Background: The mental health of Ukrainian children is of great concern. The current study aims to investigate the behavioral factors and level of anxiety of schoolchildren aged 6-18 years old in Kremenchuk in the conditions of war.

Method: A total of 114 children took part in the survey. In addition, children's questionnaires were available to their parents, who were able to correct children's answers on the state of health and lifestyle. The level of situational and personal anxiety, and the dynamics of behavioral factors of students before and after the beginning of the war were assessed. Furthermore, behavioral factors and level of anxiety were compared by internal displacement status and sex.

Result: The number of children who reported at least 8-hour sleep decreased from 61 (52.6%) before the war to 38 (33.3%) during the war (p=0.05). Of note, internally displaced persons (IDPs) had a 5.4 times greater chance of situational anxiety than the local schoolchildren (odds ratio, OR=5.4, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.67-9.39, p=0.045). Additionally, the level of personal anxiety in women is 6.6 times higher than in men (OR=6.67, 95% CI: 2.79-15.92, p =0.028). Furthermore, eating junk food was associated with higher odds of situational anxiety in war conditions (OR=3.11, 95% CI: 1.38-7.04, p=0.035).

Conclusion: The mental health and sleep health among children living in Kremenchuk is worrisome. The current study indicates the high psychological burden on Ukrainian children, especially IDPs. Constant mental health care during the initial period of resettlement is urgently needed.

Background: Despite developments in mental health services and advanced pharmacological treatments, access to maternal mental healthcare is still a significant problem in Kenya. Few studies have explored women’s and girls’ perceptions of maternal mental healthcare services in Kenya. This study analyzes qualitative survey responses on demands related to quality maternal mental health care services in Kenya

Methods. Using publicly available data from the What Women Want interactive dashboard, we conducted a secondary qualitative analysis between March-July 2022 of 1827 survey responses on maternal mental health from women and girls in Kenya. Participants in the study had completed a health survey on their demands for quality maternal and reproductive health care and services. We utilized inductive thematic coding for qualitative analysis.

Results. Women and girls identified post-partum depression, stress, and extreme events such as rape and reproductive trauma as mental health issues. The salient themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis included 1) The need for more awareness, information, and screening of maternal mental health problems; 2) Improved access to mental health services [affordable care & available psychological counselors] ; 3) Protection against gender-based violence [rape, sexual-abuse]; 4) Support for women with pregnancy-related mental health issues [peer-support groups]; and 5) Reduced stigma against vulnerable girls and women at risk of maternal mental health illnesses [Pregnant women with HIV and adolescent mothers].

Conclusions: Study findings suggest that women and girls in Kenya find solace in informal mental health management processes and the need to increase the human resource capital to address maternal psychological problems. Healthcare providers and communities can collaborate to screen, manage and treat maternal mental health issues.

Background: South Africa’s democratic transition from apartheid, nationalist aspirations for health equity and racial justice have continuously been met with ongoing legacies of anti-black violence and dramatic disparities in mental illness outcomes. South Africa's rates of psychiatric morbidity are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and are foregrounded by the country's long history of political violence during apartheid. Growing evidence suggests that in utero stress exposure is a potent developmental risk factor for future mental illness risk, yet the extent to which the psychiatric effects of prenatal stress impact the next generation, as well as the underlying biological mechanisms, are unknown. This paper evaluates the intergenerational effects of prenatal stress experienced during apartheid on psychiatric morbidity among children at ages 17–18 and also assesses the role of systemic inflammation in shaping the intergenerational psychiatric effects of prenatal stress.

Methods: Participants come from Birth-to-Twenty, a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa's largest peri-urban township which was the epicenter of violent repression and resistance during the final years of the apartheid regime. Pregnant women were prospectively enrolled in 1990 and completed questionnaires assessing social experiences, and their children's psychiatric morbidity were assessed at ages 17–18.

Results: Full data were available from 304 mother–child pairs in 2007–8. Maternal prenatal stress in 1990 was not directly associated greater psychiatric morbidity during at ages 17–18. Maternal age and past household adversity moderated the intergenerational mental health effects of prenatal stress such that children born to younger mothers and late adolescent/young adult children experiencing greater household adversity exhibited worse psychiatric morbidity at ages 17–18. Children with elevated inflammation levels (C-reactive protein) reported worse prenatal stress-related psychiatric outcomes in late adolescence.

Conclusions: Greater prenatal stress from apartheid predicted adverse psychiatric outcomes among children born to younger mothers, adolescents who experienced greater concurrent stress, and children with elevated inflammation levels. Our findings suggest that prenatal stress may affect adolescent mental health, sensitize children to the effects of future stress through developmental and inflammatory mechanisms, and represent possible intergenerational effects of trauma experienced under apartheid in this sample.

Purpose: to describe country and gender differences in workplace violence (WPV) and depression among healthcare workers (HCWs) from Brazil, Colombia, and Germany during the pandemic. Also, we examine the association between WPV and depression and how this association varies according to gender.

Methods: Online self-administered survey applied 6,712 HCWs (Brazil= 3,246, Colombia= 3,032, and Germany =434). Depression was measured using the 9-item of the Patient Health Questionnaire (cut-point >=10). Poisson regression models with robust standard errors were calculated. we conducted multiplicative and additive interactions.

Results: Participants reported being victims of stigma (39%), conflict with patient family (25%), and physical violence (13%). Stigma was more frequent among women in Brazil and Colombia than men from these countries. Twenty-two percent of participants had high symptoms of depression; this proportion was higher among females (23.69%) than males (18.73%). Stigma (Prevalence Ratio= PR = 1.88: 95% CI [1.41-1.76]), conflict with patients’ family members (PR = 148: 95% CI [1.33-1.64]), and violence increased the likelihood of having depression (PR = 1.22: 95% CI [1.09-1.31]). However, there was no interaction between gender and WPV.

Conclusions: HCWs were exposed to high levels of WPV during a pandemic, and women were more exposed to stigma than males. Participants from Brazil and Colombia had a high level of depression and were more exposed to WPV than German participants. Also, exposure to stigma, conflict with patients’ families, and violence increase the risk of depression. Healthcare institutions and policymakers should create action plans considering gender differences to prevent WPV and provide care for the victims.