01-12-2020 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
HEALTH
01-12-2020 to 15-12-2020
13
Spending long time on phone not
bad for mental health : Study
London : If your kids are spending
hours on smartphone, don't panic. In a
new study, researchers have found that
time spent on the smartphone was not
related to poor mental health.
According to the findings, published
in the journal 'Technology, Mind, and
Behavior', general smartphone usage is
a poor predictor of anxiety, depression
or stress when it comes to digital detoxes.
"A person's daily smartphone pickups
or screen time did not predict anxiety,
depression, or stress symptoms,"
said study lead author Heather Shaw
from the Lancaster University in the
UK. In the study, the research team
measured the time spent on smartphones
by 199 iPhone users and 46
Android users for one week.
Participants were also asked about their
mental and physical health, completing
clinical scales that measure anxiety and
depression symptoms. They also completed
a scale which measured how
problematic they perceived their smartphone
usage to be.
Surprisingly, the amount of time
spent on the smartphone was not related
WASHINGTON Guv
announces Covid exposure
notification tool
Washington : The Governor of the US state of Washington Jay
Inslee on has announced the launch of WA Notify, a “simple,
anonymous exposure notification tool” to help stop the spread of
Covid-19. By adding WA Notify to their smartphones, Washington
residents will be alerted if they spent time near another WA Notify
user who later tests positive for Covid-19, the announcement said
on Monday, Xinhua reported.
WA Notify uses privacy-preserving technology jointly developed
by Google and Apple and works without collecting or revealing
any location or personal data, according to the announcement.
“Secure, private and anonymous exposure notification technology
is an important tool for Washington,” Inslee said. “We’ve
deployed WA Notify in 29 languages so as many Washington residents
as possible can protect themselves, their loved ones and their
communities.”
He also encouraged all residents to start using WA Notify
immediately to work together to contain the coronavirus.
Several US states including Virginia, New York and Colorado
are using this tool, the announcement said.
to poor mental health. Additionally,
those who exceeded clinical 'cut off
points' for both general anxiety and
major depressive disorder did not use
their phone more than those who scored
below this threshold. Instead, the study
found that mental health was associated
with concerns and worries felt by participants
about their own smartphone
usage. Previous studies have focussed
on the potentially detrimental impact of
'screen time', but the study shows that
people's attitudes or worries are likely to
drive these findings. According to the
Be emotionally flexible to
save the romance in life
London : Being emotionally flexible is
one of the key factors when it comes to
longevity and overall health of your
romantic and long-term relationships, say
researchers.
The researchers from University of
Rochester aimed to clarify how mindful
flexibility the one hand and inattentive,
mindless and rigid inflexibility on the other
were linked to the dynamics within families
and romantic relationships.
Psychological flexibility is defined as a
set of skills that people use when they're
presented with difficult or challenging
thoughts, feelings, emotions or experiences.
Psychologists consider the rigid and
inflexible responses to difficult or challenging
experiences dysfunctional, ultimately
contributing to and exacerbating a
person's psychopathology.
The psychological flexibility and inflexibility
may play key roles in both couples
and families in shaping how individuals
interact with the people closest to them, the
researchers wrote in a meta-analysis, published
in the Journal of Contextual
Behavioral Science, which statistically
combined the results of 174 separate studies.
"Put simply, this meta-analysis underscores
that being mindful and emotionally
flexible in tough and challenging situations
not only improves the lives of individuals,
it might also strengthen and enrich their
close relationships," said study co-author
Ronald Rogge, an associate professor of
psychology. The meta-analysis added to
researchers, mobile technologies have
become even more essential for work
and day-to-day life during the Covid-19
pandemic. "Our results add to a growing
body of research that suggests reducing
general screen time will not make people
happier," said study author said
David Ellis from the University of Bath.
"Instead of pushing the benefits of
digital detox, our research suggests people
would benefit from measures to
address the worries and fears that have
grown up around time spent using
phones," Ellis added.
the findings of Rogge's earlier work in
which, he and a team tested the effects of
couples' watching movies together and
talking about the films afterward. That
study found that an inexpensive, fun, and
relatively simple watch-and-talk approach
can be just as effective as other more intensive
therapist-led methods — more than
halving the divorce or separation rate from
24 to 11 per cent after the first three years
of marriage. "The results suggest that husbands
and wives have a pretty good sense
of what they might be doing right and
wrong in their relationships," Rogge said
about the earlier study. "You might not
need to teach them a whole lot of skills to
cut the divorce rate.
You might just need to get them to think
about how they are currently behaving.
And for five movies to give us a benefit
over three years — that is awesome."
Watching and discussing movies with your
partner that feature onscreen couples can
have a positive effect on your relationship.
Pakistan has highest breast cancer rate in Asia : Report
Islamabad : Pakistan has
the highest rate of breast cancer
in Asia, as approximately
90,000 women are diagnosed
with the disease every year out
of whom 40,000 pass away, a
media report said on Monday.
The revelation was made by
speakers at a webinar, "Breast
cancer awareness: give hope,
save lives", organised by the
Commission on Science and
Technology for Sustainable
Development in the South
(Comsats) here on Sunday, the
Dawn news report said.
According to estimate, one in
10 Pakistani women could
develop breast cancer in their
lifetime.
Retired ambassador Fauzia
Nasreen, who is also an adviser
at Comsats, emphasised on the
importance of measures that
need to be taken in order to
overcome the lack of knowledge,
appropriate facilities, family
support and fear related to
cancer in society.
An early diagnosis and timely
access to affordable medical
care are the cornerstones of
beating the disease, she said,
adding women must educate
themselves about techniques of
self-examination.
Samina Naeem, former associate
professor at Health
Services Academy and consultant
at World Health
Organisation (WHO) Pakistan,
stressed the need for breaking
stereotypes and taboos related to
the disease.