Women In Relation Research Articles

Relationship Dynamics and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Female Chinese College Students.

In China, most intimate partner violence (IPV) research focuses on male perpetration and female victimization, whereas studies on dating violence and female IPV perpetration are less common. Although research on female IPV perpetration in China has surfaced recently, there have been limited studies examining factors related to female perpetration in dating relationships in China. In the current research, we sought to examine how relationship factors, including anger management, communication problems, relationship conflict, and relationship distress, are linked with female physical and psychological IPV perpetration. We included 857 female college students in three regions in China from the International Dating Violence database. We found that Chinese women's anger management skills and communication problems were both significantly associated with physical and psychological IPV perpetration on both minor and severe levels. Furthermore, we found that relationship conflict was significantly associated with minor and severe physical abuse perpetration and severe psychological abuse perpetration. Anger management skills moderated the negative effects of relationship conflict on minor physical IPV perpetration as well as minor and severe psychological IPV perpetration. Anger management skills also moderated the negative effects of relationship distress on minor and severe physical IPV perpetration among Chinese women. Our findings suggest that it may be important to explore the role of college women's anger management skills, communication problems, and conflict resolution skills in their dating relationships, as well as to develop female-based intervention programs to increase Chinese college women's relationship skills to reduce their levels of IPV perpetration.

Sexual Dysfunction and Marital Relationship in Women With Schizophrenia in Comparison with Caregivers: A Hospital-based Study

Background: Sexual dysfunction is common in females with schizophrenia and is attributed to multiple causes, including individual psychopathology and antipsychotics. Understanding the impact of relationship satisfaction on sexual functioning is not widely studied in schizophrenia. Women caregivers also experience sexual problems and were not studied in the past. Aim: To assess the nature and occurrence of sexual dysfunction in women with schizophrenia in comparison to caregivers of males without severe mental disorder. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 30 women with schizophrenia were recruited as cases and 26 age-matched controls were recruited from female caregivers. All subjects were assessed using standardized tools such as Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and Relationship Assessment Scale along with sociodemographic questionnaire. Results: There was a significant difference in FSFI scores and relationship scores between women with schizophrenia and caregiver control subjects. The relationship quality was better in patients with schizophrenia when compared to caregivers unlike sexual functioning. Conclusion: Sexual functioning in women is a complex phenomenon. A holistic biopsychosocial approach is necessary to understand women’s sexual function.

Protein Microarray Analysis of Soluble Biomarkers in Fertile and Postmenopausal Women in Relation to Obesity, Bone Status and Blood Cell Populations

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to quantify serological biomarkers, namely adiponectin, leptin, E-selectin, ICAM-1 (intercelluar cell adhesion molecule-1), IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), MCSF (macrophage colony-stimulationg factor), IL-6, IL-10 and IL-17), in fertile and postmenopausal women. The relationship of these parameters to obesity and bone status has been analysed. Methods: 96 fertile and 107 postmenopausal women were enrolled in this study. The detection of multiple biomarkers, cytokines, growth factors, adhesion molecules and others, was performed by protein microarray. Results: Adipopnectin was up-regulated in postmenopausal control and ICAM-1 in postmenopausal obese women when compared to fertile obese women (p<0.05). Significant negative correlation was between IL-6 and age (r=-0.177, p<0.05). The soluble form of ICAM-1 was higher in women with osteopenia, but not with osteoporosis, in comparison to the control group. IL-6 was decreased in women affected by osteoporosis. Conclusion: In context to obesity, bone status and ageing, we have found alterations in adiponectin, ICAM-1, and IL-6 parameters in postmenopausal women. We identified several statistically significant correlations between soluble biomarkers and cell populations (e.g. between IGF-1 and B-lymphocytes; IL-6 and dendritic cells; IL-10 and naive T cells, etc.).

