Urban Upbringing Research Articles

Schizophrenia and Its Association with Biological and Environmental Factors: A Community Based Study

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the proportion of probable schizophrenia in Arab population visiting primary health care centers and investigate its associated biologic and environmental factors. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Primary Health Care (PHC) centres, Supreme Council of Health, Qatar, between January 2009 to December 2010. Subjects: Of 1491 Arab patients approached, 1148 patients agreed to participate in the study (77%). Methods: The study was based on a face to face interview with a designed questionnaire including socio-demographic, biologic and environmental factors. A diagnostic screening questionnaire which consisted of 6 questions about the symptoms of schizophrenic disorders was used for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Results: Of the studied subjects, 11.7% of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia. A significant association was observed between schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic Research Article British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research, 4(1): 202-214, 2014 203 patients in terms of age group (p=0.048), BMI (p=0.019), gender (p=0.027), ethnicity (p=0.008), marital status (p=0.001), occupation (p<0.001), household income (p<0.001) and place of residence (p=0.039). Obstetric complications were significantly higher in schizophrenic patients with a higher frequency of pregnancy stress (31.3%; p<0.001) and diabetes (20.1%; p=0.008). Among the obstetric complications, Rhesus incompatibility (OR 2.74; 95% CI (1.16-6.47); P=0.021) and pregnancy stress (OR 2.51; 95% CI (1.60-3.94); P<0.001) were the major predictors for the development of schizophrenia. Delivery complications of asphyxia (17.9%; p=0.003), uterine atony (10.4%; p=0.028) and emergency caesarean section (17.2%; p=0.024) were significantly higher in mothers of the patients. Urban upbringing (OR 1.60; 95% CI (1.02 2.50); P<0.037) and social isolation (OR 1.72; 95% CI (1.06-2.74); P<0.027) were the main significant environmental risk factors for schizophrenia. Conclusion: An increasing schizophrenia risk with obstetric complications was observed in the study sample. Rhesus incompatibility and pregnancy stress were the main predictors for schizophrenia.

The Social Defeat Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: An Update

According to the social defeat (SD) hypothesis, published in 2005, long-term exposure to the experience of SD may lead to sensitization of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system and thereby increase the risk for schizophrenia. The hypothesis posits that SD (ie, the negative experience of being excluded from the majority group) is the common denominator of 5 major schizophrenia risk factors: urban upbringing, migration, childhood trauma, low intelligence, and drug abuse. The purpose of this update of the literature since 2005 is to answer 2 questions: (1) What is the evidence that SD explains the association between schizophrenia and these risk factors? (2) What is the evidence that SD leads to sensitization of the mesolimbic DA system? The evidence for SD as the mechanism underlying the increased risk was found to be strongest for migration and childhood trauma, while the evidence for urban upbringing, low intelligence, and drug abuse is suggestive, but insufficient. Some other findings that may support the hypothesis are the association between risk for schizophrenia and African American ethnicity, unemployment, single status, hearing impairment, autism, illiteracy, short stature, Klinefelter syndrome, and, possibly, sexual minority status. While the evidence that SD in humans leads to sensitization of the mesolimbic DA system is not sufficient, due to lack of studies, the evidence for this in animals is strong. The authors argue that the SD hypothesis provides a parsimonious and plausible explanation for a number of epidemiological findings that cannot be explained solely by genetic confounding.

A High-Fidelity Virtual Environment for the Study of Paranoia

Psychotic disorders carry social and economic costs for sufferers and society. Recent evidence highlights the risk posed by urban upbringing and social deprivation in the genesis of paranoia and psychosis. Evidence based psychological interventions are often not offered because of a lack of therapists. Virtual reality (VR) environments have been used to treat mental health problems. VR may be a way of understanding the aetiological processes in psychosis and increasing psychotherapeutic resources for its treatment. We developed a high-fidelity virtual reality scenario of an urban street scene to test the hypothesis that virtual urban exposure is able to generate paranoia to a comparable or greater extent than scenarios using indoor scenes. Participants (n = 32) entered the VR scenario for four minutes, after which time their degree of paranoid ideation was assessed. We demonstrated that the virtual reality scenario was able to elicit paranoia in a nonclinical, healthy group and that an urban scene was more likely to lead to higher levels of paranoia than a virtual indoor environment. We suggest that this study offers evidence to support the role of exposure to factors in the urban environment in the genesis and maintenance of psychotic experiences and symptoms. The realistic high-fidelity street scene scenario may offer a useful tool for therapists.

