The Relationship between Lifestyle, Mental Health, and Loneliness in the Elderly during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The study focused on examining the relationship between well-being and various psychological factors such as loneliness, anxiety, depression, and stress, whilst also considering changes in lifestyle. A total of 108 elderly participants, with an average age of 70.38 years, were enrolled in this quantitative cross-sectional study. The research employed a battery of assessment tools including a Sociodemographic Data Questionnaire, Mini-Mental State Examination, Positive Mental Health Scale, Stress Perception Scale, Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, Geriatric Depression Scale (reduced version), Loneliness Scale, and International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was conducted in order to understand the distribution of scores across these variables, followed by the categorization of participants based on the reported alterations in eating and physical activity behaviors. Correlations between variables were assessed using Spearman correlation and an EBIC-LASSO network analysis. The findings indicated a potential detriment to the well-being of elderly individuals practicing social distancing, evidenced by heightened symptoms of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and stress, alongside the reported changes in dietary patterns and physical activity. The study underscores the importance of understanding the pandemic's impact on the well-being of older adults and advocates for longitudinal investigations to delineate the evolving effects of social distancing measures across different phases of the pandemic.

Transcultural Comparison of Mental Health and Work-Life Integration Blurring in the Brazilian and Spanish Populations during COVID-19.

The study aimed to compare the impact of Role Blurring on mental health and Work-Life Integration in the Brazilian and Spanish populations during COVID-19. Role Blurring, which is related to resources and demands in the work context, affects coping with stressors arising from role overlapping and impacts individuals' perception of work overload and mental health. The sample consisted of 877 adults from Spain (n = 498) and Brazil (n = 372), and various statistical analyses were conducted to compare the groups. Results showed that Role Blurring is linked to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, as well as suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is essential to promote working conditions that limit expectations on availability and favor disconnection from work during leisure time. Public policies that intervene, promote, and prevent psychosocial risk factors in emergent contexts are crucial to prevent suicidal ideation and attempts. Considering the high expected influence of Blurring as a focus of interventions can be reflected in the medium term in the indicators of well-being and satisfaction of companies, institutions and organizations. This can result in the reduction of health costs aimed at cushioning post-COVID-19 impacts on mental health. The study is relevant to understand the impact of the pandemic and technology on mental health and suggests the need for interventions to promote work-life balance and prevent psychosocial risks.

A pilot screening for cognitive impairment through voice technology (WAY2AGE).

Voice technology has grown exponentially, offering an opportunity to different fields, such as the health area. Considering that language can be a sign of cognitive impairment and most screening tools are based on speech measures, these devices are of interest. The aim of this work was to examine a screening tool for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) through voice technology. For this reason, the WAY2AGE voice Bot was tested across Mini-Mental (MMSE) scores. The main results depict a strong relationship between MMSE and WAY2AGE scores, as well as a good AUC value to discriminate between no cognitive impairment (NCI) and MCI groups. However, a relationship between age and WAY2AGE scores, but not between age and MMSE scores, was found. This would indicate that, even if WAY2AGE seems sensitive to detect MCI, the voice tool is age-sensitive and not as robust as the traditional MMSE scale. Future lines of research should look more deeply into parameters that distinguish developmental changes. As a screening tool, these results are of interest for the health area and for at-risk older adults.

Evaluating the complete (44-item), short (20-item) and ultra-short (10-item) versions of the Big Five Inventory (BFI) in the Brazilian population.

The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is an instrument designed to assess the personality of individuals aged 18 and above. The original version consists of 44 items divided into five sub-scales representing each of the five personality factors: agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion. The main purpose of this study was to assess the factorial structure of the 44-item BFI and the reliability of two shorter versions with 20 and 10 items. The study also aimed to present normative data for interpreting scores from the short and ultrashort versions of the BFI for the Brazilian population. A total of 3565 individuals with a mean age of 33.3 years (SD = 13.0) from all Brazilian states participated in the study, with 44.2% from the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and the BFI. Confirmatory factor analysis showed poor adaptation of the original 44-item model, but the short and ultrashort versions with 20 and 10 items respectively had good adaptation indexes and reliability, with Omega coefficients above 0.70. Normative data for the shorter versions were presented using mean, standard deviation, and percentiles (lower, medium, and higher). The study concluded that the short and ultrashort versions of the BFI have good reliability and can be used in surveys requiring a brief personality assessment.

