Air raid alerts, life shuttling between home and shelters, remote work, and a constant stream of news have changed the daily lives of Ukrainian families—gadgets have become a common way to calm a child. Experts warn that regular screen time can negatively affect the development of children under two years of age.
This is confirmed by a large-scale international study, the results of which were published by British researchers from four universities—Leeds, Leeds Trinity, Loughborough, and Aston.
The researchers concluded that regular use of smartphones, tablets, or other screen-based devices by children under two years of age is associated with potential long-term health risks. Therefore, they recommended completely avoiding situations where gadgets are intentionally turned on for infants simply to keep them occupied so they don’t disturb anyone.
In recent years, screens have become a common part of childhood. While parents are working, taking care of household chores, or checking news about the security situation, toddlers often spend their time watching cartoons or children’s videos. Today, gadgets are frequently used as a quick way to distract or calm a child.
Scientists warn that gadgets deprive children of the opportunity for face-to-face interaction with their parents, limit their physical activity, and even affect speech development. According to the study, other major risks include sleep problems, overstimulation of the nervous system, potential effects on eye health, and an increased risk of childhood obesity.
Denis Boichuk, coordinator of the Research Institute of Neurodevelopment, Neurology, and Rehabilitation and a physician specializing in epilepsy, explained why the first two years of life warrant special attention:
“This is one of the most intensive periods of brain development. It is during this time that a vast number of neural connections are formed, which are responsible for speech, memory, emotional regulation, attention, and social skills. For proper development, a child needs lively interaction with adults and other children, the opportunity to imitate actions, adequate physical activity, exploration of the environment, and emotional contact and feedback from the environment. Overexposure to stimulation also poses a risk. Bright images, rapid frame changes, and a constant stream of information can interfere with natural attention processes and disrupt sleep.”
The study was conducted by British researchers, but the problem is particularly acute in Ukrainian families. Amid frequent shelling, for many parents, a phone becomes a way to keep a child occupied during long stays in a shelter or while traveling to a safer place.
Digital devices are increasingly becoming a tool for calming children. Infants begin to feel more comfortable not through contact with their parents, but while looking at a smartphone or tablet. According to the study’s authors, this may affect the development of a child’s emotional attachment and future behavior.
The problem also lies in the fact that parents themselves often lack clear guidelines on gadget use. As a result, the constant presence of screens begins to be perceived as the norm. Parents behave this way, and children pick up these habits from an early age.
News from the front lines, work chats, messages from family members, and alerts. Many parents unconsciously spend a significant portion of their time on their phones, even when they’re right next to their children. Young children quickly pick up on this behavior and begin to view the gadget as the main center of attention in the family.
Experts advise against trying to completely give up technology, but rather to establish healthy rules for its use. For children under two years old, the priority should remain face-to-face communication, active play, walks, reading books, and interacting with the world around them. Even the study’s authors acknowledge that avoiding passive screen time is nearly impossible in today’s world, but they emphasize that additional, intentional screen time offers no benefits and only increases potential risks to a child’s development.
Amid the war and constant stress, Ukrainian parents must strike a balance between reality and their child’s needs. But right now, when gadgets have become an integral part of life, it is especially important to remember: the best environment for a toddler’s development is not smartphones and tablets, but communication, care, and the presence of loved ones. The conclusion reached by British researchers is simple: the first two years of life are crucial for brain development, and no screen can replace a child’s live interaction with their parents.
We would like to remind you that a joint Ukrainian-American project, the Research Institute of Neurodevelopment, Neurology, and Rehabilitation, is operating in Ukraine. One of its main areas of focus is researching the impact of war on public health and neurotrauma. The project provides diagnosis and support for children and adults, as well as science-based recommendations for parents. Brain examinations are conducted using an electroencephalograph. Information for veterans is available on the website veterano.info.
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https://veterano.info/smartfon-zamist-dytynstva-chy-spravdi-gadzhety-shkodyat-rozvytku
In the summer of 2026, more than 50,000 people died as a result of an abnormal heat wave in nearly 900 European cities, according to a report by the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.
