Background: The incidence of Ectopic Pregnancy (EP) is increasing worldwide, especially in developing countries. It is among main causes of morbidity and mortality in childbearing women. The EP incidence in Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province is about 0.22%. Objectives: To identify the knowledge, attitude and practice of married women for EP in Chi Linh district and propose interventions to improve the early diagnosis of EP. Subjects and method: The cross-sectional study was conducted in 2005, combined questionnaires-based interviews to in-depth interviews and focal group discussion. Results: A total of 998 women participated in the study. Most of them were in 25-34 and 35-44 years old age groups (35.0%). 45.8% have never had surgical abortions and 27.4% has had a surgical abortion at least once. Most of the participants knew only one sign of abnormal pregnancy (abdominal pain: 42.0%, nausea: 41.5% and vaginal hemorrhage: 19.2%). About 2/3 of participants have never heard of EP and bout 2/3 of them considered it as a serious problem. 42.5% of women did not know any sign of EP. 76% did not know about the risk factors of EP. Main information source on EP came from friends (49.6%), television (15.2%), publications (10.8%) and health workers (5.9%).The usage of quick test for pregnancy was not common. Conclusion: Predisposing factors showed that the married women and health workers were aware of the need for early prenatal examination and the dangers of EP. The enabling factors showed that some impacts are needed to improve the knowledge of health workers con prenatal examination and counseling. Reinforcing factors showed that the extensive introduction of available health service is needed to improve the access of local women.
Ectopic pregnancy ; Knowledge ; Attitude ; Behavior ; Women

Background: Although Hanoi School of Public Health was established in the year 2001, 187 Masters of Public Health (MPH) graduated up to 2006. In order to improve the quality of training and find out the applicability of public health of these people, this study was carried out. Objectives: To assess the applicability as well as the frequency of the public health competencies that the alumni performed at current work. Subjects and method: 187 graduates were invited to complete a self - administered questionnaire and in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 alumni as well as a focus group discussion with 14 alumni, using group nominal technique. Results: In total, 79.1% (148) of the MPH graduates completed and returned the questionnaire. The most commonly selected of the 34 pre - identified public health competencies were: applying computer skills (66.4%), planning and managing health programs (47.9%), communicating with the community and/or mobilizing the community to participate in health care (43.2%). Although giving good comments for training program, ex-graduates still had problems when analyzing data and making decision in public health. Conclusions: These findings suggested that the training program should be reviewed and revised to meet the needs of its graduates who enter diverse situations and positions.
Master of Public Health ; Public health competency

Background: VHWs play an important role in primary health care. The Chuongmy district, Hatay province had only 50% of VHWs compared to the national rate of 90%. \r\n', u'Objectives: This study aims to describe the current activities of VHWs in Chuongmy district and identify the related factors. \r\n', u'Subjects and methods: The study adopted the cross sectional design, combined qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques with VHWs and the leaders of local authority and health facilities. \r\n', u'Results: VHWs play an important role in implementing health programs and health care activities in the villages. Almost all tasks and functions of VHWs were carried out in the villages but with different rate and quality. The major activities that VHWs carried out were preventive medicine and treatment of common diseases. Nevertheless, the quality of many activities should be improved. The performance and stability of VHWs depend on different factors such as training, income, qualification, support monitoring and supervision of local authority and health sectors. \r\n', u'Conclusions: The local authority and health sectors should have policies to provide update training to VHWs, incentives to retain them to work and enhance the supportive supervision of VHWs activities. \r\n', u'
village health works ; influencing factor

Background: There are about 600.000 deaths related to pregnancy and delivery in the world every year. In Vietnam, the rate of maternal death is 165/100.00. The majority of maternity and new born deaths occurred in the first week after delivery, especially 24 hours after delivery. Objective: To investigate the status of delivery and various factors related to home delivery and propose recommendations to reduce the rate of home delivery in Luong Son, Hoa Binh. Subject and method: The cross sectional study using a structured questionnaire with women who gave birth in 2003 was conducted in two communes of Luong Son district. Result: The home delivery rate was high (31.5%) and only 36.1% women decided themselves where to deliver. The main reasons for home delivery was perception related to last home delivery was normal, therefore this delivery should be at home (53.8%). Among 108 women interviewed, only 72% gave birth with the assistance of health professionals and 28% delivered with none health professional assistance. The rate of obstetric complications and new born death was relatively high among those that had homebirths. Conclusion: In order to increase the delivery rate at health care facilities and with the assistance of health professionals, there is required the cooperation of stakeholders for improving infrastructure, economic development, health education for increasing awareness of people on safe delivery. The public should change their perception, custom and behavior toward homebirths. Besides, the health sector should better manage the maternal health care program, monitor the pregnant women, plan the delivery dates and advocate their families (husbands and parent in laws) to take the women to deliver at the health care facilities.
Home delivery ; maternal death ; Hoa Binh province

