Participation in Be Active appeared to be cost-effective and cost-beneficial. These results support the use of Be Active as part of a public health programme to improve physical activity levels within the Birmingham-wide population.

Myanmar is a developing country with considerable humanitarian needs, rendering its pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) an especially high priority. Yet progress to date remains under-examined on key fronts. Particularly within the three health-related MDGs (MDGs 4, 5, and 6), the limited data reported point to patchy levels of achievement. This study was undertaken to provide an overview and assessment of Myanmar’s progress toward the health-related MDGs, along with possible solutions for accelerating health-related development into 2015 and beyond. The review highlights off-track progress in the spheres of maternal and child health (MDGs 4 and 5). It also shows Myanmar’s achievements toward MDG 6 targets – in the areas of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Such achievements are especially notable in that Myanmar has been receiving the lowest level of official development assistance among all of the least developed countries in Asia. However, to make similar progress in MDGs 4 and 5, Myanmar needs increased investment and commitment in health. Toward moving forward with the post-2015 development agenda, Myanmar’s government also needs to take the lead in calling for attention from the World Health Organization and its global development partners to address the stagnation in health-related development progress within the country. In particular, Myanmar’s government should invest greater efforts into health system strengthening to pave the road to universal health coverage.

Background The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) has been accepted as one of the most commonly used self-report measures for depression. However, there is no study examining the psychometric properties of the BDI-II among substance users in low- and middle-income countries such as Myanmar. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the suitability of using this instrument in substance users and to examine the reliability and diagnostic efficiency to be compared with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) among substance users in Northern Shan State of Myanmar. Methods A respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method was applied for recruiting the participants in this study, and total 230 substance users were recruited. On the other hand, 50 participants who visited the drop-in center (DIC) were screened for depressive symptoms using ICD-10 during the days when one consultant psychiatrist doctor was presented. These participants were interviewed face-to-face by the consultant psychiatrist using a semi-structured questionnaire including the Myanmar version of the BDI-II (mBDI-II). Results The mBDI-II showed moderate accuracy with an area under the curve of 0.68. The optimal cutoff score was 10 with the highest Youden index (0.48), and it had high sensitivity and specificity (0.78 and 0.70). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for clinically depressed and non-clinically depressed substance users were 0.91 and 0.93, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis of the mBDI-II indicated that a three-factor solution (cognitive, affective, and somatic) was the best fit for substance users. Conclusions The mBDI-II has sound psychometric properties among substance users with moderate accuracy and range of possible cutoff scores together with sensitivity and specificity.

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