Prevalence trend of youth smoking in 29 Townships of Bago, Magwe and Mandalay Divisions, September 1999

In 1999 September a cross-sectional analytic study was conducted in 29 townships of Mandalay. Magwe and Bago divisions of Myanmar. Randomly selected 2074 urban and 1781 rural 15-24 year old youths from 4808 households were interviewed. 5.6 per cent of females and 67.6 per cent of male youths reported as current smokers. At age 14, 37 per cent of the boys smoked. At age 17, more than half of males smoked, and, at age 22 and older, nearly 80 per cent of them were already smoking. Girls started smoking later than boys. Only 1 per cent of 15-year-old girls smoked. When the females reached age 22-24, approximately 10 per cent of them smoked. Comparing different youth cohorts, the younger started smoking earlier than the older youths. Median age of starting tobacco smoking for the 16 year old males was 16; that was approximately 3 years earlier than the median age of smoking for the 24 years old males.

Role of amniotic fluid index assessment in postdate pregnancy

The objective was to determine the significance of amniotic fluid volume with regard to pegnancy outcome in postdate pregnancy with the amniotic fluid index (AFI) assessment and to define the optimal cut-off level where adverse pregnancy outcome can occur. Ninety-eight pregnant women under 35 years of age with over 40 weeks' completed gestational age and no other complications admitted to Central Women's Hospital during the study period of 6 months beginning in April 1994 were selected for AFI assessment by using real time linear array B-scan. Pregnancy outcomes were correlated with AFI in cases of delivery within 3 days of AFI assessment. analysis revealed an inverse relationship between AFI and incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome and the optimal cut-off point was AFI 8.0 cm with sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of 72.8 per cent, 71 per cent, 42 per cent and 90 per cent respectively for adverse fetal outcome. In conclusion, amniotic fluid volume assessment was an effective method in predicting adverse pregnancy outcome and AFI of 8.0 cm was shown statistically to be an appropriate cut-off level to identify the fetus at risk.