Social isolation

Robots, along with sensors and telemedicine, have been identified as technologies that can assist and prolong independent living for older people, with robots especially being used to help prevent social isolation and depression.

Infertility is a health problem encompassing physical, psychological and social consequences that may threaten women's quality of life. Few studies have been conducted in Jordan examining rural women's experiences of infertility. This study aimed to explore responses to infertility and its consequences in the Jordanian rural sociocultural context. Using a descriptive qualitative design, data were collected between April and September 2016 from a fertility clinic in a military hospital in Northern Jordan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 purposively selected Jordanian women...

Social relationships throughout life are vital for well-being and physical and mental health. A significant amount of research in animal models as well as in humans suggests that oxytocin (OT) plays an important role in the development of the capacity to form social bonds, the mediation of the positive aspects of early-life nurturing on adult bonding capacity, and the maintenance of social bonding. Here, we focus on the extensive research on a socially monogamous rodent model organism, the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster)...

INTRODUCTION: Volunteering as a health promotion intervention is positively related to improved health and well-being in civilians and older adults. Yet, the impacts of participating in a community-based volunteering program on returning military veterans have not been studied, nor have the outcomes for veterans who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This observational, pre-post survey examines health, psychological, and social outcomes from a cohort of post-9/11/01 veterans with (N = 67) and without a reported TBI history (N = 273) who completed a 6-month, 20-hour per week veteran-focused civic service program...

This article aims to examine the socio-demographic characteristics associated with access and use of Internet for health-related purposes and its relationship with health literacy. Data were drawn from a health literacy survey ( N = 1046) and analysed using logistic regression. Results show a strong association between health literacy, internet access and use. Socio-demographic characteristics particularly age, education, income, perceived health and social isolation also predict internet access. Thus, in addition to widening access, the movement towards digitisation of health information and services should also consider digital skills development to enable people to utilise digital technology more effectively, especially among traditionally hard-to-reach communities...

Social isolation is a risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, although the underlying mechanisms remain underspecified. Considering the potential of microglia to become sensitized by stressors and their role in neuroinflammation, we hypothesized that social isolation primes microglia, resulting in an exaggerated neuroimmune response to experimental cerebral ischemia. First, major histocompatibility complex II (MHC II) gene expression, an indicator of microglial priming, was compared between mice that were socially isolated or pair-housed...

OBJECTIVES: Hearing and vision impairment were examined across several health-related outcomes and across a set of quality indicators (QIs) in home care clients with both vision and hearing loss (or dual sensory impairment [DSI]). METHOD: Data collected using the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC) were analyzed in a sample of older home care clients. The QIs represent the proportion of clients experiencing negative outcomes (e.g., falls, social isolation)...

BACKGROUND: This study explored the dynamics of veteran/service dog partnerships by gathering the perspectives of veterans with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder and/or traumatic brain injury. METHODS: Exploratory qualitative methods (focus groups and individual interviews) were used to investigate veteran/service dog relationships related to community involvement, family and friend relationships, self-care, work, and leisure. Nine male veterans, Paws, and Stripes program graduates participated...

In recent years, we have seen increasing research within neuroscience and biopsychology on the interactions between the brain, the gastrointestinal tract, the bacteria within the gastrointestinal tract, and the bidirectional relationship between these systems: the brain-gut-microbiome axis. Although research has demonstrated that the gut microbiota can impact upon cognition and a variety of stress-related behaviours, including those relevant to anxiety and depression, we still do not know how this occurs. A deeper understanding of how psychological development as well as social and cultural factors impact upon the brain-gut-microbiome axis will contextualise the role of the axis in humans and inform psychological interventions that improve health within the brain-gut-microbiome axis...

AIMS: Parental separations have become more frequent in recent decades. In Western countries, about 25% of children experience parental separation. There is a need to explore the risk factors for separation to give children an optimal childhood. The objective of the present study was to examine parental stress and depressive symptoms during early parenthood and their association with parental separation. METHODS: Four hundred and seven couples completed questionnaires on depressive symptoms for 3 months and parental stress for 18 months after childbirth...

