Influence of various factors on the legal outcome of cases of child abuse-experiences gathered at an interdisciplinary forensic examination center in Vienna, Austria.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To improve the currently low conviction rate in cases of child abuse a forensic examination center for children and adolescents (FOKUS) was established in Vienna, Austria. Besides a state of the art treatment combined with forensic documentation, one of FOKUS' key goals is to identify potential areas for improvements within the process legal proceedings in cases of child abuse through constant scientific monitoring. The accompanying study at hand includes all patients referred to FOKUS within a two year timeframe (n = 233), monitoring their progression from first contact with the medical professionals from FOKUS to the end of criminal proceedings. A detailed analysis of case files was performed in those cases that were reported to the legal authorities by the clinicians of FOKUS (n = 87). Aim of the study is to investigate which factors contribute to the initiation of legal proceedings and a successful conviction. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that main proceedings were opened more often in cases where the offender was an adult (p < 0.001) or admitted his guilt (p < 0.001) and if digital traces were available (p = 0.001) or trial support (p = 0.024) present. Furthermore, the combined occurrence of medical documentation and victim disclosure was related to a higher probability of opening main trials. CONCLUSION: These findings underline how challenging the successful persecution of an offender in cases of child abuse is.

Views on Assisted Suicide and Religious Beliefs.

After the Austrian constitutional court decided to legalise assisted suicide, we conducted this cross-sectional survey study to assess how persons living in Austria viewed the decision, and whether their views associated with religious and/or moral beliefs. We found that persons claiming to be religious were significantly less likely to approve of the court's decision. They also advocated for significantly stricter regulations than non-religious respondents. When asked to give reasons for their response, several religious respondents cited their religious beliefs, highlighting that there is often an association between stronger religious beliefs and less favourable views on assisted suicide.

Focusing on experts: Expectations of healthcare professionals regarding the use of telemedicine in intensive care units.

Objectives: Telemedical applications are solutions to challenges in the healthcare system. However, it is unclear what intensive care unit healthcare professionals expect from such solutions. This study investigated the expectations and concerns of nurses and physicians when implementing telemedicine tools in intensive care units (tele-ICU). Methods: The study was conducted in intensive care units in 2020 during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It used a mixed-methods approach targeted at physicians and nurses and involved 14 qualitative interviews and 63 quantitative questionnaires. Results: The qualitative and quantitative data showed that both nurses and physicians were willing to use tele-ICU. Nurses recognised the advantages of real-time access to expertise offered by tele-ICU, but feared this would reduce physicians' on-site patient time. Physicians, in turn, were concerned that they would be expected to be continuously on call. The majority in both groups agreed that any tele-ICU solution must be simple to use and integrate easily into existing organisational structures, networks, and work routines. Additionally, COVID-19 significantly influenced expectations: those who reported having more personal health concerns during the pandemic were more predisposed to favour the use of tele-ICU. Conclusions: Overall, tele-ICU supports better care, but a successful implementation depends on its ease of use and context-sensitive approaches. Effectively integrating tele-ICU solutions into daily clinical routines requires input from nurses and physicians and their involvement in the implementation process from the outset, as well as consideration of existing organisational structures. Such measures will vastly increase the chance of acceptance and successful adoption of telemedical solutions in clinical practice.

A pilot study evaluating stress factors during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Viennese families who have the suspicion of child maltreatment or abuse.

The global population was affected by the unprecedented coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of the pandemic on children who suffer child maltreatment has not been explored sufficiently. Child abuse is known to increase in stressful circumstances, and therefore potentially during this pandemic.We aimed to identify and measure the impact of pandemic-related stress in families with a suspicion or confirmed child maltreatment. In addition, other parameters were determined, including resilience factors and family dynamics.We conducted a pilot study at the Medical University of Vienna, Forensic Examination Centre for Children and Adolescents (FOKUS Safeguarding team). Parents, carers and legal guardians of children who were referred for potential child abuse (study group) participated by completing two questionnaires, one year apart, covering the following periods: pre-COVID, during-COVID and post-COVID. Simultaneously, a control group was devised with patients who presented to the Paediatric Emergency Department with unrelated conditions (other than child maltreatment concerns). The questionnaires addressed psychological stress factors and were completed face-to-face and/or via telephone. A total of 35 carers participated, with almost equal numbers in both intervention and control groups.Results show that there was statistically significantly higher stress level perception before and during the pandemic period in the study group. Several families in this group commented on the positive effect of support received from health professionals, especially after the pandemic.

