̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Public health

Problematic smartphone use linked to poorer grades, alcohol misuse and more sexual partners

cjb250 — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 16:09:42 +0000

Smartphones offer the potential of instant, round-the-clock access for making phone calls, playing games, gambling, chatting with friends, using messenger systems, accessing web services (e.g. websites, social networks and pornography), and searching for information. ̽��ֱ��number of users is rapidly increasing, with some estimates suggesting that there are now more than 2.7 billion users worldwide.

While most people using smartphones find them a helpful and positive part of life, a minority of users develop excessive smartphone use, meaning that smartphone use has significant negative effects on how people function in life. Previous research has linked excessive smartphone use to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and problems with self-esteem.

A collaborative team of researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Chicago, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Minnesota, developed the Health and Addictive Behaviours Survey to assess mental health and well-being in a large sample of university students. They used the survey to investigate the impact of smartphone use on university students. Just over a third (3,425) of students invited to take the test responded. ̽��ֱ��results are published today in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions.

̽��ֱ��self-report survey consisted of 156 questions. Based on their responses, the students were given a score ranging from 10 to 60, with a score of 32 and above being defined as problematic smartphone use. This definition was based on a threshold recommended previously in clinical validation studies using the scale. Typical characteristics of problematic use include: excessive use; trouble concentrating in class or at work due to smartphone use; feeling fretful or impatient without their smartphone; missing work due to smartphone use; and experiencing physical consequences of excessive use, such as light-headedness or blurred vision.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that one in five (20%) of respondents reported problematic smartphone use.

Problematic smartphone use was greater among female rather than male students – 64% of problem users were female. Importantly, the researchers found a link between problematic smartphone use and lower grade point averages (academic achievement).

“Although the effect of problematic smartphone use on grade point averages was relatively small, it’s worth noting that even a small negative impact could have a profound effect on an individual’s academic achievement and then on their employment opportunities in later life,” said Professor Jon Grant from the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience at the ̽��ֱ�� of Chicago.

While students reporting problematic smartphone use tended be less sexually active than their peers (70.9% compared to 74%), the proportion of students reporting two or more sexual partners in the past 12 months was significantly higher among problem users: 37.4% of sexually-active problematic smartphone users compared with 27.2% sexually-active students who reported no problem use. ̽��ֱ��proportion with six or more sexual partners was more than double among sexually-active problematic smartphone users (6.8% compared to 3.0%).

“Smartphones can help connect people and help people feel less isolated, and our findings suggest that they may act as an avenue for sexual contact, whether through sustained partnerships or more casual sex,” added Dr Sam Chamberlain, Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Cambridge & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that alcohol misuse was significantly higher in those with problematic smartphone use compared to the control group. To assess this, the team used a scale known as the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: a score of eight or above indicates harmful alcohol use. 33.3% of problematic smartphone users scored eight or above compared to 22.5% of other smartphone users. ̽��ֱ��researchers found no significant link with any other form of substance abuse or addiction.

In terms of other mental health problems, the researchers found that problematic smartphone use was significantly associated with lower self-esteem, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and PTSD, mirroring similar findings elsewhere.

“It’s easy to think of problematic smartphone use as an addiction, but if it was that simple, we would expect it to be associated with a wide range of substance misuse problems, especially in such a large sample, but this does not seem to be the case,” added Dr Sam Chamberlain.

“One possible explanation for these results is that people develop excessive smartphone use because of other mental health difficulties. For example, people who are socially isolated, those who experience depression or anxiety, or those who have attention problems (as in ADHD) may be more prone to excessive smartphone use, as well as to using alcohol. Smartphone use likely develops earlier in life – on average – than alcohol use problems and so it is unlikely that alcohol use itself leads to smartphone use.”

While the sample size for this study was relative large, suggesting that the findings should be fairly robust, the researchers point out that as a cross-sectional study (one that takes a ‘snapshot’ at one particular time, rather than following people over a longer period), and so direction of causality cannot be established. In other words, the study cannot say that problematic smartphone use leads to mental health issues or vice versa.

̽��ֱ��researchers point out the effect sizes were also generally small, and that more research is needed into positive and negative effects of smartphone use and mental health, including how this changes over time.

Reference
Problematic Smart Phone Use is Associated with Greater Alcohol Consumption, Mental Health Issues, Poorer Academic Performance, and Impulsivity. Journal of Behavioral Addictions; Date; DOI: 10.1556/2006.8.2019.32

A survey of more than 3,400 university students in the USA has found that one in five respondents reported problematic smartphone use. Female students were more likely be affected and problematic smartphone use was associated with lower grade averages, mental health problems and higher numbers of sexual partners.

