Background: Plasma lipids are affected not only by dietary intake and life style but also by genetic factor. Objective: To discover the relationship between plasma lipids and the presence of LPL S447X and PAF-AH V279F in the bodies of rural Vietnamese population. Subject and Method: One hundred and ninety three subjects were randomly selected from rural areas in Ho Chi Minh city. The presence of LPL S447X and PAF-AHV279F polymorphism was determined using an Invader assay, and the plasma lipid levels were measured by an enzymatic method. A profile regarding the dietary intake was also made for each subject. Result and Conclusion: The frequency of LPL 447SX/XX (12.2%) polymorphism, PAF-AH Val279Phe mutation allele frequency (5.4%) in the Vietnamese was closely similar to that of other Asian populations. LPL447X polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with a higher HDL-C level in comparison to LPL 447S. LPL S447X affects plasma HDL-C and TG concentration in Vietnamese rural population.
Genetic factors ; plasma lipids ; rural area

rural area ; Vitamin A ; Malaysia ; Consumption of goods

Childhood obesity is an established problem in many countries and emerging in others. Epidemiological data on obesity in children is essential in order to plan public health policy and services. A study was conducted to determine the prevalence of obesity in schoolchildren in the fifth grade of elementary school (10-12 years old) in the district of Kuala Selangor. Ten schools of which five are in urban and five in rural areas were selected consisting of 699 eleven year old schoolchildren from the three major ethnic groups. Using international cut-off points for obesity, we report an overall prevalence of obesity of 7.2%. Prevalence of obesity in urban children is 7.2% whereas in rural children it is 7.0 %. Analysed by gender, there were 8.9% obese boys and 5.3% obese girls. Among the 3 major ethnic groups, the Malays had the highest prevalence of obesity at 9.3% followed by the Chinese with 6.6% while among Indians 3.0%. The data obtained from this study suggests that obesity in Kuala Selangor children is a cause for concern in urban and rural areas.
Obesity ; seconds ; Child ; Prevalence aspects ; rural area

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore how older adults kept their health good at a doctorless farm village. METHOD: Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 32 participants who were over 65 years old and analyzed in terms of Strauss and Corbin`s (1990) grounded theory methodology. RESULT: The Core Category of health care of older adults was identified as "enduring physical changes by themselves". The process of this could be divided into 4 stages : the stage of bearing, the stage of managing daily living activities, the stage of passively collecting information and the stage of minimally utilizing health care services. Older adults accepted the aging process positively but health sources limitation passively, so they managed daily living activities and used natural food for health. In addition, they collected information related to health care and used health care services minimally. CONCLUSION: We found that participants managed their health passively because of negative attitudes toward active health behaviors of older adults by themselves and the difficulty of access to health care services. Therefore, various community health services for older adults need to be developed to empower older adults in the community.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; *Health Services for the Aged ; *Health Status ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Medically Underserved Area ; *Rural Health Services ; Rural Population ; *Self Care

OBJECTIVETo investigate the differences in level of common knowledge toward common psychiatric disorders and means of therapy in general population, resulting from different education levels and living areas.

METHODSAll 4,614 persons over 15 years of age recruited from general population in Zhejiang Province via stratified randomly sampling, were classified by education levels as illiteracy, primary school level, high school level, and college level. Each group was thus divided into two categories according to the person's living areas, ie urban and rural area. The level of common knowledge about psychosis and means of therapy were measured by a questionnaire administered to all subjects.

RESULTSThe rate of knowledge of neurasthenic was the highest, reaching to 71.1%, then of knowledge of schizophrenia and depression, was 47.9% and 39.3% respectively, and the rate of knowledge of alcohol dependence, mania and obsessive-compulsive disorder was lower than 20%. The rate of knowledge of the 6 common psychiatric disorders was higher in people from urban area, than from rural areas. The rate of knowledge of common psychiatric disorders was increased correspondingly to the increase of the education level among the people residing at the same living area. The main means of therapy the people selected was western medicine and psychology, reaching at 24.0% and 34.8% respectively. There were significant differences among the people with different education levels but from the same living areas, and the people with lower education levels were likely to choose the therapy of western medicine, on the other hand, the people with higher education levels were tending to choose the therapy of psychology.

CONCLUSIONThe popularization of the knowledge and the education about mental health should be reinforced, as to improving the knowledge about mental health, choosing a correct means of therapy to the common psychiatric disorders and promoting the mental health status of the population.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; China ; epidemiology ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Educational Status ; Female ; Humans ; Knowledge ; Male ; Medically Underserved Area ; Mental Disorders ; epidemiology ; psychology ; Middle Aged ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; Rural Population ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Population ; statistics & numerical data ; Young Adult