“According to our estimates, there were 50,391 heat-related excess deaths recorded this summer across 854 cities,” the report states.
Excess mortality refers to a temporary increase in the number of deaths compared to the initially expected level due to external factors such as extreme weather events, armed conflicts, or famine.
The researchers note that about two-thirds of heat-related deaths this summer were caused specifically by human-induced climate change.
The highest heat-related mortality rates were recorded in Malta, Italy, and Hungary. The report also notes that in nearly half of the cases, those who died from the effects of the heat were people over the age of 85. At the same time, 883 of the recorded deaths occurred among people aged 20 to 44.
The number of heat-related deaths in the summer of 2026 was nearly double the figures for the corresponding periods in 2025 and 2024.
In May, an abnormal heat wave struck Europe and lasted nearly the entire summer. Temperature records were set in a number of countries. In some countries, temperatures reached—and in some cases exceeded—40 degrees Celsius. Due to the extremely high temperatures, wildfires broke out in many European countries, including France, Spain, and Italy.
According to Experts Club, American researchers have found a link between frequent daytime napping and an increased risk of developing dementia in people aged 65 and older. According to a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, people who napped almost every day had a 48% higher relative risk of developing dementia compared to those who rarely napped.
The study’s findings were published in the scientific journal The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. The final version of the article was published on October 5, 2026, and on October 13, the university released a separate press release announcing the results.
The study included 995 Americans aged 65 and older who were covered by Medicare. At the start of the study in 2013, none of the participants showed signs of probable or possible dementia according to the classification used by the researchers.
The researchers followed the participants for up to ten years, using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a nationwide study on aging. They analyzed not only the duration of nighttime sleep but also the frequency of daytime naps, their duration, and the circumstances under which participants fell asleep.
The researchers paid particular attention to the difference between planned daytime naps and instances when a person fell asleep involuntarily, such as while watching TV, reading, or relaxing in a chair.
According to the results of the statistical analysis, frequent daytime napping was associated with a 48% increase in the relative risk of dementia, while unplanned falling asleep was associated with a 39% increase.
In their analysis, the researchers accounted for age, gender, education, the presence of chronic diseases, body mass index, symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as characteristics of nighttime sleep and the risk of obstructive sleep apnea.
The association remained significant even after adjusting for these factors, suggesting a potential independent role of daytime napping patterns as an indicator of risk for cognitive impairment.
The researchers also found that daytime naps lasting up to 30 minutes were associated with a 40% increase in the relative risk of dementia. At the same time, for naps lasting more than 30 minutes, the statistical association weakened after accounting for characteristics of nighttime sleep.
However, irregular or intentionally scheduled daytime naps did not show a statistically significant increase in risk after adjusting for all major factors.
Overall, during the follow-up period, 417 participants—or 41.9% of the sample—showed signs of possible or probable dementia. Among people who did not nap during the day, this outcome was observed in 37.8%, and among those who regularly napped during the day, in 51.1%. However, the duration of follow-up varied across the different groups, so these percentages should not be interpreted as a direct predictor of individual risk.
In addition to dementia, the researchers found a link between frequent daytime napping and subsequent deterioration in memory and certain executive brain functions, particularly the ability to plan and control complex actions.
However, the researchers emphasize that the results do not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between daytime napping and dementia.
“More frequent daytime napping may be a sign of changes in the brain, rather than the cause of the changes that lead to dementia,” noted the study’s senior author, Adam Spira, a professor in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins University.
According to the researchers, neurodegenerative processes can begin long before the onset of clinical symptoms of dementia. Among the first areas to change may be those parts of the brain that regulate wakefulness and sleep. As a result, a person may fall asleep more often during the day even before a diagnosis is made.
To test this hypothesis, the researchers conducted an additional analysis, excluding cases of dementia identified during the first five years of follow-up. The association between frequent daytime napping and the subsequent development of dementia persisted. For unplanned sleep episodes, the direction of the association also remained similar, although the statistical uncertainty of the result increased.
