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PubMed2004

Chronic social stress differentially regulates neuroendocrine responses in laying hens: II. Genetic basis of adrenal responses under three different social conditions.

Chicken lines were divergently selected for both high (HGPS) or low (LGPS) group productivity and survivability resulting from cannibalism and flightiness in colony cages. Each line has unique characteristics in physical indexes, domestic behavior, and physiological responsiveness to stress. The differences between the selected lines could be reflected in differing regulation of the neuroendocrine system such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Change of the adrenal function is a key initial event in response to stress in animals, which differs for this trait. Comparisons between the selected lines showed that adrenal function was stable in HGPS hens but not in LGPS hens in response to chronic social stress. Social stress-induced adrenal hypertrophy and its positive correlation with plasma corticosterone concentrations were found in the LGPS hens but not in the HGPS hens. The data demonstrated that chickens selected for variations in productivity and survivability variously altered the adrenal system in response to social stressors. The results suggest that these chicken lines could be valuable animal models for biomedical investigation of the effect of genetic-environmental interactions on the neuroendocrine function in controlling stress responses.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

Spontaneous behavior and body temperature in male Central American Agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata) under different social conditions.

Pair-bonded males did not change rhythmic or phasic components of body temperature and motoric or behavioral activity with changing situations. Non pair-bonded males displayed lowered oscillations of body temperature and decreased motoric activity, those living with a male under established conditions and those living with a female under changed conditions. Non pair-bonded males exhibited distinct changes in amounts of at least one of behavioral elements (scrapemark, scentmark, bury and scrape; indicating elevated sympathetic arousal) with changing situations. Variations in motoric activity and amounts of these behavioral elements were correlated with variations in rhythmic and phasic components of body temperature. For the regulation of arousal the results suggest a balance between behavioral and physiological activity effecting body temperature. The efforts for this regulation depend on the social situation of the animal.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Physical and social condition of rehabilitated spinal cord injury patients in Japan: a long-term review.

In 1983, 28 Rohsai Hospitals in Japan cooperated to study 926 spinal cord injury (SCI) patients to reveal the problems of their rehabilitation. Fifty per cent complained of poor physical condition and were anxious about their health. In addition to complications rising from the SCI, the morbidities of heart disease, diabetes mellitus, liver disease, hypertension and CVA were higher than the Japanese average. It was noted that 1) 44% of tetraplegic patients were confined to living in their home. 2) Ageing exerted a serious influence upon daily life. 3) Crutch gait for patients with paraplegia was not practical. It was also shown that utilisation of automobiles played an important role in extending social activities. For SCI patients, especially those with tetraplegia, it was very difficult to find employment. The rate of employment was only 30% in all and 46% of these were self-employed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1997

[Mortality in relation to disabilities, health, management and psycho-social conditions among the community-residing elderly people].

To examine the predictive factors for the survival among community-residing elderly people, a cohort of 1405 randomly selected elderly people, aged 65 years and over, living in S City, Osaka, was investigated in October 1992 and followed for 38 months. Follow-up was completed for 1,325 (94.3%) (154 deceased and 1,171 alive). The main results were as follows: 1. From the Cox proportional hazards model analysis of survival, controlling for age and sex, hazard ratios for disabilities of communication, intellectual functioning, behaviour, locomotion, locomotion, personal care, and urinary and fecal incontinence were significantly higher than 1 (1.50-3.14). On the other hand, hazard ratios for participation in health examinations, daily preventive health practices, participation in social activity, and having a sense of life worth living were significantly lower than 1 (0.43, 0.37, 0.44 and 0.52, respectively). 2. From the Cox proportional hazards model using the likelihood-ratio forward method, disability scores of communication and locomotion showed significant hazard ratios (1.08 and 1.14, respectively), and for these hazard ratios were 1.47 (95% confidence interval (CI); 1.13-1.91) and 1.92 (95% CI; 1.52-2.44), respectively when comparing a score of 5 to a score of 0. Hazard ratios for participating in health examinations and daily preventive health practices were 0.44 (95% CI; 0.31-0.63) and 0.58 (95% CI; 0.38-0.88), respectively, and remained as statistically significant factors associated with survival. 3. Health management efforts such as health examinations and daily preventive health practices can be assumed to be able to enhance the prognosis of the elderly.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Social conditions and intelligence in old age].

