OBJECTIVE. To determine the relationship between recorded head accelerations and impact locations and acute clinical outcome of symptomatology, neuropsy

BACKGROUND: Although the history of recognition of child abuse in Europe and North America extends over 40 years, recognition and data are lacking in other parts of the world. Cultural differences in child-rearing complicate cross-cultural studies of abuse. OBJECTIVE: To ascertain rates of harsh and less-harsh parenting behavior in population-based samples. METHODS: We used parallel surveys of parental discipline of children in samples of mothers in Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Philippines, and the United States. Data were collected between 1998 and 2003. The instrument used was a modification of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale, along with a study-developed survey of demographic characteristics and other parent and child variables. Women (N = 14 239) from 19 communities in 6 countries were surveyed. We interviewed mothers aged 15 to 49 years (18–49 years in the United States) who had a child younger than 18 years in her home. Sample selection involved either random sampling or systematic sampling within randomly selected blocks or neighborhoods. RESULTS: Nearly all parents used nonviolent discipline and verbal or psychological punishment. Physical punishment was used in at least 55% of the families. Spanking rates (with open hand on buttocks) ranged from a low of 15% in an educated community in India to a high of 76% in a Philippine community. Similarly, there was a wide range in the rates of children who were hit with objects (9%–74% [median: 39%]) or beaten by their parents (0.1%–28.5%). Extremely harsh methods of physical punishment, such as burning or smothering, were rare in all countries. It is concerning that ≥20% of parents in 9 communities admitted shaking children younger than 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: Physical and verbal punishments of children are common in high-, middle-, and low-income communities around the world. The forms and rates of punishment vary among countries and among communities within countries. A median of 16% of children experienced harsh or potentially abusive physical discipline in the previous year.

The rapidly expanding field of microbiome studies offers investigators a large choice of methods for each step in the process of determining the microorganisms in a sample. The human cervicovaginal microbiome affects female reproductive health, susceptibility to and natural history of many sexually transmitted infections, including human papillomavirus (HPV). At present, long-term behavior of the cervical microbiome in early sexual life is poorly understood. The V6 and V6–V9 regions of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene were amplified from DNA isolated from exfoliated cervical cells. Specimens from 10 women participating in the Natural History Study of HPV in Guanacaste, Costa Rica were sampled successively over a period of 5–7 years. We sequenced amplicons using 3 different platforms (Sanger, Roche 454, and Illumina HiSeq 2000) and analyzed sequences using pipelines based on 3 different classification algorithms (usearch, RDP Classifier, and pplacer). Usearch and pplacer provided consistent microbiome classifications for all sequencing methods, whereas RDP Classifier deviated significantly when characterizing Illumina reads. Comparing across sequencing platforms indicated 7%–41% of the reads were reclassified, while comparing across software pipelines reclassified up to 32% of the reads. Variability in classification was shown not to be due to a difference in read lengths. Six cervical microbiome community types were observed and are characterized by a predominance of either G. vaginalis or Lactobacillus spp. Over the 5–7 year period, subjects displayed fluctuation between community types. A PERMANOVA analysis on pairwise Kantorovich-Rubinstein distances between the microbiota of all samples yielded an F-test ratio of 2.86 (p<0.01), indicating a significant difference comparing within and between subjects’ microbiota. Amplification and sequencing methods affected the characterization of the microbiome more than classification algorithms. Pplacer and usearch performed consistently with all sequencing methods. The analyses identified 6 community types consistent with those previously reported. The long-term behavior of the cervical microbiome indicated that fluctuations were subject dependent.

The epidemiology of sports-related concussion is not well-described in the literature. This paper presents a descriptive epidemiology of concussion in seven high school and collegiate sports. We used the data from Concussion Prevention Initiative (CPI), which enrolled 8905 athletes at 210 high schools and 26 colleges in a prospective cohort study of 7 sports (football, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and men’s and women’s ice hockey) between 1999 and 2001. Injury risks and injury rates were used to characterize the incidence of concussion, and changes in symptoms over time were described. A total of 375 concussions were observed. The incidence of concussion was highest in football, followed by women’s lacrosse, men’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, and women’s soccer (only 10 ice hockey teams were included, too few to quantify incidence). The rate of incident concussion was strongly associated with history of concussion in the previous 24 months (rate ratio = 5.5; 95 %CI: 3.9, 7.8, for 2 or more concussions relative to no previous concussion). The most common symptoms at time of injury were headache (87 %), balance problems/dizziness (77 %), and feeling “in a fog” (62 %). Loss of consciousness and amnesia were present in relatively few cases (9 and 30 %). The most common mechanism of injury was collision with another player. Sports-related concussions present with a diverse range of symptoms and are associated with previous concussion history.