Objective To systematically review the literature on women’s experiences traveling for abortion and assess how this concept has been explored and operationalized, with a focus on travel distance, cost, delays, and other barriers to receiving services. Background Increasing limitations on abortion providers and access to care have increased the necessity of travel for abortion services around the world. No systematic examination of women’s experiences traveling for abortion has been conducted; this mixed-methods review provides a summary of the qualitative and quantitative literature on this topic. Methods A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Popline, and Google Scholar in July 2016 and updated in March 2017 (PROSPERO registration # CRD42016046007). We included original research studies that described women’s experiences traveling for abortion. Two reviewers independently performed article screening, data extraction and determination of final inclusion for analysis. Critical appraisal was conducted using CASP, STROBE, and MMAT checklists. Results We included 59 publications: 46 quantitative studies, 12 qualitative studies, and 1 mixed-methods study. Most studies were published in the last five years, relied on data from the US, and discussed travel as a secondary outcome of interest. In quantitative studies, travel was primarily conceptualized and measured as road or straight-line distance to abortion provider, though some studies also incorporated measures of burdens related to travel, such as financial cost, childcare needs, and unwanted disclosure of their abortion status to others. Qualitative studies explored regional disparities in access to abortion care, with a focus on the burdens related to travel, the impact of travel on abortion method choice, and women’s reasons for travel. Studies generally were of high quality, though many studies lacked information on participant recruitment or consideration of potential biases. Conclusions Standardized measurements of travel, including burdens associated with travel and more nuanced considerations of travel costs, should be implemented in order to facilitate comparison across studies. More research is needed to explore and accurately capture different dimensions of the burden of travel for abortion services on women’s lives.

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Identifying the users and impact of research is important for research performers, managers, evaluators, and sponsors. It is important to know whether the audience reached is the audience desired. It is useful to understand the technical characteristics of the other research/development/applications impacted by the originating research, and to understand other characteristics (names, organizations, countries) of the users impacted by the research. Because of the many indirect pathways through which fundamental research can impact applications, identifying the user audience and the research impacts can be very complex and time consuming. The purpose of this article is to describe a novel approach for identifying the pathways through which research can impact other research, technology development, and applications, and to identify the technical and infrastructure characteristics of the user population. A novel literature-based approach was developed to identify the user community and its characteristics. The research performed is characterized by one or more articles accessed by the Science Citation Index (SCI) database, beccause the SCI's citation-based structure enables the capability to perform citation studies easily.The user community is characterized by the articles in the SCI that cite the original research articles, and that cite the succeeding generations of these articles as well. Text mining is performed on the citing articles to identify the technical areas impacted by the research, the relationships among these technical areas, and relationships among the technical areas and the infrastructure (authors, journals, organizations). A key component of text mining, concept clustering, was used to provide both a taxonomy of the citing articles' technical themes and further technical insights based on theme relationships arising from the grouping process. Bibliometrics is performed on the citing articles to profile the user characteristics. Citation Mining, this integration of citation bibliometrics and text mining, is applied to the 307 first generation citing articles of a fundamental physics article on the dynamics of vibrating sand-piles. Most of the 307 citing articles were basic research whose main themes were aligned with those of the cited article. However, about 20% of the citing articles were research or development in other disciplines, or development within the same discipline. The text mining alone identified the intradiscipline applications and extradiscipline impacts and applications; this was confirmed by detailed reading of the 307 abstracts. The combination of citation bibliometrics and text mining provides a synergy unavailable with each approach taken independently. Furthermore, text mining is a REQUIREMENT for a feasible comprehensive research impact determination. The integrated multigeneration citation analysis required for broad research impact determination of highly cited articles will produce thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of citing article Abstracts. Text mining allows...

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This qualitative study aimed to examine how abortion clients in Nigeria perceive abortion and explore the role their beliefs and fears play in their care-seeking experiences and interactions with providers. Abortion is severely legally restricted in Nigeria but remains common. We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 people who obtained abortion services through three distinct models of care. We coded interview transcripts and conducted thematic analysis. Clients perceived negative attitudes toward abortion in their communities, though clients’ own beliefs were more nuanced. Clients recounted a range of fears, and nearly all mentioned worrying that they might die as a result of their abortion. Despite their concerns, clients relied on social networks and word-of-mouth recommendations to identify providers they perceived as trustworthy and safe. Kind and non-judgmental treatment, clear instructions, open communication, and reassurance of privacy and confidentiality by providers alleviated client fears and helped clients feel supported throughout their abortion process. Within restrictive contexts, the mobilization of information networks, provision of high-quality care through innovative models, and personalization of care to individual needs can assuage fears and contribute to reducing stigma and increasing access to safe abortion services.

With the increasing population of persons over the age of 65 who need daily assistance in Spain, there is considerable need to better understand informal caregivers' views, particularly about the resources that are available to them, or should be available to them. With that purpose in mind, a grounded theory method was used with focus groups in Barcelona, Malaga, Seville, and Tenerife. All of the participants were caring for family members with dementia, cancer, or other neurodegenerative conditions. The findings generated 86 codes, which were grouped into two categories: understanding the experience of caregiving, and caregiving resources. The first category was the need for caregivers to talk about their experiences and to be listened to. The second category included the presence of resources and support requirements. The caregivers said that their ability as caregivers was limited; many did not know what resources were available or how to locate new resources. Many caregivers are carrying out their role dutifully, but feel isolated, suggesting that there is a lack of social understanding and policies about informal caregivers in Spain.

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