Intervention In Vietnam Research Articles

Novel insights into clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in Vietnam.

Little is known about percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) practices and outcomes in low-and middle-income nations, despite its rapid uptake across Asia. For the first time, we report on clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes for patients undergoing PCI at a leading cardiac centre in Vietnam. Information on characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of patients undergoing PCI was collected into the first PCI registry through direct interviews using a standardised form, medical record abstraction, and reading PCI imaging data on secured disks. Subgroup analysis was also conducted to explore gender differences. Between September 2017 and May 2018, 1022 patients undergoing PCI were recruited from a total of 1041 procedures. The mean age was 68.3years and two thirds were male. While 54.4% of patients presented with acute coronary syndromes, the rate of ST-elevation myocardial infarction was 14.5%. The majority of lesions were classified as type B2 and C and the radial artery was the most common access location for PCI (79.2%). The use of drug-eluting stents was universal and the angiographic success rate was 99.4%. Cardiac complications following PCI were rare with the exception of major bleeding (2.0%). Female patients were older with relatively more comorbidities and a higher incidence of major bleeding than males (p<0.05). Findings of this study provide an opportunity to benchmark current PCI practices in Vietnam, identify possible care gaps and potentially inform the adoption of treatment guidelines as well as use of prevention strategies.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

The Greek Peace Movement and the Vietnam War, 1964–1967

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, a peace and disarmament movement, which resembled similar movements at the time on both sides of the Iron Curtain, proliferated in Greece. In 1964, this movement set aside its anti-nuclear agenda and focused on protesting the US intervention in Vietnam. The political context of Greece at the time made Vietnam relatable to the experience of the Greek protestors. Two main themes facilitated this process: the problem of Cyprus and the call for democracy. The Greek experience is comparable to other antiwar and protest movements at the time, and the transnational links and encounters between them are noteworthy. Examination of the anti-war activity of this peace movement with communist affiliations enables a new perspective on the history of the 1960s.

517 Novel Insights into Clinical Characteristics and In-Hospital Outcomes of Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Vietnam

Despite the rapid uptake of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in Asia, little is known about patient characteristics and outcomes following the procedure in low-and middle-income nations. To report on the clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes for patients undergoing PCI in Vietnam. 1,022 patients undergoing PCI were recruited from September 2017 to May 2018 in the first PCI registry established in the Vietnam National Heart Institute. Patients were categorized in male (n=696) and female (n=326) groups and analysed. The mean age was 68.3±10.3 years and two thirds were male. Diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and current smoking were observed in 27.3%, 29.9%, 67.2% and 25.5% of patients, respectively. While 54.4% of patients presented with acute coronary syndromes, the rate of ST-elevation myocardial infarction was 14.5%. The majority of lesions were classified as type B2 and C and the radial artery was the most common access location for PCI. The mean number of stents per patient was 1.5±0.71. The use of drug-eluting stents was universal and the angiographic success rate was 99.4%. Cardiac complications following PCI were rare with the exception of major bleeding (2.0%). Female patients were older with relatively more comorbidities and a higher incidence of major bleeding than males (p<0.05). Findings of this study provide an opportunity to benchmark current PCI practices in Vietnam, identify possible care gaps and potentially inform the adoption of treatment guidelines as well as use of prevention strategies.

Delay Discounting and Health Risk Behaviors: A Review and Suggestions for School Based Intervention in Vietnam

Delay discounting is the cognitive process that allows the individual to compare values between an immediate smaller reward and a larger but delayed reward (for instance, individual is asked to choose between 10.000 dong now or 20.000 dong in a week). Recently, delay discounting assumes an important role in the field of self-control and decision making related to health, explain why people engaged in various health risk behaviors (including unhealthy diet, inactivity, smoking, drinking). These behaviors account for serious consequences as mortality, mental disorders, cardiac diseases, cancer… This article firstly presents the concept of delay discounting and the discount functions. Secondly, it summarizes the evidences for the relationship between delay discounting and health risk behaviors and describes how the discount functions explains for these behaviors’ patterns. Lastly, it introduces some strategies to reduce delay discounting in order to improve health behaviors and makes suggestions to school-based intervention programs targeting health risk behaviors in Vietnam.&#x0D;

Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era by Jessica M. Frazier

Reviewed by: Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era by Jessica M. Frazier Frances P. Martin (bio) Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era. By Jessica M. Frazier. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Pp. 236. $80.00 cloth; $29.95 paper; $19.99 ebook) As the title suggests, Jessica Frazier's book Women's Antiwar Diplomacy [End Page 139] during the Vietnam War Era examines the role of women in antiwar diplomacy and activism during the Vietnam War. The main crux of Frazier's argument asserts the relationship between the American and Vietnamese women was not U.S. cultural imperialism, but rather a genuine collaborative relationship where each side actively worked to forward their own goals and agenda. Spanning from 1965 to 1978 Frazier documents the collaborative anti-war efforts of Vietnamese and American women and how the nature of the relationships forged by these groups changed over the course of the war as the nature of the Vietnam War also changed. However, while the war provides the context for her primary argument, the women's anti-war activism frames a broader discussion of the role identity and imperialism played in activism during the 1960s and 1970s. Frazier breaks the war into six sections, allowing her to focus on particular issues during each phase. First, Frazier looks at mothers as experts in 1965 to 1967 by focusing on the burgeoning activism of women's antiwar groups in the United States and Vietnam. Motherhood appears as a continuous theme throughout Frazier's argument. She illustrates how both groups used motherhood and maternal duty as a way to justify fighting against the war or fighting in it. After explaining how alliances formed and connections strengthened through international activism and conferences from 1968 to 1970, Frazier uses chapter three to discuss 1970 and the development of "Third World" feminist networks. The chapter focuses on African American, Chicana, and Asian American women activists and how they drew inspiration from the Vietnamese women in their different fight against sexism, racism, and imperialism. In chapter four she examines the years 1969–1972 and focuses on the struggle among feminist movements worldwide to include war as a feminist issue. Using the International Women's Conference as the backdrop for the discussion of war as a feminist issue Frazier shows that the feminist movement and the antiwar movement were hardly a homogenous group with identical goals and agendas. The last two chapters span from 1970–1978 and focus on the more practical ways that women's [End Page 140] antiwar activism impacted the discussion of the Vietnam War concerning women's rights and the conditions of Prisoners of War, and expose the shifting context of alliances between the activists after the war. Overall, Frazier has a well-developed argument aided by a rich set of case studies. By focusing on the individual's experience, she provides a densely woven analysis that propels her argument forward. Frazier also has extensive bibliography-based sources. Her use of oral histories provided the Vietnamese perspective vital to her central thesis and the incorporation of these interviews strengthened the overall narrative. By giving us a glimpse of the Vietnamese women's view, Frazier solidifies her claim of collaborative and mutually beneficial relations between the American and Vietnamese women. Despite the excellent use of oral histories, Frazier's analysis was from a primarily American or western perspective, which at times sidelined the voices of the Vietnamese women involved in the narrative. However, this does not lessen Frazier's contribution to the historiography. This book challenges previous conventions about the level of women's involvement in the anti-war movement and the type of relationships forged on an international level between Vietnams and American women. Rather than creating yet another imperialistic encounter between the United States and Vietnam, Frazier shows that these women came together to fight the imperialism that American intervention in Vietnam represented. Finally, this book shows the underlying complexities and intersections of identity and activism present in the antiwar movement around the world. [End Page 141] Frances P. Martin FRANCES P. MARTIN is a PhD student at the University of Connecticut. She currently researches...

THE VIETNAM PIETA: SHAPING THE MEMORY OF SOUTH KOREA’S PARTICIPATION IN THE VIETNAM WAR

Conceived to commemorate the victims of South Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War, the statue of the Vietnam Pieta invites us to question who shapes the memory of this neglected facet of the conflict. The present article analyzes the various actors involved in this contentious process in and across both countries, starting with the South Korean activists behind the statue’s making and the movement for recognizing the crimes committed by their army. Examining these activists’ advocacy work since the late 1990s, the article argues that they are triply situated in the fight over remembering South Korea’s intervention in Vietnam. Truth advocates first appear in a position of privilege and leadership vis-à-vis Vietnamese victims of South Korean military wrongdoings, which raises the issue of the material and political asymmetries at stake in the construction of memory. Simultaneously, the same advocates occupy a position of marginality vis-à-vis the dominant public discourse held on the war by Hanoi and Seoul, whose common interest lies in deepening their mutually beneficial but unequal economic partnership. Thirdly, the memory of the conflict pits truth activists against another group within their own civil society: veterans’ organizations aggressively denying all war crimes accusations. Ultimately, remembering the war is not the object of a bilateral dispute between the South Korean and Vietnamese states, but rather a site of domestic tensions within South Korea itself.

A cluster randomized controlled trial to test the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a family dementia caregiver intervention in Vietnam: The REACH VN study protocol.

