Internet addiction among Norwegian adults: a stratified probability sample study

Most Norwegians are Internet users. We conducted a stratified probability sample study (Norway, 2007, age-group 16–74 years, N = 3,399, response rate 35.3%, 87.1% Internet users) to assess the prevalence of Internet addiction and at-risk Internet use by the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ). The prevalence of Internet addiction (YDQ score 5–8) was 1.0% and an additional 5.2% were at-risk Internet users (YDQ score 3–4). Internet addiction and at-risk Internet use was strongly dependent on gender and age with highest prevalences among young males (16–29 years 4.1% and 19.0%, 30–39 years 3.3% and 10.7%). Logistic regression showed that male gender, young age, university level education, and an unsatisfactory financial situation were factors positively associated with "problematic Internet use" (at-risk and addicted use combined). Time spent on the Internet and prevalence of self-reported sleeping disorders, depression, and other psychological impairments increased linearly with YDQ score. Problematic Internet use clearly affects the lives of many people.     

Brain dynamics of word familiarization in 20-month-olds: effects of productive vocabulary size

The present study investigated the brain mechanisms involved during young children's receptive familiarization with new words, and whether the dynamics of these mechanisms are related to the child's productive vocabulary size. To this end, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 20-month-old children in a pseudoword repetition task. Results revealed distinct patterns of repetition effects for children with large and small productive vocabularies. High producers showed evidence of recognizing the novel words already after three presentations, while the low producers needed five presentations to display a recognition effect. The familiarization process was manifested in the modulations of two components, the N200-400 and a later fronto-central component, which appeared to increase in amplitude until a certain level of encoding was reached and then decrease with further repetition. These findings suggest a relation between the onset of the productive vocabulary spurt and the rate of receptive word familiarization.     

Sympathetic reactivity in late pregnancy is related to labour onset in women

Stress regulation during pregnancy is considered to be connected to the timing of labour initiation. Although increasing knowledge is emerging on the regulation of parturition, there is currently no way to predict the start of spontaneous labour in women. The main aim of this study was to assess pain threshold and the sympathetic nervous system response to cold pain in relation to the onset of labour in healthy pregnant women. Ninety-three pregnant women were recruited and assessed for skin conductance (SC) activity during a cold pressor test in gestational week 38. Pain threshold and cold endurance were also measured and the results were compared with data obtained from hospital records. Seventy-four women had a spontaneous labour onset and a valid SC measurement. SC activity during the cold pressor test decreased significantly with the number of days left to spontaneous parturition. This may indicate a gradual decrease in sympathetic autonomic nervous system reactivity even during the last weeks of pregnancy. Measuring SC activity during mild stress provocation is a rapid and non-invasive means to study variation in sympathetic reactivity during pregnancy, and may be useful in research on stress regulation in pregnancy and its relation to labour initiation.     

Improving fairness in coverage decisions: performance expectations for quality improvement

Patients and physicians often perceive the current health care system to be unfair, in part because of the ways in which coverage decisions appear to be made. To address this problem the Ethical Force Program, a collaborative effort to create quality improvement tools for ethics in health care, has developed five content areas specifying ethical criteria for fair health care benefits design and administration. Each content area includes concrete recommendations and measurable expectations for performance improvement, which can be used by those organizations involved in the design and administration of health benefits packages, such as purchasers, health plans, benefits consultants, and practitioner groups.     

Effects of mand-tact versus tact-only training on the acquisition of tacts

We sought to replicate and extend Carroll and Hesse's (1987) study of the acquisition of tacts by including participants with and without developmental disabilities. As in Carroll and Hesse, the present results showed that mand-tact training, rather than tact-only training, led to more rapid acquisition of tacts. Tacting on follow-up tests did not differ. In addition, our results show that mand-tact training established both verbal operants involved about as rapidly as tact-only training established only one verbal operant. DESCRIPTORS: verbal behavior, tact acquisition, mand-tact training, tact-only training, follow-up     

Psychological characteristics of elderly insomniacs

Sixty insomniacs, aged 60 years or over, fulfilling the DSM-IV criteria for primary insomnia, completed a set of questionnaires measuring psychological distress. These included the Sleep Impairment Index (SIM), the Symptom Check List 90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and the Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI). The insomniacs were compared on these measures with two contrast groups, one of elderly good sleepers and one an elderly community sample. As norms were developed for the SCL-90-R and PSWQ, insomniacs were also contrasted with the norm groups on these measures. In general, the results indicated a higher level of psychological distress among insomniacs than among the good sleepers, while there were negligible differences between insomniacs and the community sample on most measures. Overall, elderly insomniacs scored higher on measures of worry compared with the other groups, followed by measures of somatization, obsessive-compulsion and depression. It is concluded that excessive worrying was the most characteristic feature of elderly insomniacs.     

Neuropsychological performance in older insomniacs

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine daytime performance in older adults fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for DSM-IV Insomnia, using a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests, and to compare these objective findings with measures of self-reported cognitive functioning. A total of 121 participants (69% women) with a mean age of 64.0 were part of a thorough neuropsychological examination at a University-based neuropsychological clinic in Western Norway. Twenty-five percent of the participants fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for insomnia. In sum, the insomnia patients were not different from the good sleepers on any neuropsychological test measure, and none of the results on the performance measures were associated with the sleep-related daytime complaints. However, the insomniacs did rate their subjective memory performance as significantly worse than the good sleepers, and they also reported more depressive symptoms. We conclude that DSM-IV defined insomnia was not associated with any performance based measure; only with self-reported symptoms.     

Stress and happiness among adolescents with varying frequency of physical activity

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate associations between physical activity, stress, and happiness, as well as possible sex and age differences on these variables in a survey of 1,508 adolescent pupils (13 to 18 yr.) in middle Norway. Adolescents who reported they participated in physical activity 2 to 3 times per week or more scored significantly lower on stress and higher on happiness than those who participated in physical activity 1 day per week or less. There was no significant difference on stress and happiness between those being physically active 2 or 3 times a week and those being active almost every day. There was no sex difference in physical activity frequency. Girls had higher mean scores on stress, and boys scored higher on happiness. Adolescents 15 to 16 years old showed higher stress scores than those 17 to 18 years old, but there were no significant differences between the different age groups when looking at happiness and physical activity. A statistically significant two-way interaction of sex by age was found on both stress and happiness.     

Caregiver Factors Predicting Service Utilization Among Youth Participating in a School-based Mental Health Intervention

Large numbers of children and adolescents experience diagnosable psychiatric disturbances; however, the majority of those with need do not utilize mental health services. Characteristics of caregivers are important predictors of which youth will access and continue to use services over time. In recent years school-based mental health intervention programs have played a key role in identifying youth with mental health needs and linking them to treatment. In this study we sought to identify the caregiver demographic and contextual factors that predict days of service use among youth participating in a school-based mental health intervention program. Our sample included 85 youth ages 5–18 and their caregivers. We analyzed the data using bivariate and multivariate Poisson regressions with caregiver factors as the independent variables and days of service as the dependant variable. We found significant bivariate and multivariate associations for every caregiver demographic (sex, age, race) and contextual (education, employment, income, insurance, health, strain, and was it the caregivers idea to seek treatment) factor that was examined. In this study we identified the caregiver factors that are likely important in predicting youth service utilization even when steps have been taken to improve identification and access.