Childhood Abuse and Positive and Negative Relationship Quality in Women: The Role of Depression

Abstract The interpersonal nature of childhood abuse has led researchers to examine how abuse in childhood is associated with the quality of adult women's romantic relationships. Depression is one pathway by which childhood abuse may be associated with relationship quality. The current study considers whether childhood abuse is linked to positive and negative relationship quality through depressive symptoms. Data were obtained from women participating in the Longitudinal Study of Childhood Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN; N = 544) and were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results indicate a significant indirect effect from childhood abuse to both positive and negative quality through women's depressive symptoms. The indirect effect from abuse to negative relationship quality through depression was significantly larger than positive relationship quality. These results suggest that childhood abuse and subsequent depressive symptoms has a twofold effect on women's romantic relationships.

From "Pretty Emulation" to "Fresh Discoveries": Entomological Observation &amp; Female Empiricism in Eliza Haywood's The Female Spectator

From "Pretty Emulation" to "Fresh Discoveries":Entomological Observation & Female Empiricism in Eliza Haywood's The Female Spectator Anna K. Sagal The Female Spectator (1744–46) is among the most significant periodical publications of the eighteenth century, not least for its innovative discussions of a wide range of issues pertaining to women's experiences and education. Across the two years of its publication history, Eliza Haywood penned immensely popular issues that addressed everything from romance and courtship to politics, religion, and science. One of the most remarkable of these topics is her active endorsement of female scientific practice, initially articulated through the male persona Philo-Naturae. In his dialogue, she presents a perfunctorily conservative position that the female eidolon converts to a subtly rebellious undertaking, ultimately disrupting conventional narratives about women's relationship to nature. Through her inventive portrayal of women engaging in naturalist work, Haywood cannily interrogates the relationship among women, their scientific subjects, and the spaces in which scientific labor is undertaken. In doing so, she presents a case for women's unique access to a domestically rooted form of empiricism, in which women could leverage their position as domestic subjects into one of limited scientific authority. A careful study of this dynamic also highlights her pivotal role in shaping eighteenth-century science for women. Like other essay periodicals, The Female Spectator uses the fiction of an editorial board, in this case comprised of female characters who represent various ideal models of femininity: the experienced but respectable spinster, the Female Spectator, who functions as the periodical's primary voice; the witty, young, devoted wife Mira; an unnamed "Widow of Quality"; and the charming, accomplished Euphrosine.1 The Female Spectator was a monthly publication, issued in 24 parts between April 1744 and May 1746, and was [End Page 87] popular enough to be sold as a bound volume of multiple issues as early as 1748, while single issues of the periodical were still being distributed.2 Patrick Spedding has concluded that The Female Spectator was Haywood's single best-selling publication of her career, earning her about 60 guineas per year.3 Moreover, as Lynn Marie Wright and Donald J. Newman note, "The fact that [The Female Spectator] lasted two years when many other periodicals lasted only a few weeks or months argues that Haywood had a wide and loyal readership. We know she had audiences in Germany, France, Italy, and as far away as America."4 A number of Haywood's later periodical publications, including The Parrot (1746) and Epistles to the Ladies (1749), were written "by the authors of The Female Spectator," indicating commercial interest in capitalizing on her success. Several of Haywood's other publications even used characters from The Female Spectator: Mira was the narrative persona in The Wife (1746), as was Euphrosine in The Young Lady (1756). Haywood also recycled these characters for use in Epistles for the Ladies. While critics have been divided on the subject of Haywood's intended audience, I agree with the assessment that, whatever her actual audience demographics may have been, her intended readership was largely female.5 This is not to say that Haywood expected an exclusively female audience; on the contrary, several of the correspondents were male (including Philo-Naturae, who is the primary scientific interlocutor of the periodical), and much of the Female Spectator's advice on courtship and marriage was directed at both sexes. However, a repeated tactic throughout the periodical relies upon the flexibility of a female intellectual voice that acts without seeming to disrupt male intellectual authority in order to relay a substantive critique, often of that male authority. Haywood (as the Female Spectator) writes: If therefore I have directed my Advice in a peculiar Manner to those of my own Sex, it proceeded from two Reasons, First, because, as I am a Woman, I am more interested in their Happiness…secondly, I had not a sufficient Idea of my own Capacity, to imagine, that any Thing offered by a Female Censor would have so much Weight with the Men as is requisite to make that Change in their Conduct and Oeconomy, which, I cannot help but acknowledge, a great many of them stand...