Cohort analysis of child abuse and neglect cases treated during the initial 2 years of a programme to support hospital-based child protection work in Austria.

OBJECTIVE: To describe characteristics of suspected child abuse and neglect (CAN) cases associated with the decision of paediatric departments (PDs) in Vienna, Austria, to involve services of a regional tertiary child protection service programme (Forensische Kinder- und JugendUntersuchungsStelle, FOKUS). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort analysis of a regional data collection of CAN cases over the first 2 years of FOKUS's operational period (1 July 2015-30 June 2017). SETTING: All CAN cases reported to the PDs of six public hospitals in Vienna. Five of these public hospitals were secondary heath care centres and one was a tertiary healthcare centre. RESULTS: Overall, 231 cases (59.1%) were treated without and 160 (40.9%) with additional involvement of the FOKUS service programme. The odds of a case to be treated without FOKUS involvement were higher if neglect was suspected (OR 3.233, 95% CI 2.024 to 5.279). In contrast, when sexual abuse was suspected, the odds for involvement with FOKUS were significantly higher (OR 7.577, 95% CI 4.580 to 12.879). The odds of being managed with FOKUS services nearly doubled when multiple forms of abuse were suspected (OR 1.926, 95% CI 1.136 to 3.285). The odds for additional FOKUS involvement were significantly lower for patients treated as inpatients (OR 0.239, 95% CI 0.151 to 0.373). CAN patients managed with FOKUS involvement were significantly more often reported to law enforcement (LE) (OR 3.234, 95% CI 2.078 to 5.002). Concurrently, suspected sexual abuse cases and cases reported to LE were more frequently treated in the PD of the tertiary centre than in other PDs (χ2 p<0.001). CONCLUSION: CAN case characteristics significantly influenced if PDs involved a tertiary child protection programme. Suspected sexual abuse, if more than one form of CAN was suspected and cases reported to LE required additional specialist expertise. For suspected neglect involvement of tertiary services seemed less important.

Employer impact on COVID-19 vaccine uptake among nursing and social care employees in Austria.

Introduction: Since becoming available, vaccines against COVID-19 have been a focus of public debate. This is particularly relevant among healthcare and social workers, who interact with vulnerable patients and clients on a daily basis. With employers implementing educational programs and offering incentives to raise vaccine willingness among their staff, it is crucial to understand drivers of vaccine acceptance and hesitancy as well as the impact employers can play on vaccine decision-making. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study via computer-assisted telephone and web interviews. We recruited from a pool of employees from nursing and social care institutions in Vienna and Lower Austria operated by one healthcare NGO. Variables included in the analysis were socio-demographic attributes, reasons for or against the vaccine, sources of information, opinions of mandatory vaccination, and whether respondents had previously been infected with COVID-19 or knew someone who had. Results: 86.2% of respondents had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 13.8% were unvaccinated. Vaccinated respondents' main reason for getting the vaccine was to protect themselves (79.6%) as well as others (74.1%), while non-vaccinated respondents cited a fear of short or long-term side effects (58.8 and 42.4%, respectively) as their primary reason for not getting vaccinated. 72.8% of the unvaccinated said no incentive would make them change their mind, while 17.4% specified abstract concepts or systemic change as effective incentives. Monetary incentives were not seen as a motivator. Unvaccinated respondents were significantly more worried about the future than vaccinated respondents (78.8 vs. 26.3%, p < 0.001). They were also significantly more likely to view their employers' vaccine recommendations as "manipulative" (50.6 vs. 12.4%, p < 0.001), while vaccinated respondents were significantly more likely to view them as "supportive" (68.0 vs. 25.9%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: While employers have the means to mediate public health decision-making by providing information, deciding to become vaccinated is a more complex process including public debate, world views, political influences, and the uptake of information. Employers can act as mediators for public health decision-making, moving policy measures beyond an individualized view of health choices and health literacy toward more structural, systemic, and community-based efforts.

Telehealth in Times of COVID-19: Spotlight on Austria.

