Community Mobilization to Reduce Drug Use, Quang Ninh, Vietnam.

Objectives. We implemented an intervention to reduce drug use in an urban commune in northern Vietnam. Methods. We encouraged the intervention commune to accept responsibility for developing their own intervention strategies based on a community mobilization model used in southern, rural China. We selected a comparison commune, which had demographic characteristics and a drug history similar to the intervention commune. The 2-year incidence of new drug users was estimated retrospectively in the intervention and comparison communes between baseline (2003) and follow-up (2009). Results. Increased incidence of new (noninjecting) drug users between 2003 and 2009 in the intervention commune was lower than that in the comparison commune, and these participants expressed more positive attitudes toward local authority and people with drug use and HIV/AIDS. Increased condom use during last intercourse with female sex workers and with female casual partners was observed in the intervention commune. HIV prevalence and positive opioid tests decreased more in the intervention commune. Conclusions. Our results suggested that the community mobilization had a positive influence in the intervention commune.

Self-Assessment of Therapeutic Decision-Making Skills in Pharmacy Students.

Objective. The ability of pharmacy students to self-regulate and reflect on knowledge and skills is important as proficient self-assessment skills guide learning strategies and prompt students to bridge their knowledge gaps. The objectives for this study were to determine how well third-year pharmacy students self-assess, explore the rationales behind their self-assessments and determine whether there is a correlation between self-assessment accuracy and academic performance.Methods. A quasi-experimental one-group pre-/post-test design was conducted with third-year pharmacy students. Examiner grades, student self-assessment grades, comparative reports, and end-of-semester grades were collected. Students were categorized into tertiles based on academic performance for data analysis. Paired t tests, Pearson r and percentage agreements were conducted to investigate self-assessment accuracy. Correlational statistical tests were implemented to examine the relationships between self-assessment accuracy and academic performance.Results. One hundred sixty-two third-year pharmacy students were included. On average, students demonstrated poor self-evaluation skills and underestimated themselves by 4.9%. Lower performing students were generally overconfident in evaluating their performance. There was no significant correlation between students' self-assessment accuracy and academic performance on the subsequent end-of-semester examination questions.Conclusion. Overall, students tended to underestimate their academic performance. Further research on self-assessment is needed to better understand how students think about their performance, which may help to improve education methods, such as inclusion of reflective practices after case-based activities.