Prevalence of depressive symptoms among urban school adolescents in Vietnam: The role of youth, family, and school relationships.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents frequently encounter a spectrum of psychiatric conditions, predominantly depressive and anxiety disorders, along with various behavioral disturbances. OBJECTIVE: This investigation aims to delineate the prevalence of depressive disorders among adolescents in urban Vietnam and to elucidate the interrelationships between familial and school-related dynamics and adolescent depression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2022, involving 507 students aged 15 to 17 from high schools in Hanoi, Vietnam. Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale - Second Edition (RADS-2) was used to assess the presence of depressive symptoms. Social-demographic characteristics, adolescent-family and adolescent-school relationships, and academic environment characteristics of high school students were interviewed. Multivariate Tobit regression models were employed to discern contributory factors across four domains of RADS-2. RESULTS: Among the 507 adolescents, the mean scores on the RADS scale were 15.1 ± 4.2 for the dysphoric mood domain, 16.4 ± 4.0 for the anhedonia-negative domain, 13.1 ± 4.4 for the negative self-evaluation domain, and 12.4 ± 3.7 for the somatic complaints domain. The analysis indicated that adolescents with suboptimal parental relationships, absence of confidants, frequent parental conflicts, exposure to parental arguments, substantial exam-related stress, or overwhelming academic demands were more likely to exhibit elevated depressive symptoms. Conversely, adolescents who were satisfied with their friendships at school and received care, support from teachers or friends, and involved in school's extracurricular activities lower exhibited levels of depression. CONCLUSIONS: Findings reveal the significant impact of family and peer relationships, as well as academic stress, on the development of depressive symptoms. These significant results inform the design and development of future interventions aimed at mitigating depression risks among high school students, emphasizing the crucial roles of both educational institutions and family dynamics.

Prevalence and incidence of suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm in caregivers of cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Caregiving burden is set to increase with the rising incidence of cancer globally. The meta-analysis seeks to investigate the prevalence of suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm among the caregivers of patients with cancer (CPCs). METHODS: This PRISMA-adherent systematic review involved a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and PsycINFO for all studies that evaluated the prevalence of suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm in CPCs. Random effects meta-analyses were used for primary analysis. RESULTS: Eleven studies were included. Meta-analyses indicated that the prevalence of suicidal ideation in CPCs was 11% (95%CI:6-18), suicide prevalence was 6% (95%CI:3-12), and self-harm prevalence was 15% (95%CI:8-26). Subgroup analyses revealed that CPCs above the age of 50 experienced a greater prevalence of suicidal ideation (17%, 95%CI:10-28) as compared to CPCs below 50 (6%, 95%CI:3-12). Family caregivers particularly spouses were also found to have a higher prevalence of suicidal ideation (17%, 95%CI:13-23), as compared to children (5%, 95%CI:2-10) or mothers (3%, 95%CI:1-8). Systematic review found that having a pre-existing mental health condition and lower socioeconomic status increased likelihood of suicidality. CONCLUSION: We highlight the need for more support of CPCs at risk of suicidality. Additional research is warranted to identify other risk and protective factors.

Depression and Eye Disease-A Narrative Review of Common Underlying Pathophysiological Mechanisms and their Potential Applications.

Background: Depression has been shown to be associated with eye diseases, including dry eye disease (DED), cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy (DR). This narrative review explores potential pathophysiological connections between depression and eye disease, as well as its potential correlations with ocular parameters. Methods: A literature search was conducted in August 2022 in PUBMED, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. Published articles related to the subject were consolidated and classified according to respective eye diseases and pathophysiological mechanisms. Results: The literature reviewed suggests that common pathophysiological states like inflammation and neurodegeneration may contribute to both depression and certain eye diseases, while somatic symptoms and altered physiology, such as disruptions in circadian rhythm due to eye diseases, can also influence patients' mood states. Grounded in the shared embryological, anatomical, and physiological features between the eye and the brain, depression is also correlated to changes observed in non-invasive ophthalmological imaging modalities, such as changes in the retinal nerve fibre layer and retinal microvasculature. Conclusions: There is substantial evidence of a close association between depression and eye diseases. Understanding the underlying concepts can inform further research on treatment options and monitoring of depression based on ocular parameters.

