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Nowadays, Social Network (SN) is one of the essential tools of people especially young and adolescents. In consequence, there are so many controversial things on advantages and disadvantages of SN. In Myanmar, the rate of mobile phone users and internet users is on the increase today. This is a cross-sectional study conducted to the university students at Kyaukse University from June to November, 2015. In total 400 students who are aged between 16-23 years were randomly selected and interviewed with pretested structured questionnaires. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of Social Network Addiction (SNA) and the prevalence of anxiety. Furthermore, this study also found out SNA related to anxiety among students. Among the students, 110 students (27.5%) addicted to SN and 146 students (36.5%) suffered from anxiety. There is significant association between SNA and anxiety. Among the social network addicted users, 59.1% suffer from anxiety (χ²=33.408, p

In this paper, we present a patient who underwent an emergency exploratory laparotomy after Motor Vehicle Collison (MVC) leading to splenic injury, avascular necrosis of kidney and right upper extremity Colles’ fracture. Goal of the paper is to present a patient of polytrauma along with its treatment plan in terms of prioritizing the standard of care. We also discuss various radiographical findings along with gross surgical findings that were found intraoperatively.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.7(1) 2017: 58-61

Indirect inguinal hernia is a common medical condition that can be caused by an embryological defect due to failure of closure of processus vaginalis that can lead to herniation (i.e. abnormal protrusion) of abdominal contents into scrotal sac in males. In this paper, we describe an interesting case report of a patient with bilateral inguinal hernia with hydroceles who underwent a modified shouldice repair. In addition, we also discuss initial presentation & surgical management of this patient who had painless postero-inferior displacement of testes. Reason why we think this case is unique, is because of ‘bilateral’ hydroceles along with bilateral inguinal hernia which is rarely seen as compared to its unilateral counterparts. We also describe various surgical steps of modified shouldice repair with bilateral orchiopexy along with the post-operative outcome. Finally, we also discuss various types of hydroceles, along with its pathology that is found after surgical resection.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.7(1) 2017: 62-65

Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired immune Deficiency Syndromes (AIDS) continues to be a major burden of morbidity and mortality among the population. Injecting drug users (IDUs) are at high risk of contracting the disease. The study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the influence of different socio-demographic factors among IDUs in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. A descriptive type of cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 200 injecting drug users were selected purposively. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for collecting socio-demographic information of the respondents and their knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS. The level of knowledge was categorized into two: poor (

Patients’ knowledge and attitudes have an impact on the management of their illnesses. Obtaining information about the level of awareness is the first step in formulating a preventive program for any health problem. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of hypertensive patients about their disease. A consecutive non- probability sampling technique was adopted to collect all adult hypertensive patients that attended the outpatient clinic of the main three teaching hospitals in Baghdad city. Adults of both gender who had history of hypertension for at least six months were included in the study. A questionnaire was developed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of those patients. More than 60% had good knowledge, 80% expressed good attitude while 24% recorded good practice. Analyses of data revealed that the score of knowledge is significantly associated with age ( p =0.002) and gender ( p =0.002). It was also directly related to the education level. ( p =0.0001), duration of hypertension ( p =0.041) and the presence of positive family history of the disease ( p =0.0001). The attitude was significantly associated with age ( p =0.046), level of education ( p =0.008) and family history ( p =0.006). The score of practice was significantly associated with age ( p =.0008), and duration of hypertension ( p =0.004). Hypertensive patients in our community have relatively good knowledge and attitude, but poor practice and compliance to treatment. Efforts are needed to increase the awareness through continuous health education in the health facilities and health promotional programs via the mass media. South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.7(1) 2017: 29-34

Hemoglobin status of tribal children in Karnataka has not been investigated adequately and extensively. Hematological parameters help to understand the normal growth and nutritional status of the children. A cross-sectional purposive sampling study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of anemia among 152 Soliga tribal children belonging to 6+ to 10+ years of Mysore district, Karnataka, India. Hemoglobin level was determined by cyanmethaemoglobin method. As per the WHO cut-off points, the children were grouped under mild, moderate and severe anemia where the level of hemoglobin below 11.5 g/dL. BMI values were estimated based on the measurements of height and weight of the children. The overall prevalence of anemia was 91.4%; 7.2% mild, 74.3% moderate, and 9.9% severe anemia. Mean hemoglobin values between boys and girls of 7+ years age group were statistically significant. A higher proportion of girls were severely anemic in the age group of 9+ and 10+ years than boys. The prevalence of different grades of anemia was more or less equally distributed among boys and girls of Soliga children. Remarkably, about 94.3% normal BMI children were anemic. Comparison of mean values of anemia and BMI between boys and girls were found statistically significant. The level of hemoglobin among Soliga Children in Karnataka is a cause for concern. Appropriate measures should be taken by the respective authorities to decrease the prevalence of anemia and improve the condition of health among the children.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.6(2) 2016: 37-41

The occupational health and safety service is still in the developing stage. In Bangladesh, this service is merely focused on welfare for the garments workers. Statistics on musculoskeletal symptoms prevalence and risk factors analysis for any occupational group can assist to develop ergonomic based prevention and intervention programs. However, there is no information available about the musculoskeletal symptoms prevalence amongst automobile mechanics in Bangladesh. The aim of study is to estimate the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and reveal association with physical risk factors among automobile mechanics. This cross-sectional study was performed with 100 automobile workers conveniently selected from different automobile workshop of Dhaka Division (Savar and Gabtoli) of Bangladesh. The short version of Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to determine the prevalence and associated physical risk factors. Furthermore, the Rapid Entire Body Assessment was used to identify the physical risk level of musculoskeletal symptoms. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms during the last 12 months preceding data collection was reported at 77%. The most affected body parts were lower back (67%) then the hip (53%). Socio-demographic and physical risk factors were significantly (p

