Anna C Whittaker was Phillips

• PhD
• Professor at University of Stirling

Objective This study used the Midlife-Development in the United States (MIDUS) dataset to a) examine relationships between reported childhood adversity (CA), anxiety, and pain; b) assess associations between CAs, anxiety, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and pain; and c) explore how CAs, anxiety, and CRP are associated with pain medication consumpt...

Background Simulation assessment can result in anxiety for students. These assessments involve being observed by assessors, so there is a significant socio-evaluative stress component which may cause greater anxiety if assessors are visible to students during assessments. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of assessor visibility on b...

Background Low physical activity among older adults is related to adverse health outcomes such as depression and loneliness, poor physical function and increased risk of falls. This study was designed to increase physical activity through a digital, group-based, physical activity and music intervention and to examine its effectiveness on social, me...

BACKGROUND Malnutrition is a challenge among older adults and can result in serious health consequences. However, the dietary intake monitoring needed to identify malnutrition for early intervention is affected by issues like difficulty remembering or needing a dietitian to interpret the results. OBJECTIVE To co-design a tool using automated food...

Background Malnutrition is a challenge among older adults and can result in serious health consequences. However, the dietary intake monitoring needed to identify malnutrition for early intervention is affected by issues such as difficulty remembering or needing a dietitian to interpret the results. Objective This study aims to co-design a tool us...

BACKGROUND Many ‘toolkits’ for developers have been designed but are sometimes criticised for their tokenistic approach. Few have been assessed for impact in real-world settings. Based on thematic analysis of 135 codesign workshops four preliminary toolkits were produced to help developers of digital products aiming to keep older people active. OB...

Objective Antibody response to vaccination is a powerful paradigm for studying the effects of chronic stress on immune function. In the present study, we used this paradigm to examine the interaction between caregiving (as a type of chronic stress) and sex on the antibody response to a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccination; recent research has call...

Physical activity is an effective, proactive intervention to reduce or reverse frailty and functional decline. However, uncertainty exists about the feasibility and impact of resistance training on multidimensional health in prefrail older adults in residential care. This mixed methods feasibility study assessed practicability with limited efficacy...

Background When considering factors that may impact chronic pain experiences in adulthood, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and anxiety should be considered. The literature on the associations between these 3 variables remains unclear. Objective To summarize the existing literature on the relationship between ACEs and anxiety on chronic pain e...

The benefits of intergenerational practice in bringing different generations together in initiatives and programs to address issues like social isolation and loneliness are well-established. Less frequently employed as a vehicle for using intergenerational contact in the development of interventions and design solutions, intergenerational co-produc...

Background Lifelong strength is fundamental to physical function, health, and quality of life. Reliable appropriate strength assessment measures for older adults play an important role in effective evaluation of baseline ability and exercise prescription to counter disease and disuse. This study aimed to investigate the within-session reliability o...

Background: Low physical activity among older adults is related to adverse health outcomes such as depression and loneliness, poor physical function and increased risk of falls. This study was designed to increase physical activity through a digital, group-based, physical activity and music resource and to examine its effectiveness on social, menta...

Objectives Health and care resources are under increasing pressure, partly due to the ageing population. Physical activity supports healthy ageing, but motivating exercise is challenging. We aimed to explore staff perceptions towards a virtual reality (VR) omnidirectional treadmill (MOTUS), aimed at increasing physical activity for older adult care...

Despite a link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and anxiety, the role of anxiety in the pathway to chronic pain is unclear. Potentially, inflammatory biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) are involved. Objectives were to (1) examine relationships between reported ACEs, anxiety, and chronic pain, and (2) assess associations between...

Purpose The Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD) project aimed to explore how to use digital technology to keep older people physically active and socially connected for health and wellbeing. This project took a novel inclusive interdisciplinary approach working with a range of collaborating organisations to review and co-design digital...

Objectives: To identify and examine available literature addressing physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) in the workplace in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Design: Scoping Review Method: Academic and gray literature databases were searched for studies published prior to April 2021. Only studies conducted in the GCC region,...

Background: Despite a link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and anxiety, the role of anxiety in the pathway to chronic pain is not well understood. Potentially, inflammatory biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) are involved. Objective: 1) Examine relationships between reported ACEs, anxiety, and chronic pain. 2) Assess associatio...

Health behaviours such as being physically active and having good quality sleep have been associated with decreased susceptibility to infection and stronger antibody responses to vaccination. Less is known about how such factors might influence the maintenance of immunity following naturalistic infection and/or prior vaccination, particularly among...

Physical activity (PA) is a known approach for managing anxiety symptoms in older adults. This systematic review and meta-analysis address the benefits of PA and its dimensions (frequency, session time, type, and intervention period) on anxiety symptoms in older adults aged 65 years and above. Searches covered eight databases reporting eight random...

