This concurrent qualitative study was carried out with the main objective to determine wildlife beliefs, taboos, usages, health perceptions, and practices among ten ethnic groups in four communities in Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces of Thailand from November 2020 to January 2021. We also gathered comprehensive information on study respondents\' knowledge related to potential risk behaviors that could lead to zoonotic disease transmission and infection. Furthermore, we intended to use the study\'s findings to develop communication strategies and health literacy improvement interventions for mitigating risky behaviors, with a focus on ethnic groups and particular individuals who live in close proximity to forests and wildlife, to prevent future pandemics. Sixty-five respondents were purposively selected based on their extensive knowledge, active participation in local cultural contexts, beliefs, and exposure to wildlife contact or consuming game animals. Twenty (30.8%) participated in in-depth interviews (IDIs), while 45 (69.2%) participated in eight focused group discussions (FGDs). The results revealed that the characteristics of wildlife contact are similar and distinct based on their beliefs and taboos among various ethnic groups and study locations, which are influenced by cultural backgrounds and traditions. Although some ethnic groups do not have explicit restrictions on the consumption of wildlife, others adhere to specific beliefs and taboos that forbid the consumption or killing of specific wild animals. These beliefs frequently correspond with conservation initiatives, thereby facilitating the preservation of threatened species. The study also revealed a lack of appropriate health knowledge, perceptions, and practices regarding wildlife contact and consumption. As a result, it is recommended that public health officials and local governments develop and execute communication and education initiatives. These campaigns should aim to increase health literacy and promote safe handling, preparation, and cooking practices to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease transmission and infection effectively. Moreover, it is necessary to design and implement wildlife conservation education and outreach activities. The programs should promote environmental stewardship while considering the cultural contexts, beliefs, and practices of various ethnic groups. The activities should involve diverse stakeholders, including local leaders, religious influencers, community members, schoolteachers, students, health professionals, village health volunteers, and civil society organizations.

Metaphors play a significant role in how cancer is experienced and discussed. This study delves into the utilization of metaphors by women bloggers grappling with colorectal and gynecological cancers. By focusing on cancer types less represented in mainstream media, we aim to shed light on cancer cultures associated with body areas often considered taboo. Our findings reveal that widely recognized expressions and stories about cancer, such as the metaphors of battle and narratives promoting optimism and heroism in the face of illness, are deeply ingrained. However, a notable discovery is the prevalence of personification alongside these conventional expressions. Personifying cancer endows it with human characteristics, providing an outlet for bloggers to express their fear and frustration, including articulating feelings of sadness and anger, diverging from narratives centered on heroism and positive thinking. Furthermore, our analysis reveals a significant emphasis on death, underscoring that despite advancements in treatment, bloggers still perceive cancer as highly lethal. Personification can serve both detrimental and therapeutic purposes for bloggers and for societal perceptions of cancer survivorship, both reinforcing and opposing dominant Western discourses surrounding the illness. These findings enrich our understanding of cognitive and cultural tools used to describe cancer within contemporary Western society.

UNASSIGNED: A TABOO TOPIC. Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) has a high prevalence (between 20% and 81%) in sportswomen, all the more so if they practice a sport at risk for the perineal function, including jumping, running, strong abdominal contraction in combat sports, and if their practice is intensive and/or repeated with a dose effect. Making sportswomen aware of the importance of an educational prevention program is key, as the impact on performance in top-level sportswomen is real. In leisure activities, or in sports without repeated impact, regular activity is protective against SUI. This review examines the mechanisms of SUI, its prevalence in different sports, and prevention in young sportswomen.
INCONTINENCE URINAIRE D’EFFORT CHEZ LES SPORTIVES : UN TABOU. L’incontinence urinaire d’effort (IUE) a une prévalence qui reste élevée (de 20 % à 81 %) chez la sportive, d’autant plus qu’elle pratique un sport à risque pour la fonction périnéale – incluant saut, course, forte contraction abdominale comme dans les sports de combat – et que la pratique est intensive et/ou répétée. La sensibilisation des sportives à un programme éducatif de prévention est importante car l’impact sur la performance chez les sportives de haut niveau est réel. Dans une pratique de loisir ou d’un sport sans impacts répétés, une activité régulière est protectrice de l’IUE.

