Factors Associated with Depression in Infertile Couples: A Study in Thailand.

BACKGROUND: Infertility can affect a couple's mental health and marital and social relationships. The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of depression among infertile couples and their relationships with other factors. METHODS: This study employed a cross-sectional survey. Validated tools were used to assess anxiety and depression, marital satisfaction, personality traits and sufficiency economy. The actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used for dyadic analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression in infertile couples was 6.7%. Aggression, extraversion and neuroticism were significantly correlated with depression, whereas the expectation of having children, marital satisfaction and sufficiency economy were negatively correlated with depression. The APIM model suggested that neuroticism and marital satisfaction were significant predictors of depression. Partner effect between the expectation of having children and depression was observed (p = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: Like other populations, depression in infertile couples seems to be associated with aggression, extraversion and neuroticism. However, there are specific variables related to infertility that impact the depression levels of these couples. For instance, the expectation of having children can affect the partners of infertile couples, while the role of the sufficiency economy is a new factor that has been examined for depression in this sample and requires further exploration.

A long-term negative effect of monetary incentives on the participatory surveillance of animal disease: a pilot study in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

BACKGROUND: In general, animal diseases have a significant impact on public health; accordingly, an effective animal disease surveillance system is an important control system that requires efficient and engaging participants in the long run. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of monetary and social motivation on animal disease surveillance. We hypothesized that there are two sorts of motivation based on Fiske's relational theory (1992): monetary incentives (monetary markets) and nonmonetary incentives (social markets). METHODS: In Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand, we analyzed data from a pilot project that began in 2014 and used a mobile application to report on signs that identify animal health problems. A total of 67 participants from 17 different areas in the central part of the province participated in this study. Participants in this study were divided into two groups: those who received monetary incentives and those who received social incentives. RESULTS: According to the findings, the monetary market group's effort was significantly higher than that of the social market group during the time when the volunteers in the monetary market group were paid. However, in the long run, the monetary market group reported significantly less than the social market group. Social incentive, on the other hand, was more efficient once the payment period ended. CONCLUSIONS: Social incentive outperformed monetary motivation in terms of efficiency and sustainability in the long run. Not only did the volunteers who were offered monetary incentive put in less effort than those who were offered the social incentive, but they were also not remotivated by the social incentive after the payment period had ended.

Factors Associated with Anxiety and Depression in Infertile Couples-Study Protocol.

(1) Background: Infertility refers to the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Infertility is an important medical and social problem that causes individual distress, family conflict and emotional impact experienced by about 15% of couples worldwide. Anxiety and depression are the main psychological problems associated with infertility with many potential contributing factors which are yet to be fully elucidated. This study aims to investigate factors related to anxiety and depression among infertile couples. (2) Methods/Design: This study will employ an analytical cross-sectional survey. Sociodemographic information will be collected. Validated tools will be used to assess anxiety and depression (Outcome Inventory-21(OI-21), marital satisfaction (ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale, sufficiency economy (Sufficiency Economy Scale (SES) and personality traits (Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ). The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model estimated by multilevel modeling will be used for dyadic analysis. (3) Discussion: This study will provide evidence about factors associated with anxiety and depression in infertile couples. Outcomes will raise awareness about mental health problems among infertile couples and guide future research for interventions.

A Participatory System for Preventing Pandemics of Animal Origins: Pilot Study of the Participatory One Health Disease Detection (PODD) System.

BACKGROUND: Aiming for early disease detection and prompt outbreak control, digital technology with a participatory One Health approach was used to create a novel disease surveillance system called Participatory One Health Disease Detection (PODD). PODD is a community-owned surveillance system that collects data from volunteer reporters; identifies disease outbreak automatically; and notifies the local governments (LGs), surrounding villages, and relevant authorities. This system provides a direct and immediate benefit to the communities by empowering them to protect themselves. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the PODD system for the rapid detection and control of disease outbreaks. METHODS: The system was piloted in 74 LGs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the participation of 296 volunteer reporters. The volunteers and LGs were key participants in the piloting of the PODD system. Volunteers monitored animal and human diseases, as well as environmental problems, in their communities and reported these events via the PODD mobile phone app. LGs were responsible for outbreak control and provided support to the volunteers. Outcome mapping was used to evaluate the performance of the LGs and volunteers. RESULTS: LGs were categorized into one of the 3 groups based on performance: A (good), B (fair), and C (poor), with the majority (46%,34/74) categorized into group B. Volunteers were similarly categorized into 4 performance groups (A-D), again with group A showing the best performance, with the majority categorized into groups B and C. After 16 months of implementation, 1029 abnormal events had been reported and confirmed to be true reports. The majority of abnormal reports were sick or dead animals (404/1029, 39.26%), followed by zoonoses and other human diseases (129/1029, 12.54%). Many potentially devastating animal disease outbreaks were detected and successfully controlled, including 26 chicken high mortality outbreaks, 4 cattle disease outbreaks, 3 pig disease outbreaks, and 3 fish disease outbreaks. In all cases, the communities and animal authorities cooperated to apply community contingency plans to control these outbreaks, and community volunteers continued to monitor the abnormal events for 3 weeks after each outbreak was controlled. CONCLUSIONS: By design, PODD initially targeted only animal diseases that potentially could emerge into human pandemics (eg, avian influenza) and then, in response to community needs, expanded to cover human health and environmental health issues.