Further utilization of hospital facility is influenced by the provision of hospital care and cost of services. This study was conducted among patients of public and private hospitals of Dhaka city, Bangladesh to explore the relationship of further utilization of hospital care and cost of services incurred during previous visits. A total 199 patients of 2 private and 2 public hospitals were included. Of them, 100 (50.25%) were from public and 99 (49.74 %) from private hospitals. Male: female ratio of the respondents was 111:88. The level of services was scored by patients on a 1-5 Likert scale on the aspects of services of doctors, nurses, other staffs; medicine supply; cleanliness; and investigation facilities. Poor people usually sought the services from public hospitals. About three-quarter of the respondents (76.9 %) mentioned that they would avail the facility of same hospital for their further ailment. Seventeen patients (17%) who were treated in government hospitals will not further utilize the services, and this was significantly higher (p-0.02) in the case of patients from private hospitals (29.3%). Regression analysis explored that quality of services (p=-0.000) and cost of services (p=0.001) influenced the plan of future consumption of hospital facility and quality of services having stronger influences. This study concludes that further utilization of the hospital facility was strongly influenced by the quality of services and next to that is cost of services. So we recommend for best and successive utilization of hospital services to improve facilities and minimization of cost are the essential needs.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.6(1) 2016: 14-19

Hypertension is one of the leading risk factors for global mortality. A community based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in Hmawbi Cantonment Area, Yangon Region in November, 2015. This study aimed to identify the prevalence, awareness and risk factors of hypertension concerning smoking, alcohol dinking, eating food pattern, taking regular exercise, stressful condition and body mass index (BMI). The sample consisted of 210 respondents from three Units (Light Infantry Regiments) were randomly selected to participate in the study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. It was found that 33.3% of respondents had hypertension; 55.7% achieved good awareness on hypertension as well; 16.7% respondents were current smoker; 7.6% had the history of alcohol drinking; 67.1% respondents took regular exercise; 29.5% respondents were in stressful condition; 32.9% re-spondents were overweight and 19.5% were obese. Hypertension was significantly associated with age (p-0.001), family income (p

Patients with diabetes are considered to be at more risk of dyslipidemia and hypertension, hence targets for cardiovascular diseases. This study describes the possible role of Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) and serum lipid profile as a biomarker in the detection of cardiovascular diseases. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 54 (33 males and 21 females) type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients at Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH), Abbottabad and Mardan Medical Complex (MMC), Mardan, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. The control group comprised of 20 (13 males and 7 females) healthy human samples. The patients had significantly higher (p7.0%, had higher TG than those with HbA1c?7.0%. Furthermore, 14.2% patients with HbA1c>7.0% had cerebrovascular diseases and 28% have ischemic heart diseases. The findings of the current study suggests association of HbA1c with lipid profile in T2DM patients and both might be used as a predictor of cardiovascular diseases in such patients.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(2) 2015: 30-34

Elderly people suffer from different morbidities as the increase in prevalence of disease is proportionate to increasing age. In Bangladesh, the number of the elderly person is increasing with time. This study aims to determine the morbidity pattern and health seeking behavior among the urban senior citizens of Bangladesh. A cross-sectional study was carried out from January 2014 to December 2014 in different areas of Dhaka City. Information was collected from 384 respondents, aged 60 years and above by purposive sampling technique. The mean age of the study population was 64.7 (SD±5.7) years and majority (74.74%) belonged to 60-69 years age group. More than half (52.6%) of the respondents were female. Most of the respondents (71.61%) received institutional education; 51.82% of the elderly were still working; 63% of the respondents were totally independent; 11.74% were totally dependent; and 53.65% respondents belonged to joint family. Most of the respondents (96.8%) were suffering from at least one medical problem; the commonest was musculoskeletal problems (84.11%) followed by eye problems (81.25%). Majority of male (78.8%) and females (89.60%) were suffering from eye problems and musculoskeletal problems respectively. All the respondents sought treatment for their health problems. Majority (33%) respondents went to government hospitals for medical help. Most of the male (68.70%) and female (71.26%) can do their daily physical activities without any problem. Approximately 30% respondents did health check-up once in one year. Majority respondents took prescribed medications (69.27%) and were satisfied with their treatment (56.77%). The study findings showed that urban geriatric population had one or more morbidities and their health seeking behavior was poor, more among females. The study concludes with further emphasis of primary health care for the urban elderly people of Bangladesh. The health care service should be accessible and affordable to the elderly people.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(2) 2015: 43-49

