Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Why Women Suffer Domestic Violence In Silence: Web-Based Responses To A Blog, Salima Farooq, Tazeen Saeed Ali, Yasmin Parpio, Nasreen Lalani, Muecke Marjorie

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Background & Aim: Domestic violence (DV) is a global socio-cultural concern faced by a majority of women. DV has a negative impact on women’s social, physical, and psychological wellbeing. Objective was to explore perceptions regarding contributing factors to domestic violence among women.
Methods & Materials: A qualitative descriptive exploratory method was applied for the study. Purposive sampling was used to select participants through emails to respond to the web based blog created for the study. 41 worldwide participants shared their perceptions through the blogs in the study. The data were collected using a web-based discussion forum on the Urban Women …

Layla, Layla, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Layla left Ethiopia 10 years ago to look for work opportunities. She left behind a father and three brothers. She went to Syria on a three-year work contract. She worked in a house and learned Arabic. She then went to Turkey by boat and then went on to Greece for 5 years. She worked and learned the Greek language. When she became pregnant she had to stop working. She travelled to Serbia to Macedonia to Austria all on foot. Then the Red Cross moved Layla and her daughter to Giessen, Germany where a roommate periodically beat her baby. Seeking safety …

Serious Mental Illness Among Young Adult Women Who Use Drugs In The Club Scene: Co-Occurring Biopsychosocial Factors, Maayan Lawental, Hilary L. Surratt, Mance E. Buttram, Steven P. Kurtz

Center for Health Services Research Faculty Publications

Young women who regularly attend nightclubs are at risk for numerous health and social consequences, including mental distress, sexual and physical victimization and substance dependence. This paper uses a biopsychosocial framework to examine co-occurring mental health problems, victimization, substance dependence, sexual risk and physical pain among a sample of young women who use drugs (N = 222) in Miami’s club scene. The majority of women were under 24 years old, Hispanic, and identified as heterosexual. Almost all the women reported past 90-day use of alcohol, ecstasy/MDMA, marijuana, cocaine and prescription opioids and benzodiazepines; 32% of women reported being in a …

Leaders Of The Pack: Women And The Future Of Veterinary Medicine, Julie Kumble, Donald F. Smith

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Veterinary medicine has undergone sweeping changes in the last few decades. Women now account for 55 percent of the active veterinarians in the field, and nearly 80 percent of veterinary students are women. However, average salaries have dropped as this shift has occurred, and even with women in the vast majority, only 25 percent of leadership roles are held by women.

These trends point to gender-based inequality that veterinary medicine, a profession that tilts so heavily toward women, is struggling to address. How will the profession respond? What will this mean for our students and schools? What will it mean …

Age Of First Arrest, Sex, And Drug Use As Correlates Of Adult Risk Behaviors Among Rural Women In Jails, Martha Tillson, Justin C. Strickland, Michele Staton

Center on Drug and Alcohol Research Faculty Publications

Incarcerated women frequently report initiation of substance use and sexual encounters at an early age, and often engage in high-risk drug use and sexual behaviors as adults. This study examined the timing of first sex, drug use, and arrest, as well as their unique influences on specific risky behaviors in adulthood, among a high-risk population of rural women recruited from jails. Ages of initiation were all positively and significantly correlated, and each independently increased the likelihood of several risky behaviors in adulthood. Implications are discussed for screening, intervention, and treatment targeting high-risk women and girls in rural areas, particularly within …

Mental Health Treatment Seeking Patterns And Preferences Of Appalachian Women With Depression, Claire Snell-Rood, Emily Hauenstein, Carl G. Leukefeld, Frances Feltner, Amber Marcum, Nancy E. Schoenberg

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

This qualitative study explored social-cultural factors that shape treatment seeking behaviors among depressed rural, low-income women in Appalachia—a region with high rates of depression and a shortage of mental health services. Recent research shows that increasingly rural women are receiving some form of treatment and identifying their symptoms as depression. Using purposive sampling, investigators recruited 28 depressed low-income women living in Appalachian Kentucky and conducted semistructured interviews on participants’ perceptions of depression and treatment seeking. Even in this sample of women with diverse treatment behaviors (half reported current treatment), participants expressed ambivalence about treatment and its potential to promote recovery. …

Advocating Corporate Policy Change On Women's Health And Family Planning: Lessons From The Environmental Movement, Matthew Mcfall, Carolyn Rodehau, David Wofford

Reproductive Health

This brief presents key lessons from the environmental movement on effective strategies for driving changes in corporate policies and practices and creating new mechanisms for holding businesses accountable for environmental impacts. Corporate policies and voluntary and “soft law” standards may be unfamiliar to many women’s health advocates, but they are likely to have increasing importance in the years to come. The global health community can learn from the experience of environmentalists on how to engage businesses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards and corporate practices around women’s health. The brief offers six recommendations for moving forward.

