The less adults sleep, the faster their. new group presentation

UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITYBA OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION

YEAR 2 MEDIA RESEARCH METHODS PRESENTATION

GROUP MEMBERS: REGISTRATION NUMBERS1. ALEX TAREMWA S10BO4/8022. EKISA JOHN FRED S12BO4/1963. MUKASA DAN S12BO4/4444. NAKITIMBO AMELIA MARTHA S12B04/5715. NANKYA PRISHILLA S12/B04/5416. MUTONI JUSTINE S12B04/4557. HASSAN JOHN SHARON

IS11BB04/2518. ABENAITWE EUNICE

S12B04/073

The less adults sleep, the faster their brains ageResearchers have found evidence that the less adults sleep, the faster their brains age. these findings, relevant in the context of a rapidly ageing society, pave the way for future work on sleep loss and its contribution to cognitive decline, including dementia.

Source: Journal, Sleep Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore

Date of Publication: July 1st, 2014. Republished by: The New Vision, Uganda Date of republication: July 3rd , 2014 Url links: Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. (2014,

July 3). Less Sleep Pushes Your Brain to Age Faster. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/657173-less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster.html

Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS). (2014 July 1) Short Sleep, Aging Brain. https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/news/short-sleep-aging-brain

Research Synopsis

Scientists at the Duke-NUS Graduate School Singapore report in the journal sleep that among a group of 66 elderly Chinese volunteers, those who reported sleeping less each night on average showed swelling of a brain region indicating faster cognitive decline.

The participants had MRI brain scans every two years, and answered questions about their sleep habits as well. Other studies have suggested that adults need about seven hours of sleep a night to maintain proper brain function; future research will investigate how sleep helps to preserve cognitive functions and hold off more rapid aging.

Synopsis Continued

The research is based on the Singapore-Longitudinal Aging Brain Study (started in 2005) follows a cohort of healthy adults of Chinese ethnicity aged 55 years and above. This study is one of the few in Asia that tracks the brain structures and cognitive functions of older adults so closely.Data collected by Lumosity, an online brain-training program, suggests that self-reported sleep duration of seven hours is associated with the best cognitive test scores in over 150,000 adults. As of now it is unknown if this amount of sleep is optimum for cardio metabolic and long-term brain health.

Main Objective & Methodology

This research is intended to investigate the contribution of sleep duration and quality to age-related changes in brain structure and cognitive performance in relatively healthy older adults aged 55 years and older at study commencement. In a controlled laboratory, Participants underwent magnetic resonance

imaging and neuropsychological assessment every 2 years. Subjective assessments of sleep duration and quality and blood samples were obtained. Each hour of reduced sleep duration at baseline increased the annual expansion rate of the ventricles by 0.59% (P = 0.007) and the annual decline rate in global cognitive performance by 0.67% (P = 0.050) in the subsequent 2 years after controlling for the effects of age, sex, education, and body mass index.

In contrast, global sleep quality at baseline did not modulate either brain or cognitive aging. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, a marker of systemic inflammation, showed no correlation with baseline sleep duration, brain structure, or cognitive performance.

Design and Conclusion:

Community-based longitudinal brain and cognitive aging study using a convenience sample. Participants underwent structural MRI brain scans measuring brain volume and neuropsychological assessments testing cognitive function every two years. Additionally, their sleep duration was recorded through a questionnaire. Those who slept fewer hours showed evidence of faster ventricle enlargement and decline in cognitive performance.

Therefore, the research concludes that in healthy older adults, short sleep duration is associated with greater age-related brain deterioration and cognitive decline. These associations are not associated with elevated demagogic responses among short sleepers.

These results are consistent with another previous research, which showed six to eight hours per night was optimal for physical health, including lowest risk of developing obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

TWO ELEMENTS OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS THAT ARE MISSING: Population Studied: Only 66 People of Chinese origin were studied and the research

seems to generalize the research across people worldwide without consideration of behavioural, emotional and other factors that could affect the credibility.

A question is asked; how many persons should be included in the sample? However large or small, the sample must be to be representative. Some people say the most commons size is 1/10 of the population while others say that a minimum of a hundred subjects is required to allow statistical inferences. However, these estimates are not always correct.The sample size has to be based on the following considerations: (Ahuja, 2001) The Size of the population i.e. whether the total population to be studied is larger or

small. Nature of the population; whether the population is homogenous. In the former, a

small sample may suffice but in the later, a larger sample is required. Variability; portfolio mix of the samples in demography, location and economic status.

TWO ELEMENTS OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS THAT ARE MISSING: Cont’n Generalization and Interpretation: Generalizability refers to

the degree to which research findings are applicable to other populations or samples (Polit and Hungler 1991; Ryan and Bernard 2000). It involves ‘the usefulness of one set of findings in explaining other similar situations’ (Grbich 1999:66). Generalizing is ‘central to the definition and creation of valid public knowledge’ (Metcalfe2005). It is sometimes equated with terms of ‘transferability ‘and ‘external validity’ (Tashakkori and Teddlie 2003).

One of the reasons that research is conducted is to build the evidence base to inform strategic or policy directions. In this context, the value of qualitative research is often questioned because ‘you cannot make generalizations from results when the sample is not statistically representative of the whole population in question’.

