Gender is emerging as a significant factor in the social, economic, and health effects of COVID-19. However, most existing studies have focused on its direct impact on health. Here, we aimed to ...explore the indirect effects of COVID-19 on gender disparities globally.
We reviewed publicly available datasets with information on indicators related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake, health care services, economic and work-related concerns, education, and safety at home and in the community. We used mixed effects regression, Gaussian process regression, and bootstrapping to synthesise all data sources. We accounted for uncertainty in the underlying data and modelling process. We then used mixed effects logistic regression to explore gender gaps globally and by region.
Between March, 2020, and September, 2021, women were more likely to report employment loss (26·0% 95% uncertainty interval 23·8–28·8, by September, 2021) than men (20·4% 18·2–22·9, by September, 2021), as well as forgoing work to care for others (ratio of women to men: 1·8 by March, 2020, and 2·4 by September, 2021). Women and girls were 1·21 times (1·20–1·21) more likely than men and boys to report dropping out of school for reasons other than school closures. Women were also 1·23 (1·22–1·23) times more likely than men to report that gender-based violence had increased during the pandemic. By September 2021, women and men did not differ significantly in vaccine hesitancy or uptake.
The most significant gender gaps identified in our study show intensified levels of pre-existing widespread inequalities between women and men during the COVID-19 pandemic. Political and social leaders should prioritise policies that enable and encourage women to participate in the labour force and continue their education, thereby equipping and enabling them with greater ability to overcome the barriers they face.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Common mental disorders (CMD) among mothers cause disability, negatively affect child development, and have high long-term economic costs. Little is known about how factors across multiple life ...dimensions, modeled together, are differentially related to maternal mental health in high poverty contexts. Further, there is limited evidence on determinants of CMD in areas where self-help groups (SHGs) exist to promote women's wellbeing. Filling this evidence gap is important given the high prevalence of CMD and the rapid expansion of SHGs in rural India. Cross-sectional data were collected from 1644 mother-infant pairs living in disadvantaged rural villages across five Indian states-Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh-surveyed in the Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies study. CMD were assessed using the 20-item Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ). We examined 31 factors across four life dimensions: work (work type, time spent in labor, domestic and caretaking activities), agency (SHG membership, decision-making, gender attitudes), health/nutrition (underweight, fertility, diet diversity, child illness), and household/environment (dependency ratio, wealth, food security, shocks, water, sanitation). Survey-adjusted multivariate logistic and ordinary least squares regression models were fit to examine predictors of CMD or SRQ score. On average, mothers were 26 (range 18-46) years old and their children were 15 (range 6-24) months old. CMD defined as ≥ 8 positive SRQ responses were reported by 262 women (16%). Protective factors included being engaged in agricultural labor as a main occupation relative to being a housewife (AOR 0.18, 95% CI 0.10-0.32), more time working (0.85, 0.77-0.93), higher decision-making (0.33, 0.16-0.69), SHG membership (0.73, 0.56-0.96), and having an improved toilet (0.49, 0.33-0.72). Risk factors included food insecurity (1.13, 1.07-1.20) and shocks to non-farm livelihoods (2.04, 1.10-3.78). Practitioners and policymakers should aim to improve food security, economic wellbeing and social capital, such as that created through SHG membership, to improve maternal mental health. Future research should aim to understand why working outside the home, albeit in agricultural work, appears to protect maternal mental health in this context.
Kelp communities are experiencing exacerbated heat‐related impacts from more intense, frequent, and deeper marine heatwaves (MHWs), imperiling the long‐term survival of kelp forests in the climate ...change scenario. The occurrence of deep thermal anomalies is of critical importance, as elevated temperatures can impact kelp populations across their entire bathymetric range. This study evaluates the impact of MHWs on mature sporophytes of Pterygophora californica (walking kelp) from the bathymetric extremes (8–10 vs. 25–27 m) of a population situated in Baja California (Mexico). The location is near the southernmost point of the species's broad distribution (from Alaska to Mexico). The study investigated the ecophysiological responses (e.g., photobiology, nitrate uptake, oxidative stress) and growth of adult sporophytes through a two‐phase experiment: warming simulating a MHW and a post‐MHW phase without warming. Generally, the effects of warming differed depending on the bathymetric origin of the sporophytes. The MHW facilitated essential metabolic functions of deep‐water sporophytes, including photosynthesis, and promoted their growth. In contrast, shallow‐water sporophytes displayed metabolic stress, reduced growth, and oxidative damage. Upon the cessation of warming, certain responses, such as a decline in nitrate uptake and net productivity, became evident in shallow‐water sporophytes, implying a delay in heat‐stress response. This indicates that variation in temperatures can result in more prominent effects than warming alone. The greater heat tolerance of sporophytes in deeper waters shows convincing evidence that deep portions of P. californica populations have the potential to serve as refuges from the harmful impacts of MHWs on shallow reefs.