Social media use and its impact on adults' mental health and well-being: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Social media use has grown in importance and prevalence, with its estimated number of users at 4.9 billion worldwide. Social media use research has revealed positive and negative impacts on users' mental health and well-being. However, such impacts among adults have not been examined in any reviews. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted based on the framework by Arksey and O'Malley and reported based on the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Eight databases were searched from 2005 to December 2021. Articles were included after being reviewed by three independent teams, with discrepancies resolved through consensus with the senior author. Publication-related information (i.e., authors, year of publication, aims, study population, methodology, interventions, comparisons, outcome measures and key findings) were extracted from each study. Thematic analysis was conducted to answer the research questions. RESULTS: Among the 114 eligible articles, young adults (69.6%) represented the main age group. Most studies (78.6%) focused on the negative impacts of social media use on mental health and well-being, with nearly a third (32.1%) assessing such impacts on depression. Notably, this scoping review found that more than three-quarters (78.6%) of the included studies revealed that excessive and passive social media use would increases depression, anxiety, mood and loneliness. Nevertheless, a third (33.0%) also reported positive impacts, where positive and purposeful use of social media contributes to improvements in mental health and well-being, such as increased perceived social support and enjoyment. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: This review has provided an overview of the existing knowledge on how social media use affects adults and identified areas of research that merit investigation in future studies. More attention should be given to maximizing the positive impacts of social media use on mental health and well-being among adults.

MicroRNA classification and discovery for major depressive disorder diagnosis: Towards a robust and interpretable machine learning approach.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is notably underdiagnosed and undertreated due to its complex nature and subjective diagnostic methods. Biomarker identification would help provide a clearer understanding of MDD aetiology. Although machine learning (ML) has been implemented in previous studies to study the alteration of microRNA (miRNA) levels in MDD cases, clinical translation has not been feasible due to the lack of interpretability (i.e. too many miRNAs for consideration) and stability. METHODS: This study applied logistic regression (LR) model to the blood miRNA expression profile to differentiate patients with MDD (n = 60) from healthy controls (HCs, n = 60). Embedded (L1-regularised logistic regression) feature selector was utilised to extract clinically relevant miRNAs, and optimized for clinical application. RESULTS: Patients with MDD could be differentiated from HCs with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.81 on testing data when all available miRNAs were considered (which served as a benchmark). Our LR model selected miRNAs up to 5 (known as LR-5 model) emerged as the best model because it achieved a moderate classification ability (AUC = 0.75), relatively high interpretability (feature number = 5) and stability (ϕ̂Z=0.55) compared to the benchmark. The top-ranking miRNAs identified by our model have demonstrated associations with MDD pathways involving cytokine signalling in the immune system, the reelin signalling pathway, programmed cell death and cellular responses to stress. CONCLUSION: The LR-5 model, which is optimised based on ML design factors, may lead to a robust and clinically usable MDD diagnostic tool.

Educational interventions to reduce depression and anxiety in older adults with cancer in the community: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of randomised controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Older adults make up half of those with cancer and are prone to mood disorders, such as depression and severe anxiety, resulting in negative repercussions on their health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL). Educational interventions have been shown to reduce adverse psychological outcomes. We examined the effect of educational interventions on the severity of psychological outcomes in older adults with cancer (OAC) in the community. METHOD: This PRISMA-adherent systematic review involved a search of PubMed, MedLine, Embase and PsycINFO for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated educational interventions impacting the severity of depression, anxiety and HRQOL in OAC. Random effects meta-analyses and meta-regressions were used for the primary analysis. RESULTS: Fifteen RCTs were included. Meta-analyses showed a statistically insignificant decrease in the severity of depression (SMD = -0.30, 95%CI: -0.69; 0.09), anxiety (SMD = -0.30, 95%CI: -0.73; 0.13) and improvement in overall HRQOL scores (SMD = 0.44, 95%CI: -0.16; 1.04). However, subgroup analyses revealed that these interventions were particularly effective in reducing the severity of depression and anxiety in specific groups, such as OAC aged 60-65, those with early-stage cancer, those with lung cancer and those treated with chemotherapy. A systematic review found that having attained a higher education and income level increased the efficacy of interventions in decreasing the severity of adverse psychological outcomes. CONCLUSION: Although overall meta-analyses were statistically insignificant, subgroup meta-analyses highlighted a few specific subgroups that the educational interventions were effective for. Future interventions can be implemented to target these vulnerable groups.