Swearing, or the use of taboo language, has been repeatedly shown to induce hypoalgesia. While reliable hypoalgesic effects have been observed across studies, the mechanisms by which swearing influences pain and the optimal dosage of swearing remain poorly understood. Plausible mechanistic rationale for swearing\'s impact on pain include sympathetic response, emotion, humor, distraction, aggression, state disinhibition, psychological flow, risky behavior, and self-confidence. It remains unknown how the intensity of the swear word, speech volume, frequency, or timing influences pain modulation. While the majority of evidence demonstrates the efficacy of swearing at attenuating acute pain responses, these studies have utilized healthy populations with controlled experiments in laboratory settings. Comparatively, less is known about how laboratory findings translate practically/clinically to diverse populations, various dosages, and different pain chronicities. A greater understanding of mechanistic underpinnings and practical implications are necessary to feasibly implement swearing as a therapeutic modality to combat pain. The purpose of the following mini-review is to provide an overview of the current evidence on swearing for the reduction of pain, speculate on plausible underlying mechanisms, and discuss the potential for optimization of swearing for real-world translation. Lastly, identifying knowledge gaps to aid in directing future research will be discussed.

This narrative review comprehensively examines the intricate relationship between period poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), positioning it as a critical public health challenge with far-reaching implications. Through an in-depth analysis of the multifaceted impact of period poverty on public health, including its effects on reproductive health, mental well-being, and economic participation, the paper underscores the urgent need to address this issue within the framework of the SDGs. An overview of existing literature on period poverty, its impact on health and well-being, and its relation to the SDGs was carried out. Different perspectives, interventions, and policy approaches to addressing period poverty were also explored. By illuminating the interplay between period poverty and various SDGs, particularly those related to gender equality, health, education, and economic empowerment, the study emphasizes the imperative of integrating menstrual health and hygiene into global development efforts. Advocating for targeted policies, funding, and advocacy, the manuscript calls for a holistic and inclusive approach to breaking the cycle of period poverty, ultimately contributing to advancing the SDGs and fostering a more equitable and healthier global society. Efforts to eradicate period poverty - providing affordable menstrual products, improving sanitation infrastructure, enhancing education, and implementing supportive policies - lead to significant progress in public health and gender equity. By prioritizing menstrual health management in public health policies, educational programs, and economic strategies, we can ensure that everyone who menstruates can do so with dignity and without limits on their potential.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the work problems and challenges of male prehospital emergency technicians when faced with female medical emergencies. Given that qualitative research has not been done in this field, planning to find the weak points and improve the quality of prehospital emergency as the first line of treatment for female emergency patients, which is considered an important part of the health care system, is considered important and valuable. Therefore, this phenomenological study was conducted in 2023.
METHODS: This study was conducted using a qualitative method of phenomenology in 2023. The environment of the research was urban and road prehospital emergency centers in Iran and the data were collected through interviews with EMS technicians. The collected data were analyzed using Smith\'s approach to explain the lived experiences of EMS technicians facing female emergencies or women\'s emergencies in Iran.
RESULTS: All the 15 participants were men. Their mean age was 35 years, with a range of 25 to 45 years, and with a mean work experience of 10.54 years with a range of 4 to 20 years. The lived experiences of 115 emergency technicians in facing women\'s emergencies in Iran were placed in four main themes cultural-social factors, organizational factors, human resources-related factors, and administrative-legal factors.
CONCLUSIONS: EMS personnel face various obstacles in carrying out missions related to women\'s emergencies, Considering the critical nature of women\'s emergencies, it is recommended that policymakers and clinical educators improve the level of community culture, communication skills, theoretical and practical training, respecting privacy, hiring female personnel, adding specialized equipment, amending and changing laws, removing road-traffic obstacles and to support personnel, patients and their families psychologically to optimize performance in women\'s emergencies.

Chronic constipation is a prevalent problem that significantly impacts older adults\' well-being. This study aimed to explore how older adults describe constipation symptoms and impacts and understand the perceived taboo surrounding discussions on related issues. Twenty older adults with constipation were interviewed using a semi-structured format in Taiwan. The Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis approach was utilized for data analysis. Five techniques recommended by Lincoln and Guba (1985) were implemented to ensure the study\'s trustworthiness. The primary themes encompassed comprehensive portrayals of fecal characteristics, the discomfort symphony of constipation, emotional turbulence in the struggle against constipation, daily activities shadowed by constipation, and underlying factors contributing to communication taboos. Most participants considered the discussion of constipation taboo due to its association with an embarrassing secret, an unacceptable social norm and stigma, and apprehensions of potential gossip. Geriatric caregivers need to consider individual perspectives, communication taboos, and sociocultural contexts when addressing older adults\' constipation.

Open defecation contributes to the spread of different feco-oral diseases. Therefore, access to a latrine is strongly recommended, as it considerably reduces the risks. Even though provision of latrine facilities alone does not guarantee the desired health benefits, they should be integrated with behavior change. In Ethiopia, efforts have been made to increase the coverage of latrine facilities. However, evidence on how consistently households use it is limited. Most prior studies focused on latrine utilization among households, and limited evidence is available about open defecation practices among households with latrines and associated factors. Thus, this study is critical for developing effective intervention approaches to prevent open defecation among households with latrines.
The aim of this study was to assess the open defecation practice and associated factors among households with latrines in rural communities of Ararso District, Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia, 2023.
A community-based, cross-sectional study design was employed among households with latrines in the district. A total of 632 households latrines were selected using a systematic sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and an observational checklist. The questionnaire was designed in KoboTool box, Humanitarian Response software, and the data were collected using the Kobo Collect version 2023.2.4 mobile application. The data were downloaded from the server in the Microsoft Excel format for data cleaning before being exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were employed to investigate the relationship between outcome and independent variables. Odd ratios with 95% confidence intervals were utilized to assess the association between the outcome and the predictor variables. A P-value of <0.05 was used as the threshold point for statistical significance.
In this study, the prevalence of open defecation practice among households with latrines was 32.4% (95% CI: 28.1, 35.9). Sex of the household (AOR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.06, 2.4), educational status (AOR = 2.40, 95% CI: 1.08, 5.53), family size (AOR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.22, 2.78), the presence of under-5-year-old children in the house (AOR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.75), the need for latrine maintenance (AOR = 2.37.95% CI: 1.62, 3.48), current status of the latrine (AOR = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.62, 3.48), and latrine cleanness status (being unclean) (AOR = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.29, 2.81) were significantly associated with open defecation practice among households with latrine.
The study concluded that open defecation was significantly practiced by households with latrines. This revealed that the presence of a latrine alone was insufficient to considerably reduce open defecation. To alleviate this problem, the government and health workers, in collaboration with the health bureau, should promote frequent sanitation and hygiene education in the communities.

The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words\' tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.

BACKGROUND: Food taboos and cultural beliefs among pregnant and breast-feeding women influence their food consumption patterns and hence the health of women and unborn children. Cognizant of their neglect in programs aimed to ameliorate hidden hunger among pregnant and breast-feeding women in Buyende and other resource-poor communities in sub-Saharan Africa, we opted for a study to unravel them to inform program design.
METHODS: We documented food taboos and beliefs amongst pregnant and breast-feeding women from six sub-counties of Buyende district in Eastern Uganda. A mixed-methods approach was used, which was comprised of questionnaire interviews with 462 women, eight focus group discussions with 6-10 participants in each and a total of 15 key informant interviews.
RESULTS: The present study revealed that 129 (27.9%) of the respondents practice food taboos and adhere to cultural beliefs related to their dietary habits during pregnancy and breast-feeding that are fuelling the prevalence of hidden hunger. The most tabooed foods during pregnancy were sugarcane (17.8%), fishes which included lung fish, catfish and the Lake Victoria sardine (Rastrineobola argentea) (15.2%), oranges (6.6%), pineapples (5.9%), eggs (3.3%), chicken (3.3%) and cassava, mangoes and Cleome gynandra (each at 3%). Most foods were avoided for reasons associated with pregnancy and labour complications and undesirable effects on the baby. Most women learnt of the taboos and beliefs from the elders, their own mother, grandparents or mother-in-law, but there was also knowledge transmission in social groups within the community.
CONCLUSIONS: The taboos and cultural beliefs in the study area render pregnant and breast-feeding women prone to micronutrient deficiency since they are denied consumption of a diversity of nutritious foods. There is a need to educate such women about consumption of nutrient-rich foods like fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables in order to improve their health, that of the unborn and children being breast fed. Additionally, culturally appropriate nutrition education may be a good strategy to eliminate inappropriate food taboos and beliefs with negative impact on the health of pregnant and breast-feeding women.