- PLSCR1 is a cell-autonomous defence factor against SARS-CoV-2 infection Nature.com
- IL-9 identified as contributor to viral spread and airway inflammation in COVID-19 News-Medical.Net
- New findings may explain why mRNA vaccines provide limited protection against omicron Medical Xpress
- Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 variants during the first two years of the pandemic in Colombia | Communications Medicine Nature.com
- Additive effects of booster mRNA vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection on T cell immunity across immunocompromised states Science
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: factor
Highlights From Karan Deol And Drisha Acharya’s Sangeet: Sunny Deol’s Dance, The Ranveer Factor And More – NDTV Movies
- Highlights From Karan Deol And Drisha Acharya’s Sangeet: Sunny Deol’s Dance, The Ranveer Factor And More NDTV Movies
- Dharmendra and his grandson Karan Deol groove to Yamla Pagla Deewana at the sangeet ceremony – watch vide Indiatimes.com
- ‘Daru chahiye, bottle lekar aao’: Sunny Deol as he greets paparazzi covering his son Karan’s wedding The Tribune India
- Pics: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol And Others At Karan Deol And Drisha Acharya’s Sangeet NDTV
- Karan Deol and Drisha Acharya look like a perfect match at their sangeet ceremony: Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol Indiatimes.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
First sign of breast cancer: Women unaware that breast density is an increased risk factor
Dense breast tissue poses up to four times higher risk of developing breast cancer. However, a new study has shown that many women are unaware of the risks of breast density.
Dense breasts refers to breasts that are composed of more fibrous and glandular tissue compared to fatty tissue, and can be detected while undergoing a mammogram.
The study, which was published in Jama Network Open on 23 January, surveyed 1,858 women ages 40 to 76 years from 2019 to 2020 who had recently undergone mammography, had no history of breast cancer, and had heard of breast density.
It assessed women’s understanding of breast density as a significant breast cancer risk compared to other well known risk factors, such as having a relative with breast cancer, being overweight or obese, drinking more than one alcoholic beverage per day, never having children, and having a prior breast biopsy.
Despite breast density being associated with a 1.2 to four times higher risk of developing breast cancer, according to the study, few women perceived breast density to be a strong personal risk factor. Instead, 93 per cent of women saw family history as posing the greatest risk, followed by 65 per cent of women who said that being overweight or obese was a greater risk than breast density.
Of the 61 women who were interviewed, only six of them described breast density as contributing to breast cancer risk. Although, most women did correctly note that breast density could make mammograms harder to read.
When asked about what they could take to reduce their breast cancer risk, roughly one-third of women said that they weren’t sure if it was possible to reduce their breast cancer risk, or they were unaware of what actions they could take.
However, there are many actions people can take to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. A breast screening, also known as a mammogram, is an x-ray picture of the breast used to check for breast cancer in women. A mammogram can detect otherwise invisible signs or symptoms of breast cancer that cannot be felt, or can check for breast cancer after a lump or other signs of breast cancer has been detected.
The American Cancer Society recommends women between the ages 45 to 54 should get a mammogram every year. Women between 40 and 44 also have the option to start early screening, and those who are 55 and older can switch to a mammogram every other year if they choose to do so.
Nearly half of all women who are 40 and older who get mammograms are found to have dense breasts, per the National Cancer Institute. Breast density is often inherited, but it can also be found in women who are younger, are taking hormone replacement therapy, or have a lower body weight.
While breast density can make it more difficult to interpret a mammogram, a newer type of mammogram called digital breast tomosynthesis – or 3D mammography – has recently appeared to be more helpful in women with dense breasts.
Other studies have shown that imaging tests like an ultrasound or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help find some breast cancers that can’t be seen on mammograms. Experts have not yet firmly suggested women with dense breasts should receive additional screening, according to the Recommendation Statement on Breast Cancer Screening by the US Preventive Services Task Force.
People who have dense breasts should talk to their health care provider about personal risks of developing breast cancer.
Breast cancer symptoms: Women unaware that breast density is an increased risk factor
Dense breast tissue poses up to four times higher risk of developing breast cancer. However, a new study has shown that many women are unaware of the risks of breast density.