The study’s first author, Kenin Jiang, noted that monitoring changes in daytime sleep could be a relatively simple way to identify people at increased risk of dementia early on.
Researchers believe that doctors should pay attention not only to patients’ complaints about nighttime sleep but also to an increase in the frequency of daytime sleepiness, especially if such changes occur for no apparent reason.
At the same time, the authors caution against drawing hasty practical conclusions. The study was observational in nature: the researchers did not alter the participants’ sleep patterns and did not test whether avoiding daytime naps could prevent dementia.
Furthermore, information about daytime napping was collected primarily from the participants themselves, and signs of dementia were identified using a validated algorithm rather than through clinical diagnosis of each individual case.
Therefore, the results do not mean that a short daytime nap is inherently harmful to the brain or that it should be avoided. Instead, new or increasingly frequent episodes of involuntary sleepiness in older adults may be a reason to discuss their health, the quality of their nighttime sleep, and possible cognitive changes with a doctor.
To definitively establish a causal link, additional long-term studies are needed that objectively measure sleep using specialized devices.
Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876 in Baltimore, is one of the leading research universities in the United States. Its Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, founded in 1916, specializes in epidemiology, disease prevention, mental health, population aging, and the study of risk factors for chronic diseases. The study on daytime napping and dementia was conducted with partial funding from the U.S. National Institute on Aging.
Sources: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, press release dated October 13, 2026; original research article in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glag208.
A national survey of Ukrainian residents showed that 31.2% of respondents met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex PTSD (C-PTSD), according to the results of a study published by the British academic publisher Taylor & Francis Group in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology.
“High levels of both lifetime and war-related trauma were recorded. The national prevalence of PTSD according to the ICD-11 was 25.2%, with 6% of respondents meeting the additional criteria for C-PTSD according to the ICD-11, resulting in a combined prevalence of 31.2%,” the publication states.
The data collected reflect mental health status at the time of the survey but do not show changes in symptoms over time. The material for this article was obtained by the publication as early as 2025.
Factors associated with a higher likelihood of developing PTSD or C-PTSD included female gender, older age, lower educational attainment, prior military service, forced displacement due to war, as well as a greater number of traumatic events and war-related stressors experienced throughout one’s lifetime.
Loneliness was the only factor specifically associated with C-PTSD rather than PTSD.
Study co-author Emma Fizer-Irwin, a clinical psychologist, noted that the fact that PTSD was much more common than C-PTSD may indicate that psychological responses to ongoing war do not always fit neatly into models developed in post-conflict settings. “When the threat remains ongoing and unpredictable, the ways in which people experience and adapt to traumatic stress may vary, and this is an important area for future research,” she noted.
The study’s lead author, Deirdre McManus, a lecturer and researcher in forensic psychiatry at King’s College London (KCL), noted that the overwhelming majority of respondents had experienced numerous traumatic events throughout their lives, and many had also been directly affected by the protracted war due to forced displacement, the loss of loved ones, the destruction of their communities, or anxiety about their families; many Ukrainians continue to face stressors in their daily lives. “Despite this, many Ukrainians continue to live and adapt under extremely difficult conditions,” she noted.
Study co-author Vladimir Kulik, a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Kyiv School of Economics, noted that PTSD and C-PTSD affect not only veterans or people who were near the combat zone. “These disorders are also prevalent among other segments of the population that have been severely affected by the war—in particular, among internally displaced persons, people who have been subjected to rocket and drone attacks on their cities and towns far from the front lines, as well as those who care for the wounded or traumatized,” he emphasized.
According to Kulik, further research will be necessary to understand how the psychological impact of war evolves among the general population, changing as the conflict continues.
In addition to experts from KCL and the Kyiv School of Economics, the research team included scholars from George Washington University, the University of Manchester, the Center for Eastern European Studies and International Relations (ZOiS), and Combat Stress—a leading British charity addressing veterans’ mental health issues. The study was initiated by the “Conflict and Cooperation in Eastern Europe” (KonKoop) research network, led by Professor Gwendolyn Sasse (ZOiS), and funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space.