It’s easy to think of problematic smartphone use as an addiction, but if it was that simple, we would expect it to be associated with a wide range of substance misuse problems

Sam Chamberlain

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̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Handheld device could transform heart disease screening

sc604 — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:10:47 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, developed a device that makes it easy for people with or without medical training to record heart sounds accurately. Unlike a stethoscope, the device works well even if it’s not placed precisely on the chest: its larger, flexible sensing area helps capture clearer heart sounds than traditional stethoscopes.

̽��ֱ��device can also be used over clothing, making it more comfortable for patients – especially women – during routine check-ups or community heart health screening programmes.

̽��ֱ��heart sound recordings can be saved on the device, which can then be used to detect signs of heart valve disease. ̽��ֱ��researchers are also developing a machine learning algorithm which can detect signs of valve disease automatically. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

Heart valve disease (valvular heart disease or VHD) has been called the ‘next cardiac epidemic,’ with a prognosis worse than many forms of cancer. Up to 50% of patients with significant VHD remain undiagnosed, and many patients only see their doctor when the disease has advanced and they are experiencing significant complications.

In the UK, the NHS and NICE have identified early detection of heart valve disease as a key goal, both to improve quality of life for patients, and to decrease costs.

An examination with a stethoscope, or auscultation, is the way that most diagnoses of heart valve disease are made. However, just 38% of patients who present to their GP with symptoms of valve disease receive an examination with a stethoscope.

“ ̽��ֱ��symptoms of VHD can be easily confused with certain respiratory conditions, which is why so many patients don’t receive a stethoscope examination,” said Professor Anurag Agarwal from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “However, the accuracy of stethoscope examination for diagnosing heart valve disease is fairly poor, and it requires a GP to conduct the examination.”

In addition, a stethoscope examination requires patients to partially undress, which is both time consuming in short GP appointments, and can be uncomfortable for patients, particularly for female patients in routine screening programmes.

̽��ֱ��‘gold standard’ for diagnosing heart valve disease is an echocardiogram, but this can only be done in a hospital and NHS waiting lists are extremely long – between six to nine months at many hospitals.

“To help get waiting lists down, and to make sure we’re diagnosing heart valve disease early enough that simple interventions can improve quality of life, we wanted to develop an alternative to a stethoscope that is easy to use as a screening tool,” said Agarwal.

Agarwal and his colleagues have developed a handheld device, about the diameter of a drinks coaster, that could be a solution. Their device can be used by any health professional to accurately record heart sounds, and can be used over clothes.

While a regular or electronic stethoscope has a single sensor, the Cambridge-developed device has six, meaning it is easier for the doctor or nurse – or even someone without any medical training – to get an accurate reading, simply because the surface area is so much bigger.

̽��ֱ��device contains materials that can transmit vibration so that it can be used over clothes, which is particularly important when conducting community screening programmes to protect patient privacy. Between each of the six sensors is a gel that absorbs vibration, so the sensors don’t interfere with each other.

̽��ֱ��researchers tested the device on healthy participants with different body shapes and sizes and recorded their heart sounds. Their next steps will be to test the device in a clinical setting on a variety of patients, against results from an echocardiogram.

In parallel with the development of the device, the researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that can use the recorded heart sounds to detect signs of valve disease automatically. Early tests of the algorithm suggest that it outperforms GPs in detecting heart valve disease.

“If successful, this device could become an affordable and scalable solution for heart health screening, especially in areas with limited medical resources,” said Agarwal.

̽��ֱ��researchers say that the device could be a useful tool to triage patients who are waiting for an echocardiogram, so that those with signs of valve disease can be seen in a hospital sooner.

A patent has been filed on the device by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm. Anurag Agarwal is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Andrew McDonald et al. ‘A flexible multi-sensor device enabling handheld sensing of heart sounds by untrained users.’ IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (2025). DOI: 10.1109/JBHI.2025.3551882

Researchers have developed a handheld device that could potentially replace stethoscopes as a tool for detecting certain types of heart disease.

This device could become an affordable and scalable solution for heart health screening, especially in areas with limited medical resources

Anurag Agarwal

Acoustics Lab

Person demonstrating use of a handheld device for heart disease screening

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Removing pint glasses could reduce beer sales by almost 10%

cjb250 — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:08:32 +0000

Alcohol consumption is the fifth largest contributor to premature death and disease worldwide. In 2016 it was estimated to have caused approximately 3 million deaths worldwide.