Programmed cell death factor 4-mediated hippocampal synaptic plasticity is involved in early life stress and susceptibility to depression.

Early life stress (ELS) increases the risk of depression later in life. Programmed cell death factor 4 (PDCD4), an apoptosis-related molecule, extensively participates in tumorigenesis and inflammatory diseases. However, its involvement in a person's susceptibility to ELS-related depression is unknown. To examine the effects and underlying mechanisms of PDCD4 on ELS vulnerability, we used a "two-hit" stress mouse model: an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into neonatal mice was performed on postnatal days 7-9 (P7-P9) and inescapable foot shock (IFS) administration in adolescent was used as a later-life challenge. Our study shows that compared with mice that were only exposed to the LPS or IFS, the "two-hit" stress mice developed more severe depression/anxiety-like behaviors and social disability. We detected the levels of PDCD4 in the hippocampus of adolescent mice and found that they were significantly increased in "two-hit" stress mice. The results of immunohistochemical staining and Sholl analysis showed that the number of microglia in the hippocampus of "two-hit" stress mice significantly increased, with morphological changes, shortened branches, and decreased numbers. However, knocking down PDCD4 can prevent the number and morphological changes of microglia induced by ELS. In addition, we confirmed through the Golgi staining and immunohistochemical staining results that knocking down PDCD4 can ameliorate ELS-induced synaptic plasticity damage. Mechanically, the knockdown of PDCD4 exerts neuroprotective effects, possibly via the mediation of BDNF/AKT/CREB signaling. Combined, these results suggest that PDCD4 may play an important role in the ELS-induced susceptibility to depression and, thus, may become a therapeutic target for depressive disorders.

Evaluation of activities and instrumental activities of daily living and correlated factors of traumatic brain injury patients in Vietnam.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is among the leading causes of death in Vietnam. Survivors of TBI suffer from functional and cognitive deficits. Understanding that Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) are crucial in measuring the treatment and health-related quality of life among patients with TBI. This study aims to evaluate ADLs and IADLs among the TBI population in Vietnam and determine the correlated factors to these two indices. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 212 patients with TBI in Vietnam from February to September 2020. ADLs and IADLs scales were applied. Depression, quality of sleep, and social support scales were used. Multivariate Tobit regression was adopted to identify factors associated with ADLs and IADLs. Patients who received first aid had higher ADLs scores than those who had not, by a statistical difference with a p value = 0.04. The mean ADLs score was 5.4 (SD = 1.4). The mean score of IADLs was 7.3 (SD = 1.7). Female patients (Mean = 7.6, SD = 1.1) performed better in IADLs than male patients (Mean = 7.1, SD = 1.9). Both ADLs and IADLs were affected strongly by depression and Injury Severity scores (p < 0.01), whereas IADLs were significantly correlated to caregiver types and quality of sleep (p < 0.01). Family support was observed as a negatively correlated factor to IADLs. Findings from the study provided evidence for authorities to adjust the health strategies among patients with TBI. Proper prehospital care, a basic low-cost hospital care model, and mental health counseling services should be considered when developing health interventions in Vietnam.

Using an Interpretable Amino Acid-Based Machine Learning Method to Enhance the Diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. At present, however, there are no established biomarkers that have been validated for diagnosing and treating MDD. This study sought to assess the diagnostic and predictive potential of the differences in serum amino acid concentration levels between MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs), integrating them into interpretable machine learning models. Methods: In total, 70 MDD patients and 70 HCs matched in age, gender, and ethnicity were recruited for the study. Serum amino acid profiling was conducted by means of chromatography-mass spectrometry. A total of 21 metabolites were analysed, with 17 from a preset amino acid panel and the remaining 4 from a preset kynurenine panel. Logistic regression was applied to differentiate MDD patients from HCs. Results: The best-performing model utilised both feature selection and hyperparameter optimisation and yielded a moderate area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) classification value of 0.76 on the testing data. The top five metabolites identified as potential biomarkers for MDD were 3-hydroxy-kynurenine, valine, kynurenine, glutamic acid, and xanthurenic acid. Conclusions: Our study highlights the potential of using an interpretable machine learning analysis model based on amino acids to aid and increase the diagnostic accuracy of MDD in clinical practice.