Risk factors for inflammatory bowel diseases according to the “hygiene hypothesis”: A case–control, multi-centre, prospective study in Southern Italy

BackgroundUlcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) of unknown aetiology. The ‘hygiene hypothesis’ (HH) suggests that several hygiene-related factors may have contributed to the increased incidence of IBD. The aim of the study was to evaluate risk factors for IBD related to HH in a cohort of IBD patients from the south of Italy. MethodsWe prospectively performed a one-year, questionnaire-based, case–control, multi-centre study focusing on the principal risk factors for IBD according to HH. We investigated the main surrogate markers of HH (helmintic infections and antibiotics in childhood; breastfeeding; family size/sibship;urban upbringing; personal and domestic hygiene in childhood) in UC and CD patients, in comparison with a control group of healthy subjects. In addition, the traditional risk factors for IBD were also recorded. ResultsThe study population included 527 cases of UC, 468 CD and 562 controls. None of the surrogate risk factors of HH was significantly associated with IBD. On the contrary, the traditional risk factors confirmed their statistical significance in this IBD population. Familial aggregation: OR 4.07 for UC; OR 4.83 for CD; smoking: OR 0.38 for UC; OR 1.40 for CD; appendectomy: OR 0.28 for UC; OR 1.61 for CD. ConclusionEven though risk factors associated to the HH have been proposed as a possible explanation for the increasing calendar trend of IBD incidence, their role does not appear to be statistically significant. Familial aggregation, smoking habits and appendectomy still remain the main risk factors associated with IBD.

The stress of city life

Social stress processing in healthy individuals is affected by city living and an urban upbringing

City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans

More than half of the world's population now lives in cities, making the creation of a healthy urban environment a major policy priority. Cities have both health risks and benefits, but mental health is negatively affected: mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in city dwellers and the incidence of schizophrenia is strongly increased in people born and raised in cities. Although these findings have been widely attributed to the urban social environment, the neural processes that could mediate such associations are unknown. Here we show, using functional magnetic resonance imaging in three independent experiments, that urban upbringing and city living have dissociable impacts on social evaluative stress processing in humans. Current city living was associated with increased amygdala activity, whereas urban upbringing affected the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, a key region for regulation of amygdala activity, negative affect and stress. These findings were regionally and behaviourally specific, as no other brain structures were affected and no urbanicity effect was seen during control experiments invoking cognitive processing without stress. Our results identify distinct neural mechanisms for an established environmental risk factor, link the urban environment for the first time to social stress processing, suggest that brain regions differ in vulnerability to this risk factor across the lifespan, and indicate that experimental interrogation of epidemiological associations is a promising strategy in social neuroscience.

Do cannabis and urbanicity co-participate in causing psychosis? Evidence from a 10-year follow-up cohort study

Cannabis use is considered a component cause of psychotic illness, interacting with genetic and other environmental risk factors. Little is known, however, about these putative interactions. The present study investigated whether an urban environment plays a role in moderating the effects of adolescent cannabis use on psychosis risk. Prospective data (n=1923, aged 14-24 years at baseline) from the longitudinal population-based German Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology cohort study were analysed. Urbanicity was assessed at baseline and defined as living in the city of Munich (1562 persons per km2; 4061 individuals per square mile) or in the rural surroundings (213 persons per km2; 553 individuals per square mile). Cannabis use and psychotic symptoms were assessed three times over a 10-year follow-up period using the Munich version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Analyses revealed a significant interaction between cannabis and urbanicity [10.9% adjusted difference in risk, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.2-18.6, p=0.005]. The effect of cannabis use on follow-up incident psychotic symptoms was much stronger in individuals who grew up in an urban environment (adjusted risk difference 6.8%, 95% CI 1.0-12.5, p=0.021) compared with individuals from rural surroundings (adjusted risk difference -4.1%, 95% CI -9.8 to 1.6, p=0.159). The statistical interaction was compatible with substantial underlying biological synergism. Exposure to environmental influences associated with urban upbringing may increase vulnerability to the psychotomimetic effects of cannabis use later in life.

