Major Source Of Information Research Articles

The Influence of Children on Parents’ Purchase Decision for Nutritional Health Drinks: A Study of Delhi, India

Children use different types of influence strategies to persuade their parents to buy a product of their choice and possess a significant impact on their parents’ buying behaviour. The present survey-based descriptive research study focused on the adolescents population of Delhi and aims at analysing the brand preferences among children for nutritional health drinks and the influence of children on parents’ purchase behaviour for such drinks. The data for research was collected from a sample size of 200 respondents of the age group 10–19. The results of the study show that the brand preferred by the majority of the children is Bournvita, and the brand features that attract the majority of the individuals are the nutritional value and health benefits claimed, while product packaging and taste also influence the brand choices of children, and advertisement is the major source of information for different brands for children. Analysis of data also shows the most preferred and different combinations of influence strategies used by children. Females and children of the age group 10–14 have more influence on their parents’ purchase behaviour as compared to males and children of the age group of 15–19 as per the findings of our study, and it shows that children’s influence exists on parents’ purchase decisions for nutritional health drinks.

Perception and Adoption of Government Agricultural Technologies among Smallholder Farmers in Western Uganda

Agriculture production and productivity remain key to feeding the growing population with agriculture extension being at the centre of the performance of the agricultural sector in Uganda. Research shows that improved technologies promoted through extension service provision could have an even greater impact on food production and on farmers’ livelihoods in developing countries like Uganda. This study was conducted to investigate the perception and adoption of improved agriculture technologies under the government extension system among smallholder farmers in Kagadi District, mid-western Uganda. Data was collected using a questionnaire from 149 randomly selected households in three sub-counties. Results generated using Excel and SPSS revealed a high positive perception index of +0.63 for government extension services. The level of adoption of improved technology based on generalised partial adoption was 54.3% with farm size and training attendance being the significant factors affecting adoption of improved agricultural technologies in the study area. It is clear from the results that notable differences exist in terms of the perceptions of government extension services and the adoption of improved agricultural technologies. The general observation of farmers’ perception is that government extension service is helpful to farmers and is the major source of agricultural information in the area. Efforts should be made to support access to arable land and intensification of agricultural training sessions coupled with appropriate mobilisation of farmers to attend such training. Further studies should be done to understand these aspects on a wider scope in the country since this study was only conducted in one district. There is also needed to study the factors individually as well as the relationships with other factors to determine the adoption processes of technological advancement

Physicians’ Knowledge from Different Religious Background on Management of Diabetic Patients during Ramadan Fasting in Saudi Arabia

The objective of this study is to assesses the knowledge of physicians about basic facts of Ramadan and their ability to give health guidance for diabetic patients to people who are funding and changing their wishing to fast during Ramadan. We studied the knowledge of physicians on Ramadan fasting as a religious duty and impact of some social practices on the fasting diabetic patients. The sample included all the non-Muslim physicians working in different hospitals and health care centers in Najran. Data was collected over a period of one month. This was a quasi-experimental study where non-Muslim physicians were questioned on their knowledge and advice they give to diabetic patients and professional practice of physicians, pre and post a focus group intervention. There were 52 non-Muslim physicians most of the respondents (55.8%) see more than five diabetic patients per week in Ramadan, who had some enquires relevant to Ramadan fasting. Major source of information on Ramadan fasting was through personal communication with Muslim colleagues. Factors that impair diabetic control include cessation of medications, self-modification of dose, increase in consumption of sugar and increased physical activity. We conclude that physicians in Saudi Arabia lack basic religious knowledge on Ramadan that influences health and disease. By simple measures such as distributing written teaching materials or focused group discussions, we can empower their abilities to provide efficient advice to diabetic patients wishing to observe Ramadan fasting.