Dense breasts refers to breasts that are composed of more fibrous and glandular tissue compared to fatty tissue, and can be detected while undergoing a mammogram.
The study, which was published in Jama Network Open on 23 January, surveyed 1,858 women ages 40 to 76 years from 2019 to 2020 who had recently undergone mammography, had no history of breast cancer, and had heard of breast density.
It assessed women’s understanding of breast density as a significant breast cancer risk compared to other well known risk factors, such as having a relative with breast cancer, being overweight or obese, drinking more than one alcoholic beverage per day, never having children, and having a prior breast biopsy.
Despite breast density being associated with a 1.2 to four times higher risk of developing breast cancer, according to the study, few women perceived breast density to be a strong personal risk factor. Instead, 93 per cent of women saw family history as posing the greatest risk, followed by 65 per cent of women who said that being overweight or obese was a greater risk than breast density.
Of the 61 women who were interviewed, only six of them described breast density as contributing to breast cancer risk. Although, most women did correctly note that breast density could make mammograms harder to read.
When asked about what they could take to reduce their breast cancer risk, roughly one-third of women said that they weren’t sure if it was possible to reduce their breast cancer risk, or they were unaware of what actions they could take.
However, there are many actions people can take to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. A breast screening, also known as a mammogram, is an x-ray picture of the breast used to check for breast cancer in women. A mammogram can detect otherwise invisible signs or symptoms of breast cancer that cannot be felt, or can check for breast cancer after a lump or other signs of breast cancer has been detected.
The American Cancer Society recommends women between the ages 45 to 54 should get a mammogram every year. Women between 40 and 44 also have the option to start early screening, and those who are 55 and older can switch to a mammogram every other year if they choose to do so.
Nearly half of all women who are 40 and older who get mammograms are found to have dense breasts, per the National Cancer Institute. Breast density is often inherited, but it can also be found in women who are younger, are taking hormone replacement therapy, or have a lower body weight.
While breast density can make it more difficult to interpret a mammogram, a newer type of mammogram called digital breast tomosynthesis – or 3D mammography – has recently appeared to be more helpful in women with dense breasts.
Other studies have shown that imaging tests like an ultrasound or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help find some breast cancers that can’t be seen on mammograms. Experts have not yet firmly suggested women with dense breasts should receive additional screening, according to the Recommendation Statement on Breast Cancer Screening by the US Preventive Services Task Force.
People who have dense breasts should talk to their health care provider about personal risks of developing breast cancer.
Many women underestimate breast density as a risk factor for breast cancer, study shows
CNN
—
Dense breast tissue has been associated with up to a four times higher risk of breast cancer. However, a new study suggests few women view breast density as a significant risk factor.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, surveyed 1,858 women ages 40 to 76 years from 2019 to 2020 who reported having recently undergone mammography, had no history of breast cancer and had heard of breast density.
Women were asked to compare the risk of breast density to five other breast cancer risk factors: having a first-degree relative with breast cancer, being overweight or obese, drinking more than one alcoholic beverage per day, never having children and having a prior breast biopsy.
“When compared to other known and perhaps more well-known breast cancer risks, women did not perceive breast density as significant of a risk,” said Laura Beidler, an author of the study and researcher at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
For example, the authors report that dense breast tissue is associated with a 1.2 to four times higher risk of breast cancer compared with a two times higher risk associated with having a first-degree relative with breast cancer – but 93% of women said breast density was a lesser risk.
Dense breasts tissue refers to breasts that are composed of more glandular and fibrous tissue than fatty tissue. It is a normal and common finding present in about half of women undergoing mammograms.
The researchers also interviewed 61 participants who reported being notified of their breast density and asked what they thought contributes to breast cancer and how they could reduce their risk. While most women correctly noted that breast density could mask tumors on mammograms, few women felt that breast density could be a risk factor for breast cancer.
Roughly one-third of women thought there was nothing they could do to reduce their breast cancer risk, although there are several ways to reduce risk, including maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle and minimizing alcohol consumption.
