Tobacco Control Law awareness, enforcement, and compliance among high school students in Myanmar.

In Myanmar, the Control of Smoking and Consumption of Tobacco Products Law (Tobacco Control Law; TCL), which covers the prohibition of sale of tobacco to minors and all forms of tobacco advertisement, was enacted in 2006. This study aimed to examine the awareness of the TCL among high school students. A cross-sectional study was conducted in November 2015. Participants were 1,339 high school students (554 boys and 785 girls) from two regions and two states of Myanmar. Data were collected using anonymous self-administered questionnaires and revealed that 78.0% of boys and 86.5% of girls responded the sale of tobacco products in or within 100 feet from school, and 83.4% of boys had ever seen someone selling tobacco products to minors. More than half of the students had ever seen minors selling or distributing tobacco products, and had knowledge about the TCL, while only 9.7% knew about the penalties. The adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of awareness of the TCL was 2.12 (1.35-3.31) for students who had ever received tobacco products free of charge, or seen/heard about their distribution free of charge, 1.86 (1.20-2.89) for current smokeless tobacco users, and 0.58 (0.43-0.77) for students who had ever seen someone selling tobacco products to minors. The majority of high school students did not know that the violation of the TCL could be punished with a fine and/or imprisonment. These findings suggest that awareness of the TCL was very low among high school students, highlighting that TCL enforcement and compliance, and tobacco-related health education programs are not satisfactory in Myanmar.

Medical facility statistics in Japan.

Medical facility statistics provide essential information to policymakers, administrators, academics, and practitioners in the field of health services. In Japan, the Health Statistics Office of the Director-General for Statistics and Information Policy at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is generating these statistics. Although the statistics are widely available in both Japanese and English, the methodology described in the technical reports are primarily in Japanese, and are not fully described in English. This article aimed to describe these processes for readers in the English-speaking world. The Health Statistics Office routinely conduct two surveys called the Hospital Report and the Survey of Medical Institutions. The subjects of the former are all the hospitals and clinics with long-term care beds in Japan. It comprises a Patient Questionnaire focusing on the numbers of inpatients, admissions, discharges, and outpatients in one month, and an Employee Questionnaire, which asks about the number of employees as of October 1. The Survey of Medical Institutions consists of the Dynamic Survey, which focuses on the opening and closing of facilities every month, and the Static Survey, which focuses on staff, facilities, and services as of October 1, as well as the number of inpatients as of September 30 and the total number of outpatients during September. All hospitals, clinics, and dental clinics are requested to submit the Static Survey questionnaire every three years. These surveys are useful tools for collecting essential information, as well as providing occasions to implicitly inform facilities of the movements of government policy.

Healthcare in Myanmar.

Myanmar transitioned to a civilian government in March, 2011. Although the democratic process has accelerated since then, many problems in the field of healthcare still exist. Since there is a limited overview on the healthcare in Myanmar, this article briefly describes the current states surrounding health services in Myanmar. According to the Census 2014, the population in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar was 51,410,000. The crude birth rate in the previous one year was estimated to be 18.9 per 1,000, giving the annual population growth rate of 0.89% between 2003 and 2014. The Ministry of Health reorganized into six departments. National non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations support healthcare, as well as international non-governmental organizations. Since hospital statistics by the government cover only public facilities, the information on private facilities is limited. Although there were not enough medical doctors (61 per 100,000 population), the number of medical students was reduced from 2,400 to 1,200 in 2012 to ensure the quality of medical education. The information on causes of death in the general population could not be retrieved, but some data was available from hospital statistics. Although the improvement was marked, the figures did not reach the levels set by Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. A trial prepaid health insurance system started in July 2015, to be followed by evaluation one year later. There are many international donors, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency, supporting health in Myanmar. With these efforts and support, a marked progress is expected in the field of healthcare.