Patterns of Insecticide Use and Farmers' Knowledge Level in Managing <i>Leucinodes orbonalis</i> Guenee in Tamil Nadu

A study was conducted to record the pattern of insecticide usage and knowledge level of farmers in handling insecticides to control shoot and fruit borer Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee from major brinjal growing districts of Tamil Nadu during 2022 -2023. This study found that, 22 different insecticides were imposed for the management of Leucinodes orbonalis and among them chlorantraniliprole 18.5% SC (83.00%) was recorded as the highest usage insecticide followed by spinetoram 11.7% SC (72.00%). The number of insecticide applications among various districts varied from 9.9 to 24.7 per cropping season at an interval ranging 4.9 to 12.3 days. The major source of information regarding pesticides to the farmers were pesticide dealers (65.00%) and about 98.00% of the farmers did not pay attention towards label on pesticide containers. Only around 40.00% of farmers followed recommended dose and nearly 60.00% did not follow any safety measures while spraying. Study inferred that, more than 84.00% brinjal growing farmers completely relay on pesticides for the management of Leucinodes orbonalis in brinjal.

Verb Vocabulary Supports Event Probability Use in Developmental Language Disorder.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) tend to interpret noncanonical sentences like passives using event probability (EP) information regardless of structure (e.g., by interpreting "The dog was chased by the squirrel" as "The dog chased the squirrel"). Verbs are a major source of EP information in adults and children with typical development (TD), who know that "chase" implies an unequal relationship among participants. Individuals with DLD have poor verb knowledge and verb-based sentence processing. Yet, they also appear to rely more on EP information than their peers. This paradox raises two questions: (a) How do children with DLD use verb-based EP information alongside other information in online passive sentence interpretation? (b) How does verb vocabulary knowledge support EP information use? We created novel EP biases by showing animations of agents with consistent action tendencies (e.g., clumsy vs. helpful actions). We then used eye tracking to examine how this EP information was used during online passive sentence processing. Participants were 4- to 5-year-old children with DLD (n = 20) and same-age peers with TD (n = 20). In Experiment 1, children with DLD quickly integrated verb-based EP information with morphosyntax close to the verb but failed to do so with distant morphosyntax. In Experiment 2, the quality of children's sentence-specific verb vocabulary knowledge was positively associated with the use of EP information in both groups. Depending on the morphosyntactic context, children with DLD and TD used EP information differently, but verb vocabulary knowledge aided its use. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25491805.

IJCM_126A: Sources of health information among residents of Mangaluru, Karnataka

Background: By knowing the various sources of health information accessed by the people, it helps different organizations in better targeted delivery for health information. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among college going students from non-medical streams and adult in-patients seeking health care in the study hospitals using a semi- structured self-validated questionnaire. Results: The demographic details of the student study population consisted of 64.1% females and 35.9% males and that of adult population consisted of 20% females and 80% males. 36% of the adult population had finished high school education while on the other hand students were either graduates (72.8%) or postgraduates (27.2%). Among 41.2% students sought health information to know about the new health issues whereas 66.7% adult population sought health information for their general well-being. Internet is the major source of health information amongst the student population (55.6%) while 58.8% adult population sought health information from television. 9.8% adult population used journals to seek health information. 22.6% of students sought health information when they were ill on the other hand it was 5.9% among the adult population. In the Internet, 55% students accessed health information through social network and various search engines and 83.3% adult population accessed search engines. Family physician was the most trusted source of health information among both students(54%) and adult population(76.5%). Conclusion: Among the participants, most of the active seekers were students whose main source of health information was from the internet. Majority of the participants said family Physicians are the most trusted source of health- related information.

Exploring We Media's Impact on Sex Education in Chinese University Students

Sex education is an essential component of public health, involving topics such as sexual health, relationships, and identity. In China, the Internet and We Media have become major sources of information for university students, potentially shaping their attitudes and behaviors regarding sex education. While there is a lot of literature on sex education in China and the influence of the internet, there is a need to understand the specific impact of We Media on university students’ sex education. This paper will discuss the impact of We Media on sex education including sexual knowledge, sexual attitudes and sexual behaviors among Chinese university students. The study found that We Media provides Chinese university students with comprehensive sexual knowledge and understanding; however, exercising judgment and critical thinking about the content is necessary. Sexual attitudes have been correctly and positively reversed through the intervention of We Media. At the same time, the inappropriate behaviors resulting from Chinese university students' lack of correct understanding of sexual behavior have been reduced.

