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Copyright of OHM: Obradoiro de Historia Moderna is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Overweight /obesity is a global public health concern. It is higher among women than men in most continents of the world. This study aimed to determine the spatiotemporal distribution and determinants of changes in overweight/obesity over time among urban women in Ethiopia.Methods: We used data from three consecutive Demographic and Health Surveys in Ethiopia (2005, 2011, and 2016). The total weighted sample of 1112 in 2005, 3569 in 2011, and 3071 in 2016 urban women were included in the analysis. The primary outcome measure of this study was the spatiotemporal distribution and trends over time in overweight/obesity. Factors contributing to change in overweight/obesity were examined using a logit-based multivariate decomposition analysis.Results: Overweight/obesity increased from 14.2% in 2005 to 21% in 2016. Approximately 61.3% of the overall increase in overweight/obesity among urban women was due to the difference in coefficient (difference in the effect of characteristics) across the surveys. Changes in the composition of women aged 25-49 years (β = 0.012, 95% CI 0.008, 0.015), married women (β = 0.010, 95% CI 0.006, 0.014), women with formal education (primary: β = 0.007, 95% CI 0.003, 0.011, higher education: β = 0.014, 95% CI 0.006, 0.022), women with formal employment (β = 0.006, 95% CI 0.001, 0.011), and women with informal employment (β = - 0.002, 95% CI - 0.003, - 0.0004) were factors contributing to the change in overweight/obesity from 2005 to 2016. The risk difference (RD) in women's overweight/obesity significantly varied across regions in urban Ethiopia. Furthermore, a high proportion of overweight/obesity was found mainly in Tigray, Oromia, Amhara, and Addis Ababa.Conclusions: The rate of overweight/obesity among women in urban Ethiopia has shown a significant increase over the last 11 years. This rate change was due to changes in the composition of women's age, educational status, marital status, and employment status. Therefore, program interventions should be targeted at older (> 25 years), educated, married, Addis Ababa residents, and formally employed women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that urban women grapple with spatial disequilibrium to claim their right over the city and experience its repercussions through dispossession and displacement. To develop this argument I have selected Mohsin Hamid's How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013) to explore the relationship of gender with space under the aegis of cultural and economic marginalization of women. In the light of feminist scholarship, I have investigated how women strive to settle in urban space by challenging the resurrections of invisible oppression of gender inequalities. The paper also investigates how urban women develop critical spatial consciousness and resist the structures of exclusion and segregation. The paper concludes that the uneven socio-economic intrusions are making the developing Asian urban-space serendipitously violent and hostile for women, thus remaining disconnected in deconstructing the invisible inequalities of spatial exclusion and displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study attempts to understand and anlayse the skill and capacity of women through social mobilisation. It is proved that the Self Help Groups (SHGs) played a key role in mobilizing the poor towards developing the habit of saving and avail credit from financial institutions. Social Mobilisation has been adopted as an appropriate approach to mobilise the local communities which is essential to carry out any intervention. The main objective of the study is envisioned to identify the enhancement of skill and capacity of the women through social mobilization. The methodology for the study is Survey research and describes the skills and capacities of the women of Urban SHGs. Multi stage sampling was employed to collect data from 14 SHGs comprising of 156 SHG members. The results revealed that participation of group members in SHGs increase their literacy skills, communication skills, banking skills and vocational skills. Also it is evident that a vast majority of the women (77.6%) do not have any vocational skills which indicates there is huge need of training women in vocational as well as entrepreneurship skills to generate income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modest increases in women's labor force participation rates could boost world GDP by at least six trillion dollars; full equality for women could increase world GDP by $28 trillion. One factor limiting women's labor force participation may be religion. We test the effect of religion on women's labor force participation rates in Indonesia. Using data from Indonesia's 2010 Census, we run a logit model for married rural women, married urban women, single rural women, and single urban women. We find that holding other factors equal, married Hindu women in urban areas are as much as 31 percentage points more likely to work than married Muslim urban women, while married Confucian women in rural areas are as much as 31 percentage points less likely to work than married Muslim rural women. These and other results are robust across different specifications and are both economically and statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We identified perceived barriers and facilitators to purchasing fruits and vegetables (FV) at farmers' markets, FV shopping practices, and reactions to a planned online lesson to promote farmers' market use among urban, inner-city WIC-enrolled women. Methods: Thirteen focus groups were conducted with 3-5 participants each (N = 54). Results: Common barriers were structural (transportation issues) and informational (not knowing the locations of markets). Improving access (by increasing the number of area markets, expanding market hours and locations, and increasing transportation options to markets) and raising awareness of the importance of eating healthfully were common facilitators. Information was sought on the locations of farmers who accept FV vouchers provided by WIC, FV sold at farmers' markets, reasons to eat locally grown FV, and FV food safety and preparation skills. Questions were raised about the accessibility of an online lesson; providing information via inperson seminars and handouts also was recommended. Although purchasing FV at supermarkets and corner stores and bodegas was common, concerns were expressed about the freshness, cost, quality, and variety of produce sold at these venues. Conclusions: Findings aid