Summarisation of research results in plain language is crucial for promoting public understanding of research findings. The use of Natural Language Processing to generate lay summaries has the potential to relieve researchers' workload and bridge the gap between science and society. The aim of this narrative literature review is to describe and compare the different text summarisation approaches used to generate lay summaries. We searched the databases Web of Science, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library and arXiv for articles published until 6 May 2022. We included original studies on automatic text summarisation methods to generate lay summaries. We screened 82 articles and included eight relevant papers published between 2020 and 2021, all using the same dataset. The results show that transformer-based methods such as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and Pre-training with Extracted Gap-sentences for Abstractive Summarization (PEGASUS) dominate the landscape of lay text summarisation, with all but one study using these methods. A combination of extractive and abstractive summarisation methods in a hybrid approach was found to be most effective. Furthermore, pre-processing approaches to input text (e.g. applying extractive summarisation) or determining which sections of a text to include, appear critical. Evaluation metrics such as Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation (ROUGE) were used, which do not consider readability. To conclude, automatic lay text summarisation is under-explored. Future research should consider long document lay text summarisation, including clinical trial reports, and the development of evaluation metrics that consider readability of the lay summary.

Background:Executive Function (EF) is a potential mechanism linking physical activity (PA) and mental health. However, evidence regarding the association between free-living PA and EF is limited with mixed results. Across two studies, we examined associations between accelerometer-assessed moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and facets of EF in different age groups (Study 1) and at different times of day (Study 2).Method:In Study 1, we tested the association between MVPA and verbal fluency across seven days in 285 participants (children, adults, older adults). In Study 2, we tested between- and within-person associations between MVPA and working memory (afternoon, evening, next morning) across three 18-day bursts in 64 preadolescents.Results:Study 1 showed no association between MVPA and verbal fluency overall, but there was an interaction by age group: a positive association was evident in older adults only. In Study 2, we observed a positive between-person association between MVPA and subsequent afternoon and next morning working memory, but not within-person. In the evening, MVPA was not related to working memory.Conclusions:The association between free-living PA and EF differs between age groups and times of day. Future research should consider these factors when examining the association and its role for mental health.

BACKGROUND:Identifying when and where people overeat is important for intervention design, yet little is known about how unhealthy behaviours unfold in real life.AIM:To track the activities, social contexts and locations that co-occur with unhealthy snacking.METHODS:Sixty-four adults (49F, mean age = 38.6 years) used electronic diaries to record snacking, location, social context and current activity every waking hour over 7 days. The proportion of snacking episodes that co-occurred with each location/activity/context was calculated by group and individual.RESULTS:Over the group, snacking was most frequent whilst socialising (19.9% of hours spent socialising) or using the TV/computer (19.7%), when with friends (16.7%) and when at home (15.3%). All intra-class correlation statistics for cued behaviour were low, indicating the importance of within-person variability. There were marked individual differences between people in what constituted a 'typical' context for snacking.CONCLUSIONS:People show substantial differences in the contexts in which they snack. Tailoring interventions to these individual patterns of behaviour may improve intervention efficacy.

Objective: Laboratory eating studies and cross-sectional surveys indicate individuals with inefficient executive function (EF) consume more unhealthy snacks than others. However, the importance of EF in determining snacking behavior in the “real world” has not been established. Contemporary behavioral and self-control theories posit EF as a dynamic resource fluctuating over time. Consequently, a test of the relevance of EF to behavior within individuals is required. This study tested within- and between-person effects of real-time variability in objectively measured inhibitory control (a core facet of EF) on subsequent snacking behavior in daily life. Method: A community sample of 64 adults recorded snacking behavior and completed a short Go/No-Go test (assessing inhibitory control) hourly over 7 consecutive days, yielding a total well-powered sample of 6,284 data-points. Generalized linear mixed models using lagged effects examined within-person and between-person effects of inhibitory control efficiency on snacking behavior. Results: When Go/No-Go test responses were 100 ms slower than the person-mean (indicating periods of poorer inhibitory control), snack consumption in the following hour was 25.67% higher, Exp (&ggr;) = 1.26, p = .002, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.06, 1.49]. Between-individuals, person-mean reaction time (RT) did not predict snack consumption, Exp (&ggr;) = 1.02, p = .965, 95% CI [0.71, 1.46]. Conclusions: RT variability in inhibitory control efficiency is highly relevant to snacking behavior within individuals. Inhibitory control is an important driver of snacking in everyday life and an important target for interventions.

