Independent research Tuesday

Secondary research relating to Stress in the City

Low levels of face-to-face social contact can double depression risk...

Donnelly, Laura. “Low Levels of Face-to-Face Social Contact 'Can Double Depression Risk'.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 5 Oct. 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11912255/Low-levels-of-face-to-face-social-contact-can-double-depression-risk.html.

• Links high levels of depression with lack of face-to-face contact.
• Face to face contact is often replaced by email, text and phone calls.
• Interesting to see that age played a part in how affected a person is. "...among adults aged 50 to 69, frequent face-to-face contact with friends reduced the risk of subsequent depression."
• "Among those aged 70 and over, contact with children and other family members had the greatest impact."

Would be interesting to look further into the mental health of those 70 and over as I have recently heard of issues regarding loneliness and depression in the elderly.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/loneliness-is-as-bad-for-your-health-as-smoking-15-cigarettes-a-day/

• "The lack of mental stimulation also means that lonely people are 64 percent more likely to develop dementia." - Dementia and alzheimer's. 
• "Lonliness has been found to increase the chance of mortality by 26 percent, as well as increasing the risk of high blood pressure and obesity."
• "Patients who are isolated are more likely to visit the doctor, in part just to have human contact..." - very sad and surprising... elderly are so lonely they go out of their way to make an appointment just to have some face to face contact with another person.  

Design example in response to well-being.

Sara Lopez Ibanez developed a self-assessment kit that lets users figure out the kind of help they need, and where they can get it from. From all the information gathered from her research, she realised it was the initial communication between patients and their GPs that was a particularly difficult point. 

This design aids the communication between patient and doctor to make the experience less daunting and more impactful.