Preferences for childbirth delivery and pain relief methods among pregnant women in Vietnam.

Background: Understanding childbirth delivery and pain relief method preferences is important as a part of the shared decision-making process between pregnant women and health professionals. This study aimed to examine the preferences for childbirth delivery modes and pain relief methods and factors related to these preferences among pregnant women in Vietnam. Methods: A cross-sectional survey on pregnant women was conducted in two obstetrics hospitals in Vietnam. Face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire were performed to collect information about sociodemographic characteristics, pregnancy characteristics, preferences for different childbirth delivery modes, and pain relief methods. Multivariate logistic regression was employed for determining associated factors with the preferences. Results: Of 576 pregnant women, 34% of participants preferred cesarean section. Most of the sample did not have any preferences for specific pharmacological pain relief methods (70.1%), while support from partner/relatives was the most preferable non-pharmacological method (61.3%), following by water birth (11.1%) and acupuncture (9.9%). Desire to have another baby, relatives' experience, selection date of birth, and instrumental social support were major drivers of the cesarean section selection. This preference was an important factor in the preference for pharmacological pain relief. Meanwhile, high levels of informational and emotional support were associated with non-pharmacological method preference. Conclusion: This study highlighted a high preference rate for cesarean section in urban pregnant women in Vietnam. Holistic approaches from family, health facility, and policy should be performed to diminish the cesarean rate preference and promote the use of non-pharmacological pain relief methods during birth.

Interpretable deep learning model for major depressive disorder assessment based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects a substantial number of individuals worldwide. New approaches are required to improve the diagnosis of MDD, which relies heavily on subjective reports of depression-related symptoms. AIM: Establish an objective measurement and evaluation of MDD. METHODS: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to investigate the brain activity of MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs). Leveraging a sizeable fNIRS dataset of 263 HCs and 251 patients with MDD, including mild to moderate MDD (mMDD; n = 139) and severe MDD (sMDD; n = 77), we developed an interpretable deep learning model for screening MDD and staging its severity. RESULTS: The proposed deep learning model achieved an accuracy of 80.9% in diagnostic classification and 78.6% in severity staging for MDD. We discerned five channels with the most significant contribution to MDD identification through Shapley additive explanations (SHAP), located in the right medial prefrontal cortex, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal gyrus, and left posterior superior frontal cortex. The findings corresponded closely to the features of haemoglobin responses between HCs and individuals with MDD, as we obtained a good discriminative ability for MDD using cortical channels that are related to the disorder, namely the frontal and temporal cortical channels with areas under the curve of 0.78 and 0.81, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the potential of integrating the fNIRS system with artificial intelligence algorithms to classify and stage MDD in clinical settings using a large dataset. This approach can potentially enhance MDD assessment and provide insights for clinical diagnosis and intervention.

Early life stress enhances the susceptibility to depression and interferes with neuroplasticity in the hippocampus of adolescent mice via regulating miR-34c-5p/SYT1 axis.

Early life events are major risk factors for the onset of depression and have long-term effects on the neurobiological changes and behavioral development of rodents. However, little is known about the specific mechanisms of early life adversity in the susceptibility to subsequent stress exposure in adolescence. This study characterized the effect of maternal separation (MS), an animal model of early life adversity, on the behavioral responses to restraint stress in mice during adolescence and investigated the molecular mechanism underlying behavioral vulnerability to chronic stress induced by MS. Our results showed that MS exposure could further reinforce the depressive vulnerability to restraint stress in adolescent mice. In addition, miR-34c-5p expression was obviously up-regulated in the hippocampi of MS mice at postnatal day (P) 14 and P42. Further, synaptotagmin-1 (SYT1) was deemed as a target gene candidate of miR-34c-5p on the basis of dual luciferase assay. It was found that the downregulation of miR-34c-5p expression in the hippocampi of MS mice could ameliorate dysfunction of synaptic plasticity by targeting molecule SYT1, effects which were accompanied by alleviation of depressive and anxious behaviors in these mice. The results demonstrated that the miR-34c-5p/SYT1 pathway was involved in the susceptibility to depression induced by MS via regulating neuroplasticity in the hippocampi of mice.