Professor Dame Theresa Marteau and colleagues at the Behaviour and Health Research Unit have shown previously that serving wine in smaller glasses is associated with a decrease in sales.

To see if this effect was seen with other alcoholic drinks, they approached venues in England and asked them to remove the pint serving size and instead offer two-thirds as the largest option for four weeks, with four-week non-intervention periods before and after as a comparison.

In a study published in PLOS Medicine, the team found that removing the pint reduced the daily mean volume of beer, lager and cider sold by 9.7%, although there was a slight increase in the amount of wine purchased, with one pub contributing to half of the increase of wine sales. They report that although customers did not complain, fewer than 1% of venues approached agreed to participate and the intervention involved only 12 establishments.

Professor Marteau said: “Alcohol harms our health, increasing the risk of injury and many diseases including heart disease, bowel, breast and liver cancers. While we may all enjoy a drink, the less we drink the better our health.

“As we’ve shown is the case with wine, removing the largest serving size for beer, lager and cider – in this case, the pint – could encourage people to drink less. This could be beneficial both to the nation’s health and the health of individuals.”

Further assessment is needed, particularly into whether people fully compensated for reduced beer consumption by drinking other alcoholic drinks, but the intervention merits consideration for inclusion in alcohol control policies. Smaller serving sizes could contribute towards reducing alcohol consumption across populations and thereby decrease the risk of seven cancers and other diseases.

Reference
Mantzari, E et al. Impact on beer sales of removing the pint serving size: An A-B-A reversal trial in pubs, bars, and restaurants in England. PLOS Medicine; 17 Sept 2024; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004442

Adapted from a press release by PLOS Medicine

Cambridge researchers have shown that reducing the serving size for beer, lager and cider reduces the volume of those drinks consumed in pubs, bars and restaurants, which could have wider public health benefits.

While we may all enjoy a drink, the less we drink the better our health

Theresa Marteau

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Barman handing a customer a pint of beer

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Reclaim ‘wellness’ from the rich and famous, and restore its political radicalism, new book argues

ta385 — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s wellness industry generates trillions of dollars in revenue, but in a new book, Dr James Riley (Faculty of English & Girton College), shows that 1970s wellness pioneers imagined something radically different to today’s culture of celebrity endorsements and exclusive health retreats.

“Wellness was never about elite experiences and glossy, high-value products,” says Riley, noting that “When we think of wellness today, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and other lifestyle brands might come to mind, along with the oft-cited criticism that they only really offer quackery for the rich.” By contrast, in the 1970s, “wellness was much more practical, accessible and political.”

̽��ֱ��word, as it was first proposed in the late-1950s, described a holistic approach to well-being, one that attended equally to the mind (mental health), the body (physical health) and the spirit (one’s sense of purpose in life). ̽��ֱ��aim was to be more than merely ‘not ill’. Being well, according to the likes of Halbert Dunn and later in the 1970s, John Travis and Don Ardell, meant realising your potential, living with ‘energy to burn’ and putting that energy to work for the wider social good.

Riley’s Well Beings: How the Seventies Lost Its Mind and Taught Us to Find Ourselves, published by Icon Books on 28 March, is the first book to explore the background of the wellness concept in the wider political and cultural context of the 1970s.

“Wellness in the 1970s grew out of changing attitudes to health in the post-war period – the same thinking that gave rise to the NHS,” Riley says. “When coupled with the political activism of the 1960s counterculture and the New Left, what emerged was a proactive, socially oriented approach to physical and mental well-being. This was not about buying a product off the shelf.

“ ̽��ֱ��pursuit of wellness was intended to take time, commitment and effort. It challenged you to think through every facet of your life: your diet, health, psychology, relationships, community engagement and aspirations. ̽��ֱ��aim was to change your behaviour – for the better – for the long term.”

Riley’s book also makes a case for what the 1970s wellness industry can do for us today.

“We’re often warned about an imminent return to ‘the seventies’, a threat that’s based on the stereotypical image of the decade as one of social decline, urban strife, and industrial discontent. It’s an over-worked comparison that tends to say more about our own social problems, our own contemporary culture of overlapping political, social and economic crises. Rather than fearing the seventies, there’s much we can learn to help us navigate current difficulties.”