understanding of factors to consider in designing interventions to promote farmers' market use in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaps remain in understanding whether family planning (FP) programs can change urban women's FP behaviors. Even less is known about what works among poor urban women. This article presents results of the impact evaluation of the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI). Findings are based on recently collected longitudinal data from women and facilities in six cities in Nigeria. Over the four-year follow-up period, there was an increase of about ten percentage points in modern method use. Impact evaluation analyses using fixed-effects regression methods indicate that both demand- and supply-side program activities increased modern method use. Radio, television, community events, and living near program-enrolled health facilities all significantly increased modern method use or were related to a desire for no more children among all women and among poor women. Results are discussed with an eye toward the design and scale-up of future family planning programs in urban Nigeria and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Escalation of non-communicable diseases such as Type 2 diabetes among low-income populations in low- and middle-income countries presents challenges for health systems. Yet, very little is known about low-income people's diabetes care experiences in such contexts. One of the greatest challenges of diabetes care in such contexts is providing care for those who face poverty, poor healthcare access, and concurrent physical and mental conditions. This article investigates women's experiences with diabetes care in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, South Africa.Methods: This study involved caregivers for children enrolled in the Birth to Twenty (Bt20) cohort study initiated in 1990. Enrolled in the study for more than two decades, women previously diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were invited to participate. We conducted 27 in depth interviews around issues of stress, diabetes, mental health, and diabetes care. We transcribed interviews and used content analysis to analyze emergent themes into three categories: counseling, treatment, and social support.Results: First, counseling focused on nutrition but very little on exercise, and women had limited understanding of what was diabetes or what they should do to control it. Second, women were inconsistent with reporting their diabetes treatment routines, both with adhering to medicines and seeking treatments. They identified structural barriers as overcrowded clinics and poor access to medicines as impeding adherence to treatment. Finally, women identified support from their families and friends and recognized stress associated with these relationships around food (e.g., we're not eating that!) and diabetes stigma.Conclusions: Effective diabetes education and management in the clinical setting will require systematic changes to healthcare. Inconsistencies across public and private health systems with regards to diabetes counseling, drug availability, quality of care, and patient wait times indicate patients will forego a clinical visit in lieu of diabetes self-care. For example, structural barriers in the public health system undermine medication adherence. With a stronger national emphasis in healthcare on diabetes counseling and management such systemic issues should be reshaped to ensure patients have access to essential medication and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Tanzania is the country hit the hardest by the HIV epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. The present study was carried out to examine the factors of HIV infection among women who lived in an urban area in Tanzania. METHODS: The Tanzania HIV/AIDS and Malaria Indicator Survey (2011-12) data was used. The sample size for urban and rural women who had been tested for HIV and ever had sex was 2227 and 6210 respectively. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used. RESULTS: The present study found that rural women were significantly less likely to be HIV-infected compared to urban women (OR = 0.612, p<0.00). About 10% urban women were HIV-infected whereas 5.8% women in rural areas were HIV positive. Women who had more than five sex partners were significantly four times more likely to be HIV-infected as compared to women who had one sex partner (OR = 4.49, p<0.00). CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that less-educated women, women belonging to poor or poorer quintile, women spending nights outside and women having more than one sex partner were significantly more likely to have HIV infection among urban women as compared to rural women. There is an urgent need for a short and effective program to control the HIV epidemic in urban areas of Tanzania especially for less-educated urban women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In maternal healthcare, pre-pregnancy weight is used to predict pregnancy outcomes. Since no recorded data on pre-pregnancy weight, perceived weight is used alternatively. This study examines the relationship between perceived and actual weight among non-pregnant urban Malaysian women of childbearing age and identifies differences in perceived and actual weight by selected socio-demographic characteristics. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between April and June 2013 among urban Malaysian women attending public health clinics in the Klang Valley. Information on height, perceived current weight and time when their weight was last taken were obtained and actual weight was the average of two measurements (TANITA-HD-323-digital-scale). Socio-demographic data collected were age, ethnicity, education level, marital and employment status and total household income. Results: Mean age of 371 women in this study was 28.81±5.65, 82.2% were Malays, 62.8% had tertiary education, over 75% were married and employed, with more than half from middle-income households. Overall, the mean perceived and actual weight was 59.29±11.59 and 59.20±11.90 respectively. Pearson's Correlation test showed a very strong positive correlation between perceived and actual weight (r=0.957;p<0.0001), ranging between 0.852 to 0.994 among subgroups; 258 (69.5%) perceived their weight accurately (±2.0 kg of actual weight), 49 (13.2%) under and 64 (17.3%) overestimated their weight. Main outliers were among younger women, Malays, tertiary educated, employed, middle-income and had weight last measured a month or more ago. Conclusion: Strong correlation between perceived and actual weight among women in this study