Annual Congress on Womens Health December 07-08, 2020 Tokyo, Japan

Biography:

MABIALA-MAYE Integrated Health Center of Bétou, Likouala

Abstract:

Introduction: Gender inequalities remain a cause of great concern in Congo. The impact on maternal health, particularly in rural areas, reflects this.

Objectives: Describe the epidemiological profile of reproductive health-related diseases in women in a rural health center in Congo.

Patients and methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study from January to September 2019 at the Centre de santé de Bétou, in Likouala, Congo. Women aged 13 to 45 years received for a reproductive health problem were included. Data were collected from the registers and processed using MS Excel®.

Results: A total of 2127 women were included. Of these, 1063 came at least to the first prenatal consultation (49.7%), 994 (44.19%) for a birth and 70 for gender-based violence. Pregnancies were pathological in 15.46% of cases (n=329). Sexually transmitted infections were found in 11.8% (n=251) of pregnant women. HIV test coverage was 4.6% (n=98). The caesarean section rate was 11.06%. Maternal and neonatal deaths represented 696/100,000 and 22.3/1000 live births respectively. Rape constituted 41.4% of cases of gender-based violence (n=29).

Conclusion: This work shows high morbidity and mortality among pregnant women in Bétou, low coverage of HIV testing and a high rate of rape.  The availability of qualified human and material resources is a challenge.

Biography:

Mariam Abdo de Luis completed her degree in pharmacy in Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio in Madrid, Spain and her degree in Nutrition and Dietetics in Universidad Isabel I. She has also completed an MBA of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and a certificate of higher education in pathological anatomy and cytology. She works in the pharmaceutical industry and has experience in commercial department and pharmacy trainer. Her main line of research is Pharmacy and Nutrition.

Abstract:

Introduction: Currently, both obesity and infertility are related to oxidative stress (OE). The increase in free radicals can affect the ovules and the sperm maturation. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is an indispensable cofactor, which is involved in the Krebs Cycle, in tissue repair and in regeneration processes.

So, can ALA supplementation regulate the metabolic syndrome as an antioxidant in obese people? Can ALA be a benefit for obese and infertile women?

Objectives: the aim of the Project was to evaluate, through works carried out by other authors, the role of obesity and ALA supplementation in female infertility.

Methodology: a literature review was carried out. The study was done from December 2018 to April 2019. The search was carried out in Pubmed database in advanced mode. The MeSH descriptors used were the following: "Female infertility", "obesity", "oxidative stress", "thioctic acid" and "insulin resistance". The Boolean operator used was “AND”. The search strategy and the final selection of studies included in this review, are represented in the following flow chart (Figure 1). The study was done with 21 papers. Due to the variability in the papers’ methodology, it was not possible to carry out a meta-analysis.

Results: several studies (from 2013 to 2018), reveal that overweight and obesity are related with the infertility. As well, EO and ALA supplementation are related too.

Conclusions: For a higher success rate in a future pregnancy, even in those where it is necessary to do fertility treatments; it is necessary to quantify, as a previous step, the woman’s weight and the couple’s oxidative damage. In relation to ALA supplementation, although possible benefits have been found in its use, it would be essential to do new clinical studies with representative samples. Thus, the works where better results are collected, are those in which interventions are prolonged over time, highlighting improvements weight loss.

Biography:

Stuti Dang is an experienced geriatrician and researcher, and the Associate Director for Implementation and Outcomes Research in the Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Miami VA Healthcare System. She has been a PI or co-investigator on multiple projects funded by the VA, NIH, and DOD for implementing care models that leverage technology for patients with complex chronic conditions and their caregivers. She has extensive expertise in care coordination and telehealth interventions for chronic disease management in the elderly. She seeks to understand the needs and need gaps of frail, older, high-need high-risk veterans and their caregivers to allow aging in place. Her funded technology projects strive to establish usability and utility of various technologies including home telehealth, video, mobile, and web-interventions, in different settings. Her projects are designed with the intent to empower patients and their caregivers to become informed partners in their health care.

