The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered social determinants of health including work, education, social connections, movement, and perceived control; and loneliness was commonly experienced. This longitudinal study examined how social determinants at the personal (micro), community (meso), and societal (macro) levels predicted loneliness during the pandemic.

Participants were 2056 Australian adults surveyed up to three times over 18 months in 2020 and 2021. Multi-level mixed-effect regressions were conducted predicting loneliness from social determinants at baseline and two follow-ups.

Loneliness was associated with numerous micro determinants: male gender, lifetime diagnosis of a mental health disorder, experience of recent stressful event(s), low income, living alone or couples with children, living in housing with low natural light, noise, and major building defects. Lower resilience and perceived control over health and life were also associated with greater loneliness. At the meso level, reduced engagement with social groups, living in inner regional areas, and living in neighbourhoods with low levels of belongingness and collective resilience was associated with increased loneliness. At the macro level, increased loneliness was associated with State/Territory of residence.

Therapeutic initiatives must go beyond psychological intervention, and must recognise the social determinants of loneliness at the meso and macro levels.

To determine predictors of the association between being a Veteran and adult food security, as well as to examine the relation of potential covariates to this relationship.

Data collected during 2011–2012, 2013–2014 and 2015–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were pooled for analyses. Veterans (self-reported) were matched to non-Veterans on age, race/ethnicity, sex and education. Adjusted logistic regression was used to determine the odds of Veterans having high food security v. the combination of marginal, low and very low food security compared with non-Veterans.

2011–2012, 2013–2014 and 2015–2016 NHANES.

1227 Veterans; 2432 non-Veterans.

Veteran status had no effect on the proportion of food insecurities between Veterans and non-Veterans reporting high (Veterans v. non-Veteran: 79 % v. 80 %), marginal (9 % v. 8 %), low (5 % v. 6 %) and very low (8 % v. 6 %) food security (P = 0·11). However, after controlling for covariates, Veterans tended to be less likely to have high food security (OR: 0·82 (95 % CI 0·66, 1·02), P = 0·07). Further, non-Hispanic White Veterans (OR: 0·72 (95 % CI 0·55, 0·95), P = 0·02) and Veterans completing some college (OR: 0·71 (95 % CI 0·50, 0·99), P < 0·05) were significantly less likely to experience high food security compared with non-Veterans.

This study supports previous research findings that after controlling for covariates, Veterans tend to be less likely to have high food security. It also highlights ethnicity and level of education as important socio-economic determinates of food security status in Veterans.

Early-life socioeconomic status (SES) and adversity are associated with late-life cognition and risk of dementia. We examined the association between early-life SES and adversity and late-life cross-sectional cognitive outcomes as well as global cognitive decline, hypothesizing that adulthood SES would mediate these associations.

Our sample (N = 837) was a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of non-Hispanic/Latino White (48%), Black (27%), and Hispanic/Latino (19%) participants from Northern California. Participant addresses were geocoded to the level of the census tract, and US Census Tract 2010 variables (e.g., percent with high school diploma) were extracted and combined to create a neighborhood SES composite. We used multilevel latent variable models to estimate early-life (e.g., parental education, whether participant ever went hungry) and adult (participant’s education, main occupation) SES factors and their associations with cross-sectional and longitudinal cognitive outcomes of episodic memory, semantic memory, executive function, and spatial ability.

Child and adult factors were strongly related to domain-specific cognitive intercepts (0.20–0.48 SD per SD of SES factor); in contrast, SES factors were not related to global cognitive change (0.001–0.01 SD per year per SD of SES factor). Adulthood SES mediated a large percentage (68–75%) of the total early-life effect on cognition.

Early-life sociocontextual factors are more strongly associated with cross-sectional late-life cognitive performance compared to cognitive change; this effect is largely mediated through associations with adulthood SES.

Increasingly diverse caregiver populations have prompted studies examining culture and caregiver outcomes. Still, little is known about the influence of sociocultural factors and how they interact with caregiving context variables to influence psychological health. We explored the role of caregiving and acculturation factors on psychological distress among a diverse sample of adults.

Secondary data analysis of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).

The 2009 CHIS surveyed 47,613 adults representative of the population of California. This study included Latino and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) caregivers and non-caregivers (n = 13,161).

Multivariate weighted regression analyses examined caregiver status and acculturation variables (generational status, language of interview, and English language proficiency) and their associations with psychological distress (Kessler-6 scale). Covariates included caregiving context (e.g., support and neighborhood factors) and demographic variables.

First generation caregivers had more distress than first-generation non-caregivers (β=0.92, 95% CI: (0.18, 1.65)); the difference in distress between caregivers and non-caregivers was smaller in the third than first generation (β=-1.21, 95% CI: (-2.24, -0.17)). Among those who did not interview in English (β=1.17, 95% CI: (0.13, 2.22)) and with low English proficiency (β=2.60, 95% CI: (1.21, 3.98)), caregivers reported more distress than non-caregivers.

Non-caregivers exhibited the "healthy immigrant effect," where less acculturated individuals reported less distress. In contrast, caregivers who were less acculturated reported more distress.