Adverse effects of nicotine during pregnancy have been greatly studied, while nowadays few works are focused on consequences of maternal tobacco smoking after birth. The present study investigated the behavioural and early neurochemical effects of nicotine treatment during first weeks of post-natal life in rats. We used "free choice" treatment (H2O+NIC dams could drink from two bottles, containing 10mg/L nicotine hydrogen tartrate salt, or water) versus "forced choice" (NIC+NIC mothers could drink from two bottles both containing nicotine hydrogen tartrate salt, range from 0...

Anxiety disorders and nicotine use are significant contributors to global morbidity and mortality as independent and comorbid diseases. Early-life stress, potentially via stress-induced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) dysregulation, can exacerbate both. However, little is known about the factors that predispose individuals to the development of both anxiety disorders and nicotine use. Here, we examined the relationship between anxiety-like behaviors and nicotine responses following adolescent stress...

Social interaction and data integration in the digital society can affect the control that individuals have on their privacy. Social networking sites can access data from other services, including user contact lists where nonusers are listed too. Although most research on online privacy has focused on inference of personal information of users, this data integration poses the question of whether it is possible to predict personal information of nonusers. This article tests the shadow profile hypothesis, which postulates that the data given by the users of an online service predict personal information of nonusers...

When it is relational, processual, and it articulates the incorporated dispositions of the actors and the contexts of their actions, sociology "desevidentialize," denaturalize, desubstantialize, and historicize the social world by contributing to do away with spontaneous representations that distort the reality of things. Besides, when sociology studies the social at the level of the individuals and individual actions, it destroys the fictions (juridical and philosophical) of the isolated individuals, enclosed on himself, free and fully conscious of everything...

Background Vulnerability in the past has sometimes been measured and understood in terms of checklists or common understanding. It is argued here that vulnerability is a more complex issue than this. Although checklists of vulnerable groups are important, they do not capture the essence and dynamics of vulnerability. Objective The case of rural health vulnerability in South Africa is discussed to show that classifying people into vulnerable groups does not portray the complexity and intricacies of what it means to have vulnerability...

Objectives A significant proportion of Quebec seniors are living with mental health problems or psychosocial issues such as isolation, bereavement, and psychological distress. These people face many forms of exclusion and are likely to have limited social participation. This paper describes the co-construction steps of a program aimed at promoting community participation among this population.Methods A method for the co-construction of innovative practices in health promotion was used to develop a program that is relevant, rigorous and feasible in diverse settings...

Numerous studies have focused on the influence of the social environment and the interactions between individuals on the collective decision-making of groups. They showed, for example, that attraction between individuals is at the origin of an amplification of individual preferences. These preferences may concern various environmental cues such as biomolecules that convey information about the environment such as vanillin, which, for some insects, is an attractant. In this study, we analysed how the social context of the cockroaches of the species Periplaneta americana modifies preferences when individuals are offered two shelters, of which one is vanillin scented...

In this qualitative exploratory study we asked how smoking among young adults relates to the local neighbourhood context to better understand place-based social inequalities in smoking. We used data collected through focus groups with young adults from four economically diverse neighbourhoods in Montreal, Canada. Using the collective lifestyles framework to guide data analysis, we examined within and between neighbourhood social norms, practices, and agency. We found that some smoking-related social norms, practices and agency were particular to neighbourhoods of the same socio-economic status (SES)...

BACKGROUND: Dog bites are a frequent injury, but the incidence and type of lesions vary across countries. Although only few patients develop complications, the treatment of advanced injuries has a considerable medical, social and economic impact. A frequently isolated pathogen in dog bite wounds is Capnocytophaga canimorsus, a bacterium that can cause sepsis or meningitis. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO₂) therapy has been shown to be useful in treating anaerobic infections, most likely because it creates an inhospitable environment for the bacterium and enhances the patient's immune response...

Palliative care demonstrably improves quality of life for the seriously ill in a manner that averts preventable health crises and their associated costs. Because of these outcomes, palliative care is now broadening its reach beyond hospitals, and hospice care for those near death, to patients and their families living in the community with chronic multimorbidities that have uncertain or long expected survival. In this article, we address research needed to enable policies supportive of palliative care access and quality, including changes in regulatory, accreditation, financing, and training approaches in the purview of policy makers...