Universal health coverage (UHC) is currently at the center of discussion to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes. The design and delivery of UHC requires an active engagement of various stakeholders viz. policy makers, program managers, civil society, private sector, academia and health professional associations. However, limited information is available on engagement of academia in discussions related to UHC. This study attempted to examine the perspectives of academia on advancing the agenda of UHC in India. A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted with 62 stakeholders which included deans and senior faculty from 17 government and 15 private medical institutions across India, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done through free listing of responses, domain evolution and using qualifiers for semi-quantitative expressions. Clarity on concept of UHC and awareness on UHC developments was found low amongst stakeholders. It was strongly believed that not just tertiary care services but primary health care is more critical for UHC to succeed. Besides the responsibility of government, engaging other organizations was underlined. Approximately half of the respondents mentioned that their organization can support the provision of providing promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative health services to achieve UHC. Stakeholders also felt that the tax-based and private health insurance can act complementary to each other, and should be promoted to improve health services coverage. Findings suggest that there is a strong need for engagement of academia for marching towards the goal of UHC.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(2) 2015: 50-56

South East Asia Journal of Public Health (SEAJPH) is a Bangladesh-origin, open access and peer reviewed international journal. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of papers published in the SEAJPH from 2011 to 2015 using data extracted from the Bangladesh Journal Online database. Five volumes (which include eight issues) with a total of 108 papers were included in the analysis. The highest number of papers were published in 2012 and the average number of papers published per year was 21.6. More than 58% of published papers were original research, followed by short communications (12.96%).The highest proportion of papers were published during the study period by single authors (20.37%) or three authors (20.37%), followed by double authors (19.44%). he maximum of average authors/article was found to be 4 in the year 2011, and the minimum was 2.6 in the year 2015. The degree of collaboration in SEAJPH is approximately 0.80, and the collaboration was consistently high every year (ranges from 0.74 to 0.87). The maximum number of papers was published by professionals from India (35.16%), followed by Bangladesh (25%) and the UK (13.89%). Timely and accurate evidence-based information from health-related research/publications provide the extent and burden health problems/challenges of countries and regions. AS the SAARC region has the greatest total disease burden of any region in the world and relevant public health research and dissemination/collaboration of findings is crucial to alleviate this burden. The SEAJPH is successful in this regard. However, the journal needs indexing to popular search engines (e.g. PubMed) to attract global researchers and eventually lead to an increase in the citation of the papers.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(1) 2015: 51-54

Acting out, or misbehavior, is often associated with ineffective parenting. It negatively affects children across socio-economic backgrounds. While ineffective parenting might not solely be the blame for negative behaviors in children, parenting contributes significantly to children's behavioral outcomes. Till now there is lack of data regarding child behavior affected by parenting skill in Nepal. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of parenting skill on children behavior. In this descriptive type of cross-sectional study 369 respondents were selected by purposive sampling in some selected areas of Nepal. The mean age of the respondents was 36.14±6.69 years with 92.7% female and of them 92.1% were married. Out of 184 respondents, 45.1% gave proper childcare/love/sufficient time to children. Among the respondents 68% had spent quality time with their children very frequently. Statistically an association was found between parenting skill (quality time with children) and different behavior of children. Rearing children always needs good parenting skills which help to change the future of the nation by pro-ducing skilled, well behaved, intelligent citizens in the days to come. As such awareness about parenting skill should be made generalized and easily accessible to all eligible couples in the country.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(1) 2015: 44-48

Globally, hypertension is considered one of the most important preventable causes of morbidity and mortality. Several plausible factors have been assessed and identified in relation to high blood pressure but there have been limited studies carried out as to whether smoking can have any effect in developing high blood pressure in Pakistan. This paper aims to examine the effects of smoking in developing hypertension in Pakistan. This study employs a systematic review. A total of 1097 articles were identified (reduced to 61 once duplication was removed). Only six studies met the relevant quality appraisal criteria. Three major databases - Medline, EMBASE and Global Health - were searched using both ‘free terms’ and ‘index-terms’. All selected studies were quality appraised by critical appraisal tools and reviewed by two authors. The studies fell into three distinct themes – awareness, economic status and types of tobacco. Findings of the review indicated that an unhealthy relationship exists between hypertension and smoking, as incidences of hypertension were more prevalent in smokers as compared to non-smokers. In addition, both high systolic and diastolic blood pressure were more frequent in smokers compared to non-smokers. The present study suggests that a positive harmful relationship exists between blood pressure and smoking, and that smokers are more likely to develop high blood pressure compared to non-smokers. In addition, this review considers knowledge and lifestyle modification, their linkage with hypertension and compliance to the treatment regimen as important considerations to reduce unhealthy effects of smoking in developing hypertension.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(1) 2015: 4-11

Maternal and child mortality are still higher in Bangladesh where delivery care services are associated with a number of problems. Demand-side financing, popularly well-known as maternal health care voucher, is found to reduce the financial barriers, increases choice for clients, and improves efficiency in delivery and quality of services which ultimately enhances maternal health. A cross-sectional study was conducted in different upzilas of Bhola district in Bangladesh among poor married women and found that voucher scheme receivers were 17.64 times more likely to receive delivery care services than respondents who were not part of the voucher scheme. On the other hand, the study pointed out that recipients of the voucher scheme received comparatively higher levels of delivery care services compared to those not in the voucher scheme, such as skilled birth attendance (64.2% vs. 26.3%), institutional delivery services (86.9% vs. 24.7%), and transport costs (92.5% vs. 23.1%). As the voucher scheme receivers’ delivery care services ensured better health status and care services than non-voucher scheme receivers in Bangladesh, the current study suggests that increasing the accessibility of voucher scheme programs will facilitate the provision of effective maternal health care services.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(1) 2015: 39-43