Association of depression with all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in older adults with cancer: Systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

INTRODUCTION: The incidence and mortality of cancer is increasing worldwide with studies reporting that cumulative risk of cancer rises as age increases. Against the backdrop of the increasing prevalence of cancer amongst older patients, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the depression-mortality relationship in older adults with cancer (OAC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This PRISMA-adherent systematic review involved a systematic search of PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, and PsycINFO for prospective and retrospective cohort studies comparing the risk of all-cause and cancer-related mortality among OAC with depression. Random effects meta-analyses and meta-regressions were used for the primary analysis. RESULTS: From 5,280 citations, we included 14 cohort studies. Meta-analyses of hazard ratios (HRs) showed an increased incidence of all-cause mortality in OAC with depression (pooled HR: 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.25, 1.55). Subgroup analyses of other categorical study-level characteristics were insignificant. While risk of cancer-related mortality in OAC with depression was insignificantly increased with a pooled HR of 1.21 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.49), subgroup analysis indicated that risk of cancer-related mortality in OAC with depression significantly differed with cancer type. Our systematic review found that having fewer comorbidities, a higher education level, greater socioeconomic status, and positive social supportive factors lowered risk of all-cause mortality in OAC with depression. DISCUSSION: Depression in OAC significantly increases risk of all-cause mortality and cancer-related mortality among different cancer types. It is imperative for healthcare providers and policy makers to recognize vulnerable subgroups among older adults with cancer to individualize interventions.

Psychological and social impacts of frontotemporal dementia on caregivers and family members - A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may impose substantial psychological and social burdens on caregivers and family members that are unique from other forms of dementia due to its distinctive clinical characteristics. This systematic review investigated these impacts on caregivers and family members. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted in the PubMed, Cochrane Library and Embase databases for relevant articles published from database inception to 23 March 2023. The methodological quality of the articles was evaluated using a checklist. RESULTS: Thirty-six articles (six qualitative and thirty quantitative), including 5129 participants, were included in this review. Like other forms of dementia, FTD caregivers had significant caregiver burden levels and psychological impacts. Caregiver burden was associated with behavioural symptoms (e.g., apathy and disinhibition) and motor symptoms. The costs of caring for a patient with FTD were found to be higher than those for Alzheimer's disease. FTD patients often face challenges in obtaining a correct diagnosis and experience significant delays and multiple misdiagnoses. Healthcare professionals may also be less familiar with FTD than with Alzheimer's, leading to delayed diagnosis. This can cause considerable stress and deprive patients and caregivers of early intervention. CONCLUSION: FTD is associated with significant costs and caregiver burden levels, and the difficulties faced by caregivers and family members can be unique and challenging in different aspects when compared to other forms of dementia. Better education about FTD for family members and healthcare professionals is required to improve the quality of life for both patients and caregivers, and more support needs to be provided at all stages of the disease.

