Housing quality and behavior affect brain health and anxiety in healthy Japanese adults

Neurosustainability

While the human brain has evolved extraordinary abilities to dominate nature, modern living has paradoxically trapped it in a contemporary "cage" that stifles neuroplasticity. Within this modern environment lurk unseen natural laws with power to sustain the human brain's adaptive capacities - if consciously orchestrated into the environments we design. For too long our contemporary environments have imposed an unyielding static state, while still neglecting the brain's constant adaptive nature as it evolves to dominate the natural world with increasing sophistication. The theory introduced in this article aims to go back in nature without having to go back in time, introducing and expounding Neurosustainability as a novel paradigm seeing beyond the contemporary confines to architect environments and brains in parallel. Its integrated neuro-evidenced framework proposes four enrichment scopes-spatial, natural, aesthetic, and social-each holding multifaceted attributes promising to sustain regions like the hippocampus, cortex and amygdala. Neurosustainability aims to liberate the quintessential essence of nature to sustain and enhance neuroplastic processes through a cycle that begins with design and extends through epigenetic changes. This paradigm shift aims to foster cognitive health and wellness by addressing issues like stress, depression, anxiety and cognitive decline common in the contemporary era thereby offering a path toward a more neurosustainable era aiming to nurture the evolution of the human brain now and beyond.

Brain Healthcare Quotient as a Tool for Standardized Approach in Brain Healthcare Interventions

In addressing the challenge of assessing healthy brain aging across diverse interventions, this study introduces the use of MRI-derived Brain Healthcare Quotients (BHQ) for comprehensive evaluation. We analyzed BHQ changes in 319 participants aged 24-69, who were allocated into dietary (collagen peptide, euglena, matcha, isohumulone, xanthophyll) and physical activity (hand massage with lavender oil, handwriting, office stretching, pink lens, clinical art) groups, alongside a control group, over a month. These interventions were specifically chosen to test the efficacy of varying health strategies on brain health, measured through BHQ indices: GM-BHQ for gray matter volume, and FA-BHQ for white matter integrity. Notably, significant improvements in FA-BHQ were observed in the collagen peptide group, with marginal increases in the hand massage and office stretching groups. These findings highlight BHQ's potential as a sensitive tool for detecting brain health changes, offering evidence that low-intensity, easily implemented interventions can have beneficial effects on brain health. Moreover, BHQ allows for the systematic evaluation of such interventions using standard statistical approaches, suggesting its value in future brain healthcare research.

Whole Brain and Corpus Callosum Fractional Anisotropy Differences in Patients with Cognitive Impairment

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an MRI analysis method that could help assess cognitive impairment (CI) in the ageing population more accurately. In this research, we evaluated fractional anisotropy (FA) of whole brain (WB) and corpus callosum (CC) in patients with normal cognition (NC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and moderate/severe cognitive impairment (SCI). In total, 41 participants were included in a cross-sectional study and divided into groups based on Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores (NC group, nine participants, MCI group, sixteen participants, and SCI group, sixteen participants). All participants underwent an MRI examination that included a DTI sequence. FA values between the groups were assessed by analysing FA value and age normative percentile. We did not find statistically significant differences between the groups when analysing CC FA values. Both approaches showed statistically significant differences in WB FA values between the MCI-SCI and MCI-NC groups, where the MCI group participants showed the highest mean FA and highest mean FA normative percentile results in WB.

Declined Live Birth Rate from in vitro Fertilization Fresh Cycles Performed During Chinese New Year Holiday Season

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday season on the outcomes of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) fresh embryo transfer cycles.

Participants and Methods

This retrospective study analyzed 4688 patients who received their first IVF fresh cycle attempt between January 2017 and October 2021. Of these, 4449 women underwent IVF during non-holiday seasons, while 239 women were treated during the CNY holiday season. The study included women who underwent IVF treatment during the specified time frame. The primary outcome was the live birth rate (LBR).

Results

The study found that the LBR of IVF performed during the CNY holiday season was 32.22%, which is significantly lower than that of the non-holiday season (43.38%, p<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the CNY holiday season (OR=0.62, 95% CI 0.47-0.82, p=0.001) was an independent factor associated with the live birth rate. Propensity score matching (PSM) data analysis showed that the LBR in the CNY holiday season group was 31.78% compared to 42.64% in the non-holiday season group (p=0.005). Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) data also indicated that the CNY holiday season had a lower LBR than the non-holiday season (OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.47-0.87, p=0.005).

