To be happy and behave in a healthier way. A longitudinal study about gender differences in the older population

Sex-Specific Dietary Patterns and Social Behaviour in Low-Risk Individuals

Dietary and social behaviour are non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. Non-communicable diseases are related to dietary patterns. To date, little is known about how social behaviour is associated with health-related dietary patterns, and, in particular, we lack information about the role of sex within this possible relation. Our cross-sectional study investigated associations between dietary patterns and social behaviour including personality traits (self-control, risk taking), political preferences (conservative, liberal, ecological, social) and altruism (willingness to donate, club membership, time discounting) in men and women. We performed sex-specific correlation analyses to investigate relationships between dietary patterns based on self-reported protocols from the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) and the validated Healthy Eating Index (HEI) from the EPIC Study and a self-reported social behaviour questionnaire. In linear regression models, we analysed associations between dietary and social behaviour patterns. Sex differences were measured by interaction analysis for each social behaviour item. The study sample consisted of N = 102 low-risk individuals. The median age of the study participants was 62.4 (25th/75th percentile 53.6, 69.1) years, and 26.5% were women. Analyses showed that a lower HEI score was correlated with a higher BMI in both women and men. MEDAS and HEI showed a positive correlation with each other in men. In men, a higher MEDAS showed a positive correlation when they estimated their ability as high, with the same for self-control and preference for ecological politics and MEDAS. A weak negative correlation has been shown between men with a preference for conservative politics and MEDAS. HEI showed a positive significant correlation with age in men. Male participants without club membership scored significantly higher in the HEI compared to non-members. A negative correlation was shown for time discounting in men. Linear regression models showed positive associations between preferences for ecological-oriented politics and nutrition for both HEI and MEDAS. No sex interactions were observed. We faced a few limitations, such as a small sample size, particularly for women, and a limited age spectrum in a European cohort. However, assuming that individuals with a preference for ecological-oriented politics act ecologically responsibly, our findings indicate that ecological behaviour in low-risk individuals might determine, at least in part, a healthy diet. Furthermore, we observed dietary patterns such as higher alcohol consumption in men or higher intake of butter, margarine and cream in women that indicate that women and men may have different needs for nutritional improvement. Thus, further investigations are needed to better understand how social behaviour affects nutrition, which could help to improve health. Our findings have the potential to inform researchers and practitioners who investigate the nature of the relationship between social behaviour and dietary patterns to implement strategies to create first-stage changes in health behaviour for individuals with a low cardiovascular risk profile.

Health benefits of physical activity for people with mental disorders: From the perspective of multidimensional subjective wellbeing

This paper uses a large scale and nationally representative dataset, Chinese General Social Survey, to empirically examine the role of physical activity in reducing the negative effects of depression among people with mental disorders. Empirical results demonstrate that physical exercise could help to alleviate depression's adverse consequences on work and life for depressed individuals. The impact mechanism is that physical activity may decrease the severity of depression, enhance life satisfaction, improve mood, and make people have a better sense of purpose and meaning in life. Therefore, from the perspective of multidimensional subjective wellbeing, evaluative wellbeing, experienced wellbeing and eudaimonic wellbeing all play mediating roles in the reduction of depression's adverse effects. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are no significant gender differences in the health benefits of physical exercise, but its impact tends to be more prominent for depressed individuals who are younger and higher educated, with better health status, and live in urban areas. It is also found that socioeconomic status may play an important moderating role. The health benefits of physical activity seem to be greater for depressed people who have lower income, work in the secondary labor market, and have lower levels of social capital and assets. In addition, the instrumental variable approach is used to identify the causal impact of physical activity, which further proves a significant effect of it based on tackling the endogeneity problem. Meanwhile, this paper uses different explanatory and explained variables, different statistical models, as well as machine learning and placebo techniques to conduct robustness tests, all of which lend credence to above findings.

Differences According to Sex in the Relationship between Social Participation and Well-Being: A Network Analysis

This study aimed to explore the effects of different types of social participation on the components of well-being, as well as the differences according to sex in the relationship between social participation and well-being. This was a cross-sectional community study. Well-being was measured using the positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (PERMA) profile. Social participation included activities of daily life, sports and entertainment activities, and social service activities. The independent association between each type of social participation and the components of well-being was examined by using a network analysis in both males and females. Of all 1276 participants surveyed, 60% were females. The results of the network analysis showed that positive emotion-housework (0.263), positive emotion-games (0.102), engagement-housework (0.107), engagement-work (0.054), and meaning-socializing (0.085) had unique connections in males; the average predictability in the network was 0.417. For females, positive emotion-physical activity (0.102), engagement-associations or societies (0.071), relationships-physical (0.090), relationships-socializing (0.092), and relationships-volunteering activities (0.133) had significant connections; the average predictability in the network was 0.358. Different types of social participation may have different effects on the components of well-being. Furthermore, differences according to sex in the relationship between social participation and well-being should be considered when formulating interventions to improve well-being.

Global research trends in the subjective well-being of older adults from 2002 to 2021: A bibliometric analysis

Purpose

This study aimed to explore current developments and trends in the field of subjective well-being (SWB) of older adults at a macro level and identify research hotspots.

Methods

We included reviews and articles on the SWB of older adults in the Web of Science Core Collection published from 2002 to 2021. We used CiteSpace to draw a knowledge map of the authors, institutions, countries, references, and keywords for visual analysis and used Microsoft Excel tables to count basic information details.

Results

A total of 354 papers were included, and the number of papers published over the past two decades showed a pattern of growth. The core force of publications was primarily attributed to studies conducted in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania, which have relatively major issues of aging and good economic strength. However, links between states, institutions, and authors were relatively weak. Cluster analysis showed that the research field could be divided into eight topics: the application of social psychology in the study of the SWB of older adults, aging in older adults, health condition of older adults, achieving successful aging, interventions for SWB, age differences in SWB research, an economic perspective of SWB research and social support for older adults. Current research frontiers are socioeconomic status, community, intervention, participation, adjustment, validation, and personality.

Conclusion

The results of the present study provided a comprehensive picture in the research field of SWB of older adults. It showed that the mechanism, especially the bidirectional effect, between the SWB of older adults and its influencing factors is still worthy of further exploration. More research on evidence-based and intervention strategies should be conducted in the future.