Considerable concern is raised as to whether the pandemic has led to an increase in violence and sexual abuse against children.
The present study objective is to provide rates of violence and sexual abuse against adolescents the year before the pandemic compared to one year into the pandemic.
Two samples of Norwegian 12-16-year-olds were approached. A representative pre-pandemic sample of 9240 adolescents (M age (SD) = 14.11(0.88), and a sample recruited one year into the pandemic resulting in 3540 responses (M age (SD) = 14.5 (0.96)).
An online survey was administered during school hours including established measures of violence and sexual abuse exposure. Sociodemographic characteristics were assessed.
There was 1.4 percentage point increase in sexual abuse by an adult, and a 3.9 percentage point decrease in psychological violence by a parent during the pandemic compared to the year before the pandemic. Otherwise, violence and sexual abuse rates remained stable across these two time periods. Risk factors for violence and sexual abuse were amplified during the pandemic.
Norway, a high-income welfare state, imposed measures to counteract the burden of the pandemic mitigation actions for adolescents. This might partly explain the absence of the feared increase in violence towards adolescents. The disproportionate risk for violence and sexual abuse for some groups of adolescents is however concerning, and should be followed up over time.

OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence rates of non-partner and partner violence (IPV) in men and women from a population-based study.
METHODS: We recruited 2,887 randomly selected respondents (1,464 women and 1,423 men) from three regions of New Zealand between 2017 and 2019. Face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire adapted from the WHO multi-country study on violence against women was used for data collection.
RESULTS: Physical violence by non-partners was most commonly experienced by men (39.9% lifetime exposure) compared with 11.9% of women. More women (8.2%) experienced lifetime non-partner sexual violence compared with men (2.2%). About 29% of men and women reported at least one act of physical-IPV in their lifetime, and about 12.4% of women and 2.1% of men reported at least one act of lifetime sexual IPV. More women than men reported serious injuries, fear, and physical and mental health impacts following IPV experience.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate high prevalence of interpersonal violence exposure in the population, with marked gender differences in the types and impacts of violence reported.
CONCLUSIONS: Study results call for the urgent implementation of violence prevention programs, and funding for both services to rehabilitate people who have perpetrated violence and services to support recovery of those affected.

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity are emerging public health issues. True prevalence rates are unknown and estimates differ substantially between studies. No large-scale single study has compared prevalence rates between whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics, as we intend to do here. This study also examined the effects of race and socioeconomic factors on sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity.
METHODS: This study included 10,325 participants from Louisiana. Appendicular lean mass (ASM), measured through dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans, was divided by height squared (ASM/h2) to define sarcopenia. Sarcopenic obesity was defined as sarcopenia plus obesity (waist-to-hip ratio).
RESULTS: Overall sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity rates were 17.6% and 7.0% for males, and 13.7% and 2.5% for females, respectively. The highest sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity rates were found in Asian males (40.6%, 14.4%) and females (30.1%, 8.0%). The lowest sarcopenic obesity rates were observed in black males (3.7%) and females (0.9%). We found significant associations with sarcopenic obesity in males for age, race, and income; in females, for age, race, and education.
CONCLUSIONS: Under one diagnostic definition, the prevalence of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity is highest among Asians and lowest amongst blacks. Income and education had significant associations with sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity, in males and females, respectively.

BACKGROUND: Trisomy 13 is one of the three autosomal trisomies compatible with viability. It is associated with structural anomalies, learning disability and poor survival. Advanced maternal age is the most frequently suggested risk factor. This is a population based register study to investigate the temporal trends of trisomy 13.
METHODS: Chromosomal trisomies were reviewed by the Welsh Congenital Anomaly Register using data from 1998-2012. All pregnancy outcomes were included. Prevalence rates and trends for all cases and for cases with mothers aged below 35 years and those aged 35 years and older were plotted for trisomy 13, 18 and 21. Possible risk factors contributing to the trend in older mothers were compared in the early and late period of the study.
RESULTS: There were 124 cases of trisomy 13 over the 15 year period with 55 mothers aged 35 years and older. Overall prevalence was 2.5 per 10,000 total births. A significant declining trend in the prevalence of trisomy 13 in mothers aged 35 and older (χ(2) trend = 4.98, p=0.026) was noted. Rates for younger mothers were lower and remained stable. Prevalence of trisomy 18 and 21 in older mothers remained stable.
CONCLUSIONS: The unexpected declining trend in trisomy 13 in older mothers could not be explained by the risk factors examined in this study. There have been no other reports of trends in the prevalence of trisomy 13 in older mothers in recent years. There is further need for surveillance of trends in future and in other populations.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the gender-difference effect on abnormal spontaneous neuronal activity of male and female major depressive disorder (MDD) patients using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and the further clarified the relationship between the abnormal ALFF and differences in MDD prevalence rates between male and female patients.
METHODS: Fourteen male MDD patients, 13 female MDD patients and 15 male and 15 female well matched healthy controls (HCs) completed this study. The ALFF approach was used, and Pearson correlation was conducted to observe a possible clinical relevance.
RESULTS: There were widespread differences in ALFF values between female and male MDD patients, including some important parts of the frontoparietal network, auditory network, attention network and cerebellum network. In female MDD patients, there was a positive correlation between average ALFF values of the left postcentral gyrus and the severity of weight loss symptom.
CONCLUSIONS: The gender-difference effect leading to abnormal brain activity is an important underlying pathomechanism for different somatic symptoms in MDD patients of different genders and is likely suggestive of higher MDD prevalence rates in females.
CONCLUSIONS: The abnormal ALFF resulting from the gender-difference effect might improve our understanding of the differences in prevalence rates between male and female MDD patients from another perspective.