Displaced refugee children with a history of war exposure are at risk of developing complex and severe forms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Search for the most relevant causal predictors of complex PTSD in a prospective cohort of Syrian refugee children living in informal settlements in Lebanon (N=1007).

A latent class unsupervised analysis was carried out to determine clusters with complex PTSD presentation at the follow-up assessment. A new exploratory causal discovering modelling approach was applied using 97 multilevel psychosocial variables as predictors (Biazoli et al., 2021). Associations between discovered candidate causal factors assessed at baseline with a presumed diagnosis of complex PTSD one year later were calculated using a multiple logistic regression model.

Several putative causal factors emerged: perceived social coherence of the neighbourhood (Positive Predictive Value increase: 1.22); impulsivity (1.25), self-efficacy (1.23) and depressive symptoms (1.15) at the parental level; positive home experiences (1.16) at the family level; and child-level factors such as being forced to work (1.22), being a victim of verbal or physical bullying (1.19), loneliness (1.17) and well-being (1.18). In further confirmatory multiple logistic regression analysis and after correction for multiple comparisons, verbal or physical bullying victimization (p=.005) and caregiver depressive symptoms (p=.0004) at baseline were associated with complex PTSD presentations one year later.

Our results support the need for a multi-level psychosocial care model to prevent psychological distress and promote mental health in refugee children. Specifically, our results suggest that programs tackling caregiver’s mental health and children’s exposure to violence might effectively prevent complex PTSD.

No significant relationships.

Treatment of mental problems is based on classification categories. Yet most patients display far more complex problems than discribed in those categories. In child psychiatry boys are overrepresented whereas in adults women are in the majority when it comes to mental health problems. This raises the question whether gender and diversity shouldn’t be taken more into account in order to come to better classifications and understanding of developemental psychopathology

To look into the influences of gender, genetics, stress, child rearing and social determinants on the development of psychopathology

A literature search was performed with genetics, gender, stress and social determinants as keywords was in order to question the specificity and validity of current categories of psychopathology.

The search yielded 26 articles. Interestingly this supports the hypothesis that the focus on phenotypical classifications is misleading and that gender plays an important role in the expression of endophenotypes (psychophysiological and neuropsychological). Moreover in many cases gender is not taken in to account enough in studies and that gender biased conclusions (when the reseach has included more men than women for different reasons) are extrapolated to easily to the other sexe, assumoing that the outcomes are universal

The categoral approach to psychopathology has stimulated research in a very productive fashion. Yet now we should think beyond categories in mental health and have the courage to adapt our clincial practice to endophenotypes taking into account the permanent interaction between individual and enviironment. Which implies a more gender specific approach to (psycho)pathology

No significant relationships.

Refugees typically spend years in a state of protracted displacement prior to permanent resettlement. Little is known about how various prior displacement contexts influence long-term mental health in resettled refugees. In this study, we aimed to determine whether having lived in refugee camps v. community settings prior to resettlement impacted the course of refugees' psychological distress over the 4 years following arrival in Australia.

Participants were 1887 refugees who had taken part in the Building a New Life in Australia study, which comprised of five annual face-to-face or telephone surveys from the year of first arrival in Australia.

Latent growth curve modelling revealed that refugees who had lived in camps showed greater initial psychological distress (as indexed by the K6) and faster decreases in psychological distress in the 4 years after resettling in Australia, compared to those who had lived in community settings. Investigation of refugee camp characteristics revealed that poorer access to services in camps was associated with greater initial distress after resettlement, and greater ability to meet one's basic needs in camps was associated with faster decreases in psychological distress over time.

These findings highlight the importance of the displacement context in influencing the course of post-resettlement mental health. Increasing available services and meeting basic needs in the displacement environment may promote better mental health outcomes in resettled refugees.

This study examined parental work hours and household income as determinants of discretionary (energy-dense, nutrient-poor) food and beverage intake in young children, including differences by eating occasion.

Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data. Three hierarchical regression models were conducted with percentage of energy from discretionary food and beverages across the day, at main meals and at snack times being the outcomes. Dietary intake was assessed by 1 × 24-h recall and 1–2 × 24-h food record(s). Both maternal and paternal work hours were included, along with total household income. Covariates included household, parent and child factors.

Data from the NOURISH/South Australian Infants Dietary Intake studies were collected between 2008 and 2013.

Participants included 526 mother–child dyads (median (interquartile range) child age 1·99 (1·96, 2·03) years). Forty-one percentage of mothers did not work while 57 % of fathers worked 35–40 h/week. Most (85 %) households had an income of ≥$50 k AUD/year.

Household income was consistently inversely associated with discretionary energy intake (β = –0·12 to –0·15). Maternal part-time employment (21–35 h/week) predicted child consumption of discretionary energy at main meals (β = 0·10, P = 0·04). Paternal unemployment predicted a lower proportion of discretionary energy at snacks (β = -0·09, P = 0·047).

This work suggests that household income should be addressed as a key opportunity-related barrier to healthy food provision in families of young children. Strategies to reduce the time burden of healthy main meal provision may be required in families where mothers juggle longer part-time working hours with caregiving and domestic duties. The need to consider the role of fathers and other parents/caregivers in shaping children’s intake was also highlighted.