Background: Domestic violence is a common occurrance in every country, culture and all levels of society, and about 20%-50% of women worldwide are victims of domestic violence. In Vietnam, domestic violence had broad range of influences and has serious impacts. Objectives: To identify the factors influencing domestic violence in Yen Phong district, Bac Ninh province. Subjects and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2006 on 452 married women aged 19 to 45 years, with structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews and focus group discussion. Results and conclusion: the lifetime prevalence of domestic violence was 42% and the prevalence in the past 12 month was 22.6%. The most frequent domestic violence was mental, followed by physical and sexual violence. The first 15 years of marriage was the most turbulent period of violence. There were significant relationships between lifetime violence and the education, occupation, economic status, but there was no relationship for violence in the past 12 months. The women, whose husbands were drunk, gambling and unfaithful, were more likely to be facing domestic violence than the others. The acceptance of violence by women was significantly related to violence. Those who perceived the violence by husbands were very severe then were less likely to be faced by violence than the other. In order to prevent the domestic violence, it is necessary to promote the health education, improving the awareness of women and men on gender equity and equality.
Domestic violence ; Gender equity

The optimal condition for Moringa oleifera root barks extraction was determined using response surface methodology and Box-Behnken Design. The actual optimal condition of the factors was 65 o C, ethanol 60%, 40 (mL/g) liquid-to-solid ratio with 240 minutes extraction time. The enrichment of phenolic compounds sharply affected the antioxidant, and inhibitions of α-amylase enzyme, as well as, the anti-inflammatory effect of the extract from M. oleifera root barks. The extract in the optimal condition exhibited better 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging and α-amylase inhibitory activities than those of positive controls.Also, the extract showed weak hydroxyl free radical scavenging and nitric oxide (NO) production inhibitory effects. These revealed a simple and promising method for the preparation of bioactive products from the root bark of M. oleifera.

In this report we describe a new approach in HIV sentinel surveillance that was piloted in Viet Nam in 2009 and is currently being rolled out in all provinces. It comprises a brief behavioural questionnaire added to the HIV sentinel surveillance surveys conducted routinely among people who inject drugs, female sex workers and men who have sex with men. Timely reporting of data from this system has resulted in improvements to HIV prevention efforts for most at-risk populations.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Dravet syndrome is a rare and severe type of epilepsy in infants. The heterogeneity in the overall intellectual disability that these patients suffer from has been attributed to differences in genetic background and epilepsy severity. METHODS: Eighteen Vietnamese children diagnosed with Dravet syndrome were included in this study. SCN1A variants were screened by direct sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. Adaptive functioning was assessed in all patients using the Vietnamese version of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, and the results were analyzed relative to the SCN1A variants and epilepsy severity. RESULTS: We identified 13 pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants, including 6 that have not been reported previously. We found no correlations between the presence or type of SCN1A variants and the level of adaptive functioning impairment or severity of epilepsy. Only two of nine patients aged at least 5 years had an adaptive functioning score higher than 50. Both of these patients had a low frequency of convulsive seizures and no history of status epilepticus or prolonged seizures. The remaining seven had very low adaptive functioning scores (39 or less) despite the variability in the severity of their epilepsy confirming the involvement of factors other than the severity of epilepsy in determining the developmental outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our study expands the spectrum of known SCN1A variants and confirms the current understanding of the role of the genetic background and epilepsy severity in determining the developmental outcome of Dravet syndrome patients.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Child* ; Epilepsies, Myoclonic* ; Epilepsy ; Genetic Background ; Humans ; Infant ; Intellectual Disability ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Population Characteristics ; Seizures ; Status Epilepticus ; Weights and Measures