Emerging infectious disease, the household built environment characteristics, and urban planning: Evidence on avian influenza in Vietnam.

Recent concerns with pandemic outbreaks of human disease and their origins in animal populations have ignited concerns regarding connections between Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) and development. As disasters, health, and infectious disease become part of planning concern (Matthew & McDonald, 2007), greater focus on household infrastructure and EID disease outbreaks among poultry is warranted. Following Spencer (2013), this study examines the relationship between the mix of household-scale water supplies, sanitation systems, and construction materials, and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) among poultry in a developing country: Vietnam. Findings of our multivariate logistic regressions suggest that a non-linear, Kuznets-shaped urban transition (Spencer, 2013) has an independent effect on the outbreak of HPAI, especially as it relates to household-level sanitation infrastructure. We conclude that the Kuznets-shape development of household infrastructure characteristics in Vietnam play a significant role in explaining where poultry outbreaks occur. Using secondary data from the Census of Population and Housing, and the Agricultural Census at the District and Commune levels for the country of Vietnam, we performed logistic regression to test the relationship between outbreaks of HPAI in poultry and newly-developed "coherence indices" (Spencer, 2013) of household water supply, sanitation, and construction materials that measure nonlinear, transitional development. Results show that district-scale coherence indices are negatively and independently correlated with HPAI outbreaks, especially for sanitation. Findings also suggest that community-scale coherence of urban infrastructures is a powerful tool for predicting where HPAI poultry outbreaks are likely to occur, thereby providing health planners new tools for efficient surveillance.

Perceived Risk of Avian Influenza and Urbanization in Northern Vietnam.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is an important public health concern because of potential for widespread morbidity and mortality in humans and poultry and associated devastating economic losses. We examined how perceptions of the risk of HPAI in poultry vary across communes/wards in the north of Vietnam at different levels of urbanization (rural, peri-urban, urban). Analyses of questionnaire responses from 1081 poultry raisers suggested that the perceived risk of HPAI in poultry was highest in peri-urban and rural settings. We also found that perceived risk was higher when respondents rated settings in which they did not live and that the process of change is related to perceived risk. Compared with others, respondents in peri-urban areas reported less disease management planning; respondents in rural areas reported less ability to separate infected poultry. These findings are consistent with, and add to, the limited previous research on the perceived risk of HPAI in poultry in developing countries. What is new in the present findings is that we describe how urbanization is related to people's perceptions of and ability to respond appropriately to variations in their environment. In particular, the inability to respond is not necessarily because of an inability to perceive change. Rather, rapid and extensive change poses different challenges for poultry management as communes move from rural to peri-urban to urban settings. Our results suggest that health promotion campaigns should address the perceptions and needs of poultry raisers in different settings.

Evidence for the Convergence Model: The Emergence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Viet Nam.

Building on a series of ground breaking reviews that first defined and drew attention to emerging infectious diseases (EID), the 'convergence model' was proposed to explain the multifactorial causality of disease emergence. The model broadly hypothesizes disease emergence is driven by the co-incidence of genetic, physical environmental, ecological, and social factors. We developed and tested a model of the emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 based on suspected convergence factors that are mainly associated with land-use change. Building on previous geospatial statistical studies that identified natural and human risk factors associated with urbanization, we added new factors to test whether causal mechanisms and pathogenic landscapes could be more specifically identified. Our findings suggest that urbanization spatially combines risk factors to produce particular types of peri-urban landscapes with significantly higher HPAI H5N1 emergence risk. The work highlights that peri-urban areas of Viet Nam have higher levels of chicken densities, duck and geese flock size diversities, and fraction of land under rice or aquaculture than rural and urban areas. We also found that land-use diversity, a surrogate measure for potential mixing of host populations and other factors that likely influence viral transmission, significantly improves the model's predictability. Similarly, landscapes where intensive and extensive forms of poultry production overlap were found at greater risk. These results support the convergence hypothesis in general and demonstrate the potential to improve EID prevention and control by combing geospatial monitoring of these factors along with pathogen surveillance programs.

