Caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues for women with intellectual disabilities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Limited attention has been paid to the issue of reproductive health as it affects women with intellectual disabilities, despite reproductive health being a vital issue in public health policy for women in the general population. This paper describes caregiver awareness of reproductive health issues relative to women with intellectual disabilities who are being cared for in welfare institutions in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study employed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study which recruited 1,152 caregivers (response rate = 71.87%) from 32 registered disability welfare institutions in Taiwan. We classified their understanding/awareness of reproductive health issues into four domains: menstrual (1) and menopause (2) issues, sex education (3), and reproductive health services (4). Each domain had five associated yes/no questions and the total score for the four domains was out of a maximum of 20. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that most of the caregivers were familiar with matters concerning sex education, menopause, and reproductive health services, but they lacked adequate understanding of issues associated with menstruation in women with ID. Many aspects of reproductive health such as "menstrual pain", "age at menarche", "masturbation", "diet during perimenopause", and "publicly available reproductive health services" were issues in which caregivers lacked adequate knowledge and required further instruction. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female caregivers with a university degree, and those who had experience assisting with reproductive health care were more inclined to have higher reproductive health awareness scores than their counterparts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights that service providers should offer appropriate reproductive health education to institutional caregivers, and that more attention be focused on the personal experiences and concerns of intellectually disabled women in future research.</p

The sexual lives of people with disabilities within low- and middle-income countries: A scoping study of studies published in English

Although approximately 80% of the global population of people with disabilities reside in low- and middle-income countries, very little is known about their sexual lives due to a lack of empirical data. The purpose of this scoping review is to provide a data-driven overview of low- and middle-income countries concerning what topics in disability and sexuality have been investigated, where this research has been carried out, and how this research has been conducted. It is concluded that: a) disability and sexuality research in African countries focuses predominantly on contexts of vulnerability, b) the sexuality of people with disabilities within many low- and middle-income countries has received little or no empirical investigation, c) and there have been very few experimental studies on disability and sexuality conducted in low- and middle-income countries in general. Recommendations for future research are discussed

Factors Related to Self-Rated Participation in Adolescents and Adults with Mild Intellectual Disability – A Systematic Literature Review

Background Self-rated participation is a clinically relevant intervention outcome for people with mild intellectual disability. The aim of this systematic review was to analyse empirical studies that explored relationships between either environmental factors or individual characteristics and aspects of participation in young adults with mild intellectual disability. Method Four databases were used, 756 abstracts examined and 24 studies were evaluated in-depth. Results Four aspects of participation were found: involvement, perceptions of self, self-determination and psychological well-being. Reported environmental factors were: social support, choice opportunity, living conditions, school, work and leisure, attitudes, physical availability and society. Reported individual characteristics were adaptive and social skills. Conclusions There is a relative lack of studies of factors influencing self-rated participation and existing studies are difficult to compare because of disparity regarding approaches, conceptual frameworks, etc. For adequate interventions, it seems important to study how profiles of participation are influenced by different patterns of environmental factors and individual characteristics.</p

Brain-computer interfaces and personhood: interdisciplinary deliberations on neural technology.

Scientists, engineers, and healthcare professionals are currently developing a variety of new devices under the category of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Current and future applications are both medical/assistive (e.g. for communication) and non-medical (e.g. for gaming). This array of possibilities has been met with both enthusiasm and ethical concern in various media, with no clear resolution of these conflicting sentiments. To better understand how BCIs may either harm or help the user, and to investigate whether ethical guidance is required, a meeting entitled 'BCIs and Personhood: A Deliberative Workshop' was held in May 2018. We argue that the hopes and fears associated with BCIs can be productively understood in terms of personhood, specifically the impact of BCIs on what it means to be a person and to be recognized as such by others. Our findings suggest that the development of neural technologies raises important questions about the concept of personhood and its role in society. Accordingly, we propose recommendations for BCI development and governance