OBJECTIVE:To test whether high levels of reported pride are associated with subsequent falls.DESIGN:Secondary analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) dataset.SETTING:Multi-wave longitudinal sample of non-institutionalised older English adults.PARTICIPANTS:ELSA cohort of 6415 participants at wave 5 (baseline, 2010/11), of whom 4964 were available for follow-up at wave 7 (follow-up, 2014/15).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Self reported pride at baseline (low/moderate/high) and whether the participant had reported having fallen during the two years before follow-up.RESULTS:The findings did not support the contention that "pride comes before a fall." Unadjusted estimates indicate that the odds of reported falls were significantly lower for people with high pride levels compared with those who had low pride (odds ratio 0.69, 95% confidence interval 0.58 to 0.81, P<0.001). This association remained after adjustment for age, sex, household wealth, and history of falls (odds ratio 0.81, 0.68 to 0.97, P<0.05). It was partially attenuated after further adjustment for mobility problems, eyesight problems, the presence of a limiting long term illness, a diagnosis of arthritis or osteoporosis, medication use, cognitive function, and pain and depression (odds ratio 0.86, 0.72 to 1.03, P<0.1). Because the confidence interval exceeded 1 in the final model, it remains possible that pride may not be an independent predictor of falls when known risk factors are considered. People with moderate pride did not have lower odds of having fallen than those with low pride in adjusted models. Participants lost to follow-up did not differ from those retained in terms of key variables, and weighting the analyses to account for selective attrition did not produce different results.CONCLUSIONS:Contrary to the well known saying "pride comes before a fall," these findings suggest that pride may actually be a protective factor against falling in older adults. Future studies may seek to investigate the mechanisms underpinning this relation.

Physically active lifestyles and other health-enhancing behaviors play an important role in preserving executive function into old age. Conversely, emerging research suggests that executive functions facilitate participation in a broad range of healthy behaviors including physical activity and reduced fatty food, tobacco, and alcohol consumption. They do this by supporting the volition, planning, performance monitoring, and inhibition necessary to enact intentions and override urges to engage in health damaging behavior. Here, we focus firstly on evidence suggesting that health-enhancing behaviors can induce improvements in executive function. We then switch our focus to findings linking executive function to the consistent performance of health-promoting behaviors and the avoidance of health risk behaviors. We suggest that executive function, health behavior, and disease processes are interdependent. In particular, we argue that a positive feedback loop may exist whereby health behavior-induced changes in executive function foster subsequent health-enhancing behaviors, which in turn help sustain efficient executive functions and good health. We conclude by outlining the implications of this reciprocal relationship for intervention strategies, the design of research studies, and the study of healthy aging.

Background: Self-control has long been viewed as a limited resource that becomes depleted with use. However, resource models of self-control (e.g. ego depletion) have notable limitations and a recent model of self-control, the Process Model) suggests failures of willpower should be considered shifts in motivational state from effortful to more gratifying pursuits. In the Process Model, fatigue is considered an emotion signalling the opportunity cost of continuing to exert self-control and triggering a motivational shift to more rewarding behaviours. If this is the case, fatigue should be associated with cognitive control and should predict lapses in effortful self-control. The present study tests these predictions. Methods: 65 adults (15M, 50F, M age=38.9 years) completed real-time self-report ratings of fatigue and consumption of high-calorie snack foods, and completed a GoNoGo task (to measure cognitive control) every waking hour over 7 consecutive days using a wrist-mounted electronic diary (ProDiary). Data were analysed using multi-level modelling (observations nested within individuals). Results: GoNoGo performance and fatigue were strongly negatively related (p < .001) but showed different patterns over time. While slow reaction times on the GoNoGo task (indicative of weak cognitive control) were associated with increases in self-reported intake of high calorie snack foods (p<.05), increases in fatigue were not (ns). Conclusions: The results of the present study do not support the assertion of the Process Model that fatigue triggers a motivational shift towards more gratifying behaviour. Fatigue was however, strongly related to cognitive control, an important predictor of health relevant behaviour.

Background: Snacking on high-calorie foods contributes to weight gain and obesity. There are many environmental cues to eating, including the physical or social environment, and current activity or behaviour. Identifying contexts associated with unhealthy consumption in real-time could provide important information for optimising interventions. The present study aimed to monitor high-calorie snacking in real-time, and to determine the social, environmental, and contextual correlates of this behaviour. Methods: Over 7 days, 65 adults (50F, mean age = 38.9 years) recorded intake of energy-dense high-calorie snacks, physical location (home, work, outdoors, car, shop/pub/restaurant/cafe, other), social context (alone, friends, family, colleagues, other) and current activity (work, domestic chores, childcare, socialising, travelling, TV/computer, sports/exercise, eating/drinking, nothing, other) hourly on wrist-mounted electronic diaries. The proportion of time in each context spent snacking was calculated across the whole group, and for each individual. Results: After adjusting for time spent in each context, snacking frequencies outside meal-times for the whole group were generally highest whilst at home (snacking during 15.3% of total time spent at home), with friends (16.7%), and whilst socialising (19.9%). However, these proportions varied substantially across individuals: home (range = 0% – 41.2%); friends (0% – 50%); socialising (0% – 55.6%). Many individuals snacked only in one specific context. Conclusions: Contextual correlates of snacking are markedly different across individuals with many individuals snacking in single, identifiable contexts. Tailoring interventions to individualised patterns of behaviour may improve their efficacy in reducing unhealthy snacking.