Breast density changes over a woman’s lifetime, and is generally higher in women who are younger, have a lower body weight, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are taking hormone replacement therapy.
The level of breast cancer risk increases with the degree of breast density; however, experts aren’t certain why this is true.
“One hypothesis has been that women who have more dense breast tissue also have higher, greater levels of estrogen, circulating estrogen, which contributes to both the breast density and to the risk of developing breast cancer,” said Dr. Harold Burstein, a breast oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was not involved in the study. “Another hypothesis is that there’s something about the tissue itself, making it more dense, that somehow predisposes to the development of breast cancer. We don’t really know which one explains the observation.”
Thirty-eight states currently mandate that women receive written notification about their breast density and its potential breast cancer risk following mammography; however, studies have shown that many women find this information confusing.
“Even though women are notified usually in writing when they get a report after a mammogram that says, ‘You have increased breast density,’ it’s kind of just tucked in there at the bottom of the report. I’m not sure that anyone is explaining to them, certainly in person or verbally, what that means,” said Dr. Ruth Oratz, a breast oncologist at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center who was not involved in the study.
“I think what we’ve learned from this study is that we have to do a better job of educating not only the general public of women, but the general public of health care providers who are doing the primary care, who are ordering those screening mammograms,” she added.
Current screening guidelines recommend women of average risk of breast cancer undergo breast cancer screening every one to two years between ages 50 to 74 with the option of beginning at age 40.
Because women with dense breast tissue are considered to have higher than average cancer risks, the authors of the study suggest women with high breast density may benefit from supplemental screening like breast MRI or breast ultrasound, which may detect cancers that are missed on mammograms. Currently, coverage of supplemental screening after the initial mammogram varies, depending on the state and insurance policy.
The authors warn that “supplemental screening not only can lead to increased rates of cancer detection but also may result in more false-positive results and recall appointments.” They say clinicians should use risk assessment tools when discussing tradeoffs associated with supplemental screening.
“Usually, it’s a discussion between the patient, the clinical team, and the radiologist. And it’ll be affected by prior history, by whether there’s anything else of concern on the mammogram, by the patient’s family history. So those are the kinds of things we discuss frequently with patients who are in such situations,” Burstein said.
Breast cancer screening recommendations differ between medical organizations, and experts say women at higher risk due to breast density should discuss with their doctor what screening method and frequency are most appropriate.
“I think it’s really, really important that everyone understands – and this is the doctors, the nurses, the women themselves – that screening is not a one size fits all recommendation. We cannot just make one general recommendation to the entire population because individual women have different levels of risks of developing breast cancer,” Oratz said.
For the nearly one-third of women with dense breast tissue that reported there was nothing they could do to prevent breast cancer, experts say there are some steps you can take to reduce your risk.
“Maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle and minimizing alcohol consumption address several modifiable factors. Breastfeeding can decrease the risk. On the other hand, use of hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer risk,” said Dr. Puneet Singh, a breast surgical oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center who was not involved in the study.
The researchers add that there are approved medications, such as tamoxifen, that can be given for those at significantly increased risk that may reduce the chances of breast cancer by about half.
Finally, breast cancer doctors say that in addition to appropriate screening, knowing your risk factors and advocating for yourself can be powerful tools in preventing and detecting breast cancer.
“At any age, if any woman feels uncomfortable about something that’s going on in her breast, if she has discomfort, notices a change in the breast, bring that to the attention of your doctor and make sure it gets evaluated and don’t let somebody just brush you off,” Oratz said.
RIP Surface Duo—Microsoft reportedly gives up on the weird form factor
Enlarge / The Surface Duo 2 running Android 12L.
Microsoft
Windows Central’s Zac Bowden is the go-to reporter for any Microsoft Surface rumors, and his latest report is that Surface Duo 3 is dead, or at least, a device in the same mold as the Surface Duo 1 and 2 has been canceled. There might someday be a Microsoft device branded “Surface Duo 3,” but the Surface Duo form factor—a dual-screen device with a 360-degree hinge—is dead. The report says Microsoft is now working on a “more traditional foldable design, with a 180-degree hinge, internal foldable screen and external cover display”—so in the same vein as a Galaxy Fold.