There is a complex structure of conditions which are accepted to be of effect on development of intelligence in old age. We turned particularly to the socioeconomic conditions with their stimulating or depriving attributes. With a pathanalytic model we were able to explain about 38% of variance of intellectual performance at the first measurement point of the Bonn Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). With this model we took into consideration the family environment of the aged BLSA people (60-75 yrs.) at their youth as well as some indicators of the aged peoples' socioeconomic status (educational and occupational level) in their later life history.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Social condition affects hormone secretion and exploratory behavior in rats.

Studies of behavior, endocrinology and physiology have described experiments in which animals housed in groups or in isolation were normally tested individually. The isolation of the animal from its group for testing is perhaps the most common situation used today in experimental procedures, i.e., there is no consideration of the acute stress which occurs when the animal is submitted to a situation different from that it is normally accustomed to, i.e., group living. In the present study, we used 90 male 120-day-old rats (Rattus norvegicus) divided into 5 groups of 18 animals, which were housed 3 per cage, in a total of 6 cages. The animals were tested individually or with their groups for exploratory behavior. Hormones were determined by radioimmunoassay using specific kits. The results showed statistically significant differences between testing conditions in terms of behavior and of adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH: from 116.8 +/- 15.27 to 88.77 +/- 18.74 when in group and to 159.6 +/- 11.53 pg/ml when isolated), corticosterone (from 561.01 +/- 77.04 to 1036.47 +/- 79.81 when in group and to 784.71 +/- 55.88 ng/ml when isolated), luteinizing hormone (from 0.84 +/- 0.09 to 0.58 +/- 0.05 when in group and to 0.52 +/- 0.06 ng/ml when isolated) and prolactin (from 5.18 +/- 0.33 to 9.37 +/- 0.96 when in group and to 10.18 +/- 1.23 ng/ml when isolated) secretion, but not in terms of follicle-stimulating hormone or testosterone secretion. The most important feature observed was that in each cage there was one animal with higher ACTH levels than the other two; furthermore, the exploratory behavior of this animal was different, indicating the occurrence of almost constant higher vigilance in this animal (latency to leave the den in group: 99.17 +/- 34.95 and isolated: 675.3 +/- 145.3 s). The data indicate that in each group there is an animal in a peculiar situation and its behavior can be detected by ACTH determination in addition to behavioral performance.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed1998

Social conditions and self-management are more powerful determinants of health than access to care.

Professional organizations advocate universal access to medical care as a primary approach to improving health in the population. Access to medical services is critical to outcomes of acute processes managed in an inpatient hospital, the setting of most medical education, research, and training, but seems to be limited in its capacity to affect outcomes of outpatient care, the setting of most medical activities. Persistent and widening disparities in health according to socioeconomic status provide evidence of limitations of access to care. First, job classification, a measure of socioeconomic status, was a better predictor of cardiovascular death than cholesterol level, blood pressure, and smoking combined in employed London civil servants with universal access to the National Health Service. Second, disparities in health according to socioeconomic status widened between 1970 and 1980 in the United Kingdom despite universal access (similar trends were seen in the United States). Third, in the United States, noncompletion of high school is a greater risk factor than biological factors for development of many diseases, an association that is explained only in part by age, ethnicity, sex, or smoking status. Fourth, level of formal education predicted cardiovascular mortality better than random assignment to active drug or placebo over 3 years in a clinical trial that provides optimal access to care. Increased recognition of limitations of universal access by physicians and their professional societies may enhance efforts to improve the health of the population.

Educational Status↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Contributions to a social conditioning model of cocaine recovery.

