Search results for: prostate health

Authors: Fahad Shahbaz Khan, Fahad Maqbool, Saad Razzaq, Kashif Irfan, Tehseen Zia

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Expert systems are used extensively in many domains. This paper discusses the use of medical expert systems in Pakistan. Countries all over the world pay special attention on health facilities. A country like Pakistan faces a lot of trouble in health sector. Several attempts have been made in Pakistan to improve the health conditions of the people but the situation is still not encouraging. There is a shortage of doctors and other trained personnel in Pakistan. Expert systems can play a vital role in such cases where the medical expert is not readily available. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role that such systems can play in improving the health conditions of the people in Pakistan.

Keywords: Medical Diagnostics, Expert Systems, Pakistan.

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Authors: S. A. Nta

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Application of health risk assessment methods is important in order to comprehend the risk of human exposure to heavy metals and other dangerous pollutants. Four soil samples were collected at distances of 10, 20, 30 m and the control 100 m away from the dump site at depths of 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 m. The collected soil samples were examined for Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Ni using standard methods. The health risks via the main pathways of human exposure to heavy metal were detected using relevant standard equations. Hazard quotient was calculated to determine non-carcinogenic health risk for each individual heavy metal. Life time cancer risk was calculated to determine the cumulative life cancer rating for each exposure pathway. The estimated health risk values for adults and children were generally lower than the reference dose. The calculated hazard quotient for the ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact pathways were less than unity. This means that there is no detrimental concern to the health on human exposure to heavy metals in contaminated soil. The life time cancer risk 5.4 × 10^-2 was higher than the acceptable threshold value of 1 × 10^-4 which is reflected to have significant health effects on human exposure to heavy metals in contaminated soil. Good hygienic practices are recommended to ease the potential risk to children and adult who are exposed to contaminated soils. Also, the local authorities should be made aware of such health risks for the purpose of planning the management strategy accordingly.

Keywords: Health risk assessment, pollution, heavy metals, soil.

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Authors: Ilona Mewes, Helena Jenzer, Farshideh Einsele

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Objective: The objective of the study was to integrate two big databases from Swiss nutrition national survey (menuCH) and Swiss health national survey 2012 for data mining purposes. Each database has a demographic base data. An integrated Swiss database is built to later discover critical food consumption patterns linked with lifestyle diseases known to be strongly tied with food consumption. Design: Swiss nutrition national survey (menuCH) with approx. 2000 respondents from two different surveys, one by Phone and the other by questionnaire along with Swiss health national survey 2012 with 21500 respondents were pre-processed, cleaned and finally integrated to a unique relational database. Results: The result of this study is an integrated relational database from the Swiss nutritional and health databases.

Keywords: Health informatics, data mining, nutritional and health databases, nutritional and chronical databases.

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Authors: Nareelux Suwannobol, Plernpit Promrak, Kiattisak Batsungnoen

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The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental conservation behavior of the Applied Health Science students of Suranaree University of Technology, a green and clean university. The sample group was 184 Applied Health Science students (medical, nursing, and public health). A questionnaire was used to collect information. The result of the study found that the students had more negative than positive behaviors towards energy, water, and forest conservation. This result can be used as basic information for designing long-term behavior modification activities or research projects on environmental conservation. Thus Applied Health Science students will be encouraged to be conscious and also be a good example of environmental conservation behavior.

Keywords: Energy conservation behavior, Water conservationbehavior, Forest conservation behavior, Green and clean University.

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Authors: Abbas R. Ali, Safa H. Abdulrahman

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In this study, forty samples had been collected from water of Lesser Zab River and drinking water to determine fluoride concentration and show the impact of fluoride on general health of society of Kirkuk city. Estimation of fluoride concentration and determination of its proportion in water samples were performed attentively using a fluoride ion selective electrode. The fluoride concentrations in the Lesser Zab River samples were between 0.0265 ppm and 0.0863 ppm with an average of 0.0451 ppm, whereas the average fluoride concentration in drinking water samples was 0.102 ppm and ranged from 0.010 to 0.289 ppm. A comparison between results obtained with World Health Organization (WHO) show a low concentration of fluoride in the samples of the study. Thus, for health concerns we should increase the concentration of this ion in water of Kirkuk city at least to about (1.0 ppm) and this will take place after fluorination process.

