Results from some studies in rural area of Vietnam have shown that poor people are likely tend to sell assets while non poor people are able to pay for health care services. This makes poor people fall into poverty trap. Objectives: To identify the average household health expenditure during a year and sources of borrowing money and average amount of borrowing as well for health care services. Methods: 621 households were selected randomly from the Filabavi, Bavi District, Ha Tay Province. A longitudinal descriptive study was conducted for one year from July 2001 to June 2002. All selected households were interviewed one time per month. Results and conslusion: average payment household for health care services for one year was VND 519.000 (6.4% of total annual household income). Annual household income of poor group was VND 6,576,000, among this 8.4% was paid for health care services. There was 16.9% household had to borrow money for health care services average1y, while 23.1% of poor household had to borrow money for health care services. Borrowing sources included relatives (85%), neighbours (50%), Bank (26%), friends (15%), community organizations (9%) and private organizations with some interest (18%).
Health Expenditures, Rural Health

Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) is a systematic, semi-structured activity carried out in the field by a multidisciplinary team that is designed to obtain new information and hypotheses about rural life. This article reports the results of an RRA conducted in Kampung Paris 1 (KGP1), Kinabatangan, Sabah under the Annual Health Promotion Program of the School of Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. A systematic random sampling was used to recruit the villagers and data was obtained through compilation of pre-existing data, field observation, structured interviews with key informants and villagers. Cardiorespiratory diseases were prevalent in KGP1. Common water sources such as rain water collected in dug wells in KGP1 were unhygienic. Dangerous toxic fumes were produced by the burning of municipal wastes nearby village houses. The villagers of KGP1 were exposed to various farm animals, which may harbor zoonoses. Health care services are limited in KGP1. Villagers who were not poor (>RM897) represented 48% of the population, followed by the poor (RM503-897), 20% and the hardcore poor (1.00 person per bedroom. Poor water hygiene, polluted air from open burning, exposure to farm animals, poverty, poor education, overcrowding and inadequate health care services were among the few possible factors affecting the health of villagers in KGP1. Formal rigorous research should be conducted in the future to facilitate specific health interventions in areas of need such as KGP1.
Rural Population ; Rural Health ; Rural Health Services ; Health Status ; Malaysia

For 4 years, Thua Thien - Hue province has been implemented 3844/1 PAM project in 45 communes. The results showed that: malnutrition rate of children under 5 years was reduced. The underweight malnutrition decreased from 49.6% to 37.1%; wasting malnutrition decreased from 56.8% to 45.7%. Mother's knowledge on nutrition has been improved.
Nutrition ; Rural Health

The investigation was conducted in one rural commune. Information was gathered about socio-economic status (SES) and food consumption from 544 households with 3 categories of SES. The results showed that the energy intake of household increased with increase of socio-economic conditions. Rice, fat/oil, nut and sesame were most consumed in households of the average socio-economic status. The consumption of meat, fish, eggs and fruits tend to increase with better higher SES. Vegetable consumption was low at all studied households
Social Class ; Rural Health

This research aims to identify the prevalence of reproductive tract infections (RTIs) and to investigate the knowledge of married women with child bearing age about RITs as well as their practices in treatment and prevention of these diseases. The research was conducted in Thuy Dzung commune- Thai Thuy District - Thai Binh province in 1996-1997. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in this research. In cross sectional study, clinical and para clinical examinations and questionnaires were applied in 609 married women aged 15-49. The prevalence of RTIs was 32.8% (95% CI: 32.8% +/- 3.7). Among these infections, 28.5% of the cases were due to candida, 44% due to bacteria and 27.5% due to both candida and bacteria. The qualitative study was implemented in 7 months in 70 married and some men, health workers.The result shows that both local people and health workers perceived STDs as separate diseases,meaning that RTIs do not include STDs and hardly related with them. Free drugs and free health services are not enough, it is more important that the health workers are better able to deal with comon RTIs, and to counsel and help local women to prevent these diseases.
Infection ; Rural Health

In 2004, a project on environmental hygiene has been conducted at An Duong district to improve water supply system and sanitary latrines in the community. This study was designed for evaluating the project activities at two communes of An Duong, Hai Phong and some encouraging results have been yielded.
Environment ; Water ; Rural Health

No abstract available.
Mass Screening* ; Rural Health*

Evaluating efficacy of the nutrition improvement by educating and encouraging use of available food in the households at the communes of Thanh MiÖn district, H¶i D­¬ng province. Results: the diet was significantly improved. Average energy per capital a day was 2002 kcal, was higher than this in 1994. Content of carotene and vitamin A in the diet in 1998 was higher 4 times than this 1994 and higher 2 times than this in 1996. The rate of malnutrition type under weight was significantly reduced. The rate of malnutrition type height was reduced 2% every year but still was high rate (40.2%). The knowledge and practice of mothers and families were improved obviously
Nutritional Status ; Diet ; Rural Health

A survey on illness patterns and health seeking behaviour of 670 older persons had been conducted in Ba Vi district, Ha Tay province, results showed that: elderly women reported more acute illness than elderly men did; there were significant differences in term of acute and chronic illness patterns between elderly men and women; both men and women most commonly sought health care from private practitioners, then by self-treatment and from commune health centres, however, women used hospitals less often than men; for the elderly, the most common reason for choosing a health care provider was the nearness; women more significantly than men depended on others to decide the choice of the type of health care service they should use
Health Services ; aged ; Rural Population

*Malaysia ; *Rural Health ; *Social Conditions