Social Networking among Women in Greek and Roman Comedy

This article examines the literary representation of women's social networks in comedy. I combine evidence from Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence to answer two fundamental questions: 1) Who is in a woman's social network? 2) What activities do women engage in together? Finally, I discuss the literary representation of women's networks more broadly, focusing on four sample plays, which I selected for the size, strength, or composition of the women's social network. Because of the androcentric nature of the genre, women's relationships are imagined as analogous to or intertwined with those of men.

Recently formed age-disparate partnerships are associated with elevated HIV-incidence among young women in South Africa.

Cross-sectional and cohort studies draw different conclusions on whether age-disparate partnerships increase HIV-acquisition risk for young women. We investigated whether age-disparities were associated with HIV-infection risk early in relationships. This could result in the exclusion of women who seroconverted during high-risk age-disparate partnerships from cohort studies of HIV incidence - which exclude HIV-positive women - and explain null findings in these studies. Prospective cohort study. We used data on 15-24-year-old, HIV-negative women in heterosexual partnerships (N = 830) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The association between age-disparate partnering (i.e., male partner ≥5 years older) and subsequent HIV seroconversion was assessed using Cox hazard models. We examined heterogeneity in HIV-acquisition risk by duration of partnership (defined by quartiles) at cohort enrolment. During 1139 person-years (mean: 1.4 years) of follow-up, 54 (6.5%) women seroconverted, a weighted HIV-incidence estimate of 4.41/100 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI): 3.30-6.06]. HIV-acquisition risk did not differ significantly between women in age-disparate vs. age-similar partnerships (adjusted hazard ratios: 1.10, 95% CI: 0.55-2.21). However, for women in the shortest partnership quartile (<1.09 years) at baseline, risk of HIV seroconversion was higher for women in age-disparate partnerships (adjusted hazard ratios: 3.13, 95% CI: 1.02-9.65, P = 0.047). HIV acquisition was not statistically different by partnership type among women in longer partnerships. The association between age-disparate partnerships and HIV-acquisition risk is evident early in young women's relationships. Results provide a potential explanation for null findings in cohort studies, whose research designs may exclude women in such partnerships, and affirms the elevated risk of HIV acquisition for young women in age-disparate relationships.

The Assessment of Some Serum Biomarkers of Fibromyalgia Syndrome in Pre and Postmenopausal Women in Relation to Obesity

The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of parathyroid hormone, Co enzyme Q and total antioxidant status in serum’s women with fibromyalgia syndrome firstly, then to demonstrate if these biochemical markers affected by age and obesity.&#x0D; This study was performed at Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Consultation Unit in Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Venous blood sample were drawn from (59) female with FMS and (30) control (without FMS). The serum was obtained after on standing in order to coagulate then centrifuged. The mean age± SD of FMS group was (42.22±15.34) years and for control was (40.7±18.22) years. Those participants were subdivided into four different groups according to menopausal status and body mass index to estimate three biochemical markers in their serum. The assessment of serum both PTH and Co enzyme Q were done by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) while total antioxidant status (TAS) determination was done colorimetric ally. Statistical analysis was calculated by SPSS program version 24. Independent samples T-test for different group of patients Pearson correlation between serum’s biomarkers within different groups; P values &lt; 0.05 means significant.&#x0D; The results record that serum’s PTH showed increasing significantly at same time of decreasing Co Q (P value&lt;0.05) but TAS measuring register not significant decreased (P value&gt; 0.05) in FMS comparing with control group. About the age; PTH serum level appear insignificant increased but Co Q &amp; TAS were decreased (P value &gt;0.05&amp; P value&lt; 0.05) respectively in post menopause comparing with pre menopause. For estimating serum’s biomarkers related with body mass index (BMI) as a sign of obesity. Serum PTH level record significant raise in obese group P value&lt;0.003, insignificant variation in obese and non- obese groups (P value&gt;0.05) in the same time TAS record a significant decrease in obese group P value= 0.00.&#x0D; In pre menopause (FMS and control): Serum TAS level correlate negatively and significantly with PTH (P value= 0.034). For age&gt;55; PTH in both FMS&amp; control show critical significant correlation P value=0.05. In pre and post menopause FMS show significant independent t-test belong to TAS (P value= 0.004). In obese group PTH correlate Co Q of 25&lt;BMI&gt;30 significantly P value=0.027 and P value=0.029. T test show significant in PTH and TAS between obese and non-obese.&#x0D; In conclusion the obesity and menopause play an imperative role in the etiology of FMS relative with serum’s biomarkers (PTH, Co Q and TAS).