The Surface Duo line made for two of the most awkward Android devices on the market. Instead of the tall, skinny displays that Android phones typically use, both Surface Duos used short, fat displays, making the Duo line the widest smartphones on the market. The original Surface Duo was planned to run the canceled “Windows 10x” OS, which would have taken advantage of the unique screen aspect ratio. When that OS was canceled, the project was salvaged as an Android phone, but those short, fat displays led to a lot of bad Android app layouts, with the limited vertical screen space further reduced by Android’s big headers and tab bars. It seems like Microsoft wanted to land on the same basic outline as a Moleskine notebook, but Android apps just aren’t designed for that aspect ratio. Plus, even when folded up, being dramatically wider than any other smartphone on the market also made it a literal pain to try to hold with one hand.
After two near-identical versions, Microsoft seemed to have been coming around to the “way too wide” line of thinking. The report says the canceled Surface Duo 3 would have had “narrower and taller edge-to-edge displays,” which would have put the phone in a more reasonable form factor.
Enlarge / The next Microsoft phone will be more like the Galaxy Fold, with one big foldable display. This one even runs Excel!
Samsung
With those plans dead, what is “considered a third-generation Duo internally” will be a more normal foldable smartphone, and it’s not clear if it will be branded “Surface Duo 3” or not. As we’ve argued in our review of the original device, outfitting the device with a continuous internal screen would be a big improvement over the dual-screen design. With one big foldable display, you could still get all of the dual-screen functionality via Android’s software split-screen mode but with the added benefit of also having one big screen for tablet apps, movies, games, and websites.
Besides the Android-incompatible form factor, Microsoft’s Android phones have had a host of other problems that the company will need to fix. The Surface Duos always felt like beta foldable devices, and that compromise might have worked if they weren’t the full price of a real foldable phone. The $1,400-$1,500 price tags were not competitive for what were basically two smartphones glued together, so you’ve got to wonder what is up with Microsoft’s supply chain. Microsoft’s Android software division has also been a hot mess, with the company outsourcing the Surface Duo 1 OS until two months before release and shipping a disastrously buggy build of Android as a result. Microsoft has since bought the team it was outsourcing its Android builds to, but so far, Surface Duo customers have seen a worst-in-class Android update record.
The report describes Microsoft as wanting to make its Android phone work better with Windows via an internal program called “Perfect Together” that is building Apple-style integrations between phone and laptops/desktops. Despite the failure of the Surface Duo, Bowden says that Microsoft is “all-in” with Android and “eager to expand its line of Android smartphone offerings” beyond the new foldable device. The report says Microsoft has prototyped several ideas for a “mainstream” slab-style Surface phone that might someday ship.
It sounds like we’ll be waiting a while for Microsoft’s next Android phone, with Bowden saying the foldable has “no concrete shipping window for the device in place yet either, meaning it’s unlikely to be ready in time for this fall.”
Age-Related Macular Degeneration a Risk Factor for COVID-19 Infection and Severe Disease
Summary: More severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with age-related macular degeneration likely arise from a genetic predisposition in addition to higher levels of Pdgf in blood serum.
Source: Boston University
Recent evidence has emerged to suggest that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a clinical risk factor for increased risk for infection and mortality. AMD has been reported to confer higher risk of severe complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including respiratory failure and death (25 percent), a risk which is higher than Type 2 diabetes (21 percent) and obesity (13 percent).
Considering these observations, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine hypothesized that AMD and COVID-19 share common genetic risk factors and designed and executed a study that identified a novel association of the two diseases with variants in the PDGFB gene. This gene encodes a platelet derived growth factor (Pdgf) which has a role in the formation of new blood vessels and is involved in the abnormal blood vessel changes that occur in AMD.
They also found that more severe COVID-19 outcomes were associated with AMD likely arising from genetic predisposition to dysfunction involving complement proteins, as well as with a higher level of Pdgf in blood serum.