Protest and Parents

In this study, we examine factors assumed to have disposed students to radicalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The data are from a recent retrospective survey of 1,246 former University of Oslo students born between 1940 and 1950. The unprecedented number of radical respondents allows for analyses that could not be done in earlier studies, especially of the extreme left. The results reflect the preponderant influence of parents’ political preferences. Variations in political orientation between different fields of study and between cohorts, with students born towards the end of the 1940s being more radical than students born earlier in the decade, suggest influence by peers, although this is hard to gauge. Urban upbringing is found to be significant, pointing to the possible importance of exposure to radical world-view carriers. Neither gender nor class has significant controlled predictive power. Since most students were men, and students were far more likely to protest than extramural youth, males dominated the protest movement. Students from the working class were more radical than middle-class students, but apparently this was due not to any independent effect of class but to differences in the world-view to which they were exposed at home, manifested in parents’ political preferences.

Factors Affecting Perceptions of Human–Wildlife Interactions in Residential Areas of Northern New York and Implications for Conservation

We explored factors influencing people's perceptions of human–wildlife interactions in residential areas, reporting interactions to authorities, and potential conservation implications. Data were obtained from a mail survey of 1,439 landowners. We used logistic regression to predict probabilities of having non-positive perceptions and reporting interactions to authorities. Our models predicted perceptions relatively well; factors influencing perceptions included attitudes toward wildlife, experiences with wildlife, age, urban or rural upbringing, and location of current residence. Our models did not predict reports of human–wildlife interactions with satisfactory accuracy. Overall perceptions of wildlife interactions were more positive compared to perceptions of experiences with specific species around respondents' homes. Those not having positive interactions demonstrated less support for land and wildlife conservation. Future research should explore species-specific and incident-specific details to anticipate potentially negative perceptions of human–wildlife interactions, develop mechanisms for engaging those indifferent to wildlife interactions, and determine interventions that maintain support for conservation endeavors.

Hygiene hypothesis in inflammatory bowel disease: A critical review of the literature

The hygiene hypothesis is thought to be a significant contributor to the growing incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) around the world, although the evidence for specific factors that underlie the hygiene hypothesis in IBD is unclear. We aimed to systematically review the literature to determine which hygiene-related factors are associated with the development of IBD. Publications identified from a broad based MEDLINE and Current Contents search between 1966 and 2007 on key terms relevant to the 'hygiene hypothesis' and IBD including H pylori exposure, helminths, cold chain hypothesis, measles infection and vaccination, antibiotic use, breastfeeding, family size, sibship, urban upbringing, day care attendance and domestic hygiene were reviewed. The literature suggests that the hygiene hypothesis and its association with decreased microbial exposure in childhood probably plays an important role in the development of IBD, although the strength of the supporting data for each of the factors varies considerably. The most promising factors that may potentially be associated with development of IBD include H pylori exposure, helminths, breastfeeding and sibship. However, the vast majority of studies in this area are plagued by serious methodological shortcomings, particularly the reliance on retrospective recall of information making it difficult to truly ascertain the importance of a 'hygiene hypothesis' in IBD. The 'hygiene hypothesis' in IBD is an important area of research that may give clues to the aetiology of this disease. Directions for future research are recommended.

Helicobacter pylori infection in an urban African population.

We have studied 221 adults drawn from an impoverished urban population with high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroprevalence (35%) to determine the prevalence of gastroduodenal pathology and its relationship to serological markers of Helicobacter pylori virulence proteins and other potential environmental and immunological determinants of disease including HIV infection. Eighty-one percent were H. pylori seropositive, and 35% were HIV seropositive. Urban upbringing and low CD4 count were associated with a reduced likelihood of H. pylori seropositivity, as was current Ascaris infection, in keeping with recent evidence from an animal model. One hundred ninety-one adults underwent gastroduodenoscopy, and 14 had gastroduodenal pathology. Mucosal lesions were a major cause of abdominal pain in this population. While the majority of patients with gastroduodenal pathology (12 of 14) were seropositive for H. pylori, none were seropositive for HIV. Smoking was associated with increased risk of macroscopic pathology, and a history of Mycobacterium bovis BCG immunization was associated with reduced risk. Antibodies to H. pylori lipopolysaccharide were associated with pathology. HIV infection was associated with protection against mucosal lesions, suggesting that fully functional CD4 lymphocytes may be required for the genesis of gastroduodenal pathology.