INTRODUCTION: With the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the world has been experiencing an extraordinary state of emergency. As patients entering a doctor's practice can potentially infect medical staff and other patients, using digital alternatives wherever possible is a potential solution to avoiding face-to-face encounters. In these conditions, telemedicine is becoming increasingly relevant. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine telemedicine use and gathered experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In June 2020, a representative group of Austrian respondents (n = 1000) was asked via online survey whether they had contacted a doctor during spring of 2020, and, if so, whether they had used a telemedical method to do so. The survey also reflected gathered experiences and degrees of satisfaction with the use of telemedicine. RESULTS: A third (33%) of those who contacted a doctor during the target period did so using telemedical tools. The majority of those with previous telehealth experience were satisfied with the help they received. Patients commonly used a telephone to contact their doctors. The overall assessment of telemedical aids tended to be positive, with more than half (53%) of those surveyed seeing significant advantages, and a 90% satisfaction rate among the respondents who used telehealth services. CONCLUSION: The outcomes from this work hint at fairly high acceptance of telemedical communication tools in the studied group of the Austrian population. Based on the high rate of satisfaction among patients who used telehealth, it is expected that the use of telehealth services will increase further in the near future.

Mimicking and anticipating others' actions is linked to Social Information Processing.

It is widely known that individuals frequently imitate each other in social situations and that such mimicry fulfills an important social role in the sense that it functions as a social glue. With reference to the anticipated action effect, it has recently been demonstrated that individuals do not only imitate others, but also engage in anticipated action before the observed person starts engaging in that action. Interestingly, both phenomena (i.e., mimicry and anticipated action) rely on tracking others' social behavior. Therefore, in the present research we investigated whether mimicry and anticipated action are related to social abilities as indicated by measures of social intelligence. The results demonstrate for the first time that mimicry as well as anticipated action is correlated with an important aspect of social intelligence-namely the ability to process social information. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.

[The diagnostic relevance of CBCL and YSR in diagnosing PTSD in adolescence]. / Zur diagnostischen Relevanz von CBCL und YSR bei Diagnose einer PTBS im Jugendalter.

BACKGROUND: The present study sought to examine the symptomatology of children and adolescents with a history of trauma experience of using the German versions of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self Report (YSR). We pursue the question to what extent symptoms differ among adolescents with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A further objective is comparing self-assessment of the children and adolescents with the rating of their parents or caregivers. METHODS: Overall N = 41 patients, aged 11-18 years, and one caregiver of each patient were surveyed. All patients were referred to the forensic ambulance of the University Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in consequence of acute burden or violent trauma. RESULTS: Concerning the two global Scales ("Internalizing" and "Externalizing" symptoms), adolescents with PTSD reported significantly more problems than adolescents without PTSD diagnosis. Further, results on Externalizing Scale showed a systematic higher problem estimation of children and adolescents when compared to their parents. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings reveal a divergence between child and parent ratings on clinically relevant behavioral problems. Symptoms experienced by the children and youth are often not being recognized by parents. Therefore, it is essential to include the perceptions of the parents at the beginning of diagnostic assessment and counteract possible parental misunderstanding.

Effects of guided breathing on blood pressure and heart rate variability in hypertensive diabetic patients.

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to investigate medium-term effects of device-guided breathing on blood pressure (BP) and its capacity to improve the cardiovascular autonomic balance in hypertensive diabetic patients. This feasibility study was conceived as a proof-of-concept trial under real life conditions for justification of further investigations. METHODS: A randomized, controlled study (RCT) of the effects of device-guided slow breathing on top of usual care against usual care alone (including non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatment). The intervention included 12-min sessions of guided breathing performed daily for 8 weeks. Treatment effects were assessed with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (24h ABPM) and with spectral analysis of short-term heart rate variability (HRV) obtained during standardized modified orthostatic load. Thirty-two subjects with diabetes and antihypertensive therapy were randomly assigned to both study groups. RESULTS: After 8 weeks of guided breathing, significant reductions were demonstrated in 24 h systolic BP (x±SEM: 126.1±3.0 vs 123.2±2.7 mmHg, p=0.01), and in 24 h pulse pressure (PP, 53.6±2.6 vs. 51.3±2.5 mmHg, p=0.01), whereas no significant impact in the control group was shown. The differences in treatment effects (delta mmHg, RESPeRATE® vs control) were significant only for PP (-2.3±0.8 vs +0.2±1.2 mmHg, p<0.05). Strong baseline dependence of treatment effects (delta systolic BP) was observed (p<0.01). Guided breathing showed a stronger treatment effect in terms of an increase in HRV, predominantly in low frequency band (p<0.03 vs. usual care). CONCLUSION: Even in well controlled hypertensive diabetic patients, guided breathing induced relevant effects on BP and HRV, finding which should be investigated further.