What determines gender inequalities in social capital in Ukraine?

BACKGROUND: Social capital is a social determinant of health that has an impact on equity and well-being. It may be unequally distributed among any population. The aims of this study are to investigate the distribution of different forms of social capital between men and women in Ukraine and analyse how potential gender inequalities in social capital might be explained and understood in the Ukrainian context. METHOD: The national representative cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (wave 6) was used with a sample of 1377 women and 797 men. Seven outcomes that represent cognitive and structural social capital were constructed i.e. institutional trust, generalised trust, reciprocity, safety, as well as bonding, bridging and linking forms. Multivariate logistic regression and post-regression Fairlies decompositions were used for the analyses. RESULTS: There are several findings that resulted from the analyses i), access to institutional trust, linking and bridging social capital is very limited; ii), the odds for almost all forms of social capital (besides safety) are lower for men; iii), feeling about income and age explain most of the gender differences and act positively, as well as offsetting the differences. CONCLUSION: Social capital is unequally distributed between different population groups. Some forms of social capital have a stronger buffering effect on women than on men in Ukraine. Reducing gender and income inequalities would probably influence the distribution of social capital within the society.

Personality and mental health: an investigation of South African police trainees.

The relationship between personality and mental health was investigated in one cohort of police trainees at a South African police academy (1145 police recruits; 648 men, 497 women). Male trainees reported less somatisation, depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety symptoms and lower harm avoidance as well as higher persistence than female trainees. A cluster analysis based on the personality scores was used to identify three clusters with personality profiles characterized as Vulnerable, Healthy, and Intermediate profiles. Sociodemographic variables and temperament and character domain scores contributed separately and differentially to the explanation of variance in mental health symptom scores. Selection tools should be developed to identify vulnerable individuals in terms of personality characteristics during selection and prior to training, to prevent later problems with stress reactions. Additional training modules focusing on coping skills could possibly reduce vulnerability to stress in some trainees.

Efficacy of prophylactic oral erythromycin to improve enteral feeding tolerance in preterm infants: a randomised controlled study.

INTRODUCTION: Enteral feeding intolerance is a major problem in preterm infants. This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of prophylactic low-dose oral erythromycin, a motilin agonist, as a prokinetic agent in reducing the incidence of this problem. METHODS: From February to May 2008, a prospective randomised controlled trial was conducted at the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. 70 uncomplicated preterm infants (28-34 weeks' gestation) weighing 1,000-1,500 g were randomly assigned to either a case group receiving low-dose oral erythromycin (6 mg/kg/day, in four doses over ten days) or a control group (n is 35 in each group) until they were fully fed enterally (150 ml/kg/day). Gavage feeding of the mother's milk was started within the first three days of life, and erythromycin was given simultaneously. The time taken to reach full enteral feeding and the total duration of feeding interruption due to intolerance were compared. RESULTS: The time taken to reach full enteral feeding was significantly shorter in the erythromycin group than the control group (10.11 +/- 2.51 versus 12.71 +/- 5.76 days, p is 0.01). In the control group, the mean duration of feeding interruption was significantly longer (84.00 +/- 62.58 versus 32.57 +/- 11.93 hours, p is 0.005) and more episodes of abdominal distention and significant gastric residue were also noted (p less than 0.05). No infant in the erythromycin group developed cardiac arrhythmias or pyloric stenosis. CONCLUSION: The prophylactic use of erythromycin may be warranted in very low birth weight infants, provided the efficacy and safety of the drug can be confirmed in further studies.

General mental health, quality of life and suicide-related attitudes among Kurdish people in Iran.

AIM: To investigate (1) general mental health, (2) quality of life and (3) suicide-related attitudes in Kurds living in Iranian Kurdistan. METHODS: Cross-sectional investigation; cluster random sampling procedure; 1,000 Kurds were randomly selected from 1,000 of 68,000 households in Sannandaj City, Iran; General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12); Questionnaire on Attitudes Towards Suicide (ATTS). RESULTS: About 27% of the subjects had to be regarded as probably suffering from a psychological disturbance. There was no gender difference regarding the number of ;cases'. These possible ;cases' were younger than ;non-cases'. The most ;cases' occurred among the unemployed. An increasing number of experiences related to suicide and the increasing emotional closeness of those experiences was found to be related to an increased probability that the individual would be classified as a ;case' according to the GHQ-12 total score. Unmarried individuals more often evaluated their overall quality of life as ;moderate' or ;bad' compared to married individuals. Unemployed people, self-employed people and housewives formed the groups who most often reported a ;very bad' or ;bad' quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Kurdish people in Iran are in need of facilities and interventional programmes aiming to improve general mental health.