No abstract

Background Evidence suggests social media use is associated with mental health in young people but underlying processes are not well understood. This paper i) assesses whether social media use is associated with adolescents' depressive symptoms, and ii) investigates multiple potential explanatory pathways via online harassment, sleep, self-esteem and body image. Methods We used population based data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study on 10,904 14 year olds. Multivariate regression and path models were used to examine associations between social media use and depressive symptoms. Findings The magnitude of association between social media use and depressive symptoms was larger for girls than for boys. Compared with 1–3 h of daily use: 3 to < 5 h 26% increase in scores vs 21%; ≥ 5 h 50% vs 35% for girls and boys respectively. Greater social media use related to online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem and poor body image; in turn these related to higher depressive symptom scores. Multiple potential intervening pathways were apparent, for example: greater hours social media use related to body weight dissatisfaction (≥ 5 h 31% more likely to be dissatisfied), which in turn linked to depressive symptom scores directly (body dissatisfaction 15% higher depressive symptom scores) and indirectly via self-esteem. Interpretation Our findings highlight the potential pitfalls of lengthy social media use for young people's mental health. Findings are highly relevant for the development of guidelines for the safe use of social media and calls on industry to more tightly regulate hours of social media use. Funding Economic and Social Research Council.

Breastfeeding, particularly when exclusive and prolonged, protects against severe morbidity in contemporary United Kingdom. A population-level increase in exclusive, prolonged breastfeeding would be of considerable potential benefit for public health.

BackgroundAdolescents are among the highest consumers of social media while research has shown that their well-being decreases with age. The temporal relationship between social media interaction and well-being is not well established. The aim of this study was to examine whether the changes in social media interaction and two well-being measures are related across ages using parallel growth models.MethodsData come from five waves of the youth questionnaire, 10-15 years, of the Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (pooled n = 9859). Social media interaction was assessed through daily frequency of chatting on social websites. Well-being was measured by happiness with six domains of life and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.ResultsFindings suggest gender differences in the relationship between interacting on social media and well-being. There were significant correlations between interacting on social media and well-being intercepts and between social media interaction and well-being slopes among females. Additionally higher social media interaction at age 10 was associated with declines in well-being thereafter for females, but not for males. Results were similar for both measures of well-being.ConclusionsHigh levels of social media interaction in early adolescence have implications for well-being in later adolescence, particularly for females. The lack of an association among males suggests other factors might be associated with their reduction in well-being with age. These findings contribute to the debate on causality and may inform future policy and interventions.

No abstract

No abstract

Using large longitudinal survey data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, this article estimates the relationship between maternal time inputs and early child development. We find that maternal time is a quantitatively important determinant of skill formation and that its effect declines with child age. There is evidence of long-term effects of early maternal time inputs on later outcomes, especially in the case of cognitive skill development. In the case of non-cognitive development, the evidence of this long-term impact disappears when we account for skill persistence.The importance of parental time in determining child attainment has long been recognised by economists (Becker, 1965;Hill and Stafford, 1974;Leibowitz, 1974Leibowitz, , 1977. Despite this, there are surprisingly few empirical studies that analyse the effect of parental time inputs on child outcomes. Using a large representative data set on British children and their families, this article's objective is to provide new evidence on how the time mothers devote to activities with their children affects early child outcomes and how this relationship changes over time.Much recent research has found that skills measured in pre-school years are strong predictors of later life outcomes (Keane and

There were large variations between centres for many of the variables studied. A forced expiratory volume in one second measurement was found in only 53% of cases. Of the investigations recommended in the acute management arterial blood gases were performed in 79% (interhospital range 40 -100%) of admissions and oxygen was formally prescribed in only 64% (range 9 -94%). Of those cases with acidosis and hypercapnia 35% had no further blood gas analysis and only 13% received ventilatory support. Long-term management was also deficient with 246 cases known to be severely hypoxic on admission yet two-thirds had no confirmation that oxygen levels had returned to levels above the requirements for long-term oxygen therapy. Only 30% of current smokers had cessation advice documented.To conclude, the median standards of care observed fell below those recommended by the guidelines. The lowest levels of performance were for patients not under the respiratory specialists, but specialists also have room for improvement. The substantial variation in the process of care between hospitals is strong evidence that it is possible for other centres with poorer performance to improve their levels of care. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has a high prevalence and is one of the most common causes of emergency medical admission with a respiratory disorder in the UK [1,2]. Several national and international Thoracic Bodies have produced management guidelines [3 -7] but relatively little is known about the standards of care of COPD as practised. Published studies encompass few hospitals, small patient numbers, and are not measured against nationally agreed standards. For example data from a sample of l00 cases from the West of Scotland suggested that care by respiratory specialists was better than that given by generalists [8]. A study from a single New Zealand hospital concluded that process of care was "adequate" measured against a local consensus view [9]. Following the launch of the British guidelines [7] the British Thoracic Society (BTS) performed an audit of the clinical practise of hospital care of patients admitted with acute exacerbations of COPD. The aims of the audit were to establish data on the current management of acute COPD in UK hospitals judged against the British guidelines and to identify differences in management between respiratory and nonrespiratory specialists. MethodsHospitals within the UK with acute Respiratory Medicine Departments were approached to participate in the study. All were asked to complete retrospective audit sheets from information held in case-note records on 40 consecutive admissions from September 1, 1997 with a clinical diagnosis of acute exacerbation of COPD as the admission criterion. The audit proforma developed by the BTS audit group, comprised 38 questions some with two or more stems covering the following areas of care: 1) background information and history prior to admission; 2) assessment and measurements on admission; 3) initial management; 4) continuing management and ...