Factors affecting decision making of low-income young women with unplanned pregnancies in Bangkok, Thailand.

Unplanned pregnancy is one of the most difficult life experiences for young women. Women are often confused and seek help and support. When the problem occurs, a woman has three choices: parenting the baby, planning for adoption, or terminating the pregnancy. Choosing one of these three options is often difficult. This study aimed to identify the factors (variables) influencing women's decision making when choosing the options available to them. The study was conducted in five shelters and low-income communities in the Bangkok area. Data were collected for five months, November 2003 to March 2004. Young women, age 13-24, who experienced an unplanned pregnancy at least once, or currently experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, were recruited into the study. One hundred and twenty volunteer cases were recruited. Discriminant analysis was used to determine the factors that affecting the choices of young women with unplanned pregnancies. There were 6 potential influencing variables, in three broad categories of factors that influenced their choices. In this study, the influencing factors from the personal history variables were, age of the most recent unplanned pregnancy. The individual psychosocial variables were: attitude towards unplanned pregnancy, attitude towards contraception, and making a decision without consultation. The relationship variables were: relationship with partner, and consulting partner when having a problem. The results from discriminant analysis yielded 68.3% predictive accuracy. This result was satisfactory compared with a 33% chance of accuracy (classified as chance alone would yield a 33% accuracy). Knowing the influencing factors for the choices of young women with unplanned pregnancies allows us to understand the women's decisions and their utilization of services with some degree of confidence. The program managers or implementers should do as much as possible to support the decision making process in these young women in order to provide better information and services to reduce the impact, both physical and mental, of the selected choice.

Heterogeneity of daily pulmonary function in response to air pollution among asthmatic children.

Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated the association of short-term exposure to air pollution with transient declines in pulmonary function. Although the magnitudes of declines in pulmonary function found in these studies are relatively small, the effects vary among children. This study examined whether the variation is evidence of biological heterogeneity or due to random variation by analyzing data from a panel study of 83 asthmatic school children exposed to SO2 and PM10 in the Mae Moh district of Thailand. Daily pulmonary function testing was performed on the children for 61 days. General linear mixed models were used to examine and test for the null hypothesis of no variation in the subject-specific slopes of pulmonary functions in response to the air pollutants. The individual daily pulmonary functions measured were FVC, FEV1, PEFR, and FEF(25-75%). These were used as an outcome to compare with air pollutant concentrations as random effects, adjusting for height, gender, time, and temperature. The results indicate evidence of inter-individual variation for subject-specific changes in FVC, FEV1, and PEFR due to the effects of SO2 and PM10 on children. In conclusion, even at low concentrations of daily SO2 and PM10 in the study area, there is evidence of a heterogeneous response to short-term exposure to SO2 and PM10 in children.

Acute effects of SO2 and particles from a power plant on respiratory symptoms of children, Thailand.

Epidemiological studies to evaluate the acute effects of ambient SO2 on the respiratory health of children provide inconclusive results. A panel study to examine the association of short-term exposure to ambient SO2 and respiratory symptoms of 196 children for a period of 107 days was conducted in Thailand. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to examine the association of daily variation of air pollution with daily respiratory symptoms. During the study period, SO2 was not associated with respiratory symptoms in either asthmatics or non-asthmatics, whereas a 10 microg/m3 increase in PM10 was modestly associated with increases of lower respiratory symptom incidence (OR=1.03, 95%CI=0.98, 1.09) and cough (OR=1.04, 95% CI=1.00, 1.08) in asthmatics. At the low ambient air pollution concentrations observed, particulate matter rather than SO2 was associated on a microg/m3 basis with acute daily respiratory symptoms.