“It was in the 1970s that serious thought was given to stress and overwork to say nothing of such frequently derided ‘events’ as the mid-life crisis and the nervous breakdown. ̽��ֱ��manifold pressures of modern life - from loneliness to information overload - increasingly came under the microscope and wellness offered the tools to deal with them.”

“Not only are these problems still with us, they’ve got much worse. To start remedying them, we need to remember what wellness used to mean. ̽��ֱ��pandemic, for all its horrors, reminded us of the importance of mutual self-care. To deal with the ongoing entanglement of physical and mental health requires more of that conviviality. Being well should be within everyone’s reach, it should not be a privilege afforded to those who have already done well.”

Mindfulness versus wellness

At the heart of Riley’s book is an analysis of the ongoing corporate and commercial tussle between ‘mindfulness’ and ‘wellness’.

In 1979 Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Programme at the ̽��ֱ�� of Massachusetts Medical Center, where he taught ‘mindfulness-based stress reduction’. For Kabat-Zinn mindfulness meant accepting the inevitable stress that comes with the ‘full catastrophe’ of life and adopting an attitude of serene resilience in the face of it. Stress could be alleviated thanks to a regular meditation routine and small changes made to the working day such as the decision to try a different, more pleasant commute. Little was said about altering the pace of the work causing the stress in the first place.

By contrast, John Travis, a medical doctor who founded the Wellness Resource Center in California’s Marin County in 1975, talked about the health dangers of sedentary, office-based jobs while Don Ardell, author of High Level Wellness (1977), encouraged his readers to become agents of change in the workplace. Both saw work-fixated lifestyles as the problem. Work and work-related stress was thus something to fix, not to endure.

Ardell argued that because burn-out was becoming increasingly common it was incumbent upon employers to offer paid time off to improve employee well-being. Better to be too well to come to work, reasoned Ardell, than too sick. “We tend to think that flexible hours and remote working are relatively new concepts, particularly in the digital and post-COVID eras,” adds Riley, “but Ardell was calling for this half a century ago.”

Riley argues that the techniques of mindfulness, rather than those of wellness, have proved attractive to contemporary corporate culture because they ultimately help to maintain the status quo. Corporate mindfulness puts the onus on the employee to weather the storm of stress. It says, “there is nothing wrong with the firm, you are the problem, this is the pace, get with it or leave”.

According to Riley this view is a far-cry from the thinking of seventies wellness advocates like Travis and Ardell who “imagined a health-oriented citizenship, a process of development in which social well-being follows on from the widespread optimistic and goal-oriented pursuit of personal health. It’s that sense of social mission that self-care has lost.”

Riley points out that this self-care mission had a very particular meaning in the 1970s among groups like ̽��ֱ��Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which established clinics and ran an ambulance service for black communities in and around Oakland, California. “They were saying you’ve got to look after yourself so you can then look after your community. Such communal effort was vital because the system was seen to be so opposed to Oakland’s needs. One sees the deeply political potency of ‘self-care’ in this context. It meant radical, collective autonomy, not indulgent self-regard.”

̽��ֱ��bad guru

As well as suggesting positive lessons from the past, Riley is also quick to call out the problems. “ ̽��ֱ��emphasis on self-responsibility in wellness culture could easily turn into a form of patient-blame,” he argues, “the idea that if you’re ill, or rather if you fail to be well, it’s your fault, a view that neglects to consider all kinds of social and economic factors that contribute to ill-health.”

Elsewhere, Riley draws attention to the numerous claims of exploitation and abuse within the wider context of the alternative health systems, new religious movements and ‘therapy cults’ that proliferated in the 1970s.

“It was not always a utopia of free thought. ̽��ֱ��complex and often unregulated world of New Age groups and alternative health systems could often be a minefield of toxic behaviour, aggressive salesmanship and manipulative mind games. Charismatic and very persuasive human engineers were a common presence in the scene, and one can easily see these anxieties reflected in the various ‘bad gurus’ of the period’s fiction and film.

“There are plenty of voices who say they gained great insights as a result of being pushed to their limits in these situations,” says Riley, “but many others were deeply affected, if not traumatised, by the same experiences.”

Self-experimentation

In addition to exploring the literature of the period, Riley’s research for Well Beings found him trying out many of the therapeutic practices he describes. These included extended sessions in floatation tanks, guided meditation, mindfulness seminars, fire walking, primal screaming in the middle of the countryside, remote healing, yoga, meal replacement and food supplements.

References

J Riley, Well Beings: How the Seventies Lost Its Mind and Taught Us to Find Ourselves. Published by Icon Books on 28th March 2024. ISBN: 9781785787898.