Background: Executive function (EF) is important in effortful behavioural regulation, so may play an important role in determining sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity. However, it is also the case that physical activity leads to improved cognitive (and particularly executive) functioning. We investigated within-person associations between EF and SB using an ecological momentary assessment design, with time-lagged analysis used to unravel any direction of causality. Methods: 65 adults (50f, M age = 38.9) wore a hip-mounted accelerometer (measuring SB) and completed repeated Go/NoGo tasks (measuring EF resources) on a wrist-mounted electronic device every waking hour over 7 consecutive days. SB was defined as the number of mins/hour where activity counts were <100. Statistical analysis used multilevel modelling. Findings: Within individuals, increased SB in the prior hour was associated with poorer Go/NoGo task performance (p < .05). Poorer-than-usual Go/NoGo task performance was not associated with SB in the following hour (p = .41). Discussion: Increased SB in daily life leads to an immediate reduction in EF, but we found no evidence that momentary declines in EF promote increased SB.

Background: Failures of dietary control and increases in weight are reliably associated with trait-level (between-person) deficits in the ‘executive functions’ (EFs) – the cognitive processes underpinning self-control. As EF also fluctuates within-people over time, the present study investigated whether people eat more high-calorie snacks at times when EF resources are depleted. Methods: 65 adults (50F, M age=38.9years) completed a trait EF questionnaire (BRIEF-A) before recording food intake and completing a computerised EF test (GoNoGo) every waking hour over 7 consecutive days using a wrist-mounted electronic diary (ProDiary). Data were analysed using multi-level modelling. Findings: Slow reaction times on the hourly GoNoGo task (indicative of weak EF) were associated with increases in self-reported intake of high-calorie snacks (p<.05). Performance on the GoNoGo task significantly interacted with trait levels of EF (p<.05) in predicting snacking. Discussion: Real-time reductions in EF efficiency are associated with increases in high-calorie snacking. This relationship is strongest in those with weak trait EF, indicating that individuals with EF deficits are more likely than others to snack in response to momentary reductions in EF resource.

Physically active lifestyles contribute to better executive function. However, it is unclear whether high levels of executive function lead people to be more active. This study uses a large sample and multi-wave data to identify whether a reciprocal association exists between physical activity and executive function. Participants were 4555 older adults tracked across four waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging. In each wave executive function was assessed using a verbal fluency test and a letter cancelation task and participants reported their physical activity levels. Fixed effects regressions showed that changes in executive function corresponded with changes in physical activity. In longitudinal multilevel models low levels of physical activity led to subsequent declines in executive function. Importantly, poor executive function predicted reductions in physical activity overtime. This association was found to be over 50% larger in magnitude than the contribution of physical activity to changes in executive function. This is the first study to identify evidence for a robust bidirectional link between executive function and physical activity in a large sample of older adults tracked over time.

Inequalities in healthbehaviors exist between regions of Europe, along a North West/South East axis. This study investigated whether prevalence of walking to school and associated psychosocial antecedents differed between these two European regions. Participants were 1,263 children aged 7-11 years, from five countries. Children from North West Europe (n = 641) and South East Europe (n = 622) completed a school travel questionnaire that measured demographics, school commuting mode, travel companion, feelings about their local area, and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) variables related to walking to school. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to investigate differences in TBP variables between children from the two regions of Europe. More children from South East Europe walked to school (70.8%) compared to those in the North West (47%). For the TPB variables, a significant multivariate main effect for region was found (Wilks' λ=.94, F (4, 1201)=20.55, pp. Inequalities in walking to school exist between European regions. Children from South East Europe walk to school more than their counterparts from the North West. However children from North West Europe display higher scores on TPB variables, suggesting that psychosocial constructs related to walking to school may not explain rates of engagement in this behaviour.

