Science Says

Health is important in workplaces. A good organisational climate in a workplace plays a major role in the employees' well-being at work and is also associated with increased productivity. Today, employees are expected to work into older age and it is a challenge for companies to promote health and well-being for this growing group.

The purpose of this study was to explore how to promote workplace health at present time and for the end of working life in the perspective of employees.

The study had an explorative design, and a thematic analysis was chosen. The inclusion criteria were persons 50 years and older, working in the company and planning to continue working into old age. A total of 21 coworkers (14 men) participated in the study. Three focus group interviews were conducted.

The results from the focus group interviews are presented in four themes: handle change in a changeable workplace, take responsibility for health concerns, get confirmation for feeling needed, and support and tolerance adapted for each employee.

Promoting health should be an urgent mission for employees themselves as well as for managers in order to support employees in working into old age. The health promotion must be suitable for each employee and should be designed in such a way as to avoid inequality in workplace health.

There is a need for more health-promoting behaviours, support,and activities for employees in order to work into old age.

Lydell M, Hildingh C, Söderbom A, Ziegert K. How to Promote Workplace Health in order to Work into Old Age: Experiences from Employees in an Industrial Setting. Scientifica (Cairo). 2019;2019:3942569. Published 2019 Apr 1. doi:10.1155/2019/3942569

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sections of the Abstract, Introduction, and Conclusion are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466871/

Novel approaches to advance the field of vaccinology must be investigated, and are particularly of importance for influenza in order to produce a more effective vaccine. A systematic review of human challenge studies for influenza was performed, with the goal of assessing safety and ethics and determining how these studies have led to therapeutic and vaccine development. A systematic review of systems biology approaches for the study of influenza was also performed, with a focus on how this technology has been utilized for influenza vaccine development.

The PubMed database was searched for influenza human challenge studies, and for systems biology studies that have addressed both influenza infection and immunological effects of vaccination.

Influenza human challenge studies have led to important advancements in therapeutics and influenza immunization, and can be performed safely and ethically if certain criteria are met. Many studies have investigated the use of systems biology for evaluating immune response to influenza vaccine, and several promising molecular signatures may help advance our understanding of pathogenesis and be used as targets for influenza interventions. Combining these methodologies has the potential to lead to significant advances in the field of influenza vaccinology and therapeutics.

Human challenge studies and systems biology approaches are important tools that should be used in concert to advance our understanding of influenza infection and provide targets for novel therapeutics and immunizations.

Sherman AC, Mehta A, Dickert NW, Anderson EJ, Rouphael N. The Future of Flu: A Review of the Human Challenge Model and Systems Biology for Advancement of Influenza Vaccinology. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2019;9:107. Published 2019 Apr 17. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00107

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Sections of the Abstract and Introduction are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6489464/

Aging is a physiological process accompanied by cognitive decline, principally in memory and executive functions. Alterations in the connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) have been found to participate in cognitive decline, as well as in several neurocognitive disorders. The DMN has antisynchronic activity with attentional networks (task-positive networks (TPN)), which are critical to executive function and memory. Findings pointing to the regulation of the DMN via activation of TPN suggest that it can be used as a strategy for neuroprotection. Meditation is a noninvasive and nonpharmacological technique proven to increase meta-awareness, a cognitive ability which involves the control of both networks. In this review, we discuss the possibility of facilitating healthy aging through the regulation of networks through meditation. We propose that by practicing specific types of meditation, cognitive decline could be slowed, promoting a healthy lifestyle, which may enhance the quality of life for the elderly.

Ramírez-Barrantes R, Arancibia M, Stojanova J, Aspé-Sánchez M,Córdova C, Henríquez-Ch RA. Default Mode Network, Meditation, and Age-Associated Brain Changes: What Can We Learn from the Impact of Mental Training on Well-Being as a Psychotherapeutic Approach?. Neural Plast. 2019;2019:7067592. Published 2019 Apr 2. doi:10.1155/2019/7067592

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sections of the Abstract and Aging and Mental Diseases are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466873/

Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most serious malignant tumors, which has the fastest growing morbidity and mortality worldwide. A role of the lung microbiota in LC pathogenesis has been analyzed, but a comparable role of the gut microbiota has not yet been investigated. In this study, the gut microbiota of 30 LC patients and 30 healthy controls were examined via next-generation sequencing of 16S rRNA and analyzed for diversity and biomarkers. We found that there was no decrease in significant microbial diversity (alpha diversity) in LC patients compared to controls (P observed = 0.1422), while the composition (beta diversity) differed significantly between patients and controls (phylum [stress = 0.153], class [stress = 0.16], order [stress = 0.146], family [stress = 0.153]). Controls had a higher abundance of the bacterial phylum Actinobacteria and genus Bifidobacterium, while patients with LC showed elevated levels of Enterococcus. These bacteria were found as possible biomarkers for LC. A decline of normal function of the gut microbiome in LC patients was also observed. These results provide the basic guidance for a systematic, multilayered assessment of the role of the gut microbiome in LC, which has a promising potential for early prevention and targeted intervention.

