Objective
 In recent years, antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been significantly expanded in developing countries, while drug resistance to HIV caused by low adherence is becoming a grave concern. As a member of the international community, Japan is expected to expand its cooperation for supporting the expansion of ART. However, the evaluation of ART adherence remains a challenge since the definition and the methods of its measurement are not standardized. In this regard, the articles of studies on ART adherence are reviewed to investigate available methodologies that can be used for measurement.
Method
 Articles were searched and extracted through Ovid Full Text database for the period between Jan. 2002 and Aug. 2006 by using keywords of “adherence” and “HIV”. Among 81 extracted original articles, 50 articles were selected based on the inventory and clear identification of the methodologies used to measure adherence.
Result
 The studies were conducted in the US (28 articles: 56%), Canada (5 articles: 10%), UK (3 articles: 6%), Africa and South America (10 articles: 20%) and no articles were extracted from Asia. The mean sample size of the studies was 581.2 (range: 24-6288). Measurements of adherence that were used in the articles as follows; patient's self-report (31 articles: 62%), electric drug monitoring (14 articles: 28%), pharmacy's refill record (12 articles: 24%), pill-count (9 articles: 18%), laboratory testing (6 articles: 12%) and combination of these (14 articles: 28%). Of the 31 articles using patient's self-report, 25 articles asked for the participant's frequency of missed dose.
Conclusion
 Studies concerned with ART adherence have been mainly undertaken in industrialized countries, and it was found that inquiries on missed doses were the most frequently used method to measure ART adherence. We strongly suggest the development of more simplified methods for measuring ART adherence, especially for resource-limited settings.

 Infertility in developing countries is important but neglected, while the issues of population growth control have been paid much attention. Female infertility rates in African countries were about 30 percent, which were three times higher than those of industrialized countries. It was reported that the most common cause of infertility was tubal dysfunction due to sexually transmitted infections, unhygienic delivery management, and unsafe abortion. The second common causes were male factors, which had been underestimated in developing countries. Thus, women were always blamed and often abused by their husbands and in-laws. Furthermore, infertile couples suffered from social discrimination and economic disadvantages.
 Infertilities were often treated without appropriate examinations of both husbands and wives. Inexpensive treatments were commonly applied: e.g., treatment of sexually transmitted infections, encouraging timing intercourse, hormonal therapies. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) would be effective in developing countries where main causes of infertility were tubal dysfunction and male factors. ART has been performed in urban areas in some developing countries. However, it is difficult to promote ART in developing countries, because of high costs and lack of sufficient technical and ethical regulations. To decrease the burden of infertility in developing countries, first, both developing and industrialized countries have to recognize the significance of the issue. Then, it is needed to evaluate accurate rates of infertility, causes of infertility, and effectiveness of current treatment, so that the countries could develop prioritized strategies and interventions.
 Infertility rates could be decreased with relatively low cost through building a system of proper diagnosis and treatment. International assistance might be required to negotiate the drug prices and to establish technical and ethical review mechanisms, which are the prerequisites of promoting ART. It is also important to provide people with knowledge and information regarding infertility, their causes and treatment.

Introduction
 Recently, foreign residents' difficulties using the Japanese medical system are being acknowledged. This study investigates the case of the medical intake forms, monshinhyo, that new patients at Japanese medical facilities must complete.Many patients, especially non-native ones, find them difficult.
Method
 First, 6 foreign and 6 Japanese students (hereafter, FS and JS) at 4-year universities were interviewed regarding their understanding of monshinhyo taken from three different departments -obstetrical, surgical, and internal medicine - at a hospital in Kansai; then, a questionnaire was developed and given to 25 FS and 85 JS.
Results
 Both FS and JS noted language problems. JS could pronounce medical terms better than FS but comprehended them only about as well as FS. Moreover, both FS and JS found the styles, layouts, and purposes of some questions unclear, and they sometimes had to guess the details of what monshinhyo requested. These included questions involving symptoms, divisions of medical departments, and semantic range of terms for blood relations. Also, medical practices/norms not found in the native country sometimes puzzled FS.
Conclusions
 Problems with monshinhyo arise from both the patients' side-Japanese as well as foreign-due to limited medical-related vocabulary/kanji and/or a lack of experience using Japanese medical services, and the monshinhyo themselves, due to their inclusion of unclear questions and ambiguous expressions. Probably, monshinhyo's authors' familiarity with medical terms and the Japanese medical system caused them to take for granted more knowledge than many patients actually have. To improve medical services, therefore, we suggest reexamining and reorganizing questions that already exist, introducing multiple choice and yes/no questions when possible, and providing furigana for kanji. Fundamentally, throughout the medical system, patients should be able to understand all the language they encounter. Clarifying the language, cultural assumptions, and purpose(s) of monshinhyo is a good starting point.