A new cultural history of the 1970s wellness industry offers urgent lessons for today. It reveals that in the seventies, wellness was neither narcissistic nor self-indulgent, and nor did its practice involve buying expensive, on-trend luxury products. Instead, wellness emphasised social well-being just as much as it focused on the needs of the individual. Wellness practitioners thought of self-care as a way of empowering people to prioritise their health so that they could also enhance the well-being of those around them.

Wellness was much more practical, accessible and political

James Riley

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People doing yoga together outdoors in Richmond USA in 2015

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School uniform policies linked to students getting less exercise, study finds

tdk25 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:01:19 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge study used data about the physical activity participation of more than a million five-to-17-year-olds internationally. It found that in countries where a majority of schools require students to wear uniforms, fewer young people tend to meet the average of 60 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Regardless of uniform policies, across most countries fewer girls than boys reach those recommended exercise levels. Among primary school students, however, the difference in activity between girls and boys was found to be wider in countries where most schools mandated uniforms. ̽��ֱ��same result was not found in secondary school-aged students.

̽��ֱ��authors suggest that this could be explained by the fact that younger children get more incidental exercise throughout the school day than older students; for example, through running, climbing and various other forms of active play at break and lunchtimes. There is already evidence that girls feel less comfortable in participating in active play if they are wearing certain types of clothing, such as skirts or dresses.

Importantly, the results do not definitively prove that school uniforms limit children’s physical activity and the researchers stress that “causation cannot be inferred”. Previous, smaller studies however provide support for these findings, indicating that uniforms could pose a barrier. For the first time, the research examines large-scale statistical evidence to assess that claim.

̽��ֱ��study was led by Dr Mairead Ryan, a researcher at the Faculty of Education and Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“Schools often prefer to use uniforms for various reasons,” Dr Ryan said. “We are not trying to suggest a blanket ban on them, but to present new evidence to support decision-making. School communities could consider design, and whether specific characteristics of a uniform might either encourage or restrict any opportunities for physical activity across the day.”

̽��ֱ��WHO recommends that young people get an average of 60 minutes of at least moderate-intensity physical activity per day during the week. ̽��ֱ��study confirms previous observations that most children and adolescents are not meeting this recommendation, especially girls. ̽��ֱ��difference in the percentage of boys and girls meeting physical activity guidelines across all countries was, on average, 7.6 percentage points.

Existing evidence suggests that uniforms could be a factor. Previous concerns have, for example, been raised about girls’ PE uniforms and school sports kits. A 2021 study in England found that the design of girls’ PE uniforms deterred students from participating in certain activities, while the hockey player Tess Howard proposed redesigning gendered sports uniforms for similar reasons, after analysing interview and survey data.

Children often get their exercise away from PE and sports lessons, however.

“Activities like walking or cycling to school, breaktime games, and after-school outdoor play can all help young people incorporate physical activity into their daily routines,” Ryan said. “That’s why we are interested in the extent to which various elements of young people’s environments, including what they wear, encourage such behaviours.”

̽��ֱ��study analysed existing data on the physical activity levels of nearly 1.1 million young people aged five to 17 in 135 countries and combined this with newly collected data on how common the use of school uniforms is in these countries.

In over 75% of the countries surveyed, a majority of schools required their students to wear uniforms. ̽��ֱ��study found that in these countries, physical activity participation was lower. ̽��ֱ��median proportion of all students meeting the WHO recommendations in countries where uniform-wearing was the norm was 16%; this rose to 19.5% in countries where uniforms were less common.

There was a consistent gender gap between boys’ and girls’ physical activity levels, with boys 1.5 times more likely to meet WHO recommendations across all ages. However, the gap widened from 5.5 percentage points at primary school level in non-uniform countries to a 9.8 percentage point difference in countries where uniforms were required in most schools.

̽��ֱ��finding appears to match evidence from other studies suggesting that girls are more self-conscious about engaging in physical activity when wearing uniforms in which they do not feel comfortable.

“Girls might feel less confident about doing things like cartwheels and tumbles in the playground, or riding a bike on a windy day, if they are wearing a skirt or dress,” said senior author Dr Esther van Sluijs, MRC Investigator. “Social norms and expectations tend to influence what they feel they can do in these clothes. Unfortunately, when it comes to promoting physical health, that’s a problem.”

̽��ֱ��authors of the study argue that there is now enough evidence to warrant further investigation into whether there is a causal relationship between school uniforms and lower activity levels. They also highlight the importance of regular physical activity for all young people, regardless of their gender.