Avoidance of healthcare service use and correlates among HIV-positive patients in Vietnam: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: The prevention of HIV/AIDS is not making sufficient progress. The slow reduction of HIV/AIDS infections needs to prioritise hesitancy towards service utilisation, including treatment duration, social support and social stigma. This study investigates HIV-positive patients' avoidance of healthcare services and its correlates. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: The secondary data analysis used cross-sectional data from a randomised controlled intervention, examining the effectiveness of HIV-assisted smartphone applications in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients in the Bach Mai and Ha Dong clinics in Hanoi. METHODS: Simple random sampling was used to identify 495 eligible patients. Two-tailed χ2, Mann-Whitney, multivariate logistic and ordered logistic regression models were performed. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The main study outcome was the patients' healthcare avoidance and frequency of healthcare avoidance. The association of individual characteristics, social and behavioural determinants of HIV patients' usage of health services was also determined based on the collected data using structured questionnaires. RESULTS: Nearly half of the participants avoid health service use (47.3%), while 30.7% rarely avoid health service use. Duration of antiretroviral therapy and initial CD4 cell count were negatively associated with avoidance of health services and frequency of health service avoidance. Similarly, those with the middle and highest income were more likely to avoid health services compared with those with the lowest income. People having health problems avoided health service use more frequently (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.61). CONCLUSIONS: Our study's findings identify characteristics of significance in relation to health service avoidance and utilisation among HIV-positive patients. The results highlighted the need to improve satisfaction, adherence and utilisation of treatment. Moreover, identifying ways to address or incorporate those social determinants in new policy may also help the treatment of HIV/AIDS and strategically allocate funding in the changing financial and political climate of Vietnam. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Thai Clinical Trials Registry TCTR20220928003.

Economic burden and financial vulnerability of injuries among the elderly in Vietnam.

Falls are a leading cause of death among elderly people. However, research on the cost of fall-related injuries is limited in Vietnam. We estimated treatment costs and associated factors among 405 elderly patients in Thai Binh hospitals. Costs were estimated through self-reported data on medical and non-medical expenses. Logistic regression and GLM were used to identify payment and affordability factors. Inpatient and outpatient care costs for fall-related injuries were US$98.06 and US$8.53, respectively. 11.85% of participants couldn't pay for treatment. Payment ability and cost decline were linked to family income, medical history, and hospital stay length. Elderly with fall-related injuries in Vietnam experienced high costs and severe health issues. Primary healthcare services and communication campaigns should be strengthened to reduce disease burden and develop effective fall injury prevention strategies.

Preference and willingness to pay for reproductive health services among adults in Urban-Rural transition settings of a developing country: evidence from a cross-sectional study in a rural district of Hanoi, Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of fee-for-service models in public hospitals and the legalization of private health services in Vietnam in 1989, the price of reproductive health services has risen. These changes have exacerbated inequities in accessing reproductive health services. This study examines potential disparities in willingness to pay for reproductive health services among adults in a rural district of Hanoi. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at 9 communes in Thanh Oai district, a rural district of Hanoi, Vietnam, in July 2019. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a structured questionnaire to collect self-reported data. The contingent valuation was used to examine willingness to pay for reproductive health services with a starting price of 2 million VND (~ US$86.2, July 2019 exchange rate), which is the average price of all RHS in public facilities in Vietnam. Multiple Logistic regression and Multiple Interval regression models were used to identify factors associated with willingness to pay and the amount that people were willing to pay for reproductive health services. RESULTS: Among 883 participants, this study found 59.1% of them willing to pay for reproductive health services at an average maximum amount of US$36.2, significantly less than the current average price of US$86.2. Occupation, number of sex partners, perception towards the necessity of reproductive health services, and prior use of reproductive health services were found to significantly influence willingness to pay for reproductive health services, while age, income level, gender, occupation, perception towards the necessity of reproductive health services and prior use of reproductive health services were reportedly correlated with the amount participants were willing to pay for reproductive health services. CONCLUSION: Lower willingness to pay for reproductive health services compared to the current prices (US$36.2 vs. US$86.2) is likely related to an overall low awareness of the necessity of reproductive health services, and future education campaigns should specifically target those from lower-income backgrounds. Financial subsidization should also be provided, especially for those from the low-income group, to ensure equitable access to reproductive health services. Given the heterogeneity of reproductive health services, further studies should examine the willingness to pay for each type of service independently.

Toward sustainable development goals in gender inequality: an analysis of gender preferences among urban pregnant women in a Southeast Asian country.