Introduction
 Currently Cambodia depends on imported foods from Viet Nam and Thailand. To address this situation, the Asian Sustainable Village Network OKAYAMA that the author belongs to, has been cooperating with Cambodian Federal Farmers Organization, a local NGO to undertake a farming project. The importance of agricultural promotion mainly in vegetable farming sector was examined and it is hoped that this project will reduce malnutrition in Cambodia, particularly among the rural poor who suffer with malnutrition, disease and disorder related conditions and will make Cambodia a sustainable society.
Method
 In order to determine agricultural conditions, we investigated market places in Phnom Penh and examined utilizing farmland in Kampong Cham. In addition, we visited market places in rural districts and farmers' homes to gain more information about eating habits of the population. To find out farming production we referred to statistical data from Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture. A PubMed review was undertaken to determine aspects of malnutrition.
Results
 Phnom Penh is a very busy place for the daily sale of perishable vegetables which are predominantly transported from Viet Nam. Cambodia, despite of its little irrigation system, and another technical problems is sufficient in its production due to its large farming area. Recently, cassava cultivation has increased in Cambodia in order to meet increasing demands in bio-fuel. We came to know that Cambodians do not have a favorable opinion about vegetables imported from Viet Nam. One of the dissatisfaction voted by the people in Cambodia is that the vegetables from Viet Nam have excessive chemical contamination and they lack in freshness. Restaurants and supermarkets in Phnom Penh preferred local products if they were available. In farming areas the production and consumption of vegetables are limited. For many, vegetables are a luxury. Meals predominantly consist of rice, small dried salted fish and some herbs. This situation is considered a leading factor of malnutrition.
Conclusion
 As a result of the limited production and supply of vegetables in Cambodia, vegetable consumption is limited and viewed as a luxury. This situation has led to a mal-balanced diet and requires considerable effort to uplift vegetable production in Cambodia to reverse the imbalance of nutritional intake. Thus it can be very well said that agricultural promotion in Cambodia, particularly in vegetable sector is deemed extremely important for the future development of Cambodia.

 The maternal and child health service in Thailand was originally established in 1918, and the first official maternal and child heath handbook was published in 1985. Since then, the handbook has been a major feature of the Thai MCH service and an important instrument for improving the health of pregnant women and children in Thailand. It has been periodically reviewed, revised and updated to maintain currency and to meet the ever changing and evolving health care needs of Thai women and children. This paper outlines the origins and history of this handbook. It comments briefly on its utilization which is still less widespread than expected, especially among clients of private health services. Future challenges are to promote use of the handbook through all types of health facilities throughout Thailand, so as to increase its utilization and further improve the quality of maternal and child health services.

Objective
 To examine the effects of the educational status of mothers and outreach services on childhood mortality in a Zambian village
Methods
 The study design was a cross-sectional descriptive study. A survey was carried out in a village of Zambia in 2007. Five Japanese medical and nursing students interviewed mothers who had children under five years old. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on social and educational factors and their experience of child deaths. In total, 73 mothers were interviewed, but three subjects were excluded because their records were inadequate. Information on the remaining 70 subjects was analyzed. The relationship between the dependent variable (child death rate per household) and independent variables (mother's characteristics, community circumstances) was examined. In this study, we used “the numbers of babies or young children who had died without defining age by care takers in a household” (child death rate per household) as a measure of child mortality.
Results
 Of the 70 mothers, 30 were literate (42.9%). 33 mothers received health information from an outreach program and 22 from community health workers (CHWs).
 The mother's education and the availability of health information from the outreach program were significantly related to lower child death rate per household (p=0.015 and p=0.019 respectively). The relationship between the mother's literacy and child death rate per household also showed an inverse tendency. Mothers with some education who received health information from the outreach program had reduced child death rate per household.
 After stratification by maternal age (younger or older than 30 years), greater education, literacy and outreach program of the younger mothers were more strongly associated with decreased child death rate per household.
Conclusions
 Education and community learning are important for the health of children. Maternal educational level and a community-based approach have strong impacts on child survival.

Introduction and Purpose
 Ratio of elderly people has rapidly increased not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. Especially, the number of elderly people over 60 years old will be three times more than at present in the next 45 years in Asian countries. The 9th five year plan in Thailand focused on strengthening health promotion activities in remote areas. Especially, Thai traditional and alternative medicine has been promoted to develop the quality of elderly people's lives. This study was conducted to compare the traditional health behavior of elderly people in a suburban area and a remote area in northeast Thailand.
Methods
 Forty three elderly people were interviewed in two villages and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the year 2006 to the year 2007.
 Participatory observation was also conducted to obtain information on village atmosphere and national & social environment.
Results
 People in the remote area practiced traditional health behavior i.e. growing herbs in their home gardens, believing in the concept of 'heat food' and 'cold food' more than the suburban areas. Meanwhile, people in the suburban used herbal soup more than people in the remote area. People in the remote area consumed many kinds of food and believed certain foods as harmful for health more than people in the suburban area did. Approximately 50% of people in the remote area used to get Thai traditional massage compared to only 30% of people in the suburban area.
Conclusion
 There was a variety of disparities in the consumption of herbs and foods between remote and suburban areas even though they existed only 20 km's apart.
 People who practiced more traditional health activities suffered from less chronic illnesses than people who did not.

Introduction
 Since it is not easy to learn about health situation of Indonesia in Japan, this paper is expected to share the information collected through activities of the author in Indonesia.
General findings
 The economic crisis in 1997 and the rapid shift to the decentralization policy in 2001 affected health issues.
Health situations
 The health budget realization rate was more than 80% in 2007, however only 20% was disbursed in the first half year. The Public Health Security Fund started in 2008 enables the poor to receive free medical services.
 Life expectancy was 70.5 years old in 2007 and maternal and child health (MCH) indicators have improved recently, however are still worse than the surrounding countries. In addition, HIV and avian influenza cases have been increasing.
 The Health Strategic Plan 2005-2009 is the master plan, through which the minister prioritizes community mobilization by Desa Siaga (Alert Village) programme.
Conclusions
 Planning capacity of local authorities and community based health facilities need to be improved. In addition, MCH and communicable diseases control are major health issues.