Is Marriage Good or Bad for the Figure? Comparative Study of Nine European Countries

It is generally assumed that marriage has a positive influence on health and life expectancy. But does this “marriage bonus” also apply to the health indicator of body weight? Researchers at the University of Basel and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development have investigated this question in cooperation with the market research institute GfK. Specifically, they compared the body mass index of married couples with that of singles in nine European countries. The results of their study have now been published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

Numerous studies have shown that marriage is good for your health. As a team of researchers from Basel, Nuremberg, and Berlin have now found, however, that does not apply to all health indicators. Their findings show that married couples on average eat better than singles, but that they also weigh significantly more and do less sport. The researchers compared the relationship between marital status and body mass index, which relates body weight to height. A high body mass index can be a risk factor for chronic illnesses such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

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Website Prof. Jutta Mata University of Basel
The researchers drew on representative cross-sectional data from 10,226 respondents in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Their study is the first to compare the relationship between marital status and body mass index in nine European countries. Beyond their focus on married couples, the researchers conducted additional analyses with cohabiting couples. They also examined possible reasons for weight gain by asking respondents about their eating and exercise behaviors.

Findings from all nine countries showed that couples have a higher body mass index than singles – whether men or women. The differences between countries were surprisingly small.

According to the World Health Organization, a normal body mass index is between 18.5 and 25. Overweight is defined as an index between 25 and 30, and obesity as above 30. The average body mass index of the single men in the study was 25.7; that of the married men was 26.3. For women, the average index was 25.1 for singles and 25.6 for married women.

Although these differences may seem small, they are meaningful. In an average-height woman of 165 cm or an average-height man of 180 cm, they represent a difference of about 2 kg. Importantly, the effects of socio-economic status, age, and nationality are already taken into account in these results. “Our findings show how social factors can impact health. In this case, that the institution of marriage and certain changes in behavior within that context are directly related to nutrition and body weight,” says Ralph Hertwig, Director of the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.

Survey findings on respondents’ eating and exercise behaviors offered possible reasons for this trend. For example, couples reported buying more regional and unprocessed products and less convenience food. Moreover, married men were more likely than single men to buy organic and fair trade food. “That indicates that particularly men in long-term relationships are more likely to eat more consciously and, in turn, probably more healthily,” says Jutta Mata, lead author of the study and Assistant Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Basel. But it does not mean that they are generally healthier: The study also shows that married men do less sport than singles. “Our findings indicate that couples are not healthier in every respect, as has previously been assumed,” says Jutta Mata.

The respondents were asked about their eating and exercise behaviors and attitudes in face-to-face interviews. This approach ensures higher data quality: People’s self-reports, for example of their weight, are more realistic if they are asked in person rather than, for example, by telephone.


Source: Univ. of Basel

Basel Physicists Develop Efficient Method of Signal Transmission from Nanocomponents

Physicists have developed an innovative method that could enable the efficient use of nanocomponents in electronic circuits. To achieve this, they have developed a layout in which a nanocomponent is connected to two electrical conductors, which uncouple the electrical signal in a highly efficient manner. The scientists at the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel have published their results in the scientific journal “Nature Communications” together with their colleagues from ETH Zurich.

Durch die clevere Anordnung von zwei elektrischen Leitern um das Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen kommt es zu einer effizienten Signalübertragung zwischen Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen und einem sehr viel grösseren Leiter für elektromagnetische Wellen.
The clever arrangement of two electrical conductors around the carbon nanotube leads to an efficient signal transmission between the carbon nanotube and a much larger conductor for electromagnetic waves. © University of Basel, Department of Physics/Swiss Nanoscience Institute
Electronic components are becoming smaller and smaller. Components measuring just a few nanometers – the size of around ten atoms – are already being produced in research laboratories. Thanks to miniaturization, numerous electronic components can be placed in restricted spaces, which will boost the performance of electronics even further in the future.

Teams of scientists around the world are investigating how to produce such nanocomponents with the aid of carbon nanotubes. These tubes have unique properties – they offer excellent heat conduction, can withstand strong currents, and are suitable for use as conductors or semiconductors. However, signal transmission between a carbon nanotube and a significantly larger electrical conductor remains problematic as large portions of the electrical signal are lost due to the reflection of part of the signal.

Antireflex increases efficiency

A similar problem occurs with light sources inside a glass object. A large amount of light is reflected by the walls, which means that only a small proportion reaches the outside. This can be countered by using an antireflex coating on the walls.

Led by Professor Christian Schönenberger, scientists in Basel are now taking a similar approach to nanoelectronics. They have developed an antireflex device for electrical signals to reduce the reflection that occurs during transmission from nanocomponents to larger circuits. To do so, they created a special formation of electrical conductors of a certain length, which are coupled with a carbon nanotube. The researchers were therefore able to efficiently uncouple a high-frequency signal from the nanocomponent.

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Research group Prof. Christian Schönenberger
Differences in impedance cause the problem

Coupling nanostructures with significantly larger conductors proved difficult because they have very different impedances. The greater the difference in impedance between two conducting structures, the greater the loss during transmission. The difference between nanocomponents and macroscopic conductors is so great that no signal will be transmitted unless countermeasures are taken. The antireflex device minimizes this effect and adjusts the impedances, leading to efficient coupling. This brings the scientists significantly closer to their goal of using nanocomponents to transmit signals in electronic parts.



Source: Univ. of Basel

Psychology: Does Aging Affect Decision Making?

Aging is associated with significant decline in cognitive functions. But does this translate into poorer decision making? Psychologists from the University of Basel and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development report that in simple decision situations, older adults perform just as well as younger adults. However, according to their study published in the academic journal Cognition, aging may affect decision performance in more complex decision situations.

Important decisions in politics and economics are often made by older people: According to Forbes magazine, the average age of the world's most powerful people in 2013 was 61 years. As populations across the globe age, the selection of older individuals into such powerful roles may even be further intensified.

Aging is associated with a significant decline in so-called fluid cognitive abilities, for example, the ability to store information in memory or to quickly solve cognitive problems. Fluid cognitive abilities may play a role particularly in “decisions from experience”, that is, when the potential consequences of available options is not conveniently summarized but has to be acquired through information search (exploration) and learning. Thus, how do older in comparison to younger adults fare when making decisions from experience?

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Faculty of Psychology, Cognitive and Decision Sciences
Choosing between lotteries
Psychologists from the University of Basel and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin conducted three studies in which younger (average age: 24 years) and older adults (71 years) repeatedly made decisions from experience– either on a computer in the lab (study 1) or on an iPad at home (study 2).

In each lottery, participants had the choice between two options, which were presented as two unlabeled boxes on the screen. Before making a consequential decision, participants could sample the possible gains and losses of each option by clicking onto the two boxes, as often as they liked. They were thus able to learn which option was better, promising the higher gain or the smaller loss in the long run. Surprisingly, older adults put the same amount of effort into exploring the options and chose the advantageous options as often as younger adults.

 “Simple but successful” learning strategies
The psychologists then analyzed participants’ learning processes using computer simulations and found a possible explanation for their results: “Younger as well as older adults are using relatively simple but successful learning strategies”, explains first-author Dr. Renato Frey. These strategies remain relatively unaffected by reduced fluid cognitive abilities. Only in a third study where participants no longer had to choose between two but four or up to eight options, did the researchers observe a decline in decision-making performance by older adults. Overall, the results suggest that simple strategies can be useful to aging decision makers even though such strategies may not fully compensate for age-related cognitive decline in very complex decision situations.



Source: Univ. of Basel