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This article analyzes two longitudinal datasets (October – December 2020; April 2021) of 1,000 and 900 women in Kenya and Nigeria, respectively, alongside in-depth qualitative interviews with women at risk of changes to time use, to study two pandemic issues: women’s substitution of paid for unpaid work and how these shifts compromise their mental health. Women devote more time to domestic care (30–38 percent), less time to employment (29–46 percent), and become unemployed (12–17 percent). A rise in domestic work is correlated with depressive (Nigeria) and anxiety symptoms (Kenya and Nigeria). Women with greater agency (Kenya) and fewer children (Nigeria) are less likely to report a domestic burden or loss in paid activities. Social protection programs may fill the void of assistance traditionally provided by informal networks in the short term, while campaigns shifting norms around household work may preserve women’s economic participation in the long term.

Background: In 2010, Kenya became the third country to implement the Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS). The study found high prevalence of violence in the country. Led by the Government of Kenya, stakeholders implemented several prevention and response strategies to reduce violence. In 2019, Kenya implemented a second VACS. This study examined changes in violence and risk factors for violence between 2010 and 2019. Methods: The 2010 and 2019 VACS used a similar sampling approach and measures. Both were national household surveys of persons aged 13–24 years. Prevalence and changes in lifetime experiences of violence and risk factors for violence were estimated. Findings: The prevalence of lifetime sexual, physical, and emotional violence significantly declined in 2019 compared to 2010 for both females and males. Additionally, significantly more female survivors sought and received services for sexual violence and significantly more males knew of a place to seek help in 2019 than in 2010. Prevalence of several risk factors for violence also declined. For example, fewer females endorsed at least one inequitable gender norm and fewer males endorsed at least one inequitable gender norms and norms endorsing wife beating in 2019 compared to 2010. Interpretation: Kenya observed significant declines in the prevalence of lifetime violence victimization and some risk factors for violence between 2010 and 2019. Although low, some service seeking and receipt indicators also improved between 2010 and 2019. Prioritizing services and their uptake among survivors of childhood violence in Kenya will be important. Funding: The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the terms of cooperative agreements #5NU2GGH001520 and #1U2GGH001619. Declaration of Interest: The authors have no declared conflicts of interest. Ethical Approval: Protocol reviewed and approved by the Ethical Review Committee (ERC) of the Kenya Medical Research Institute and by the CDC Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Arthritis Care & Research is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Objective: To develop a decision support package for people with low back pain (LBP) referred for physiotherapy. Methods: A programme of exploratory work including, literature reviews, a Delphi study, a nominal group with physiotherapists, focus groups with patients' and secondary analysis of existing interview data. Results: We developed an information booklet describing the evidence-based treatment modalities available in a physiotherapy department. This includes data on likely benefits and risks and how the intervention is delivered. The booklet specifically addresses questions identified as important in our exploratory work. Space is provided for patients to note down the pros and cons of each treatment and what matters to them when choosing treatments. The patient is subsequently directed to a section that explores any gaps in knowledge, values, support and choice before finally clarifying if a treatment decision is possible. At this stage they are encouraged to note down any questions or concerns they have to be discussed at the first physiotherapy consultation. This overall package includes patient material in the form of a booklet, posted prior to their consultation, plus the enhanced consultation with the specially trained physiotherapist. Patients then receive their chosen treatment. In addition we developed a training package for physiotherapists that explains the content of the booklet and supports them in using informed shared decision making in their consultation. Conclusion: This package has the potential to improve effectiveness of treatments and patient satisfaction for LBP by facilitating patient choice and thus matching patients more effectively to different treatments. © 2013 American College of Rheumatology.

Electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) has recently been introduced as a fragmentation method for peptide and protein analysis. Unlike collisionally induced dissociation (CID), fragmentation by ETD occurs randomly along the peptide backbone. With the use of the sequences determined from the protein termini and the parent protein mass, intact proteins can be unambiguously identified. Because of the fast kinetics of these reactions, top-down proteomics can be performed using ETD in a linear ion trap mass spectrometer on a chromatographic time scale. Here we demonstrate the utility of ETD in high-throughput top-down proteomics using soluble extracts of E. coli. Development of a multidimensional fractionation platform, as well as a custom algorithm and scoring scheme specifically designed for this type of data, is described. The analysis resulted in the robust identification of 322 different protein forms representing 174 proteins, comprising one of the most comprehensive data sets assembled on intact proteins to date.