Abstract:

Background: Menopause can be a time of changes, women need information regarding menopause and management of associated symptoms such as hot flashes, mood instability and vaginal dryness. Although there are ways to alleviate these symptoms, many women, due to their limited knowledge related to menopause, are not aware of these treatment options nor able to determine which options would be best for them.

Methods: We developed at the Miami VA healthcare system, a project called the “My HealtheVet to Enable And Negotiate for Shared decision making” or MEANS project, an unblinded non-randomized pilot project, to deliver an educational intervention program surrounding the management of menopause.

The project enrolled 269 female veterans of perimenopausal and menopausal age (45 to 60 years) at Miami VA Healthcare System. The six-month intervention provided educational resources on menopause and shared decision making (SDM) through the MyHealtheVet electronic portal system to women in the Miami VAHS only. Following the intervention, data regarding patient knowledge and use of the MyHealtheVet portal was collected. Besides a pre-post comparison in the intervention group, we also compared the impact of the MEANS intervention on patients at the Miami VAHS to women veterans of the same age who did not receive this intervention.

Results: At the initiation and conclusion of the study, participants completed a test assessing their knowledge of menopause. This test was scored out of 18 points, with a higher score indicating a higher level of knowledge. Score increased from 14.7+/-2.4 before the intervention to 15.8+/-1.8 after the intervention. In addition, the MEANS project increased understanding of SDM and increased use of the MyHealtheVet portal among participants.

Conclusions: These findings are promising and suggest that an educational intervention could be effective in increasing women veterans’ access to treatment for the symptoms of menopause.

Biography:

Prof.  Sarid worked as a social worker in the clinical field for 15 years before completing her Ph.D at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel in 1999.

She is Chair of the Graduate Studies Program in Spitzer Department of Social Work in Ben Gurion University of the Negev.  A recent visiting scholar at in the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Genève, Switzerland. Her main fields of interest are women health and the association between psychological risk factors and biological factors during stress. She has published more than 65 papers in reputed journals. In the last year she has received a major grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to study the effect of cognitive behavioral and mindfulness interventions among patients with Crohn Disease.

Abstract:

Background: Prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) in developed countries is between 10-20 percent. Among over a third of the women, symptoms will persist for a year or longer postpartum. The first aim of this study was to examine the relationships between sociodemographic variables, mothers’ Sense of Coherence (SOC), and PPD after childbirth (T1). The second aim was to examine the effect of SOC on the level of PPD symptoms one year postpartum (T2).

Method: A longitudinal study, conducted over 20 months, took place between March 2014 and November 2015. The sample included 114 women admitted to the maternity wards at the Soroka University Medical Center (Israel). Inclusion criteria were women who gave birth to their first child. Using self-reporting questionnaires, data was collected and evaluated on two occasions: 24-48 hours postpartum (T1), and 12 months later (T2).

Study tools included the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Sense of Coherence (SOC-13). The demographic variables examined were: level of education, level of religiosity, marital status, country of origin, and economic status.         

Results: Participants’ average age was 29.5, 86.8% were married or living in cohabitation, 82.5% were born in Israel, 48.2% held academic degrees, 38.6% defined themselves as secular, 73.7% reported they had no difficulty to pay for essential needs.

 At (T1), 15.8% of the mothers reported to experience PPD symptoms (cutoff≥10). At (T2), 6.2% of the mothers were still enduring them. At (T1), SOC was strongly related to the mother’s status of employment before childbirth (F_(2,111)=3.02, p=.05). The Structural Equation Analysis (SEM) for predicting the level of PPD symptoms at T2 showed a good fit. Two main pathways emerged: in the first, the level of PPD symptoms at T1 mediated the links between SOC at T1 and SOC at T2; the second pathway suggested that SOC at T2 served as a mediating variable between the level of SOC at T1 and the level of PPD symptoms at T2.

Conclusions: Research literature as well as the Conservation of Resources Theory, discuss key resources which help individuals cope and maintain their wellbeing, especially when confronted with stress, or in complex situations. Our findings showed that high SOC served as a vital resource which helped mothers cope well with the first year of motherhood, and contributed to lower levels of PPD symptoms, a year postpartum.