Background:Resources for Enhancing All Caregivers Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs (REACH VA) is an evidence-based intervention supporting family dementia caregivers that has been shown to improve caregiver outcomes for culturally diverse populations in the United States. However, this model has not been tested in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Vietnam, where community-based psychosocial interventions are urgently needed. The objectives of this study are to assess the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a culturally adapted version of the Resources for Enhancing All Caregivers Health in Vietnam (REACH VN).Methods:A cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted over a 6-month period in Soc Son district located in Hanoi. An expected sample of 10 to 12 communes, representing approximately 50 dementia primary caregivers, will be randomized to either the REACH VN intervention or an enhanced control condition. Inclusion criteria for the caregiver include age ≥18, family member who provides the most day-to-day care for person with dementia, and a total score for the brief (4 item) Zarit Burden Scale of ≥6. Over the course of 2 to 3 months, each participant in the intervention group will receive the REACH VN intervention comprised of 4 core sessions on problem solving, mood management/cognitive restructuring, stress management, and communication, and up to 2 additional sessions based on caregiver's needs. The enhanced control group will receive a single session that provides verbal and written information on dementia. Caregiver outcomes will be assessed at baseline (i.e., time of enrolment) and 3 months. The feasibility will be assessed with regard to recruitment, retention, treatment adherence, treatment fidelity, and assessment processes. For preliminary effectiveness, we will examine caregiver burden as the primary outcome and changes in caregiver depressive symptoms and in Alzheimer disease knowledge as secondary outcomes.Discussion:This is the first study to test community-based family dementia caregiver intervention in Vietnam. Results from this study will provide the foundation for a larger effectiveness trial and broader dissemination in Vietnam and may help inform efforts to develop similar community-based family dementia caregiver support programs in other LMICs.Trial registration:ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT03587974. Published online July 16, 2018

Divided Priorities: Why and When Allies Differ Over Military Intervention

Scholars have vigorously debated whether adversaries carefully scrutinize if states have, in the past, demonstrated toughness and whether adversaries base present and future crisis-bargaining behavior on this record. If they do—as a central strain of deterrence theory, and its contemporary defenders, maintain—hard-line policies, including limited military interventions, can bolster deterrence. We know much less about a second audience that is presumably attentive to demonstrations of resolve: allies. A common view, derived from the same logic, and which we call Hawkish Reassurance Theory, suggests that states should support and find reassuring their allies’ faraway military interventions. In contrast, we argue that such interventions call into doubt the intervener’s will and capacity to fulfill its core alliance commitments, undermine the credibility of the alliance, and threaten allies’ security in both the short and long run. Allies thus ultimately oppose powerful partners’ hawkish postures in distant conflicts, and they may even consequently explore routes to security beyond the alliance. To assess this argument, we examine the varied stances leading US allies took from the start of the US intervention in Vietnam through its end. Allied behavior was largely consistent with our expectations. We conclude that, if one reason to deploy force is to signal to allies that you will come to their aid when they call, states should not bother.

Psychoeducational Intervention for Symptom Management of Fatigue, Pain, and Sleep Disturbance Cluster Among Cancer Patients: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study

ObjectivesTo assess the feasibility of conducting a trial of a psychoeducational intervention involving the provision of tailored information and coaching to improve management of a cancer-related symptom cluster (fatigue, pain, and sleep disturbance) and reduce symptom cluster impacts on patient health outcomes in the Vietnamese context and to undertake a preliminary evaluation of the intervention. MethodsA parallel-group single-blind pilot quasi-experimental trial was conducted with 102 cancer patients in one Vietnamese hospital. The intervention group received one face-to-face session and two phone sessions delivered by a nurse one week apart, and the comparison group received usual care. Patient outcomes were measured at baseline before the chemotherapy cycle and immediately preceding the next chemotherapy cycle. Separate linear mixed models were used to evaluate the impact of the intervention on total symptom cluster severity, symptom scores, functional status, depressive symptoms, and health-related quality of life. ResultsThe study design was feasible with a recruitment rate of 22.6% and attrition rate of 9.8%. Compared to the control group, the intervention group showed a significant reduction in symptom cluster severity, fatigue severity, fatigue interference, sleep disturbance, depression, and anxiety. Significant differences were not observed for pain severity, pain interference, functional status, and health-related quality of life. The intervention was acceptable to the study population, with a high attendance rate of 78% and adherence rate of 95.7%. ConclusionOn the basis of the present study findings, future randomized controlled trials are needed to test the effectiveness of a symptom cluster psychoeducational intervention in Vietnam.

HIV and other STIs in male sex workers: Findings from a sexual health promotion intervention in Vietnam.

