Download Alone Video Status
Camilla Chanler
Background: Eating by oneself may be a risk factor for mental illness among older adults, but may be influenced by cohabitation status. We examined the association between eating alone and depression in the context of cohabitation status in older adults in Japan.
Conclusions: Eating alone may be a risk factor for depression. Among men, the effect of eating alone on depression may be reinforced by living alone, but appears to be broadly comparable in women living alone and women living with others.
Physical activity has been demonstrated to have various health benefits1,2. The benefits of physical activity apply regardless of the context, i.e. whether it occurs as part of work, leisure, transport, or housework3. However, it remains unclear whether exercise is more beneficial for those exercising with others, compared to exercising alone (e.g. on the basement treadmill).
This question has been previously discussed by distinguishing physical activity into exercising alone versus with others4. The mechanisms for health benefits from exercising with others may include not only physiological effects through physical activity, but also psychological and social factors. A systematic review focusing on the psychosocial benefits of exercising with others revealed that working out with others may enhance social connectedness, social support, and peer bonding5. These social relationships have been shown in turn to have potential health benefits6,7, and exercising with others may therefore have extra health benefits compared to exercising alone.
Self-rated health is one subjective indicator that reflects overall health status. Self-rated health is commonly used as a health outcome because of its established validity as a predictor of mortality, regardless of other medical, behavioral, or psychosocial factors11. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether the association of subjective health status to exercise differs according to exercising alone and/or with others, adjusting for frequency of exercise. We hypothesized that there would be a lower prevalence of poor self-rated health among those performing exercising with others compared to those only exercising alone, even after adjusting for frequency of exercise. Although the existing guideline on physical activity mentions intensity and duration3, it does not mention whether exercise should be performed alone or with others. If exercising with others is shown to have greater health benefits than exercising alone, this would suggest the importance of including a social interaction perspective in health promotion using physical activity.
The dependent variable was self-rated health and independent variables were the six groups characterized by frequency of exercising alone and exercising with others. In Model 1, age, sex, annual equivalized income, educational attainment, household composition, occupational status, self-reported medical conditions, IADL, depression, frequency of meeting friends, receiving instrumental support, providing instrumental support, receiving emotional support, and providing emotional support were added as covariates to the univariate model. In Model 2, total frequency of exercise was added to Model 1. In addition, to perform sensitivity analysis for examining whether the associations differ by total frequency of exercise, we conducted further analysis by stratifying the analyses into categories 4 and 5 (those who exercise at least twice a week) versus categories 1 to 3 (those who exercised less than twice a week).
In a previous study on middle-aged adults, there was no difference between those who did not perform exercise or play sports (the reference category) and those who exercised mostly alone, whereas there was a significantly lower OR of poor mental health later on among those who exercised mostly with others8. Similarly, in a study on older adults, even for those exercising once a week or more, the risk of incident functional disability was significantly lower among those who participated in a sports organization compared to those who did not9. The results of these previous studies are consistent with the finding in the present study that the OR of poor self-rated health was significantly lower among those exercising with others than those only exercising alone.
Social relationships may be one mechanism underlying the health benefits of exercising with others4,20. Reviews have indicated that poor social relationships can increase mortality risk6,7, and similar results were also observed in older Japanese adults21. In addition, social connectedness while exercising contributes to exercise adherence22. Previous studies examining the mechanism underlying the relationship between exercising with others and health revealed the possibility that social relationships may contribute to the association between participation in a sports organization and incidence of functional disability9,17. In this research, we used a part of general social relationships (frequency of meeting friends, receiving instrumental support, providing instrumental support, receiving emotional support, and providing emotional support) as covariates which could serve as measures of sociability. As we could not use specific social relationships in exercising with others, future studies are needed to use specific social relationships in exercising with others to examine whether these social relationships mediate the association between exercising with others and health. Other possible mechanisms that may have a positive association with exercising with others are: adherence to exercise routines23,24,25, self-esteem and other psychological factors5, social capital26 and other social factors4. For example, those who exercise with others may have continued to exercise for more years at the time of the survey than those who exercise alone. As we could not determine the roles of those factors in the present study, further studies are needed.
Among older Japanese adults, although exercising alone and exercising with others both seem to have health benefits, increased frequency of exercise with others has important health benefits regardless of the total frequency of exercise. A social interaction perspective may be useful to assist with promoting exercise benefits for older adults.
How to cite this article: Kanamori, S. et al. Exercising alone versus with others and associations with subjective health status in older Japanese: The JAGES Cohort Study. Sci. Rep. 6, 39151; doi: 10.1038/srep39151 (2016).
Background and objectives: Nutritional status is not only associated with older individuals' physical health but also has an impact on their cognitive functioning. Evidence indicates that a socially integrated lifestyle in the later stages of life protects against cognitive decline and dementia. This study tested the combined effect of two hazards, the risk of malnutrition and eating meals alone, on the cognitive changes among a representative sample of older Taiwanese individuals over an 8-year period.
Methods and study design: Data were taken from the Taiwan Longitudinal Survey on Aging. In 1999, 2584 respondents aged >=65 years were surveyed, and follow-up surveys were performed in 2003 and 2007. The Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) and Mini Nutritional Assessment were used to evaluate participants' cognitive functioning and nutritional status, respectively. Nutritional status and eating alone data assessed at baseline were combined to predict changes in SPMSQ scores longitudinally. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the longitudinal changes from baseline to 2007.
Results: Findings suggest that nutritional status was a salient predictor for cognitive decline among the older Taiwanese adults over the 8-year period. Female respondents who had a compromised nutritional status at baseline and who were eating their meals alone exhibited a greater decrease in SPMSQ scores compared with those who had a normal nutritional status and who were eating their meals with others.
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This book, focused on corpus planning in language policy, provides a broad, integrative framework and also discusses multiple languages in detail. It provides readers with great familiarity with a wide range of language cases and at the same time gives them the theoretical tools and analysis to see how they inter-relate.
The novelty of this volume is twofold: First, it deals with corpus planning alone (modernizing a language per se), and second, it does so in terms of a systematization of the often unconscious language status aspirations that both guide language planners themselves and motivate the lay public (the target population of all language planning).
Corpus planning is going on all over the world today and inevitably becomes an expression of the societal goals, ideologies, and aspirations of the societies and cultures that support it. The implication is that the distinction between corpus and status planning, which has a long tradition in language planning research, must be critically re-examined.
DO NOT Leave Your Language Alone: The Hidden Status Agendas Within Corpus Planning in Language Policy begins with a brief introduction to language planning as a whole, to corpus planning in particular, and to the unavoidability of a status component in the execution of all corpus planning past, present, and future. Topics of the central chapters include:
*corpus planning and status planning: separates, opposites, or Siamese twins?;
*the directions and dimensions of corpus planning;
*does "folksiness" come before or after "cleanliness"?;
*the bi-polar dimension of uniqueness vs. Westernization;
*the classicization vs. "panification" bi-polar dimension;
*the Ausbau vs. Einbau bi-polar dimension;
*the interdependence and independence of dimensional clusters; and
*can opposites and incommensurables be combined?
Written at an introductory level assuming no prior knowledge of the field, this book is intended as a text for higher undergraduate and lower graduate level courses in language planning and policy. It is equally valuable for researchers in the field of language planning, policy, and politics, as well as those in sociolinguistics, political science, and communication studies more generally--that is, for all who are interested in fostering or limiting human intervention in the language change processes that are ongoing worldwide. Finally, an introduction to corpus planning that is full of historical vignettes, good humor, visual illustrations, and cutting-edge thought!