Keywords: Fluoride concentration, Lesser Zab River, drinking water, health society, Kirkuk city.

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Authors: Lorena Antonovici, Maria Nicoleta Turliuc

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The process of becoming a vegetarian involves changes in several life aspects, including health. Despite its relevance, however, little research has been carried out to analyze vegetarians' self-perceived health, and even less empirical attention has received in the Romanian population. This study aimed to assess health-related beliefs and practices among vegetarian adults in a Romanian sample. We have undertaken 20 semi-structured interviews (10 males, 10 females) based on a snowball sample with a mean age of 31 years. The interview guide was divided into three sections: causes of adopting the diet, general aspects (beliefs, practices, tensions, and conflicts) and consequences of adopting the diet (significant changes, positive aspects, and difficulties, physical and mental health). Additional anamnestic data were reported by means of a questionnaire. Data analyses were performed using Tropes text analysis software (v. 8.2) and SPSS software (v. 24.0.) Findings showed that most of the participants considered a vegetarian diet as a natural and healthy choice as opposed to meat-eating, which is not healthy, and its consumption should be moderated among omnivores. A higher proportion of participants (65%) had an average body mass index (BMI), and several women even assumed having certain affections that no longer occur after following a vegetarian diet. Moreover, participants admitted having better moods and mental health status, given their self-contentment with the dietary choice. Relatives were perceived as more skeptical about their practices than others, and especially women had this view. This study provides a valuable insight into health-related beliefs and practices and how a vegetarian diet might interact.

Keywords: Health-related beliefs, health, practices, vegetarians.

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Authors: T. Özdal, N. Şahin Yeşilcubuk

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Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one of the highest volume chemicals produced worldwide in the plastic industry. This compound is mostly used in producing polycarbonate plastics that are often used for food and beverage storage, and BPA is also a component of epoxy resins that are used to line food and beverage containers. Studies performed in this area indicated that BPA could be extracted from such products while they are in contact with food.  Therefore, BPA exposure is presumed. In this paper, the chemical structure of BPA, factors affecting BPA migration to food and beverages, effects on health, and recent regulations will be reviewed.

Keywords: BPA, health, regulations, toxicity.

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Authors: Erol Karaca

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This study aims to analyze ceramic employees’ occupational health and safety training expectations. To that general objective, the study tries to examine whether occupational health and safety training expectations of ceramic employees meaningfully differentiate depending on demographic features and professional, social and economic conditions. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed by the researcher. The research data were collected through this questionnaire called “Questionnaire of Occupational Health and Safety Training Expectation” (QSOHSTE). QSOHSTE was applied to 125 ceramic employees working in Kütahya, Turkey. Data obtained from questionnaire were analyzed via SPSS 21. The findings, obtained from the study, revealed that employees’ agreement level to occupational health and safety training expectation statements is generally high-level. The findings reveal that employees expect professional interest such as increased development and investment, preventive measures for accidents, interventions to evaluate the working conditions, establishment of safe working environments and sustainment of adequate equipment for occupational health and safety training process. Besides these findings, employees’ agreement level to occupational health and safety training expectation statements also varies in terms of educational level, professional seniority, income level and perception of economic condition.

Keywords: Occupational Health and Safety, Occupational Training, Occupational Expectation.

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Authors: Zainal Abidin Akasah, Maizam Alias, Azuin Ramli

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The safety and health performances aspects of a building are the most challenging aspect of facility management. It requires a deep understanding by the building managers on the factors that contribute to health and safety performances. This study attempted to develop an explanatory architectural safety performance model for stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The proposed Building Safety and Health Performance (BSHP) model was tested empirically through a survey on 308 construction practitioners using partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modelling (SEM) tool. Statistical analysis results supports the conclusion that architecture, building services, external environment, management approaches and maintenance management have positive influence on safety and health performance of stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The findings provide valuable insights for construction industry to introduce BSHP model in the future where the model could be used as a guideline for training purposes of managers and better planning and implementation of building management.