Health Needs, Health Seeking Pathways, And Drivers Of Health Seeking Behaviors Of Female Garment Factory Workers In Cambodia: Findings From A Qualitative Study In Phnom Penh And Kandal Provinces, Population Council, The Evidence Project

Reproductive Health

Existing information on Cambodian garment factory workers’ (GFWs) barriers to health services has generally come from project implementation documents or general baseline studies of these projects, rather than independent, rigorous studies that specifically examine the health needs and health-seeking behaviors of workers. Since previous studies did not include specific indicators related to workers’ health needs and health-seeking behaviors, they cannot offer a complete picture of these important issues. To fill this critical knowledge gap, in partnership with the National Institute of Public Health, the Evidence Project/Population Council conducted a formative qualitative study under the USAID-funded WorkerHealth project to improve the …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of The Herhealth Model For Improving Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights Knowledge And Access Of Female Garment Factory Workers In Bangladesh, Md. Irfan Hossain, Abdullah Al Mahmud Shohag, Ashish Bajracharya, Ubaidur Rob, Laura Reichenbach

Reproductive Health

The Population Council, under its USAID-funded Evidence Project, partnered with Bangladesh’s Business for Social Responsibility program to conduct operational research to evaluate the effectiveness of the HERhealth model for improving female factory workers’ health, and to find ways to optimize program inputs and processes to support future scale-up of the intervention. This report presents findings from a pre- and post-intervention quantitative study of female factory workers from 10 factories; a qualitative study with factory managers, service providers, and implementing partners; and self-administered retention assessments of the Peer Health Educators from six factories in Dhaka, Gazipur, and Narayanganj districts. Findings from …

Married Young Women And Girls' Family Planning And Maternal Heath Preferences And Use In Ethiopia, Aparna Jain, Elizabeth Tobey, Hussein Ismail, Annabel Erulkar

Reproductive Health

Married young women and girls are the primary users of youth-centered sexual and reproductive health services in Ethiopia and, given the health risks associated with early and closely-spaced pregnancies, represent an especially important population to reach with sexual and reproductive health services. This brief looks specifically at the needs and preferences for family planning and reproductive health services among married young women and girls, with recommendations for how to more effectively ensure that they have access to those services.

Workplace Health And The Garment Sector In Cambodia, Bunmey Yat, Carolyn Rodehau, David Wofford, Ashish Bajracharya

Reproductive Health

In Cambodia, there has been considerable investment in improving the well-being of factory workers. Understanding the key stakeholders and their roles in improving worker health is essential for policy change and ensuring that interventions achieve sustainable, long-term impact in and around the workplace. This policy brief presents selected findings from a stakeholder and situational analysis undertaken by the Cambodia Worker Health Coalition (WorkerHealth) to understand the stakeholder landscape and policy environment for women’s health in the garment industry in Cambodia, with the objective of identifying leading stakeholders and their relationships, as well as strategies and opportunities for collaboration. Collaboration and …

Creating A Culture Of Evidence Use: Using An Innovative Knowledge Translation Platform To Inform Hiv/Aids Programming For Women And Girls, Jill Gay, Melanie Croce-Galis, Karen Hardee, Amelia Peltz

Reproductive Health

Given that moving evidence from a study to policy, programs, and practice can often take a decade or more, what is the best way to get evidence into the hands of those developing policies and programs to speed its use? Enhancing the use of evidence in policies and programs through an innovative web-based knowledge platform, What Works for Women: Evidence for HIV/AIDS Interventions, resulted in major changes in National Strategic HIV Plans plus Concept Notes submitted to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 14 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This paper documents how components …

Method-Specific Attributes That Influence Choice Of Future Contraception Among Married Women In Nairobi’S Informal Settlements, Joyce Mumah, John B. Casterline, Kazuyo Machiyama, Marylene Wamukoya, Caroline W. Kabiru, John C. Cleland

Reproductive Health

No abstract provided.

