Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age.

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Investigation of the relationship between different candida species and some risk factors affecting the incidence of vulvovaginal candidiasis

Introduction: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a yeast infection and is one of the most common causes of women's referral to the physician. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between different Candida species and some risk factors affecting the incidence of vulvovaginal candidiasis. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted during 2016-2018 on 404 samples of vaginal discharge with clinical symptoms of vulvovaginitis in Sayyad Shirazi Hospital as well as Medical and Obstetric Clinics in Gorgan for two years. Vaginal secretions were tested directly on CHROMagar Candida medium and 280 patients with Candidiasis were identified using RFLP-PCR. The demographic information and individual fertility data were collected using a questionnaire. Subsequently, the data were analyzed in SPSS software (version. 22) through the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: According to the results, 62 (22) patients had recurrent vulvovaginal; moreover, the incidence of the VVC correlated significantly with the age group of 26-35 years, the incidence of underlying diseases, pregnancy, and the use of contraceptive drugs, such as LD, metronidazole, and fluconazole (P0.05). The most commonly identified species regarding the risk factors of vulvovaginal Candidiasis was Candida albicans. Conclusion: Awareness on the type of yeast, the type of effective antifungal drugs, and effective risk factors, such as broad and long-term use of antibiotics contraceptives, including LD, and some underlying factors can pave the way on the prevalence of the disease and the factors affecting the incidence of vulvovaginal candidiasis for medical specialists and health authorities. © 2019, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved