Well-being is more than happiness and life satisfaction: a multidimensional analysis of 21 countries.

Background: Recent trends on measurement of well-being have elevated the scientific standards and rigor associated with approaches for national and international comparisons of well-being. One major theme in this has been the shift toward multidimensional approaches over reliance on traditional metrics such as single measures (e.g.

The well-being profile (WB-Pro): Creating a theoretically based multidimensional measure of well-being to advance theory, research, policy, and practice.

There is no universally agreed definition of well-being as a subjective experience, but Huppert and So (2013) adopted and systematically applied the definition of well-being as positive mental health-the opposite of the common mental disorders described in standard mental health classifications (e.g., ).

Effectiveness of the Mindfulness in Schools Programme: non-randomised controlled feasibility study.

Background: Mindfulness-based approaches for adults are effective at enhancing mental health, but few controlled trials have evaluated their effectiveness among young people.

Aims: To assess the acceptability and efficacy of a schools-based universal mindfulness intervention to enhance mental health and well-being.

Method: A total of 522 young people aged 12-16 in 12 secondary schools either participated in the Mindfulness in Schools Programme (intervention) or took part in the usual school curriculum (control).

A framework for collecting inclusive design data for the UK population.

Successful inclusive product design requires knowledge about the capabilities, needs and aspirations of potential users and should cater for the different scenarios in which people will use products, systems and services. This should include: the individual at home; in the workplace; for businesses, and for products in these contexts. It needs to reflect the development of theory, tools and techniques as research moves on.

Cytomegalovirus infection is associated with increased mortality in the older population.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common herpesvirus infection and stimulates the expansion of very large numbers of CMV-specific T cells that reduce the CD4/CD8 ratio and suppress the number of naïve T cells. CMV infection has been associated with frailty and impaired survival. We investigated the correlates of CMV and the impact of the CMV infection on mortality within a cohort of 511 individuals aged at least 65 years who were followed up for 18 years.

Flourishing Across Europe: Application of a New Conceptual Framework for Defining Well-Being.

Governments around the world are recognising the importance of measuring subjective well-being as an indicator of progress. But how should well-being be measured? A conceptual framework is offered which equates high well-being with positive mental health. Well-being is seen as lying at the opposite end of a spectrum to the common mental disorders (depression, anxiety).

The efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction on mental health of breast cancer patients: a meta-analysis.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the evidence of the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in improving stress, depression and anxiety in breast cancer patients.

Methods: An extensive systematic electronic review (PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsyArticles, PsycINFO, Scopus, Ovid, Web of Science and The Cochrane Library) and a hand search were carried out from 15 October 2011 to 30 November 2011 to retrieve relevant articles using 'mindfulness' or 'mindfulness-based stress reduction' and 'breast cancer' as keywords. Information about the baseline characteristics of the participants, interventions and findings on perceived stress, depression and anxiety was extracted from each study.

Towards a capabilities database to inform inclusive design: experimental investigation of effective survey-based predictors of human-product interaction.

A key issue in the field of inclusive design is the ability to provide designers with an understanding of people's range of capabilities. Since it is not feasible to assess product interactions with a large sample, this paper assesses a range of proxy measures of design-relevant capabilities. It describes a study that was conducted to identify which measures provide the best prediction of people's abilities to use a range of products.

Do positive children become positive adults? Evidence from a longitudinal birth cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the long-term consequences of positive wellbeing in childhood in the general population. We used the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the British 1946 birth cohort) to test associations between adolescent positive wellbeing and social functioning in midlife. METHOD: Temperament and behaviour at ages 13 and 15 years were rated by school teachers on a range of criteria.

An Evaluation of the Precision of Measurement of Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scales in a Population Sample.

The aim of this study is to assess the effective measurement range of Ryff's Psychological Well-being scales (PWB). It applies normal ogive item response theory (IRT) methodology using factor analysis procedures for ordinal data based on a limited information estimation approach. The data come from a sample of 1,179 women participating in a midlife follow-up of a national birth cohort study in the UK.

Lewy body variant of Alzheimer's disease: selective neocortical loss of t-SNARE proteins and loss of MAP2 and alpha-synuclein in medial temporal lobe.

Lewy bodies (LBs) appear in the brains of nondemented individuals and also occur in a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease. A number of people with a definite diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) also exhibit these intraneuronal inclusions in allo- and/or neocortical areas. The latter, referred to as Lewy body variant of AD (LBV), bears a clinical resemblance to AD in terms of age at onset, duration of illness, cognitive impairment, and illness severity.

Development of a disease-specific quality of life questionnaire in Addison's disease.

Context: Patients with Addison's disease reproducibly self-report impairment in specific dimensions of general well-being questionnaires, suggesting particular deficiencies in health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL).

Objective: We sought to develop an Addison's disease-specific questionnaire (AddiQoL) that could better quantify altered well-being and treatment effects. Design, Setting, Patients, Intervention, and Outcomes: We reviewed the literature to identify HRQoL issues in Addison's disease and interviewed patients and their partners in-depth to explore various symptom domains.