Male sex workers (MSWs) in Vietnam are at high risk for acquisition and transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), yet are extremely disengaged from the healthcare system. This contributes to large numbers of untreated or late-treated infections and increased secondary transmission. We enrolled 995 MSWs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in a Sexual Health Promotion intervention that included face-to-face delivery of seven content modules, a clinical examination and testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia. Onsite treatment was provided for STIs, and those who tested positive for HIV were referred to local treatment centers. While 64.6% of participants had never been to a health service and fewer than half (41.2%) had ever been tested for HIV, 67.1% returned for test results. This testing identified 109 (11.0%) participants who were HIV-positive and 312 (31.4%) who tested positive for at least one other STI. Substantive differences were seen in MSWs from different cities, with those from Hanoi more likely to have ever visited a health service (57.8% vs. 24.9%) and to have taken a prior HIV test (54.1% vs. 37.9%) than those in HCMC. Sexual health promotion is a promising approach to engaging MSWs in health services.

Influence of father-infant relationship on infant development: A father-involvement intervention in Vietnam.

We examined the extent to which fathers can be taught and encouraged to develop positive relationships with their children, especially in infancy, and the effects of this fathering intervention on infant development. A multifaceted relationally focused intervention was used to assist fathers in Vietnam to engage in responsive direct and indirect involvement with their infants and work together with the mother as part of a parenting team. Fathers and mothers from 13 communes in a rural and semiurban district were recruited to the intervention group. Intervention fathers received group and individual counseling before and after birth, an interactive print resource, community messages about fathering, and the opportunity to participate in a Fathers Club. Couples from 12 comparable communes in a noncontiguous district were recruited to the control group. Fathers and mothers completed questionnaires at the prebirth recruitment and at 1-, 4-, and 9-months postbirth. Intervention fathers demonstrated greater increase in knowledge and attitudes regarding father-infant relationships. Both fathers and mothers reported that fathers engaged in more affection, care-taking, and play in the early months of their infants' lives and fathers felt more attached to their infants right from birth. A developmental assessment at 9 months showed that intervention infants demonstrated higher levels of motor, language, and personal/social development. This study demonstrated that fathers can be taught to interact more sensitively, responsively, and effectively with their newborn infants. Their increased interaction and emotional attachment appears to lay the foundation for enhanced infant development. (PsycINFO Database Record

Symposium on The Price

Symposium on <i>The Price</i>

Supplemental Material for Influence of Father–Infant Relationship on Infant Development: A Father-Involvement Intervention in Vietnam

Supplemental Material for Influence of Father–Infant Relationship on Infant Development: A Father-Involvement Intervention in Vietnam

Dall’anticolonialismo all’anti-imperialismo yankee nei movimenti terzomondisti di fine anni Sessanta

The article focuses on the rise of third-worldism as a form of political solidarity with many decolonization conflicts spread in the 1950s and 1960s and its transformation in a one-sided idea of anti-imperialism that put the US foreign politics at the centre of the international stage. This kind of selective criticism – addressing the so-called yankee imperialism – grounded principally on the US military intervention in Vietnam since 1965 but eventually it evolved in a kind of ideological paradigm that made of the USA the unique cause of all problems affecting states emerged from decolonization. This ideological turn hindered a deep and wide understanding of the complex and manifold forms of entanglements that followed, replaced and in some cases occurred as new factors within the world order established in the second half of the 20th century.

Patterns of great power intervention in Vietnam and Afghanistan

This study identifies and describes a general policy pattern common to French and American interveners in Vietnam as well as Soviet and American interveners in Afghanistan. Each employed political tactics at first and, after their failure, military tactics that also failed. Each intervener then sought a diplomatic solution to its dilemma, a goal that it achieved, but the diplomatic outcome masked the larger failure of each of the interventions.

Potential Impact of Graphic Health Warnings on Cigarette Packages in Reducing Cigarette Demand and Smoking-Related Deaths in Vietnam.

Two years after implementation of the graphic health warning intervention in Vietnam, it is very important to evaluate the intervention's potential impact. The objective of this paper was to predict effects of graphic health warnings on cigarette packages, particularly in reducing cigarette demand and smoking-associated deaths in Vietnam. In this study, a discrete choice experiment (DCE) method was used to evaluate the potential impact of graphic tobacco health warnings on smoking demand. To predict the impact of GHWs on reducing premature deaths associated with smoking, we constructed different static models. We adapted the method developed by University of Toronto, Canada and found that GHWs had statistically significant impact on reducing cigarette demand (up to 10.1% through images of lung damage), resulting in an overall decrease of smoking prevalence in Vietnam. We also found that between 428,417- 646,098 premature deaths would be prevented as a result of the GHW intervention. The potential impact of the GHW labels on reducing premature smoking-associated deaths in Vietnam were shown to be stronger among lower socio-economic groups.

