Women In Helsinki Research Articles

Engaging with the Qur’an

In this article, I examine what selected Muslim women in Finland and Egypt do with the Qur’an in their daily lives. I shed light on their modes of engagement with the Qur’an (spiritual, emotional, intellectual, communal). I analyse how their relationship with the Qur’an is shaped and changes over the course of their life. I pay attention to the interplay between the women’s daily lives and the ways in which they experience, learn from, grapple with, and interpret the text. My overall aim is twofold: to contribute to research-based understanding of the Qur’an as daily religious practice that in many ways involves learning both about God and about the complex circumstances of personal life, and to unpack the layered and shifting meanings of this practice in the context of the women’s lives. My analysis is informed by life-story interviews with six women in Helsinki and Cairo (three in each country).

Maternal health care utilization and the obstetric outcomes of undocumented women in Finland \u2013 a retrospective register-based study

BackgroundUndocumented pregnant women constitute a vulnerable group of people who lack equal access to pregnancy care. Previous research has shown that undocumented migrants encounter difficulties in accessing health services, the onset of prenatal care is delayed, and women have an increased risk for infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to describe the use of maternal health care services and the obstetric outcomes of undocumented women in Helsinki, capital city of Finland, in addition to comparing the results with all pregnant women in Finland.MethodsThe study was a retrospective register-based study consisting of data collected between 2014 to 2018 from the electronic medical records of the public maternity clinic and maternity hospital in Helsinki, Finland. The study population consists of 62 individual pregnancies of undocumented women. The results of the study were compared with national data on parturients and deliveries (N = 47,274 women) and with prenatal screening tests for infectious diseases (N = 51,447 [HIV, HBV], N = 51,446 [syphilis]).ResultsThe majority (91%) of the undocumented women attended public prenatal care. However, four women received no prenatal care and three women were denied access to care. Undocumented women entered prenatal care later and had fewer visits compared with all pregnant women. The majority (71%) of the undocumented women received inadequate prenatal care as the number of visits was less than eight. Of the study population, 5% (3/59) tested positive for HIV, 3% (2/59) for HBV, and 2% (1/57) for syphilis. The prevalence of HIV (p-value < 0.001) and HBV (p-value = 0.007) was significantly higher amongst undocumented women compared with all pregnant women.ConclusionsUndocumented women entered prenatal care later than recommended. Most women received inadequate prenatal care and some of them did not receive prenatal care at all. The prevalence of infectious diseases was significantly higher and the coverage of prenatal screenings deficient amongst undocumented pregnant women.

Treatment Barriers to Social and Health Care Services from the Standpoint of Female Substance Users in Finland

This qualitative study discusses barriers affecting female substance user’s treatment access to welfare services. The study consisted of seven group discussions and three individual meetings with 13 women in Helsinki, Finland. Institutional ethnography was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The research questions are: (a) What treatment barriers do women face?, (b) What reasons are there for them not receiving services?, and (c) How do the ruling relations coordinate women’s experiences? Women faced multiple barriers affecting their access to services. They could be interpreted as being: determined by the service system, such as a difficulty in meeting the various criteria in order to be granted access to services; determined by the lack of trust; or determined by personal choices. The study suggests that the service system should be organized according to the needs of the service users. Future research is needed to address the questions such as how social and health care services could better co-operate, and how the different sectors of the service system could break down the institutional barriers.

Performing gendered distinctions: young women painting illicit street art and graffiti in Helsinki

ABSTRACTThis article studies illicit street art and graffiti subculture among women in Helsinki, taking feminist subcultural theory into account. In previous studies of illicit street art and graffiti, women’s participation has been overlooked partly due to lack of data and through the tendency of seeing them as one unified marginalised group. Through ethnographic fieldwork, using edgework as the methodological approach, and interviews with eight women painting street art and graffiti in Helsinki, this article presents a critical perspective on how these women negotiate their positions in the subcultures from different positions. Particularly, it examines the performed gendered distinctions between street art and graffiti, and the negotiations of subcultural subjectivity.

Fashion, Anti-Fashion, Non-Fashion and Symbolic Capital: The Uses of Dress among Muslim Minorities in Finland

This paper argues that Muslim women in Helsinki, Finland use dress as a tool to cultivate and express forms of cultural capital, that fashion, anti-fashion and non-fashion are strategies in such practices, and that fashionability, stylishness, piety, modesty, disinterest in fashion, and spirituality are forms of symbolic capital that are used in order to gain status within various reference groups.