reassured weight perception can be used more confidently in patients? history taking and future research among urban Malaysian women using public health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thiamin deficiency in infancy is the underlying cause of beriberi, which can be fatal without rapid treatment. Reports of thiamin deficiency are common in Cambodia; however, population representative data are unavailable. Because B-complex vitamin deficiencies commonly occur in combination, riboflavin was also investigated. Objective: We determined the biomarker status of thiamin and riboflavin in women of childbearing age in rural and urban Cambodia. Methods: We measured thiamin (erythrocyte thiamin diphosphate; TDP) and riboflavin (erythrocyte glutathione reductase activity coefficient; EGRac) status in a representative sample of Cambodian women (aged 20-45 y) in urban Phnom Penh (n = 146) and rural Prey Veng (n = 156), Cambodia, and, for comparison purposes, in a convenience sample of women in urban Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (n = 49). Results: Thiamin insufficiency (TDP # 90 nmol/L) was common among both urban (39%) and rural (59%) Cambodian women (P < 0.001), whereas <20% of Vancouver women were thiamin insufficient (P < 0.001). The prevalence of suboptimal and deficient riboflavin status (EGRac ≥ 1.3) was 89%, 92%, and 70% among women in Phnom Penh, Prey Veng, and Vancouver, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Suboptimal status of both thiamin and riboflavin were common in Cambodian women, with substantially higher rates among women living in rural Prey Veng than in urban Phnom Penh. Strategies may be needed to improve the thiamin and riboflavin status of women in Cambodia. The unexpected finding of high riboflavin inadequacy status in Vancouver women warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Awareness represents a major modulator for the uptake of preventive measures and healthy life-style choices. Women underestimate the role of cardiovascular diseases as causes of mortality, yet little information is available about their subjective risk awareness. Methods: The Berlin Female Risk Evaluation (BEFRI) study included a randomized urban female sample aged 25-74 years, in which 1,066 women completed standardized questionnaires and attended an extensive clinical examination. Subjective estimation was measured by a 3-point Likert scale question asking about subjective perception of absolute cardiovascular risk with a 10 year outlook to be matched to the cardiovascular risk estimate according to the Framingham score for women. Results: An expected linear increase with age was observed for hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and vascular compliance measured by pulse pressure. Knowledge about optimal values of selected cardiovascular risk factor indicators increased with age, but not the perception of the importance of age itself. Only 41.35% of all the participants correctly classified their own cardiovascular risk, while 48.65% underestimated it, and age resulted as the most significant predictor for this subjective underestimation (OR = 3.5 for age >50 years compared to <50, 95% CI = 2.6-4.8, P <0.0001). Therefore, although socioeconomic factors such as joblessness (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.4-2.6, P <0.0001) and combinations of other social risk factors (low income, limited education, simple job, living alone, having children, statutory health coverage only; OR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.1-2.1, P = 0.009) also significantly influenced self-awareness, age appeared as the strongest predictor of risk underestimation and at the same time the least perceived cardiovascular risk factor. Conclusions: Less than half of the women in our study population correctly estimated their cardiovascular risk. The study identifies age as the strongest predictor of risk underestimation in urban women and at the same time as the least subjectively perceived cardiovascular risk factor. Although age itself cannot be modified, our data highlights the need for more explicit risk counseling and information campaigns about the cardiovascular relevance of aging while focusing on measures to control coexisting modifiable risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (2006), which links an individual woman’s fertility outcomes to her education level. Thus, in this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the relationships between women’s education, contraceptive use, and fertility rates in Uganda. The findings indicate that women’s education and social–economic factors are important in explaining reproductive behavior. Fertility findings show that higher education levels are consistently associated with lower fertility rates and positively associated with contraceptive use. The major implication of these results is that raising women’s education improves their economic opportunities, and the behavioral responses in fertility will lead to the decline in population by reducing the willingness to engage in unprotected sex and subsequent fall in fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mundo Agrario is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

By means of everyday life studies, Gender geography can make visible the time-space differences experienced by women as a consequence of reproduction and productive work. Special attention is given to daily life strategies performed by urban women in order to solve childcare and housework duties when their workplace, related to adventure tourism, is located in the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to rethink the metropolitan spatial practices not only as forms of reproduction, but also as forms of gender social innovation. The spatial analysis will be done on the basis of daily mobility practices in the everyday spatial experience of women in a popular neighborhood of downtown Mexico City. Practices that express ruptures and continuities, and that are not necessarily significant by their persistence, but by their importance in shaping the everyday life and the construction of an urban collective imaginary that occasionally shows increasing quests for breaking the continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Bank Report 2012 starts with this statement: "Gender equality matters in itself and it matters for development because, in today's globalized worlds, countries that use the skills and talents of their women would have an advantage over those which do not use it." With the frame that suggest that gender equality matters, this paper describes some policy alternatives oriented to overcome gender disadvantages