•We study the impacts of women’s Self-help group membership on women’s and men’s empowerment.•We measure empowerment using two alternate indices: the A-WEAI and the Pro-WEAI.•We find that SHG ...membership has a significant positive impact on aggregate measures of women’s empowerment.•We also find that SHG membership reduces the gap between men’s and women’s empowerment scores.•The impacts are driven by increase in control over income, decisionmaking over credit, and active involvement in groups.
Women’s groups are important rural social and financial institutions in South Asia. In India, a large majority of women’s groups programs are implemented through self-help groups (SHGs). Originally designed as savings and credit groups, the role of SHGs has expanded to include creating health and nutrition awareness, improving governance, and addressing social issues related to gender- and caste-based discrimination. This paper uses panel data from 1470 rural Indian women from five states to study the impact of SHG membership on women’s empowerment in agriculture, using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and the abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). Because SHG membership was not randomized and women who self-select to be SHG members may be systematically different from non-members, we employ nearest neighbor matching methods to attribute the impact of SHG membership on women’s empowerment in agriculture and intrahousehold inequality.
Our findings suggest that SHG membership has a significant positive impact on aggregate measures of women’s empowerment and reduces the gap between men’s and women’s empowerment scores. This improvement in aggregate empowerment is driven by improvements in women’s scores, not a deterioration in men’s. Greater control over income, greater decisionmaking over credit, and (somewhat mechanistically, given the treatment) greater and more active involvement in groups within the community lead to improvements in women’s scores. However, impacts on other areas of empowerment are limited. The insignificant impacts on attitudes towards domestic violence and respect within the household suggest that women’s groups alone may be insufficient to change deep-seated gender norms that disempower women. Our results have implications for the design and scale-up of women’s group-based programs in South Asia, including the possibility that involving men is needed to change gender norms.
Unhealthy diets are a critical global concern while dietary measure methods are time consuming and expensive. There is limited evidence that phone-based interventions can improve nutrition data ...collection and dietary quality, especially for adolescents in developing countries. We developed an artificial-intelligence-based phone application called
to address these problems.
can recognize foods in images, track food consumption, display statistics and use gamified nudges to give positive feedback on healthy food choice. This study protocol describes the design of new pilot studies aimed at measuring the feasibility (acceptability, adherence, and usability) of
and its effects on the quality of food choice of adolescents in Ghana and Vietnam. In each country, 36 adolescents (12-18 years) will be randomly allocated into two groups: The intervention group with the full version of
and the control group with the functionality limited to image recognition and dietary assessment. Participants in both groups will have their food choices tracked for four weeks. The control groups will then switch to the full version of
and both groups will be tracked for a further 2 weeks to assess acceptability, adherence, and usability. Analysis of outcomes will be by intent to treat and differences in outcomes between intervention and control group will use Poisson and odds ratio regression models, accounting for repeated measures at individual levels. If deemed feasible, acceptable and usable,
will address gaps in the literature and advance the nutrition field by potentially improving the quality of food choices of adolescent girls in developing countries. This pilot study will also provide insights on the design of a large randomized controlled trial. The functioning and dissemination of
can be an important step towards highly scalable nutrition data collection and healthier food choices for a population at risk of malnutrition. The study protocol and the methods and materials were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the IFPRI on April 29th, 2020 (registration number #00007490), the Thai Nguyen National Hospital on April 14th, 2020 (protocol code 274/ĐĐĐ-BVTWTN) and the University of Ghana on August 10th, 2020 (Federalwide Assurance FWA 00001824; NMIMR-IRB CPN 078-19/20). The study protocol was registered in the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN 10681553; https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN10681553) on November 12, 2021.
A partir de la revisión crítica de la obra 11 de septiembre de 2013 del artista visual chileno Alfredo Jaar, el presente artículo propone un recorrido por diferentes formas de representación del ...bombardeo al Palacio de La Moneda, Casa de Gobierno y símbolo del poder político en Chile, que tuvo lugar el día 11 de septiembre de 1973 y marcó el inicio de la dictadura cívico-militar que se extendió hasta 1990. A través de la idea de la doble supresión de la historia de Rancière, las tesis sobre la historia de Benjamin y de otras obras de artistas contemporáneos, se indaga en las posibilidades éticas, políticas y estratégicas que tiene el arte contemporáneo de abordar los temas de la memoria, la historia y su fractura, de encontrar un lenguaje que evite el vaciamiento de los acontecimientos traumáticos de una sociedad, particularmente para allanar un espacio en el cual el pasado se vuelva dinámico, se desestabilice y se active en el presente.
•Our paper explores the link between women's self-help groups and public entitlements.•It further examines the effect of SHG membership on social networks and mobility.•Empirical strategy employs ...matching methods to correct endogeneity of SHG membership.•Using data from rural India, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged.•SHG members are more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members.•SHG members are also more likely to avail of these public entitlement schemes.•SHG members also have wider social networks and greater mobility than non-members.
