Estimated HZ vaccine coverage is 19.5% in adults aged ≥60 years, which is lower than the Healthy People 2020 target of 30%. Providers should identify every opportunity for HZ vaccination to assure that older adults are protected from HZ, a vaccine-preventable disease.

International collaboration in social work research, particularly research in the global south, presents unique opportunities for the personal and professional development of researchers and students alike. Yet data to help direct the process are limited. Using a research project recently carried out in Ghana as background, the authors present some guidelines for planning and conducting international research collaborations and underline challenges and opportunities in each. Factors highlighted include the process of building a collaboration, development of a research plan, funding and budget concerns, human subject considerations, sample selection, issues in collecting and analyzing data, and dissemination of research findings. Throughout, the authors address the role of respect, mutuality, and science in the conduct of international research in resource-constrained countries.

Results are presented from a study on a microcredit program with self-help groups implemented for widowed and abandoned women in Tamil Nadu shortly after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Data were collected from 109 participants measuring the women's investment patterns, loan amounts, demographics, and overall well-being (psychological, economic, communal, and familial). Results indicate that loan amounts and investment patterns were not significantly related to the women's well-being. Length of group participation and having children were negatively related to the women's well-being. These findings are discussed in relation to social and cultural contexts. Suggestions for programs for this population of vulnerable women and other marginalized groups are proposed.The devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 left thousands of people without housing or their livelihoods. The effort undertaken to provide relief revealed the inequalities that exist in Indian society; certain groups of people, based on caste, gender, or age, were excluded from receiving aid. A survey of women's rights violations in the aftermath of the tsunami confirms that women were more vulnerable than men during the disaster (Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development [APWLD], 2006). Their marginalized and disempowered status placed them at greater risk than men because financial and other forms of aid were not equitably distributed.The South Indian state of Tamil Nadu was among the regions severely affected by the tsunami because of its large coastal area and numerous fishing communities. Besides the loss of more than 8,000 lives, the livelihoods of most of the people in this area were affected because thousands of boats and fishing nets were destroyed. People who lived in the surrounding rural area were also affected by the tsunami. 12 Microcredit Self-Help Groups for Women in South India 13Because the saline water from the ocean flooded the land and made it unfit for farming, rural inhabitants could not work. Dalits ("untouchables" or outcastes) and people from scheduled castes, who provided labor to the fishermen through cleaning and selling fish, also lost their jobs.A needs assessment conducted by the local nongovernmental organization (NGO) Kalangarai 1 during the weeks after the tsunami revealed that there were 1,700 widowed or abandoned women in the rural or coastal areas of Tamil Nadu who were particularly at risk because of the lack of access to resources, their extreme level of poverty before the tsunami, and the discrimination they experienced in their communities. Kalangarai found that these women were not being supported by relief efforts and that they faced progressively worse economic conditions because of the loss of their livelihoods. In response, Kalangarai developed selfhelp groups for widowed or abandoned women throughout the area and provided financial assistance in the form of microcredit loans.The overall purpose of this study was to determine what impact the post-tsunami microcredit program implemented by Kalangarai had on ...

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BackgroundPrior research suggests that many patients do not spontaneously include work/income loss when responding to utility assessments, although this remains unconfirmed in the US due to almost no published US-based studies to date, and has not been previously studied among patients with herpes zoster (HZ). The objective of this study was to examine whether patients with HZ consider work and income loss when completing a quality of life survey.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was administered to 2000 US adult commercial health plan enrollees aged 50–64 years with ≥ 1 HZ medical claim during 2014. The survey collected information related to health status (EQ-5D), work productivity, and HZ severity and clinical features.ResultsMean respondent age was 58.4 years [standard deviation (SD) 4.1] and 62.0% were female. About 3 in 4 (76.8%) patients (N = 772) were employed either full (69.9%) or part time (6.9%). Less than half (45%) spontaneously considered work/income loss when responding to EQ-5D, and mean EQ-5D scores for patients who considered work/income loss were lower than for patients who did not [0.56 (SD = 0.28) vs. 0.69 (SD = 0.24); p < 0.001]. Overall, 43% of patients reported at least one full day missed (mean = 9 full days) and 29% reported at least one partial day missed (mean = 6 partial days) during the most recent shingles episode. Patients who considered work loss were more likely to have missed full (76.4% vs 26.0%, p < 0.001) or partial (70.9% vs. 35.2%, p < 0.001) days. Patients with absenteeism were more likely to consider work/income loss when completing EQ-5D [odds ratio (OR) = 7.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.01–12.31]. Odds of absenteeism/presenteeism increased significantly with increasing levels of HZ severity, and higher odds were associated with pain located on the face/scalp/neck/eye/ear (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.06–3.40) and with pain lasting 12+ months (OR = 2.91, 95% CI 1.14–7.42).ConclusionsHZ has considerable impact on the work and productivity of adults aged 50–64 years old. However, many patients with HZ do not spontaneously consider work/income loss when completing a standardized quality of life questionnaire. Studies that use health state utilities in HZ based on EQ-5D may not fully reflect the societal costs of work loss.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3451-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.