Melancolía de mujeres Solas.

En este trabajo vamos a relacionar la película de Benito Zambrano Solas (1999) con el género o familia de films del melodrama de la mujer desconocida que propone Cavell (2009). Para ello, después de introducir el “método” asociativo cavelliano, vamos a presentar los rasgos más característicos de dicho género y la imagen de la mujer que en ellos se dibuja: el autoconocimiento de la protagonista, su relación con el mundo masculino, su emancipación del mismo a través de la conquista de la voz. El resto del trabajo consiste en una propuesta de lectura de la película de Zambrano, dentro de un marco cavelliano, pero subrayando el papel de la melancolía como mito cultural (Bartra 2001), la relación de la mujer con el sacrificio victimario (Girard 1995) y la conquista de la voz como apropiación del orden simbólico, clave para su autocomprensión (Cavell 2002b). Sugerimos, en fin, que el género cavelliano puede “aprender” algo de Solas en todos esos órdenes.

‘Men don't have patience’: Sexuality, pleasure and danger in displacement settings in Northcentral Nigeria

ABSTRACT Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights are fundamental human rights. Previous studies on gender and sexuality in displacement settings have often focused on sexual and gender-based violence and the reproductive health problems of women while underplaying their needs for sexual expression, pleasure and procreation. This paper examines the influence of conflict and displacement on gender relations, sexuality and natality of internally displaced women in Nigeria. It draws on data from a larger study in which focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were used to explore 52 women's gendered experiences with Boko Haram insurgency and displacement. A critical thematic analysis of data revealed that the women's relationships with their men were complex and ambiguous, characterised by both tensions and solidarity. The women saw their men as partners in their struggle against multi-level oppression, including the structural barriers that undermine their mutual sexual expressions and pleasure, as well as their desire to procreate and repopulate their decimated ancestral communities. We recommend collaborative efforts to promote and protect the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of displaced women which includes building physical structures and living conditions that promote healthy, safe and pleasurable sexual expressions, and socio-political structures that create access to the long term social security.

Making Milk and Money: Contemporary Mothers' Orientations to Breastfeeding and Work

In most Western industrial nations, gains have been made in women's educational and occupational opportunities as part of a larger gender revolution. At the same time, contemporary mothering expectations have expanded and intensified, especially the renewed focus on breastfeeding as the “optimal” choice for infant feeding. How do women perceive the simultaneous pursuit of these activities? Prior scholarship has identified tensions in cultural models of breastfeeding as well as in women's subjective experiences, emphasizing how breastfeeding is shaped and encountered through sociocultural context, especially ideologies that position work and mothering as incompatible. Building on this, I examine how the current generation of working mothers view working and breastfeeding. Through in‐depth interviews with 32 U.S. women, I show how women espouse distinctly different orientations to breastfeeding: instrumentalist, quasi‐maternalist, and pragmatist. I argue that these different orientations both reflect and reframe existing cultural models and discourses about contemporary women's relationships to work, mothering, and breastfeeding.

Creating community‐based indicators of gender equity: A methodology

It appears that an almost unquestioned development pathway for achieving gender equity and women's empowerment has taken centre stage in mainstream development. This pathway focuses on economic outcomes that are assumed to be achieved by increasing women's access to material things, including cash income, loans, physical assets, and to markets. Gender equity indicators, which measure progress towards these outcomes, cannot escape reinforcing them. We argue that far from being neutral, indicators are embedded in political and ideological agendas that serve as guides to the appropriate conduct of those whose performance or behaviour is being measured. Drawing on participatory feminist, diverse economies and strengths based approaches, we outline a research methodology for developing community‐based indicators that recognises women's and men's participation and relationships in all spheres of life, including the ‘non‐economic’. If indicators are grounded in local meanings and realities, we propose that community members can use them to identify aspirational goals for gender equity, and measure progress towards these goals.