HIV/AIDS and depression are often thought to be interlinked. HIV positive cases may trigger symptoms of depression which, in turn, may result in risky sexual behavior and spread of HIV. Interviews were conducted in 104 patients of HIV/AIDS at the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Clinic of a teaching hospital in Uttar Pradesh (India) to study depression and examine its prevalence and association, if any, with some socio-demographic and clinical variables. The tools used to assess anxiety and depression and their severities were General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 28 and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) . The majority of patients were of age 35 years & above (62%), males (67%), married (85%), Hindus (88%), literate (73.1%), unemployed (35%) and of upper-lower socio-economic status (52%). Significant association of depression was found with religion, occupation and socio-economic status. Depression and anxiety were also found to be significantly associated with each other. There was, however, no association of depression with respondents’ age, gender, marital status, education, habitat, income, duration of illness from HIV/AIDS and the CD4 count. The high prevalence rate (67.3%) of depression amongst HIV patients in our study may be taken as marker to alert Counsellors of country’s ART Clinics for possible risk of depression in HIV patients. The above findings however, should be interpreted in the light of the fact that a parallel control group in the study was not included, studied sample was not large enough and the tools used to study the subjects for depression and anxiety were not adequately standardized.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.5(1) 2015: 12-17

While Bangladesh has experienced a remarkable 40% decline in maternal mortality over the past ten years, it remains a major health problem. Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the most prevalent preventable causes of maternal mortality in the country, accountable for over a quarter of the deaths. In Bangladesh, over 70% of the births take place outside health centres, mostly in poor rural areas. This leads to lack of access to conventional injectable uterotonics (i.e. oxytocin) during the third stage of labour to prevent or treat PPH. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of oral misoprostol as an intervention to prevent PPH in rural Bangladesh during home births that take place without trained birth attendants. A review of the existing literature in electronic database, shows robust evidence from Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)on the effectiveness of oral misoprostol in preventing PPH. Misoprostol has proved significantly effective (RR 0.58, CI 0.38–0.87) in reducing PPH incidence and to go have a very good safety profile. Furthermore, field trials and operational studies have already proven the feasibility, acceptance and safety of scaling up the use of misoprostol in rural Bangladesh. Therefore, we recommend oral misoprostol to be included in the National Maternal Health Strategy as an intervention to control PPH during home birth in rural Bangladesh.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(2) 2014: 2-6

Pakistan is considered to be one of the most severely iodine deficient countries in the region. A decade earlier, 70% of the population was estimated to be at risk of iodine deficiency. However, the recent use of iodized salt has reduced the intensity of the problem. Earlier studies regarding iodine deficiency in Pakistan were restricted to the northern mountainous regions, but have now been extended to the sub-Himalaya areas and the plains of Punjab. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of goiter and iodine status among school children in district Kohat, Pakistan. The 30 cluster approach was adopted for the study. From each cluster, 40 samples were collected from school going children. The palpation method was used to measure goiter grade, whereas, for urinary iodine estimation, the wet digestion method was used. The prevalence of goiter in the district was found to be 35% (37.16% in boys and 33% in girls). The median urinary iodine concentration was found to be 56±31.19?g/L. Estimation of iodine content in salt illustrated that 56.8% people were consuming non-iodized salt and 43.5% were using iodized salt. The current study suggests a severe iodine deficiency in school children of district Kohat and regular iodine supplementation is required on an instant basis.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(2) 2014: 42-46

educational possibilities for the tomorrow’s doctors and tomorrow’s cures Md Anwarul Azim Majumder, Md Sayed Shehran Azim, Sayeeda Rahman Lecturer, Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK. Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, UK. Medical Education View Point South East Asia Journal Of Public Health ISSN: 2220-9476 ISSN: 2313-531X (Online)

In the last years, the prevalence Human immune deficiency virus (HIV) have increased worldwide, specifically in developing countries due to a number of causes. This study aimed was to determination the relationship between gender inequities, HIV prevalence and AIDS mortality in the United Nation countries. A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted in 2013 and all the countries (187 countries) which were included in the WHO and UN Annual Reports (2012) were considered. One hundred and forty four countries were selected which had the completed indices of gender inequities (GI), HIV morbidity and AIDS mortality in the reports. The findings showed that there was direct association between the gender inequities, HIV prevalence and AIDS mortality (p=0.001). The level of GI among low-income countries (0.41) was higher than others groups, and approximately twice as much as that of high-income countries (0.19). It was noted that GI had a significant association with the AIDS mortality in the high-income countries (p=0.031). Moreover, in the upper middle income countries, the both indices (HIV morbidity and AIDS mortality) had significant positive association with the GI (p

Light microscopy of Romanowsky stained peripheral blood smear examination is the age old and commonest method for laboratory diagnosis of malaria. However it is labor intensive, time consuming and requires qualified personnel. So fluorescent microscopy variation that is Quantitative Buffy Coat method( QBC) came into vogue. But QBC imposes cost limitation despite its high performance. Therefore we decided to evaluate fluorescent method using acridine orange in our set up. In this study we have compared Acridine Orange staining with Leishman’s staining as gold standard. The sensitivity and specificity of acridine orange was 99.28% and 97.19% respectively, while positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predicitive value was 89.93% and 99.82% respectively.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.6(1) 2016: 49-51

