Exposure to domestic violence in women living in Istanbul and Aegean regions: a Turkish sample

Domestic violence (DV) is a serious public health problem in the world. DV against women is also a global problem without cultural, geographic, religious, social, economic or national boundaries. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the situations of DV in women living in Istanbul and the Aegean Region in Turkey. The study population included outpatient clinics of state hospitals both regions. A stratified sampling by age was performed and 1100 women were included into the sample. Data were collected at face-to-face interviews with Domestic Violence Against Women Determination Scale. The mean age of the women living in Istanbul was 41.81 +/- 9.75 years and Aegean Region was 33.72 +/- 11.38 years. The prevalence of emotional and financial violence were higher in Istanbul and the Aegean Region. The women living in Istanbul got higher scores for Domestic Violence Against Women Determination Scale. The prevalence of the women reporting to suffer from violence from their spouses was 15.4% in Istanbul and 14% in the Aegean Region. While the prevalence of the women suffering from violence was higher in Istanbul, the women in Aegean Region suffered from more severe violence. The violence prevalence was lower among the wives and the husbands with high education levels, employed women and high-income families

Comparison of brucellar and tuberculous spondylodiscitis patients: results of the multicenter "Backbone-1 Study"

WOS: 000366655100045PubMed ID: 26386176BACKGROUND CONTEXT: No direct comparison between brucellar spondylodiscitis (BSD) and tuberculous spondylodiscitis (TSD) exists in the literature. PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare directly the clinical features, laboratory and radiological aspects, treatment, and outcome data of patients diagnosed as BSD and TSD. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective, multinational, and multicenter study was used. PATIENT SAMPLE: A total of 641 (TSD, 314 and BSD, 327) spondylodiscitis patients from 35 different centers in four countries (Turkey, Egypt, Albania, and Greece) were included. OUTCOME MEASURES: The pre- and peri- or post-treatment spinal deformity and neurologic deficit parameters, and mortality were carried out. METHODS: Brucellar spondylodiscitis and TSD groups were compared for demographics, clinical, laboratory, radiological, surgical interventions, treatment, and outcome data. The Student t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for group comparisons. Significance was analyzed as two sided and inferred at 0.05 levels. RESULTS: The median baseline laboratory parameters including white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were higher in TSD than BSD (p<.0001). Prevertebral, paravertebral, epidural, and psoas abscess formations along with loss of vertebral corpus height and calcification were significantly more frequent in TSD compared with BSD (p<.01). Surgical interventions and percutaneous sampling or abscess drainage were applied more frequently in TSD (p<.0001). Spinal complications including gibbus deformity, kyphosis, and scoliosis, and the number of spinal neurologic deficits, including loss of sensation, motor weakness, and paralysis were significantly higher in the TSD group (p<.05). Mortality rate was 2.22% (7 patients) in TSD, and it was 0.61% (2 patients) in the BSD group (p=.1). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that TSD is a more suppurative disease with abscess formation requiring surgical intervention and characterized with spinal complications. We propose that using a constellation of constitutional symptoms (fever, back pain, and weight loss), pulmonary involvement, high inflammatory markers, and radiological findings will help to differentiate between TSD and BSD at an early stage before microbiological results are available. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved