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Author(s): Towfiqua Mahfuza Islam[sup.1] , Md. Ismail Tareque[sup.2] , Makiko Sugawa[sup.1] , Kazuo Kawahara[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Health Care Management and Planning, Graduate School of Medical and Dental [...], This study uses the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey-2007 to identify factors associated with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) for currently married Bangladeshi women. Twenty five percent of women reported experiencing at least one form of IPV. The most prevalent form of IPV is slapping; and, according to respondents, the main reason given for IPV is without any reason. However, results show that women who think their husbands are justified in beating them, and who witnessed their fathers hit or beat their mothers, are more likely to experience IPV. Results revealed that such women are, respectively, 1.21 and 2.37 times more likely to experience violence than their counterparts. Therefore, these two important factors need urgent attention to reduce IPV against women in Bangladesh.

The number of elderly people aged 65 and over is increasing in Japan. Elderly, terminal patients in acute care hospitals receive aggressive therapy treatments, leading to higher national medical costs; however, reports indicate that patient discussions regarding end-of-life medical care can reduce unnecessary aggressive therapies. This study investigated whether the presence of home-based medical care impacted the use of aggressive therapies in terminal, elderly patients who had died of pneumonia during hospitalization. Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) patient data were obtained for the period April 2014 to March 2017. We conducted a multicenter, cohort study of inpatients aged 65 years or older who were hospitalized for pneumonia and subsequently died. We analyzed the relationship between pre-hospitalization, home-based medical care, and aggressive therapies during the terminal stages of pneumonia using the chi-square test, t-tests, and logistic regression analyses. Data extracted included 13,582 cases of patients with pneumonia over the age of 65 years. The mean patient age was 83.1 (±7.02) years, 64.7% were male, 47.8% underwent ambulance transport, and 17.2% had home-based medical care. Aggressive therapy was administered in 33.3% of the cases. Effects of the independent variables on incidence of aggressive therapy were observed in 2,332 cases (17.2%; OR: 0.879; 95% CI: 0.791-0.977). Odds ratios were higher for patients undergoing ambulance transport, a higher Barthel index, and a higher A-DROP. We found that incidences of aggressive therapy during terminal stages of pneumonia were significantly lower for elderly patients who received home-based medical care prior to hospitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing is going to be a major problem in Bangladesh given its population size, scarce resources, existing poverty, insufficient health facilities and lack of a social security system. This paper examines how many years older people expect to be in good health, and what are the correlates of self-rated health (SRH). The data used in this study come from 896 older people aged 60 years and above from Rajshahi district in Bangladesh and from United Nations’ projected population figures. Results show that individuals at age 60 expected about 41 per cent of their remaining life to be in good health, while individuals at age 80 expected only 21 per cent of their remaining life to be in good health. Having exercised during the six months prior to the survey was the single most important correlate of SRH (odds ratio=5.49; confidence interval 4.03–7.47; without any adjustment). While rural–urban differentials and some health decline in old age are inevitable, four factors (exercise behaviour, sufficiency of income, physical limitations and facing abusive behaviour) are to a certain extent modifiable and therefore provide the potential for improving SRH and healthy life expectancy in Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lower quality of life and more work-loss days for the workforce are barriers for economic development in Bangladesh. Using nationally representative data—the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys for the 2004–2007 period, we examined the prevalence of diseases (asthma, diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, jaundice/hepatitis, malaria/fever, tuberculosis, and other) that prevented ever-married male workers from doing their regular activities in Bangladesh, and we examined changes in partial work-loss free life expectancy (WLFLE). The study found improvements in the mean number of work-loss days as well as in WLFLE; male workers at age 30 in 2007 expected 212 days more WLFLE than male workers of the same age in 2004. Other diseases prevented 17.8 per cent of male workers in 2004 and 9.1 per cent of male workers in 2007 from doing their normal work. Malaria/fever prevented 14.4 per cent and 11.5 per cent of male workers in 2004 and 2007, respectively, from doing their normal work. In both years, of all the diseases, the other diseases category and malaria/fever were found to be the major causes preventing Bangladeshi male workers from doing their normal work. This study recommends taking action against malaria/fever so that people can continue working without health problems or illness, and it recommends identifying other diseases which cause work-loss days. It suggests collecting data for both the males and females in a consistent manner by keeping the same questions with the same wording, order, and age groups consistent over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to address regional inequality in healthcare delivery in Japan, healthcare districts were established in 1985. However, regional healthcare delivery has now become a national issue because of population migration and the aging population. In this study, the state of healthcare delivery at the district level is examined by analyzing population, the number of physicians, and the number of hospital beds. The results indicate a continuing disparity in healthcare delivery among districts. We find that the rate of change in population has a strong positive correlation with that in the number of physicians and a weak positive correlation with that in the number of hospital beds. In addition, principal component analysis is performed on three variables: the rate of change in population, the number of physicians per capita, and the number of hospital beds per capita. This analysis suggests that the two principal components contribute 90.1% of the information. The first principal component is thought to show the effect of the regulations on hospital beds. The second principal component is thought to show the capacity to recruit physicians. This study indicates that an adjustment to the regulations on hospital beds as well as physician allocation by public funds may be key to resolving the impending issue of regionally disproportionate healthcare delivery.

Nucleic acid amplification test (NAT), which was introduced by the Japanese Red Cross Society in October 1999, began to be performed for screening of blood transfusion formulations in Japan in August 2014. In this study, the precision of immunological screenings of hepatitis B (HBsAg, HBcAb, and HBsAb), hepatitis C (HCVAb), and human immunodeficiency (HIVAb) virus antigens in donated blood were evaluated. In addition, the sensitivity of the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) test for detection of the hepatitis B and C viruses was re-evaluated. Immunological screenings showed high precision of detecting the viral antigens. In contrast, the ALT test showed much lower precision of detecting the presence of the hepatitis B and C viruses. Results of the NAT and immunological screenings revealed that ALT levels in donors were more strongly correlated with their levels of gammaglutamyltranspeptidase (γGTP) and body mass index (BMI), than with the results of NAT and immunological screening. Our study indicates that elevated level(s) of ALT, were more likely to be associated with lifestyles factors such as high intake of alcohol or obesity than with infection. Therefore, ALT may be excluded as surrogate markers of HBV, HCV, and HIV in donated blood.