Background Low physical activity in care home residents brings about negative mental health consequences, such as higher levels of depression and loneliness. With advancements in communication technology, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the feasibility and effectiveness of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a digital Physical Activit...

The world’s population is ageing, and most older adults experience a later life burdened with disease and disability. Frailty is a multi-dimensional and dynamic condition characterised by declines in reserve and function across multiple physiologic systems, such that the ability to cope with every day or acute stressors becomes compromised. It is p...

Background The purpose of this study was to explore perceived changes in physical activity (PA) due to Covid19 stay-at-home and social distancing guidance among older adults. Methods Participants ( n = 1429, 77% female, 84% ≥60 years) living in Scotland completed an online survey in Summer 2020 measuring PA and wellbeing (indexed through lonelines...

Post-task responses (PTRs) are transitionary responses occurring for several seconds between the end of a stimulus/task and a period of rest. The most well-studied of these are beta band (13 – 30 Hz) PTRs in motor networks following movement, often called post-movement beta rebounds, which have been shown to differ in patients with schizophrenia an...

Life event stress has been associated with blunted cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress. However, recent studies have suggested that blunted reactivity to stress only arises when the laboratory tasks are not personally salient to the individual. We re‐analyzed data from 136 healthy young adults where we had previously reported a...

Background Low physical activity in care home residents brings about negative mental health consequences, such as higher levels of depression and loneliness. With advancements in communication technology, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the feasibility and effectiveness of digital Physical Activity (PA) resources in care homes deserve mo...

Background Frailty is a common and clinically significant multi-dimensional syndrome associated with adverse health outcomes such as hospitalisation, disability, and mortality among older adults. Physical activity interventions have been shown to be effective in the prevention and treatment of functional decline and frailty, with strength training...

Age-related changes affect the ratio between two steroid hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (sulfate) (DHEA[S]). Physical activity (PA) may buffer the effects of chronic stress and counteract the aging decline of DHEA(S). Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to understand how PA influenc...

Objectives: To determine the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody status amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) working through the first wave of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. To examine the association of seroprevalence and self-reported COVID-19 symptoms with occupation, sex, and ethnic...

Background Managing stress and having good quality sleep are inter-related factors that are essential for health, and both factors seem to be affected by physical activity. Although there is an established bidirectional relationship between stress and sleep, remarkably few studies have been designed to examine the effects of physical activity on co...

Background Frailty is a common and clinically significant condition among geriatric populations. Although well-evidenced pooled estimates of the prevalence of frailty exist within various settings and populations, presently there are none assessing the overall prevalence of frailty among geriatric hospital inpatients. The purpose of this review was...

Variable responses to vaccination are of historical and current concern, particularly among vulnerable groups. Biochemical and behavioural methods of improving vaccination response have been examined. There is some evidence that vaccinating in the morning could enhance vaccine responses, however, this has consistently been shown in thymus-dependent...

Assessing multiple domains of health in older adults requires multidimensional and large datasets. Consensus on definitions, measurement protocols and outcome measures is a prerequisite. The Physical Activity and Nutritional INfluences In Ageing (PANINI) Toolkit aims to provide a standardized toolkit of best-practice measures for assessing health d...

Background Recent research has suggested that psychosocial factors influence the antibody response to vaccine, including SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccines. Here we investigated whether social cohesion and loneliness were predictive of antibody response to a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. We also tested if the association between social cohesion an...

Purpose Evidence-based guidelines on nutrition and physical activity are used to increase knowledge in order to promote a healthy lifestyle. However, actual knowledge of guidelines is limited and whether it is associated with health outcomes is unclear. Participants and Methods This inception cohort study aimed to investigate the association of kn...

Background Frailty is a common and clinically significant condition among geriatric populations. Although well-evidenced pooled estimates of the prevalence of frailty exist within various settings and populations, presently there are none assessing the overall prevalence of frailty among geriatric hospital inpatients. The purpose of this review was...

Frailty is associated with negative health outcomes, disability, and mortality. Physical activity is an effective intervention to improve functional health status. However, the effect of resistance training on multidimensional health in frail older adults remains unclear. This randomized controlled trial was conducted in a U.K. residential care hom...

Objective: High cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress are associated with the development of hypertension, systemic atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. However, it has become apparent that low biological stress reactivity also may have serious consequences for health, although less is known about the mechanisms of this. The obj...

Introduction Resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) and perfusion measures have been used to determine brain health. Studies showing variation in resting CBF with age and fitness level using different imaging approaches have produced mixed findings. We assess the degree to which resting CBF measures through transcranial Doppler (TCD) and arterial spin l...

Background Stair climbing can be a vigorous lifestyle physical activity, and is associated with healthier lipoprotein profiles, lower body weight and blood pressure, as well as higher aerobic fitness. The present analysis of data from a cohort of late middle-aged men and women examined the association between daily stair climbing and the metabolic...