Keywords: Building management, stratified low-cost housing, Safety and health model

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Authors: S. Fujiwara, T. Kaburagi, K. Kobayashi, K. Watanabe, Y. Kurihara

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This paper describes a novel sensor device, a pressure pulse wave meter, which uses a bidirectional condenser microphone. The microphone work as a microphone as well as a sensor with high gain over a wide frequency range; they are also highly reliable and economic. Currently aging is becoming a serious social issue in Japan causing increased medical expenses in the country. Hence, it is important for elderly citizens to check health condition at home, and to care the health conditions through daily monitoring. Given this circumstances, we developed a novel pressure pulse wave meter based on a bidirectional condenser microphone: this device is used as a measuring instrument of health conditions.

Keywords: Bidirectional microphone, pressure pulse wave meter, health condition.

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Authors: C. Sridawruang

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Young people today has sexual activities differing from those of earlier generations, in that teenagers are likely to have multiple partners, and are frequently in short-term relationships or with partners that are not well known to them. The proportion of teenage mothers in Thailand has increased. Young people were not specifically addressed during the overall very successful HIV-prevention campaigns. Because of this missed opportunity, they are still unaware of the risk of unsafe sexual behavior. Aims: To describe the reproductive health care services in perspectives of rural Thai teenagers Methods: This survey was one part of a mixed method approach taken using survey and focus groups with 439 teenagers aged 12-18 years in 5 villages, Udon Thani, Thailand. The standard questionnaire survey had been used for collecting data. The numeric data was checked and analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Results: Most teenager respondents stated that they do not know where sexual reproductive health services provided for them. Most teenagers felt difficult to access and talk with health staff about sexual related issues. They stated that discussing, or consulting with health providers might not be safe. Teenagers might lose opportunities to access and get advice from health care services. The mean knowledge score of contraception and condom reproductive was 6.34 from a total score 11. Most teenagers especially girls expressed a need for counseling services and reported a need for telephone services. Conclusions: The need of appropriate information focusing on sexual relationships and contraception should be designed to help young people make wise decisions and there should be set health care services for Thai teenagers to make sure that teenagers could access easily. Health care providers need to be trained to improve their knowledge, attitudes and skills in reproductive health care practices for Thai teenagers.

Keywords: Youth friendly health services, rural, Thai, teenagers.

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Authors: Ayman M. Mansour

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In this paper, we propose an intelligent system that is used for monitoring the health conditions of patients. Monitoring the health condition of patients is a complex problem that involves different medical units and requires continuous monitoring especially in rural areas because of inadequate number of available specialized physicians. The proposed system will improve patient care and drive costs down comparing to the existing system in Jordan. The proposed system will be the start point to faster and improve the communication between different units in the health system in Jordan. Connecting patients and their physicians beyond hospital doors regarding their geographical area is an important issue in developing the health system in Jordan. The ability of making medical decisions, the quality of medical is expected to be improved.

Keywords: GSM, SMS, Patient, Monitoring system, Fuzzy Logic, Multi-agent system.

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Authors: Zalizah Awang Long, Abdul Razak Hamdan, Azuraliza Abu Bakar

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Public health surveillance system focuses on outbreak detection and data sources used. Variation or aberration in the frequency distribution of health data, compared to historical data is often used to detect outbreaks. It is important that new techniques be developed to improve the detection rate, thereby reducing wastage of resources in public health. Thus, the objective is to developed technique by applying frequent mining and outlier mining techniques in outbreak detection. 14 datasets from the UCI were tested on the proposed technique. The performance of the effectiveness for each technique was measured by t-test. The overall performance shows that DTK can be used to detect outlier within frequent dataset. In conclusion the outbreak detection technique using anomaly-based on frequent-outlier technique can be used to identify the outlier within frequent dataset.

Keywords: Outlier detection, frequent-outlier, outbreak, anomaly, surveillance, public health