The study was conducted via telephone survey using a random sample of 2,504 respondents in territories controlled by the Ukrainian government.
The relationships between the type and number of traumatic experiences encountered during one’s lifetime and war-related trauma, as well as PTSD/C-PTSD, were examined using a series of logistic regression models adjusted for age and gender. The sample is representative in terms of age, gender, marital status, educational level, macroregion, language, and ethnicity.
Before fieldwork began, the questionnaires were pre-tested on a roughly representative subsample (n = 20) of the target group (adults living in urban and rural areas of Kyiv and nine regions of Ukraine). During data collection, interviewers were able to ask questions of a psychologist and consult with him or her on complex cases. The average interview duration was 27 minutes.
Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20008066.2026.2697563
PSYCHOLOGY, PTSD, RESEARCH, UKRAINE, WAR
People who regularly consume more coffee may have a lower proportion of total and visceral fat and, at the same time, greater muscle mass, according to the results of a new Finnish study. In men, higher coffee consumption was also found to be associated with characteristics of testosterone levels and more favorable indicators of glucose and insulin metabolism.
The study was published in the scientific journal European Journal of Nutrition. The researchers used data from the large-scale Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 project, whose participants have been followed since birth. The analysis included 2,264 people aged 46.
The participants were divided according to their habitual coffee consumption. Seventy people practically did not consume coffee, 296 drank one to two cups a day, 822 drank three to four cups, and another 1,076 participants drank five or more cups daily.
The researchers found an interesting pattern: body mass index did not differ significantly between the groups, but body composition did.
Participants who consumed more coffee had, on average, a lower percentage of body fat, lower total fat mass and a smaller area of visceral fat. At the same time, they had greater skeletal muscle mass. Differences in body composition were observed in both men and women.
“This study is interesting primarily because it demonstrates the limitations of the familiar BMI indicator. Two people may have practically the same body mass index but a completely different ratio of fat to muscle tissue. In the Finnish sample, it was body composition, rather than BMI, that was associated with the level of coffee consumption,” notes Sviatoslav Morozov-Leonov, Doctor of Biological Sciences and head of a division at the Experts Club analytical center.
The researchers separately studied hormonal indicators. In men, each additional cup of coffee per day was statistically associated with an increase in total testosterone of approximately 0.29 nmol/L and in bioavailable testosterone of approximately 0.08 nmol/L. The level of sex hormone-binding globulin — SHBG — also increased. These associations persisted after statistical adjustment for BMI, education, smoking, physical activity and alcohol consumption.
However, the hormonal results turned out to be considerably more complex than the phrase “coffee increases testosterone” might suggest.
Along with higher total and bioavailable testosterone, greater coffee consumption in men was associated with lower free testosterone and a lower free androgen index. In women, the researchers found no statistically significant association between the amount of coffee consumed and total or bioavailable testosterone. At the same time, women also had higher SHBG and lower free androgen indicators.
“Therefore, it would be incorrect to conclude from the study that five cups of coffee a day increase testosterone in men. The hormonal picture is much more complex: total testosterone increased, but free testosterone decreased at the same time. The authors themselves speak of a specific hormonal profile rather than a proven stimulating effect of coffee,” Morozov-Leonov emphasized.
Another interesting result is related to metabolism.
In men with higher coffee consumption, the researchers identified a more favorable profile of glucose and insulin indicators. In representatives of both sexes, coffee consumption was also inversely correlated with blood concentrations of branched-chain amino acids — BCAAs.
Elevated BCAA concentrations have been associated in a number of previous studies with insulin resistance and an increased risk of metabolic disorders. The authors of the Finnish study believe that the detected changes may help to better understand the association between coffee consumption and metabolic health observed in other studies.
