Living with singleness: needs and concerns of never-married women over 35

Background: Cultural and religious norms and expectations may influence the needs and behavior of single women. This is particularly true in those countries where religion and cultural expectations are salient in everyday life. In this context, the present study investigated the needs and concerns of Iranian never-married women aged 35 and older.Methods: This qualitative study involved a conventional content analysis. Interviews were done with 23 never-married women aged 36-64 years in Iran.Results: A total of 773 codes, 22 subcategories, 8 categories, and 3 themes were extracted from the interviews. The 3 themes were: 1. mental-spiritual lack; categories were lack of emotional support, uncertain future, mental rumination, and sexual worries; 2. reform of culture and society; categories were adverse effect of culture and being overlooked in society; 3. loneliness arising from disability; categories were aging and loneliness and sickness and loneliness.Conclusions: The results of the analysis indicate that the needs and concerns of never-married women over the age of 35 years in Iran remain unmet. This suggests that policymakers and health planner should take into consideration the growing number of never-married women as a societal reality deserving of attention.

Cultural mediators are needed to fulfill Right to health for all

The Right to health framework supports available, accessible and acceptable health care of high quality for all (AAAQ). Health of migrants often worsen in the new country. AAAQ may be hindered by poverty, discrimination, health cares' shortcomings and misunderstandings, respectively. Advocating for marginalised groups' Right to health include action. Interventions based on shared influence, participation and control need to be launched. Cultural mediators (CM), i.e. persons that are knowledgeable in both cultures and with networks in migrant groups help overcome lingual problems, lack of trust and uneven power relations. This resource needs to be further examined. How can a CM strengthen AAAQ in a public health setting? Women with Somalian origin living in an underserved neighborhood in Sweden contacted the Public Health Unit of a local hospital, asking for support for a health focused group-activity. Weight loss after delivery was a primary concern. Women gathered monthly 2018-19. The objective was to support healthy life style habits drawing on issues raised by the women. The intervention was conducted by group talks, led by the CM and a public health planner. Methods were based on Social Cognitive Theory focusing on self-efficacy. The CM recruited women, helped them to find the venue, encouraged them to trust the public health planner and broadened perspectives to include female genital mutilation, children's food, how to seek care and workforce issues. Trust developed over time. 70 women participated. Reported gains were raised awareness of ones' rights, increased self-efficacy in relation to food, physical activity and how to support children to a healthy life style. Support for a healthy lifestyle was made more available, accessible and acceptable by the cooperation with the CM, as was the quality of the support. A CM bridges distances regarding spoken language, trust and cultural understanding. S/he puts forward perspectives and needs from the group in question Key messages The Right to health framework highlights areas that need to be in focus when advocating for health equity. Health care workers in settings with many migrants should strive to include cultural mediators in planning, execution and evaluation of interventions.

Epidemiology of Epilepsy

Epilepsy affects 1 out of every 26 people during their lifetime. Worldwide, the incidence of epilepsy ranges from 28.0/100,000 to 235.5/100,000, with the large variation attributable to differences in methodology across studies. The prevalence of active epilepsy provides important information about the burden of epilepsy in the population and spurs public health planner to assess the needs of the epilepsy population. The active prevalence of epilepsy ranges from 2.4/1,000 to 22.8/1,000 worldwide and more than 65 million people have active epilepsy. Risk factors for childhood-onset and adult-onset epilepsy are discussed, considering epilepsy etiologies (e.g., severe traumatic brain injury), newer risk factors without bidirectional relationships with epilepsy (e.g., low socioeconomic status), risk factors with bidirectional relationships (e.g., psychiatric disorders), and different types of acute symptomatic seizures (e.g., febrile seizures).

Cancer Registry and Its Different Aspects

At both the national and community level, cancer registration schemes are central to research into the nature and causation of cancer, to the planning of health service resources and cancer control programmes, and to the assessment of their efficacy. Cancer registration is thus a part of the modern health information system. There are two major types of cancer registries -hospital-based registries and population-based registries. It is of paramount importance that the issue of development of cancer registry in developing countries should be taken into account. Although, the cancer registry system in Bangladesh is in infantile stage, it should be the aim of the health planner of our country to develop population-based cancer registry as early as possible. The extra difficulties and expenses involved are certainly outweighed by the enhanced validity and usefulness of the data generated. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jemc.v1i2.11467 J Enam Med Col 2011; 1(2): 76-80

The Anthropologist As Health Planner

As documented in the pages of this publication and in Human Organization, the search for sustenance and substance has carried anthropology far afield of its base in academic teaching and research. One adaptation to this wider, multidisciplinary world appears to be the development of "double disciplines" such as anthropology & architecture, business administration, urban and community planning, law enforcement, economics, health education, public health, futures research … a long list.