American Journal of Public Health Research

This work focuses on Bangladesh, a country where population is one of the major problem but fertility rates decline in the last few decades sharply. The progression from first to second birth is a crucial component in fertility change; for this reason, the study aims at analyzing the second-birth intensities of Bangladesh. Proportional hazards models have been applied to the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey from the view of mother’s employment status and household decision-making autonomy. The obtained results suggest, for few factors like mothers education level, employment status and mass media exposure status, the parity transition time varied between non-empowered, moderately empowered and highly empowered mothers while determinants of birth interval suggest, employment status is a significant differential for timing of second parity.

American Journal of Public Health Research. 2013, 1(6), 140-145. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-1-6-3
Pub. Date: June 22, 2013

Full-Text PDF

17123 Views5521 Downloads36 Likes

Self Breast Examination: A Tool for Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

by Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava and Jegadeesh Ramasamy

Review Article

Breast cancer is a global health concern and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women. It has been identified as a major public health problem in both developed and developing nations because of its high incidence-prevalence, over-burdened health system and direct medical expenditure. Studies have shown that in most of the developing nations breast cancer is diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease when compared with developed nations and thus has a poor outcome and high fatality rate. This paper aims to check the effectiveness of breast self-examination in early detection of the breast cancer. In addition, it plans to consider all the factors which hampers with the uptake of the technique and what all could be planned to improve the current scenario. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was made using library sources including Pubmed, Medline and google scholar searches. Keywords used in the search include breast self-examination, barriers in breast self-examination and breast cancer. Breast self-examination (BSE) has been identified as the only realistic approach in early detection of breast cancer in developing nations. A wide knowledge-application gap has been observed across the globe between the knowledge and the actual practice of BSE. Multiple socio-demographic factors, myths, cultural beliefs, lack of accessibility to the health care services have been identified as the reasons for the poor uptake of BSE. Considering the potential of BSE, there is an immense need for a public health education program to inculcate the practice of breast self-examination among women to minimize the fear, denial, myths and misconceptions. This requires a sustained political commitment and further studies to recognize the perceived barriers which are interfering with the uptake of BSE so that the greatest challenge of late presentation can be curbed and the chances of survival improved.

American Journal of Public Health Research. 2013, 1(6), 135-139. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-1-6-2
Pub. Date: June 29, 2013

Full-Text PDF

35240 Views8734 Downloads35 Likes5 Citations

Donor Support for Community Health Financing: Options and Opportunities for Sub-Saharan African Communities

by Ejughemre Ufuoma John

Review Article

International developmental support in sub-Saharan Africa has been quite remarkable in helping to address a number of challenges bedevilling healthcare delivery in the region. However, these humanitarian actions have just being a part of the developmental picture, as there is the need for more robust activities by these actors to support local policies particularly in the area of community health financing. As it were, this will involve building and supporting workable and sustainable ‘pre-payment’ schemes, supporting national governments to obtain the necessary information through more robust methods in data collection and in local research on health care financing in order to provide accurate information to inform policy on both the costs and benefits of alternatives of community health financing. Furthermore, as these now come to bear, donor support for community health financing will not only improve on access to health care delivery amongst the poorest of the poor in sub-Saharan Africa but will create a platform for these donor recipient countries to be self-sufficient and self reliant, and should these agencies cease to continue or run out of funding the consequences for the region will not be dire.

American Journal of Public Health Research. 2013, 1(6), 129-134. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-1-6-1
Pub. Date: June 22, 2013

Full-Text PDF

15707 Views5244 Downloads33 Likes