"You Never Know What Could Happen": Women's Perspectives of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in the Context of Recent Intimate Partner Violence.

Vulnerability to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a significant public health issue for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). Despite the increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus infection, women only represent 4.6% of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users in the United States. IPV may present additional difficulties to PrEP access. In this qualitative study, we examined how IPV and the relational context shaped women's decisions, attitudes, and engagement in the PrEP care continuum. We conducted semistructured interviews with 19 women residing in Connecticut who participated in a prospective cohort study. We purposively recruited our sample to include women who reported physical and/or sexual IPV in the past 6months, and used a grounded theory approach to analyze the qualitative data. Our findings suggest multiple ways that the relational context can affect women's decisions, attitudes, and engagement in the PrEP care continuum. We identified five aspects of women's relationships that can shape women's interest, intentions, and access to PrEP: 1) relationship power struggles, 2) infidelity, 3) trust and monogamy, 4) male partner's reactions, and 5) "season of risk" (i.e., PrEP use only during times of perceived human immunodeficiency virus risk). Collectively, these findings suggest that women experiencing IPV might face additional relational challenges that need to be adequately addressed in settings administering PrEP. Communication on sexual risk reduction strategies should address relational factors and promote women's autonomy. Future research on long-acting and invisible forms of PrEP may help to circumvent some of the relational barriers women experiencing IPV may face when considering PrEP care.

Goodbye, “post-pill paradise”: Texturing feminist public memories of women's reproductive and rhetorical agency

ABSTRACTOral contraception (e.g., “the pill”), an iconic technology and everyday object, has shaped women's embodied experiences and notions of self. Feminist remembrances of the pill often credit it with granting women unprecedented agency, sexual and otherwise. This article examines pill advertisements at the time of the drug's emergence. By identifying three distinct user motifs – the reliant beneficiary, the discreet consumer, and the forgetful woman – I trouble a widely reiterated liberatory narrative of technological freedom through scientific and medical discovery. Simultaneously, I examine gendered anxieties that emerge alongside women's increasing capacity for sexual autonomy. Through this index and analysis of expressions of agency, I open a space for reconsidering women's relationship to the pill as a technological object and assay the distributed agency that this ecology suggests. I use this case study to propose the political and theoretical value of more fully understanding feminist agency as paradoxical and to advocate for further investigations into vexing sites of feminist memories.

Intimate Relationship Dynamics and Changing Desire for Pregnancy Among Young Women.

Although substantial research has focused on unintended pregnancy among young women, less is known about the circumstances under which pregnancy is desired. Whether a young woman's pregnancy desire changes across her different relationships, or over time within a relationship, has not been directly assessed. Data on intimate relationships and pregnancy desire were assessed weekly for 895 women aged 18-22 who participated in the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study in a county in Michigan (2008-2012). Within-between logistic regression models were used to examine within-cluster and between-cluster differences-comparisons of a woman's pregnancy desire within a relationship over time as well as across a woman's different relationships. Young women were more likely to desire pregnancy if they were in any relationship more intimate and committed than a casual relationship (odds ratios, 1.6-9.2); the odds of desiring pregnancy were also higher in long-term relationships rather than in short-term ones (2.1). In general, pregnancy desire increased over time as a relationship endured and became more serious. The odds of desiring pregnancy were lower among women with less educated, rather than equally educated, partners (0.7), while the odds were higher in nonmonogamous or violent relationships than in monogamous or nonviolent relationships (1.6 and 1.9, respectively). Young women's pregnancy desire changes depending on their intimate relationship context, across the range of relationships they experience during the transition to adulthood.