in the formal labor market incorporation of the urban middle class women in Colombia. On balance, the final recommendation suggest that it is desirable to adopt policy alternatives as Community Centers, which are programs oriented to a social redistribution of the domestic work as a way to encourage women participation in the formal labor market with the social support of the members of their own community. The problem that the social policy needs to address is the segregation of women in the formal labor market in Colombia. Although the evidence shows that the women overcome the educational gap by showing better performance in education that their male peers, women are still segregated of the labor market. The persistence of high rates of unemployment on the female population, the prevalence of the informal labor market as a women labor market, and the presence of the payment difference between men and women with similar professional trainings are circumstances that sustain the segregation statement. These circumstances are inefficient for the society because an economic analysis shows that the cost of maintain the statuquo is externalized in the social security system that includes health, pension and maternity leave regimens. Therefore, the women segregation involves a market failure. This paper evaluates five policy alternatives each directed to the progress of a different causal dimension of the problem: (i) Quotas in the private market, (ii) Flexible working hours, (iii) replace the maternity leave with a family leave, (iv) Increase the Community Centers for redistributing the care work, and (v) Equal payment enforcement. The first alternative looks to increase women's participation in the formal labor market. The second, third, and fourth alternatives constitute a package addressed at redistributing care work by reducing women's responsibility for reproductive work in the household with the help of husbands and the local government. The fifth alternative intervenes to resolve the equal payment problem. After a four criteria evaluation that measure effectiveness, robustness and improbability in implementation, efficiency and political acceptability or social opposition, the strongest alternative is the fostering of Community Centers that promote a redistribution of care work. This policy performs well in the assessment process because it combines gender focus with important indirect effects: child support and human capabilities. The policy also shows a bottom up implementation process that overcomes the main adoption difficulties in the gender focus programs and is supported by strong evidence of success in the Colombian context; this evidence is produced by both transnational actors as a World Bank and also in local accountability reporters executed by local institutions like Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the eighties, the Solidarity Economy has gained increasing importance as an alternative to the neoliberalism, both in the urban and rural spheres. This article seeks to examine how these economic alternatives initiate and influence women's empowerment processes. From an intersectional analysis, the main factors of discrimination for women living inside the favelas are identified. By systematizing the experiences of a Solidarity Economy Network in Brazil, the article develops four hypotheses about how self-organization processes could contribute to empowerment forms in different dimensions. Based on that, the concept of "spatial empowerment" is deduced and its relevance to transform gender roles in the context of women in urban and rural areas is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have witnessed a double movement within the field of crime control characterized by the prison boom and intensive policing, on the one hand, and widespread implementation of new approaches that assign policing responsibilities to non-police actors, on the other. The latter development has been accomplished by expansion of third-party policing policies; nuisance property ordinances, which sanction landlords for their tenants’ behavior, are among the most popular. This study, an analysis of every nuisance citation distributed in Milwaukee over a two-year period, is among the first to evaluate empirically the impact of coercive third-party policing on the urban poor. Properties in black neighborhoods disproportionately received citations, and those located in more integrated black neighborhoods had the highest likelihood of being deemed nuisances. Nearly a third of all citations were generated by domestic violence; most property owners abated this “nuisance” by evicting battered women. Landlords also took steps to discourage tenants from calling 911; overrepresented among callers, women were disproportionately affected by these measures. By looking beyond traditional policing, this study reveals previously unforeseen consequences of new crime control strategies for women from inner-city neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The importance of women's safety and security in cities throughout the world is now widely recognised. An extensive range of state and civil society institutions currently implement a range of cutting-edge ‘good practice’ policies, programmes, and projects to address this issue. This article raises two pertinent questions that inform the (re)conceptualisation of such programmes. First, is women's safety a separate ‘women's issue’, or is it one that needs to be mainstreamed into broader safer cities research, policy, and practice? Second, do urban safety issues affect all women equally, or are contexts of exclusion and poverty, as well as characteristics of identity and agency, also important determining factors? The article proposes that the incorporation of the gender mainstreaming component of gender analysis into a violence roadmap provides a useful tool to ensure that the critical interests and needs of poor urban women are incorporated into gender-based programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the prevalence and factors associated with lifetime gun-carrying among 858 urban out-of-treatment substance using women using data collected between 2000 and 2004 in a large Midwestern city. Instruments assessed gun ownership, carrying and access, psychopathology and personal lifestyle risk factors. Analyses were conducted using logistic regression. Illegal activities for income and lifetime violent victimization were the most significant predictors of gun carrying. The implications for practice and future research are discussed along with the study's limitations. The work was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the position