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Background: The study’s aim is to examine adolescent girls’ attitudes toward the continuation or discontinuation of female genital mutilation (FGM) in association with their demographics in seven different countries in Africa. Methods: Data from the women’s survey of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted by the respective ministries (of Health and Family Welfare) in Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone were used. Adolescent girls (15–19 years) were included in the current analysis: Egypt (N=636), Guinea (N=1994), Kenya (N= 1767), Mali (N=2791), Niger (N=1835), Senegal (N=3604), Sierra Leone (N=1237). Results: Prevalence of supporting the continuation of FGM among adolescent girls was in Egypt 58%, Guinea 63%, Kenya 16%, Mali 72%, Niger 3%, Senegal 23%, and Sierra Leone 52%. Being Muslim and having low economic status were significantly associated with supporting the continuation of FGM in five of the participating countries. Girls having no education or only primary education in Guinea, Kenya, Mali and Sierra Leone exhibited a higher likelihood of supporting FGM than girls with secondary or higher education. In Egypt, Niger and Senegal there was no association between education and supporting FGM. The girls who stated that they had no exposure to media showed the higher likelihood of supporting FGM in Guinea, Kenya, and Senegal than those with exposure to media. Conclusions: The current study argues that increasing media coverage and education, and reducing poverty are of importance for shifting adolescent girls’ attitudes in favor of discontinuation of FGM.

This study describes the cultural adaptation and testing of the behavioral pain scale (BPS) and the critical-care pain observation tools (CPOT) for pain assessment in Taiwan. The cross-cultural adaptation followed the steps of translation, including forward translation, back-translation, evaluation of the translations by a committee of experts, adjustments, and then piloting of the prefinal versions of the BPS and the CPOT. A content validity index was used to assess content validities of the BPS and the CPOT, with 0.80 preset as the level that would be regarded as acceptable. The principal investigator then made adjustments when the content validity index was <0.80. The pilot test was performed with a sample of ten purposively selected patients by 2 medical staff from a medical care center in Taiwan. The BPS and the CPOT are adequate instruments for the assessment of pain levels in patients who cannot communicate due to sedation and ventilation treatments.

Background: This study attempted to explore the women’s attitude towards child physical abuse in relation to the respondent’s background factors, personal issues and autonomy. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 18,749 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) using 2010 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey. Chi-square tests and bivariate analyses were performed. Results: A significant proportion of women supported beating physically abusing sons (69.2%) and daughters (67.2%). Rural, non-Buddhist, those with no or primary education, poverty, seasonal or occasional employment seem to be risk factor for supporting child physical abuse by women (in bivariate analysis). Age, education and household economic status of the women are significantly relevant for child physical abuse (in bivariate analysis). Women who came from male-headed households more often supported beating their children. Female autonomy is an important factor for child physical abuse. Women who justify physical abuse towards wives were also generally supportive of child physical abuse. Conclusions: The current study provides knowledge about maternal factors such as age, education, economic status, rural/urban dwelling, two or more lifetime partners and autonomy in the supporting of beating sons and daughters. Further attention needs to be paid to increasing women’s education and autonomy in Cambodian family life.