Evidence for an Interaction Between Familial Liability and Prenatal Exposure to Infection in the Causation of Schizophrenia

The authors sought to determine whether prenatal exposure to infection and a positive family history of psychotic disorders interact synergistically to increase the risk of later developing schizophrenia. The authors linked two national registers, the Medical Birth Register and the Finnish Population Register, to identify all women in Helsinki who received hospital treatment during pregnancy for an upper urinary tract infection (N=9,596) between 1947 and 1990. The Finnish Hospital Discharge Register was used to ascertain psychiatric outcomes in adulthood of offspring exposed to infection prenatally. Family history of psychotic disorders was determined by linking the Hospital Discharge Register and the Population Register. The authors used an additive statistical interaction model to calculate the amount of biological synergism between positive family history and prenatal exposure to infection. Prenatal exposure to infection did not significantly increase the risk of schizophrenia. However, the effect of prenatal exposure to pyelonephritis was five times greater in those who had a family history of psychosis compared to those who did not. The synergy analysis suggested that an estimated 38%-46% of the offspring who developed schizophrenia and had both prenatal exposure to infection and a positive family history of psychotic disorders did so as a result of the synergistic action of both risk factors. These findings support a mechanism of gene-environment interaction in the causation of schizophrenia.

EVIDENCE FOR AN INTERACTION BETWEEN FAMILIAL LIABILITY AND PRENATAL EXPOSURE TO INFECTION IN THE CAUSATION OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Objective: The authors sought to determine whether prenatal exposure to infection and a positive family history of psychotic disorders interact synergistically to increase the risk of later developing schizophrenia. Method: The authors linked two national registers, the Medical Birth Register and the Finnish Population Register, to identify all women in Helsinki who received hospital treatment during pregnancy for an upper urinary tract infection (N=9,596) between 1947 and 1990. The Finnish Hospital Discharge Register was used to ascertain psychiatric outcomes in adulthood of offspring exposed to infection prenatally. Family history of psychotic disorders was determined by linking the Hospital Discharge Register and the Population Register. The authors used an additive statistical interaction model to calculate the amount of biological synergism between positive family history and prenatal exposure to infection. Results: Prenatal exposure to infection did not significantly increase the risk of schizophrenia. However, the effect of prenatal exposure to pyelonephritis was five times greater in those who had a family history of psychosis compared to those who did not. The synergy analysis suggested that an estimated 38%-46% of the offspring who developed schizophrenia and had both prenatal exposure to infection and a positive family history of psychotic disorders did so as a result of the synergistic action of both risk factors. Conclusions: These findings support a mechanism of gene-environment interaction in the causation of schizophrenia.

Associations of job strain and working overtime with adverse health behaviors and obesity: Evidence from the Whitehall II Study, Helsinki Health Study, and the Japanese Civil Servants Study

Adverse health behaviors and obesity are key determinants of major chronic diseases. Evidence on work-related determinants of these behavioral risk factors is inconclusive, and comparative studies are especially lacking. We aimed to examine the associations between job strain, working overtime, adverse health behaviors, and obesity among 45–60-year-old white-collar employees of the Whitehall II Study from London ( n = 3397), Helsinki Health Study ( n = 6070), and the Japanese Civil Servants Study ( n = 2213). Comparable data from all three cohorts were pooled, and logistic regression analysis was used, stratified by cohort and sex. Models were adjusted for age, occupational class, and marital status. Outcomes were unhealthy food habits, physical inactivity, heavy drinking, smoking, and obesity. In London, men reporting passive work were more likely to be physically inactive. A similar association was repeated among women in Helsinki. Additionally, high job strain was associated with physical inactivity among men in London and women in Helsinki. In London, women reporting passive work were less likely to be heavy drinkers and smokers. In Japan, men working overtime reported less smoking, whereas those with high job strain were more likely to smoke. Among men in Helsinki the association between working overtime and non-smoking was also suggested, but it reached statistical significance in the age-adjusted model only. Obesity was associated with working overtime among women in London. In conclusion, job strain and working overtime had some, albeit mostly weak and inconsistent, associations with adverse health behaviors and obesity in these middle-aged white-collar employee cohorts from Britain, Finland, and Japan.

Users’ perspectives on medical abortion in Finland

The objective of this study was to determine the reasons for choosing the medical instead of surgical method for the termination of early pregnancy, and to evaluate the experience and the level of satisfaction with the medical method among women in Helsinki who participated in a multinational efficacy study of medical abortion. The study respondents consisted of 123 women with less than 9 weeks gestation, undergoing medical abortion with mifepristone 200 mg orally followed 36 h to 48 h later by misoprostol 0.8 mg orally or vaginally. By using structured questionnaires, the reasons for choosing the medical method were assessed before the abortion, whereas the experience of medical abortion was evaluated at follow-up visits 2 weeks and 6 weeks later. The three most important reasons for choosing medical abortion instead of surgical abortion were ‘avoidance of surgery,’ ‘avoidance of general anesthesia,’ and ‘the method being more natural.’ At the 6-week evaluation, most women (92%) were satisfied or highly satisfied with the method, and 103 (88%) women said that the method met their expectations. The majority of all women, 105 (89%), would opt for the same method in the future should the need arise, and 102 (88%) patients would recommend the medical method to a friend. The length of pregnancy had an effect on acceptability; the shorter the gestational age, the more acceptable the medical abortion. Medical abortion was perceived as an acceptable method for termination of early pregnancy among the Finnish women studied.