Post-graduate student, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Associate Professor, College of Sustainability Sciences and Humanities, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Professor of Pathology, Department of Pathology, Saba University School of Medicine, Devens, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Applied Oral Sciences, Forsyth Institute, Harvard School of Dental Medicine Affiliate, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Editorial South East Asia Journal of Public Health ISSN: 2220-9476 ISSN: 2313-531X (Online)

A large number of epidemiological studies reported an increase in mortality due to cancer and other diseases among lean individuals. In this paper we aimed to investigate the relationship between smoking status and Body Mass Index (BMI) in men aged 20 years and above. A cross sectional study was conducted in the rural field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine, PSG Institute of Medical Science and Research, Coimbatore during June and July 2010. A total of 459 men aged 20 years and above were included in the study. Statistical analyses were done using the General Linear Model procedure of SPSS. We observed that cigarette smokers weighed (Kg) less, p

Reproductive health is an emerging issue in Bangladesh as well as in the world. This was a survey conducted among rural women of the reproductive age group as a part of academic exposure of the medical students in community medicine during the Residential Field Site Training (RFST) program. The study aimed to determine antenatal and natal services, nature of complications during last delivery, and health problems related to the reproductive tract. The study also highlighted the views of the students in various aspects of the RFST program during development and implementation. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried among 534 married women of reproductive age during December 2012 in different villages of Dhamrai Upazila, Dhaka. Medical students collected the data using a pre-tested questionnaire through face to face interview. The student’s feedback was collected through another questionnaire using Likert 5-points scale. The study revealed that the mean age of respondents was 29±7.3 years, 86% were housewives, 58% had 2-4 children and mean age of the respondents at first issue was 19±3.5 years. The study showed that 75.7% and 75.4% respondents received antenatal visits and TT immunization respectively. Among the respondents 48% had hospital delivery and 52% had home delivery, of which 30% were by skilled and 22% were by untrained birth attendants. The common reproductive health problems in relation to delivery were obstructed labor (28%), PPH (22%) and abortion (21%.) Other related reproductive health problems included: menstrual disturbance (52%), leucorrhoea (41%) and UTI (35%). In this study, students expressed their satisfaction about the RFST program except duration of program. Medical students should provide opportunities to learn about reproductive health in a community-based setting which helped to increase their skills and confidence.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v4i1.21844 South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(1) 2014: 63-66

Hepatitis B is the most important infectious occupational hazard which the healthcare workers (HCWs) encounter. Healthcare personnel specially nursing staff represents a high risk population for HBV infection. The objective of the study was to assess the level of preventive practices regarding Hepatitis B among nurses and the factors associated with preventive practices. The study was conducted among 300 nurses both from public and private hospitals using a pretested structured questionnaire adopting a purposive sampling technique. The mean age of the respondents was 29.7±5.8 and majority of them (83.7%) were holding Diploma degrees with (83.3%) designated as staff nurse. About 59.7% were married and 94.3% were females. One third of the respondents (34.3%) were from public institution and 65.7% from private institution. It was revealed from the study that (67.3%) of the respondents had adequate level of knowledge on Hepatitis B but only half of them (49.3%) had good level of preventive practices. Bivariate analysis showed association between institution, income, age, religion, knowledge and level of preventive practice (P

The effect of breast feeding on infant health and development has been the subject of scientific enquiry for decades. The association between breast feeding and early child development is also a complex issue. It has been found that determining the true influence of breastfeeding on child development is difficult for several reasons. This review has been made to explore the effect of ever breast feeding and duration of breast feeding on intelligent quotient, psychomotor and social development of the child during childhood and beyond. Breast feeding has positive effects on cognitive development of infant and it is more pronounced in premature infants. Breast feeding infants have higher intelligence quotient (IQ) than non-breast fed. The amount of mutual touch, tactile stimulation and mother’s gaze to the infant are significantly elevated during breastfeeding and this has a positive influence on the child’s psychological development. The impact of breast feeding on cognitive development, behavior, social adaptation and understanding of the infant needs to be emphasized during the promotion of breast feeding and early child development programs.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v4i1.21831 South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(1) 2014: 4-8

Heavy vehicle crash rates are high in Sri Lanka. International studies showed that fatigue and day time sleepiness are linked to heavy vehicle crashes. The aim of this study is to examine the level of fatigue, day time sleepiness and their associated factors among heavy vehicle drivers in Sri Lanka. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 403 heavy vehicle drivers through an interviewer administered structured questionnaire consisting of the ‘Fatigue Severity Scale’ (FFS) and the ‘Epworth Sleepiness Scale’ (ESS). The mean age of the study sample was 36.5±8.6 years and all were males. They drive an average of 129.03±87.24 km/day. It was found that the mean FFS score in the study participants was 2.43±0.99 and the mean ESS score was 6.57±4.07. Prevalence of fatigue (FSS score ?4) was 8.7% (n=35) and the prevalence of excessive day time sleepiness (EDS) (ESS score ?10) was 14.4% (n=58). Working for non-fixed schedule, married marital status, and working more than 11 hours/day are found to be significant risk factors for being fatigue. Drivers who were having night sleep of less than 6 hours were found to have a higher risk of EDS. A high prevalence of fatigue (8.7%) and EDS (14.4%) among heavy vehicle drivers was found which may link to heavy vehicle crashes. The occupational health service providers should be aware of the possibility of fatigue and daytime sleepiness in heavy vehicle drivers and its overall risk on the roads to take neces-sary actions.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v4i1.21832 South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(1) 2014: 9-16