Digital health literacy and associated factors among internet users from China: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundAs the internet develops and 5G technology becomes increasingly prominent, the internet has become a major source of health-related information. Increasingly, people use the internet to find health-related information, and digital health literacy is now a set of essential capabilities to improve their health in the digital era. However, little is known about the factors that influencing digital health literacy. This study aimed to assess digital health literacy scores and identify its influencing factors among internet users in China. Additionally, this study explored the participant’s actual skills using an additional set of performance-based items from the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI).MethodsAn online cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2022. Participants aged ≥18 years were recruited to complete the survey. Data were collected using the Chinese revised version of the DHLI, the self-reported internet use questionnaire, and the sociodemographic questionnaire. We conducted multivariate linear regression analyses to explore the relationships among the sociodemographic variables, behavior of internet use, and the digital health literacy scores.ResultsIn total, 702 participants completed the survey. The mean DHLI score was 2.69 ± 0.61. Multivariate linear regression analyses showed that the age groups 35–49 (β = − 0.08, P = 0.033), 50–64 (β = − 0.161, P < 0.001), and ≥ 65 (β = − 0.138, P < 0.001) were negatively associated with DHL scores. However, education level, including bachelor’s or associate degree (β = 0.255, P = 0.002) and master’s degree and above (β = 0.256, P < 0.001), frequency of health-related Internet usage (β = 0.192, P < 0.001), the number of digital devices used (β = 0.129, P = 0.001), and OHISB (β = 0.103, P = 0.006) showed a positive relationship with DHL scores.ConclusionsThe study findings demonstrate that age, educational levels, number of technological devices used, and greater use of the web for health information were independently associated with DHL scores. Healthcare providers should consider providing training programs tailored to specific sociodemographic factors to improve the ability that find and use accurate information online to meet digital health services, which contributes to enhance their self-management and reduce health disparities.

COVID-19 information sources, knowledge, attitude, control practices and the predictors among health workers during the pandemic in Ebonyi state, Nigeria

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed into an endemic COVID-19 disease and health workers continue to be at high risk. The situation requires continued use of COVID-19 control measures by health workers and this will likely depend on their sources of information/knowledge/attitude about COVID-19 and previous use of COVID-19 control measures. We explored the COVID-19 information sources, knowledge, attitude, control practices, and the predictors, among health workers in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. We implemented an online-offline analytical cross-sectional survey from March 12 to May 9, 2022 among all categories of health workers (clinical/non-clinical, public/private) working/living in Ebonyi state who gave consent and were selected via convenience/snowballing sampling. Data was collected with a structured self-administered/interviewer-administered questionnaire via WhatsApp/KoBoCollect. Descriptive/inferential analyses were done including multivariate generalized linear models. 1276 health workers were surveyed. The commonest individual source of information about COVID-19 was health workers (used by 83.8%), followed by radio (67.9%), television (59.6%), family members/relatives/friends (57.9%) etc. The main individual source of information for majority of the participants was health workers (for 35.0%) followed by radio (24.5%), television (14.4%) etc. The most trusted individual source of information for majority of the participants was health workers (for 39.4%) followed by radio (26.0%), television (14.3%) etc. Interpersonal sources were the main/most trusted source of information for the majority (48.0%/49.8%) followed by traditional media (39.4%/40.6%) and internet/social media/SMS (12.6%/9.6%). 42.3%, 81.3%, and 43.0% respectively had good knowledge, good attitude, and good control practice about COVID-19. The most important predictors of the main/most trusted sources of information about COVID-19 were place of work (public/private), level of place of work (primary-secondary/tertiary), age, and years of working experience. Good knowledge about COVID-19, good attitude towards COVID-19, strong COVID-19 experience/perception, working at a tertiary facility, tertiary education, and decrease in years of working experience were strong predictors of good control practice about COVID-19. This study’s evidence regarding the commonest/main/most trusted information sources and control practice about COVID-19 should be considered by later COVID-19/similar health emergencies’ policy actions to optimise emergency health information dissemination and use of control measures by health workers in Ebonyi state/Nigeria/other similar settings.

