Source: Freepik Copyright: user18526052 URL: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/beautiful-brunette-female-with-ponytail-wearing-white-top-connecting-her-smart-phone_15752475.htm#query=smartphone%20fitness%20tracker&position=16&from_view=search License: Licensed by JMIR A new study by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine adds to the canon of research associating physical activity with cognitive performance, this time using 90 middle-aged and older participants who wore accelerometers while physically active and completed mobile cognitive testing from home. “The future of lifestyle interventions really needs to be remote-based,” said Raeanne Moore, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study. “The pandemic has made this especially clear.” On the days their physical activity increased,Read More →

Source: Vstore Copyright: Vitae VR URL: https://www.jmir.org/2022/1/e27641 License: Licensed by the authors. New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London suggests that a virtual reality test in which participants “go to the shops” could offer a potentially promising way of effectively assessing functional cognition, the thinking and processing skills needed to accomplish complex everyday activities. The research, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, uses a novel virtual reality shopping task called “VStore” to measure cognition, which asks participants to take part in tests designed to mirror the real world. This is expected to test for age-relatedRead More →

Source: Shutterstock Copyright: Dragon Images URL: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/over-shoulder-view-middleaged-physician-showing-655220356 Licensed by the Authors A clinical study of patients with cardiovascular disease by Queensland Cardiovascular Group has found that offering a digital health platform, Cardihab, substantially improved participation rates in cardiac rehabilitation. The findings were published in cardiovascular medicine journal JMIR Cardio and revealed that participation in cardiac rehabilitation improved from 21% to 63% when app-based cardiac rehabilitation (SmartCR) was offered as an alternative in addition to a conventional in-person program. Cardihab provides a digital platform and patient apps (SmartCR) that facilitate the virtual delivery of cardiac rehabilitation and chronic disease management programs for patients recovering from cardiacRead More →

Source: freepik Copyright: freepik URL: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/woman-working-from-comfortable-couch_7777066.htm#page=1&query=work%20from%20home&position=21&from_view=search License: Licensed by JMIR Companies considering remote working in the postpandemic world need to introduce measures to increase physical activity, reduce stress, and improve the diet for employees a new study has recommended. Academics at the University of Derby assessed the habits of 184 workers who had begun working remotely during the first UK lockdown in 2020 to measure the impact of the change to their lives. The team surveyed participants’ living and working conditions to study the relationship between physical and psychosocial well-being and productivity under lockdown conditions, and examined how factors such as gender, employer support, andRead More →

Source: Freepik Copyright: senivpetro URL: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/young-woman-sitting-smoking-ecigarette_8380105.htm Licensed by JMIR   University of British Columbia, Okanagan, researchers examine how e-cigarette users quit E-cigarette users engaged on Reddit say gradual reduction is key. New research from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan (UBCO), shows that gradual nicotine reduction is key to helping e-cigarette users quit. The study, published in week’s issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, has implications for young Canadians who are currently hooked and want to stop using e-cigarettes, commonly called vapes. “Vaping has become a popular global phenomenon, with more than 40 million users worldwide,” says Dr Laura Struik, assistant professor, UBCO School of Nursing,Read More →

Source: The Authors/ Pexels Copyright: The Authors/ Pexels URL: https://www.jmir.org/2021/10/e27298 License: Licensed by JMIR October 12, 2021 Contact: Laura Bailey, 734-647-1848, baileylm@umich.edu Mindful Breathing for Pain Control: Like Yin and Yang ANN ARBOR—It has long been known that meditative mindful breathing helps with various health conditions, including pain. To that end, researchers at the University of Michigan compared two types of meditative breathing––traditional mindful breathing and virtual reality, 3D-guided mindful breathing––to reduce pain. They found that each type of breathing lessened pain by modulating the somatosensory cortex, a region of the brain responsible for processing pain, but each used different mechanisms, said Alexandre DaSilva, associateRead More →

Source: Adobe Stock Copyright: Prostock-studio URL: https://stock.adobe.com/ca/images/pregnancy-apps-concept-expectant-woman-using-cellphone/305497970?prev_url=detail License: Licensed by JMIR COVID-19 Restrictions Linked with Elevated Stress in New Moms and Moms-to-Be By: Asher Jones Pregnant women and new mothers in Pennsylvania felt more stressed during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in early 2020 than before the pandemic, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh (hereinafter referred to as “Pitt”), which analyzed participants’ real-time stress levels with an innovative smartphone app. Unlike other studies that investigated stress in women who are pregnant or have given birth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pitt researchers had access to participants’ stress data from before the virus startedRead More →

Source: Unsplash Copyright: Kate Torline URL: https://unsplash.com/photos/VeiqoYAEeis License: Licensed by JMIR A new study aims to fill a critical research gap on effective, culturally sensitive approaches to smoking cessation among transgender and gender expansive individuals. By Alina Ladyzhensky, University of Pennsylvania While rates of cigarette smoking among adults in the United States have declined significantly over the last several decades, tobacco use disparities remain among some population groups and disproportionately affect members of vulnerable communities. One such group is transgender and gender expansive (TGE) adults, who are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes than cisgender individuals. While research suggests that, given appropriate resources and opportunities,Read More →