of urban women within the mercantile and artisan communities of the Cypriot port town of Famagusta, concentrating on their relationship with money and property by utilising evidence from notarial collections. Women crop up in Cypriot notarial acts as wives, daughters, slaves, servants and business partners: their economic activities deserve in-depth analysis in order to highlight their place in urban society. Urban women’s relationship with money and property is explored under three headings: marriage, death and business. The first section looks at the arrangement of marriages, assessing the information revealed in marriage contracts. The second section focuses on evidence from wills and explores inheritance patterns. The final section investigates women’s involvement in business affairs. Throughout, the emerging trends are compared to wider trends revealed in similar urban areas in Europe and the Mediterranean, such as Perpignan, Montpellier and Crete. Overall, the evidence portrays a community which valued continuity and survival, but was also open to newcomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the practices and argumentations of women around their way of living in popular residential areas that have proliferated in Tonalá, a municipality in the periphery of Guadalajara, Jalisco. Such practices and argumentations limit the establishment of social relationships and trust networks in their places of residence. In this sense, the current way of living, estimating and fighting for the improvement in the quality of life in their residential environments is very different from the ones their families experienced and how women behaved in previous stages of the urbanization of Guadalajara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abidjan for long has been considered to be one of the most productive and progressive fashion centres on the African continent. One was wondering what would be the reactions in terms of output, style development, and meaning in times of political and economic crisis that the country is enduring since 2002. Furthermore, the processes of globalization have introduced significant changes with the tremendous quantities of textile imports from Asia and the intensified mediation of prestigious images of world fashion, Western lifestyles, and role models of femininity. Surprisingly, Abidjan still turns out to be a thriving city with a highly dynamic fashion sector whose trends and styles have won highest esteem in countries all over West and Central Africa. This study has two aims: On the one hand, it looks into the organization of production and circulation of fashion to get a better understanding of the local technical and material constraints and opportunities which prevail in this specific city. On the other hand, the focus is on the strategies of professional designers and urban women to cope with the influences of globalization, i.e., the promises of and the limited access to the world market, the political and economic power of the West. Designers as well as women strive with local means to be part of the global world and to retain valuable local cultural values which are constantly redefined. Fashion and the invention of styles play a crucial role in articulating and assuming social changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A culturally grounded group intervention for a typically underserved population of urban American Indian women is described. The intervention is designed to increase interpersonal connection, improve inter-tribal acceptance and trust, and enhance psychological well being of marginalized urban American Indian women. Topics used to structure the intervention were generated collaboratively with tribal community members and included self-exploration and education, aging, body image, work, friendship, love commitment, and nurturance/motherhood. For illustrative purposes, the authors elaborate on two of these group therapy topics and provide member and leader reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Overt hypothyroidism is often recognized as an important cause of depression, but in sub-clinical cases, results are inconsistent and most prior studies have involved small samples. Methods: We evaluated the association between hypothyroidism and depressive symptoms (PRIME-MD) in a population-based study of 1298 middle-aged women living in a large metropolitan city in Brazil. Results: 45.7% presented depressive symptoms, and 12.3% presented hypothyroidism. Multiple logistic regression analysis adjusting for age, race, smoking and body mass index showed that women with TSH>10 mUI/ml had a threefold chance of presenting depressive symptoms compared to those with normal levels of TSH. Among those with clinical hypothyroidism the adjusted OR was 8.7. Conclusion: High levels of TSH were associated to an increased chance of developing depression in the general population. Therefore, depressive symptoms must be considered in patients with thyroid dysfunction and depressed patients should be tested for TSH. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study describes women''s perceptions of the supports and barriers to maintaining a healthy weight among currently healthy weight women from urban and rural socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Using focus groups and interviews, we asked women about their experiences of maintaining a healthy weight. Overwhelmingly, women described their healthy weight practices in terms of concepts related to work and management. The theme of ‘managing health’ comprised issues of managing multiple responsibilities, time, and emotions associated with healthy practices. Rural women faced particular difficulties in accessing supports at a practical level (for example, lack of childcare) and due to the gendered roles they enacted in caring for others. Family background (in particular, mothers’ attitudes to food and weight) also appeared to influence perceptions about healthy weight maintenance. In the context of global increases in the prevalence of obesity, the value of initiatives aimed at supporting healthy weight women to maintain their weight should not be under-estimated. Such initiatives need to work within the social and personal constraints that women face in maintaining good health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