Neuroticism in adolescence and cognitive function in midlife in the British 1946 birth cohort: The HALCyon program.

We examined whether higher levels of neuroticism in adolescence were associated with poorer cognitive function in midlife in 2,071 members of the British 1946 birth cohort. Higher neuroticism at age 13 was associated with poorer performance on tests of verbal ability, verbal fluency, and verbal memory at age 53 in sex-adjusted analyses. However, higher neuroticism was also associated with poorer cognitive performance at age 8.

Neuropathological correlates of dementia in over-80-year-old brain donors from the population-based Cambridge city over-75s cohort (CC75C) study.

Key neuropathological changes associated with late-onset dementia are not fully understood. Population-based longitudinal studies offer an opportunity to step back and examine which pathological indices best link to clinical state. CC75C is a longitudinal study of the population aged 75 and over at baseline in Cambridge, UK.

Memory encoding and dopamine in the aging brain: a psychopharmacological neuroimaging study.

Normal aging brings with it changes in dopaminergic and memory functions. However, little is known about how these 2 changes are related. In this study, we identify a link between dopamine, episodic memory networks, and aging, using pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Cognitive health among older adults in the United States and in England.

Background: Cognitive function is a key determinant of independence and quality of life among older adults. Compared to adults in England, US adults have a greater prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease that may lead to poorer cognitive function. We compared cognitive performance of older adults in the US and England, and sought to identify sociodemographic and medical factors associated with differences in cognitive function between the two countries.

Education and trajectories of cognitive decline over 9 years in very old people: methods and risk analysis.

Background: the investigation of cognitive decline in the older population has been hampered by analytical considerations. Most studies of older people over prolonged periods suffer from loss to follow-up, yet this has seldom been investigated fully to date. Such considerations limit our understanding of how basic variables such as education can affect cognitive trajectories.

A brief self-administered psychological intervention to improve well-being in patients with cancer: results from a feasibility study.

Background: Patients with cancer have relatively high rates of anxiety and distress, adversely affecting their well-being and quality of life. Recent studies indicate that addressing these symptoms could result in better response to cancer treatment. Researchers have found that interventions that focus on increasing mental awareness and the frequency of positive experiences may have a greater impact on reducing psychological morbidity and increasing quality of life than interventions that target relief of psychological symptoms.

Hormone replacement therapy to maintain cognitive function in women with dementia.

Background: As estrogens have been shown to have several potentially beneficial effects on the central nervous system, it is biologically plausible that maintaining high levels of estrogens in postmenopausal women by means of estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) could be protective against cognitive decline in women with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or other dementia syndromes.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of ERT (estrogens only) or HRT (estrogens combined with a progestagen) compared with placebo in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on cognitive function of postmenopausal women with dementia.

Search Strategy: The Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group Specialized Register, which contains records from many medical databases, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and LILACS were searched on 7 November 2007 using the terms ORT, PORT, ERT, HRT, estrogen*, oestrogen* and progesterone*.

A New Approach to Reducing Disorder and Improving Well-Being.

Psychological science has usually approached the treatment of disorder through research on individual combinations of risk and protective factors (including life experiences, thinking styles, behaviors, social relationships and genes) and the application of interventions that focus on improvements in the individual. However, we can do better than this. Not only should we be aiming to enhance well-being rather than merely reducing disorder, but we should also be doing so for the majority of people rather than the few who have a disorder.

The mental wealth of nations.

Countries must learn how to capitalize on their citizens' cognitive resources if they are to prosper, both economically and socially. Early interventions will be key.

Cognitive function and psychological well-being: findings from a population-based cohort.

Background: depression is associated with poor cognitive function, though little is known about the relationship between psychological well-being and cognitive function.

Objective: to investigate whether psychological well-being is associated with levels of cognitive function.

Design: nationally representative population-based cohort study.

Polymorphisms in LMNA and near a SERPINA gene cluster are associated with cognitive function in older people.

A recent genome-wide association (GWA) study of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) identified 15 novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) independent of ApoE. We hypothesised that variants associated with LOAD are also associated with poor cognitive function in elderly populations. We measured additive associations between the five most strongly associated LOAD SNPs and grouped Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores.

Thyroid function and cognitive decline in the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study.

Hypothyroidism and subclinical hyperthyroidism have both been associated with cognitive impairment and dementia. The association between thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroid hormone or thyroxine (FT4) levels and cognition was investigated at baseline and after a 2 year follow-up in 1047 participants over 64 years of age, without physical frailty or severe cognitive impairment at baseline. Results indicated that high log transformed TSH levels were associated with lower MMSE performance (B=-0.

The relationship between early personality and midlife psychological well-being: evidence from a UK birth cohort study.

Background: Individual differences in personality influence the occurrence, reporting and outcome of mental health problems across the life course, but little is known about the effects on adult psychological well-being. The aim of this study was to examine long range associations between Eysenck's personality dimensions and psychological well-being in midlife.

Methods: The study sample comprised 1,134 women from the 1946 British birth cohort.