“Our findings add to the body of evidence for the increased risk of infection and mortality from COVID-19 among AMD patients. Our analysis lends credence to previously reported clinical studies that found those with AMD have a higher risk for COVID-19 infection and severe disease, and that this increased risk may have a genetic basis,” explained co-corresponding author Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD, chief of biomedical genetics.
The BU research team conducted a genome-wide search for variants that are jointly associated with AMD and each of three COVID-19 outcomes (infection rate, critical illness and hospitalization) using large genetic datasets that contained tens of thousands of individuals. These datasets were previously assembled and studied separately for genetic factors contributing to the risk of AMD and for each of the COVID-19 disease outcomes.
Subsequently, the researchers analyzed publicly available data from patients with AMD or COVID-19 and control groups to assess the association of variants in PDGFB with the gene activity.
Finally, they employed an analytical technique that allowed them to investigate causal relationships between PDGFB gene variants, Pdgfb concentration in blood, AMD, and COVID-19 outcomes.
According to the researchers, these findings suggest that lowering PDGFB gene activity and serum PDGF concentration may reduce the severity of COVID-19, particularly among older people.
“Therapeutic strategies combining anti-VEGF therapy (a current treatment for AMD that limits blood vessel growth in the eye that can harm vision) with antagonists (drugs that bind to receptors) for blocking PDGF signaling have been considered even more effective than the single VEGF treatment and are currently under investigation in clinical trials,” added co-corresponding author Manju L. Subramanian, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology.
The researchers believe this discovery of shared genetic risk factors will require a larger sample size for critical illness and hospitalizations to better understand the shared pathology and risk factors that contribute to worsening clinical outcomes in both disease states.
Funding: This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants RF1 AG057519, R01 AG069453, R01 AG048927, U19 AG068753, and U01 AG062602.
About this AMD and COVID-19 research news
Author: Gina DiGravio
Source: Boston University
Contact: Gina DiGravio – Boston University
Image: The image is in the public domain
See also
Original Research: Open access.
“Genome-Wide Pleiotropy Study Identifies Association of PDGFB with Age-Related Macular Degeneration and COVID-19 Infection Outcomes” by Lindsay A. Farrer et al. Journal of Clinical Medicine
Abstract
Genome-Wide Pleiotropy Study Identifies Association of PDGFB with Age-Related Macular Degeneration and COVID-19 Infection Outcomes
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been implicated as a risk factor for severe consequences from COVID-19.
We evaluated the genetic architecture shared between AMD and COVID-19 (critical illness, hospitalization, and infections) using analyses of genetic correlations and pleiotropy (i.e., cross-phenotype meta-analysis) of AMD (n = 33,976) and COVID-19 (n ≥ 1,388,342) and subsequent analyses including expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL), differential gene expression, and Mendelian randomization (MR). We observed a significant genetic correlation between AMD and COVID-19 infection (rG = 0.10, p = 0.02) and identified novel genome-wide significant associations near PDGFB (best SNP: rs130651; p = 2.4 × 10−8) in the pleiotropy analysis of the two diseases.
The disease-risk allele of rs130651 was significantly associated with increased gene expression levels of PDGFB in multiple tissues (best eQTL p = 1.8 × 10−11 in whole blood) and immune cells (best eQTL p = 7.1 × 10−20 in T-cells). PDGFB expression was observed to be higher in AMD cases than AMD controls {fold change (FC) = 1.02; p = 0.067}, as well as in the peak COVID-19 symptom stage (11–20 days after the symptom onset) compared to early/progressive stage (0–10 days) among COVID-19 patients over age 40 (FC = 2.17; p = 0.03) and age 50 (FC = 2.15; p = 0.04). Our MR analysis found that the liability of AMD risk derived from complement system dysfunction {OR (95% CI); hospitalization = 1.02 (1.01–1.03), infection = 1.02 (1.01–1.03) and increased levels of serum cytokine PDGF-BB {β (95% CI); critical illness = 0.07 (0.02–0.11)} are significantly associated with COVID-19 outcomes.
Our study demonstrated that the liability of AMD is associated with an increased risk of COVID-19, and PDGFB may be responsible for the severe COVID-19 outcomes among AMD patients.