City life has long been associated with the dangers of consumption. Here we focus on the consumption of opioids by Australian urban women and its effects on their sexual and reproductive functioning. We interviewed 109 Australian women with HCV (Hepatitis C) from two urban centres about contraception and their sexual and reproductive health needs. These interviews alerted us to a potential health consequence of drug use that appears to be under-researched: it appears that opioid use may reduce women's estrogen levels which in turn has consequences for their health more broadly. Here, we bring together qualitative evidence from interviews with women opioid users and from research literature to argue that women's opioid use may reduce their estrogen levels and lead to serious health consequences. At present, however, we are unaware of research that has empirically tested this proposition. This research urgently needs to be conducted, and if our theory is supported then treatment protocols and services for opioid-using women should be modified accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the Welfare, Children, and Families project (1999), a probability sample of 2,280 low-income women with children living in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, we examine the effects of relationship violence before age 18 and in the past year on frequency of adult intoxication. Results obtained from a series of ordered logistic regression models suggest that sexual coercion before age 18 and minor and severe physical assault in the past year are independently associated with greater frequency of intoxication, net of a range of sociodemographic controls. The study's limitations are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During last years as much in the frame of the celebration of the 100 years public festivities of both most important cities located in the Gulf San Jorge basin (Comodoro Rivadavia and Caleta Olivia) as in the most recent commemoration of the centenary of the discovery of the oil in the zone, women appropriated diverse uses of the past to ask for the right to have a past. Beyond the public festivities which were arranged from the official sphere, the petroleum companies or the mass media, an important group of women organized different commemoration practices; the publication of books and photographic samples stood out among them. It has allowed a fruitful exchange among people who are in the academy and out of it. In the paper I try to show that this memoralist outbreak in terms of gender, having revalued topics such as the child-rearing, the family care, the informal sociability puts the emphasis on the domesticity and the exaltation of the kinship networks to emphasize the rol of women in that past. As the cult of motherhood represented social inclusion for these women, in this work I suggest that it is again the articulation of women - maternity - family - history - nation what returns to center stage, but those who promote such social commemoration practices have created places of memory in the center of the sphere of production: places where the men had dominated historically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the relations between bone mineral density (BMD) and lead in blood, tibia, and patella and to investigate how BMD modifies these lead biomarkers in older women. DESIGN: In this study, we used cross-sectional analysis. PARTICIPANTS: We studied 112 women, 50-70 years of age, including both whites and African Americans, residing in Baltimore, Maryland. MEASUREMENTS: We measured lumbar spine BMD, blood and bone lead by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, anodic stripping voltammetry, and 109Cd-induced K-shell X-ray fluorescence, respectively. We measured vitamin D receptor and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotypes using standard methods. RESULTS: Mean (± SD) BMD and lead levels in blood, tibia, and patella were 1.02 ± 0.16 g/cm², 3.3 ± 2.2 μg/dL, 19.7 ± 13.2 μg/g, and 5.7 ± 15.3 μg/g, respectively. In adjusted analysis, higher BMD was associated with higher tibia lead levels (p = 0.03). BMD was not associated with lead levels in blood or patella. There was evidence of significant effect modification by BMD on relations of physical activity with blood lead levels and by APOE genotype on relations of BMD with tibia lead levels. There was no evidence that BMD modified relations between tibia lead or patella lead and blood lead levels. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that BMD represents the capacity of bone that can store lead, by substitution for calcium, and thus the findings may have relevance for effect-size estimates in persons with higher BMD. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The results have implications for changes in lead kinetics with aging, and thus the related risk of health effects associated with substantial early- and midlife lead exposure in older persona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To analyze how women who are left behind seek care in communities with a high migration index. Material and Methods. This is a cross-sectional study which used a qualitative approach. Sixty in-depth interviews were conducted between October 2004 and May 2005 with female partners of migrants in two communities (urban / rural) from a region in central Mexico with high migration to the United States. Results. Migration determines two forms of familial reorganization: one in which female partners of migrants reintegrate with their families; and one in which they remain on their own. Women who reintegrate with their families receive more support, but are also subjected to more control, rendering them with less capability to seek care, particularly related to sexual and reproductive health. Women who remain on their own have less support but have more control and capacity to seek care, with privacy and independence. Conclusions. The familial reorganization influences timely health care-seeking behaviour of female partners of migrants. The situations identified can function as obstacles or facilitators to mobilize healthcare resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed the impact of urban women's participation in the construction business on income generation, gender roles and responsibilities, family and societal perceptions in Zimbabwe. Problems and constraints affecting women's participation in the sector were also identified. A total of 130 respondents were purposively selected from four urban cities namely Chitungwiza, Marondera, Norton and Rusape. Structured questionnaires and focus group discussions were used as the main data collection instruments. The findings of the study showed that women's businesses in construction were profitable and constituted an important source of family income. However, business growth was negatively affected by limited access to finance, lack of suitable equipment, high cost of inputs, and training in business and marketing skills. There was also greater gender