These findings suggest that a holistic, culturally sensitive nursing approach should be considered when caring for children with thalassemia.

The study aims at appraising gender differences in health-related practices, and health behaviour among university students of the Khon Kaen University, northeast Thailand, using a self-administered questionnaire. Of 539 university students, there were 155 males, 384 females, with mean ages 19.7 (+/- 1.2) and 19.6 (+/- 1.1) years, respectively. Persistent health problems were not significantly different between male and female students (12.9% vs. 15.4%). An average body mass index (BMI) was significantly different between male and female students (20.2 +/- 2.1 vs. 19.8 +/- 2.1). Female students reported positive health habits, in terms of drinking, smoking, sun protection, tooth brushing, fruit consumption, conscious efforts to avoid fat and cholesterol, over men, while regular exercise and safety belt use were more likely practised among male students. Using ANOVA and pairwise multiple comparisons, female students demonstrated better health eating habits than men (p = 0.0001). Coronary heart disease preventive habits between the medical and nonmedical faculty was greater for female students than for male students (p = 0.0006 for gender; p = 0.0001 for faculty). Health behaviour (combination of health eating habits, deliberate nutritional practices and coronary heart diseases preventive behaviour) was found to be better practised among women than men (p = 0.0001). These findings, therefore, should focus attention on university students as a target group for health education.

This study had a 2-group pre-post quasiexperimental design and was conducted in 2 selected areas of Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand. The objective was to evaluate the extent to which the surveillance system that was developed helped in drowning prevention. The development process involved extensive participation from the community. System efficiency was evaluated, and the drowning rates were compared. The system demonstrated 82.8% system sensitivity and 87% positive-predictive value. There were 90.0% rescues with no injury during the study period. The relative risk of drowning injury suggests that the control area was at 5.6 times more at risk for drowning injury than the intervention area (95% CI = 1.58, 20.12). Local knowledge and participation from the community were found to be key issues in the success of the surveillance system, and such systems can be applied to other areas with similar problems.

Objective: To develop an assessment tool for the prediction of postpartum blood loss over 300 mL and 500 mL after vaginal delivery. Methods: A retrospective case-control study of 504 (72 cases: 432 controls) pregnant women with gestational age of 28 weeks or above who underwent vaginal delivery at Chiang Rai Regional Hospital between 1 st October 2015 and 30 th September 2016 was conducted. The predictors were selected using "Sign OK" selection. The risk scoring system was developed according to the seven steps of clinical prediction model development of Steyerberg. Results: This form included eight predictors: maternal age of 35 years old or above, gestational age over 40 weeks, being nulliparous, history of curettage in prior pregnancy, gestational hypertensive disorder, hemoglobin level equal to or less than 10 g/dL, fundal height of 38 centimeters or above, and the use of pethidine for pain relief in the 1st stage of labor. The sensitivity of predicting postpartum blood loss over 300 mL after vaginal delivery by the risk scoring system was 80.7%, specificity of 60.8%, and the ROC curve was equal to 0.71 at the optimal cutoff score of four points or above. To predict the postpartum blood loss of 500 mL or above after vaginal delivery, the sensitivity was 88.1%, specificity of 54.6%, and the ROC curve was equal to 0.71 at the optimal cutoff score of three points or above. Conclusion: This form had an acceptable performance in predicting postpartum blood loss over 300 mL and 500 mL at the optimal cutoff scores of four points or above and three points or above, respectively.

A survey was conducted among two classes of medical students (N = 293) at the University of Hong Kong to study their smoking habits and knowledge of and attitudes toward smoking. The response rate was 97.3%. There was only one daily smoker (0.4%) and 21 occasional smokers (7.4%). While the respondents regarded health and self-discipline as the main reasons for not smoking, the social taboo against smoking among young people might have also deterred this educated elite from smoking. Many of them failed to identify the major causal role of smoking in smoking related diseases. The potential of prevention in encountering a smoking patient seen for reasons unrelated to smoking was not fully realised. There was disagreement in the banning of cigarette advertising and in increasing the price of tobacco products. In the face of aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry in the Asia-Pacific region, every undergraduate medical curriculum should include organized instruction on smoking and its control.