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Authors: Phayong Thepaksorn

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The objective of this study was to assess whether living in proximity to a roofing fiber cement factory in southern Thailand was associated with physical, mental, social, and spiritual health domains measured in a self-reported health risk assessment (HRA) questionnaire. A cross-sectional study was conducted among community members divided into two groups: near population (living within 0-2km of factory) and far population (living within 2-5km of factory) (N=198). A greater proportion of those living far from the factory (65.34%) reported physical health problems than the near group (51.04%) (p =0.032). This study has demonstrated that the near population group had higher proportion of participants with positive ratings on mental assessment (30.34%) and social health impacts (28.42%) than far population group (10.59% and 16.67%, respectively) (p <0.001). The near population group (29.79%) had similar proportion of participants with positive ratings in spiritual health impacts compared with far population group (27.08%). Among females, but not males, this study demonstrated that a higher proportion of the near population had a positive summative score for the self-HRA, which included all four health domain, compared to the far population (p<0.001 for females; p = 0.154 for males). In conclusion, this self-HRA of physical, mental, social, and spiritual health domains reflected the risk perceptions of populations living in the vicinity of the roofing fiber cement factory. This type of tool can bring attention to population concerns and complaints in the factory’s surrounding community. Our findings may contribute to future development of self-HRA for HIA development procedure in Thailand.

Keywords: Cement dust, health impact assessment, risk assessment, walk-though survey.

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Authors: K. Turhan, B. Kurt, E. Uzun

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This paper describes Clinical Document Architecture Release Two (CDA R2) standard and a client application for messaging with SAĞLIK-NET project developed by The Ministry of Health of Turkey. CDA R2 , developed by Health Level 7 (HL7) organization and approved by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 2004, to standardize medical information to be able to share semantically and syntactically. In this study, a client application compatible with HL7 V3 for a project named SAĞLIKNET, aimed to build a National Health Information System by Turkey. Moreover, CDA conformance of this application will also be evaluated.

Keywords: HL7 V3, CDA, Interoperability, Web Service.

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Authors: Reza Ariaeinejad, Norm Archer

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Self-management is becoming a new emphasis for healthcare systems around the world. But there are many different problems with adoption of new health-related intervention systems. The situation is even more complicated for chronically ill patients with disabilities, illiteracy, and impairment in judgment in addition to their conditions, or having multiple co-morbidities. Providing online decision support to manage patient health and to provide better support for chronically ill patients is a new way of dealing with chronic disease management. In this study, the importance of mobile technology through an m-Health system that supports self-management interventions including the care provider, family and social support, education and training, decision support, recreation, and ongoing patient motivation to promote adherence and sustainability of the intervention are discussed. A proposed theoretical model for adoption and sustainability of system use is developed, based on UTAUT2 and IS Continuance of Use models, both of which have been pre-validated through longitudinal studies. The objective of this paper is to show the importance of using mobile technology in adoption and sustainability of use of an m-Health system which will result in commercially sustainable self-management support for chronically ill patients.

Keywords: M-health, e-health, self-management, disease.

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Authors: M. M. Mortula

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Bottle water is getting very popular all through the world; especially in the gulf countries as the main source of drinking water. However, concerns over leaching of toxic chemicals are increasing. In this study, a health risk assessment was conducted in accordance with the guidelines indicated by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). It is conducted based on leaching of Diethyl Phthalate (DEP) from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The toxicity and exposure assessment of diethyl phthalate was conducted to characterize its risk on human health. Risk management is also discussed.

Keywords: Toxicity, diethyl phthalate, PET, risk Assessment.

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Authors: Ivy Chumo, Sheillah Simiyu, Hellen Gitau, Isaac Kisiangani, Caroline Kabaria Kanyiva Muindi, Blessing Mberu

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The global sanitation workforce bridges the gap between sanitation infrastructure and the provision of sanitation services through essential public service work. Manual pit emptiers often perform the work at the cost of their dignity, safety, and health as their work requires repeated heavy physical activities such as lifting, carrying, pulling, and pushing. This exposes them to occupational and environmental health hazards and risking illness, injury, and death. The study will extend the studies by presenting occupational health risks and suggestions for improvement in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. This is a qualitative study conducted among sanitation stakeholders in Korogocho, Mukuru and Kibera informal settlements in Nairobi. Data were captured using digital voice recorders, transcribed and thematically analysed. The discussion notes were further supported by observational notes made during the interviews. These formed the basis for a robust picture of occupational health of manual pit emptiers; a lack or inappropriate use of protective clothing, and prolonged duration of working hours were described to contribute to the occupational health hazard. To continue working, manual pit emptiers had devised coping strategies which include working in groups, improvised protective clothing, sharing the available protective clothing, working at night and consuming alcohol drinks while at work. Many of these strategies are detrimental to their health. Occupational health hazards among pit emptiers are key for effective working and is as a result of a lack of collaboration amongst stakeholders linked to health, safety and lack of PPE of pit emptiers. Collaborations amongst sanitation stakeholders is paramount for health, safety, and in ensuring the provision and use of personal protective devices.

