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The present study aimed to assess the association between sedentary behavior and sarcopenia among adults aged &ge, 65 years. Cross-sectional data from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health were analyzed. Sarcopenia was defined as having low skeletal muscle mass and either a slow gait speed or a weak handgrip strength. Self-reported sedentary behavior was assessed as a continuous variable (hours per day) and also as a categorical variable (0&ndash, &lt, 4, 4&ndash, 8, 8&ndash, 11, &ge, 11 hours/day). Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to assess the association between sedentary behavior and sarcopenia. Analyses using the overall sample and country-wise samples were conducted. A total of 14,585 participants aged &ge, 65 years were included in the analysis. Their mean age was 72.6 (standard deviation, 11.5) years and 55% were females. Compared to sedentary behavior of 0&ndash, 4 hours/day, &ge, 11hours/day was significantly associated with 2.14 (95% CI = 1.06&ndash, 4.33) times higher odds for sarcopenia. The country-wise analysis showed that overall, a one-hour increase in sedentary behavior per day was associated with 1.06 (95% CI = 1.04&ndash, 1.10) times higher odds for sarcopenia, while the level of between-country heterogeneity was low (I2 = 12.9%). Public health and healthcare practitioners may wish to target reductions in sedentary behavior to aid in the prevention of sarcopenia in older adults.

International audience; We offer a flexible latent type approach to rank populations according to unequal health opportunities. Building upon the latent-class method, an approch increasingly adopted to estimate health inequalities, our contribution is to let the number of socioeconomic groups considered vary to obtain an opportunity-inequality curve for a population that gives how the between-type inequality varies with the number of types. A population A is said to have less inequality of opportunity than population B if its curve is statistically below that of population B. This version of the latent class approach allows for a robust ranking of 31 European countries regarding inequality of opportunity in health.

Background Deforestation and land use change is widespread in Madagascar, altering local ecosystems and creating opportunities for disease vectors, such as the Anopheles mosquito, to proliferate and more easily reach vulnerable, rural populations. Knowledge of risk factors associated with malaria infections is growing globally, but these associations remain understudied across Madagascar’s diverse ecosystems experiencing rapid environmental change. This study aims to uncover socioeconomic, demographic, and ecological risk factors for malaria infection across regions through analysis of a large, cross-sectional dataset. Methods The objectives were to assess (1) the ecological correlates of malaria vector breeding through larval surveys, and (2) the socioeconomic, demographic, and ecological risk factors for malaria infection in four ecologically distinct regions of rural Madagascar. Risk factors were determined using multilevel models for the four regions included in the study. Results The presence of aquatic agriculture (both within and surrounding communities) is the strongest predictive factor of habitats containing Anopheles larvae across all regions. Ecological and socioeconomic risk factors for malaria infection vary dramatically across study regions and range in their complexity. Conclusions Risk factors for malaria transmission differ dramatically across regions of Madagascar. These results may help stratifying current malaria control efforts in Madagascar beyond the scope of existing interventions.

Background : Alcohol is a risk factor for the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among young people globally. Youth drinking, initiated in early adolescence and continued into early adulthood, is influenced by maternal socio-demographic factors and maternal education. Limited prospective data exists in South Africa on the prevalence of alcohol use during adolescence and adolescent and maternal socio-demographic correlates. Objective : To examine the prevalence of lifetime alcohol use during early (13 years) and late (18 years) adolescence in Soweto, South Africa, and its association with child and maternal socio-demographic factors. Methods : Data on alcohol use in early adolescence (age 13 years) and late adolescence (age 18 years) were collected using self-completed pen and paper and self-completed computer-based questionnaires, respectively. Univariate analyses were conducted on child (gender and number of school years repeated by grade 7), maternal socio-demographic correlates (education, marital status, and age), and household socioeconomic status (SES). Bivariate logistic regression analyses examined associations between alcohol use and all child and maternal socio-demographic factors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted on all the variables found to be significantly (p< 0.10) associated with alcohol use to examine the predictive value on alcohol use at early and late adolescence. Results : Lifetime alcohol use increased from 22% at early adolescence to 66% at late adolescence. In multivariate analyses, gender, maternal education, and SES predicted lifetime alcohol use at early adolescence, while gender, maternal education, marital status, and SES were predictive of the same at late adolescence. Conclusion : This study aids researchers and practitioners to identify maternal and child socio-demographic risk profiles for alcohol use to inform policies and programmes. Keywords : adolescent alcohol use; alcohol prevalence; maternal correlates; socio-economic status (Published: 24 January 2013) Citation: Glob Health Action 2013, 6 : 19274 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v6i0.19274

Background: Knowledge of the aggregate effects of multiple socioeconomic vulnerabilities is important for shedding light on the determinants of growing health inequalities and inequities in maternal healthcare.Objective: This paper describes patterns of inequity in maternal healthcare utilization and analyzes associations between inequity and multiple socioeconomic vulnerabilities among women in Vietnam.Design: This is a repeated cross-sectional study using data from the Vietnam Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys 2000, 2006, and 2011. Two maternal healthcare indicators were selected: (1) skilled antenatal care and (2) skilled delivery care. Four types of socioeconomic vulnerabilities – low education, ethnic minority, poverty, and rural location – were assessed both as separate explanatory variables and as composite indicators (combinations of three and four vulnerabilities). Pairwise comparisons and adjusted odds ratios were used to assess socioeconomic inequities in maternal healthcare.Results: In all three surveys, there were increases across the survey years in both the proportions of women who received antenatal care by skilled staff (68.6% in 2000, 90.8% in 2006, and 93.7% in 2011) and the proportions of women who gave birth with assistance from skilled staff (69.9% in 2000, 87.7% in 2006, and 92.9% in 2011). The receipt of antenatal care by skilled staff and birth assistance from skilled health personnel were less common among vulnerable women, especially those with multiple vulnerabilities.Conclusions: Even though Vietnam has improved its coverage of maternal healthcare on average, policies should target maternal healthcare utilization among women with multiple socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Both multisectoral social policies and health policies are needed to tackle multiple vulnerabilities more effectively by identifying those who are poor, less educated, live in rural areas, and belong to ethnic minority groups.Keywords: healthcare; skilled antenatal care; skilled delivery; multiple socioeconomic vulnerabilities; inequity; inequality(Published: 29 February 2016)Citation: Glob Health Action 2016, 9: 29386 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.29386This paper is part of the Special Issue: Millennium Development Goals in Vietnam: the Progress and Social Determinants. More papers from this issue can be found at www.globalhealthaction.net