Background Low back pain is a common and disabling condition leading to large health service and societal costs. Although there are several treatment options for back pain little is known about how to improve patient choice in treatment selection. The purpose of this study was to pilot a decision support package to help people choose between low back pain treatments. Methods This was a single-centred pilot cluster randomised controlled trial conducted in a community physiotherapy service. We included adults with non-specific low back pain referred for physiotherapy. Intervention participants were sent an information booklet prior to their first consultation. Intervention physiotherapists were trained to enhance their skills in shared informed decision making. Those in the control arm received care as usual. The primary outcome was satisfaction with the treatment received at four months using a five-point Likert Scale dichotomised into “satisfaction” (very satisfied or somewhat satisfied) and “non-satisfaction” (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied). Results We recruited 148 participants. In the control arm 67% of participants were satisfied with their treatment and in the intervention arm 53%. The adjusted relative risk of being satisfied was 1.28 (95% confidence interval 0.79 to 2.09). For most secondary outcomes the trend was towards worse outcomes in the intervention group. For one measure; the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire, this difference was clinically important (2.27, 95% confidence interval 0.08 to 4.47). Mean healthcare costs were slightly lower (£38 saving per patient) within the intervention arm but health outcomes were also less favourable (0.02 fewer QALYs); the estimated probability that the intervention would be cost-effective at an incremental threshold of £20,000 per QALY was 16%. Conclusion We did not find that this decision support package improved satisfaction with treatment; it may have had a substantial negative effect on clinical outcome, and is very unlikely to prove cost-effective. That a decision support package might have a clinically important detrimental effect is of concern. To our knowledge this has not been observed previously. Decision support packages should be formally tested for clinical and cost-effectiveness, and safety before implementation. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN46035546 registered on 11/02/10. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-282) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Low back pain is a common and costly condition. There are several treatment options for people suffering from back pain, but there are few data on how to improve patients' treatment choices. This study will test the effects of a decision support package (DSP), designed to help patients seeking care for back pain to make better, more informed choices about their treatment within a physiotherapy department. The package will be designed to assist both therapist and patient. Methods/Design Firstly, in collaboration with physiotherapists, patients and experts in the field of decision support and decision aids, we will develop the DSP. The work will include: a literature and evidence review; secondary analysis of existing qualitative data; exploration of patients' perspectives through focus groups and exploration of experts' perspectives using a nominal group technique and a Delphi study. Secondly, we will carry out a pilot single centre randomised controlled trial within NHS Coventry Community Physiotherapy. We will randomise physiotherapists to receive either training for the DSP or not. We will randomly allocate patients seeking treatment for non specific low back pain to either a physiotherapist trained in decision support or to receive usual care. Our primary outcome measure will be patient satisfaction with treatment at three month follow-up. We will also estimate the cost-effectiveness of the intervention, and assess the value of conducting further research. Discussion Informed shared decision-making should be an important part of any clinical consultation, particularly when there are several treatments, which potentially have moderate effects. The results of this pilot will help us determine the benefits of improving the decision-making process in clinical practice on patient satisfaction. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN46035546

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. After publication of this protocol a change in study design was needed [1]. Due to changes in the service configuration in the host physiotherapy department individual randomisation as originally planned could not be implemented. It was necessary to change to cluster randomisation with the unit of randomisation being the treating physiotherapist. Potential participants are given outpatient appointments by booking staff unaware of the physiotherapist’s randomisation. Trial recruitment is also done blind to physiotherapist allocation. In this manner we have ensured allocation concealment prior to participants joining the study. Cluster randomised trials need to inflate their sample size to account for clustering. Typically primary care trials use an intra-cluster correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.05 in this calculation [2]. Our past experience is that clustering effects by therapist in trials of this nature may be very small [3]. To account for this we developed a provisional revised sample size using an ICC of 0.05 and did an interim analysis of pooled data, just for ICC of the primary outcome, after the first 40 participants had completed the three month follow-up questionnaire. The ICC was close to zero, suggesting that using an ICC of 0.05 was too conservative. We therefore assumed an ICC of 0.01 to estimate the design effect due to clustering. Based on an average cluster size of nine this results in a revised final sample size of 158.