Keywords: Sanitation, occupational health, manual emptiers, informal settlements.

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Authors: Mustafa Jahanara

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The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationships between hope, optimism and mental health (psychological well-being and psychological distress) among students. A total of 222 students (132 males and 90 females) at the University of Pune from India completed inventories Revision of the Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), the Trait Hope Scale (THS) and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI) that assessed their optimism, hope and psychological well-being and psychological distress. The results of the study showed that optimism and hope were significantly correlated with each other. Optimism is positively related to psychological well-being and optimism is negatively related to psychological distress. Also, hope was positively related to psychological well-being. However, the findings suggest that optimism and hope could influence on mental health.

Keywords: Hope, optimism, psychological distress, psychological well-being.

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Authors: Ritwik Dutta, Marilyn Wolf

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This paper describes the tradeoffs and the design from scratch of a self-contained, easy-to-use health dashboard software system that provides customizable data tracking for patients in smart homes. The system is made up of different software modules and comprises a front-end and a back-end component. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, the front-end allows adding users, logging into the system, selecting metrics, and specifying health goals. The backend consists of a NoSQL Mongo database, a Python script, and a SimpleHTTPServer written in Python. The database stores user profiles and health data in JSON format. The Python script makes use of the PyMongo driver library to query the database and displays formatted data as a daily snapshot of user health metrics against target goals. Any number of standard and custom metrics can be added to the system, and corresponding health data can be fed automatically, via sensor APIs or manually, as text or picture data files. A real-time METAR request API permits correlating weather data with patient health, and an advanced query system is implemented to allow trend analysis of selected health metrics over custom time intervals. Available on the GitHub repository system, the project is free to use for academic purposes of learning and experimenting, or practical purposes by building on it.

Keywords: Flask, Java, JavaScript, health monitoring, long term care, Mongo, Python, smart home, software engineering, webserver.

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Authors: Saleh Alumaran, Giampaolo Bella, Feng Chen

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The study of organisations’ information security cultures has attracted scholars as well as healthcare services industry to research the topic and find appropriate tools and approaches to develop a positive culture. The vast majority of studies in Saudi national health services are on the use of technology to protect and secure health services information. On the other hand, there is a lack of research on the role and impact of an organisation’s cultural dimensions on information security. This research investigated and analysed the role and impact of cultural dimensions on information security in Saudi Arabia health service. Hypotheses were tested and two surveys were carried out in order to collect data and information from three major hospitals in Saudi Arabia (SA). The first survey identified the main cultural-dimension problems in SA health services and developed an initial information security culture framework model. The second survey evaluated and tested the developed framework model to test its usefulness, reliability and applicability. The model is based on human behaviour theory, where the individual’s attitude is the key element of the individual’s intention to behave as well as of his or her actual behaviour. The research identified a set of cultural and sub-cultural dimensions in SA health information security and services.

Keywords: Behaviour theory, Culture dimensions, Electronic health records, Information security.

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Authors: V. Emery David Jr., J. Wenchao, D. Mmereki, Y. John, F. Heriniaina

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Healthcare waste management continues to present an array of challenges for developing countries, and Liberia is of no exception. There is insufficient information available regarding the generation, handling, and disposal of health care waste. This face serves as an impediment to healthcare management schemes. The specific objective of this study is to present an evaluation of the current health care management practices in Liberia. It also presented procedures, techniques used, methods of handling, transportation, and disposal methods of wastes as well as the quantity and composition of health care waste. This study was conducted as an investigative case study, covering three different health care facilities; a hospital, a health center, and a clinic in Monrovia, Montserrado County. The average waste generation was found to be 0-7kg per day at the clinic and health center and 8-15kg per/day at the hospital. The composition of the waste includes hazardous and non-hazardous waste i.e. plastic, papers, sharps, and pathological elements etc. Nevertheless, the investigation showed that the healthcare waste generated by the surveyed healthcare facilities were not properly handled because of insufficient guidelines for separate collection, and classification, and adequate methods for storage and proper disposal of generated wastes. This therefore indicates that there is a need for improvement within the healthcare waste management system to improve the existing situation.

