Hypospadias prevalence by severity and associated risk factors: A population-based active surveillance analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Hypospadias is one of the most common congenital anomalies. Trends of hypospadias prevalence by severity are not well reported. Most prevalence studies consist of pooled data from different countries or states suffer from low data quality due to inconsistent methodologies, limited variables, and lack of categorization of hypospadias severity. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of hypospadias by degrees of severity and associated risk factors using combined data sources from a stable and well-defined population. STUDY DESIGN: The study population includes infants born with hypospadias to mothers residing in Arkansas from 1997 to 2016. Cases were identified from an active population-based surveillance program of birth defects. Identified hypospadias cases from surveillance data were linked to birth certificate and to a clinical database. These two data sources provide more details on the location of the defect and maternal and infant characteristics. The prevalence and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using total male live births as denominator. Chi-square test was used to assess the association of nominal variables. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratio. RESULTS: A total 3230 hypospadias cases were identified from 1997 to 2016. The overall prevalence is 83.0 per 10,000 male births. A majority of cases (56.7%) were classified as first degree with the others having second degree (22.8%), third degree (4.7%) or not otherwise specified (15.6%). The highest prevalence of hypospadias was observed among Non-Hispanic whites. Higher prevalence also was observed among mothers in the older age group with no prenatal care in the first trimester and with gestational hypertension or diabetes. Premature or small for gestational age infants tend to have higher prevalence across all levels of severity. The number of hypospadias cases increased over time. After maternal age, race and education were adjusted, higher risk persisted for infants of restricted fetal growth, mothers with gestational hypertension or diabetes and the cohort of 2013-2016. CONCLUSION: There is an increase of hypospadias cases in Arkansas. Several maternal and infant characteristics associated with higher prevalence for all levels of severity are worth further investigation.

Sexual harassment in academe is underreported, especially by students in the life and physical sciences.

What factors predict the underreporting of sexual harassment in academe? We used logistic regression and sentiment analysis to examine 2,343 reports of sexual harassment involving members of university communities. Results indicate students were 1.6 times likely to not report their experiences when compared to faculty. Respondents in the life and physical sciences were 1.7 times more likely to not report their experiences when compared to respondents in other disciplines. Men represented 90% of the reported perpetrators of sexual harassment. Analysis of respondents' written accounts show variation of overall sentiment based on discipline, student type, and the type of institution attended, particularly with regard to mental health. Our results suggest that institutional and departmental barriers driven by power asymmetries play a large role in the underreporting sexual harassment among students-especially those in STEM disciplines.

Survey-software implicit association tests: A methodological and empirical analysis.

The implicit association test (IAT) is widely used in psychology. Unfortunately, the IAT cannot be run within online surveys, requiring researchers who conduct online surveys to rely on third-party tools. We introduce a novel method for constructing IATs using online survey software (Qualtrics); we then empirically assess its validity. Study 1 (student n = 239) revealed good psychometric properties, expected IAT effects, and expected correlations with explicit measures for survey-software IATs. Study 2 (MTurk n = 818) showed predicted IAT effects across four survey-software IATs (ds = 0.82 [Black-White IAT] to 2.13 [insect-flower IAT]). Study 3 (MTurk n = 270) compared survey-software IATs and IATs run via Inquisit, yielding nearly identical results and intercorrelations that would be expected for identical IATs. Survey-software IATs appear to be reliable and valid, offer numerous advantages, and make IATs accessible for researchers who use survey software to conduct online research. We present all the materials, links to tutorials, and an open-source tool that rapidly automates survey-software IAT construction and analysis.