This article describes recent developments in a theory of recovery from drug addiction and in the adaptation of Recovery Training and Self Help (RTSH) to cocaine addiction. RTSH is an example of a new element of treatment known as "relapse prevention" (RP), which is an application of the discovery that addiction follows the laws of operant conditioning. We learned, however, that to understand and to treat cocaine addiction, we had to expand upon the conditioning paradigm to include a sociological analysis of the deviant lifestyle from which cocaine addiction stems. The theory presented here postulates three stages of recovery from cocaine addiction. Cocaine addicts can recover as outpatients by (1) initially building "walls" against drug triggers and supplies, (2) extinguishing addiction in the protective community of recovering persons, and (3) gradually lowering the walls and expanding beyond the recovering community to function more fully in conventional society. We have developed an outpatient group treatment system based on this recovery model. The Cocaine Recovery System includes a month-long cessation program, followed by a six-month recovery program, and active participation in the recovering community. A professional and a recovering person colead both the cessation and recovery programs, which feature Recovery Training sessions designed to help cocaine addicts achieve treatment goals and avoid or cope with threats to recovery. Clients in the recovery program also meet weekly for a support session, a weekend recreational activity, and individual counseling. The program also encourages group members to attend 12-step fellowship meetings. Clients achieve difficult lifestyle changes by taking a series of "commitment steps," which increasingly engage the clients in a recovering lifestyle and make relapse more difficult.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Neonatal neurological morbidity in relation to obstetrical and social conditions in Grenada (Caribbean).

Neonatal morbidity, in particular neurological morbidity is a more relevant measure of the effectiveness of obstetrical care than perinatal mortality. Neurological morbidity was assessed in a birth cohort in Grenada, and appeared to be lower than in a reference group examined in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 1975-1978. Perinatal mortality, however, was higher. The results support the thesis that some children may have died who, if they would have survived, would have been neurologically abnormal. It is concluded that whereas a decrease in perinatal deaths is an essential goal in Grenada, a concomitant increase in morbidity should be carefully avoided.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Patients' attitudes to their embryos and their destiny: social conditioning?

The clinical management of embryo storage and disposal is dynamic and subject to changes in the cultural context such as public debate and the implementation of public policy. Studies of the decisions made by patient couples for their embryos, and trends in decision-making over time and in relation to issues arising in the cultural context are rare. Studies of the attitudes that patient couples have towards their frozen embryos have largely focused on measuring patients' intentions in relation to publicly contentious outcomes. A small but expanding number of interview studies are illuminating the meaning that couples attribute to frozen embryos and how this influences decisions for their destiny. This chapter maps both quantitative and qualitative studies of patients' attitudes and decisions illuminating similarities and contradictions in study findings, and ultimately highlights the range of attitudes in patients, clinics and the community towards what is evidently a difficult and morally challenging decision to end the storage of frozen embryos.

Attitude↗
PubMed2005

Neighborhood economic conditions, social processes, and self-rated health in low-income neighborhoods in Texas: a multilevel latent variables model.

This paper develops and tests a comprehensive model to explain the relationships of neighborhood economic indicators to multiple dimensions of neighborhood social and physical organization as well as the pathways through which neighborhood social and physical characteristics influence individual health outcomes. We hypothesized that neighborhood poverty would be associated with lower collective efficacy, lower social capital, higher degrees of social and physical disorder, worse social processes pertaining to children such as trust, and higher degrees of fear of crime and racism. Neighborhood social and physical characteristics were hypothesized to mediate the effect of neighborhood poverty on self-rated health, both directly and indirectly through their influence on neighborhood differences in social support and health behaviors, which in turn affect individual health. The results, based on data from low-income neighborhoods in Texas, USA generally supported the model and indicated that the effect of neighborhood impoverishment on health is mediated by social and physical neighborhood characteristics.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Outcrossing hermaphroditic polychaete worms adjust their sex allocation to social conditions.

Sex allocation theory predicts that simultaneous hermaphrodites shift sex allocation facultatively in response to variation in local group size. This study was performed to evaluate the relative investment in each sex function by the simultaneously hermaphroditic polychaete worm Ophryotrocha diadema and to test whether allocation to each sex depends on the number of reproductive competitors. Four experimental groups were set up (in a 2 x 2 factorial design) with small or large group size and with small or large enclosures to control for potential confounding effects of density. We measured the proportion of female and male investment in focal individuals. Results revealed that individuals regulated their reproductive output so that when reproductive competitors were present, the number of female gametes was strongly reduced and the male function increased. In contrast, under monogamy, individuals in small groups produced lower numbers of sperm but had a higher egg output than worms in large groups. Density did not affect sex allocation in our experiment. Our findings provide qualitative support for Local Mate Competition theory, but also show that the pattern of sex allocation specific to this species is more complex than expected by current theory.

Analysis of Variance↗