CraftQuest—Mobile App for Collecting Craft Village Data

Craft villages are significant contributors to environmental pollution in Vietnam. Yet, there is still a gap in craft village data availability for environmental impact analyses. In this paper, a new data collection approach using a mobile phone application (CraftQuest app) has been studied and applied to improve the understanding of air pollution in craft villages in Vietnam. The linkage between the information collected by the mobile app and the GAINS model aims to close the current gaps in terms of data availability, as well as to enhance the quality of local emission estimations. More accurate emission estimations will allow for a better understanding of the source-pollution relationship, improving the analysis of the possible strategies which could be implemented to tackle pollution in craft villages

Impact of a native invasive weed (Microstegium ciliatum) on regeneration of a tropical forest

Infestations of invasive plants can hinder forest regeneration in biodiversity hotspots in tropical Asia. Microstegium ciliatum is a native grass in parts of tropical and subtropical Asia. To assess impacts of Microstegium on secondary forest succession in its native range, a field experiment was undertaken in abandoned agricultural settlements in Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam from 2016 to 2018. Plots were established across 6 sites under low, medium and high tree canopy levels. In manipulated plots, M. ciliatum was killed with a grass-specific herbicide and invading vines were cut in a subset of plots; control plots were untreated. The results show that in its native range Microstegium can be invasive with impacts on forest restoration. Application of herbicide reduced the cover of M. ciliatum from 85 to 3% and increased the diversity and number of tree seedlings within the 2 years of the experiment. There was no difference in tree seedling abundance between the herbicide and herbicide + vine cutting treatments, but the number of tree seedling species was significantly higher in the latter in the 2nd year after treatments were applied under the medium canopy. The overstory influenced forest regeneration in the manipulated plots as there was a greater number of tree seedlings and species in plots under medium and high-density canopies. The results suggest that management of the native invasive grass under tree canopies will facilitate forest restoration after disturbance from agriculture and lead to the early recruitment of mid and late successional forest species

Depression and quality of life among patients living with HIV/AIDS in the era of universal treatment access in Vietnam

10.3390/ijerph15122888International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health1512288

Demand and willingness to pay for different treatment and care services among patients with heart diseases in Hanoi, Vietnam

10.2147/PPA.S176262Patient Preference and Adherence122253-226

Measuring health literacy in Asia: Validation of the HLS-EU-Q47 survey tool in six Asian countries

Background: Health literacy has been increasingly recognized as one of the most important social determinants for health. However, an appropriate and comprehensive assessment tool is not available in many Asian countries. This study validates a comprehensive health literacy survey tool European health literacy questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) for the general public in several Asian countries. Methods: A cross-sectional survey based on multistage random sampling in the target countries. A total of 10,024 participants aged ≥15 years were recruited during 2013e2014 in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The questionnaire was translated into local languages to measure general health literacy and its three domains. To evaluate the validity of the tool in these countries, data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency analysis, and regression analysis. Results: The questionnaire was shown to have good construct validity, satisfactory goodness-of-fit of the data to the hypothetical model in three health literacy domains, high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha > 0.90), satisfactory item-scale convergent validity (item-scale correlation ≥0.40), and no floor/ ceiling effects in these countries. General health literacy index score was significantly associated with level of education (P from < 0.001 to 0.011) and perceived social status (P from < 0.001 to 0.016), with evidence of known-group validity. Conclusions: The HLS-EU-Q47 was a satisfactory and comprehensive health literacy survey tool for use in Asia

Effect of double dose oseltamivir on clinical and virological outcomes in children and adults admitted to hospital with severe influenza: Double blind randomised controlled trial

10.1136/bmj.f3039BMJ (Online)3467911-BMJO