“More than a diet”: A qualitative investigation of young vegan Women's relationship to food

One's relationship to food is an important factor that can contribute to wellbeing but can also lead to eating disturbances. Research in this area has linked vegetarianism and veganism to disordered eating. However, through social media, many young women have recently started to share their vegan experiences with many highlighting the role that veganism may have on promoting a ‘healthier’ psychosocial relationship to food. The current study aims to qualitatively explore the role that veganism plays in young women's wellbeing and relationship to food. Participants were ten young vegan women aged 18 to 25. Semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). These women were found to passionately engage in a vegan lifestyle, as opposed to just a vegan diet, which appeared to have a number of positive effects such as a healthier lifestyle, a stronger sense of control and agency, more meaningful social relationships, and a sense of connection to a vegan sub-culture. Through veganism, many of the women transitioned from social disconnection and a focus on body image, to a stronger emotional (empathic), cognitive (knowledge of animal cruelty and healthy eating), and behavioural (diet and consumption choices, connections with others) investment in their social worlds. We suggest that the healing potential of veganism, is derived from this passionate investment of the self that redefines young women's ways of being in the world. The healing benefits of engaging in a vegan lifestyle may have clinical significance for working with young women who are socially disengaged or who are at risk of disordered eating.

Factors associated with IPV victimisation of women and perpetration by men in migrant communities of Nepal.

This paper aims to describe the prevalent forms of intimate partner violence (IPV), and the factors associated with IPV among women and men living in the two migrant communities of Baglung district, Nepal. 357 adult women and men were enrolled following a family model, interviewing young married women with daughter-in-law status in the home, their husbands, and mothers-in-law and fathers-in-laws using an electronic questionnaire. Random effects regression modelling compared men and women, as well as young married women with daughter-in-law status and older women with mothers-in-law with status. 28.6% of women had ever experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner compared to 18.2% of men ever perpetrated these forms of violence against their wives. Being older, male controlling behaviour and poor relations with husband increased women’s IPV in their lifetime while perceptions that the mother-in-law is kind were protective. Being ashamed of being unemployed and childhood trauma were associated with men perpetrating IPV in their lifetime. Borrowing money or food increased young married women’s lifetime IPV risk while mother-in-law cruelty and male control increased older married women’s lifetime IPV exposure. Factors associated with IPV in the past year among men were being younger, job seeking, experiences of childhood trauma and depression exposure among men while difficulty accessing money for emergencies, holding inequitable gender attitudes, and depression was associated with women’s increased IPV exposure. Unemployment stress, holding inequitable gender attitudes and mother-in-law kindness were associated with young women’s increased IPV risk and hunger, mother-in-law cruelty and depression with older women’s IPV risk. There is a need to critically challenge harmful social and gender norms by using approaches that are sensitive to young married women’s position and unequal gender relations in the family. IPV prevention interventions need to employ a holistic approach that combines changing social and gender norms and improving socioeconomic conditions of women living in migrant communities.

Continuing Education Module-Information Needs and Information-Seeking Processes of Low-Income Pregnant Women in Relation to Digital Maternity Education Resources.

Pregnant women need high-quality, timely information for self-management. The extent to which digital education resources meet their needs is unclear. This study elucidated how low-income pregnant women characterize their digital information needs and seeking processes and identified barriers/facilitators to meeting them. Focus groups bookending field-testing of a digital maternity education resource elicited barriers to and facilitators of Internet access, Internet use patterns, preferred methods to access information, and explored acceptability and desired features of online resources. Content analysis was used to analyze transcripts and six thematic categories were identified. Digital maternity education resources should be flexible, easily shared with loved ones, and responsive to users' experiences. Although helpful, digital resources are insufficient to meet pregnant women's need for social support.

