Different sociocultural barriers concerning women's health are still prevalent. Chhaupadi culture in Nepal is that threat wherein menstruating women have to live outside of the home in a shed-like dwelling. Our study aims to determine the factors of reproductive health problems related to Chhaupadi. A cross-sectional study was performed with women of menstrual age (N = 672) in Kailali and Bardiya districts of Nepal. Data were collected with stratified sampling and analyzed using SPSS. Reproductive health problems were observed according to the World Health Organization reproductive health protocol. Regression analysis was performed to show the association between relevant variables. Results reveal that one fifth (21%) of households used Chhaupadi. Condition of livelihood, water facility, and access during menstruation and precisely the Chhaupadi stay was associated (P < .001) with the reproductive health problems of women. The study concludes that Chhaupadi is a major threat for women's health. Further research on appropriate strategies against Chhaupadi and menstrual hygiene should be undertaken.
BackgroundFemale smoking is perceived very negatively in East Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China, as well as in Islamic countries. These countries’ self-reported surveys (SRs) tend to produce results that underestimate the number of smokers, owing to the social desirability response bias. The present study seeks to assess South Korea, Europe, and the Americas, by comparing data from SRs with those from urinary cotinine samples.MethodsCurrent smoking rates were calculated using the SRs and the urinary cotinine concentration (UCC) methods according to socioeconomic factors. In order to examine response accuracy regarding current smoking status in the SRs, participants who both completed the SRs and acquired UCC results were subject to analyses of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and difference ratio (DR) with respect to gender, age, region, economic level, household status, and the presence of chronic disease.ResultsBased on self-reports, the current smoking rate among women was 7.1% (official smoking rates), while that according to the UCC was 18.2%; the rates for men were 47.8% and 55.1%, respectively. The sensitivity of males was 0.8553, the specificity 0.9768, PPV 0.9783, NPV 0.8465, and the difference ratio (DR) was 1.143. The sensitivity for females was 0.3670, the specificity 0.9956, PPV 0.9486, NPV 0.8761, and the DR was 2.6. These results exhibit a very low response alignment rate compared to males.ConclusionThis study shows that the actual female smoking rate is significantly higher than that reported officially, but also that the gap is decreasing steadily. Females exhibited a higher rate of false responses, which resulted in an underestimation of the female smoking rate.
Background: There are substantial differences in long term health outcomes across countries, particularly in terms of both life expectancy at birth (LEAB) and healthy life expectancy (HALE). Socio-economic status, disease prevention approaches, life style and health financing systems all influence long-term health goals such as life expectancy. Within this context, universal health coverage (UHC) is expected to influence life expectancy as a comprehensive health policy. The aim of the study is to investigate this relationship between Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and life expectancy.Method: A multi-country cross-sectional study was performed drawing on different sources of data (World Health Organization, UNDP-Education and World Bank) from 193 UN member countries, applying administrative record linkage theory. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, Pearson correlations, hierarchical linear regressions were utilized as appropriate.Result: Global average healthy life years was shown to be 61.34 ± 8.40 and life expectancy at birth was 70.00 ± 9.3. Standardized coefficients from regression analysis found UHC (0.34), child vaccination (Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus−3: 0.17) and sanitation coverage (0.31) were associated with significantly increased life expectancy at birth. In contrast, population growth was associated with a decrease (0.29). Likewise, unit increases in child vaccination (DPT 3), sanitation and UHC would increase healthy life expectancy considerably (0.18, 0.31, and 0.40 respectively), whereas the same for population growth reduces healthy life expectancy by 0.28.Conclusion: Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a comprehensive health system approach that facilitates a wide range of health services and significantly improves the life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy. This study suggests that specific programs to achieve UHC should be considered for countries that have not seen sufficient gains in life expectancy as part of the wider push to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
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