Studying Scripts of Women, Men and Suicide: Qualitative-Method Development and Findings from Nepal.

Information about suicidal behavior in Nepal is limited. According to official records, suicide rates were high until the year 2000 and declined thereafter. Official records are considered unreliable and a gross undercounting of suicide cases, particularly female cases. Suicide research in Nepal has been mostly epidemiologic and hospital-based. Little is known about how suicide is understood by Nepali people in general-including dominant suicide attitudes and beliefs in Nepal. Suicide attitudes and beliefs, which are elements of a culture's suicide scripts, predict actual suicidality. Drawing on suicide-script theory, we developed and used a semi-structured survey to explore Nepali beliefs about female and male suicide. The informants were adult (Mage = 28.4) university students (59% male). Female suicide was believed to be a response to the society-sanctioned oppression and abuse that women are subjected to, in their family and community. The prevention of female suicide was viewed as requiring dismantling ideologies, institutions, and customs (e.g., child marriage, dowry) that are oppressive to women, and ensuring that women are protected from violence and have equal social and economic rights and opportunities. Male suicide was believed to be a symptom of societal problems (e.g., unemployment) and of men's psychological problems (e.g., their difficulties in managing emotions). The prevention of male suicide was viewed as requiring both societal (e.g., employment opportunities) and individual remedies (e.g., psychological counseling). This study's findings suggest that a semi-structured survey can be a fruitful method to access the suicide scripts of cultures about which there is limited research.

Television advertising of food during children's programming in Nepal.

OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization has recommended that advertising of unhealthy food to children decrease in quantity (exposure) and efficacy (power). The degree to which marketing practices align with these recommendations varies across countries. The purpose of this study is to describe the television food marketing landscape that children experience in the South Asian country of Nepal. RESEARCH METHODS & PROCEDURES: Commercials from 57hours of television were recorded from three channels during hours that children's programming was played. In a content analysis of 1,203 food commercials, researchers coded commercials for nutrition content, product category and marketing appeal type. RESULTS: Principal findings of this study were that nearly 21% of airtime during children's programming was dedicated to commercials, and 55% of that was dedicated to foods. Over 70% of food commercials aired advertised foods with excessive amounts of saturated fat, sugar, and/or sodium; nearly half of the commercials (47.7%) featured products that contained excess sugar. The most prevalent food types shown were ice cream and popsicles (20.7%), energy/nutritional supplements (20.6%), and candy (14.7%). Additionally, the three most commonly occurring marketing appeals featured highly-efficacious strategies for persuading children-animated effects (83.2%), movie, cartoon, animated, or costumed characters (36.8%), and television/movie tie-ins (16.5%). CONCLUSION(S): Results from this study suggest that many television commercials shown in Nepal do not meet WHO recommendations for advertising foods to children. This is likely to negatively impact the diet and health of the next generation of Nepalis.