Data on meal sharing has been analysed together with data on wellbeing for the first time

Globally, meal sharing as an indicator of self-reported wellbeing was on a par with income and employment status. The findings go across all ages, genders, countries, cultures and regions.

In the USA (case study), people are now more likely to dine alone than they were 20 years ago, which the researchers say is driven by young people being more likely to share fewer meals with friends and family.

The number of Americans dining alone has risen sharply, with 26% of American adults reporting eating all of their meals alone on the previous day, which was an increase of over 50% since 2003. Adults over 65 are more likely to eat alone, although since 2018 the rates of those under 35 eating alone has risen at a sharper rate.

The most popular ADHD-related content on TikTok often does not match mental health professionals’ views, potentially influencing how young adults perceive the disorder, a new University of B.C. study has found. An analysis of the 100 most-viewed TikTok videos related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) revealed that fewer than half the claims regarding symptoms made in those videos actually align with clinical guidelines for diagnosing ADHD. Videos with low-quality information or misinformation received a much higher rating from young adults than from clinical psychologists. The more ADHD-related TikTok content a young adult consumes, the more likely they are to overestimate both the prevalence and severity of ADHD symptoms in the general population, and the more likely they are to recommend videos regardless of the information's reliability.