burden created as women sought to strike a balance between the social roles and economic activities even though the community had a positive perception towards their involvement. There is need for re-orientation of the national housing policy so that it explicitly incorporates the specific needs of women in the construction industry. Strategies that reduce gender burden on women also need to be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visual landscape of urban life in 1960s Montreal helped to give rise to a new practice of gazing at women, which complicates many of the taken-for-granted notions about the place of women in cities. Through the interrelated systems of visual representation--fashion, newspaper journalism, architecture, and the city itself--" girl watching" emerges as a practice intimately bound to the space of the city and the discourses of social relations embedded within it. In the process of normalizing and "naturalizing" the appearance of women in city space, an argument is made for the possibility that these spaces were subsequently opened up for other uses by women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores a study on emergency contraception awareness in rural women in India. It aims to investigate the knowledge and practice of emergency contraception among women in the study area. Results revealed that women are aware of oral pill but not of the intrauterine device (IUD). Apart from this, they have also shown that younger girls between the age of 18 to 19 were twice as likely as women from 30 to 44 years old to know about emergency contraception. The authors highlight the significance of emergency contraception toward pregnancy prevention.

Abstract: Background: The Women''s Health Study of Accra was conducted to determine the burden of illness in a representative sampling of adult urban women. Methods: This community-based survey selected study participants by a 2-stage cluster probability sample stratified by socioeconomic status based on the 2000 Ghanaian census data. It included a comprehensive household survey and medical and laboratory examination for 1328 women. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure measurement ≥140mmHg or a diastolic of ≥90mmHg. Results: A positive review of systems for hypertension was reported in 309 (23.7%) with only 52.5% using anti-hypertensive medication and only 4.4% had a normal blood pressure. The blood pressure measurement was elevated in 712/1303 (54.6%). Significant risk factors for an elevated blood pressure included age ≥50years (OR=14.24 [10.74,18.8], p <0.001); BMI≥30.00 (OR=2.89 [2.26,3.70], p <0.001); parity of three or more children (OR=5.16 [2.90,9.19], p <0.001); menopause before age 50years (OR=5.88 [1.11,31.17], p =0.037); elevated fasting blood glucose (OR=3.98 [2.38,6.64], p <0.001); elevated fasting cholesterol (OR=1.69 [1.24, 2.30], p =0.001); no formal education (OR=2.75 [1.70,4.43], p <0.001) and first degree family history of hypertension (p <0.001). There was no association with income level, diet or activity. Significant protective factors include young age, nulliparity, normal BMI, and a lower than normal fasting LDL-cholesterol. Conclusion: The prevalence of presumptive hypertension is greater than anticipated. Public health initiatives to increase awareness of hypertension and to initiate and maintain treatment regimens will serve to improve the health of the women and the urban community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The feminist concern about the city arises from questioning the unequal distribution of spaces and the differential assignment of household and public spheres, by stating that the city scenario is where everyday's life is set up, social processes develop, and women mobility and activities correspond with "feminine" stereotypes, influenced by a male perspective both for the planning and for the prevailing culture. Citizenship originates in the cities, but these present gender unequal patterns, the sharp private from public separation associated with the feminine and the masculine in the metropolis, the spatial structure that hinders use and access in the benefits of the city., the lack of green areas and infrastructure, or the lack of safety, which affect women more deeply. Therefore, the claim for the right to the city in the organizational practices of popular urban women, showing inconsistencies, deficiencies, and weaknesses in the traditional notion of citizenship. This paper shows these contradictions both on a theoretical and a practical basis, because between conflicts and negotiations, freedoms and restrictions, women inhabit and re-inhabit the city everyday, in privileged spaces for the democratic exercise. These topics are examined in this article, where new and old issues involved in the discussion are analyzed in the light of a set of practical fieldwork evidence in popular neighborhoods of the city of Concepcion, Chile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been proposed that two distinct forms of intimate partner violence exist: intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. This article describes the distribution of factors that characterize intimate terrorism and situational couple violence, including controlling behaviors, violence escalation, and injury, among a representative sample of 331 physically assaulted women living in 11 North American cities. In addition, respondent, partner, and relationship characteristics associated with each form of violence are identified. Most women who experienced physical assault also experienced controlling behavior by their male partner. In multivariate analyses, respondent's young age, violence escalation in the relationship, partner's access to guns, previous arrests for domestic violence offenses, poor mental health, and previous suicide attempts or threats were associated with intimate terrorism, defined as experiencing one or more controlling behaviors. These results suggest that situational couple violence is rare and that moderate and high levels of controlling behaviors are associated primarily with partner factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent books on post-socialist China consider how both rural and urban women in the People's Republic are engaging with new economic and cultural possibilities. Issues of desire and consumption, identity formation, feminism, and globalization run through this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to identify risk factors for abuse and IPV related injury among an urban population. This study reports an additional analysis of a case-control study conducted from 1994 to 2000 in 11 USA metropolitan cities where