Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards avian influenza A (H5N1) among Cambodian women: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE@#To measure highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) among Cambodian women.@*METHODS@#This cross-sectional study selected 246 married women aged between 18-55 years who had backyard poultry and lived at least one year in the areas of the survey through multi-stage cluster sampling. An average score of correct answers was generated to evaluate respondents' knowledge (Good/Poor), attitudes (Positive/Negative), and practices (Good/Bad).@*RESULTS@#We reported that about half of the respondents had good knowledge and good practices and four-fifth of them had positive attitudes towards HPAI. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated through a logistic regression model to explore contributing factors that raise their KAP levels. Most of the sources were significant in increasing knowledge of the respondent, like television (OR=1.6, 95%CI=1.0-2.7), radio (OR=2.5, 95%CI=1.3-4.9), leaflets/booklets (OR=2.1, 95%CI=1.2-3.9), school students (OR=18.4, 95%CI=2.4-142.9), village health volunteers (OR=4.5, 95%CI=2.2-10.9) etc. Factors such as television (OR=3.7, 95%CI=2.1-6.4), leaflets/booklets (OR=2.6, 95%CI=1.4-5.1), and public health staff (OR=2.2, 95%CI=1.2-4.1) had similar influence on practices. Although, we found similar effect on raising the attitudes of the responded, it was not significant.@*CONCLUSIONS@#We report a satisfactory level of positive attitudes, and moderate level of knowledge and practices related to HPAI among Cambodian women. Raising KAPs through television, radio and other medias may be more efficient than using usual information, education and communication materials to prevent HPAI.

Biomedical Research Output in the Last Decade: Japanese Perspectives / General Medicine

OBJECTIVE: To examine Japan's overall biomedical research productivity and its trend in the last decade.<BR>METHODS: Articles published during 1991-2000 were accessed through Medline database. The number of articles having affiliation with a Japanese institution was elicited using standard search strategy.<BR>RESULTS: In total 3.8 million articles were published during 1991-2000 while 330, 513 articles (8.7% of total) were originated from Japan. With language limited to English, there were 3.3 million articles in total and 252, 635 (7.6% of total) from Japan. Yearly numbers of articles significantly increased as a whole and also for Japan. The number of English-language articles from Japan increased by 63% during 2000 compared to 1991 while it was 34% on average for all other countries. On the other hand, the number of Japanese-language articles was 77, 878 with a 16.5% decrease in the same time.<BR>CONCLUSION: The number of English-language articles originating from Japan has been increasing at a pace higher than that for all other countries together.