Low birthweight in Thailand: 1982.

Birthweight is sensitive index of social and economic change. The objectives of this study are to establish baseline birthweight, per cent of low birthweight and to determine maternal characteristics on LBW among Thai mothers. The study was based on data from birth records which was collected in 1982. The total number of samples used was 28,952. The lowest mean birthweight occurred in the North and Northeastern regions. These two regions had a mean birthweight of less than 3,000 g. The incidence of LBW was highest in the North at 12.8 per cent. The per cent of birthweight showed the highest with maternal age less than 20 years or parity equal to zero. Unskilled workers showed the highest per cent of LBW in the Northeast, North and the East and housewives in the West and South and farmers in the North.

An evaluative instrument based on patient's perception of health for the monitoring of primary medical care in rural areas in Thailand.

The evaluative instrument for the monitoring of primary medical care services in rural areas in Thailand, consisting of health risk, sickness-related dysfunction, health-specific coping index and health care of the patient's family, was developed and tested by 2,394 patients in the 4 regions. The patients had high health risk (70.8 +/- 14.0), high health-specific coping index (71.3 +/- 16.4), high health care of patient's family (76.1 +/- 10.0), and very low sickness-related dysfunction (13.4 +/- 15.6). The average time used for assessing the patients' perception of health was 37.9 minutes by sanitarians, 32.9 midwives, 29.9 by nurses and 24.8 by medical doctors. The reliability of the instrument was tested by paired interviewers; sanitarians and midwives, medical doctors and nurses, and was highly reliable for health risk and health-specific coping index. Language was the major obstacle in interviewing in the South.