The Contribution of the Internet to Promoting Mental Health for Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Survey in China.

BACKGROUND: Health is an important topic for everyone and essential to high-quality economic and social development. Recently, some researchers have suggested that older adults' internet use may have a health effect. OBJECTIVE: This study specifically aims to clarify the relationship between internet use and the mental health of older adults, for which other surveys present contradictory results. METHODS: Data were obtained from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey conducted in 2018. A total of 6648 participants were included. Mental health was assessed by the 12-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Ordinary least squares regression was adopted to explore the relationship between internet use (independent variable) and the mental health of older adults. Robustness analysis, sensitivity analysis, and heterogeneity analysis were conducted in detail to verify the empirical result. A mediating effect analysis was further conducted to discover the effect mechanism between the dependent and independent variables. RESULTS: It was found that internet use and smartphone use can significantly improve the mental health of older adults (ordinary least squares, ß=.075; P<.001). After endogenous and robustness tests were conducted, the aforementioned conclusion remained robust. In particular, participation in voluntary activities played a mediating role in the relationship between internet use and the mental health of older adults. In addition, younger subjective age enhanced the positive effect of internet use on the mental health of older adults. CONCLUSIONS: Internet users showed higher levels of mental health among Chinese older adults. To improve the mental health of older adults, the government should not only cultivate the ability to use the internet but also encourage greater participation in voluntary activities among older adults.

Permethrin alters glucose metabolism in conjunction with high fat diet by potentiating insulin resistance and decreases voluntary activities in female C57BL/6J mice.

Permethrin, a type 1 pyrethroid insecticide, was previously reported to promote adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and insulin resistance in C2C12 muscle cells; however, the effects of permethrin exposure on glucose and lipid metabolisms in vivo remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of permethrin exposure on glucose and lipid homeostasis as well as voluntary movement in female mice in response to dietary fat. We tested three doses of permethrin (50, 500, & 5000 µg/kg body weight/day) in low fat diet-fed (4% w/w of diet) and high fat diet-fed (20% w/w of diet) female C57BL/6 J mice for twelve weeks. Our results demonstrated that permethrin treatment potentiated high fat diet-induced insulin resistance as indicated by insulin tolerance tests, glucose tolerance tests, and homeostasis model assessment - insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) without altering weight or fat mass. Permethrin treatment significantly decreased voluntary movement and elevated blood glucose and insulin levels. Western blot results further showed that permethrin impaired insulin signaling via the Akt signaling pathway in the gastrocnemius muscle. Taken together, these results suggest that oral administration of permethrin potentiated high fat diet-induced insulin resistance, possibly increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes without altering weight gain in female C57BL/6 J mice.

A survey of voluntary activities in medical graduates / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To get a view of the participation, motivation and barrier of voluntary activities in medical graduates, and to provide valuable advices for improving such behaviors. Methods The convenience sample method was used in medical graduates in 2014 and the total sample was 348. The data of voluntary service were collected by self-designed questionnaire, including whether partici-pating in voluntary service, times, types, motivations and barriers. SPSS 20.0 were used in statistic analysis and data were processed by description analysis and χ2 test. Results The effective response rate is 80.7%(281). The proportion of the post graduated students participation in voluntary activities is 65.8%(185), however, only 13.4%(28) claimed such activities more than 3 times. The proportion of participation in male, student leaders and party members were higher than those female, non-student leaders and non-party members, the different is statistically significant (P<0.05). The proportion of medical related voluntary activities is 52.6%. The primary motivation of voluntary behaviors is social responsibility (30.1%), while the primary obstacle is lack of medium (39.50%)and limitation of personal time and energy (30.0%). Conclusions The participation and persistence of voluntary activity in graduated students are not high enough. The colleges need to strength the organization and management of voluntary activities and focus on social responsible education, inspire and guide the postgradu ate students to participate in voluntary activities persistently by using their specialties.