Association between gap in spousal education and domestic violence in India and Bangladesh

Rapp D, Zoch B, Khan MH, Pollmann T, Krämer A. Association between gap in spousal education and domestic violence in India and Bangladesh. BMC Public Health. 2012;12(1): 467.Background: Domestic violence (DV) against women is a serious human rights abuse and well recognised global public health concern. The occurrence of DV is negatively associated with the educational level of spouses but studies dealing with educational discrepancies of spouses show contradicting results: Women with higher education than their husbands were more likely to ever experience DV as compared to equally educated couples. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is any association between spousal education gap (SEG) and the prevalence as well as the severity of DV in India and Bangladesh. Methods: Nationally representative data collected through the 2005/2006 Indian National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) and 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) were used. In total, we analysed the data of 69,805 women aged 15-49 years old (Bangladesh: 4,195 women, India: 60,060 women). In addition to simple and bivariable analyses, a multinomial logistic regression model was used to quantify the association between the main independent variable (called education gap) and the dependent variable categorised as less severe and severe domestic violence. Several factors were used as cofactors (which revealed significant association with the outcome variable in bivariable analyses). Results: For the total sample, women with higher education than their husbands reported significantly lower likelihood of experiencing less severe (OR=0.83, 95% CI: 0.77-0.89) and severe (OR=0.79, 95% CI: 0.72-0.87) DV as compared to spouses equally low-educated (reference group). Equally high-educated couples revealed the lowest likelihood of experiencing DV (severe violence: OR 0.43, CI 0.39-0.48; less severe violence: OR 0.59, CI 0.55-0.63). Conclusions: Our analysis revealed no increased DV among women who were educated more than their husbands. Moreover, the results point towards a decrease of severe violence with an increase in education levels among spouses. Still, all considered factors are not capable of explaining a satisfying amount of DV (Nagelkerke's r2=0.152). Therefore, further research should be done to reveal those unknown factors and to be able to develop suitable interventions to reduce DV

Trends in herpes zoster epidemiology in Germany based on primary care sentinel surveillance data, 2005–2016

Herpes zoster (HZ) is caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster-virus (VZV). Childhood varicella vaccination, as recommended in Germany in 2004, may reduce the risk of HZ in vaccinated children but also virus circulation and thus the booster possibility of latent infected persons. In this context we analyzed age-specific trends in HZ epidemiology in Germany using data on HZ-associated outpatient consultations in participating sentinel sites and HZ-associated cases in all hospitals since 2005. We analyzed two separate time periods that differed in sentinel management and data integrity. For the period 2005–2010, we found a decrease in HZ-associated outpatient consultations in 1- to 4-year-olds (IRR = 0.72, 95%CI 0.63-0.81, p<0.001). For the period 2013–2016, we observed a decrease in HZ-associated outpatient consultations in 10- to 14-year-olds (IRR = 0.85, 95%CI 0.78-0.93, p<0.01). Moreover, we detected an increase in the age groups 20 years and older except for the group 30–39 years. HZ-associated hospitalizations showed similar trends for the second time period (here 2012–2015). The decrease in HZ-associated outpatient consultations and hospitalizations in children started and continued over cohorts eligible for varicella vaccination and could be a result of their reduced HZ-risk. Whether the observed steady increasing HZ incidences for adults are associated with the varicella vaccination in children remains unclear and could not be investigated with our data

Effect of Disease Definition on Perceived Burden of Acute Respiratory Infections in Children: A Prospective Cohort Study Based on Symptom Diaries.

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are among the most frequent childhood diseases in Western countries. Assessment of ARI episodes for research purposes is usually based on parent-administered retrospective questionnaires or prospective symptom diaries. The aim of our analysis was to compare the effect of ARI definitions on the corresponding disease burden in a prospective cohort study using symptom diaries

The Respiratory Specimen Collection Trial (ReSpeCT): a randomized controlled trial to compare quality and timeliness of respiratory sample collection in the home by parents and healthcare workers from children aged <2 years

Most acute respiratory infection (ARI) research focuses on severe disease and overlooks the burden of community-managed illness. For community-based studies, home-based specimen collection by parents could be a resource-saving alternative to collection by healthcare workers (HCWs). In this study, we compared parent and HCW groups for their likelihood to collect specimens and the timeliness and quality of such collection.In this unblinded randomized controlled trial, parents from Brisbane, Australia, were taught to identify new ARI episodes in their children age

Feasibility of a birth cohort study dedicated to assessing acute infections using symptom diaries and parental collection of biomaterials.

A birth cohort dedicated to studying infections in early childhood may be assisted by parental recording of symptoms on a daily basis and a collection of biomaterials. We aimed at testing the feasibility of this approach for use in a long-term study focusing on infections in children in Germany

Additional file 1: of Feasibility of a birth cohort study dedicated to assessing acute infections using symptom diaries and parental collection of biomaterials

Variables of the symptom diary and required form of entry. (DOCX 31 kb

Bacterial community structure and effects of picornavirus infection on the anterior nares microbiome in early childhood

Abstract Background Little is known regarding the nasal microbiome in early childhood and the impact of respiratory infection on the infants’ nasal microbial composition. Here we investigated the temporal dynamics and diversity of the bacterial composition in the anterior nares in children attending daycare centers. Results For our investigation, we considered 76 parental-taken nasal swabs of 26 children (aged 13 to 36 months) collected over a study period of 3 months. Overall, there was no significant age-specific effect or seasonal shift in the nasal bacterial community structure. In a sub-sample of 14 healthy children the relative abundance of individual taxa as well as the overall diversity did not reveal relevant changes, indicating a stable community structure over the entire study period. Moreover, the nasal bacterial profiles clustered subject-specific with Bray-Curtis similarities being elevated in intra-subject calculations compared to between-subject calculations. The remaining subset of 12 children provided samples taken during picornavirus infection (PVI) and either before or after a PVI. We detected an association between the relative abundance of members of the genus Streptococcus and PV when comparing both (i) samples taken during PVI with samples out of 14 healthy children and (ii) samples taken during PVI with samples taken after PVI within the same individual. In addition, the diversity was higher during PVI than after infection. Conclusions Our findings suggest that a personalized structure of the nasal bacterial community is established already in early childhood and could be detected over a timeframe of 3 months. Studies following infants over a longer time with frequent swab sampling would allow investigating whether certain parameter of the bacterial community, such as the temporal variability, could be related to viral infection

Ebola Risk Perception in Germany, 2014

Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks have occurred during the past 5 decades, but none has affected European countries like the 2014 epidemic in West Africa. We used an online questionnaire to investigate risk perceptions in Germany during this epidemic peak. Our questionnaire covered risk perceptions, knowledge about transmission routes, media use, reactions to the outbreak, attitudes toward measures to prevent the spread of EVD and vaccination against EVD, and willingness to volunteer for aid missions. Of 974 participants, 29% indicated that they worried about EVD, 4% correctly stated virus transmission routes, and 75% incorrectly rated airborne transmission and transmission by asymptomatic patients as possible. Many indicated that if a patient were flown to Germany for treatment in a nearby hospital, they would adapt preventive behavior. Although most participants were not worried about EVD at the current stage of the epidemic, misperceptions regarding transmission were common and could trigger inappropriate behavior changes