Changes in Attitudes towards Marriage and Reproduction among People with a Genetic Illness

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-45
Author(s):  
Sachiko Hosoya

Abstract In this article, the change in attitude towards marriage and reproduction among Iranian people with a genetic illness called thalassemia has been investigated, along with an analysis of the impact brought by the national thalassemia prevention programmes, which were introduced to discourage marriage between carriers (thalassemia minor) and the birth of severe homozygous cases (thalassemia major). Marriage and reproductive choices of people with both thalassemia minor and thalassemia major were focused upon in order to prevent the birth of affected babies. Thalassemia carrier couples prefer to choose abortion of affected foetuses, rather than giving up their marriage, and some people with thalassemia major choose a person with thalassemia major as a marriage partner, though they must give up having their own child.

2021 ◽  
pp. 140349482110132
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Konieczna ◽  
Sarah Grube Jakobsen ◽  
Christina Petrea Larsen ◽  
Erik Christiansen

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyse the potential impact from the financial crisis (onset in 2009) on suicide rates in Denmark. The hypothesis is that the global financial crisis raised unemployment which leads to raising the suicide rate in Denmark and that the impact is most prominent in men. Method: This study used an ecological study design, including register data from 2001 until 2016 on unemployment, suicide, gender and calendar time which was analysed using Poisson regression models and interrupted time series analysis. Results: The correlation between unemployment and suicide rates was positive in the period and statistically significant for all, but at a moderate level. A dichotomised version of time (calendar year) showed a significant reduction in the suicide rate for women (incidence rate ratio 0.87, P=0.002). Interrupted time series analysis showed a significant decreasing trend for the overall suicide rate and for men in the pre-recession period, which in both cases stagnated after the onset of recession in 2009. The difference between the genders’ suicide rate changed significantly at the onset of recession, as the rate for men increased and the rate for women decreased. Discussion: The Danish social welfare model might have prevented social disintegration and suicide among unemployed, and suicide prevention programmes might have prevented deaths among unemployed and mentally ill individuals. Conclusions: We found some indications for gender-specific differences from the impact of the financial crises on the suicide rate. We recommend that men should be specifically targeted for appropriate prevention programmes during periods of economic downturn.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3982
Author(s):  
Gloria Pérez de Albéniz-Garrote ◽  
Maria Begoña Medina-Gómez ◽  
Cristina Buedo-Guirado

The purpose of this study to analyse whether compulsive buying in teenagers is related to gender and alcohol and cannabis use in a sample of 573 students aged 14–17 from secondary education schools in Burgos (Spain) (M = 15.65; SD = 1.04). Random cluster sampling was performed to select the sample. The Compulsive Buying Questionnaire was used together with two extra promts: ‘Indicate how much alcohol you consume’ and ‘Indicate how much cannabis you take’. Descriptive statistics were used in data analysis, while MANOVA was used to study gender differences in alcohol and cannabis use, compulsive buying and their interaction. The results show higher scores for female compulsive buyers than for men, higher scores for alcohol and cannabis users’ compulsive buying than for non-users, respectively, and higher scores for female users than for male users. A certain interaction was also observed between alcohol and cannabis use. A higher alcohol consumption entailed a higher score in compulsive buying, with cannabis users who did not consume alcohol obtaining the highest scores. Thus, prevention programmes should consider teenagers’ gender and the risk of taking toxic substances.


Author(s):  
Ernest Osei ◽  
Ruth Francis ◽  
Ayan Mohamed ◽  
Lyba Sheraz ◽  
Fariba Soltani-Mayvan

