Male participation in birth spacing

A cross-sectional, descriptive, community-based survey using pre-tested pre-formed questionnaire was carried out on 100 randomly selected husbands of 1000 currently married women of age 15-49 years residing in rural area of Taikkyi Township where 24.2 percent of the married women were current users of contraceptives. Major portion (89 percent) had heard of contraception and 85 percent knew one or more method(s) of spacing birth. Only 1 percent knew what safe period meant although 75.3 percent claimed to have knowledge of the method. The majority desired three children per family. As regards attitudinal responses, 80 percent thought contraception should be the wife's responsibility, 72 percent thought it should be theirs, 23 percent thought contraception should begin at the start of married life, 71 percent preferred male method, 51 percent agreed that contraception should not be practiced, 48 percent disliked methods requiring medical examination and 78 percent thought contraception should be used during lactation. As for effect on health, 70 percent considered it good for the child. Contraception was negatively reviewed by some as to be against religion (22 percent), against culture (18 percent) and against nature (17 percent).

Prescribing practices on contraception among general practitioners and basic health services staff in Taikkyi Township

Sixty-eight health service providers including 14 Medical Doctors (7 Full-time General Practitioners (GPs) and 7 Government Medical Officers), 4 Health Assistants (HAs), 11 Public Health Supervisors (PHS I & II), 5 Lady Health Visitors (LHVs) and 34 Midwives (MWS) practising in Taikkyi Township, were interviewed using a self administered structured questionnaire, to assess their level of knowledge and prescribing practices for contraception. All of the service providers with the exception of some PHS have prescribed some form of contraception during their practice. Among the contraceptives stated to be most prescribed by them, oral contraceptives came first with 94 percent, followed by injections with 92 percent, rhythm method in 37 percent, intra-uterine device in 30 percent, female sterilization in 21 percent, and condoms were prescribed only by 16 percent of them. The real and perceived side effects experienced with various methods are also discussed. The findings suggest that health care providers need to be trained or given refresher courses on contraceptive technology and proper counselling and use of the available methods, appropriate choice of methods suitable for the individual, the real and perceived side effects from various methods and their management. Development of appropriate health education and counselling package for use in birth spacing programmes is also indicated.

Morbidity and mortality pattern of hospitalized elderly patients in YGH (1985-1987)

A record analysis of all elderly patients admitted to YGH during 1985 to 1987 was done to determine the morbidity pattern of hospitalized elderly patients, aged 55 years and above. There was an average admission rate of 7000 patients per year constituting approximately 18 percent of all admissions. The mean duration of stay in hospital for each hospitalized person was approximately 19 to 21 days. The most common morbidity condition for admission to hospital according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD) grouping is neoplasms in 18.9 percent of admissions, followed by diseases of the circulatory system in 18.7 percent and injuries or poisonings in 16.9 percent, digestive system diseases 12.8 percent, and other ill defined causes led to be 21.8 percent. The case fatality for hospitalized elderly is 12.8 percent for the three years. Implications of the study in planning for geriatric services are discussed.

Nutritional status and intestinal parasitosis in school-enrolled and non-enrolled school-age children in Yangon

In Myanmar, over 38 percent of children in the age-group 5-9 years were never enrolled in school in 1990. Also, there is a lack of information on the comparative prevalence of malnutrition and intestinal parasitosis among school-enrolled and non-enrolled school-age children in Myanmar. We, therefore, undertook a cross-sectional survey comprising 3325 school children from 13 primary schools and 164 non-enrolled school-age children from neighbouring quarters in Tharkayta and Mingaladon townships of Yangon during December 1993. Height and weight of the children were measured and a total of 944 stool samples, including 148 non-enrolled children, were examined for the presence of intestinal parasites. Expressing the nutritional status as standard deviation scores for weight-for-height, the prevalence of wasting among 5-10 years non-enrolled school-age children was 19.8 percent, while that for school children of similar age was 13.9 percent. In addition, non-enrolled school-age children had higher infection rates than school children regarding Ascaris Lumbricoides (66.9 percent vs 50.1 percent), Trichuris trichiura (38.5 percent vs 23.9 percent), and Giardia lamblia (5.4 percent vs 2.7 percent). The policy implication of this study is that health and nutritional status of non-enrolled school-age children needs to be promoted and this should be partly solved by the provision of regular and periodic mass chemotherapy against major intestinal parasitoses influencing nutritional status.

Population mobility and malaria contraction on either side if Bago Yoma in Bago Division

During August 1983 to February 1984, household surveys were carried out in four rural areas on either side of Bago Yoma in the Bago Division to describe the extent and patterns of population mobility by enquiring about their travelling history with night visits to the forestd foothill areas for the past one year. Those people residing close or very close to foothill travelled most (12 to 28 per cent) during the wet season while those residing some distance away spent their nights most (14 to 17) during the dry season. The closer the village to the foothill, the longer a forest traveller stayed in the forest, the range being 45-170 days per year in the foothill and 12-14 days per year in the plain villages. Of those forest travellers, there were a few percentage (5 to 20 per cent) of constant habitual traveller to the nearby forest. In addition, at least one member of 40 to 70 per cent of the households spent one night visit in the forest. The implications of the various migratory groups between the villages and the Bago Yoma were discussed in the context of malaria contraction, and control.