At the same time, the scientists specifically warn that the results do not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
The study was cross-sectional: coffee consumption, body composition, hormones and metabolic indicators were assessed essentially during the same period of time. Therefore, it is impossible to determine whether coffee led to the observed differences or whether people with a particular lifestyle and metabolic profile simply consumed coffee more often.
In addition, the participants self-reported the amount of coffee they consumed, while the group of people who did not consume coffee at all was small — only 70 people out of 2,264. The Finnish population is also relatively homogeneous, so the results cannot automatically be extrapolated to the populations of other countries.
“This is a good example of how nutrition studies should be read. An association between a product and a particular health indicator does not yet mean that the product is the cause of that effect. Practical recommendations require prospective studies and, most importantly, randomized controlled trials,” says Experts Club representative Morozov-Leonov.
The authors also do not recommend increasing coffee consumption on the basis of the results obtained. They point to the need for further research, including intervention studies in humans, which would make it possible to establish whether a causal relationship exists and which specific biologically active components of coffee may be responsible for the observed associations.
Coffee contains more than a thousand different compounds, so the potential mechanism of action remains uncertain. The researchers consider hormonal and metabolic changes to be one of the possible directions for further study of coffee’s effects on health.
“The most interesting result of the work is not the assertion that ‘the more coffee, the better.’ The study shows a much more complex relationship between habitual diet, body composition, hormones and metabolism. Testing these mechanisms in long-term and controlled studies should be the next stage,” Sviatoslav Morozov-Leonov summarized.
The study Associations of habitual coffee intake with testosterone and cardiometabolic markers: the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study. The analysis included 2,264 participants from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. The authors declared no conflict of interest.
According to the Serbian business publication Parametar, the Adriatic Sea is warming not only near the surface—scientists have recorded an unprecedented rise in temperature in the deep layers of the Southern Adriatic, including at depths of about 1,000 meters.
A study by an international team of oceanographers showed that over the past decade, the temperature of the bottom waters of the South Adriatic Basin has risen by 0.8 °C. At the same time, salinity has increased significantly.
For the study, scientists combined observational data collected since 1957, measurements from deep-sea stations, and data from 15 autonomous buoys of the international Argo system.
Over the long-term period from 1957 to 2024, the temperature at a depth of 1,000 meters increased by an average of 0.088 °C per decade.
However, this process has accelerated sharply in recent years.
According to Argo data, between individual deep-water renewal cycles, the rate of temperature increase at a depth of 1,000 meters was approximately 0.40°C per decade in 2012–2016, 0.67 °C in 2018–2021, and 0.64 °C in 2022–2024.
Another clear indicator of the scale of these changes is the penetration of warm water to greater depths. In the early 2010s, the 14 °C isotherm was located at a depth of approximately 100 meters, but by 2024, water at that temperature had spread nearly to the bottom of the South Adriatic Basin.
Changes were even recorded at a depth of 1,200 meters. During the deep-water turnover in 2022, the temperature there rose by approximately 0.4°C, while salinity increased significantly.
Researchers describe what is happening as an unprecedented warming and salinization of the Adriatic’s deep waters. The observed changes are occurring much faster than predicted by regional climate models with high emissions scenarios.
The Southern Adriatic is of particular importance to the entire sea. It is home to a deep basin reaching 1,200 meters, where the deep water masses of the Adriatic are formed and redistributed.
Therefore, the changes taking place there may affect more than just water temperature. Scientists warn of potential consequences for marine biogeochemistry, water circulation, and living organisms.
For countries along the Adriatic coast—specifically Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, and Italy—this means that climate change in the sea can no longer be assessed solely by the water temperature at beaches in the summer. The transformation affects virtually the entire water column and represents a long-term change in the marine system itself.
A separate study of temperature trends in the Mediterranean Sea also showed that the Southern Adriatic stands out among deep-water regions. In the 700–2,000-meter depth layer, warming of 0.058 °C per year was recorded here between 2013 and 2020—one of the most pronounced rates in the deep layers of the Mediterranean.
Source: Limnology and Oceanography Letters