Awareness and Use of Family Planning Methods among Married Women in A Community

Family planning/contraception reduces the need for abortion, especially unsafe abortion, reduces infant mortality, helps prevent HIV/AIDs, reduces adolescent pregnancies and helps to slow down increasing population growth. Over 60% of unintended pregnancies end in abortion, safe or unsafe, legal or illegal. An estimated 45% of all abortions remain unsafe and hospitalizes about 7 million women a year in developing countries. A descriptive cross-sectional research was carried out in ward no.14, Kathmandu Metropolitan city. The objective of this study was to find out awareness and use of Family planning method among married women in a community. Non probability, purposive sampling method was used. Sample size was 68 married women. The respondents mean age was 33.1 years and standard deviation was 6.5 years. All of the respondents (100%) were familiar with condom, pills, depo-provera, female sterilization whereas 95.6% heard about implants. Almost all of the respondents (98.5%) stated implants prevents pregnancy for 5 years and half of them (47.1%) were aware implants doesn't interfere with breast feeding. major source of information regarding family planning methods was from health professionals (80.8%) Whereas husband (13.2) level of awareness regarding family planning methods where 1.5% of the respondents had inadequate awareness, 54.3% had moderately adequate awareness and 44.1% of the respondents had adequate awareness. there is no significant association with age (0.479), duration of marriage (0.325), occupation (0.146) of the mother with level of awareness regarding family planning methods.

Beninese Plant Extracts with Antiplasmodial Activity Select New Allele Variants Msp1 and Msp2 in Plasmodium falciparum.

Natural medicinal products are commonly used as a remedy against malaria infections in African populations and have become a major source of information for the screening of new and more effective antiplasmodial molecules. Therefore, in vitro studies are needed to validate the efficacy of these medicinal products and to explore the potential effects of such drugs on the genetic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum. The current study has investigated the impact of some Beninese plant extracts with antiplasmodial activity on the genetic diversity of P. falciparum. Five (5) ethanolic plant extracts (Dissotis rotundifolia, Ehretia cymosa Thonn, Hibiscus surattensis L., Cola millenii K. Shum, and Costus afer Ker Gawl) and a compound extracted from Ehretia cymosa Thonn (encoded CpE2) were tested against asexual stage parasites of a culture-adapted strain of P. falciparum. Subsequently, the P. falciparum Msp1 and Msp2 markers were genotyped, and the number of allelic variants and the multiplicity of infection (MOI) were compared between drug-exposed and unexposed parasites. All plant extracts have shown inhibitory activity against asexual P. falciparum and selected new allelic variants of the Msp1 and Msp2 genes compared to unexposed parasites. The newly selected allelic variants were K1_100bp and RO33_300bp of the Msp1 gene and FC27_150bp, FC27_300bp, FC27_400bp, and FC27_600bp of the Msp2 gene. However, there was no significant difference in MOI between drug-exposed and unexposed parasites. Our study highlights a source for the selection of new Msp1 and Msp2 alleles after exposure to antimalarial drugs. These findings pave the way for further studies investigating the true roles of these newly selected alleles in P. falciparum.

