In Lao PDR (Lao People’s Democratic Republic), out-migration, often to neighbouring Thailand, is an important livelihood pathway for workers. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, had a significant impact on these international migrant workers. As the pandemic evolved, and lockdowns and travel restrictions were implemented, thousands of the estimated 1.3 million Lao nationals living abroad, mostly in Thailand, found themselves unemployed and started returning to Lao PDR. Many of these returning migrants were infected or had been exposed to the Covid-19 ...

Universal health coverage (‎UHC)‎ is one of the targets within the Sustainable Development Goalsthat the Member States of the United Nations have pledged to achieve by 2030. Target 3.8 has twomonitoring indicators: 3.8.1 for coverage of essential health services, for which a compound index from16 tracer indicators has recently been developed; and 3.8.2 for catastrophic expenditure on health.The global baseline monitoring of these two indicators in 2017 shows that the progress in many lowandmiddle-income countries is unlikely to be on track and ...

Objectives: To examine the association between mental health and executive dysfunction in general adolescents, and to identify whether home residence and school location would moderate that association. Design: A population-based cross-sectional study. Setting: A subsample of the Shanghai Children’s Health, Education, and Lifestyle Evaluation-Adolescents project. 16 sampled schools in Shangrao city located in downstream Yangtze River in southeast China (December 2018). Participants: 1895 adolescents (48.8% male) which were divided into ...

Background: Disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in several countries. Yet, patterns in health service disruption according to country responses remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and disruptions in 31 health services in 10 low- middle- and high-income countries in 2020. Methods: Using routine health information systems and administrative data from 10 countries (Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Lao People’s Democratic ...

Objectives: Neonatal mortality remains persistently high in low-income and middle-income countries. In Cambodia, there is a paucity of data on the perception of neonatal health and care-seeking behaviours at the community level. This study aimed to identify influencers of neonatal health and healthcare-seeking behaviour in a rural Cambodian province. Design: A qualitative study using focus group discussions and thematic content analysis. Setting: Four health centres in a rural province of Northern Cambodia. Participants: Twenty-four focus ...

Background: The burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where NCDs cause 4:5 deaths, disproportionately affect poorer populations, and carry a large economic burden. Digital interventions can improve NCD management for these hard-to-reach populations with inadequate health systems and high cell-phone coverage; however, there is limited research on whether digital health is reaching this potential. We conducted a process evaluation to understand challenges and successes from a digital ...

Background: Mental illness is a leading cause of disease burden amongst children and young people (CYP). This is exacerbated in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries which often have embryonic care structures. Understanding and targeting illness beliefs is a potentially efficacious way of optimising the development of health prevention interventions. These beliefs remain relatively underexplored in CYP in LMIC contexts. Aim: To develop an in-depth understanding of CYPs beliefs about mental health and illness in Indonesia. Methods and ...

Background: This study estimated the cost-effectiveness of four strategies enhancing the quality and accessibility of Brief Intervention (BI) service for smoking cessation in Thailand during 2022–2030: (1) current-BI (status quo), (2) the effective-training standard-BI, (3) the current-BI plus the village health volunteers (VHV) mobilization, and (4) the effective-training BI plus VHV mobilization. Methods: By interviewing five public health officers, nine healthcare professionals aiding these services, and fifteen BI service experts, we ...

In this essay, I show that notwithstanding the undeniable colonial origins of punitive drug policies around the world, such policies have figured in nationalist projects and populist platforms in various postcolonial states, and today they are viewed as local responses to the ‘drug problem.’ Instead, it is harm reduction and other efforts to reform drug policies that are seen as a colonial, or Western, imposition. I argue that to overcome such perceptions, there is a need to decolonize harm reduction alongside decolonizing drug policies. I conclude ...