Active school travel is in decline. An understanding of the potential determinants of health-enhancing physical activity during the school commute may help to inform interventions aimed at reversing these trends. The purpose of this study was to identify the physical environmental factors associated with health-enhancing physical activity during the school commute. Data were collected in 2009 on 166 children commuting home from school in Scotland. Data on location and physical activity were measured using global positioning systems (GPS) and accelerometers, and mapped using geographical information systems (GIS). Multi-level logistic regression models accounting for repeated observations within participants were used to test for associations between each land-use category (road/track/path, other man-made, greenspace, other natural) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Thirty-nine children provided 2,782 matched data points. Over one third (37.1%) of children's school commute time was spent in MVPA. Children commuted approximately equal amounts of time via natural and man-made land-uses (50.2% and 49.8% respectively). Commuting via road/track/path was associated with increased likelihood of MVPA (Exp(B)=1.23, P <0.05), but this association was not seen for commuting via other manmade land-uses. No association was noted between greenspace use and MVPA, but travelling via other natural land-uses was associated with lower odds of MVPA (Exp(B)=0.32, P <0.05). Children spend equal amounts of time commuting to school via man-made and natural land-uses, yet man-made transportation route infrastructure appears to provide greater opportunities for achieving health-enhancing physical activity levels.

BACKGROUND:Walking cadence has shown promise for estimating walking intensity in healthy adults. Auditory cues have been shown to improve gait symmetry in populations with movement disorders. We investigated the walking cadence-energy expenditure relationship in unilateral transtibial amputees (TTAs), and the potential of music cues for regulating walking cadence and improving gait symmetry.METHODS:Seventeen unilateral TTAs performed 2 5-min treadmill walking trials, followed by 2 5-min overground walking trials (self-regulated "brisk" intensity, and while attempting to match a moderate-tempo digital music cue).RESULTS:Walking cadence significantly (P < .001) and accurately (R(2) = .55, SEE = 0.50 METs) predicted energy expenditure, and a cadence of 86 steps·min(-1) was equivalent to a 3-MET intensity. Although most participants were able to match cadence to prescribed music tempo, gait symmetry was not improved during the music-guided condition, compared with the self-regulated condition.CONCLUSIONS:This is the first study to investigate the utility of walking cadence for monitoring and regulating walking intensity in adults with lower limb prosthesis. Cadence has similar or superior accuracy as an indicator of walking intensity in this population, compared with the general population, and adults with a unilateral TTA are capable of walking at moderate intensity and above for meaningful bouts of time.

BACKGROUND:The cognitive processes responsible for effortful behavioural regulation are known as the executive functions, and are implicated in several factors associated with behaviour control, including focussing on tasks, resisting temptations, planning future actions, and inhibiting prepotent responses. Similar to muscles, the executive functions become fatigued following intensive use (e.g. stressful situations, when tired or busy, and when regulating behaviour such as quitting smoking). Therefore, an individual may be more susceptible to engaging in unhealthy behaviours when their executive functions are depleted. In the present study we investigate associations between the executive functions, snack food consumption, and sedentary behaviour in real time. We hypothesise that individuals may be more susceptible to unhealthy snacking and sedentary behaviours during periods when their executive functions are depleted. We test this hypothesis using real-time objective within-person measurements.METHODS/DESIGN:A sample of approximately 50 Scottish adults from varied socio-economic, working, and cultural backgrounds will participate in the three phases of the SNAcking, Physical activity, Self-regulation, and Heart rate Over Time (SNAPSHOT) study. Phase one will require participants to complete home-based questionnaires concerned with diet, eating behaviour, and physical activity (≈1.5 hours to complete). Phase two will constitute a 2-3 hour psychological laboratory testing session during which trait-level executive function, general intelligence, and diet and physical activity intentions, past behaviour, and automaticity will be measured. The final phase will involve a 7-day ambulatory protocol during which objective repeated assessments of executive function, snacking behaviour, physical activity, mood, heart rate, perceived energy level, current context and location will be measured during participants' daily routines. Multi-level regression analysis, accounting for observations nested within participants, will be used to investigate associations between fluctuations in the executive functions and health behaviours.DISCUSSION:Data from the SNAPSHOT study will provide ecologically valid information to help better understand the temporal associations between self-regulatory resources (executive functions) and deleterious health behaviours such as snacking and sedentary behaviour. If we can identify particular periods of the day or locations where self-regulatory resources become depleted and produce suboptimal health behaviour, then interventions can be designed and targeted accordingly.

Marteau and Hall provide interesting insight into the important links between early life environments, poverty, deleterious health behaviours, and the cognitive abilities used to control such behaviours—the “executive functions.”1 They suggest that associations between early life exposure to poverty and subsequent reductions in executive functions contribute to health inequalities. They also acknowledge the possibility of bidirectionality in this association: “those starting life with …