Analysing Deception in Witness Memory through Linguistic Styles in Spontaneous Language.

The act of lying and its detection have raised interest in many fields, from the legal system to our daily lives. Considering that testimonies are commonly based on linguistic parameters, natural language processing, a research field concerned with programming computers to process and analyse natural language texts or speech, is a topic of interest on this front. This study aimed to examine the linguistic styles of simulated deception and true testimonies collected with the aim of studying witness memory. Study participants were asked to act as a witness of a crime by retelling the story they had just read. Cognitive interviewing techniques were used to collect testimony under two conditions: truth and simulated deception. A sample of 48 participants volunteered to participate in the study. Analyses of the linguistic indicators and content were carried out. Specifically, we performed a comparison of testimonies of the same participant by condition to analyse the variation between (i) lexical and (ii) linguistic features and (iii) content and speech characteristics (disfluencies) depending on the narrative condition. Concerning lexical properties, adjectives were the most-varying grammatical category between truthful and deceptive testimonies. Furthermore, in the linguistic analysis, we observed that truthful testimonies were generally longer than deceptive ones in terms of the number of words and sentences and also characterised by more articulated sentence structures, and these differences were also statistically significant. Regarding the analysis of the content, cognitive criteria (details) and admitting lack of memory were more present in truthful statements. By providing an objective measure, these results are of interest in developing NLP tools for assessing the credibility of testimonies in forensics.

Psychometric Properties of the Subjective Cognitive Decline Questionnaire (SCD-Q) and Its Invariance across Age Groups.

Considering that a good sense of subjective cognitive decline seems to be crucial to prevent decline before clinical impairment, the interest in examining tools on this front were raised in the last decade. The aim of the present study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Subjective Cognitive Decline Questionnaire (SCD-Q) across age in its Spanish adaptation. It should be noted that two constructs were proposed in this context: mnestic processes and executive function factors. For this reason, a sample of 750 individuals aged from 18 to 82 years participated in the study. They were divided into three different groups: young, middle, and older adults. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and invariance analysis were carried out. Moreover, a logistic regression was employed to address the role of age. The results support a good goodness of fit for both uni- and bifactorial models. The invariance analysis reached the structural covariances levels. Last, age did not predict the recognition of cognitive decline in the last two years, while the SCD-Q bifactorial model did. These results are of interest both on a theoretical level, to provide more information on models of cognitive impairment, and on a practical level, for screening.

Cognitive Reserve in Older Adults: A Cluster Analysis / Reserva Cognitiva em Adultos Idosos: Uma Análise de Cluster

Abstract Cognitive reserve (CR) is a construct generally associated with neurodegenerative diseases in aging. The aim of this paper was to examine the CR profiles of older adults at different stages of their lifespan and evaluate the importance of: (a) gender and CR; and (b) CR, cognition, and symptoms of depression. A sample of 195 older adults volunteered to participate in the study, and a cluster analysis was carried out on their responses in terms of the Cognitive Reserve Scale. The cluster analysis depicted two different profiles. Furthermore, women had a better CR than men. The results provide an important contribution to understanding the variables related to the CR construct.

Resumo A reserva cognitiva (RC) é um construto geralmente associado a doenças neurodegenerativas no envelhecimento. O objetivo deste estudo foi examinar os perfis de RC em adultos idosos em diferentes estágios da vida, e avaliar o efeito de: (a) gênero e RC; e (b) RC, cognição e sintomas depressivos. A amostra contou com 195 adultos, e uma análise de cluster foi realizada a partir dos escores obtidos na Escala de Reserva Cognitiva. A análise de cluster descreveu dois perfis diferentes. Além disso, as mulheres apresentaram maior RC em comparação aos homens. Os resultados fornecem contribuições importantes para as variáveis relacionadas ao construto da RC.

Social Vulnerability and COVID-19 Vaccine in Spain.