An exploration of how perceptions of the risk of avian influenza in poultry relate to urbanization in Vietnam.

This research examined how perceptions of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) subtype H5N1 in poultry are related to urbanization. Via in-depth interviews with village leaders, household farmers, and large farm operators in modern, transitional, and traditional communes in the north of Vietnam, we explored behaviors, attitudes, cultural values, and traditions that might amplify or attenuate HPAI outbreaks. We also explored conceptualizations of urbanization and its impacts on animal husbandry and disease outbreaks. Qualitative theme analyses identified the key impacts, factors related to HPAI outbreaks, and disease prevention and management strategies. The analyses also highlighted how urbanization improves some aspects of life (e.g., food security, family wealth and health, more employment opportunities, and improved infrastructure), but simultaneously poses significant challenges for poultry farming and disease management. Awareness of qualitative aspects of HPAI risk perceptions and behaviors and how they vary with urbanization processes may help to improve the prevention and management of emerging infectious diseases.

Exploring the hypothesis of ethnic practice as social capital: violence among Asian/Pacific Islander youth in Hawaii.

BACKGROUND: Studies of youth violence have usually examined social capital using qualitative methods, but remain limited by small sample sizes. In addition, few studies examine violence among Asian/Pacific Islander (API) youth, even though they are one of the fastest-growing youth populations in the USA. AIMS: To contribute to a better understanding of culture and ethnicity in youth violence among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by quantifying ethnic forms of social capital. METHODS: We use an n = 326 sample of three API groups from Oahu, Hawaii. Defining social capital as ethnic practice, we test Filipino, Hawaiian and Samoan forms of youth social capital on intimate and non-intimate violence. RESULTS: Bivariate findings associate lower violence with language ability among Filipinos, coming-of-age practices among Hawaiians, and community leader engagement among Samoans. Multivariate tests showed language to be the strongest correlation. Bivariate tests also suggested potentially risky forms of social capital. CONCLUSIONS: results lead us to hypothesize that social capital that deliberately places individuals within their respective ethnic communities are risk-reducing, as are those that promote formal ethnic community structures. Those that formalize ethnic practice and social capital into commercial activities may be associated with higher risk of violence. Given the relatively small sample size and the exploratory approach for the present investigation, further research is needed to determine whether the findings can be replicated and to extend the findings of the present preliminary study.

Parent refugee status, immigration stressors, and Southeast Asian youth violence.

PURPOSE: To assess the effects of parents' experience of traumatic events on violence among Southeast Asian and Chinese youth. The study examines independent effects of parents' refugee camp experiences and immigration stress on serious or family/partner violence among youth. Findings contribute evidence on the intergenerational effects of community-level trauma that can help policy makers better integrate family and community strategies to reduce youth violence. METHODS: Obtained cross-sectional, face-to-face interview data including peer delinquency, parental engagement, parental discipline, serious violence, and family/partner violence from a sample of 329 Chinese and Southeast Asian adolescents. Measures of socioeconomic status, refugee status, and immigration stressors were collected from their respective parents. Data were analyzed using LISREL 8.54 for structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Findings show that parents' refugee status facilitated serious violence, and was fully mediated by peer delinquency and parental engagement, but for Vietnamese only. Parents' refugee status was also significantly related to family/partner violence, and mediated by peer delinquency. This relationship was not observed among the other Asian ethnic groups. The immigration stress variable had no significant effects on either serious violence or family/partner violence. CONCLUSIONS: Refugee communities may not transform easily into stereotypical immigrant Asian communities characterized by little youth violence. Results suggest that the refugee process, as experienced second-hand through the children of refugees, has a strong effect on externally oriented violence (serious violence) and on family/partner violence for particular subgroups. Therefore, community-oriented policy makers should join social workers in developing programs to address youth violence in Southeast Asian families and communities. Findings have implications for other forms of community trauma such as natural disasters.