BackgroundThe Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is characterized by much diversity in terms of geography, society, economic development, and health outcomes. The health systems as well as healthcare structure and provisions vary considerably. Consequently, the progress toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in these countries also varies. This paper aims to describe the progress toward UHC in the ASEAN countries and discuss how regional integration could influence UHC.DesignData reported in this paper were obtained from published literature, reports, and gray literature available in the ASEAN countries. We used both online and manual search methods to gather the information and ‘snowball’ further data.ResultsWe found that, in general, ASEAN countries have made good progress toward UHC, partly due to relatively sustained political commitments to endorse UHC in these countries. However, all the countries in ASEAN are facing several common barriers to achieving UHC, namely 1) financial constraints, including low levels of overall and government spending on health; 2) supply side constraints, including inadequate numbers and densities of health workers; and 3) the ongoing epidemiological transition at different stages characterized by increasing burdens of non-communicable diseases, persisting infectious diseases, and reemergence of potentially pandemic infectious diseases. The ASEAN Economic Community's (AEC) goal of regional economic integration and a single market by 2015 presents both opportunities and challenges for UHC. Healthcare services have become more available but health and healthcare inequities will likely worsen as better-off citizens of member states might receive more benefits from the liberalization of trade policy in health, either via regional outmigration of health workers or intra-country health worker movement toward private hospitals, which tend to be located in urban areas. For ASEAN countries, UHC should be explicitly considered to mitigate deleterious effects of economic integration. Political commitments to safeguard health budgets and increase health spending will be necessary given liberalization's risks to health equity as well as migration and population aging which will increase demand on health systems. There is potential to organize select health services regionally to improve further efficiency.ConclusionsWe believe that ASEAN has significant potential to become a force for better health in the region. We hope that all ASEAN citizens can enjoy higher health and safety standards, comprehensive social protection, and improved health status. We believe economic and other integration efforts can further these aspirations.

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Nowadays, Social Network (SN) is one of the essential tools of people especially young and adolescents. In consequence, there are so many controversial things on advantages and disadvantages of SN. In Myanmar, the rate of mobile phone users and internet users is on the increase today. This is a cross-sectional study conducted to the university students at Kyaukse University from June to November, 2015. In total 400 students who are aged between 16-23 years were randomly selected and interviewed with pretested structured questionnaires. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of Social Network Addiction (SNA) and the prevalence of anxiety. Furthermore, this study also found out SNA related to anxiety among students. Among the students, 110 students (27.5%) addicted to SN and 146 students (36.5%) suffered from anxiety. There is significant association between SNA and anxiety. Among the social network addicted users, 59.1% suffer from anxiety (χ²=33.408, p<0.001). Most of the students who used SN addicted to SN. The students addicted to SN, duration of SN more than 3 years, SN using hours more than 4 hours per day, using Facebook and Google suffer from anxiety. According to the findings in this study, there is a positive association between SNA and anxiety. So parents, teachers and other authorities should be aware and involved in checking and controlling the internet use of the students. In addition, the similar researches should be encouraged in different population and different age groups to explore other side effects of SNA.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.7(1) 2017: 23-28

Background There was an estimated 440,000 people living with HIV in Thailand in 2018. New cases are declining rapidly thanks to successful prevention programs and scaling up of anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Thailand aims to achieve its commitment to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 and implemented a cascade of HIV interventions through the Reach-Recruit-Test-Treat-Retain (RRTTR) program. Methods This study focused on community outreach HIV interventions implemented by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) under the RRTTR program in 27 provinces. We calculated unit cost per person reached for HIV interventions targeted at key-affected populations (KAPs) including men who have sex with men/ transgender (MSM/TG), male sex workers (MSW), female sex workers (FSW), people who inject drugs (PWID) and migrants (MW). We studied program key outputs, costs, and unit costs in variations across different HIV interventions and geographic locations in Thailand. We used these estimates to determine costs of HIV interventions and evaluate economies of scale. Results The interventions for migrants in Samut Sakhon was the least costly with a unit cost of 21.6 USD per person to receive services, followed by interventions for migrants in Samut Prakan 23.2 USD per person reached, MSM/TG in Pratum Thani 26.5USD per person reached, MSM/TG in Nonthaburi 26.6 USD per person reached and, MSM/TG in Chon Buri with 26.7 USD per person. The interventions yielded higher efficiency in large metropolitan and surrounding provinces. Harm reduction programs were the costliest compare with other interventions. There was association between unit cost and scale of among interventions indicating the presence of economies scale. Implementing HIV and TB interventions jointly increased efficiency for both cases. Conclusion This study suggested that unit cost of community outreach HIV and TB interventions led by CSOs will decrease as they are scaled up. Further studies are suggested to follow up with these ongoing interventions for identifying potential contextual factors to improve efficiency of HIV prevention services in Thailand.