Lifetime and past-year prevalence of children’s exposure to violence in 9 Balkan countries: the BECAN study

Background Children’s exposure to violence is a major public health issue. The Balkan epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect project aimed to collect internationally comparable data on violence exposures in childhood. Methods A three stage stratified random sample of 42,194 school-attending children (response rate: 66.7%) in three grades (aged 11, 13 and 16 years) was drawn from schools in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. Children completed the ICAST-C questionnaire, which measures children’s exposure to violence by any perpetrator. Results Exposure rates for psychological violence were between 64.6% (FYROM) and 83.2% (Greece) for lifetime and 59.62% (Serbia) and 70.0% (Greece) for past-year prevalence. Physical violence exposure varied between 50.6% (FYROM) and 76.3% (Greece) for lifetime and 42.5% (FYROM) and 51.0% (Bosnia) for past-year prevalence. Sexual violence figures were highest for lifetime prevalence in Bosnia (18.6%) and lowest in FYROM (7.6%). Lifetime contact sexual violence was highest in Bosnia (9.8%) and lowest in Romania (3.6%). Past-year sexual violence and contact sexual violence prevalence was lowest in Romania (5.0 and 2.1%) and highest in Bosnia (13.6 and 7.7% respectively). Self-reported neglect was highest for both past-year and lifetime prevalence in Bosnia (48.0 and 20.3%) and lowest in Romania (22.6 and 16.7%). Experiences of positive parental practices were reported by most participating children in all countries. Conclusions Where significant differences in violence exposure by sex were observed, males reported higher exposure to past-year and lifetime sexual violence and females higher exposure to neglect. Children in Balkan countries experience a high burden of violence victimization and national-level programming and child protection policy making is urgently needed to address this

Zinc-Chelation Contributes to the Anti-Angiogenic Effect of Ellagic Acid on Inhibiting MMP-2 Activity, Cell Migration and Tube Formation

Ellagic acid (EA), a dietary polyphenolic compound, has been demonstrated to exert anti-angiogenic effect but the detailed mechanism is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the zinc chelating activity of EA contributed to its anti-angiogenic effect.The matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2) activity, a zinc-required reaction, was directly inhibited by EA as examined by gelatin zymography, which was reversed dose-dependently by adding zinc chloride. In addition, EA was demonstrated to inhibit the secretion of MMP-2 from human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) as analyzed by Western blot method, which was also reversed by the addition of zinc chloride. Reversion-inducing cysteine-rich protein with Kazal motifs (RECK), known to down-regulate the MMP-2 activity, was induced by EA at both the mRNA and protein levels which was correlated well with the inhibition of MMP-2 activity. Interestingly, zinc chloride could also abolish the increase of EA-induced RECK expression. The anti-angiogenic effect of EA was further confirmed to inhibit matrix-induced tube formation of endothelial cells. The migration of endothelial cells as analyzed by transwell filter assay was suppressed markedly by EA dose-dependently as well. Zinc chloride could reverse these two effects of EA also in a dose-dependent manner. Since magnesium chloride or calcium chloride could not reverse the inhibitory effect of EA, zinc was found to be involved in tube formation and migration of vascular endothelial cells.Together these results demonstrated that the zinc chelation of EA is involved in its anti-angiogenic effects by inhibiting MMP-2 activity, tube formation and cell migration of vascular endothelial cells. The role of zinc was confirmed to be important in the process of angiogenesis

Promotion of children's early psychosocial development through primary health care services

The paper presents the study design of the development and organisation of an EU/WHO multicentre study on the promotion of children’s early psychosocial development through primary health care services. The aim of the programme is to develop training for primary health care workers (PHCWs) that improves their ability to assess factors relevant to children’s psychosocial development and gives them preventive approaches to foster that development, building on the families’ strengths. The focus is on the period from conception to the end of the second year of the child’s Life. Two main components are the training of the PHCWs and the semi-structured interviews that guide the workers in practice. The training has content and structure that is feasible within primary health care resources working in collaboration with mental health services. The programme is evaluated in terms of (a) the impact of training on both the PHCWs’ knowledge and attitudes with regard to infant behaviour and development, and on practice as assessed by the delivery of the semi-structured interview; and (b) the effect of the intervention on maternal well-being, infant language development and behaviour, home environment and mother-infant interaction. The programme is taking place in Cyprus, Greece, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Portugal, Slovenia and Turkey