Mental health services in Nepal: Is it too late?

Mental health has historically been neglected both in the developed and developing world. It was not included in the Millennium Development Goals, the global targets for the developing world’s fight towards better health and development. However, it is increasingly recognised as an important public health concern and calls have been made for its inclusion in the post-2015 sustainable development goals. The 66th World Health Assembly, consisting of Ministers of Health of 194 Member States including Nepal, adopted the WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 in May 2013. This editorial raises awareness of the importance of making mental of pregnant women and new mothers a priority in the fight against maternal mortality

Mixed-methods approaches in health research in Nepal

Combining and integrating a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods in one single study is widely used in health and social care research in high-income countries. This editorial adds a few words of advice to the novice mixed-methods researcher in Nepal

Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal

Background: Research in Higher Education (HE), particularly in health and medical sciences plays a crucial role, not only in enhancing knowledge and skills of students and academics, but also in helping to develop managers and policy makers who rely on evidence-based planning and programming. This paper reports university teacher’s knowledge and practices in accessing electronic research-based evidence in health and medical sciences in Nepal. Material and Methods: This was mixed-methods study comprising a self-administered questionnaire completed by HE teachers and informant key interviews with authorities of HE institutions. A total of 15 out of the total 40 institutions offering HE above Bachelors level on health-related subjects were included for the study. Results: The response rate was 68%; 244 out of 360 HE teachers completed self-administered questionnaire. The respondents comprised nurses (36%), followed by doctors (23%), public health practitioners (18%), dentists (17%) and pharmacists (12%). Most of the HE teachers reported that they have computer skills and possess their own computer. Two-thirds (66%) of the HE teachers had work email and almost all (93%) have a personal email ID. All institutions had a computer lab and/or library. Almost all teachers had internet access at work but the internet was reportedly slow. Each institution had a librarian to support to the students and staff but only a third of teachers sought their help. Many do not know what kind of support librarians can provide. Less than half of the staff had accessed electronic research materials. This proportion varied between HE institutions ranging from 13 to 83%. HINARI and PubMed were the mostly used research databases. Less than half of respondents (48%) had published research papers in peer-reviewed journals, and only 19% published a paper based on a systematic review. Female HE teachers were less likely to publish (32%) than males (68%). More readers and professors had published (75%) than instructors/assistant lecturers (30%) and lecturers (45%). Conclusions: Accessing electronic research literature provides an opportunity to gathering up-to-date research-based information that should be core to all health curricula. We call upon curriculum developers and university authorities in Nepal to revise health curricula and help build electronic searching skills among staff and students

Co-Creating the Living Well with Dementia Message

Short pape

Experts warn Nepal Government not to reduce local Public Health spending

The health system in Nepal is currently undergoing some very interesting radical reforms. The new Constitution in 2015 brought a complete restructuring of the country’s political system, creating a Federal Republic with seven Provinces. This change involves a significant devolution of power and resources from central to local level in many sectors including the health sector. This editorial warns of the risk of moving away the political focus from Public Health in a centralised political syste

Needs assessment of mental health training for Auxiliary Nurse Midwives: a cross-sectional survey

Mental health in pregnant women and new mothers is increasing recognised on the global health agenda. In Nepal mental health is generally a difficult to topic to discuss. THET, a London-based organisation, funded Bournemouth University, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK and Tribhuvan University in Nepal to train community-based maternity workers on issues around mental health. This paper reports on a quantitative survey with nearly all Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in Nawalparasi (southern part of Nepal). The findings illustrate the lack of training on mental health issues related to pregnancy and childbirth in this group of health workers. Thus the paper’s conclusions stress the need for dedicated training in this field

Finding the right title for your article: Advice for academic author.

On reading the title of an article the reader can sometimes wonder what the author is trying to say, as the title seems so far removed from the research covered in the article.  Do such authors forget that many readers of health and medical journals browse the list of contents (in a paper or electronic format) and use titles to select the article that attracts attention? Academic authors are often not clear enough in the titles of their articles, and hence may not attract as large a readership as possible.   Any author would want their article to be read and cited, and to stand out in a crowded Table of Contents or a list of papers found in a search on electronic databases.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nje.v4i1.10138 Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 2014;4 (1): 344-347</jats:p

The presentation of academic self in the digital age: the role of electronic databases

A growing number of online electronic resources present academic work. We are not focusing here on specialised electronic databases that store bibliographic research data, such as Medline, PubMed, ASSIA, ERIC, JSTOR, but databases or social networking websites /platforms for academics/researchers that profile research, academic and professional activities, such as SCOPUS, WoS (Web of Science), Academia.edu, KUDOS, ORCiD, ResearchGate, LinkedIn, GoogleScholar and Mendeley. We discuss databases or platforms can promote the profile of an individual academic, highligthing their research interests, grants and publications. These databases are good outlets for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to build, improve and promote their public profile. However, the level of efforts requires to open an account or to maintain these databases regularly can be a daunting task for some scholars. This paper outlines some of these key databases and their functions and reflects on advantages and disadvantages of engaging with the most popular ones. We remind the reader that many of these databases require academics’ attention and input, and thus create more work

Is Economic Transition One of the Proximate Determinants of Nutrition Transition in Nepal?

Background: Historically, the process of nutrition transition begins with changes in economic structures which move away from agrarian economies to successful industrialisation, with high economic growth, urbanisation and increased real per capita income. Objective: The objective is to identify where Nepal is in economic transition and whether economic transition is considered as one of the proximate determinants of nutrition transition in Nepal. Results: Nepal’s position in the economic transition has been identified by using Popkin’s framework which is scaled from Pattern I to Pattern V. The time series trends indicated that new patterns of economic transition had been observed during 1995-2010, which was similar to the pattern IV of the Nutrition Transition as described by Popkin. The national income of Nepal increased over the past four decades. The GDP of Nepal has shown an annual increase at a rate of 3.92 per cent between 1970 and 2010. Conclusion: Economic growth and agricultural trade liberalization have induced plant fats supply in Nepal. Tourism has also transferred the taste and preferences of western foods to tourist destinations and urban centres, including potential negative health consequences related to excess consumption of fat, sugar and process foods

Why are so many Nepali women killing themselves? A review of key issues

Background: For decades the maternal mortality in Nepal was the lead cause of death among women, with great improvements in the maternal mortality ratio in the twentieth century the second most common cause has become more prominent. Suicide is now one of the leading causes of death for women of a reproductive age in Nepal. This scoping review brings together the key available literature to identify the causes of suicide among women in Nepal. Methods: Published and unpublished studies and the grey literature published on women and suicide related to Nepal between 2000 and 2014 were searched and included in this review. Results: This review suggested a number of explanations for the high rate of suicide among women including: partner violence, alcoholism and polygamy, the culture of silence, early age marriage and prolonged child bearing and dependency on men for financial security. Conclusion: This paper highlights some challenges and suggests ways forward in the improvement of mental health in Nepal