“Regular physical activity helps support multiple physical, mental, and well-being needs, as well as academic outcomes,” Dr Ryan said. “We now need more information to build on these findings, considering factors like how long students wear their uniforms for after school, whether this varies depending on their background, and how broader gendered clothing norms may impact their activity.”

̽��ֱ��findings are reported in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.

Reference
Ryan, M et al. Are school uniforms associated with gender inequalities in physical activity? A pooled analysis of population-level data from 135 countries/regions. Journal of Sport and Health Science; 15 Feb 2024; DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2024.02.003

School uniform policies could be restricting young people from being active, particularly primary school-aged girls, new research suggests.

Social norms and expectations tend to influence what they feel they can do in these clothes. Unfortunately, when it comes to promoting physical health, that’s a problem

Esther van Sluijs

Thirdman

School children watching a sports game from indoors

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Sensors made from ‘frozen smoke’ can detect toxic formaldehyde in homes and offices

sc604 — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, developed sensors made from highly porous materials known as aerogels. By precisely engineering the shape of the holes in the aerogels, the sensors were able to detect the fingerprint of formaldehyde, a common indoor air pollutant, at room temperature.

̽��ֱ��proof-of-concept sensors, which require minimal power, could be adapted to detect a wide range of hazardous gases, and could also be miniaturised for wearable and healthcare applications. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a major source of indoor air pollution, causing watery eyes, burning in the eyes and throat, and difficulty breathing at elevated levels. High concentrations can trigger attacks in people with asthma, and prolonged exposure may cause certain cancers.

Formaldehyde is a common VOC and is emitted by household items including pressed wood products (such as MDF), wallpapers and paints, and some synthetic fabrics. For the most part, the levels of formaldehyde emitted by these items are low, but levels can build up over time, especially in garages where paints and other formaldehyde-emitting products are more likely to be stored.

According to a 2019 report from the campaign group Clean Air Day, a fifth of households in the UK showed notable concentrations of formaldehyde, with 13% of residences surpassing the recommended limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“VOCs such as formaldehyde can lead to serious health problems with prolonged exposure even at low concentrations, but current sensors don’t have the sensitivity or selectivity to distinguish between VOCs that have different impacts on health,” said Professor Tawfique Hasan from the Cambridge Graphene Centre, who led the research.

“We wanted to develop a sensor that is small and doesn’t use much power, but can selectively detect formaldehyde at low concentrations,” said Zhuo Chen, the paper’s first author.

̽��ֱ��researchers based their sensors on aerogels: ultra-light materials sometimes referred to as ‘liquid smoke’, since they are more than 99% air by volume. ̽��ֱ��open structure of aerogels allows gases to easily move in and out. By precisely engineering the shape, or morphology, of the holes, the aerogels can act as highly effective sensors.

Working with colleagues at Warwick ̽��ֱ��, the Cambridge researchers optimised the composition and structure of the aerogels to increase their sensitivity to formaldehyde, making them into filaments about three times the width of a human hair. ̽��ֱ��researchers 3D printed lines of a paste made from graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon, and then freeze-dried the graphene paste to form the holes in the final aerogel structure. ̽��ֱ��aerogels also incorporate tiny semiconductors known as quantum dots.

̽��ֱ��sensors they developed were able to detect formaldehyde at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, which is 0.4 percent of the level deemed safe in UK workplaces. ̽��ֱ��sensors also work at room temperature, consuming very low power.

“Traditional gas sensors need to be heated up, but because of the way we’ve engineered the materials, our sensors work incredibly well at room temperature, so they use between 10 and 100 times less power than other sensors,” said Chen.

To improve selectivity, the researchers then incorporated machine learning algorithms into the sensors. ̽��ֱ��algorithms were trained to detect the ‘fingerprint’ of different gases, so that the sensor was able to distinguish the fingerprint of formaldehyde from other VOCs.

“Existing VOC detectors are blunt instruments – you only get one number for the overall concentration in the air,” said Hasan. “By building a sensor that can detect specific VOCs at very low concentrations in real time, it can give home and business owners a more accurate picture of air quality and any potential health risks.”

̽��ֱ��researchers say the same technique could be used to develop sensors to detect other VOCs. In theory, a device the size of a standard household carbon monoxide detector could incorporate multiple different sensors within it, providing real-time information about a range of different hazardous gases. “At Warwick, we're developing a low-cost multi-sensor platform that will incorporate these new aerogel materials and, coupled with AI algorithms, detect different VOCs,” said co-author Professor Julian Gardner from Warwick ̽��ֱ��.