Scientists crack aging mystery: Gene length is the deciding factor
Scientists believe they’ve cracked the secret of aging.
A major genetic analysis of people, rodents and fish found the length of their DNA was directly linked to their biological age.
Shorter genes were associated with shorter lifespans, while longer genes were linked to better health and longevity.
Scientists believe if they can hijack this mechanism, it could pave the way for a fountain of youth drugs that could slow — or even reverse — aging.
Dr Thomas Stoeger, lead author of the study from Northwestern University in Illinois, said: ‘I find it very elegant that a single, relatively concise principle seems to account for nearly all of the changes in the activity of genes that happen in animals as they age.’
Scientists said having longer genes can lead someone to live longer (stock photo)
The length of a gene is based on the number of nucleotides within it. Each string of nucleotides translates to an amino acid, forming a protein.
Therefore a very long gene yields a large protein, and a short gene yields a small protein. A cell needs to have a balanced number of small and large proteins to achieve homeostasis, and problems occur when that balance gets out of whack.
In the study, researchers looked at genetic data from several large datasets, including the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, a National Institutes of Health-funded tissue bank that archives samples from human donors for research purposes.
The research team first analyzed tissue samples from mice, rats and killifish of various ages.
In all animals, the researchers noticed subtle changes to thousands of different genes across samples.
This means that not just a small subset of genes that contributes to aging. Aging, instead, is characterized by systems-level changes.
This view differs from prevailing biological approaches that study the effects of single genes.
Since the onset of modern genetics in the early 20th century, many researchers expected to be able to attribute many complex biological phenomena to single genes.
And while some diseases, such as hemophilia, do result from single gene mutations, the narrow approach to studying single genes has yet to lead to explanations for the myriad changes that occur in neurodegenerative diseases and aging.
After completing their animal research, the researchers turned their attention to humans. They looked at changes in human genes from ages 30 to 49, 50 to 69 and then 70 and older.
Measurable changes in gene activity according to gene length already occurred by the time humans reached middle age.
‘There already seems to be something happening early in life, but it becomes more pronounced with age,’ Dr Stoeger said.
‘It seems that, at a young age, our cells are able to counter perturbations that would lead to an imbalance in gene activity. Then, suddenly, our cells can no longer counter it.’
Northwestern’s Luis Amaral, a senior author of the study, said: ‘The result for humans is very strong because we have more samples for humans than for other animals.
‘It was also interesting because all the mice we studied are genetically identical, the same gender and raised in the same laboratory conditions, but the humans are all different.
‘They all died from different causes and at different ages. We analyzed samples from men and women separately and found the same pattern.’
But the scientists found that with aging activity within cells shifts towards shorter genes, upsetting the balance.
This is counterbalanced in people with very long genes, because they have longer proteins available in cells.
Dr Stoeger said: ‘The changes in the activity of genes are very, very small, and these small changes involve thousands of genes.
‘We found this change was consistent across different tissues and in different animals.’
Scientists hope the study — published in Nature Aging — will spur the development of therapies to slow or reverse aging.
Currently, medications target symptoms rather than the causes of getting older which the Northwestern experts said was like using painkillers to reduce a fever.
Dr Amaral said: ‘Fevers can occur for many, many reasons. It could be caused by an infection, which requires antibiotics to cure, or caused by appendicitis, which requires surgery.
‘Here, it is the same thing. The issue is the gene activity imbalance. If you can help correct the imbalance, then you can address the downstream consequences.’
Neurotic Personality Trait a Key Risk Factor for Stress Perception
Summary: People with a neurotic personality type have a stronger relationship with both stressor exposure and perceived stress than any of the other four personality types.
Source: University of Illinois
A new paper co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts who study the science of personalities points to the important role of personality traits to account for individual differences in experiencing stress.
In a meta-analysis synthesizing more than 1,500 effect sizes from about 300 primary studies, the team showed that while all of the “Big Five” personality traits—agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness—are related to experiencing stress, neuroticism showed the strongest link, said Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois and a co-author of the paper.
