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Follows earlier research that hypothesized and substantiated that, in a society with strong son preference, its effect on fertility would be conditional on the level of contraceptive use. Finds that, if a preference for smaller family size increases, then sex preference will have minimal effect on fertility. (LZ)

Byline: L. Jean Camp, Fu-Shoun Mao, Mridul Chowdhury Thailand combines a strong manufacturing infrastructure with a weak telecommunications infrastructure, offering promise or pitfall in the age of the information market. Thailand is lagging behind with respect to its peers in terms of information and communications technologies, especially with regard to teledensity and telecommunications regulation. Thailand may use its manufacturing edge as information and communications becomes necessary to compete. Conversely, Thailand has the opportunity to leap ahead, leverage its manufacturing base and increase its capacities without increasing its exposure to increasingly fluid global capital markets. Such a leap requires a carefully crafted policy for competition and interconnection, and supporting free software to an educated populace.

The interaction between diarrhoeal disease and nutritional status measured by anthropometry was investigated in approximately 1000 children aged 1 to 4 years during April-December 1976 in a rural area of Bangladesh. Data on diarrhoeal disease were provided by the mothers interviewed at seven-day intervals. Weight and height data were collected bimonthly. Children classified using anthropometric criteria—weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height—were prospectively evaluated for incidence and duration of diarrhoea during a short (two-month) period and a long (eight-month) period. Incidence of diarrhoea was not found to be related to nutritional status measured by any of the anthropometric criteria for any of the periods. But duration of diarrhoea was found to be related consistently to nutritional status measured by weight-for-age and weight-for-height. Diarrhoea in the short term affected weight increment in the short term, but not in the long term and did not affect height increment for any of these periods. Diarrhoea in the long term affected both weight increment and height increment in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Evidence-based decision-making is essential to improve public health benefits and resources, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but the mechanisms of its implementation remain less straightforward. The availability of high-quality, reliable, and sufficient data in LMICs can be challenging due to issues such as a lack of human resource capacity and weak digital infrastructure, among others. Health information systems (HISs) have been critical for aggregating and integrating health-related data from different sources to support evidence-based decision-making. Nutrition information systems (NISs), which are nutrition-focused HISs, collect and report on nutrition-related indicators to improve issues related to malnutrition and food security-and can assist in improving populations' nutritional statuses and the integration of nutrition programming into routine health services. Data visualization tools (DVTs) such as dashboards have been recommended to support evidence-based decision-making, leveraging data from HISs or NISs. The use of such DVTs to support decision-making has largely been unexplored within LMIC contexts. In Bangladesh, the Mukto dashboard was developed to display and visualize nutrition-related performance indicators at the national and subnational levels. However, despite this effort, the current use of nutrition data to guide priorities and decisions remains relatively nascent and underused., Objective: The goal of this study is to better understand how Bangladesh's NIS, including the Mukto dashboard, has been used and areas for improvement to facilitate its use for evidence-based decision-making toward ameliorating nutrition-related service delivery and the health status of communities in Bangladesh., Methods: Primary data collection was conducted through qualitative semistructured interviews with key policy-level stakeholders (n=24). Key informants were identified through purposive sampling and were asked questions about the experiences and challenges with the NIS and related nutrition dashboards., Results: Main themes such as trust, data usability, personal power, and data use for decision-making emerged from the data. Trust in both data collection and quality was lacking among many stakeholders. Poor data usability stemmed from unstandardized indicators, irregular data collection, and differences between rural and urban data. Insufficient personal power and staff training coupled with infrastructural challenges can negatively affect data at the input stage. While stakeholders understood and expressed the importance of evidence-based decision-making, ultimately, they noted that the data were not being used to their maximum potential., Conclusions: Leveraging DVTs can improve the use of data for evidence-based decision-making, but decision makers must trust that the data are believable, credible, timely, and responsive. The results support the significance of a tailored data ecosystem, which has not reached its full potential in Bangladesh. Recommendations to reach this potential include ensuring a clear intended user base and accountable stakeholders are present. Systems should also have the capacity to ensure data credibility and support ongoing personal power requirements., (©Berhaun Fesshaye, Shivani Pandya, Lena Kan, Anna Kalbarczyk, Kelsey Alland, SM Mustafizur Rahman, Md. Mofijul Islam Bulbul, Piyali Mustaphi, Muhammad Abu Bakr Siddique, Md. Imtiaz Alam Tanim, Mridul Chowdhury, Tajkia Rumman, Alain B Labrique. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 30.09.2024.)