news 2020

Contrary to earlier concerns, a UNIGE study has shown that people who met their partners on dating applications have often stronger long-term relationship goals, and that these new ways of meeting people encourage socio-educational and geographical mixing. Mobile apps have revolutionised the way people meet in Switzerland and elsewhere in recent years.

University of Queensland researchers are working with a team of 50 social workers across south east Queensland to create a uniform, national approach to identifying abuse in elderly people who present to hospitals. Latest national figures say up to 14 per cent of Australians over the age of 55 experience some form of physical, financial or emotional abuse at the hands of their carers or family members.

Eating too much junk food has been linked with poor sleep quality in teens, a University of Queensland-led study has found. UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences researcher Associate Professor Asad Khan said frequent consumption of soft drinks and fast food was strongly associated with sleep disturbance in adolescents around the world.

More than one third of UK teenagers are starting adult life with excess weight (either overweight or obese), and rates are even higher among the poorest, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published today in a briefing paper  by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Social Research Institute, shows that one in five (21%) young people were obese at age 17, and a further one in seven (14%) were overweight, based on data collected in 2018-19 .

BAME babies at highest risk of Vitamin D deficiency, highlighting need for improvements to UK antenatal supplementation programme, new study suggests A third of all babies and half of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) babies are vitamin D deficient, a large study of 3000 newborn's in the West Midlands has shown, highlighting potential shortfalls in the current UK antenatal supplementation programme.

A new study published today highlights the importance of overcoming gender inequality for climate change adaptation and explores future pathways of gender equality for sustainable development Vulnerability to the impacts of climate change differs on a wide range of factors including socio-economic status, education, ethnicity and gender.

The spread of the Internet is shaping migration in profound ways. A McGill-led study of over 150 countries links Internet penetration with migration intentions and behaviours, suggesting that digital connectivity plays a key role in migration decisions and actively supports the migration process. Countries with higher proportions of Internet users tend to have more people who are willing to emigrate.

Facial expressions of emotion transcend geography and culture, new study shows. (Image by Alan Cowen) Whether at a birthday party in Brazil, a funeral in Kenya or protests in Hong Kong, humans all use variations of the same facial expressions in similar social contexts, such as smiles, frowns, grimaces and scowls, a new UC Berkeley study shows.

The proportion of adults with diagnosed diabetes trebled between 1994 and 2019, report researchers from UCL and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), who have analysed the latest results from the Health Survey for England (HSE). The report, which is commisisoned by NHS Digital, analyses data from over 8,200 adults and 2,000 children living in private households in England and shows the percentage of people who have been diagnosed with diabetes has risen since 1994, from 3% to 9% among men and from 2% to 6% among women.

The majority of University of Bristol students are complying with government COVID-19 guidelines and are self-isolating when receiving a positive test, indicates a study that has investigated student social contact patterns and behaviours. The research led by scientists at the University of Bristol is published on the pre-print server medRxiv.

Feel like a good laugh? Then why not take part in a listening experiment designed by UvA psychologists. Listen to someone else laughing out loud and rate how contagious you find their laughter. You can also add your own laughter fragment and thereby help the researchers find out what contagious laughter sounds like.

Visiting Professor Joanna Bryson has co-authored a study showing why rebuilding trust in societies can be so challenging. Last updated on Tuesday 15 December 2020 Polarisation, such as the emergence of extreme right or left movements, can create conflict and keep individuals and even governments from working toward a common good.

Data from the National COVID-19 Infection Survey, done in partnership between the University of Oxford, the Office of National Statistics, Public Health England, University of Manchester and the Wellcome Trust, has revealed detailed characteristics of England's coronavirus pandemic, including which factors have contributed most to case numbers over different phases and the prevalence of asymptomatic infections.

A new framework has been developed by Women's Aid in partnership with academic colleagues - including the University of Bristol - to promote best practice in research into domestic violence and abuse (DVA). The Research Integrity Framework aims to give policy makers and commissioners more clarity on the merits of different types of evidence and research, and the principles of integrity relating to DVA research.

Men have almost three times the odds of needing admission to intensive care and 40% higher odds of dying from COVID-19 than women, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the University of Cape Town. The study, published and the largest review of its kind, looked at publicly available data from 92 reports across 47 countries to investigate why COVID-19 may affect genders differently.

Large variations in exposure at home, in the community and at work-rather than case-fatality rates-may explain the well-documented racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality during the first wave of the pandemic last spring, according to a new University of Michigan study. "Our results highlight yawning gaps in COVID-19 incidence and mortality in Michigan that cannot be explained away by differences in population age and sex composition,” said lead author Jon Zelner, assistant professor of epidemiology.

By testing approximately 1,000 blood donation samples each month in in the Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Manaus, an international team of researchers have shown that, while both cities have experienced large epidemics with high mortality, as much as three-quarters of the population in Manaus was infected between March and October, and a third of the population in São Paulo.

The first lockdown led to a significant increase in symptoms of depression among children, highlighting the unintended consequences of school closures, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge. Our study is one of the first to follow the same children over time during lockdown and suggests that symptoms of depression among children got much worse during this period Giacomo Bignardi In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government implemented a national "lockdown" involving school closures and social distancing.

A new report has found drivers that mitigate experiences of violence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) partnered with 18 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to gather and analyse data from 1,600 people in an effort to understand how to reduce family violence.

Early adulthood, a transitional life stage marked by major changes in social roles and responsibilities, can bring with it an increase of mental health problems. A team of McGill University researchers has found that young adults who perceived higher levels of social support reported fewer mental health problems.