Women’s self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members’ ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency.
Objetivo. Identificar y describir las lesiones orales encontradas en los pacientes con infección por SARS-CoV 2. Métodos. Serie de casos con descripción de 11 pacientes confirmados de infección por ...SARS-CoV-2 por hisopado nasofaríngeo o prueba serológica para confirmar la infección; con la presencia de manifestaciones intraorales de diferentes tipos. A todos los pacientes se les realizó teleconsulta por parte de un estomatólogo y se recopilaron los datos relevantes como edad, sexo, antecedentes de enfermedades preexistentes, tipo de lesión estomatológica presente, sitio y sintomatología, entre otros. Todos los pacientes firmaron un consentimiento informado. Resultados. De los 11 casos positivos para SARS-CoV-2, el 63,63% de los pacientes corresponden al sexo femenino (n=7) y 36,36% (n=4) sexo masculino. El 100% de los pacientes fueron diagnosticados por pruebas moleculares y serológicas; así, el 90,90% se diagnosticaron con PCR viral y 9,09% diagnosticado por prueba para antígeno. Las lesiones ulcerativas predominaron en el 54,54%; seguidas de pseudoplaca y eritema en 18,18% respectivamente. Las vesículas y costras se presentaron en el 9,09% respectivamente. El 72,72 (n=8) presentó ageusia y anosmia, y el 45,45 % (n=5) manifestaron comorbilidades como diabetes, hipertensión arterial e hipotiroidismo. Conclusiones. Esta enfermedad viral cursa con lesiones bucales y muchas veces es la primera e incluso la única manifestación que se presenta durante su curso, por eso es importante tener en cuenta e identificar estas lesiones y saber su relación con el manejo terapéutico, compromiso inmunológico o la propia enfermedad.
The surfgrass Phyllospadix scouleri grows in highly productive meadows along the Pacific coast of North America. This region has experienced increasingly severe marine heatwaves (MHWs) in recent ...years. Our study evaluated the impact of consecutive MHWs, simulated in mesocosms, on essential ecophysiological features of P. scouleri. Overall, our findings show that the plants' overall physiological status has been progressively declining. Interestingly, the indicators of physiological stress in photosynthesis only showed up once the initial heat exposure stopped (i.e., during the recovery period). The warming caused increased oxidative damage and a decrease in nitrate uptake rates. However, the levels of non-structural carbohydrates and relative growth rates were not affected. Our findings emphasize the significance of incorporating recovery periods in this type of study as they expose delayed stress responses. Furthermore, experiencing consecutive intense MHWs can harm surfgrasses over time, compromising the health of their meadows and the services they offer to the ecosystem.
•Surfgrasses are potentially threatened by more frequent marine heatwaves.•Responses to simulated consecutive heatwaves examined in Phyllospadix scouleri.•Elevated oxidative damage and reduced nitrate uptake evidenced thermal stress.•Decline in photosynthetic performance was more pronounced during recovery periods.•Repeated marine heatwaves cause progressive physiological weakening in P. scouleri.
Important gaps exist in the dietary intake of adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), partly due to expensive assessment methods and inaccuracy in portion-size estimation. Dietary ...assessment tools leveraging mobile technologies exist but only a few have been validated in LMICs.
We validated Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights (FRANI), a mobile artificial intelligence (AI) dietary assessment application in adolescent females aged 12–18 y (n = 36) in Ghana, against weighed records (WR), and multipass 24-hour recalls (24HR).
Dietary intake was assessed during 3 nonconsecutive days using FRANI, WRs, and 24HRs. Equivalence of nutrient intake was tested using mixed-effect models adjusted for repeated measures, by comparing ratios (FRANI/WR and 24HR/WR) with equivalence margins at 10%, 15%, and 20% error bounds. Agreement between methods was assessed using the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC).
Equivalence for FRANI and WR was determined at the 10% bound for energy intake, 15% for 5 nutrients (iron, zinc, folate, niacin, and vitamin B6), and 20% for protein, calcium, riboflavin, and thiamine intakes. Comparisons between 24HR and WR estimated equivalence at the 20% bound for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, calcium, thiamine, and vitamin A intakes. The CCCs by nutrient between FRANI and WR ranged between 0.30 and 0.68, which was similar for CCC between 24HR and WR (ranging between 0.38 and 0.67). Comparisons of food consumption episodes from FRANI and WR found 31% omission and 16% intrusion errors. Omission and intrusion errors were lower when comparing 24HR with WR (21% and 13%, respectively).
FRANI AI–assisted dietary assessment could accurately estimate nutrient intake in adolescent females compared with WR in urban Ghana. FRANI estimates were at least as accurate as those provided through 24HR. Further improvements in food recognition and portion estimation in FRANI could reduce errors and improve overall nutrient intake estimations.
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