This study examined the impact of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness, wellbeing, and social activity, including social support, in Scottish older adults. A mixed methods online survey was used to examine these factors during social distancing mid-lockdown, July 2020. Participants were asked to state whether loneliness, wel...

Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is used as an outcome measure of brain health. Traditionally, lower CVR is associated with ageing, poor fitness and brain-related conditions (e.g. stroke, dementia). Indeed, CVR is suggested as a biomarker for disease risk. However, recent findings report conflicting associations between ageing or fitness and CVR me...

Background Engaging in physical activity (PA) and avoiding sedentary behavior (SB) are important for healthy ageing with benefits including the mitigation of disability and mortality. Whether benefits extend to key determinants of disability and mortality, namely muscle strength and muscle power, is unclear. Aims This systematic review aimed to de...

The use of mobile sensor methodologies in urban analytics to study ‘urban emotions’ is currently outpacing the science required to rigorously interpret the data generated. Interdisciplinary research on ‘urban stress’ could help inform urban wellbeing policies relating to healthier commuting and alleviation of work stress. The purpose of this paper...

Background Osteoarthritis is a prevalent condition in older adults that causes many patients to require a hip or knee replacement. Reducing patients’ sedentariness prior to surgery may improve physical function and post-operative outcomes. Methods We conducted a pragmatic randomised-controlled feasibility study with 2:1 allocation into interventio...

CSO project Changes in Scottish older adults physical activity:“…although I walked before the crisis I have made a habit of walking every morning”.

Emerging evidence suggests that individuals with poor behavioral perseverance show low or blunted physiological responses to acute psychological stress. For example, a recent preliminary laboratory study demonstrated that blunted responders give up sooner and take fewer attempts when endeavoring to complete an impossible puzzle, but do not self‐rep...

Psychological stress is ubiquitous in sport. Unsurprisingly then, research that examines the antecedents, correlates, consequences, and interventions pertaining to psychological stress in sport is sizable and broad. With this Research Topic we aimed to capture the breadth and depth of work taking place around the theme of adaptation to psychologica...

Background: Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Observational studies suggested that OSA treatment might reduce CVD and T2D but RCTs failed to support these observations in part due to poor adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Physical activity (PA) has bee...

Background Malnutrition and poor physical performance are both conditions that increase in prevalence with age; however, their interrelation in a clinically relevant population has not been thoroughly studied. Aims This study aimed to determine the strength of the association between malnutrition and measures of both static and dynamic physical pe...

Background: Low quality social relationships in older adults are strongly associated with feelings of loneliness. Physical activity interventions could reduce loneliness and improve psychological well-being, among other health benefits. The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of a Physical Activity Intervention for Loneliness (PAIL) i...

This paper sets out the future potential and challenges for developing an interdisciplinary, mixed-method Citizen Social Science approach to researching urban emotions. It focuses on urban stress, which is increasingly noted as a global mental health challenge facing both urbanised and rapidly urbanising societies. The paper reviews the existing us...

New findings: What is the central question of this study? Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is a common functional test to assess brain health. Impaired CVR has been associated with all-cause cardiovascular mortality. This study investigated whether the duration of the CO2 -stimulus and the time-point used for data extraction would alter the CVR ou...

Recent research has suggested that diminished, as well as elevated reactivity to acute psychological stress is maladaptive. These differences in stress reactions have been hypothesised to relate to the Big Five personality traits, which are said to be biologically-based and stable across adulthood; however, findings have been inconclusive. This stu...

Background: Frailty is a common and clinically significant condition in older adults, predominantly due to its association with adverse health outcomes such as hospitalisation, disability and mortality. Exercise interventions have been shown to be a beneficial treatment for frailty. However, more high-quality studies are needed to assess the feasib...

Osteoarthritis is a prevalent condition in older adults that causes many patients to require a hip or knee replacement in order to improve quality of life and reduce pain. Reducing sedentariness prior to surgery may aid in improving physical function and post-operative outcomes. Thus, we performed a pragmatic randomised controlled feasibility study...

Objective: Sarcopenia, defined as loss of both muscle strength and mass, is associated with inferior clinical outcomes and quality of life (QoL) in chronic kidney disease, but its effects are unknown in kidney transplantation. Obesity confers increased mortality risk and compromises QoL in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), but the impacts of sa...

Background Myeloma causes profound immunodeficiency and recurrent serious infections. There are approximately 5500 new UK cases of myeloma per annum, and one-quarter of patients will have a serious infection within 3 months of diagnosis. Newly diagnosed patients may benefit from antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infection. However, the use of proph...

Background: Myeloma causes profound immunodeficiency and recurrent, serious infections. Around 5500 new cases of myeloma are diagnosed per year in the UK, and a quarter of patients will have a serious infection within 3 months of diagnosis. We aimed to assess whether patients newly diagnosed with myeloma benefit from antibiotic prophylaxis to prev...