Geo-demographics and source of information as determinants of climate change consciousness among citizens in African countries

Climate change constitutes one of the greatest threats to human health globally and there have been increasing interests in understanding the dynamics of climate change consciousness particularly in less industrialised countries of Africa. Research on cross-country, sub-regional and continent differences in climate change consciousness are rare especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, to complement the existing body of literature, this study was conducted on cross-national predictors of public climate change consciousness. Data from the Afrobarometer round 7 for thirty-four [34] African countries, collected between 2017 and 2020, were used to investigate the influence of geographical, socio-demographics, and source of information on public consciousness of climate change. Statistical analyses of t-test, ANOVA and multiple regression were conducted to test the formulated hypotheses. Results showed a low level of climate change consciousness (CCC) among participants. Radio news was the major source of information for the sampled African citizens. There were significant differences in the CCC of male and female as well as between urban and rural respondents. Significant differences were also found among the sub-regions, educational levels, age groups and occupations. Sources of information and demographic variables significantly influenced the level of CCC among participating citizens. Educational attainment was the single most potent predictor of climate change consciousness. The study recommends that African citizens need capacity building on climate change awareness and initiatives which would assist in mitigating the effects of climate change.

O120: Knowledge and perceptions of General and Vascular surgeons and the public on antibiotic resistance: a validated questionnaire study

Abstract Introduction Antibiotic resistance is a leading cause of death globally. Surgeons are responsible for a significant proportion of antibiotic prescribing with surgical prophylaxis constituting 15% of all antibiotic prescriptions. Despite this, knowledge and perceptions of surgeons surrounding antibiotic resistance are poorly understood and therefore antibiotic stewardship programmes have failed to target this cohort of prescribers. Methods Two parallel surveys were created and distributed to surgeons (n=48) and the public (n=115). Content validity was ensured through a systematic review of the literature. Clinical scenarios testing antimicrobial prescribing practice were included in the surgeon survey. Both surveys were further validated by a multidisciplinary panel of surgeons and consultant microbiologists. A multimodal distribution approach was utilised including face-to-face, email, and patient and public engagement platforms. Results Surgeons scored poorly across knowledge domains with 7/9 clinical scenarios answered correctly by less than 50% of participants. Key barriers to adequate prescribing identified were knowledge/education, fear of missing an infection, guidelines, and cultural issues. The most useful interventions identified were formal education to prescribers (70.8%), provision of local antibiotic resistance patterns (64.7%) and increased help from Infectious Diseases/Microbiology/Pharmacy (64.7%). Although public participants demonstrated good knowledge surrounding antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance, medical professionals were reported to be their major information source. Conclusion Surgeon knowledge surrounding antimicrobial resistance can be improved through targeted antibiotic stewardship interventions and addressing barriers identified by this study. Although public participants surveyed demonstrate willingness to improve antibiotic use, behaviour change will be predominantly driven by improved practice by surgeons.

Congenital Anosmia and Facial Emotion Recognition

Major functions of the olfactory system include guiding ingestion and avoidance of environmental hazards. People with anosmia report reliance on others, for example to check the edibility of food, as their primary coping strategy. Facial expressions are a major source of non-verbal social information that can be used to guide approach and avoidance behaviour. Thus, it is of interest to explore whether a life-long absence of the sense of smell heightens sensitivity to others’ facial emotions, particularly those depicting threat. In the present, online study 28 people with congenital anosmia (mean age 43.46) and 24 people reporting no olfactory dysfunction (mean age 42.75) completed a facial emotion recognition task whereby emotionally neutral faces (6 different identities) morphed, over 40 stages, to express one of 5 basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, or sadness. Results showed that, while the groups did not differ in their ability to identify the final, full-strength emotional expressions, nor in the accuracy of their first response, the congenital anosmia group successfully identified the emotions at significantly lower intensity (i.e. an earlier stage of the morph) than the control group. Exploratory analysis showed this main effect was primarily driven by an advantage in detecting anger and disgust. These findings indicate the absence of a functioning sense of smell during development leads to compensatory changes in visual, social cognition. Future work should explore the neural and behavioural basis for this advantage.

"They Don't See Us": Asian Students' Perceptions of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment on Three California Public University Campuses.

Sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH) are prevalent among college and university students; however, the experiences of ethnic minority students, especially Asians, are understudied. This study aimed to reduce this gap by exploring Asian students' perceptions of SVSH on three public university campuses in Southern California. We examined their perceptions about the campus environment related to SVSH, attitudes, and behaviors toward help seeking, and utilization of on-campus resources. A total of 23 in-depth interviews were conducted with Asian students enrolled at the three University of California campuses. Thematic coding was conducted to generate main themes and subthemes. Five main themes emerged: (a) SVSH is considered a "taboo" topic in Asian culture and family systems, and Asian student survivors are often reluctant to disclose incidents or seek support services. (b) Students did not feel their campus environments were tailored to understand or meet the sociocultural realities and needs of Asian student survivors. (c) Campus SVSH services and reporting processes were seen as non-transparent. (d) Peers were the major source of support and SVSH information, as opposed to official campus-based resources and training. (e) Survivors often conduct an internal cost-benefit analysis evaluating their decision about whether to report. This study highlights the lack of conversation surrounding SVSH in Asian families, and how the cultural stigma of sex and sexual violence prevented Asian students from receiving knowledge and resources about these topics in their families. Instead of relying on formal campus resources (e.g., Title IX and confidential advocacy services, mental health services), many students turn to their peers for support. Thus, facilitating peer support groups, training university students to support each other through SVSH incidents, and tailoring campus services to the diverse cultural backgrounds of students are key considerations to foster a safe campus environment and prevent SVSH.

Distance and closeness in translated global news coverage: bilingual representations of culture-bound themes from Bolivia to the world

ABSTRACT Global news agencies are major sources of information about events often happening far away from their international audiences; information that rapidly transcends geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. There is a twofold purpose to the analysis in this study of bilingual feature stories dealing with the representation of faith in Bolivia, published by the news agencies Associated Press, Agencia EFE, and Reuters in Spanish and English. First, it implements an analytical framework to characterize bilingual news coverage by describing types of transcultural transfers, singling out the translation techniques applied, and bringing into focus how the culture-bound elements were rendered. Second, the contrastive textual analysis prompts a methodological discussion on the potential of studying translation distance and closeness in multilingual news production from a non-mainstream locale. Results point to close renditions that may not be considered a typical practice in news translation, yet are ostensibly purposeful both from a translational and from a journalistic perspective. Since journalism and translation coexist in multilingual newsrooms, where the latter often goes unacknowledged, this article ultimately attempts to reveal the role of translation in producing international news about distant realities, such as Bolivia, where cultural specificities are ubiquitous.

Multimodal fusion of EMG and vision for human grasp intent inference in prosthetic hand control.

Objective: For transradial amputees, robotic prosthetic hands promise to regain the capability to perform daily living activities. Current control methods based on physiological signals such as electromyography (EMG) are prone to yielding poor inference outcomes due to motion artifacts, muscle fatigue, and many more. Vision sensors are a major source of information about the environment state and can play a vital role in inferring feasible and intended gestures. However, visual evidence is also susceptible to its own artifacts, most often due to object occlusion, lighting changes, etc. Multimodal evidence fusion using physiological and vision sensor measurements is a natural approach due to the complementary strengths of these modalities. Methods: In this paper, we present a Bayesian evidence fusion framework for grasp intent inference using eye-view video, eye-gaze, and EMG from the forearm processed by neural network models. We analyze individual and fused performance as a function of time as the hand approaches the object to grasp it. For this purpose, we have also developed novel data processing and augmentation techniques to train neural network components. Results: Our results indicate that, on average, fusion improves the instantaneous upcoming grasp type classification accuracy while in the reaching phase by 13.66% and 14.8%, relative to EMG (81.64% non-fused) and visual evidence (80.5% non-fused) individually, resulting in an overall fusion accuracy of 95.3%. Conclusion: Our experimental data analyses demonstrate that EMG and visual evidence show complementary strengths, and as a consequence, fusion of multimodal evidence can outperform each individual evidence modality at any given time.

A Systematic Quality Assessment of Online Resources on Eyelid Ptosis Using the Modified Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (mEQIP) Tool.

