Women & health
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Researchers evaluated the progress of Millennium Development Goal Three, which promotes gender equity and empowering women, by assessing the targets for education, employment, and government, and their relation to women's health in South Asia. ⋯ Some progress has been made toward gender equity in South Asia, although the results have been mixed and inequities persist, especially in employment and government. While gender equity does not appear to have been related to female health outcomes, both must be addressed simultaneously as priority development targets and remain prerequisites to achieving the overall Millennium Development Goals. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Women & Health for the following resource: addition tabulated data and statistical analysis].
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Comparative Study
High risk health behaviors and healthcare access among female adult entertainment club employees.
Prior studies of adult entertainment club employees have been qualitative and lacked information regarding a range of important health factors. ⋯ Compared to a national sample of women, more club employees reported high-risk drinking and HIV risk behaviors, and fewer reported HIV testing and access to healthcare. Adult club employees may benefit from interventions to reduce harmful behaviors and increase healthcare access.
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Women who have experienced intimate partner violence use health care services more often than non-abused women, but it is unclear what they expect from physicians in relation to their intimate partner violence experience. In this study the authors explored whether women in Serbia expect physicians to help them after having experienced intimate partner violence, what kind of help the women expected, and if none, why none is expected. The authors of this study conducted structured interviews with 120 women who visited six primary healthcare centres. ⋯ Only a minority (8.3%) did not expect help, noting that intimate partner violence is beyond the scope of healthcare professionals' interest or competencies, and/or that violence was a private problem, while 10% were unsure about the role of physicians in the case of intimate partner violence. The majority of women in this study expected help with intimate partner violence. Physicians should be aware of these expectations and how to provide support to women experiencing intimate partner violence.
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Health care providers in India are often the only institutional contact for women experiencing intimate partner violence, a pervasive public health problem with adverse health outcomes. This qualitative study was among the first to examine Indian primary care physicians' intimate partner violence practices. Between July 2007 and January 2008, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with physicians serving low-to-middle income women aged 18-30 in southern India. ⋯ Although not generalizable, findings offer some useful lessons which may be transferable for adaptation to other settings. A potential starting point is to study physicians' current practices, focusing on their safety and efficacy, as well as enhancing these practices through appropriate training. Further research is also needed on women's perspectives on the appropriateness of physicians' practices, and women's recommendations for intimate partner violence intervention strategies.
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The Appraisal of Life Events is a self-report questionnaire that can be used retrospectively, asking respondents to reflect on the impact of a previously experienced event. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Appraisal of Life Events scale. The sample consisted of 137 women facing fertility problems and undergoing fertility treatment in a public hospital in Athens, Greece. ⋯ Convergent validity was confirmed by computing correlations between the two derived Appraisal of Life Events scales and the measures of stress, personality traits, and coping strategies. Internal consistency reliability was satisfactory (α = .79-.95). The Appraisal of Life Events had a meaningful factor structure and satisfactory reliability and convergent validity.