Kids, take note of this; it is for your own good to stay away, or limit, your videogaming!
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Posted: 17 May 2011
WASHINGTON: Teens who play a lot of video games are likely to sleep less than the eight to nine hours a night recommended for the age group, researchers said on Monday.
Speaking via teleconference from the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, researchers said that an analysis of data on 16,000 teens also found that youths who reported sleeping less than seven hours a night did not get enough exercise, which could also impact their health.
And not getting enough sleep is detrimental for all - and has a particularly negative effect on teens, added Caris Fitzgerald, a psychiatry resident at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences who led the study,.
A poor night's sleep can bring on a slew of ill effects, including low energy, poor concentration, moodiness, a greater tendency to act on impulse and more suicidal thoughts.
Yet only 10 percent of US teens get the recommended hours of shut-eye, according to the study, for which Fitzgerald and her fellow researchers analyzed the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's 2009 Youth Risk Behaviour Survey.
Because teens have "accelerated demands for growth and memory retention, very vital things with regard to the teen in their overall success," getting sufficient sleep is even more important for them, Fitzgerald said.
But they also struggle to do so more than adults.
"When it comes to teens, they have a lot of factors that affect them, from an ever greater quest for independence reflected by later bedtime; to expectations from parents and peers - like texting in the middle of the night," said Fitzgerald.
Teens' circadian rhythms don't help them in their quest for sleep either.
Their body rhythms put them on a schedule where they like to stay up late and sleep in each morning.
"But unfortunately the rest of society is not on that schedule and school is still going to start at 8:00 am," Fitzgerald said.
The researchers were unable to conclude there was a cause-effect relationship between sleep and online gaming or sport, but Fitzgerald pointed to "some evidence that reducing media exposure and increasing physical activity could increase the amount teens sleep."
The study did have one piece of good news for teens: watching television does not appear to affect sleep time.
- AFP/de
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Video gaming teens sleep less, says study
Posted: 05 January 2011
WASHINGTON - If you want to know how long grandpa is going to live, check his pace of walking.
A report appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association found a strong correlation between walking speed and expected survival rates for persons over 65.
The analysis from nine studies between 1986 and 2000 showed faster walking speed among older adults was associated with increased length of survival.
The average gait speed of the 34,485 participants was 0.92 meters (three feet) per second. But analyzing results over periods from six to 21 years, the University of Pittsburgh researchers found the faster ones lived longer.
"Walking requires energy, movement control, and support and places demands on multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, circulatory, nervous, and musculoskeletal systems," the researchers wrote. "Slowing gait may reflect both damaged systems and a high energy cost of walking."
All studies had participants walk at their usual pace and from a standing start. The walk distance varied from eight feet (2.4 meters) to six meters (19 feet).
"Predicted years of remaining life for each sex and age increased as gait speed increased," the researchers said.
"Gait speeds of 1.0 meter (3.3 feet) per second or higher consistently demonstrated survival that was longer than expected by age and sex alone. In this older adult population the relationship of gait speed with remaining years of life was consistent across age groups."
The researchers found that gait speed was associated with differences in the probability of survival at all ages in both sexes, but was especially notable after age 75.
"The data provided herein are intended to aid clinicians, investigators, and health system planners who seek simple indicators of health and survival in older adults," said researchers headed by Pittsburgh's Stephanie Studenski.
"Gait speed has potential to be implemented in practice, using a stop watch and a four-meter (13 feet) course.... Gait speed may be a simple and accessible indicator of the health of the older person."
In an editorial accompanying the report, Matteo Cesari of the Universita Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, said that because no evidence definitively supports the hypothesis that gait speed improvements are associated with better health-related outcomes, gait speed should not be considered as a primary target for interventions at present.
"It represents a global marker of health status, and an optimal secondary and complementary outcome to support research findings, clinical decisions, or both aimed at modifying more pragmatic end points," he wrote.
"Future research will be needed to determine whether gait speed has the potential to change the way in which a patient is defined as geriatric."
- AFP/rl
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Watch grandpa's gait for longevity clues