Eyelid ptosis is an underestimated pathology deeply affecting patients' quality of life. Internet has increasingly become the major source of information regarding health care, and patients often browse on websites to acquire an initial knowledge on the subject. However, there is lack of data concerning the quality of available information focusing on the eyelid ptosis and its treatment. We systematically evaluated online information quality on eyelid ptosis by using the "Ensuring Quality Information for Patients" (EQIP) scale. Google, Yahoo and Bing have been searched for the keywords "Eyelid ptosis," "Eyelid ptosis surgery" and "Blepharoptosis." The first 50 hits were included, evaluating the quality of information with the expanded EQIP tool. Websites in English and intended for general non-medical public use were included. Irrelevant documents, videos, pictures, blogs and articles with no access were excluded. Out of 138 eligible websites, 79 (57,7%) addressed more than 20 EQIP items, with an overall median score of 20,2. Only 2% discussed procedure complication rates. The majority fail to disclose severe complications and quantifying risks, fewer than 18% clarified the potential need for additional treatments. Surgical procedure details were lacking, and there was insufficient information about pre-/postoperative precautions for patients. Currently, online quality information has not improved since COVID-19 pandemic. This study highlights the urgent requirement for improved patient-oriented websites adhering to international standards for plastic and oculoplastic surgery. Healthcare providers should effectively guide their patients in finding trustworthy and reliable eyelid ptosis correction information. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

“What We Say Is What You See”: Portrayal by Christian Faith-Based Organizations of Female Survivors of Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in Cambodia

ABSTRACT The representation of trafficking survivors in marketing, research, and other materials can have a significant impact on the stigma placed on survivors and the services they receive. This study explores the representation of trafficking for sexual exploitation by several Christian Faith-based Organizations (CFBOs) in Cambodia. Major sources of information included interviews with Christian Faith-based Organization (CFBO) leaders and staff, and a review of publicly available secondary resources (aid agency websites, reports, advertisements, and other documents). This research examines how these organizations define their beneficiaries and communicate to their supporters using concepts, words, and images rooted in the agency’s particular perspective on Christianity. The paper explores CFBO discourse in that it includes the influence of CFBO metaphors and rhetoric on their framing of trafficking and exploitation issues and responses to it, and the impact of those portrayals on how their beneficiaries are viewed by their local communities both within the wider Cambodian context as well as internationally. Results revealed a sharp contrast between how trafficking survivors define themselves (i.e., how they make sense of their own lives in relation to trafficking and sexual exploitation) and how they are defined by society, their families, and CFBOs in relation to being trafficked and in the context of receiving CFBO assistance.

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards Ayurveda among patients attending cardiology and neurology clinics at a tertiary care institute in India.

Background Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine, has been practised in India since ages. We evaluated the overall awareness regarding Ayurveda among patients attending two specialty clinics at a tertiary care institute. Methods We did a cross-sectional study on patients attending the cardiology and neurology clinics at a tertiary care hospital in India. We conducted this paper-based survey using a standardized, validated questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA version 14.2. Results Three hundred and ninety-seven patients agreed to participate in the study. Their mean (SD) age was 45.65 (15.02) years. Among them 68.5% were men and 56.9% were from urban areas. Participants perceived that Ayurveda comprised herbal drugs (77.6%), metallic/herbo-mineral preparations (44.3%), Panchakarma therapy (22.2%) and personalized medicine (37.8%). Principal sources of information were TV promotional programmes (34.7%) and newspaper advertisements (13.9%). Nearly two-thirds (63%) of participants opined that Ayurveda is effective in chronic disorders. Although only 9.1% of participants reported the use of Ayurvedic medicines, 89.2% believed it would be beneficial if the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi had Ayurveda services. Three-fourths (75.8%) of respondents were interested to participate in research studies integrating Ayurveda with modern medicine. Conclusion Imprecise knowledge and awareness towards Ayurveda appears to prevail in addition to the low practice among the patients surveyed. We found imprecise knowledge of Ayurvedic therapies and its low usage among patients attending specialized OPDs in a tertiary care hospital. The major source of information reported was promotional advertisements in the print and electronic media. Our survey shows a need for awareness programmes for general public at various levels.