Abstract Background: Globally, cancer is the second leading cause of death, and it is estimated that over 18·1 million new cases are diagnosed annually. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted almost every aspect of the provision and management of cancer care worldwide. The time-critical nature of COVID-19 diagnosis and the large number of patients requiring hospitalisation necessitated the rerouting of already limited resources available for cancer services and programmes to the care of COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, the stringent social distancing, restricted in-hospital visits and lockdown measures instituted by various governments resulted in the disruption of the oncologic continuum including screening, diagnostic and prevention programmes, treatments and follow-up services as well as research and clinical trial programmes. Materials and Methods: We searched several databases from October 2020 to January 2021 for relevant studies published in English between 2020 and 2021 and reporting on the impact of COVID-19 on the cancer care continuum. This narrative review paper describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cancer patient care continuum from screening and prevention to treatments and ongoing management of patients. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted cancer care and the management of cancer services and patients. Nevertheless, the oncology healthcare communities worldwide have done phenomenal work with joint and collaborative efforts, utilising best available evidence-based guidelines to continue to give safe and effective treatments for cancer patients while maintaining the safety of patients, healthcare professionals and the general population. Nevertheless, several healthcare centres are now faced with significant challenges with the management of the backlog of screening, diagnosis and treatment cases. It is imperative that governments, leaders of healthcare centres and healthcare professionals take all necessary actions and policies focused on minimising further system-level delays to cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment initiation and clearing of all backlogs cases from the COVID-19 pandemic in order to mitigate the negative impact on cancer outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Kilian ◽  
S. Supanya ◽  
C. Probst ◽  
C. Morgan ◽  
T. Bärnighausen ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims Most research exploring the link between traumatic events and psychotic experiences has focused on either Australia, Europe or North America. In this study, we expand the existing knowledge to Thailand and investigate the impact of the type and the number of traumatic events on psychotic experiences in Thailand. Methods We used data from the nationally representative 2013 Thai National Mental Health Survey (TNMHS), including questions on traumatic events and psychotic experiences. We regressed the lifetime experience of hallucinations or delusions against the following independent variables: the experience of any traumatic event during lifetime (dichotomous; hypothesis 1); the experience of either no traumatic event, one interpersonal, one unintentional or both interpersonal and unintentional traumatic events (categorical; hypothesis 2) and the number of traumatic events experienced during lifetime (categorical; hypothesis 3). We adjusted the regression models for sociodemographic indicators and psychiatric disorders, and considered survey weights. Results About 6% (95% confidence interval: 4.9–7.0) of the respondents stated that they had either hallucinatory or delusional experiences during their lifetime. The risk of reporting such experiences was more than doubled as high among respondents who had experienced at least one traumatic event during their lifetime than among those who had not yet experienced one, with higher risks for interpersonal or multiple traumatic events. Our results further indicated an increase in the risk of psychotic experiences as the number of traumatic events increased, with up to an eight-fold higher risk for people exposed to five or more traumatic events in their lifetime, compared to those with no traumatic events. Conclusions Individuals reporting interpersonal or multiple traumatic events face much higher risk of psychotic experiences. Effective and widely accessible secondary prevention programmes for people having experienced interpersonal or multiple traumatic events constitute a key intervention option.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Darvishi-Khezri ◽  
Ebrahim Salehifar ◽  
Mehrnoush Kosaryan ◽  
Hossein Karami ◽  
Abbas Alipour ◽  
...  

Blood ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-456
Author(s):  
ROBERT W. HEINLE ◽  
MARGARET RUTH READ

Abstract 1. Three generations of a family of Italian descent were studied. Nine of 13 members were found to have thalassemia minor. 2. Genetic studies indicate that this mild, microcytic hypochromic anemia characterized by the presence of target and elliptical cells and other bizarre forms and by increased resistance to hypotonic saline, results from heterozygosity of an inherited factor, which, when homozygous, produces thalassemia major or Cooley’s Mediterranean anemia. 3. If individuals heterozygous for this factor (thalassemia minor) marry other heterozygous individuals, one quarter of the offspring can be expected to be homozygous (thalassemia major), one half heterozygous (thalassemia minor) and one quarter free of the trait. 4. The presence of thalassemia minor apparently did not interfere with the general health of affected members of this family and did not appear to shorten life expectancy. The importance of the condition lies in its relation to thalassemia major.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jori Liesenborgs ◽  
Diana M Hendrickx ◽  
Elise Kuylen ◽  
David Niyukuri ◽  
Niel Hens ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTSimpactCyan is an open-source simulator for individual-based models in HIV epidemiology. Its core algorithm is written in C++ for computational efficiency, while the R and Python interfaces aim to make the tool accessible to the fast-growing community of R and Python users. Transmission, treatment and prevention of HIV infections in dynamic sexual networks are simulated by discrete events. A generic “intervention” event allows model parameters to be changed over time, and can be used to model medical and behavioural HIV prevention programmes. First, we describe a more efficient variant of the modified Next Reaction Method that drives our continuous-time simulator. Next, we outline key built-in features and assumptions of individual-based models formulated in SimpactCyan, and provide code snippets for how to formulate, execute and analyse models in SimpactCyan through its R and Python interfaces. Lastly, we give two examples of applications in HIV epidemiology: the first demonstrates how the software can be used to estimate the impact of progressive changes to the eligibility criteria for HIV treatment on HIV incidence. The second example illustrates the use of SimpactCyan as a data-generating tool for assessing the performance of a phylodynamic inference framework.


Author(s):  
Shaukat Ali ◽  
Shumaila Mumtaz ◽  
Hafiz Abdullah Shakir ◽  
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir ◽  
Tafail Akbar Mughal

Thalassemia is genetic blood disease cause by absence or decrease of one or more of the globin chain synthesis. Beta thalassemia is characterized by one or more mutations in beta globin gene. Absence or reduced amount the of beta globin chains cause ineffective erythropoiesis which leads to anemia. Beta thalassemia has been further divided into three main forms: Thalassemia minor/silent carrier, major and intermedia. More severe form is thalassemia major in which patients depend upon blood transfusion for survival and high level of iron occur as a consequence of consistent blood transfusion. Over loaded iron invokes the synthesis of reactive oxygen species that are toxic in redundancy and triggering the impairment to vascular, endocrine and hepatic system. Thalassemia can be diagnosed and detected through various laboratory tests such as blood smear, prenatal testing (genetic testing of amniotic fluid), DNA analysis (genetic testing) and complete blood count. Treatment of thalassemia intermedia is symptomatic but it can also be managed by splenectomy and folic supplementation. While thalassemia major can be treated by transplantation of bone marrow, regular transfusion of blood and iron chelation treatment, stimulation of fetal hemoglobin production, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and gene therapy.


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