Zhuang H, Cheng L, Wang Y, et al. Dysbiosis of the Gut Microbiome in Lung Cancer. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2019;9:112. Published 2019 Apr 18. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00112.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Sections of the Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods,and Discussion are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6489541/

Emergency physicians are witnesses to the impact of socioeconomic determinants of health on physical and psychiatric illness. Understanding structural barriers to the right to health (RTH) serves as a foundation for interventions to promote health equity. This study was performed to determine self-described barriers to fulfillment of the RTH among a public emergency department (ED) patient population.

Samra S, Pelayo E, Richman M, McCollough M, Taira BR. Barriers to the Right to Health Among Patients of a Public Emergency Department After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Health Equity. 2019;3(1):186–192. Published 2019 May 2. doi:10.1089/heq.2018.0071.

This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sections of the Abstract, Introduction, Methods, and Discussion are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6503448/

A non-antimicrobial soap was benchmarked against 2 reference soaps for microbial removal and skin compatibility, key factors in soap effectiveness and usage. The non-antimicrobial test soap removed more Staphylococcus aureus (P = .024) when applied to nonwetted hands and showed no difference in skin barrier function compared with the reference soaps (P = .736).

Bingham J, Cartner TJ, Mays Suko PA, Leslie RA. Multifactor Assessment of Non-Antimicrobial Soap Performance. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019;6(5):ofz151. Published 2019 Mar 20. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofz151

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sections of the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6499895/

Wearable technologies for health monitoring are becoming increasingly mainstream. However, there is currently limited evidence exploring use from the perspective of healthcare professionals. This study aimed to explore health professionals’ attitudes toward their patients’ use of wearable technologies.

Watt A, Swainston K, Wilson G. Health professionals' attitudes to patients' use of wearable technology. Digit Health. 2019;5:2055207619845544. Published 2019 Apr 24. doi:10.1177/2055207619845544.

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Sections of the Introduction, Methods, and Discussion are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6484238/

The ‘digital era’ of informatics and knowledge integration has changed the roles and experiences of patients, research participants and health consumers. No longer figured (merely) as passive recipients of healthcare services or as beneficiaries of top-down biomedical information, individuals are increasingly seen as active contributors in healthcare and research. They are positioned into multiple roles that are experienced simultaneously by those who access and co-produce digital content that can easily be transformed into data. This is contextualised by ‘big data’ technologies that have altered biomedicine, enabling collation and analysis of myriad data from digitised records to personal mobile data. Social media facilitate new formations of communities and knowledge enacted online, while novel kinds of commercial value emerge from digital networks that enable health data commodification. In this paper, we draw from exemplary digital era shifts towards participatory medicine to cast light on the rapprochements between patienthood, participation and consumption, and we explore how these rapprochements are mediated by, and materialise through, the use of participatory digital technologies and big data. We argue that there is a need to use new conceptual tools that account for the multiple roles and experiences of patient–participant–consumers that co-emerge through digital technologies. We must also ethically re-assess the rights and responsibilities of individuals in the digital era, and the implications of digital era changes for the future of biomedicine and healthcare.

Erikainen, S., Pickersgill, M., Cunningham-Burley, S., & Chan, S. (2019). Patienthood and participation in the digital era. Digital Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207619845546

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Sections of the Abstract and Conclusion are presented in the Podcast.

There is little research on differences in Emotional Intelligence (EI) ability at different stages of adult development. The few published studies tend not to use older adult samples. Previous studies on EI ability and age have shown contradictory results. Our main objective was to evaluate results in EI ability across different stages of adult development, taking into account gender, depressive symptoms, and educational level.

Navarro-Bravo B et al. Ability emotional intelligence in young people and older adults with and without depressive symptoms, considering gender and educational level. PeerJ. 2019; 7: e6595. Published online 2019 Apr 19. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6595.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

Sections of the Abstract and Introduction are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6476293/

Burnout is pervasive in academic medicine. We administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory and an Infectious Diseases (ID) job description survey to our ID faculty. Respondents’ burnout (>50%) and job satisfaction (>90%) were each high. Although burnout may be balanced by job satisfaction, the relationship between the 2 deserves further study.

Nori P et al. Is Burnout Infectious? Understanding Drivers of Burnout and Job Satisfaction Among Academic Infectious Diseases Physicians. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019 Apr; 6(4): ofz092. Published online 2019 Feb 23. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz092.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sections of the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion are presented in the Podcast. Access the full-text article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6483804/