Olfactory loss in aging

Olfactory loss is a common age-related complaint that may be caused by changes in the anatomy of the structures required for olfaction (for example, loss of olfactory receptor cells) or in the environment surrounding the receptor cell (for example, altered nasal mucus composition). However, aging, as well as age-related diseases and medications, may also alter the distribution, density, or function of specific receptor proteins, ion channels, or signaling molecules that affect the ability of neural elements throughout the olfactory pathway to signal and process odorant information. Although a great deal has been learned about the prevalence and nature of age-related olfactory loss, we are just beginning to explore avenues to prevent or alleviate this sensory deficit. Some studies suggest that, rather than being a necessary outcome of aging, age-associated factors such as chronic diseases, medications, and dental and sinus problems are the primary culprits in causing olfactory impairment. This idea suggests optimism in that, as we address these other age-related health issues, the prevalence of olfactory loss will lessen as well.     

Child outcome measures in the study of child care quality

This article assesses whether there are methodological problems with child outcome measures that may contribute to the small associations between child care quality and child outcomes found in the literature. Outcome measures used in 65 studies of child care quality published between 1979 and December 2005 were examined, taking the previous review by Vandell and Wolfe (2000) as the starting point. Serious methodological problems were not pervasive for child outcome measures. However, methodological concerns were most prevalent among measures of socioemotional development. Furthermore, psychometric information on outcome measures was often missing from published reports, and health outcomes and approaches to learning were infrequently studied. Future research should address alignment issues between aspects of quality and the specific child outcomes chosen for study.     

I don't know who I am: severely mental ill Latina WSW navigating differentness

We examine interviews from a qualitative study designed to examine HIV perceptions, risk, and risk management among Puerto Rican women who have sex with women (WSW) and who also have been diagnosed with major depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. These women's stories challenge both the lesbian and the Latino communities to reexamine how and why they claim individuals as their own and they similarly challenge professional communities, including HIV educators, health researchers, and medical care providers, to develop effective HIV prevention programs and counseling approaches that facilitate patient/client self-disclosure and consider cultural and contextual barriers to both self-disclosure and the provision of services.     

Factors that predict how women label their own childhood sexual abuse

Despite the psychological impact of child sexual abuse, many victims do not acknowledge that their experiences were "abuse". This study sought to identify factors that predict how women label their own experiences of childhood sexual abuse. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a family medicine clinic with adult female patients. Subjects completed structured interviews about their childhood environment and their sexual abuse history. Logistic regression analysis showed that labeling of abuse was dependent upon intercourse (beta = 7.43, p = .006), the frequency of abuse by the first perpetrator (beta = 5.08, p = .024), and paternal overprotection (beta = 6.69, p = .010). Findings suggest that the severity of abusive acts is most important and an over-protective father may enhance the victim's acknowledgment that sexual touching is abusive.     

Using YouTube vlogs to study women's experiences of participating in #MeToo

In our effort to study women's experiences of participating in the #MeToo social movement and the effects it has had on their lives, we employed YouTube vlogs posted under that hashtag, instead of interviews, as our source of experiential data. Few scholars have engaged in detailed reflections on vlogs as a source of qualitative data. Even fewer evaluate vlogs in relation to studying sexual violence, particularly women's experiences of participating in #MeToo. In this paper we contribute to these methodological discussions by reflecting on our use of vlogs in such a study, appraising the productive potentials and concerns related to qualitative vlog data. They afforded us several methodological benefits, but also entailed ethical and analytical challenges.     

Geographic location or experience: Using PRISM to understand how people seek flood risk information

Flooding is increasing worldwide, and with climate change, people need help understanding these changing conditions and that their flood risk may also change. This study extends the planned risk information seeking model (PRISM) into the flood risk domain and examines the antecedents that explain flood risk information seeking behavior. Using a survey reflective of the population in the state of Texas (N = 1079), this study includes an operationalization of risk perception specific to the complexity of floods and explores two key moderators in the PRISM model. Findings suggest that using PRISM to elaborate flood risk information seeking behaviors explains 48% of the variance in information seeking intent and 37% of the variance in affective risk perception. Using multigroup modeling, the findings also reveal that simply living in an area at high risk for floods does not significantly impact any relationships in the model. However, having experience with flooding increases the strength of risk perception paths—in particular, perceived probability of flood risk—and better explains flood risk information seeking. Suggestions for how to use communication to influence risk perceptions and information seeking, as well as future directions for research, are also discussed.     

Bayesian modelling of effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on child cognition based on data from multiple cohorts

High levels of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) result in significant cognitive deficits in children, but the exact nature of the dose-response relationship is less well understood. To investigate this relationship, data were assembled from six longitudinal birth cohort studies examining the effects of PAE on cognitive outcomes from early school age through adolescence. Structural equation models (SEMs) are a natural approach to consider, because of the way they conceptualise multiple observed outcomes as relating to an underlying latent variable of interest, which can then be modelled as a function of exposure and other predictors of interest. However, conventional SEMs could not be fitted in this context because slightly different outcome measures were used in the six studies. In this paper we propose a multi-group Bayesian SEM that maps the unobserved cognition variable to a broad range of observed outcomes. The relation between these variables and PAE is then examined while controlling for potential confounders via propensity score adjustment. By examining different possible dose-response functions, the proposed framework is used to investigate whether there is a threshold PAE level that results in minimal cognitive deficit.