Levels and variables associated with psychological distress during confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic in a community sample of Spanish adults

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic's consequences and the state of alarm, literature has shown that people worldwide have experienced severe stressors that have been associated with increased prevalence of emotional distress. In this study, we explored psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms) using an online survey platform in a sample of 1,781 Spanish adults during the confinement due to COVID-19, relationships between distress and sleep problems, affect, pain, sleep, emotional regulation, gender, type of housing, history of psychopathology, and living alone during the confinement, and differences depending on demographic and psychological variables. Results showed that between 25% and 39% of the sample referred to clinically significant levels of distress. In addition, women showed higher levels of distress, negative affect, perception of pain, and cognitive reappraisal and lower levels of emotional suppression and sleep quality than men. A history of psychopathology, being younger, living alone or in a flat was associated with higher distress. Finally, the variables most strongly related to distress were negative and positive affect, levels of pain, sleep quality, and emotional suppression. Our results highlight the important role of emotional suppression, cognitive reappraisal, and loneliness and the impact of being a woman and younger in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it would be necessary to provide assessments of distress levels in these population groups and focus psychological preventive and therapeutic online interventions on expressing emotions and preventing loneliness.     

Influence of pitch size and age category on the physical and physiological responses of young football players during small-sided games using GPS devices

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to compare the physical and physiological responses of young football players of different categories during small-sided games (SSGs) played on different pitch sizes. Forty-eight (24 U-13 and 24 U-14) athletes played a 3 vs. 3 + 1 SSG in two experimental conditions: regular (36 × 27 m) and large pitch sizes (40 × 29 m). The total distance covered, the distances covered at different speed zones (0 to 6.9 km/h, 6.9 to 14.3, and 14.3 to 21.4), maximum heart rate, and mean heart rate were recorded. The results showed that older athletes covered larger distances during SSGs (p = 0.001; d = 0.937; large effect) and lower distances at the lowest (0–6.9 km/h) speed zone (p = 0.001; d = 0.657; moderate-to-large effect). Neither the physical nor physiological variables (except for distance covered between 14.3 and 21.4 km/h) differed between pitch sizes. This result indicates that pitch size may not impact the physical or physiological responses of U-13 and U-14 players during SSGs, but differences between categories were found. In conclusion, the development of tactical skills may be desirable to better explore the available space in the same age categories.     

Characterising omission errors in everyday task completion and cognitive correlates in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and dementia

Objective: Functional ability declines with age and cognitive impairment. This study investigated errors of omission made by community-dwelling older adults completing everyday tasks in a naturalistic setting.

Method: Sixty-five cognitively healthy older adults (HOA), 19 individuals with single domain mild cognitive impairment (sdMCI), 33 individuals with multi-domain MCI (mdMCI), and 13 individuals with dementia completed measures of memory, processing speed, working memory, and executive functioning, as well as eight different activities of daily living in a naturalistic environment. Task steps were divided into preparatory, action-oriented, and concluding steps.

Results: For action-oriented steps, the number of omission errors increased with level of cognitive impairment beyond sdMCI (i.e., HOA?=?sdMCI?<?mdMCI?<?dementia). In contrast, for preparatory and concluding steps, the dementia group committed more omission errors than the HOA, sdMCI, and mdMCI groups, which did not differ.

Conclusions: The results suggest that the more complex and integrative action-oriented steps may be the first type of everyday task step to be affected in the process of cognitive decline, with preparatory and concluding steps being preserved longer and only showing decline in later stages of impairment (i.e., dementia). Individuals with sdMCI may use other intact abilities to compensate for task omission errors.     

Gaining weight through retirement? Results from the SHARE survey

This paper estimates the causal impact of retirement on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults aged 50–69 years old, on the probability of being either overweight or obese and on the probability of being obese. Based on the 2004, 2006 and 2010–2011 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), our identification strategy exploits variation in European Early Retirement Ages (ERAs) and stepwise increases in ERAs in Austria and Italy between 2004 and 2011 to examine an exogenous shock to retirement behavior. Our results show that retirement induced by discontinuous incentives in early retirement schemes causes a 12-percentage point increase in the probability of being obese among men within a two- to four-year period. We find that the impact of retirement is highly non-linear and mostly affects the right-hand side of the male BMI distribution. Additional results show that this pattern is driven by men retiring from strenuous jobs and by those who were already at risk of obesity. In contrast, no significant results are found among women.     

Alcances de la aleatorización mendeliana para el control de confusores no observables en epidemiología

The Mendelian randomization is an epidemiologic method proposed to control for spurious associations in observational studies. These associations are commonly caused by confusion derived from social, environmental, and behavioral factors, which can be difficult to measure. Mendelian randomization is based on the selection of genetic variants that are used as instrumental variables that influence exposure patterns or are associated with an intermediate phenotype of the disease. The present work aims to discuss how to select the appropriate genetic variants as instrumental variables and to present methodological tools to deal with the limitations of this epidemiological method. The use of instrumental variables for modifiable exposures has the potential to mitigate the effects of common limitations, such as confusion, when robust genetic variants are chosen as instrumental variables.