Proper Infant and young child feeding is crucial for growth and development of an infant and child under two years. In Bangladesh government has taken many initiatives for improving nutritional status of children less than two years. One of them is mass media campaign. To evaluate the effectiveness of media campaign on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) in rural Bangladesh. An ecological study was conducted in a rural setting of Bangladesh during 2011. Higher proportion of mothers in intervention area had the right knowledge on initiation of breastfeed-ing and right practice was also found better in intervention area (p=0.003). Compare to control correct knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding found significantly higher (p=0.02) in intervention area. Better EBF practice was found in intervention area, it was 79% and 71% in intervention and control area respectively. Compare to control area, significantly higher proportion of mothers in intervention area had correct knowledge of adequacy of breast milk till six month of child (P=0.000). Right knowledge regarding way of increase breast milk supply was also found significantly higher in intervention area (P=0.003). Correct knowledge regarding initiation of complementary feeding found significantly higher in intervention area (p=0.012), proportions were 53% and 41% in intervention and control area respectively. Animal food feeding practice was found higher in intervention area (P=0.015). Both knowledge and practices of mothers on IYCF found better in intervention area. This better effect suggests videoDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v4i1.21835 South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(1) 2014: 25-29

The National Population Policy (NPP) in India defined goal to increased institutional delivery and reducing Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). Therefore, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) aimed to increased expenditure to provide primary health care services to poor households in rural India through Janani Surakshya Yojana (JSY), which provide referral transport, escort and improved hospital care for institutional deliveries. The study concludes from District Level Household Surveys (DLHS)-2 and 3 data that Janani Surakshya Yojana undoubtedly contributed to a tremendous improvement in institutional delivery. Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), found as an effective link between the Government and the poor pregnant women to provide information on Janani Surakshya Yojana. States like Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan have an impressive rise in institutional delivery and also high percentage of women received financial benefits through the JSY. Planned im-plementation of programme through NRHM may help achieve the goals of NPP 2000 and hence Millennium De-velopment Goal (MDG)-5 to save life of millions mothers and newborn in India.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20033 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 4-18

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease and mainly affects children under five years of age. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the impact of social mobilization on families resistant to giv-ing polio drops to their children. One round of polio drop administration during September, 2012 was selected ran-domly from total six rounds of Pulse Polio Immunization campaign carried out in the year 2012 in Aligarh, India. Medical interns of the Aligarh Muslim University were trained as social mobilizers by the UNICEF, Rotary Interna-tional trainers and divided into Teams ‘A’ and ‘B’. The teams of social mobilizers visited the households that re-fused to give polio drops to their children because of certain rumors and misguided beliefs. Medical intern tried to convince the family members that polio drops were safe and it did not hurt any religious and cultural sentiments. The total number of resistant families, identified during the house to house outreach activity of Team ‘A’ was 309. A large number of houses (70.9%) were converted to P houses (houses where children had polio vaccination). Ninety houses (29.1%) remained resistant even after the activity of Team ‘A’. These resistant houses were again visited by Team ‘B’ members. Out of these 90 houses, polio drops were administered in 70 (78.9%) houses. How-ever, after maximum efforts of both the teams, only 19 (21.1%) houses remained extremely resistant. Large numbers of resistant families were converted to P houses where children were administered oral polio drops. However, some of the families remained resistant even after maximum efforts of the teams. These extremely resistant families might be the potent sources of polio infection in the community and they should be followed up strictly. Strategies and polices should be developed to cover all children of the community by assessing the reasons for families resistance to polio drop, examining the past failures/limitations in program implementation, and implementing the effective social mobilizing techniques. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20035 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 23-29

While adverse housing is commonly associated with high respiratory morbidity in urban slum areas, data on prevalence of common respiratory symptoms among adults in urban slums in Bangladesh is limited. We compared the frequency of common respiratory symptoms among men and women in relation to individual socio-demographic and household characteristics using methods of descriptive and analytic epidemiology. Cross-sectional data from 1892 adult respondents collected in the baseline study in 2009 in nine urban slum areas of Dhaka were used. Three month prevalence of coughs and colds was 21.5% (n=1,893). Women were more vulnerable to respiratory symptoms in relation to the frequent exposure to stagnant water bodies near the house (OR: 4.44; 95% CI: 2.49-7.93) and waste disposal (OR: 3.57; 95% CI: 1.37-9.31). Practice of smoking inside dwelling increased the likelihood of having respiratory symptoms for both sexes. Recurrent contact or exposure to stagnant water and unhygienic waste management appeared to be the strongest factors associated with respiratory symptoms, particularly among women. This finding underlines the significance of the improvement of housing quality in slum areas affected by stagnation of water and improper waste management as well as the need for public health intervention to minimize the risk of diseases associated with these factors. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20042 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 58-65

