No Cover Image

Journal article 85 views 1 download

Mind the gap: Development and validation of an evolutionary mismatched lifestyle scale and its impact on health and wellbeing

Jiaqing O Orcid Logo, Trefor Aspden Orcid Logo, Andrew Thomas Orcid Logo, Lei Chang, Moon-Ho Ringo Ho, Norman P. Li, Mark van Vugt

Heliyon, Volume: 10, Issue: 15, Start page: e34997

Swansea University Author: Andrew Thomas Orcid Logo

  • 67168.VoR.pdf

    PDF | Version of Record

    © 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

    Download (985.62KB)

Abstract

Identifying an integrative framework that could appropriately delineate underlying mechanisms and individual risk/protective factors for human health has remained elusive. Evolutionary mismatch theory provides a comprehensive, integrative model for understanding the underlying causes and mechanisms...

Full description

Published in: Heliyon
ISSN: 2405-8440
Published: Elsevier BV 2024
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67168
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: Identifying an integrative framework that could appropriately delineate underlying mechanisms and individual risk/protective factors for human health has remained elusive. Evolutionary mismatch theory provides a comprehensive, integrative model for understanding the underlying causes and mechanisms of a wide range of modern health and well-being problems, ranging from obesity to depression. Despite growing interest regarding its importance though, no psychometrically-sound measure of evolutionary mismatch yet exists to facilitate research and intervention. To construct such a scale, aimed at gauging individual differences in the extent to which people's modern lifestyles are mismatched with ancestral conditions, we conducted four studies (a pilot study, followed by 3 main studies, with a final sample of 1901 participants across the main studies). Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have produced a 36-item evolutionary mismatched lifestyle scale (EMLS) with 7 subdomains of mismatched behaviours (e.g., diet, physical activity, relationships, social media use) that is psychometrically sound. Further, the EMLS is associated with physical, mental and subjective health. We explore the potential of the EMLS as a tool for examining interpersonal and cultural variations in health and wellbeing, while also discussing the limitations of the scale and future directions in relation to further psychometric examinations.
Keywords: Evolutionary mismatch; Health; Wellbeing; Scale construction; Lifestyle; Environment
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Issue: 15
Start Page: e34997