The purpose of this study was to examine the current utilization of healthcare services, exploring unmet healthcare needs and the associated factors among people living in rural Vietnam. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 233 participants in a rural area. The methods included face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire, and anthropometric and blood pressure measurements. We considered participants to have unmet health needs if they had any kind of health problem during the past 12 months for which they were unable to see a healthcare provider. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with unmet healthcare needs. Of the participants, 18% (n = 43) had unmet healthcare needs, for reasons like transportation (30%), a lack of available doctors or medicine (47%), and communication issues with healthcare providers (16%). The multivariate logistic regression showed that living in a rural area, having stage 2 hypertension, and having insurance were associated with unmet healthcare needs. To better meet the healthcare needs in rural or suburban areas of Vietnam, allocation of adequate healthcare resources should be distributed in rural areas and insurance coverage for personalized healthcare needs might be required. Efforts should focus on availability of medicine, improvement of transportation systems, and communication skills of healthcare providers to improve access to healthcare services.

Background: Although health status in Vietnam has been much improved, people living in rural areas have faced several challenges, including a rapid increase of the aging population, inadequate capacity of health system, and problems of inequities in access to the healthcare system. The purpose of this study was to examine the current utilization of healthcare services, exploring unmet healthcare needs and their associated factors among adults living in rural Vietnam.Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted with 233 participants in a rural area of Binh Phuoc province and a suburban area of Da Lat city in Vietnam from October–December 2017. The methods included face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire as well as anthropometric and blood pressure measurements. We considered participants to have unmet health needs if they had any kind of health problem during the past 12 months for which they were unable to see a healthcare provider in the same period. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with unmet healthcare needs.Results: Of the participants, 18% (n=43) had unmet healthcare needs. The common causes of unmet healthcare were transportation (30%), a lack of available doctors or medicines (47%), and communication issues with healthcare providers (16%). The multivariate logistic regression showed that having stage 2 high blood pressure and reporting no place to go for medical problems were associated with unmet healthcare needs.Conclusions: Healthcare services are still needed in disadvantaged group living in rural or suburban area of Vietnam. Efforts should focus on availability of medicines, improvement of transportation system as well as communication skills of healthcare providers to improve access to healthcare services.

Gelled electrolyte is made at different temperatures based on liquid glass and sulfuric acid using two organic additives such as polyacrylamide and polyaniline. The antimony lead electrode is used to study the electrochemical properties of gelled electrolyte through cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance and ionic conductivity determination. The results showed that the gelled electrolyte made at low temperature is in a more favorable form of gel than that at high temperature, the ability to extract water was also overcome. The resistance of charge transfer of lead electrodes operating in an gelled electrolyte environment is all lower than that in sulfuric acid (d = 1.26 g /cm 3 ), in which the presence of PANi together with PAM is recorded as the smallest. When the lead electrode was anodized, the simultaneous formation of PbO with PbSO4 did not appear due to the presence of PANi.

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Mixed gel electrolytes were fabricated chemically at a temperature range of 2–5°C using some additives comparing with traditional electrolytes (1.26 g/cm3 H2SO4). The polyacrylamide (PAM) content is kept constant (0.2 wt%), while the propylene glycol (PPG) and nano fumed silica (NFS) contents varied. The material characteristics of samples were assessed by physical appearance observation, electrochemical measurements, and physicochemical methods. The results showed that a hard gel without separation of solutions was found in the case using a PAM/PPG/NFS ternary additive (0.2/0.1/0.6 wt%). The morphological structure (<50 nm) of mixed gel electrolytes was in the range of nanometer. The gas release on the PbSb electrode was strongly inhibited (92.2–93.7% for O2 and ∼55% for H2 at the 120th cycle), which will both contributes to reducing the pressure as well as limiting water loss in the sealed lead acid battery, compared with that in the sulfuric acid medium.

The potentiostatic electrocoagulation (PEC) using iron (CT3 steel) for anode material was applied to removal of arsenic from well water. Some parameters such as potential, electrolysis time, and initial arsenic concentrations were varied for research in this article. The arsenic concentrations before and after PEC processing were analysed by AAS method. The mass of ferric hydroxide was calculated via Faraday's law. The results showed that the residual arsenic concentration in water samples from initial arsenic concentration until 800 ppb is smaller than that of WHO requirement (10 ppb). The adsorption of arsenic on ferric hydroxide fitted well into pseudo second-order kinetic equation, where its equilibrium adsorption capacity was linearly depended on the initial adsorption rate with R 2 of 0.9864. The Langmuir parameters N max and K L were 23.58 mg/g and 1060 L/mg with correlation constant (R 2 ) of 0.827, respectively.

Gelled electrolyte is prepared from liquid glass and sulfuric acid with various specific weights in the presence of both gelling agents such as polyacrylamide and polyaniline. The antimony lead electrode is polarized by potentiodynamic method in gelled electrolyte compared with sulfuric acid solution (1.26 g/cm 3 ). The results found that not only the overpotential of gas evolution but also the polarization resistance depends on sample preparation conditions. The concentration of PAM at 0.55 wt% contributed to the shift of overpotential of oxygen release in the more positive side but made decreasing the hydrogen escape overpotential compared with H2SO4 solution (1.26 g/cm 3 ). It showed that the presence of PANi together with PAM did not improve the overpotential of oxygen release, but significantly inhibited the hydrogen evolution, although polarization resistance was approximately or smaller than that in H2SO4 solution (1.26 g/cm 3 ).

The technology of electrocoagulation (TEC) at low constant potential using iron (CT3 steel) for anode material was applied to removal of arsenic from well water. The parameters such as potential, electrolysis time, and initial arsenic concentrations were considered in this study. The suitable electrolysis potential was 6 V at which the arsenic treatment efficiency obtained about 96 % after only one minute. The suitable electrolysis time of 3÷5 minutes was enough for obtaining WHO‐limit (≤ 10 ppb) depending on the initial arsenic concentration from 290 to 800 ppb, respectively. The result of SEM/EDX‐examination indicated that the arsenate was adsorbed on the surface of ferric hydroxide.