Different analyses show that the design of vaccination policies should especially protect the most vulnerable social groups, since the level of acceptance is determined by the population's knowledge, attitude and concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. The objective of this work will be to detect the most socially vulnerable groups with respect to COVID-19 and to analyze the factors that influence predisposition to vaccination. This is a cross-sectional study using data from the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) on the Effects and Consequences of Coronavirus (Study 3346 of December 2021). Sociodemographic variables (sex, age, employment status, studies and subjective class identification) were extracted, as well as the answers to the questions indicating the attitude towards vaccination, corresponding to questions 7,8,10 and 11 of the study. The most vulnerable group was lower class women (self-perceived), under 45 years of age with lower educational level, unemployed or performing unpaid work in the home. Most of them are not predisposed to vaccinate only because of the obligation to do so, mainly due to lack of belief in the power and efficacy of vaccines, as well as fear of health risks/collateral side effects. The lower vaccine uptake in this vulnerable population group may be due to a lack of awareness and lower trust in the authorities, as well as the benefits of the vaccine, which could be related to a lack of policy targeting the most socially vulnerable populations.

Internal Structure, Invariance, and Rasch Analyses: A Work-Life Integration-Blurring Scale.

The aim of the study was to develop a role blurring (RB) tool to measure work-life integration in different contexts. A final number of 19 items was examined. Psychometric properties in both Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese versions were analysed, comparing the invariance of the measure between the two countries, and setting the difficulty parameter of the items. Thus, a total of two incidental samples volunteered to participate in the study: a Spanish sample of n = 498 and a Brazilian sample of n = 379 were recruited. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), as well as an invariance analysis, were performed between the two countries, in order to test the homogeneity structure of the measure. In addition, the item response theory (IRT) was used to establish the probability of response and difficulty of the items through a Rasch analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis pointed to a unifactorial structure. There were no statistically significant alterations in the model fit indices, and the Rasch rating scale model (RSM) showed adequate infit and outfit values, as well as successive response categories located in the expected order for all items.

Older Adults and Positive Mental Health during the Second and Sixth COVID-19 Waves in Spain.

The spread of the COVID-19 virus was a worldwide phenomenon, which was unprecedented in modern times. The restriction measures can be perceived as a heavy burden for mental health during this period, particularly for some groups. The aim of this study is to examine a positive mental health model across ages, where a moderated mediation model is proposed involving sex differences and confidence in coping with COVID-19. Two independent samples were studied during the second and sixth waves in Spain: n = 2861 and n = 2462, respectively. The main conclusions can be described as follows: (i) while age was not related to mental health during the second wave, a positive relationship was found between it and the sixth one; (ii) age was positively related to the confidence in coping with COVID-19 during both of the waves; (iii) women showed worse scores for the variables in the study than the men did during the second wave, but this pattern was reversed in the sixth one; (iv) after a moderated mediation model on the relationship between age and positive mental health in terms of confidence in coping with COVID-19 and sex, an interaction was found for the second wave but not for the sixth one. These results suggest that older adults and women would develop more strategies and resources for a positive mental health across time.

Caregivers' Profiles Based on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure for the Adoption of Assistive Technologies.

The COPM (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure) is a tool that is based on the identification of self-perceived performance and satisfaction problems in the performance of occupations, allowing the creation of a hierarchy in the order of the interventions to be carried out, and speeding up the identification of the necessary AT (Assistive Technologies). Given the importance of the caregiver's perception about their own performance in the design of AT, this research examines the caregiver's profile through the COPM. A sample of 40 caregivers volunteered to participate in the study. A cluster analysis was carried out on the COPM scores. Two caregiver profiles were found in relation to the COPM measure, one with low scores on performance and satisfaction and another with high scores on both of these two variables. The main predictor was found to be the self-perception of performance. The structure was replicated through a hierarchical cluster analysis, where the role of caregivers was of interest. These results are relevant on both a theoretical and practical level.

Predicting Scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) from Spontaneous Speech.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between language components, such as lexical density, length, and content in terms of "Time, Space and Action", with MMSE scores. For this reason, a group of 33 older participants, without a diagnosis of dementia, was examined, providing information regarding recent and future events. Participants with higher MMSE scores showed higher lexical density, speech length, as well as number of tokens related to Time, Place and Action in their speech. However, these differences only reach the statistical level for lexical density when participants were divided into two groups (MCI and healthy controls). Word frequency was lower for participants with MCI but this difference was not statistically significant. Lastly, lexical density was positively correlated with MMSE scores and predicted MMSE scores. These results could be of interest at the applied level in the screening of MCI.

