METHODS: An online questionnaire was designed in SurveyMonkey®. Invitation to participate was emailed through national and international neurointerventional societies as well as directly through private mailing lists to men and women working in neurointervention. Responses were collected from 10 May 2019 to 10 September 2019.
RESULTS: There were 295 complete responses, 173 (59%) male and 122 (41%) female. Most respondents (83%) fell within age categories 35-60 years, with representation from 40 countries across five continents. In all 95% were working full time, 73% had worked as a neurointerventionalist for >6 years, 77% worked in University-affiliated teaching institutions. Almost half of the respondents indicated no female neurointerventionalist worked in their center. Female respondents were younger and age-adjusted analysis was undertaken. Significantly fewer females than males were married and had children. Significantly fewer females held supervisory roles, held academic titles, and significantly less had a mentor. Females were less satisfied in their careers. More females felt they receive less recognition than colleagues of the opposite sex. Males had a greater proportion of work time dedicated to neurointervention. Similar proportions of both genders experienced bullying in work (40%-47%); however, sexual harassment was more common for females. There were no differences between genders in how they dealt with complications or their effects on mental well-being.
CONCLUSION: There are many potential reasons why women are underrepresented in neurointervention, however, the literature suggests this is not unique to our specialty. Multiple long-term strategies will be necessary to address these issues, some of which are discussed in the article.
METHODS: A systematic search of databases was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. Articles reporting sex distribution and age of onset for AQP4 antibody-associated NMSOD were reviewed. An initially inclusive approach involving exploration with regression meta-analysis was followed by an analysis of just AQP4 antibody positive cases.
RESULTS: A total of 528 articles were screened to yield 89 articles covering 19,415 individuals from 88 population samples. The female:male sex ratio was significantly influenced by the proportion of AQP4 antibody positive cases in the samples studied (p sex ratio was 8.89 (95% CI 7.78-10.15). For paediatric populations the estimate was 5.68 (95% CI 4.01-8.03) and for late-onset cases, it was 5.48 (95% CI 4.10-7.33). The mean age of onset was significantly associated with the mean life expectancy of the population sampled (p sex ratio and the mean age of onset of AQP4 antibody-associated NMOSD are significantly higher than MS. The sex ratio increases with the proportion of cases that are positive for AQP4 antibodies and the mean age of onset increases with population life expectancy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Parents of 30 children with ASD with ages ranging from 8 to 12 years attending Child Development Clinic, Hospital Pulau Pinang (CDC HPP) were recruited. Parents attended two-hour virtual parent sexual health training and educational materials were provided to be utilised at home. Follow-up via phone consultation were done at three and six months to ensure training was carried out. Both structured interview and Vineland adaptive behaviour scales (VABS-3) were done at recruitment and at eight months via phone consultation. Wilcoxon-signed rank test was used to analyse differences between pre- and postintervention outcome measures.
RESULTS: Statistically significant increase in number of sexual health topics taught by parents and appropriate socio-sexual behaviours of children were found. Intellectual function of children with ASD influenced the study outcomes.
CONCLUSION: Parent sexual health training can be done to empower parents to educate children with ASD and promote appropriate socio-sexual behaviours.
BACKGROUND: The quality of life of people with disorders of sex development depends largely on the availability of good psychosocial and psychosexual management. There is a lack of qualitative systematic reviews of the literature on the experiences of people with disorders of sex development.
DESIGN: The seven steps of qualitative meta-ethnography were employed in this review.
DATA SOURCES: The following electronic databases were systematically searched until January 2017: Science Direct, Scopus, Sage online, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Medline, Wiley Online Library, and Google Scholar. Search terms for this review were "disorders of sex development," "intersex," "ambiguous genitalia," "experiences," "qualitative study," and "method".
REVIEW METHOD: A 13-item scale was applied to evaluate the quality of the selected studies and synthesized using the principles of meta-ethnography.
FINDINGS: Twelve studies met the eligibility criteria. Six major themes described the experiences of people with disorders of sex development. These included a range of physical, psychological, social, and sexual experiences which affect their quality of life. Different coping strategies were employed by individuals who live with the lifelong condition.
CONCLUSION: Disorders of sex development affect the quality of life of people living with these disorders. Nurses are tasked with providing holistic care for people with disorders of sex development in order to improve their quality of lives. As such, there is a need to explore the experiences of nurses in the management of disorders of sex development.