Introduction Frailty is a common and clinically significant condition in geriatric populations, associated with adverse health outcomes such as hospitalisation, disability and mortality. Although there are systematic reviews/meta-analyses assessing the prevalence of frailty in community-dwelling older adults, nursing home residents, and cancer and...

Older caregivers of dementia patients have been studied as a model of chronic stress influencing psychological and physical well-being and the function of the immune system. These immune decrements can relate to altered stress hormone levels, and caregivers show elevated or reduced cortisol compared to age-matched controls as well as dysregulation...

Emerging evidence relates attenuated physiological stress reactions to poor behavioral regulation. However, only a small number of behaviors such as impulsivity and risk taking have been explored. Nevertheless, one opportunistic study suggested that blunted reactivity might relate to poor perseverance. The present study examined the relationship be...

Objectives: The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the validity of nutritional screening tools to detect the risk of malnutrition in community-dwelling older adults. Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The protocol for this systematic review was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42017072703). Setting and participant...

Background: Frailty is a common and clinically significant condition in older adults, predominantly due to its association with adverse health outcomes such as hospitalisation, disability and mortality. Exercise interventions have been shown to be a beneficial treatment for frail older adults. However, more high-quality studies are needed within t...

Background: The ageing of the population is a global challenge and the period of life spent in good health, although increasing, is not keeping pace with lifespan. Consequently, understanding the important factors that contribute to healthy ageing and validating interventions and influencing policy to promote healthy ageing are vital research prior...

Adverse childhood experiences has been suggested to cause changes in physiological processes and can determine the magnitude of the stress response which might have a significant impact on health later in life. To detect the stress response, biomarkers that represent both Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis...

Background Low-quality social relationships in older adults are strongly associated with feelings of loneliness. Physical activity interventions could reduce loneliness and improve psychological well-being, among other health benefits. The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of a Physical Activity Intervention for Loneliness (PAIL) in c...

With ageing, the immune system does not function as well as it did earlier in life, leaving individuals open to a range of diseases including infections. Negative psychological factors such as stress and depression can worsen immunity, and in some cases, this is particularly the case among older adults. However, there are also positive psychologica...

Introduction The EXERDIET-HTA study was a multi-arm parallel, a randomized, single-blind controlled experimental trial comparing the effects of 16 weeks of different aerobic exercise programs two days per week, and dietary intervention in a hypertensive, overweight/obese and non-physically active population. Aim To evaluate the influence of diet a...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a negative health outcome of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). Risk factors associated with OSA development include low physical activity (PA), high body mass index (BMI), and increasing age (>50 years) and weight loss is usually recommended as treatment. This cross-sectional study examined the association between PA,...

Recent evidence indicates that cerebral autoregulation (CA) might be more pressure passive than previously thought. That is, cerebral blood flow, traditionally thought to be regulated independently of prevailing mean arterial pressure (MAP), might fluctuate, to some extent, as a function of MAP. However, due to limitations associated with experimen...

Introduction With the ageing of the population, hip fractures are a growing issue in the UK (Dennison et al, 2006). At least half of older adults who have suffered a hip fracture never regain their previous function (Stevens and Olson, 2000), with mortality at one year after the fracture recorded as high as 33 per cent (Roche et al, 2005). The fact...

This chapter discusses the impact of hip fracture in older age and in particular factors affecting recovery of physical function and wellbeing. It focuses particularly on a study of the impact of depression following hip fracture in older adults, and the influence of this depression on a range of outcomes including immune function, stress hormones,...

This is the second volume arising from the ground-breaking New Dynamics of Ageing Research Programme. While the Programme produced many scientific papers and several project-based books this (and its companion volume) is the only place where most of the projects are represented in specially commissioned chapters. Each of these reports the key findi...

This chapter explores the reasoning behind using the vaccination model to examine the influence of psychosocial factors on immunity. It then briefly discusses the mechanics of the vaccination response and the protocols used in psychoneuroimmunology vaccine research, before giving examples from the research literature of the studies examining relati...

Objective: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), yet incompletely accountable by traditional risk factors. Inflammation is an unconventional cardiovascular risk factor, with gut-derived endotoxemia potentially driving inflammation and endothelial disease. Comparable data are lacking in kidney...

This study used a person-centred approach to explore typologies of older manual workers based on presenteeism, stress resilience, and physical activity. Older manual workers (n = 217; 69.1% male; age range 50–77; M age = 57.11 years; SD = 5.62) from a range of UK-based organisations, representing different manual job roles, took part in the study....

Objectives This article reviews the effects of physical activity (PA) interventions on social isolation, loneliness or low social support in older adults. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Method MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, the Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, were screened up to February 2017. RCTs compar...