion of social to nonsocial activities they support. The findings improve and broaden our understanding of the physical characteristics that influence social contact among neighbors and provide evidence that nature plays an important role in creating vital neighborhood spaces.

Milk-sucking in dairy cattle in loose housing in Slovakia

Intersucking in dairy cows under large-scale farm conditions in loose housing is a problem of great economic importance. The aim of the work was to study the occurrence and differences in behaviour of deviant and normal cows and to look for reasons for this behavioural anomaly. In an ethological investigation carried out on six large-scale farms with loose housing, an average of 5.15% of cows were found to be milk-sucking. A lower percentage of milk-suckers were on farms where the calves suckled naturally from the udder. No differences were found either in overall general behaviour or amount of social activities during 12-h observations between milk-suckers and normal cows. Statistical significant differences ( P<0.05) were found in the occurrence of ruminating and occurrence of social activities during the day. Amount of attacks of the normal cows peaked from 12:50 to 14:00, before feeding. Attacks of the milk-sucking cows occurs evenly throughout the day, without marked peak. Occurrence of contacts to udder of the milk-sucking cows during the day was different from occurrence of contacts of the normal cows. These results show that differences in the daily regime may be an aid in identifying milk-sucking dairy cows. The research indicates that milk sucking is a topical problem in Slovak dairies.

Social Relationships and Myocardial Infarction: A Case-Control Study

For more than 10 years there has been increasing evidence that not only biological risk factors are important for the development of coronary heart disease. The present study is one of a series of case-control studies in which a wide range of psychosocial factors in the same population have been analysed to obtain information on their relationship with myocardial infarction, and of the interaction between psychosocial and biomedical variables. The association between social relationships and nonfatal myocardial infarction was studied by comparing consecutively admitted male (n = 288) and female (n = 55) patients with myocardial infarction with a population sample of 283 men and 129 women. All participants were under 65 years of age. The social relationships were investigated by means of a self-administered questionnaire. Men with myocardial infarction reported significantly lower perceived emotional support compared with their controls, as well as less social activity. Women with myocardial infarction reported significantly less social activity than their controls. There were no significant differences between cases and controls in social integration (number and frequency of social relationships and contacts). Neither did dissatisfaction with social relationships differ significantly between patients with myocardial infarction and controls. After controlling for traditional risk factors (smoking, hypertension, serum cholesterol level, diabetes) perceived emotional support remained significantly related to myocardial infarction in men, and so did the amount of social activity in both men and women. The importance of perceived emotional support and lack of social activity is amplified by the fact that they are related to myocardial infarction independently of conventional biomedical risk factors. These social factors should be studied further in prospective investigations.

The need for and effectiveness of surrogate role models among single-parent children

Divorce typically causes children to lose time with their fathers. Big Brother-Big Sister agencies have been established to provide same-sex adult companions for children in single-parent homes and are thought to be an effective primary prevention agency by providing natural caregiving. A needs assessment made in one city indicated that a majority of single-parent children desired an adult (nonparent) companion, regardless of child's age or amount of social activity. A program evaluation of a Big Brother-Big Sister agency, completed several years after the needs assessment, revealed that parentsand agency volunteers perceived positive changes in the children as a result of program involvement.

Psychological Androgyny and Social Competence

The present study investigated the relationship between psychological androgyny and three self-report indicators of social competence: quality of interpersonal behavioral skills, level of interpersonal anxiety, and amount of social activity. 261 college students (150 men) of high androgyny were significantly more competent than low subjects.