Keywords: Disposal, Healthcare waste, management, Montserrado County, Monrovia.

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Authors: Bin Su

Abstract:

According to the Auckland climate, building passive design more focus on improving winter indoor thermal and health conditions. Based on field study data of indoor air temperature and relative humidity close to ceiling and floor of an insulated Auckland townhouse with and without a whole home mechanical ventilation system, this study is to analysis variation of indoor microclimate data of an Auckland townhouse using or not using the mechanical ventilation system to evaluate winter indoor thermal and health conditions for the future house design with a mechanical ventilation system.

Keywords: House ventilation, indoor thermal condition, indoor health condition, passive design.

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Authors: Michael Ajide Oyinloye

Abstract:

Generally the natural environment is made up of air, water and soil. The release of emission of industrial waste into anyone of the components of the environment causes pollution. Industrial pollution significantly threatens the inherent right of people, to the enjoyment of a safe and secure environment. The aim of this paper is to assess the effect of environmental pollution and health risks of residents living near Ewekoro cement factory. The research made use of IKONOS imagery for Geographical Information System (GIS) to buffer and extract buildings that are less than 1km to the factory, within 1km to 5km and above 5km to the factory. Also questionnaire was used to elicit information on the socio-economic factors, effect of environmental pollution on residents and measures adopted to control industrial pollution on the residents. Findings show that most buildings that fall between less than 1km and 1km to 5km to the factory have high health risk in the study area. The study recommended total relocation for the residents of the study area to reduce health risk problems.

Keywords: Environmental pollution, Ewekoro, GIS, Health risk, Satellite imagery.

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Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Lenka Jesonkova, Jiri Dvorak, Milos Bozek, Eduard Bakos

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The contents of nitrates and nitrites were monitored in 15 ground water resources of a selected region earmarked for the emergency supply of population. The resources have been selected on the basis of previous assessment of natural conditions and the exploitation of territory in the infiltration area as well as the surroundings of water resources. The health risk analysis carried out in relation to nitrates and nitrites, which were found to be the most serious water contaminants, proved, that 14 resources met the health standards in relation to the assessed criterion and could be included in crisis plans. Water quality of ground resources may be assessed in the same way with regard to other contaminants.

Keywords: Drinking water, health risks, methemoglobinemia, nitrates, nitrites, water pollution.

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Authors: Armin Samarghandi, Amirreza Jafari, Mohamad Ghiasi

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Since individuals spend the majority of their time indoors, this immediately affects their productivity and health. An essential factor in occupational health and public health is the influence of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in buildings on occupant welfare and productivity. Since then, empirical data have been equivocal, indicating either that the studies are inaccurate or that the research has just scratched the surface of green buildings in offices, accommodation, and hospital settings and not taken the aforementioned holistically. This study compared three green-certified buildings — a residential green building, a green hospital, and a green school — with conventional structures in Tehran, Iran by means of a questionnaire spread among those utilizing these buildings, and assessing their productivity and health rate as opposed to the time they resided, worked in conventional buildings. The results demonstrated higher scores pertaining to productivity, physical and mental wellness as a consequence of better indoor environmental quality (IEQ), natural lighting, design, and sustainability of these building against non-green buildings. In addition, ancillary matters — environmental, financial, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual dimensions of participants — were indirectly evaluated, and the same results are produced.

Keywords: Green building, Iran, productivity, physical and mental health, Tehran.

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Authors: Elham Rastegari, Amirmasood Rahmani, Saeed Setayeshi

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The hospital and the health-care center of a community, as a place for people-s life-care and health-care settings, must provide more and better services for patients or residents. After Establishing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system -which is a necessity- in the hospital, providing pervasive services is a further step. Our objective in this paper is to use pervasive computing in a case study of healthcare, based on EMR database that coordinates application services over network to form a service environment for medical and health-care. Our method also categorizes the hospital spaces into 3 spaces: Public spaces, Private spaces and Isolated spaces. Although, there are many projects about using pervasive computing in healthcare, but all of them concentrate on the disease recognition, designing smart cloths, or provide services only for patient. The proposed method is implemented in a hospital. The obtained results show that it is suitable for our purpose.

Keywords: Pervasive computing, RFID, Health-care.