First year medical students are under severe psychological distress, since they have to cope with the study demands of the medical curriculum. Living away from home and making a transition to a more independent and less supported condition can lead to distress. The present study was designed to determine psychological distress, general self-efficacy and psychosocial adjustments among first year medical college students in New Delhi. A cross-sectional study was designed and data was collected from 88 first year medical students of a government medical college in New Delhi. A pretested, semi-structured questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic data, Goldberg’s General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Schwarzer’s General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES) and modified Pareek’s Pre-adolescent Adjustment Scale (PAAS). According to GHQ-12, 39.7% (95% CI 29.6-50.7) students had psychological distress; it was slightly higher in female students (41.6%) than their male counterparts (38.5%). Psychological distress was greater in students when both of their parents are doctors 66.6% (p-0.016). There was a negative association (r: -0.384) between GHQ-12 scores and GSES scores. From PAAS scores, 19.3% students were found to be maladjusted towards college and 9.1% students were found to be maladjusted with teachers. Adjustment towards peers was found to be good. The prevalence of psychological distress among first year medical students was high. The causes of psychological distress among medical students should be recognized and strategies should be designed to address those issues. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20038 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 35-40

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20044 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 70-73

Regardless of being most used demographic indicator of longevity, life expectancy has few limitations too; and it arise mainly due to irregular mortality patterns in particular age group. This paper aims to analyze the trend of remaining life expectancies in different age groups and examines the highest observed life expectancies along with lower and upper bounds of life expectancies for Bangladesh; a country where early aged mortality is present remarkably. To estimate the lower and upper bounds of life expectancies in particular age; corresponding survival fractions have been taken into account, which gave more flexible concepts about longevity measures. Obtained results indicate decline in the gap between early aged life expectancies for both sexes in Bangladesh; which suggests that the full population, rather than just the more selected survivors, may anticipate a longer life that was previously only the domain of those who survived past the early years. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20041 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 52-57

The problem of health manpower shortage in developing countries appears to arise from brain drain or poor inclina-tion of qualified medicos towards medical practice. This study was conducted among the alumni of an allopathic medical college in Goa to find out the proportion of Goan doctors who remain allied to the medical field 5 years after graduating, and to examine the extent of brain drain among these doctors. The doctors who graduated between the years 2000-2005 were contacted through email/telephone/residential address to obtain the relevant information. Of the 383 doctors who graduated during the reference period, 96.6% could be traced, and out of these, 166 were male and 204 were female. The proportion of non-practicing doctors is 23.5%, and as many as 41% of the female medical graduates are not currently in medical profession. All the non-practicing female doctors were married, 52.9% (46/87) settled abroad and 31% (27/87) settled out of Goa. More than 41% of medically affiliated doctors worked out of Goa. Among those working in Goa 50.6% (84/166) worked for government health services, 31.9% (53/166) were attached to a private hospital/clinic, and 17.5% (29/166) were academically affiliated. None of the practicing doctors do general practice on their own. Given the steadily increasing number of female medical gradu-ates who constitute the bulk of non-practicing doctors it is imperative to bring in legislation stating minimum years of medical practice for every medical graduate. The brain drain of nearly 50% is an issue of concern, as also is the reduced number of doctors engaged in general practice. South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 65-68 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17714

Family planning programs are considered to be an important way to control the rapid population growth of Bangla-desh with the main focus being women. As a male dominant country, the knowledge of, attitude towards, and ap-proval of family planning is largely influenced by the male member of couples in their choice of appropriate contra-ceptive methods. This paper examined the determinants of current choices in family planning methods in relation to male knowledge, attitude and approval of family planning practices in Bangladesh. A total of 430 married men aged 15-49 years were interviewed in Narsingdi, a district town of Bangladesh. The findings revealed that the men’s level of contraceptive knowledge and their attitude to modern contraceptive was high in this area. The findings asserted that the contraceptive prevalence rate among couples was (62.1%), with oral pills (26.51%) and withdrawals (6.25%) being the most preferred modern and traditional methods respectively. The multinomial logistic regression model has been applied to understand the determinants of the choice of contraceptive method. These findings indi-cated that women in skilled occupation, positive attitude towards modern contraceptives of male, high level of knowledge on contraceptive methods of male, approval of family planning by male, and current living children had significantly more positive effects on using modern contraceptives by the couple. It was also found that couples who desired more children were less likely to use modern contraceptives. Alternatively, the education level of the hus-band and the desired number of additional children had a negative impact on the use of traditional methods while media exposure, a high level of knowledge on contraceptives, and an approval of family planning had positive im-pacts on the use of traditional contraceptives over not using any method. The government should increase the fund-ing and availability of family planning programs which promote the use of modern contraceptive methods, espe-cially those that are targeted towards the male population. South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 50-56 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17711

Girls have traditionally been neglected in India. The neglect is reflected in adverse sex ratio of 914 girls per 1000 boys as reported in 2011 census. The declining sex ratio can be prevented by the registration of female children and by ensuring their progress and safety. The study aims at finding the effect of the introduction of a conditional cash transfer scheme (‘Majoni’ scheme) upon the registration of a female child. It was a hospital record-based study where the preferential treatment of female children during registration into the birth register before and after the introduction of the Majoni scheme was measured. An effect of the scheme on the registration of male and female children was also compared. The introduction of this scheme increased the female to male ratio of applications for the registration of births from 1.06 to 1.34 and also increased the number of formal requests for the registration of the birth of a female child from 24.45% to 39.05%. Financial incentives or securities have been shown to modify human behavior. The increase in the numbers of applications for the registration of a female child, after the intro-duction of the ‘Majoni’ scheme was due to the financial incentive attached with the registration. The increasing trend in the number of applications with every passing month was probably due to the increase in awareness regard-ing the benefit of the scheme. Conditional cash transfer schemes, such as Majoni, can have a significant effect on increasing the registration of female children. Further study is required to evaluate the effect of the factors other than the financial incentive upon the registration of female children. South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 30-35 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17708