“Stress is a significant mental and physical health issue that affects many people and many important domains of life, and some individuals are more likely to experience or perceive stress disproportionately or more intensely than others, which can then play a role in mental and physical health problems such as anxiety or depression,” he said.
“We found that individuals high in neuroticism”—a heightened tendency toward negative affect as well as an exaggerated response to threat, frustration or loss –”demonstrated a relationship with both stressor exposure and perceived stress that was stronger than the other four personality traits.”
Zhang’s co-authors are Jing Luo, of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University; former U. of I. graduate student Mengyang Cao; and Brent W. Roberts, a professor of psychology at the U. of I.
“The study is the first meta-analytic review that summarizes and integrates the assorted findings on the connections between the Big Five personality traits and stress,” said Luo, the principal investigator of the research.
“Our paper suggests that certain personality traits are an important source to understand individual differences in stress.”
The researchers found that when stress assessed under different conceptualizations was tested, all of the Big Five traits were related to perceived stress—but only neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness were related to stressor exposure.
“The other main personality factors have a link to stress, but it’s not as pronounced as in someone who’s neurotic,” Zhang said.
“With agreeableness and conscientiousness, for example, it is possible that agreeable people are less likely to encounter stressful situations such as interpersonal conflict because of the tendency to be caring, understanding and forgiving.
“Similarly, conscientious people are less likely to experience stress because their good self-regulation abilities can protect them from the encounters of stressful experiences, as well as the negative psychological impacts of stressors.”
But that’s not the same way in which neuroticism affects stress, Zhang said.
“Neuroticism and stress share common components, so individuals high in neuroticism are likely to play an instrumental role in generating stressors and reacting to a wide variety of events in negative ways, leading to an increased likelihood or chronicity of negative experiences,” he said.
The study underscores the importance of personality in better understanding individual differences in stress, the researchers said.
“Stress is omnipresent, and the findings in the current study may have implications for the investigation of individual differences in experiencing stress and the identification of individuals who are at high risk of suffering from stress and related health issues,” Zhang said.
“If we want to add some sort of intervention program to help people manage stress, we might need to take their specific personality profile into consideration, because there are individual differences in how people handle stress.”
See also
About this stress and personality trait research news
Author: Phil Ciciora
Source: University of Illinois
Contact: Phil Ciciora – University of Illinois
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Closed access.
“The Stressful Personality: A Meta-Analytical Review of the Relation Between Personality and Stress” by Jing Luo et al. Personality & Social Psychology Review
Abstract
The Stressful Personality: A Meta-Analytical Review of the Relation Between Personality and Stress
The current study presented the first meta-analytic review on the associations between the Big Five personality traits and stress measured under different conceptualizations (stressor exposure, psychological and physiological stress responses) using a total of 1,575 effect sizes drawn from 298 samples.
Overall, neuroticism was found to be positively related to stress, whereas extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were negatively linked to stress. When stress assessed under different conceptualizations was tested, only neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were related to stressor exposure.
All of the Big Five personality traits were significantly associated with psychological stress perception, whereas the five personality traits showed weak to null associations with physiological stress response.
Further moderation analyses suggested that the associations between personality traits and stress under different conceptualizations were also contingent upon different characteristics of stress, sample, study design, and measures.
The results supported the important role of personality traits in individual differences in stress.
Psychologists have uncovered a key factor that helps to thwart romantic avoidance
New research provides evidence that positive relationship events play an important role in romantic attachment avoidance. The findings, which have been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, indicate that positive relationship events in everyday life predict decreases in romantic avoidance over time.
Attachment theory describes how people bond with others and maintain their relationships. People can be secure or insecure in their attachments, and insecure individuals can be either anxious or avoidant. Individuals with attachment anxiety frequently worry about being rejected or abandoned. In contrast, those with attachment avoidance tend to be independent and have difficulty trusting others. Research has demonstrated that both types of insecure attachment can lead to negative outcomes in relationships, such as communication problems and difficulties with intimacy.
