Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Information Dissemination by Health Care Professions

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is the leading preventable intellectual and developmental disability. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption at any point during pregnancy. Findings of this study indicate that the information disseminated by health care professionals is not always in keeping with this understanding. Physicians and midwives appeared to be the least consistent in advocating to women that they abstain from alcohol consumption while pregnant. We explore ways in which social workers can support the medical profession to provide more consistent messaging of alcohol abstinence during pregnancy to lower the incidence of FASD.     

Communicating Actionable Risk for Terrorism and Other Hazards⋆

We propose a shift in emphasis when communicating to people when the objective is to motivate household disaster preparedness actions. This shift is to emphasize the communication of preparedness actions (what to do about risk) rather than risk itself. We have called this perspective “communicating actionable risk,” and it is grounded in diffusion of innovations and communication theories. A representative sample of households in the nation was analyzed using a path analytic framework. Preparedness information variables (including content, density, and observation), preparedness mediating variables (knowledge, perceived effectiveness, and milling), and preparedness actions taken were modeled. Clear results emerged that provide a strong basis for communicating actionable risk, and for the conclusion both that information observed (seeing preparedness actions that other have taken) and information received (receiving recommendations about what preparedness actions to take) play key, although different, roles in motivating preparedness actions among the people in our nation.     

Japanese Children’s Knowledge of the Facial Components of Basic Emotions

While numerous studies have investigated children’s recognition of facial emotional expressions, little evidence has been gathered concerning their explicit knowledge of the components included in such expressions. Thus, we investigated children’s knowledge of the facial components involved in the expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise. Four- and 5-year-old Japanese children were presented with the blank face of a young character, and asked to select facial components in order to depict the emotions he felt. Children’s overall performance in the task increased as a function of age, and was above chance level for each emotion in both age groups. Children were likely to select the Cheek raiser and Lip corner puller to depict happiness, the Inner brow raiser, Brow lowerer, and Lid droop to depict sadness, the Brow lowerer and Upper lid raiser to depict anger, and the Upper lid raiser and Jaw drop to depict surprise. Furthermore, older children demonstrated a better knowledge of the involvement of the Upper lid raiser in surprise expressions.     

Influence of a home-based exercise program on the urine pH in elderly female subjects: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Background

A low urine pH is a characteristic metabolic feature of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of a 12-week home-based bench step exercise on the urine pH status of elderly female subjects.

Methods

The current study is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which 59 postmenopausal female subjects were randomized to either the exercise group (n?=?29) or the control group (n?=?30). The subjects in the exercise group were instructed to perform home-based exercises using a bench step at the anaerobic threshold (AT), with a goal of performing ≥140 min/week at home for 12 weeks. The subjects in the control group were instructed to not change their normal lifestyle. Urine was collected after overnight fasting, and the urine pH was measured using a urinary test strip. The inter-group-differences at baseline and the pre-post changes within groups were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test, respectively. Additionally, the difference in the post-intervention urine pH levels of the two groups, adjusted for the pre-intervention values (the estimated effect size) and the precision (95% confidence intervals) were investigated using an analysis of covariance.

Results

The pre-post comparison of the urine pH data using Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test showed a significant increase in the urine pH levels of the exercise group (p?<?0.05); there was no significant change in the urine pH levels of the control group. However, the estimated effect size (0.15) was small and the confidence interval straddled 0 (?0.25–0.55).

Conclusions

Based on the results of the current secondary analysis of an RCT, we could not clearly conclude that exercise has a beneficial effect on the urine pH. Further well-designed RCTs should be conducted to determine whether aerobic exercise is truly able to ameliorate urine acidification.

Trial registration

The study was retrospectively registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) as “Effect of step exercise on aerobic fitness and progression of atherosclerosis in the elderly” under the registration number UMIN 000026743 (the date of registration: March 28, 2017).

     

Can Demographic Variables Predict Lottery and Pari-mutuel Losses? An Empirical Investigation

Using data from the 2004 and 2005 Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES) comprising of 15,000 respondents, this study examines two research questions. The first of these considers the demographic differences between households whose members lose money playing the lottery and/or engaging in pari-mutuel betting and those whose members do not lose money participating in such activities. The second assesses demographic differences among households whose members lose money playing the lottery and/or engaging in pari-mutuel betting. It was found that respondents living in money-losing households are slightly older, better off financially, more likely to be married or divorced, more likely to live in a state with at least one legal casino and more likely to live in the Northeast than respondents living in non-money-losing households. Among those living in money-losing households, the least wealthy and African American respondents are more likely to lose a higher proportion of their respective incomes purchasing lottery tickets and engaging in pari-mutuel betting than wealthier respondents and whites.     

The Relationship of Social Support to African American Caregivers' Help-Seeking for Emotional Problems

This study analyzes whether social support serves as a link to or substitute for formal services among African American female caregivers seeking help with emotional problems. It also analyzes other determinants of help-seeking. It relies on data from the Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health and Functioning Study and is guided by a modified version of the behavioral model of health services use. Using hierarchical binary logistic regression, analyses reveal that only age, stress, and support from fellow church members are statistically significantly associated with the likelihood of help-seeking. These results support the linking hypothesis, suggesting that the social support received by African American women caregivers in the context of their religious organizations helps to link them to services.     

Consolidated Measures of Activity among Older Adults: Results of a Three Data Set Comparison

This study explores the potential to consolidate a broad range of activity items to create more manageable measures that could be used in statistical modeling of multi-activity engagement. We utilized three datasets in the United States: Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Health and Retirement Study, and Midlife in the United States. After identifying activity items, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to empirically explore composite activity measures. Findings suggest that discrete activity items can be consolidated into activity domains; however, activity domains differ across datasets depending on availability of activity items. Implications for research and practice are further discussed.     

Young People’s Reactions Change Elderly People’s Generativity and Narratives: The Effects of Intergenerational Interaction on the Elderly

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the young listener’s reaction on the development of generativity and narratives of elderly people. Thirty-four males between the ages of 60 and 82 participated in this experiment in which the listener generations (young/elderly) and listener reactions (empathic/neutral) were controlled. The participants shared and taught their wisdom gained from their past experiences through narratives. Results showed that many elderly people spoke about “lessons from experiences of failure” when there was an empathic reaction from young people, and such narratives were promoted by an increase of generativity. These results suggested the impact of the younger people’s reaction on the elderly people’s psychological development and behavior.     

Predicting a Partner's End‐of‐Life Preferences,or Substituting One's Own?

Numerous studies comparing patients' end‐of‐life health care treatment preferences with their surrogates' reports of those preferences indicate that partners do not know one another's treatment preferences: Random guesses are just as likely as surrogate choices to match the patients' preferences. The present study uses the empathic accuracy model and the assumed similarity model to shed further light on accuracy and bias in surrogate reports. The data come from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research/Knowledge Networks Pilot Study 2010, a national sample of 1,075 heterosexual American couples age 18 to 64. Surrogate reports were simultaneously biased (i.e., correlated with the surrogate's own preference) and accurate (i.e., correlated with the partner's actual preference). Higher relationship quality and legal marriage (vs. cohabitation) were associated with increased assumed similarity bias. These findings suggest that practitioners working in end‐of‐life care need to be familiar with their partnered patients' relationship dynamics.