Self-destruction or surrender? Religiosity and active versus passive euthanasia.

Previous research suggests that people, especially religious people, are more opposed to active euthanasia, such as a lethal injection, than to passive euthanasia, such as withdrawing life support. The current research proposes a possible explanation for this finding-that active euthanasia is viewed as interfering with the natural course of life and death, but passive euthanasia is viewed as allowing it to take place. Two studies yielded results consistent with this hypothesis and found that how people think about the natural course of life and death substantially explained the greater opposition to active euthanasia among more religious people.

Eating behaviour and its association with social living conditions and weight status among adolescent girls: results of the cross-sectional Berlin School Children's Cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To capture a more holistic picture of eating behaviour by investigating the impact of the social living conditions and weight status of parents and daughters on food consumption frequency, the context of meals and daily portion sizes. DESIGN: Cross-sectional Berlin School Children's Cohort study. SETTING: A total of sixty-nine schools in Berlin (3 400 000 inhabitants, eastern Germany) participated in the present study. SUBJECTS: A total of 1519 girls aged 11-14 years were selected. Bi- and multivariate analyses were performed to examine the impact of age, migration background, socio-economic status (SES), parental education, family situation and the weight status of parents and daughters on three different eating behaviour scores according to nutritional recommendations. RESULTS: For the three dependent eating behaviour variables, different patterns of influencing factors emerged. Multivariate regression (model 1) revealed that low and middle SES, two-parent migration background and older age were significant risk factors. Meal context was also significantly influenced by living with a single parent. Similar results were obtained for the daily portion size scores and maternal overweight status was the most influential. Model 2 succeeded in showing that, within the composite variable of family SES, mothers' level of education was the dominant component. CONCLUSIONS: SES as a whole, and especially the component of mothers' level of education and two-parent migration background, was the strongest risk factor for an unfavourable eating pattern among adolescent girls. The results clearly indicated preventive potential. Using three different measures of eating behaviour simultaneously provided an in-depth understanding of general patterns and potential risk factors.

Outcome after Hypospadias Repair: Evaluation Using the Hypospadias Objective Penile Evaluation Score.

INTRODUCTION: The Hypospadias Objective Penile Evaluation Score (HOPE-Score) is a concise and reproducible way to describe hypospadias severity. We classified boys undergoing primary hypospadias repair to determine the correlation between the HOPE-Score and the severity of hypospadias first and the outcome after surgery second. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent primary hypospadias repair from 2005 to 2014 were identified. An independent physician assessed retrospectively the HOPE-Score, using photographies of the patients before, after primary surgery, and after all necessary surgeries. The correlation between the HOPE-Score and the severity of hypospadias, on the one hand, and the outcome after surgery, on the other hand, were analyzed. RESULTS: The HOPE-Score was assessed preoperatively for 79 boys, postoperatively for 66, and after all necessary surgeries for 21 patients. Mean HOPE-Score reached 30.2 ± 5.9 before surgery, 42.2 ± 6.1 after primary surgery, and 43.7 ± 3.4 after all necessary surgeries. A significant correlation between the HOPE-Score and the severity of hypospadias before surgery was observed. The boys with glanular hypospadias scored significantly higher (36.3 ± 5.4) than those with distal (29.6 ± 4.4) and proximal hypospadias (21.1 ± 3.5). Furthermore, a significant correlation between the HOPE-Score and the outcome after hypospadias repair was observed. Patients who needed no reintervention after primary hypospadias repair scored significantly higher postoperatively (45.1 ± 5.4) than those who needed a second (40.8 ± 4.2) or more than two surgeries (36.9 ± 7.4). CONCLUSION: The HOPE-Score is a good system to assess the severity of hypospadias and the cosmetic outcome after hypospadias repair.

Japan health system review

The Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (the APO) is a collaborative partnership of interested governments, international agencies, foundations, and researchers that promotes evidence-informed health systems policy regionally and in all countries in the Asia Pacific region. The APO collaboratively identifies priority health system issues across the Asia Pacific region; develops and synthesizes relevant research to support and inform countries' evidence-based policy development; and builds country and regional health systems research and evidence-informed policy capacity.