Socioeconomic conditions and number of pain sites in women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Women in deprived socioeconomic situations run a high pain risk. Although number of pain sites (NPS) is considered highly relevant in pain assessment, little is known regarding the relationship between socioeconomic conditions and NPS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study population comprised 653 women; 160 recurrence-free long-term gynecological cancer survivors, and 493 women selected at random from the general population. Demographic characteristics and co-morbidity over the past 12 months were assessed. Socioeconomic conditions were measured by Socioeconomic Condition Index (SCI), comprising education, employment status, income, ability to pay bills, self-perceived health, and satisfaction with number of close friends. Main outcome measure NPS was recorded using a body outline diagram indicating where the respondents had experienced pain during the past week. Chi-square test and forward stepwise logistic regression were applied.</p> <p>Results and Conclusion</p> <p>There were only minor differences in SCI scores between women with 0, 1-2 or 3 NPS. Four or more NPS was associated with younger age, higher BMI and low SCI. After adjustment for age, BMI and co-morbidity, we found a strong association between low SCI scores and four or more NPS, indicating that there is a threshold in the NPS count for when socioeconomic determinants are associated to NPS in women.</p

Translation and linguistic validation of a swedish study-specific questionnaire for use among Norwegian parents who lost a child to cancer

Research is needed on how to help cancer-bereaved parents, as they are considered to be a vulnerable population and they are at risk of developing ill health following the loss of a child to cancer. The purpose of the present study was to translate and linguistically validate a Swedish study-specific questionnaire that was developed for Swedish cancer-bereaved parents. The translated questionnaire will be used in a nationwide study in Norway. Methods: Forward and backward translations of the Swedish study-specific questionnaire were conducted, followed by linguistic validation based on telephone interviews with six Norwegian cancer-bereaved parents. Result: It was found that several medical terms and conceptual issues were difficult for the Norwegian parents to understand. There were also four issues regarding the response alternatives. Conclusions: Although Sweden and Norway have quite similar cultures and languages, the results off this pilot study show that, to ensure the quality of a translated questionnaire, linguistic validation as well as translation is necessary

Grazing exclosures increase soil organic carbon stock at a rate greater than “4 per 1000” per year across agricultural landscapes in Northern Ethiopia

The establishment of grazing exclosures is widely practiced to restore degraded agricultural lands and forests. Here, we evaluated the potential of grazing exclosures to contribute to the”4 per 1000” initiative by analyzing the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and sequestration (SCS) rates after their establishment on degraded communal grazing lands in Tigray region of Ethiopia. We selected grazing areas that were excluded from grazing for 5 to 24 years across the three agroecological zones of the region and used adjacent open grazing lands (OGLs) as control. Soil samples were collected from two depths (0-15 cm and 15-30 cm) and SOC and aboveground C stocks were quantified in both exclosures and OGLs. The mean SOC stock and SCS rate in exclosures (0-30 cm) were 31 Mg C ha-1 and 3 Mg C ha-1 year-1, which were respectively 166% and 12% higher than that in the OGLs, indicating a positive restoration effect of exclosures on SOC storage. With increasing exclosure age, SOC stock and SCS rate increased in the exclosures but decreased in the OGLs. Higher SOC stock and SCS rate were recorded in 0-15 cm than in 15-30 cm. The relative (i.e., to the SOC stock in OGLs) rates of increase in SOC stocks (70-189‰ year-1) were higher than the 4‰ year-1 and were initially high due to low initial SOC stock but declined over time after a maximum value of SOC stock is reached. Factors such as aboveground biomass, altitude, clay content and precipitation promoted SOC storage in exclosures. Our study highlights the high potential of exclosure for restoring SOC in the 0-30 cm soil depth at a rate greater than the 4‰ value. We argue that practices such as grazing exclosure can be promoted to achieve the climate change mitigation target of the “4‰” initiative