Patient satisfaction with health care services at a national institute of ophthalmology.

Little is known about how patients in developing countries, such as Vietnam, are satisfied with eye care services. The purpose of this study was to assess the satisfaction with health services and its associated factors among patients attending a national institute of ophthalmology in Vietnam. In a cross-sectional study utilizing quantitative methods, 500 inpatients and their relatives attending a national institute of ophthalmology in Vietnam were approached for data collection. The results indicated that under 50% of the patients were satisfied with eye care services. However, when classified by level of satisfaction, only 6.8% were very satisfied with all domains of care. There was no significant difference in satisfaction by gender and income, while significant differences by department, residence, and education were found. Patients who were from rural areas, were better educated, and used the services of the glaucoma department, were more satisfied with eye care than those from urban areas, were less educated, and used the services of treatment-on-demand department. Multivariable regression detected 2 main factors, gender and location, associated with patient satisfaction. Patients who were female and came from rural and remote areas were more likely to be satisfied than patients who were male and living in urban areas. The study suggests that to continue to improve health care quality, it is important to eliminate differences in providing eye care services regardless of whether patients are male or female, and whether they come from a rural or urban area.

Evaluation of Opportunities to Improve Hematopathology Diagnosis for Vietnam Pathologists.

OBJECTIVES: We evaluate the need for, feasibility of, and impediments to improving hematopathology diagnoses for cancer hospitals in Vietnam. METHODS: Two hematopathologists from the United States visited three major cancer treatment hospitals in Vietnam to workshop a sampling of difficult hematopathology cases. With Vietnamese pathologists, they toured histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and ancillary laboratory facilities. RESULTS: Automated tissue processors and slide staining equipment were documented for each of the three hospitals. Between seven and 11 hematopathology cases were reviewed for each hospital. Exact/complete diagnostic concordance was 50% or less for all three laboratories. The major impediments to accurate specific diagnoses were limitations of immunohistochemical stains, limited stains available in house, and, for one of the hospitals, difficulty with interpretation of the immunohistochemistry. CONCLUSIONS: Vietnamese pathologists would benefit from hematopathology training or opportunities to consult with hematopathologists in the United States. Expert hematopathology consultation services are currently unavailable within Vietnam, as postgraduate training for laboratory physicians consists of residency training in anatomic pathology only. Limitations in the quality of histopathology and immunohistochemistry could impose a barrier to success of efforts to improve hematopathology diagnosis. Implementation of a histopathology and immunohistochemistry quality improvement program might overcome this limitation.

Cigarette Smoking among Adolescents aged 13-15 in Viet Nam and Correlates of Current Cigarette Smoking: Results from GYTS 2014 Data.

The aim of this paper is to report the rate of current and ever cigarette smoking and explore correlates of current cigarette smoking among adolescents aged 13-15 in Viet Nam. This analysis was derived from GYTS survey, which comprised of 3,430 adolescents aged 13-15, conducted in 2014 in 13 cities and provinces of Viet Nam. We calculated the weighted rates of current and ever cigarette smoking and reported patterns of smoking behavior. We also performed logistic regression to explore correlates of current cigarette smoking behavior. The weighted rate of ever cigarette smoking was 9.5% (95% confidence interval (CI): 8.5 %-10.5%), in which the weighted rate among males (15.4%; 95% CI: 13.6%-17.0%) was higher than that among females (4.2%; 95% CI: 3.3%-5.1%). The weighted rate of current cigarette smoking was relatively low at 2.5% (95%CI: 2.0%- 3.0%) with higher weighted rate among males (4.9%; 95% CI: 3.8%-5.9%) compared to the corresponding figure among females (0.2%; 95% CI: 0.0 %-0.5%). Current cigarette smoking was significantly higher among males than females, in students aged 15 versus 13 years old, and in students who had several or all close friends smoking and students with daily observation of smoking at school. For greater smoking reduction outcomes, we recommend that tobacco interventions for adolescents should consider targeting more male students at older ages, establish stricter adherence to school-based banning of cigarette smoking, engage both smoking and nonsmoking adolescents and empower adolescents to resist peer smoking influence as well as changing their norms or beliefs towards smoking benefits.