Primary Health Care Implementation in Asia: A systematic review

Background@#Primary health care (PHC) is a central feature of the UHC. Across Asia, health system planners seeking to strengthen PHC systems may be hindered by several factors, including lack of knowledge of what works in the setting. Pressures placed on health care systems of Asian nations caused by epidemiological changes, including COVID-19 pandemic, and other health issues, are amplified by the demands of population seeking for high-quality care.@*Objective@#To determine the implementation of primary health care across the Asian region @*Methods@#This review utilized 9 online databases, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review Guidelines. Inclusion criteria were studies evaluating the policy implementation of PHC in Asia, published from 2002-2022, accessible online in full-text, English or translation, published in peer-reviewed journals. Three reviewers independently evaluated the abstracts, extracted the data, and assessed the quality of the included studies based on the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. Descriptive synthesis was undertaken to summarize and report the study findings. @*Results@#Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria out of 815 search results. Four indicators were included: governance, financing, health workforce, and medicines and other health products showed both positive and negative results. However, recurring challenges are still prevalent in the implementation of PHC, especially in health service delivery. Enabling factors for effective implementation of PHC were community behavioral change, committed political will, increased health coverage and free access, health workforce performance and evaluation among others. Barriers included were economic shocks, corruption, preventive health inequalities and inequities, resource misallocation, and health insurance status among others. @*Conclusion@#Much has already been done in PHC implementation within Asia. However, greater efforts are still needed to implement PHC efficiently in the areas of governance, financing, health workforce, and medicines and other health products. Enablers should be modeled, while barriers should be overcome.

Knowledge, beliefs, and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 among the Seventh Day Adventists in Southeast Asia Region

Objective@#The vaccine rollout in the Asian region was slower than in other countries. Factors such as lack of knowledge and skepticism towards the vaccine were noted. On the other hand, the influence of religious leaders on the congregation was enormous, including their intention to vaccinate. Guided by the Health Belief Model theory, this study aimed to explore the knowledge, belief and perceived susceptibility and severity of COVID, the perceived benefits and barriers of the vaccines, and the intention to vaccinate among the Seventh Day Adventists in Asia.@*Methods@#This was a descriptive study with respondents chosen through a multi-stage sampling method within the Asian region. A validated self-survey questionnaire, piloted among 40 respondents, was used using the Google online form. Data gathering was conducted for one month, from May until June 2021.@*Results@#Out of 400 questionnaires distributed, 396 responded with a return rate of 0.99%. The majority were aged 18–29 years (43.2%), men (61.4%), married (50.2%), completed a bachelors' degree (49.5%), currently working (65.4%), and have been a member of the church for 20 years (30.8%). The majority had excellent knowledge regarding the vaccine (mean 4.72, ± 1.33); despite having low belief in the vaccine (mean 2.18, ± 0.43), low perception of their susceptibility to acquiring COVID (mean 2.43, ± 0.34), low perception on the seriousness of COVID (mean 2.30, ±0.40), low perception on vaccine benefits (mean 2.27, ± 0.45), and perceived low barrier on being vaccinated (mean 2.27, ±.45). Most of them intend to vaccinate (67.3%). @*Conclusion@#The findings of this study suggest that the majority of Adventists intend to vaccinate. However, there is a need for health education to enhance their belief in the vaccine and change their negative perception about their susceptibility and severity of COVID.

Outcomes of the Prince of Songkla University Model to Building Nursing Research Capacity for Thai Nurses to the Asian Region : Participatory Action Research

Building research capacity in nursing services has been recognized internationally as important in order to produce a sound evidence for decision–making in policy. Prince of Songkla University has adopted the direction of development which is consistent with its vision of being a leading university in the Asian region with the obligations of producing research. The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcomes (the number of research reports and nurses' satisfaction) of building nursing research capacity with the Prince of Songkla University Model. This participatory action research was a part of study on the outcomes of building nursing research capacity with the Prince of Songkla University Model. One hundred participants (n = 100) were recruited on a voluntary basis during the years 2004–2009. Six participatory development steps were carried out. Data were collected through recording research report presentations, a questionnaire, and satisfaction interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. It was found that 61% (n = 61) of the Thai nurses were able to present their research reports at international conferences in three countries, namely the Republic of Korea (three times, or 50.82%), Japan (44.26%) and Indonesia (4.92%). The majority of the presentations (72.13%) were in the form of poster presentations; most of the research designs (45.90%) were descriptive studies, followed by quasi-experimental research (27.87%); and most of the research topics (22.95%) were on adult nursing, followed by nursing administration and management (18.03%), and nursing education (16.38%). The participants' satisfaction was: 85% at a high level, and 15% at a moderate level. As academic and service partners move forward to design and implement changes to prepare the next generation of building nursing research capacity for the realities of a changing health care delivery, both process from PSU Model and outcomes evaluations must be incorporated in planning. The key point is that measurement is essential to determine the short –and long-term effectiveness and the efficiency of this model.