Reading digital- versus print-easy texts: a study with university students who prefer digital sources.

The transition from on-paper to on-screen reading seems to make it necessary to raise some considerations, as a greater attentional effort has been claimed for print texts than digital ones. Not surprisingly, most university students prefer this digital medium. This research aims to examine reading times by contextualizing this phenomenon into two processes: namely, word recognition and reading comprehension task on paper and on screen. Thus, two different tasks-counterbalanced into digital and print mediums-were carried out per each participant with a preference for a digital medium: a reading comprehension task (RCT) and a lexical decision task (LDT) after reading a specific story. Participants were slower reading print texts and no statistically significant differences were found in RCT accuracy. This result suggests that the task required more cognitive resources under the print medium for those with a worse comprehension performance in reading, and a more conservative pattern in digital RCT for those with a better performance.

Testing a Model of Human Spatial Navigation Attitudes towards Global Navigation Satellite Systems.

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) can provide better data quality for different purposes; however, some age groups might lie outside its use. Understanding the barriers to its adoption is of interest in different fields. This work aims at developing a measurement instrument of the adoption attitudes towards this technology and examining the relationship of variables such as age and gender. A UTAUT model was tested on 350 participants. The main results can be summarised as follows: (i) the proposed GNSS scale on human spatial navigation attitudes towards geopositioning technology showed optimal psychometric properties; (ii) although statistically significant differences were found in the Wayfinding Questionnaire (WQ) between men and women, these did not reach the level of statistical significance for the scores on attitudes towards GNSS; (iii) by testing a model on human spatial navigation attitudes towards geopositioning technology, it was possible to show a higher relationship with age in women.

Health Professionals' Experience Using an Azure Voice-Bot to Examine Cognitive Impairment (WAY2AGE).

Virtual Assistants (VA) are a new groundbreaking tool for screening cognitive impairment by healthcare professionals. By providing the volume of data needed in healthcare guidance, better treatment monitoring and optimization of costs are expected. One of the first steps in the development of these items is the experience of the healthcare professionals in their use. The general goal of the current project, WAY2AGE, is to examine healthcare professionals' experience in using an Azure voice-bot for screening cognitive impairment. In this way, back-end services, such as the ChatBot, Speech Service and databases, are provided by the cloud platform Azure (Paas) for a pilot study. Most of the underlying scripts are implemented in Python, Net, JavaScript and open software. A sample of 30 healthcare workers volunteered to participate by answering a list of question in a survey set-up, following the example provided in the previous literature. Based on the current results, WAY2AGE was evaluated very positively in several categories. The main challenge of WAY2AGE is the articulation problems of some older people, which can lead to errors in the transcription of audio to text that will be addressed in the second phase. Following an analysis of the perception of a group of thirty health professionals on its usability, potential limitations and opportunities for future research are discussed.

The Mediation Effect of Coping Strategies between Personality and Blood Pressure in Pregnancy Complicated by Hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the most common medical condition during pregnancy. Hypertensive disorders are associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes for both mother and fetus. This study examined the role played by personality and coping strategies in relation to blood pressure levels during pregnancy. The specific goal was to study whether coping strategies can mediate the effect of personality in pregnant women with hypertension. METHODS: A sample of 351 pregnant women was enlisted, encompassing 192 pregnancies complicated by hypertension. This is a cross-sectional study where personality traits were measured by the five-factor model and coping was evaluated by Jalowiec's coping inventory scale. RESULTS: Personality can partially predict systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Openness to experience trait is inversely correlated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Conversely, emotion-focused coping directly correlated with blood pressure levels. Systolic (ß = -0.14; p < 0.05) and diastolic (ß = -0.15; p < 0.05) blood pressure were also predicted by openness to experience. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended to reinforce the development of coping strategies which focus more on the problem than on the emotion, avoiding detrimental effects of emotional coping in blood pressure levels during pregnancy.