There is a significant gap between teaching and use of interesting technological resources by most of the faculties in medical schools around the globe. The objective of this paper is to highlight a Malaysian medical school’s experience on the use of a Synchronous Transnational Collaborative Learning (STCL) methodology using MedEdWorld – a technological resource of medical education, based at Dundee University, UK. A cross sectional study was carried out on 11 year-4 students and one facilitator of University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Centre who participated in MedEdWorld’s STCL topic ‘Yellow Newborn Infant: Normal or abnormal, that is the question’ held on 24 March 2010 at 0800 hrs GMT. Other participating institutions were from Romania, Finland, Taiwan and Great Britain. The topic was delivered by a consultant from Dundee University, which lasted for one hour. At the end of the STCL presentation, a questionnaire was administered to all of the UKM Medical Centre’s participants to investigate their experience. The participants’ experiences were very positive and they loved it. The STCL was an interesting way to learn medicine in global perspectives, live and in the virtual presence of those from other international institutions. Medical schools should be promising to adopt STCL in order to promote medical education in an interesting way. This paper offers other medical schools, especially of the South East Asian Region, a window to promote further development of medical education and practice. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v1i1.13222 South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2011:1:59-63

In Bangladesh, the prevalence of low birth weight is unacceptably high. A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out during the period of June to September 2009 among the mothers whose babies were born in Bangladesh Medical College, a tertiary level hospital situated in Dhaka, to assess the proportion of children born with low birth weight. The mothers of 102 babies born within the specified period were chosen purposively for this study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used as the research instrument and data was collected from them by face to face interviews. Results revealed that the proportion of low birth weight babies was 25.49% (n-26). Most of the low birth weight babies (30.77%) identified came from families with an average monthly income of less than 5,000 Taka. Among 26 low birth weight babies, 21 (80.77%) were born before completing 37 weeks and only three (19.23%) were born after completing 37 weeks of the gestational period. Significant association was found between low birth weight babies and family income (p

This was a descriptive type of cross-sectional study conducted in October, 2010, in three villages of Shahjadpur Upazila of Sirajganj district in Bangladesh. Among the rural households, those who visited medical practitioners in the last three months, were included in the study. The present study aimed to examine the pattern of prescriptions available at rural households of Bangladesh, to analyze the prescriptions whether diagnoses and/or lifestyles advice were mentioned, and to find out number of drugs and antibiotics (including their dose and duration of use) prescribed. During last three months, 68% respondents had attended a doctor's chamber; however, prescriptions were available for 57% of the respondents. More than three quarters of the prescriptions (77.6%) included 3-5 medicines, and antibiotics were prescribed to 194 (61%) respondents which constituted 21.4% of the total number of drugs prescribed. The average number of drugs and antibiotics prescribed per prescriptions was 3.8 and 1.3 respectively. Only about 23% of the respondents received antibiotics for 3-6 days, 30% for 2 days, and 46% for one day. Advice on lifestyles and diagnoses were mentioned only to 32% and 52% prescriptions respectively. The study also found that 22.6% of the prescriptions were made by unqualified doctors. Specific programs should be implemented to motivate and train medical students, practitioners and allied health professionals to provide rational prescriptions to the consumers in regards to the number of drugs as well as clarity of instructions given in the prescriptions.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v1i1.13207 South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2011:1:12-16

Population based studies on hypertension from rural Bihar have not been reported earlier. We conducted a study to find the prevalence and the risk factors of hypertension in a rural adult population. In this cross-sectional community based study, 1083 men and women, aged 30 years and above, residing at 10 randomly selected villages of Phulwarisarif Block of Patna District of Bihar were recruited. Using house to house interviews with a semi-structured pretested schedule, the sociodemographic risk factors were recorded. Hypertension and pre-hypertension were classified using JNC-VII criteria. Overall prevalence of hypertension was 23.73%; among them mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 144.8±17.14 and 89.04±9.25 mm of Hg respectively. Among those who were hypertensive, the age cluster was higher (50.6±12.7 years) than those who were normotensive (43.8±12.4 years) with a significant male preponderance. Hypertension was significantly associated with a higher body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, along with the sedentary lifestyle. However, there was not an association with consumption of alcohol and smoking. The study highlighted the need for initiation of high risk hypertension screening in rural Bihar as the awareness on and its risk factors was very low. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v1i1.13221 South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2011:1:53-58

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v4i1.21829 South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(1) 2014: 1-3

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i2.20032 South East Asian Journal of Public Health Vol.3(2) 2013: 1-3

South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 74-76 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17717

South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 69-71 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17715

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v1i1.13205South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2011:1(1) 1-3

South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2015;5(1):49-50. © 2015 Yousuf & Salam, publisher and licensee Public Health Foundation Bangladesh. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v5i1.24853 The importance of positive role modeling by clinical educators is recognized worldwide to help professional development of learners. Students evaluate role models in clinical educators according to teaching qualities (related to knowledge 'Head'), personal qualities (related to attitude 'Heart'), and patient care qualities (related to activities 'Hands on'). So role modeling in clinical educators involves the integration of the “3Hs” as a unity all the time and everywhere by the clinical trainers.

South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 72-73 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17716

South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 1-2 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1.17703