“By using highly porous materials as the sensing element, we’re opening up whole new ways of detecting hazardous materials in our environment,” said Chen.

̽��ֱ��research was supported in part by the Henry Royce Institute, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Tawfique Hasan is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Zhuo Chen et al. ‘Real-time, noise and drift resilient formaldehyde sensing at room temperature with aerogel filaments.’ Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk6856

Researchers have developed a sensor made from ‘frozen smoke’ that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect formaldehyde in real time at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, far beyond the sensitivity of most indoor air quality sensors.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Silica aerogel

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Feeling depressed linked to short-term increase in bodyweight among people with overweight or obesity

cjb250 — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:00:05 +0000

̽��ֱ��study, published today in PLOS ONE, found that the increase was only seen among people with overweight or obesity, but found no link between generally having greater symptoms of depression and higher bodyweight.

Research has suggested a connection between weight and mental health – with each potentially influencing the other – but the relationship is complex and remains poorly understood, particularly in relation to how changes in an individual’s mental health influence their bodyweight over time.

To help answer this question, researchers at Cambridge’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit examined data from over 2,000 adults living in Cambridgeshire, UK, who had been recruited to the Fenland COVID-19 Study.

Participants completed digital questionnaires on mental wellbeing and bodyweight every month for up to nine months during the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2020 – April 2021) using a mobile app developed by Huma Therapeutics Limited.

Questions assessed an individual’s symptoms of depression, anxiety and perceived stress. A higher score indicated greater severity, with the maximum possible scores being 24 for depression, 21 for anxiety and 40 for stress. ̽��ֱ��team then used statistical modelling to explore whether having poorer mental wellbeing than usual was related to changes in bodyweight one month later.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that for every increment increase in an individual’s usual score for depressive symptoms, their subsequent weight one month later increased by 45g. This may seem small but would mean, for example, that in an individual whose depressive symptoms score rose from five to 10 (equal to an increase from ‘mild’ to ‘moderate’ depressive symptoms) it would relate to an average weight gain of 225g (0.225kg).

This effect was only observed in those individuals with overweight (defined as BMI 25-29.9kg/m2) or with obesity (BMI of over 30kg/m2). Individuals with overweight had on average an increase of 52g for each increment point increase from their usual depressive symptoms score and for those with obesity the comparable weight gain was 71g. ̽��ֱ��effect was not seen in those individuals with a healthy weight.

First author Dr Julia Mueller from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: “Overall, this suggests that individuals with overweight or obesity are more vulnerable to weight gain in response to feeling more depressed. Although the weight gain was relatively small, even small weight changes occurring over short periods of time can lead to larger weight changes in the long-term, particularly among those with overweight and obesity.

“People with a high BMI are already at greater risk from other health conditions, so this could potentially lead to a further deterioration in their health. Monitoring and addressing depressive symptoms in individuals with overweight or obesity could help prevent further weight gain and be beneficial to both their mental and physical health.”

̽��ֱ��researchers found no evidence that perceived stress or anxiety were related to changes in weight.

Senior author Dr Kirsten Rennie from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: “Apps on our phones make it possible for people to answer short questions at home more frequently and over extended periods of time, which provides much more information about their wellbeing. This technology could help us understand how changes in mental health influence behaviour among people with overweight or obesity and offer ways to develop timely interventions when needed.”

Although previous studies have suggested that poor mental health is both a cause and consequence of obesity, the research team found no evidence that weight predicted subsequent symptoms of depression.

̽��ֱ��research was supported by the Medical Research Council.

Reference
Mueller, J et al. ̽��ֱ��relationship of within-individual and between-individual variation in mental health with bodyweight: An exploratory longitudinal study. PLOS ONE; 10 Jan 2024; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295117

Increases in symptoms of depression are associated with a subsequent increase in bodyweight when measured one month later, new research from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has found.

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Healthy lifestyle can help prevent depression – and new research may explain why

cjb250 — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 15:00:41 +0000

In research published today in Nature Mental Health, an international team of researchers, including from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Fudan ̽��ֱ��, looked at a combination of factors including lifestyle factors, genetics, brain structure and our immune and metabolic systems to identify the underlying mechanisms that might explain this link.

According to the World Health Organization, around one in 20 adults experiences depression, and the condition poses a significant burden on public health worldwide. ̽��ֱ��factors that influence the onset of depression are complicated and include a mixture of biological and lifestyle factors.