Thrombocytopenia in term infants: a population-based study

Objective: To assess the prevalence and causes of thrombocytopenia among full-term infants. Methods: We conducted a 1-year, population-based surveillance study involving all full-term infants (at least 37 weeks’ gestation) born to native Finnish women in Helsinki. In cases of thrombocytopenia (cord platelet count less than 150 × 10 9/L) clinical risk factors were evaluated and immunologic studies were performed on both parents and on the infant; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated on the basis of binomial distribution. Results: Platelet counts were done in cord blood from 4489 infants, 84.9% of the study population. Eighty-nine infants had platelet counts below 150 × 10 9/L (2.0%; 95% CI 1.5, 2.3) in cord blood and 11 were less than 50 × 10 9/L (0.24%; 95% CI 0.10, 0.38). All causes of clinically important thrombocytopenia, those presenting with bleeding and requiring treatment, were related to fetomaternal alloimmune thrombocytopenia. The incidence of severe alloimmune thrombocytopenia was one in 1500 live births and one in 900 of all thrombocytopenia. An immunologic mechanism was involved in ten of 65 (15.4%; 95% CI 6.6, 24.2) infants studied and in four of 15 (26.7%; 95% CI 4.3, 49.1) cases of severe thrombocytopenia. Conclusion: Immunologic studies should be considered in all cases of severe neonatal thrombocytopenia for careful monitoring and prevention of potentially severe complications in subsequent pregnancies.

Continuity and change in meal patterns: The case of urban Finland

To identify elements of continuity and change from traditional meal patterns characterizing Finland before World War II, accounts of “typical workday” eating were elicited from 102 married women in Helsinki in 1984. Since the 1920s Finnish breakfast has changed from a prepared meal into a lighter eating event differing significantly from lunch and dinner. Earlier the three meals were simitar. The basic structure of lunch and dinner has not changed. Items used in traditional meals are still included. However, the hot meat/fish dish, instead of cereals and potatoes, is now the most important component. Total number of daily meals has decreased. None of the women followed the traditional pattern of three prepared meals. Half ate lunch and dinner and a snack‐type breakfast. The others skipped lunch or dinner.

Perceptions of spreading fats among women in Helsinki whose households use only butter or margarine

This study sought to investigate whether women's perceptions about butter and soft margarine vary by the use of these fats. From interviews in 1984 with 102 middle-aged women from a follow-up dietary survey in Helsinki 27% of their households were classified as exclusive butter users, 46% used both butter and margarine and 27% used only margarine. The women evaluated margarine less “tasty” but “lighter”, and “healthier” than butter. Women whose households used butter exclusively rated it more “useful” than those who used margarine, whereas women whose households used exclusively margarine rated it higher on taste than did exclusive butter users. Butter is a valued traditional food in Finland, and probably the taste of butter is still a reference standard for all spreads. Nevertheless some of the respondents had evidently come to like the soft vegetable margarine that was not available in their childhood.

Screening for HIV antibody during pregnancy

As many as 99·5% of pregnant women in Helsinki participated in voluntary HIV antibody screening. One positive case out of 9202 cases tested was found.

Networking, News and Events Conferences

25 July to 1 August 1982. Unioni Naisasialiitti Suomessary, The Finnish women's organisation, will be hosting the 26th Triennial Congress of the International Alliance of Women in Helsinki. The Alliance is one of the leading Non‐Governmental Organisations recognised by the United Nations and its agencies as representing women's interests, and has affiliated organisations in a large number of both developed and developing countries. The theme of the 1982 Congress is “Employment Patterns in the Eighties”. Enquiries to IAW, P.O. Box 355, Valetta, Malta or to Isari Mattila, UNIONI, Bulevard: 11 Al,00120 Helsinki, Finland.

Five-year survival of 728 patients after myocardial infarction. A community study.

This study deals with the five-year survival of 728 myocardial infarction patients who survived the first 28 days after the onset of symptoms. The series was collected by the Helsinki Coronary Register and includes all cases of acute myocardial infarction in the population who were under 66 years of age during the period 1 July 1970 to 30 June 1971. Of the 219 patients who subsequently died, 81.8 per cent died from ischaemic heart disease. The mortality was highest during the first year after the acute phase but did not decrease after the second year. The mortality was higher in patients with a transmural infarction (five-year mortality 34.0%) compared with those with a nontransmural infarction (19.7%). The mortality also was higher for recurrent acute myocardial infractions than for first attacks. The five-year mortality for women was less (20.5%, age-adjusted) than for men (31.6%). This is mainly because of the higher incidence of nontransmural infarcts in women. Acute ischaemic heart disease is more common, more often fatal, and has a poorer long-term prognosis in men than in women in Helsinki. The acute mortality from acute ischaemic heart disease is high in Helsinki when compared with other WHO registers and, in addition, the long-term prognosis seems to be relatively poor in Helsinki.