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Authors: Lorho Mary Maheo, Arundhati Maibam Devi

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Background: Maternal and child health (MCH) cares are the health services provided to mothers and children. It includes the health promotion, preventive, curative and rehabilitation health care for mothers and children. Materials and method: The present study sample comprises of 208 women within the age range 15-69 years from two remote villages of Tamenglong District in Manipur. They were randomly chosen for assessing their health as well as the child’s health adopting an interview schedule method. Results: The findings of the study revealed that majority (80%) of the women have their first conception in their first year of married life. A decadal change has been observed with regard to the last pregnancy i.e., antenatal check-up, place of delivery as well as the service provider. However, irrespective of age of the women, home delivery is still preferred though very few are locally trained. Pre- and post-delivery resting period vary depending on the busy schedule of the agricultural works as the population under study is basically agriculturist. Postnatal care remains to be traditional as they are strongly associated with cultural beliefs and practices that continue to prevail in the studied community. Breast feeding practices such as colostrums given, initiation of breastfeeding, weaning was all taken into account.  Immunization of children has not reached the expected target owing to a variety of reasons. Maternal health care also includes use of birth control measures. The health status of women would invariably improve if family planning is meaningfully adopted. Only 10.1% of the women adopted the modern birth control implying its deep-rooted value attached to the children. Based on the self-assessment report on their health treatment a good number of the respondents resorted to self-medication even to the extent of buying allopathic medicine without a doctor’s prescription. One important finding from the study is the importance attributed to the traditional health care system which is easily affordable and accessible to the villagers. Conclusion: The overall condition of maternal and child care is way behind till now as no adequate/proper health services are available.

Keywords: Antenatal, breastfeeding, child health, maternal, Tamenglong District.

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Authors: Haga Elimam

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This paper investigates the connotation, and some of the realistic implications, of the economic reform of health sector in under developed countries. The paper investigates the issues that economic reforms have to address, and the policy targets they are considered to accomplish. The work argues that the development of economic reform is not connected only with understanding the priorities and refining them, furthermore with reformation and restructuring the organizations through which health policies are employed. Considering various organizational values, that are likely to be regular to all economic reform programs, a regulatory approach to institutional reform is unsuitable. The paper further investigates the selection of economic reform that may as well influence via technical suggestions and analysis, but the verdict to continue, and the consequent success of execution, eventually depends on the progressive political sustainability. The paper concludes by giving examples of institutional reforms from various underdeveloped countries and includes recommendation of the responsibility and control of donor organizations.

Keywords: Economic Reform, Health Sector, underdeveloped Countries.

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Authors: Yah-Ling Hung

Abstract:

eHealth is undoubtedly emerging as a promising vehicle to provide information for individual self-care management. However, the accessing ability, reading strategies and navigating behavior between higher literacy users and lower literacy users are significantly different. Yet, ways to tailor audiences’ health literacy and develop appropriate eHealth to feed their need become a big challenge. The purpose of this study is to compare the educational effectiveness of eHealth to deliver health knowledge between higher literacy users and lower literacy users, thus establishing useful design strategies of eHealth for users with different level of health literacy. The study was implemented in four stages, the first of which developed a website as the testing media to introduce health care knowledge relating to children’s allergy. Secondly, a reliability and validity test was conducted to make sure that all of the questions in the questionnaire were good indicators. Thirdly, a pre-post knowledge test was conducted with 66 participants, 33 users with higher literacy and 33 users with lower literacy respectively. Finally, a usability evaluation survey was undertaken to explore the criteria used by users with different levels of health literacy to evaluate eHealth. The results demonstrated that the eHealth Intervention in both groups had a positive outcome. There was no significant difference between the effectiveness of eHealth intervention between users with higher literacy and users with lower literacy. However, the average mean of lower literacy group was marginally higher than the average mean of higher literacy group. The findings also showed that the criteria used to evaluate eHealth could be analyzed in terms of the quality of information, appearance, appeal and interaction, but the users with lower literacy have different evaluation criteria from those with higher literacy. This is an interdisciplinary research which proposes the sequential key steps that incorporate the planning, developing and accessing issues that need to be considered when designing eHealth for patients with varying degrees of health literacy.

Keywords: eHealth, health intervention, health literacy, usability evaluation.

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