Historical emissions of carbonaceous aerosols from biomass and fossil fuel burning for the period 1870–2000

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94787/1/gbc1172.pd

‘Taking the Bank to the Youth’: Impacts on Savings from the Ghana YouthSave Experiment

This paper explores experimental impacts of in-school banking and marketing outreach on the savings performance of youth in Ghana. Findings suggest that youth in treatment schools performed better than those in control schools in terms of account opening, depositing and savings. Between the two treatment conditions, in-school banking was more effective than marketing outreach in promoting savings. These findings demonstrate that a meaningful proportion of low-income youth, in a resource-limited country, can be connected to formal financial services and save if access and opportunities are available. The results support the offering of financial services at schools as a strategy to expand youth financial inclusion

Correction to: Evaluating the impact of Marie Stopes International’s digital family planning counselling application on the uptake of long-acting and permanent methods of contraception in Vietnam and Ethiopia: a study protocol for a multi-country cluster randomised controlled trial.

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors requested a correction to be made, indicating L. Bates as the first author only. There is no joint first authorship

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations between Household Food Security and Child Anthropometry at Ages 5 and 8 Years in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam

En: Journal of Nutrition, No. 145, pp. 1924-1933. doi:10.3945/jn.115.210229Background: Poor childhood nutritional status has lifetime effects and food insecurity is associated with dietary practices that can impair nutritional status. Objectives: We assessed concurrent and subsequent associations between food insecurity and height-for-age z scores (HAZs) and body mass index–for-age z scores (BMI-Zs); evaluated associations with transitory and chronic food insecurity; and tested whether dietary diversity mediates associations between food insecurity and nutritional status. Methods: We used data from the Young Lives younger cohort composed of children in Ethiopia (n = 1757), India (n =1825), Peru (n = 1844), and Vietnam (n = 1828) recruited in 2002 (round 1) at ;1 y old, with subsequent data collection at 5 y in 2006 (round 2) and 8 y in 2009 (round 3). Results: Children from food-insecure households had significantly lower HAZs in all countries at 5 y (Ethiopia, 20.33; India, 20.53; Peru, 20.31; and Vietnam, 20.68 HAZ; all P < 0.001), although results were attenuated after controlling for potential confounders (Ethiopia, 20.21; India, 20.32; Peru, 20.14; and Vietnam, 20.27 HAZ; P < 0.01). Age 5 y food insecurity predicted the age 8 y HAZ, but did not add predictive power beyond HAZ at age 5 y in Ethiopia, India, or Peru. Age 5 y food insecurity predicted the age 8 y BMI-Z even after controlling for the 5 y BMI-Z, although associations were not significant after the inclusion of additional confounding variables (Ethiopia, P = 0.12; India, P = 0.29; Peru, P = 0.16; and Vietnam, P = 0.51). Chronically food-insecure households had significantly lower HAZs than households that were consistently food-secure, although BMI-Zs did not differ by chronic food-insecurity status. Dietary diversity mediated 18.8–30.5% of the association between food security and anthropometry in Vietnam, but mediated to a lesser degree (8.4–19.3%) in other countries. Conclusions: In 4 countries, food insecurity at 5 y of age was associated with both HAZ and BMI-Z at age 8 y, although the association was attenuated after adjusting for other household factors and anthropometry at age 5 y, and remained significant only for the HAZ in Vietnam

Adolescent fertility and family planning in East Asia and the Pacific: a review of DHS reports

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adolescent pregnancy has significant health and socio-economic consequences for women, their families and communities. Efforts to prevent too-early pregnancy rely on accurate information about adolescents' knowledge, behaviours and access to family planning, however available data are limited in some settings. Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) reports are recognised as providing nationally representative data that are accessible to policymakers and programmers. This paper reviews DHS reports for low and lower middle income countries in East Asia and the Pacific to determine what information regarding adolescent fertility and family planning is available, and summarises key findings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The most recent DHS reports were sought for the 33 low and lower middle income countries in the East Asia and Pacific region as defined by UNICEF and World Bank. Age-disaggregated data for all indicators relevant to fertility and current use, knowledge and access to family planning information and services were sought to identify accessible information. Reported data were analysed using an Excel database to determine outcomes for adolescents and compare with adult women.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>DHS reports were available for eleven countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu and Vietnam. Twenty seven of 40 relevant DHS indicators reported outcomes for adolescent women aged 15-19 years. There were limited data for unmarried adolescents. A significant proportion of women commence sexual activity and childbearing during adolescence in the context of low contraceptive prevalence and high unmet need for contraception. Adolescent women have lower use of contraception, poorer knowledge of family planning and less access to information and services than adult women.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>DHS reports provide useful and accessible data, however, they are limited by the failure to report data for unmarried adolescents and report age-disaggregated data for some indicators. Further research is required to better understand the barriers that both married and unmarried adolescents face accessing reproductive health information and services, and their information and service delivery preferences.</p