Changes of Food Expenditure and Food Consumption of People Living in Ba Vi District, Hanoi, Vietnam from 1999 to 2013

Background: During the nutrition transition period which began in the early 1990s in Vietnam, dietary intake had been changed significantly because of changes in lifestyle and living standard. Objectives: This paper aims to describe the trend for food expenditure and the frequency of meat consumption in households in Ba Vi district, Hanoi, Vietnam from 1999 to 2013. Methods: This is a longitudinal study conducted in Ba Vi district, Hanoi. Semi-annual, face-to face interviews were conducted by well-trained interviewers with 11,922 households to collect data of the household’s income, spending for food and meat consumption. Chi-square test for trend was performed to evaluate the changes of food expenditure over the years. P-value under 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There were ten times increase in household’s mean income and five times increase in mean food expenditure from 1999 to 2013. The percentage of household food expenditure per total family expenditure was really high (55% in 2013). The percentage of rice expenditure per total food expenditure decreased dramatically from 59.9% in 1999 to 33.1% in 2013 while spending for other animal-based, high-protein food was an upward trend, particularly meat (10.7% in 1999 to 24.2% in 2013). The percentage of rice expenditure in well-off households was lower than poor households (55% vs. 61.8% in 1999 and 31.4% vs. 36.5% in 2013). However, the percentage of spending for meat in well-off households were much higher than that of poor households (>10%). Conclusion: Our finding indicated that mean income and food expenditure, particularly meat intake, of households had increased dramatically from 1999 to 2013. The increase of meat intake requires reallocation and direction of Vietnam public health funding and strategy.

Pattern of smoking cessation and its associated factors in Vietnam

Background: Even though the number of research on tobacco in Vietnam has recently increased rapidly, there remains a lack of reporting on the pattern of quit smoking and its correlates. It is necessary to have scientific evidence on this issue to help the policy makers and the Public Health sector to have appropriate intervention program to enhance the smoke cessation smoke program and improve the health status of the smokers. This study aims to: (1) Describe the pattern of smoking cessation in Vietnam 2010. (2) Examine the association between smoking cessation with some associated factors in Vietnam 2010. Methods: Data used in this paper were obtained from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted in Vietnam in 2010. A total of 11,142 households were selected for this survey using a two-phase sampling design analogous to a three-stage stratified cluster sampling. Both descriptive and analytical statistical analyses were carried out. Multivariate logistic regression modeling was performed to examine the association between the patterns of quit daily;quit smoke;attempt to quit and intend to quit among smokers with relevant factors. Results: The prevalence of the different type of cessation among male and female were 23.3% and 28.6% for quit daily;19.1% and 1.0% for quit;55.6% and 44.4% for attempt to quit and 29.6% and 19.3% for intend to quit respectively. The prevalence of quit daily and quit increased with age whereas attempt to quit decreased with age. Prevalence of cessation was highest among the group who were asked about smoking tobacco by health care providers. Some determinants of quit daily and quit include age, area, and knowledge of illnesses caused by smoking. There was no association between attempt and intend to quit with any socio-characteristic except for area. People in rural area were 2.1 and 1.7 times more likely attempt to quit and intend to quit than those in urban area, respectively. Conclusion: The GATS Vietnam 2010 showed that the prevalence of cessation in Vietnam was low. Quit daily and quit had association with age, area, knowledge about the top three consequences of smoke. People in rural area were 2.1 and 1.7 times more likely attempt to quit and intend to quit than those in urban area, respectively.

Overweight, obesity and associated factors among secondary school students in a northern city of Vietnam in 2011

Overweight and obesity is an emerging public health problem among school-aged children in Bac Giang city in the Northen part of Vietnam recently. This study aims to identify overweight-obesity prevalence of secondary school children in this city and it’s associated factors. The study was a nested case control in a cross-sectional study design in 1528 secondary students selected from 4 secondary schools in 2 inner communes and 2 suburban communes of Bac Giang city, Vietnam. Result: Overweight prevalence among secondary school students in Bac Giang was 6.7%, the prevalence of obesity was 2.0%. Overweight and obesity is more prevalence in male students, inner communes and students from family have higher income and higher food expense. Overweight and obesity was associated with higher energy intake, more fat consumption, having supplement meals and bedtimemeal, increased physical activities and increased sleep duration. Conclusion: Education campaign targeting reducing overweight and obesity should target both parents about dietary adequacy and balance and children about more physical activities.