BACKGROUND: It is well known that women have been plagued by various skin problems. However, research on the characteristics of women\'s skin at different ages is still inadequate. In addition, there is a lack of research on the extent of women\'s skincare habits and skin care awareness.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey on skin was carried out in Shanghai, China, which was conducted by means of a questionnaire. 3678 women, aged 18-59 years, participated in the study. The information collected focused on the importance they place on their skin, the skin problems they have, and their use and perception of skin care products.
RESULTS: Before the age of 25, the most common skin problems that women face are dryness and oiliness, while after the age of 30, skin-ageing issues begin to appear and worsen with age. In addition, the higher the level of education, the higher the frequency of and compliance with sunscreen use, and the economy also affects women\'s use of sunscreen. Importantly, the importance women place on their skin and the level of sunscreen awareness affects women\'s use of sunscreen.
CONCLUSIONS: This study was conducted to understand the skin characteristics of women of different age groups as well as to determine the factors that influence the use of sunscreens, which will not only promote women\'s skin care practices and product development, but also provide important clues for future activities on sunscreen use and health promotion.

Health care workers, who worked intensively during the COVID-19 pandemic, faced some problems, including skin problems, due to the personal protective equipment (PPE) they used to control the spread of infection.
This study aimed to identify the skin problems because of using PPE by nurses during the delivery of health care in three COVID-19 intensive care units (ICUs) within one hospital service.
The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. The study was conducted with nurses working in three intensive care units in the metropolitan districts of Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected online with a questionnaire developed by the researchers between December 2021 and June 2022.
In this study, 82/120 (68.33%) nurses responded to the questionnaire at least once during the distribution period. The mean of the duration of PPE utilization per each time including goggles, N95 mask, bonnet, face-shield, gloves, boots/shoe covers and coverall was 3.76 ± 1.36 h. The proportion of nurses who experienced any skin problem related to any PPE at least two or more was 74/82 (90.24%). The proportion of pressure sores, acne, skin reaction including allergic dermatitis or contact urticaria, and regional pain varied between 4.9% and 79.3%. The proportion of nurses who applied any protective application to prevent skin problems was 53.66%. Among the protective applications, pressure-reducing surfaces were used the most. The use of protective applications for goggles (p = .010), bonnet (p = .000) and face shield (p = .000) effectively reduced PPE-related skin problems.
During the pandemic, nurses faced a wide variety of skin problems because of PPEs. It may be beneficial to design a study programme that reduces the duration of PPEs use in clinics. In addition, there is a need for effective protective applications to prevent skin problems and new development of PPE that do not cause skin problems.
In the pandemic, skin problems have developed because of the use of PPE in nurses who provide health care, intensively. These problems, which were not seen as a priority in the pandemic, may adversely affect the health of nurses, their performance in the treatment and care process and their work quality.

UNASSIGNED: The deadly COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe since December 2019. Due to the significant risk of infection, frontline health workers had to use Personal Protective Equipment and hand hygiene products, to help prevent transmission of infection. The present study aims to compare the adverse skin responses between healthcare workers (HCW) and non-healthcare workers (NHCW).
UNASSIGNED: A descriptive, cross-sectional study of HCW and NHCW throughout the country wa executed. A self-structured questionnaire was utilized to gather data from 404 HCWs and 826 NHCWs during a two-month period using multistage sampling. STATA (v16) was used to analyse the data.
UNASSIGNED: 41.87% of the study participants experienced adverse skin reactions, which were more prevalent amongs HCW (65.10%) than NHCW (30.51%). The most frequently reported skin condition was skin dryness (34.39%), followed by skin peeling (11.71%). Users of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (ABHS) were more likely to get itch (8.13%), whereas soap water users were more likely to suffer from skin peeling (35.74%) and rash (7.46%). There was a significant (p < 0.001) association between occupation and adverse skin responses, with HCW being 3.5 times more likely to have adverse skin manifestations than NHCW.
UNASSIGNED: The research showed that healthcare workers were at a greater risk to developing skin reactions than the overall population with frequent use of hand hygiene measures being a significant risk factor.

BACKGROUND: The prosthetic socket is the connecting part between the stump and the prosthesis, which is the important basis for the function of the prosthesis. The current prosthetic socket is difficult in meeting the needs of amputees current, which is the main reason for amputees abandoning their prostheses. This paper reviews the design and use of prosthetic sockets for lower limb.
METHODS: The contribution of this publication is to review the skin problem, interface stress and volume fluctuations for prosthetic sockets, which are proposed as the key factors affecting the use of prosthetic sockets. Moreover, the lower limb prosthetic sockets are classified into the full-contact and the frame-type sockets according to the different contact type between stump and prosthetic socket, and their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed from different perspectives.
CONCLUSIONS: Aim to design the prosthetic socket with function transfer, suspension stability and comfort of socket, a design concept for prosthetic socket with self-adapt in real-time is proposed. It can be achieved by the smart materials with special mechanical properties.

Residual limb wounds or ulcers are one of the most frequent skin problems reported by lower extremity prosthesis users. Healing often requires prosthesis disuse, which can logically impair physical functioning. However, there are limited data available to support this idea. We report the impact of prosthesis disuse by presenting assessments of balance, gait, physical activity, and balance confidence obtained on a case subject before experiencing a wound and following reintroduction to a well-fit prosthesis after wound-related prosthesis disuse. The case subject was a 76-year-old male who suffered a unilateral, transtibial amputation due to synovial sarcoma 13 years before. After presenting with a history of pain in the area of a chronic skin plaque, he received a punch biopsy, which resulted in 4 weeks of prosthesis disuse followed by 12 weeks of limited use before a final well-fitting socket was received. The following data were collected 24 weeks before the biopsy and 4 weeks after receiving the final well-fitting socket: Berg Balance Scale, L-test of walking, quantitative gait analysis, Activity-specific Balance Confidence Scale, and 1 week of community-based activity. Balance confidence decreased nearly 19%, walking speed decreased by 12%, and steps/day decreased by 19% following ∼4 months of prosthesis disuse/limited use; functional measures were not impacted. Lower balance confidence is not trivial as it can lead to activity avoidance and increased fall risk. Interventions to target balance confidence changes following prosthesis disuses may be important to minimize the impact of disuse on physical and mental well-being.

Peristomal irritation is one of the most common complications in patients with a stoma. In many cases, prevention is limited to the care provided during the post-operative period. However, it can start before the operation by improving the physical condition of the patient. It continues during the perioperative period with the surgical technique. Prevention advice can be given during these three key stages of the patient\'s treatment.