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Attacks perpetrated using acid are a particular form of interpersonal violence, possibly one of the most heinous manifestations of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Acid attacks are mainly motivated by extramarital cheating, marital conflicts, women's rejection of marriage proposals, and sexual advances. As these attacks are not well understood from a psychological perspective, we conducted a systematic review, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, of 284 articles identified, 13 were eligible for inclusion. Three main focuses were identified: "Risk and vulnerability factors," "Consequences and implications," and "Interventions and treatments." Acid attacks seem to be more frequent in countries where social and economic development leads to greater tensions over traditional gender roles like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. Identified risk factors were young age, low socioeconomic status, low educational attainment, ethnicity, unemployment status of the victim, alcohol, and drug use of the perpetrator. Among the main psychosocial consequences of acid attacks, isolation and social exclusion emerged. Additionally, the paper will discuss the role of mental health consequences and specific treatments from psychological, clinical, and medical-legal points of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the high burden of injuries, the Health Authority - Abu Dhabi developed a draft electronic and paper-based injury and poisoning notification system (IPNS) to generate better data on the nature and severity of injuries. The pilot testing and evaluation of IPNS was conducted with the specific objectives to (1) identify the characteristics of injury cases, (2) explore potential risk factors, (3) illustrate the nature and type of data, and (4) the working mechanism of data collection. Data were collected from selected hospitals on patient demographics, injury information and clinical assessment. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Of 4226 injury cases, nearly three-fourths were male, majority were non-UAE nationals, and the mean age was 21.9. Multivariate findings suggested that compared to UAE nationals, non-UAE nationals were 27% more likely to experience fatal, severe or moderate injuries (p= 0.01). Individuals with health insurance were 31% less likely to suffer a fatal, severe or moderate injury compared to those having no health insurance (p< 0.001). This is the first systematically standardised collection of injury data across three facilities in Abu Dhabi, and provides initial information on characteristics and injury risk factors that will help identify the need for evidence-based intervention for injury prevention and control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic across the world, people have suffered an unexpected setback to their mental health. As psychological support is being provided to patients and healthcare workers, the general population and university students go unnoticed. This review aims to present existing literature that reports the effects of COVID-19 on psychological outcomes of the general population and university students in different countries. Methods: A manual search was conducted on PubMed, Google Scholar and Mendeley from inception to 31st January 2021. Articles were selected based on the predetermined eligibility criteria. Results: During COVID-19 pandemic, relatively high rates of depression (4.5% to 72.3%), anxiety (12.7% to 85.7%) and stress (5% to 90.1%) were reported in the general population as well as in university students, depression (3% to 70.5%), anxiety (9% to 63.3%) and stress (61.5% to 25%) in India, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Spain, US, UK, France, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Risk factors associated include female gender, younger age group (≤40 years), unemployment, student status, and frequent exposure to social media/news concerning COVID-19. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with highly significant levels of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and stress. Alleviating the hazardous effects of COVID-19 on mental health should be given due attention internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]