Hans Morgenthau and The Purpose of American Politics

Hans Morgenthau's The Purpose of American Politics was published in 1960, at the end of the Eisenhower administration and on the eve of the civil rights movement and military intervention in Vietnam. It is Morgenthau's first attempt to author a book primarily about the United States, exploring opposing American political traditions and their implications for foreign policy. In the process, he comments on past and present domestic and foreign crises and the ways they are refracted by Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian understandings of the national purpose. Morgenthau is drawn to the Hamiltonian approach, which is realist in its assumptions; but he is nevertheless sympathetic to the Jeffersonian emphasis on freedom, which differentiates America, in his view, from other countries. The book represents Morgenthau's coming to terms with America, lauding the purposes for which the country was founded, but the overall argument is pessimistic. Morgenthau contends that America has lost its sense of purpose, on the home front and abroad. When read next to his Scientific Man vs. Power Politics, published in 1946, the book reveals a significant shift in his intellectual and political orientations.

Knowledge, attitude and practices: assessing maternal and child health care handbook intervention in Vietnam.

BackgroundMaternal and Child Health (MCH) Handbook, an integrated MCH home-based record, was piloted in four provinces of Vietnam (Dien Bien, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and An Giang). The study is aimed at assessing the changes in pregnant women’s behavior towards the frequencies of their antenatal care service utilizations and their subsequent breastfeeding practices up to six months of age, through the MCH Handbook intervention. This is because the levels of pregnant women’s knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) towards their antenatal care service utilizations and exclusive breastfeeding practices have been previously neither analyzed nor reported in relation to MCH home-based records in the country.MethodsTo compare pre-intervention baseline in 2011, post-intervention data were collected in 2013. Structured interviews were conducted with randomly selected 810 mothers of children 6-18 months of age in the four provinces. A focus group discussion among mothers in each of four provinces was conducted.ResultsThere was no significant difference in pregnant women’s knowledge about the need for ≥3 antenatal care visits between pre- and post-interventions. Yet, the proportion of pregnant women who made ≥3 antenatal care visits in post-intervention was significantly higher than in pre-intervention. Thus, MCH Handbook is likely to have contributed to practicing ≥3 antenatal care visits, by changing their attitude. The proportion of mothers who know the need for exclusive breastfeeding necessary during the initial six months significantly increased between pre- and post-interventions. The proportion of those practicing exclusive breastfeeding significantly increased between pre- and post-interventions, too. Thus, MCH Handbook is likely to have contributed to the increase in both knowledge about and practices of exclusive breastfeeding.ConclusionThe results of study imply that MCH Handbook contributed to the increase in pregnant women’s practices of ≥3 antenatal care visits and in their knowledge about and practice of exclusive breastfeeding. While there is room for improvement in the level of its data recording, the study confirmed that MCH Handbook plays a catalytic role in ensuring a continuum of maternal, newborn and child care. Note that this study is the first study that attempted to estimate pregnant women’s behavioral changes through MCH Handbook intervention in Vietnam.

Exploring the influence of context in a community-based facilitation intervention focusing on neonatal health and survival in Vietnam: a qualitative study.

BackgroundIn the Neonatal health – Knowledge into Practice (NeoKIP) trial in Vietnam, local stakeholder groups, supported by trained laywomen acting as facilitators, promoted knowledge translation (KT) resulting in decreased neonatal mortality. In general, as well as in the community-based NeoKIP trial, there is a need to further understand how context influences KT interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, the objective of this study was to explore the influence of context on the facilitation process in the NeoKIP intervention.MethodsA secondary content analysis was performed on 16 Focus Group Discussions with facilitators and participants of the stakeholder groups, applying an inductive approach to the content on context through naïve understanding and structured analysis.ResultsThe three main-categories of context found to influence the facilitation process in the NeoKIP intervention were: (1) Support and collaboration of local authorities and other communal stakeholders; (2) Incentives to, and motivation of, participants; and (3) Low health care coverage and utilization. In particular, the role of local authorities in a KT intervention was recognized as important. Also, while project participants expected financial incentives, non-financial benefits such as individual learning were considered to balance the lack of reimbursement in the NeoKIP intervention. Further, project participants recognized the need to acknowledge the needs of disadvantaged groups.ConclusionsThis study provides insight for further understanding of the influence of contextual aspects to improve effects of a KT intervention in Vietnam. We suggest that future KT interventions should apply strategies to improve local authorities’ engagement, to identify and communicate non-financial incentives, and to make disadvantaged groups a priority. Further studies to evaluate the contextual aspects in KT interventions in LMICs are also needed.