Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

YOUNG PEOPLE

Young people hazy about EU elections

According to an opinion survey conducted by Novus Opinion, almost half (44 percent) of Sweden’s young people aged between 18 and 28 are not aware that elections to the European Parliament will be held this year. However, seven out of ten think voting is a good idea.

Published: 9 May 2009 13:55 CEST

Campaign leader Emma Stark believes this is a positive trend despite the figures. Speaking to TT, she pointed out that the results were better than in previous polls, where only one in three respondents knew there was an election on the way.

According to the survey, almost seven in ten young people think voting is a good thing. Some 37 percent said they would definitely be voting while 32 percent thought they probably would. Nearly as many considered the election to be very or fairly important.

Jobs were cited as the most important issue by 63 percent of the survey respondents. The economy and the financial crisis came second, followed by environmental and climate change issues. File-sharing and the internet were ranked tenth out of 16 options.

“The survey suggests that there are no special ‘youth issues’; young people seem concerned about the same problems as everyone else,” says Emma Stark. “What we need to do is highlight the issues and make them concrete and understandable to young people. Otherwise we could have yet another poor turnout.”

The survey polled 1,000 people aged between 18 and 28.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

BRAIN

Swiss study: high-fat diet can damage children’s brains

Eating a diet high in fatty foods can impair the development of the brain in children and adolescents, researchers at Zurich’s federal technology institute (ETHZ) have found.

Published: 16 November 2016 10:39 CET
Swiss study: high-fat diet can damage children's brains
File photo: Phil Whitehouse

During the study, juvenile and adult mice were fed a diet high in saturated fat, which is commonly found in fast foods, charcuterie and butter.

After just four weeks researchers observed impaired cognitive function in the younger mice.

However no such changes were seen in mature mice on the same diet.

Mice and humans are comparable since the brain’s prefrontal cortex – the area of the brain that controls learning, memory and personality – has similar functions in both mammals and does not fully develop in either until early adulthood, said researchers in a statement.

“As it matures, the prefrontal cortex is therefore vulnerable to negative environmental experiences such as stress, infections and trauma, or even – as the study suggests – a poorly balanced diet,” they said.

Damage can create cognitive deficits and personality changes, for example a person may have learning difficulties, lose their inhibitions or become aggressive, childish or compulsive.

Though the fatty diet did not affect the adult mice in the same way, this “does not rule out the possibility that a high-fat diet may also be harmful for the brains of adult mice,” said Urs Meyer, a professor at ETHZ.

Meyer pointed out that the excessively high-fat diet fed to the mice was not typical of the amount consumed by most people.

“Only very few children and adolescents consume high-fat diets so excessively,” said Meyer.

SHOW COMMENTS