RELEVANCE OF POPULATION AND GENERALISATION TO RESEARCH EVALUATION: 

Population Studied Vs Generalization: Guiding Definitions: 

A sample is a finite part of a statistical population whose properties are studied to gain information about the whole (Webster, 1985). When dealing with people, it can be defined as a set of respondents (people) selected from a larger population for the purpose of a survey.

A population is a group of individuals, persons, objects, or items from which samples are taken for measurement for example a population of presidents or professors, books or students.

Sampling is the act, process, or technique of selecting a suitable sample, or a representative part of a population for the purpose of determining parameters or characteristics of the whole population.

RELEVANCE OF POPULATION AND GENERALISATION TO RESEARCH EVALUATION: 

To draw credible conclusions: this must be determined by the use of inferential statistics which enables us to determine a population`s characteristics by directly observing only a portion (or sample) of the population. We obtain a sample rather than a complete enumeration (a census) of the population for many reasons.

Obviously, it is cheaper to observe a part rather than the whole, but we should prepare ourselves to cope with the dangers of using samples.

To avoid Sample Bias/Error: A sample is expected to mirror the population from which it comes, however, there is no guarantee that any sample will be precisely representative of the population from which it comes. Chance may dictate that a disproportionate number of untypical observations will be made like for the case of testing fuses, the sample of fuses may consist of more or less faulty fuses than the real population proportion of faulty cases.

In practice, it is rarely known when a sample is unrepresentative and should be discarded.

Generalization:

A degree of Generalisability can be achieved by ensuring that the research report is sufficiently detailed for the reader to be able to judge whether or not the findings apply in similar settings (Mays and Pope 2000). Detailed description should reveal the social relations that underpin it (Wainwright 1997).

Generalisability may be enhanced by choosing a research site on the basis of typicality, or by using a multi-site methodology, but thick or rich description is vital (Schofield 1993)—it shows ‘that the researcher was immersed in the setting and [gives] the reader enough detail to ‘make sense’ of the situation’ (Firestone 1987:16).

Illustrative Example

Take an example of this exact research. As of 2012, China has a population of 1.351 billion with the average life expectancy at birth of 71.0 years (68.5 years for males and 73.5 years for females) over the period 2010–2013 according to United Nations World Population Prospects 2012 Revision, and 70.7 years (68.2 years for males and 73.2 years for females) for 2009 according to The World Factbook. Therefore to choose 66 adults to represent a population this big is very unrepresentative hence affecting the conclusions of the research.

Implications of failure to accurately report research findings: Misinterpretation that would in turn trigger sleep behavioural

change that could drastically affect people’s lives. The amount of material one must read to conduct a reasonable

review of a topic keeps growing. Younger scholars can't ignore any of it because they never know when a reviewer or an interviewer might have written something disregarded hence wasting precious months reviewing a pool of articles that may lead nowhere.

Massaged results can send other researchers down the wrong track, wasting time and money trying to replicate them. Worse, in medicine, it can delay the development of life-saving treatments or prolong the use of therapies that are ineffective or dangerous. Malpractice comes to light rarely, perhaps because scientific fraud is often easy to perpetrate but hard to uncover.

Implications of failure to accurately report research findings: Cont’n The idea that the same experiments always get the same results,

no matter who performs them, is one of the cornerstones of science’s claim to objective truth. If a systematic campaign of replication does not lead to the same results, then either the original research is flawed (as the replicators claim) or the replications are (as many of the original researchers on priming contend). Either way, something is awry.

It distorts ground upon which future research would have been developed/conducted.

If the research is health related and the audience perceives it as true, considerable health disorders may occur and worst case scenario death if they go ahead to practice what it preaches.

Citations:

Donmoyer, R. (1990). Generalizability and the single-case study. Qualitative inquiry in education: The continuing debate. Eisner, E. and Peshkin, A., Eds, Teachers College Press, New York: 175-200.

Ahuja, Ram. (2001). Research Methods. Rawat Publications, Jaipur: 184-185

Polit, D. and Hungler, B. (1991). Nursing Research: Principles and methods. Third edition, JB Lippincott, New York.

Ryan, G. and Bernard, H. (2000). Data management and analysis methods. Handbook of Qualitative Research. Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y., Eds, Sage, Thousand Oaks: 769-802.

Schofield, J. (1993). Increasing the generalizability of qualitative research. Social research: Philosophy, Politics and Practice. Hammersley, M., Ed., Open University and Sage, London: 200-225.

Research Sources:

Lo JC, Loh KK, Zheng H, Sim SK, Chee MW. Sleep duration and age-related changes in brain structure and cognitive performance; SLEEP 2014.

Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. (2014, July 1). The less older adults sleep, the faster their brains age, new study suggests. Science Daily. Retrieved July 6, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140701091458.html

Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. (2014, July 3). Less Sleep Pushes Your Brain to Age Faster. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/657173-less-sleep-pushes-your-brain-to-age-faster.html

Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS). (2014 July 1) Short Sleep, Aging Brain. https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/news/short-sleep-aging-brain

Therefore,