Conclusion

IVF performed during the CNY holiday season results in a lower live birth rate, potentially indicating that certain lifestyle adjustments during this period, such as unhealthy dietary, tobacco and alcohol usage, sleep disruption, and emotional stress experienced could have some influence on the outcomes.

Factors and optimizations of healthcare workers' perception in alternative care facilities

Background

Diverse measures have been carried out worldwide to establish Alternative Care Facilities (ACFs) for different ends, such as receiving, curing or isolating patients, aiming to cope with tremendous shock in the urban medical system during the early passage of the COVID-19 epidemic. Healthcare workers always felt anxious and stressed during multiple major public health emergencies in medical facilities. Some active measures to improve healthcare workers' perceptions, such as temporary training, workflow improvement, and supplementary facilities, were proved insufficient in several past public health emergencies. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the contributing factors of the healthcare workers' perceptions of the ACFs in this pandemic, which can help find an innovative path to ensure their health, well-being and work efficiency.

Method

This paper conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with the world's first batch of healthcare workers who have worked in ACFs through a qualitative study based on Grounded Theory. The healthcare workers interviewed from Heilongjiang, Shandong, Fujian, and Hubei provinces, have worked in one of the four different ACFs built in Wuhan. The results are obtained through the three-level codes and analyses of the interview recordings.

Results

The factors affecting the perception of healthcare workers in ACFs during the epidemic situation can be summarized into five major categories: individual characteristics, organization management, facilities and equipment, space design, and internal environment. The five major categories affecting the composition of perception can be further divided into endogenous and exogenous factors, which jointly affect the perception of healthcare workers in ACFs. Among them, individual characteristics belong to endogenous factors, which are the primary conditions, while other categories belong to exogenous factors, which are the decisive conditions.

Conclusion

This paper clarifies factors affecting the perception of healthcare workers in ACFs and analyzes the mechanism of each factor. It is posited that the passive strategies are a promising solution to protect healthcare workers' health, improve their work efficiency, and help reduce the operation stress of ACFs. We should train multidisciplinary professionals for future healthcare and enhance collaborations between healthcare workers and engineers. To sum up, this paper broadens new horizons for future research on the optimization of ACFs and finds new paths for alleviating healthcare workers' adverse perceptions of ACFs.

Brain conditions mediate the association between aging and happiness

As the population ages, the realization of a long and happy life is becoming an increasingly important issue in many societies. Therefore, it is important to clarify how happiness and the brain change with aging. In this study, which was conducted with 417 healthy adults in Japan, the analysis showed that fractional anisotropy (FA) correlated with happiness, especially in the internal capsule, corona radiata, posterior thalamic radiation, cingulum, and superior longitudinal fasciculus. According to previous neuroscience studies, these regions are involved in emotional regulation. In psychological studies, emotional regulation has been associated with improvement in happiness. Therefore, this study is the first to show that FA mediates the relationship between age and subjective happiness in a way that bridges these different fields.

Effect of Housing Quality on the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown

COVID-19 outbreak imposed rapid and severe public policies that consistently impacted the lifestyle habits and mental health of the general population. Despite vaccination, lockdown restrictions are still considered as potential measures to contrast COVID-19 variants spread in several countries. Recent studies have highlighted the impacts of lockdowns on the population's mental health; however, the role of the indoor housing environment where people spent most of their time has rarely been considered. Data from 8177 undergraduate and graduate students were collected in a large, cross-sectional, web-based survey, submitted to a university in Northern Italy during the first lockdown period from 1 April to 1 May 2020. Logistic regression analysis showed significant associations between moderate and severe depression symptomatology (PHQ-9 scores ≥ 15), and houses with both poor indoor quality and small dimensions (OR = 4.132), either medium dimensions (OR = 3.249) or big dimensions (OR = 3.522). It was also found that, regardless of housing size, poor indoor quality is significantly associated with moderate-severe depressive symptomatology. Further studies are encouraged to explore the long-term impact of built environment parameter modifications on mental health, and therefore support housing and public health policies.