Schizophrenia in Society

Schizophrenia is a disorder of major public health concern both in terms of occurrence and cost. It affects approximately 1% of the population. Although the causes and pathogenesis of schizophrenia are not known in any detail, there is strong evidence that both genetic and ‘environmental’ risk factors are important in the aetiology of this disease. Environmental risk factors include: urban birth, urban upbringing, seasonal birth, influenza, infections during pregnancy, obstetric complications and higher risk in lower social classes. The condition is often chronic even though progress has been made both in psychopharmacological treatment and in psychosocial interventions. The patient’s ability to work is often impaired, and schizophrenia is associated with increased mortality both from suicide and natural causes of death.

Differential Effects of Rural and Urban Upbringing on Nigerian Adolescents' Self-Concepts

A review of pertinent literature on the effects of westernization/urbanization on traditional African society was made. A self-concept study of 133 urban and 110 rural male and female Nigerian adolescents showed that the younger urban sample had significantly more negative self-concepts than their older rural counterparts. Suggestions were made for enhancing the self-concepts of young urbanites.

CONSUMER KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF KENYAN (AFRICA) COLLEGE STUDENTS

The study was designed to measure the consumer knowledge and attitudes of college students enrolled at a representative Kenyan college. It was hypothesized that six variables (sex, academic level in college, academic major, rural or urban upbringing, having work experience and having completed a course in consumer education) would not be associated with achievement on the 47‐item test or with the seven consumer attitude questions. The instrument was developed by the researcher for use in Kenya. Validity was checked by Kenyans as well as experts from the U.S. in test construction. Following a pre‐test in Kenya, during the first week of classes in 1980, all students (n = 508) completed the instrument. Analysis of variance and chi‐square tests were used to analyse the data. Achievement was 31.3 (67.9%) on the consumer education test which was considered a moderate score. Having completed a consumer education course was one variable associated with higher scores on the test. Students majoring in Dairy and Food Science Technology as well as Home Economics did better than other majors on the test. In general, the students strongly supported attitudes expected of rational and responsible consumers.

Introduction. Post-Mao, Post-Bourdieu: Class Culture in Contemporary China

This special issue of Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies explores the relationship between taste, choice and social stratification in contemporary China. It is premised on the observation that the past thirty years of accelerated Reform policies have initiated a system of authoritarian capitalism, which fosters a network of social values, focussed on opportunity and struggle figured through financial achievement and consumption, and given affective meaning through nationalism. Not all Chinese enjoy the full gamut of these experiences, although most partake in struggle in some form. Opportunity arises mainly from the cultural capital, financial and social position of one’s parents, and, to some degree, from innate talent and hard work, an urban upbringing, and national provisions for educational advantage. Pre-existing forms of influence and power—local networks, Party membership, sufficient funds for education—are the strongest determinants of sustained success. In some cases, the opportunity for wealth creation has allowed some social mobility for entrepreneurial minds, whilst also re-establishing privilege amongst those whose status was already high through long term political or intellectual activity.

The Differential Effects of Rural and Urban Upbringing on the Development of Cognitive Styles

Abstract L'A. essaie de cerner les differences entre zones rurales et zones urbaines dans la maniere d'elever les enfants, en prenant Ibusa comme exemple de bourg rural au Nigeria. L'education campagnarde, parce qu'on s'occupe de l'enfant relativement plus longtemps et de facon plus indulgente, favoriserait le developpement d'une “dependance perceptive vis-a-vis du champ”. Pour tester cette hypothese, il administre, d'une part les tests CEFT et RFT a 65 adultes des deux sexes eleves a Ibusa et d'autre part, les tests RFT et EFT a 76 etudiants et etudiantes de l'Universite Nsukka. Les resultats montrent qu'il y a une correlation significative entre les deux tests pour les sujets de l'Universite Nsukka, mais non pour les sujets d'Ibusa. On trouve des differences entre sexes dans les deux echantillons, avec une interaction significative entre sexe et alphabetisation pour les sujets Ibusa. Les etudiants d'education rurale sont significativement plus “dependants du champ” que ceux qui ont ete eleves a la ville...