of 4746 women, 3637 (76.6%) agreed to participate. Control group women (N = 845) were identified through random digit dialing. Significant risk factors for abuse included women's young age (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.05 p = .011), being in fair or poor mental health (AOR 2.65 p < .001), and former partner (AOR 3.33 p < .001). Risk factors for partners perpetrating IPV included not being a high school graduate (AOR 2.06 p = .014), being in fair or poor mental health (AOR 6.61 p < .001), having a problem with drug (AOR 1.94 p = .020) or alcohol use (AOR 2.77 p = .001), or pet abuse (AOR 7.59 p = .011). College completion was observed to be protective (AOR 0.60, p < .001). Significant risk factors for injury included partner's fair or poor mental health (AOR 2.13, p = .008), suicidality (AOR 2.11, p = .020), controlling behavior (AOR 4.31, p < .001), prior domestic violence arrest (AOR 2.66, p = .004), and relationship with victim of more than 1 year (AOR 2.30, p = .026). Through integration of partner related risk factors into routine and/or targeted screening protocols, we may identify more abused women and those at greater risk of abuse and injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can have significant long-term health benefits in post-menopausal women, yet rates of HRT use are low, especially in low-income urban women. Previous research has revealed that knowledge of menopause is a key predictor of HRT use in this population. A descriptive cross-sectional survey of 215 perimenopausal and post-menopausal low-income urban women was carried out to characterize knowledge of menopause and HRT and factors associated with knowledge level. Sociodemographic characteristics, patterns of HRT use, and knowledge about menopause and HRT were collected through a structured interview. Results revealed a general lack of knowledge about menopause and HRT, particularly relative to heart disease and the role of HRT in prevention. Major independent predictors of increased knowledge (R[sup 2] = 0.31) were having talked with a healthcare provider about HRT, having at least a high school education, and being less than 60 years of age. These findings emphasize the key role of providers in educating this vulnerable population about menopause and HRT and the potential subsequent impact on HRT use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the process, underlying our HIV-prevention project for young inner-city women. Health interventions are almost uniformly based on individualistic models of health and behavior. In contrast, AIDS and AIDS prevention, by their very social nature, may require more collectivist principles of diseases, health, and intervention. We conducted a behavioral intervention, the Collectivist Empowerment AIDS Prevention (CE-AP) Program, with young, inner-city women to deal with this critical health issue. Our primary intervention goal was to promote women's sense of owning and making healthy choices about their bodies. We attempted to accomplish this by emphasizing the concepts of empowerment, collectivism (as opposed to individualism), and culturally sensitive skill building. Collectivism is emphasized to encourage women to involve others in their behavioral health decisions and to gain power through social joining and coalition building. A woman's behavioral decisions affect many others in her life. Thus, involving others in decision making emphasizes the connection between an individual's actions and their impact on interpersonal relationships. CE-AP was found to be effective in changinga safaer-sex behavior and we review our findings and future directions. 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the position of women in an African culture, namely, the Bira of Zaire, in both rural and urban milieus during the 1970s and 1980s. It is shown that rural Bira women have greater socioeconomic power as well as higher social status and prestige than their urban counterparts. Rural Bira women — despite living away from their natal home as virtual "strangers" among their husbands' relatives — have support networks of kin, which urban women lack. Furthermore, rural women are more able to earn their own living in a substantial, independent manner, since they have guaranteed access to land. In contrast, most urban Bira women live in poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address a research lacuna in the area of human experience of, and interaction with, nature. We focus on women in an urbanized setting, exploring their actual and desired experiences of the natural world, using Singapore as a case study. Our intention is to contribute to both the evolving theoretical and empirical discussions on this subject. Based on data collected from focus group discussions and household questionnaires, we conclude that women's relationships with nature in Singapore are underscored by a strong inclination towards nurturing: teaching, tending and caring, in a way that is not as apparent in men's relationships with nature. Women's relationships with nature may also be conceptualized in terms of 'danger' and 'delight', a fine balance between ambivalent experiences of fear and enjoyment. In comparing results based on the Singapore context with those in Britain, sources of enjoyment appear to be similar, but the different social situations have resulted in different sources of fear. We conclude by putting forward some recommendations for planning and designing green areas that may enhance women's use and enjoyment of nature areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses urban employment for women. Urban China is currently faced with two major, interconnected social problems. The first is that, due to the low level of the country's productivity, there is a surplus of manpower. Many enterprises are overstaffed, and employees cannot fully utilize their capabilities. This aggravates the problem of people waiting to be placed. The other is that, under the policy of equal opportunity for men and women, most women, at similar ages to men, are holding the same jobs as men. Housework at home, however, has not been socialized, which means that women often have to shoulder heavy loads at home as well. The result is that, in families with both husband and wife working, both are tired out by housework. This is no doubt an abnormal phenomenon. The two questions are both related to China's current employment system, and this article will attempt to offer some suggestions as how to reform the employment system as it pertains to urban women. In the early period after liberation in 1949, there were 600,000 women employees in the country, or 7.5 percent of the total work force.