BACKGROUND: Gender-biased discrimination and preferences are global phenomena, particularly son preferences. However, updated evidence about this issue in Vietnam has not yet been provided. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the gender preferences among pregnant women and identify associated factors of such preferences. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two hospitals in Vietnam with 732 pregnant women. Gender preferences for their child were asked, along with socio-demographic (e.g., education, occupation) and pregnancy characteristics (e.g., pressure to have a son, gender of first child, the importance to have a son of family members, and information sources on pregnancy care) by using face-to-face interviews and a structured questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with gender preferences. RESULTS: About 51.9% of the participants had no gender preference, while, among those who had a gender preference, 26.5% preferred sons, and 21.6% preferred daughters. Only 6.2% had pressure to have a son. Having the first child who was female (OR = 4.16, 95%CI = 1.54-11.25), having the pressure to have a son (OR = 6.77, 95%CI = 2.06-22.26), and higher self-perceived importance to have a son (OR = 3.05, 95%CI = 1.85-5.02) were positively associated with son preference. Otherwise, women having partners with high school education or above (OR = 2.04, 95%CI = 1.06-3.91), living with parents-in-law (OR = 2.33; 95%CI = 1.25-4.34), the higher number of pregnancies, and a higher degree of importance in having a son regarding parents-in-law (OR = 2.15, 95%CI = 1.38-3.35) associated with higher odds of preferring daughter. CONCLUSION: This study showed that gender preference was common among pregnant women, but the pressure to have a son was low. Further education programs and legal institutions should be implemented to improve gender inequality and gender preference in society.

Impact of interventions on the quality of life of cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal research.

The impact of cancer interventions has been conducted in several research due to the significant burden of this non-communicable disease. The interventions that played an important role in the improvement of the patient's quality of life (QoL) and health-related quality of life (HRQL) can be classified into two main groups: pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological methods. However, studies so far often analyze a specific group of interventions for specific types of cancer. Thus, in this systematic review and meta-analysis, we synthesized the overall impact of cancer interventions on patients' quality of life in several cancers.In this research, we followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) to search the longitudinal original research on the Web of Science (WOS) database. After that, the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and Jadad Scale were used to assess the quality of non-randomized control trials and randomized control trials, respectively. Then, the characteristics of the included studies were described in the six main fields table and the random effect model with robust estimation was applied to analyze the impact of interventions on the health utility of patients.From the database, 122 longitudinal original research were included in the meta-regression, with most of them having high or fair quality. The European Organization for the research and treatment of cancer scale for quality of life (EORTC-QLQ) was the most used health utility measurement at 65.15%. In the adjusted effect models, the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) had significant statistics in all models when we compared it with the EQ-5D Scale (p < 0.05) and several types of cancer such as breast, lung, and prostate cancer had significant statistics when comparing with hematological cancer in the model types of cancer (p < 0.01). Moreover, radiotherapy, screening, and a combination of chemotherapy and best supportive care also had significant statistics (p < 0.01) in the model of interventions when compared with radiotherapy applied only. Our research can suggest a vital combination of both pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological interventions to improve the quality of life of some common types of cancer patients.

Social and Economic Impacts of COVID-19 Among Health Professionals in Vietnam: Status and Associations with Quality of Life and Sleep Quality.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way of life of many individuals, especially those working at the frontlines, such as healthcare workers. Our study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-economic status, quality of life, and sleep quality when Vietnam was experiencing the 4th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 604 healthcare workers using snowball sampling from October through to November 2021. Our study examined the impact of the government's COVID-19 prevention policy including personal protective measures (5K measures), directive 15, directive 16, and directive 16 plus. The EQ-5D-5L and EQ-VAS were used to measure health-related quality of life and a scale of 1 to 10 was used to rate sleep quality of healthcare workers. RESULTS: A total of 604 respondents, most people were female (57.9%), and working as civil servants (75.3%). Very few participants were able to increase their earnings during the pandemic. Participants who did not have monthly allowance amounts had the highest proportion (60.1%), followed by those under 2 million VND (21.2%). In the univariate regression model, people with high government policy scores tend to have lower quality of life and sleep quality scores. In addition, in the multivariable regression model, people with high scores on government policies tend to have lower quality of life (EQ-5D) scores. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 prevention measures had a negative impact on quality of life, sleep quality, and daily demands of healthcare workers. These findings should help guide future policy implementations.