Feasibility Of Screening And Referring Women Experiencing Marital Violence By Engaging Frontline Workers: Evidence From Rural Bihar—Policy Brief, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) project sought to support frontline health workers (FLWs) to screen women for their experience of marital violence, inform women about their options in case of such an experience, and provide basic counseling and referral, as appropriate, to women reporting the experience. The Population Council together with partners, the Centre for Catalyzing Change and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with support from UKaid, implemented the project in one district (Patna) of Bihar. This brief describes the intervention and presents evidence on its acceptability and feasibility from the perspective …

Exercise Adherence Among Active Working Women, Roxane Evonne Hearn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low levels of exercise adherence has contributed to the increased prevalence of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes in American women. These low levels, coupled with high exercise program dropout rates, point to a need for strategies to increase exercise frequency in women who exercise, but not enough to improve their health and reduce risks. Real-time interventions, such as text messaging, could be useful in improving the cognitions that regulate adherence. Using a snowball sampling strategy, a cross-sectional sample of working women (N =130), ages 18-64, in the volitional stage of exercise behavior, completed a 60-item survey on exercise behavior. Social …

Rural Haitian Women's Experiences With Poor Health Through Poverty, Geralda Felix

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

People living in rural Haiti lack access to basic health care services due to poverty. Rural poverty in Haiti particularly affects women's health because Haiti has had the highest maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in the Americas, in addition to some of the worst health statistics in the Western Hemisphere. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to cultivate a greater understanding of the poverty factors that affect access to health care services specifically among poor women living in rural Haiti. This study was based on the social ecological model for population health development, theorizing that a person's health …

Feasibility Of Screening And Referring Women Experiencing Marital Violence By Engaging Frontline Workers: Evidence From Rural Bihar, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, K.G. Santhya, Santosh Kumar Singh, A.J. Francis Zavier, Neelanjana Pandey, Rajib Acharya, Komal Saxena, Aparajita Gogoi, Madhu Joshi, Sandeep Ojha

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Population Council, together with partners, the Centre for Catalyzing Change, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with support from UKaid, implemented the Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) project in rural areas of Patna district in Bihar, India. The project engaged frontline workers (FLWs) to screen women for their experience of marital violence, inform them about their options in case of such an experience, and provide basic counseling and referral to women reporting the experience. Overall, the findings from the implementation of the Do Kadam program have been encouraging. They suggest that interactions …

Reducing Violence Against Women And Girls In India: Lessons From The Do Kadam Programme, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

A key challenge underlying the gap between policy and program commitments in India and the reality of women’s lives is the dearth of evidence on what works and what does not work to change notions of masculinity and femininity, reverse norms at the community level that condone marital violence, and reduce women’s experience of intimate partner violence. The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) program aimed to fill this evidence gap. Do Kadam was implemented by the Population Council, the Centre for Catalyzing Change, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, with support from the …

Garment Sector Health Interventions In Cambodia: A Comprehensive Review, Molyaneth Heng, Ashish Bajracharya

Reproductive Health

As part of the WorkerHealth project, the Evidence Project/Population Council conducted a comprehensive review of garment sector health interventions, particularly reproductive health (RH) and family planning (FP)–focused projects, in Cambodia during the last five years. The results from the review support WorkerHealth’s objective of enabling evidence-based decisionmaking and programming related to the health and well-being of female garment factory workers in Cambodia, by documenting the range of garment sector health interventions and identifying best practices and gaps in programming and evaluation. This review identified a number of priority actions for current and future garment sector health interventions to consider in …

Essays On Health Disparities And Income-Related Health Inequality In Sub-Saharan Africa, Marshall Makate

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation comprises of five empirical essays. Essay one assesses the impact of prenatal care quality and its components on child mortality using nationwide data from the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS), 1999-11. Results indicate that increasing prenatal care quality by one unit improves neonatal, infant and under-five survival by about 42.33, 30.86, and 28.65%, respectively and all statically significant at the 1% level.

The Experience Of Qigong Among Women Cancer Survivors, Jennifer Sveund

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Research has shown that qigong can be beneficial for a variety of health related conditions; However, evidence suggests that in the United States, a lack of well designed clinical trials limits the efficacy of qigong in the context of cancer treatment. Research has indicated that careful consideration should be given to the design of randomized control trials using qigong due to the conflicting philosophical methodologies. In the United States, qigong has been under investigated, particularly lacking are qualitative inquiries into qigong use and cancer survivorship. This study is an interpretative phenomenological inquiry that sought to understand women’s experience of qigong …

Evaluation Of The Herhealth Intervention In Bangladesh: Baseline Findings From An Implementation Research Study, Md. Irfan Hossain, Abdullah Al Mahmud Shohag, Ashish Bajracharya, Ubaidur Rob, Laura Reichenbach

Reproductive Health

The Business for Social Responsibility's (BSR) HERproject is a collaborative initiative that strives to empower low-income women working in global supply chains in 14 countries worldwide. One of the HERproject’s three pillars is HERhealth, which seeks to improve the health-related knowledge and behaviors, and access to health services and products, of low-income working women. In Bangladesh, HERhealth specifically addresses reproductive health and family planning needs. BSR asked the Evidence Project/Population Council to conduct an implementation science study assessing the effectiveness of BSR’s HERhealth model in Bangladesh. This study is one of the first studies of female garment workers in Dhaka …