Dietary Patterns of Women in Relation to Risk of Over- and Underweight in Nepal (P10-056-19)

ObjectivesThis study describes dietary patterns of women in Nepal and how dietary patterns vary by under-and-overweight, socioeconomic status (SES), and agro-ecological zone. MethodsIn 2016, a national mid-year nutrition and health survey was conducted in Nepal. In each zone (mountains, hills and Tarai) 7 sub-districts (village development communities, VDCs) were systematically selected after a random start (N = 21). Within each VDC, 3/9 wards (N = 63) were sampled in proportion to population and all households were enumerated. In all, 5380 women, married <2 years or having >1 child <72 mo of age, were assessed for weight, height, caste, SES, & food security among other factors. Diet was assessed by a 7-day food frequency questionnaire with 48 items. Latent class analysis was used to generate dietary patterns, consolidated into 12 food groups. Goodness-of-fit indicators supported a 7 class (dietary pattern) model. Chi2 tests were used to test statistically significant differences in dietary patterns by characteristics. ResultsNational median [IQR] intake frequencies for key foods by women were: fruits 3 [1,7], vegetables 12 [7,20], meat 1 [0.3], eggs 0 [0,1], and dairy 6 [ 0,14]. Only 10% of women consumed fruits or vegetables 5 times per week. Dietary patterns (% of women) identified included: 1) Most diverse (18%); 2) Diverse no egg no alcohol (17%); 3) Diverse orange fruit, veg and milk (4%); 4) Moderate (13%); 5) Non-diverse meat and alcohol (10%); 6) Low moderate diversity with oil and fat (22%); and 7) Monotonous (17%). Patterns 2 and 6 were distinct of the Tarai and pattern 3 more evident in the Hills. Significant variation was evident by wealth quintile, food security status, caste, zone, and body mass index (BMI). Women whose intakes aligned with Pattern 1 had the highest prevalence of BMI >25.0 kg/m2 (26.7%) and those eating pattern 3, the lowest (1.4%). Pattern 1 had the lowest prevalence of BMI <18.5 kg/m2 (12.6%), and pattern 6 the highest (28.8%). ConclusionsDietary patterns of women in Nepal are heterogeneous, vary by SES, agro-ecological and cultural factors, and are associated with risk of over and underweight. Funding SourcesSupported by USAID through the Feed the Future Nutrition Innovation Lab, with additional assistance from Sight and Life and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

African American women's relationship with their mobile phone, and what they want in a mobile delivered physical activity intervention: guidance for intervention development.

Mobile phone text messaging is an emerging platform in physical activity (PA) interventions with African American (AA) women. Research on the relationship that AA women have with their mobile phone as well as their views about text messaging as a potentially viable platform to help them acquire and maintain regular PA is central in advancing this field of research. Both self-report measures and qualitative interviews may be helpful in this endeavor. In the current study, a sample of 42 generally physically inactive AA women (mean age =35, SD =10.25) completed the Mobile Phone Affinity Scale (MPAS), which consists of six subscales that represent both positive (Connectedness, Productivity, Empowerment) and negative (Continuous Use, Anxious Attachment, Addiction) cognitions and behaviors that are associated with mobile phone use patterns. A subgroup of twenty participants completed a semi-structured qualitative interview that explored their views of text messaging technology as a potential platform to help become and remain physically active. Quantitative analyses included frequency and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and assessed mobile phone use patterns and demographic differences based on age, marital status and education on the MPAS. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on participants' verbatim responses. Results indicated that participants overall endorsed the positive MPAS subscales at a higher frequency compared to the negative subscales. Demographic differences were noted only for age and marital status for some of the MPAS subscales. Younger participants reported higher mean scores for the MPAS subscales Connectedness (P=0.005), Empowerment/Safety (P=0.04), Continuous Use (P=0.04), and Addiction (P=0.004) in comparison to older participants. Significant results for marital status showed single participants were higher on the Connectedness (P=0.02) and Productivity (P=0.01) subscales compared to married participants. Qualitative data showed that 19 of the 20 participants (95%) viewed text messaging as an appealing platform to deliver daily motivational messages to increase PA engagement. Participants stated a text messaging PA intervention would be "convenient" and "motivating". However, most participants suggested that other mobile phone technology applications in addition to text messaging would facilitate self-monitoring PA behaviors (e.g., goal setting, activity tracking) in mobile phone delivered (mHealth) PA interventions targeting AA women. The study findings provide guidance in the development of mHealth intervention approaches for PA promotion that are likely to appeal to AA women, increase engagement, and behavior change among this group.