Drug use disorder (DUD) is a serious health condition that imposes a heavy burden on the persons who have a drug addiction experience and their families, especially in countries, such as Myanmar, where few formal support mechanisms are in place and repressive drug laws exacerbate the situation. Yet, in Myanmar, little is known about how informal caregivers are affected. This qualitative study aims at exploring the socioeconomic and psychological burden that informal caregivers in Myanmar encounter, coping strategies they employ, as well as barriers to coping they face. Thirty primary informal caregivers were chosen purposively from a mental health hospital in Yangon for in-depth interviews. The recorded interviews were transcribed and the data were analysed using framework analysis. The results revealed that financial constraint, income loss, social limitation and negative impact on family cohesion are important dimensions of socioeconomic burden, whereas sadness, anger, helplessness, worry, fear and guilt are the main psychological distress factors encountered by caregivers of persons with DUD. Key coping strategies employed by caregivers include religious coping, financial coping, acceptance and planning. Moreover, perceived stigma towards persons with DUD and their caregivers was very high and caregivers received hardly any social support, inter alia because of the country’s drug law which reinforces stigma and discrimination. Neither the government nor any other organization in Myanmar provided financial support to the caregivers. The results of this study showed that caring for persons with DUD has devastating effects on caregivers and their families. While the 2018 National Drug Control Policy can potentially help alleviate the burden on substance users and their families, further amendments of the existing drug law are urgently needed. Moreover, strengthening prevention and harm reduction approaches, improving treatment and rehabilitation services, as well as stigma-reducing educational campaigns should be considered a priority.
Background: The authors synthesised the findings of current and available policies on mental health in the South-East Asian region, primarily focusing and aiming at providing evidence and guidance for framing the mental health policy for Myanmar. Methodology: The research questions were framed using Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes and Study Design (PICOS) framework and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were used for study selection. A comprehensive literature search of different electronic databases such as Medline, Science Direct, SCOPUS, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews and Google Scholar was carried out in order to identify relevant studies. Results: The main findings indicate that very few countries in the South East Asian region currently have a National Policy on mental health, and those that do have encounter several barriers in rolling out these policies. Little importance and efforts have been made to address mental health disorders, making the burden even more difficult to address. Myanmar is considerably behind other countries in the South East Asian region and is in need for developing a national policy and guidelines targeting mental health disorders. Conclusions: In order to address the mental health burden in the country, increased advocacy and evidence-based policy recommendations for integrating mental health services into national health guidelines and policy plans is necessary. Keywords: Systematic review, South-east Asia Region, Mental health, Myanmar, national policy, evidence
Background: Myanmar has been facing a high and growing burden of NCDs. Since regular physical activity has been recognized as one of the effective strategies in prevention and control of NCDs, promotion of physically active lifestyle might help in combatting a number of NCDs. This study was conducted to assess the sociodemographic differentials of physical activity and to identify the association between the insufficient physical activity and occurrence of hypertension and diabetes using data extracted from Myanmar STEP-2014-data. Methods: This study was further data analysis on 2014 STEP survey and included (5791) 40-64-year-aged participants, a subsample of STEP survey. Binary logistic regression with clustered robust standard error method was applied to estimate the effect of insufficient physical activity on occurrence of hypertension and diabetes. Results: The findings revealed that 17.5% [95%CI: 16.5%, 18.5%] of participants had the insufficient physical activity, 41.9% [95%CI: 40.6%, 43.2%] had raised blood pressure and 16.9% [95%CI: 15.9%, 17.9%] had raised blood glucose. After adjusting other covariates, the significant association between insufficient physical activity and raised blood pressure was not found; whereas insufficient physical activity was significantly contributed to occurrence of raised blood glucose. Conclusions: The present study highlighted the importance of physical activity in occurrence of raised blood glucose. The proportions of insufficient physical activity, raised blood pressure and raised blood glucose were observed as a rising pattern with increasing in age. Community-based health promotion program targeted at promoting physically active lifestyle should be adapted to interventions that are appropriate to different age structures.
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