To better understand the relationship between these factors and depression, the researchers turned to UK Biobank, a biomedical database and research resource containing anonymised genetic, lifestyle and health information about its participants.

By examining data from almost 290,000 people – of whom 13,000 had depression – followed over a nine-year period, the team was able to identify seven healthy lifestyle factors linked with a lower risk of depression. These were:

moderate alcohol consumption
healthy diet
regular physical activity
healthy sleep
never smoking
low-to-moderate sedentary behaviour
frequent social connection

Of all of these factors, having a good night’s sleep – between seven and nine hours a night – made the biggest difference, reducing the risk of depression, including single depressive episodes and treatment-resistant depression, by 22%.

Frequent social connection, which in general reduced the risk of depression by 18%, was the most protective against recurrent depressive disorder.

Moderate alcohol consumption decreased the risk of depression by 11%, healthy diet by 6%, regular physical activity by 14%, never smoking by 20%, and low-to-moderate sedentary behaviour by 13%.

Based on the number of healthy lifestyle factors an individual adhered to, they were assigned to one of three groups: unfavourable, intermediate, and favourable lifestyle. Individuals in the intermediate group were around 41% less likely to develop depression compared to those in the unfavourable lifestyle, while those in the favourable lifestyle group were 57% less likely.

̽��ֱ��team then examined the DNA of the participants, assigning each a genetic risk score. This score was based on the number of genetic variants an individual carried that have a known link to risk of depression. Those with the lowest genetic risk score were 25% less likely to develop depression when compared to those with the highest score – a much smaller impact than lifestyle.

In people at high, medium, and low genetic risk for depression, the team further found that a healthy lifestyle can cut the risk of depression. This research underlines the importance of living a healthy lifestyle for preventing depression, regardless of a person's genetic risk.

Professor Barbara Sahakian, from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Although our DNA – the genetic hand we’ve been dealt – can increase our risk of depression, we’ve shown that a healthy lifestyle is potentially more important.

“Some of these lifestyle factors are things we have a degree control over, so trying to find ways to improve them – making sure we have a good night’s sleep and getting out to see friends, for example – could make a real difference to people’s lives.”

To understand why a healthy lifestyle might reduce the risk of depression, the team studied a number of other factors.

First off, they examined MRI brain scans from just under 33,000 participants and found a number of regions of the brain where a larger volume – more neurons and connections – was linked to a healthy lifestyle. These included the pallidum, thalamus, amygdala and hippocampus.

Next, the team looked for markers in the blood that indicated problems with the immune system or metabolism (how we process food and produce energy). Among those markers found to be linked to lifestyle were the C-reactive protein, a molecule produced in the body in response to stress, and triglycerides, one of the primary forms of fat that the body uses to store energy for later.

These links are supported by a number of previous studies. For example, exposure to stress in life can affect how well we are able to regulate blood sugar, which may lead to a deterioration of immune function and accelerate age-related damage to cells and molecules in the body. Poor physical activity and lack of sleep can damage the body’s ability to respond to stress. Loneliness and lack of social support have been found to increase the risk of infection and increase markers of immune deficiency.

̽��ֱ��team found that the pathway from lifestyle to immune and metabolic functions was the most significant. In other words, a poorer lifestyle impacts on our immune system and metabolism, which in turn increases our risk of depression.

Dr Christelle Langley, also from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “We’re used to thinking of a healthy lifestyle as being important to our physical health, but it’s just as important for our mental health. It’s good for our brain health and cognition, but also indirectly by promoting a healthier immune system and better metabolism.”

Professor Jianfeng Feng, from Fudan ̽��ֱ�� and Warwick ̽��ֱ��, added: “We know that depression can start as early as in adolescence or young adulthood, so educating young people on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and its impact on mental health should begin in schools.”

This study was supported by grants from organisations including the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science, China*.

Reference
Zhao, Y & Yang, L et al. ̽��ֱ��brain structure, immunometabolic and genetic mechanisms underlying the association between lifestyle and depression. Nature Mental Health; 11 Sept 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00120-1

*A full list of funders can be found in the paper.

A healthy lifestyle that involves moderate alcohol consumption, a healthy diet, regular physical activity, healthy sleep and frequent social connection, while avoiding smoking and too much sedentary behaviour, reduces the risk of depression, new research has found.

Although our DNA – the genetic hand we’ve been dealt – can increase our risk of depression, we’ve shown that a healthy lifestyle is potentially more important.

Barbara Sahakian

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