“Social psychologists have long established that the quality of attachment bonds with our romantic partners are very important for healthy relational functioning. So, we were interested in understanding the role of day-to-day experiences in helping couples achieve greater attachment security over time,” explained study author Gul Gunaydin (@gulgunaydin), a professor of psychology at Sabanci University in Turkey.
In the study, the researchers had 151 dating couples (who had been in a relationship for 1 to 3 months) and 168 newlywed couples (who had been married for up to 6 months) complete daily surveys for three weeks. The surveys asked the participants to report whether they had experienced a variety of positive events involving their partner. The surveys also asked the participants to indicate whether they had experienced positive moods such as happiness or peacefulness.
The researchers found that positive relationship events predicted decreases in romantic avoidance. In other words, participants who reported more frequent positive relationship events became less likely to agree with statements such as “I find it difficult to allow myself to depend on my partner” after the three week period (compared to before). Gunaydino and her colleagues also found that positive relationship events were associated with experiencing positive moods, which, in turn, predicted decreases in romantic avoidance.
“Our findings indicate that positive relationship experiences contribute to feeling closer to and finding it easier to depend on one’s partner (that is, lower romantic avoidance) over time,” Gunaydino told PsyPost. “Based on these findings, we encourage couples to create opportunities to engage in pleasant relationship experiences in daily life — however small they might seem.”
To better understand the specific behaviors that predict lower romantic avoidance, the researchers invited more than 150 couples to visit their laboratory and discuss a positive relationship memory. The discussion was videotaped and reviewed by twelve independent coders. Gunaydino and her colleagues observed that behaviors validating the partner and the relationship predicted decreases in romantic avoidance over one month.
“When jointly reminiscing about these experiences, partners can try to validate one another and the relationship — for example, by telling how grateful they are for sharing the experience, disclosing positive emotions they felt during the experience or expressing how much they look forward to similar experiences in the future,” Gunaydino said. “As positive relationship experiences accumulate over time this will likely contribute to lower romantic avoidance, a key aspect of feeling secure in one’s relationship.”
Surprisingly, the researchers found no evidence that positive relationship events were associated with reductions in romantic anxiety.
“One should keep in mind that positive relationship experiences are not cure-alls for achieving attachment security,” Gunaydino told PsyPost. “In our research, positive relationship experiences contributed to lower romantic avoidance, but not lower romantic anxiety. Romantic anxiety is characterized by worrying that your partner might reject or abandon you. But experiencing positive things in your relationship doesn’t seem to significantly alleviate these worries.”
“According to recent theorizing (Attachment Security Enhancement Model by Ximena Arriaga and colleagues), anxious attachment is linked with having negative self-views. So, based on this framework, behaviors counteracting negative self-views (such as encouraging your partner to independently pursue their own goals) likely play a more pivotal role in reducing romantic anxiety.
“Moreover, all participants in our studies experienced a relationship transition as they were in the initial months of either a new dating relationship or a marriage,” Gunaydino explained. “Starting a new relationship, getting married, becoming parents, or breaking up are often seen as key events that offer greater possibilities for changing attachment patterns. So, our participants were at an ideal time in their relationship to test the links between positive relationship events and romantic avoidance. However, further research is needed to see to whether our findings would hold for couples in more stable periods of their relationship.”
The study, “The Role of Positive Relationship Events in Romantic Attachment Avoidance“, was authored by Deniz Bayraktaroglu, Gul Gunaydin, Emre Selcuk, Miri Besken, and Zahide Karakitapoglu-Aygun.
for(var key in aepc_pixel_args) args[key] = aepc_pixel_args[key];
return args; };
// Extend args if ( 'yes' === aepc_pixel.enable_advanced_events ) { aepc_pixel_args.userAgent = navigator.userAgent; aepc_pixel_args.language = navigator.language;
if ( document.referrer.indexOf( document.domain ) < 0 ) {
aepc_pixel_args.referrer = document.referrer;
}
}
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.agent="dvpixelcaffeinewordpress";n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', aepc_pixel.pixel_id, aepc_pixel.user);
setTimeout( function() {
fbq('track', "PageView", aepc_pixel_args);
}, aepc_pixel.fire_delay * 1000 );
Read original article here