Poorest Provinces Research Articles

High prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths among primary students in Ha Giang, Vietnam: A descriptive cross-sectional study.

Despite improvements in environmental sanitation and healthcare, the infection rate of soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) remains high in low socioeconomic regions of developing countries including Vietnam. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and intensity of STH infections among primary school children in Meo Vac, Ha Giang: a poor mountainous province in Vietnam. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from October to November 2023, involving 400 participants. The Kato-Katz method was used to identify and quantify STH infections. Out of the 386 children assessed, 76.1% were infected with at least 1 type of STH. The most common infections were with Trichuris trichiura and Ascaris lumbricoides (47.0%). Mixed infections were identified in 121 children, with 77 cases of co-infection with A lumbricoides and T trichiura, 13 cases of A lumbricoides and hookworms, 8 cases of T trichiura and hookworms, and 23 cases involving all 3 STH types. Most infections were of light intensity, with a few moderate-intensity cases of A lumbricoides. Primary school students in Meo Vac, Ha Giang, Vietnam, continue to experience high infection rates of STHs in 2023. The majority of infections were of light intensity. To address this issue, government efforts should focus on educating the public about STH causes, transmission routes, and negative impacts. Improving personal and environmental hygiene and ensuring access to clean water are essential measures.

The impact of regional poverty on public health expenditure efficacy across South Africa's provinces: investigating the influence of historical economic factors on health.

More than half of South Africa's population lives in poverty, with significant health disparities across different regions. This study investigates the effects of regional poverty and historical economic factors on the efficacy of public health expenditure to understand how socioeconomic contexts influence overall public health outcomes. Our study utilized annual data from 2005 to 2019 for 9 provinces, drawing from the General Household Survey, Health Systems Trust database, and National Treasury's Intergovernmental Fiscal Review. The primary health outcome was life expectancy at birth, while public health expenditure per capita was the main independent variable. We developed the Provincial Index of Multiple Deprivation to assess poverty, incorporating dimensions such as health, education, and living standards. We employed a two-way fixed effects model to examine the complex relationships between regional poverty, public health spending, and health outcomes. The study found that poverty levels moderate the impact of public health spending on health outcomes, as evidenced by varying results across different provincial regions. Health outcomes in poorer provinces were less influenced by public health spending than wealthier regions. Additionally, the study established that income per capita, along with its lagged values and the lagged values of public health expenditure per capita, did not significantly affect health outcomes as measured by life expectancy. The impact of health expenditure in South Africa is influenced by regional poverty levels. To maximize the effectiveness of health spending, equitable, region-specific interventions tailored to address the unique health challenges of each area should be implemented.

The Digital Silk Road between National Rhetoric and Provincial Ambitions

Abstract The Digital Silk Road (DSR) is usually described as the digital component of the Belt and Road Initiative that is reshaping the digital world order. Most existing research is concerned with the possible long-term consequences of the DSR rather than on what the DSR encompasses, how it developed and how it has changed since it was announced in 2015. We address this gap by reconstructing the origins of the DSR within China, with a focus on both rhetoric and concrete plans as they developed between central and provincial actors. We collected and analysed a corpus of 31 national and 130 provincial DSR-related plans. In contrast to prevailing views of the DSR as a unified, outward-facing strategy, we show that after an initial surge of related documents, the central government ceased to discuss the DSR in a meaningful way. Provincial governments then appropriated its rhetoric to legitimize their own digitization agendas, including upgrading infrastructure in poorer provinces and remaining plugged into export markets for those with an IT industry. Rather than reshaping the digital world order, the DSR has been appropriated by some provincial governments to attempt, mostly unsuccessfully, to shore up their own digital ambitions.

Decolonisation and South African Psychology research 30 years after democracy

On the occasion of 30 years of South African democracy, we reflect on the current state of Psychology research in South Africa. We conducted a situational analysis of all papers appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology ( SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over the last 5 years and compared the results with a previous review that used the same methodology. Findings show an increase in papers using ‘hard’ science approaches and a decrease in systems-oriented theories. Assessment remains a major topic. While COVID-19 and climate change featured, there remains a lack of or low focus on several key psycho-social issues experienced by South Africans. People living in poorer provinces and young and older people are under-represented in knowledge production. Collaborations or comparisons with other African or South American countries have decreased. Positively, production is being spearheaded by South African scholars or people affiliated with South African institutions. Using a decolonising lens that foregrounds epistemic justice, we conclude that substantial work remains to be done for knowledge production in South African Psychology to fulfil the decolonising imperative of distributive epistemic justice.

Mother Africa: The long run effects of income shocks on fertility

We revisit the effect of long run income growth on population fertility in some of the poorest countries in the world. Causal inference is enabled through proxying income windfalls by oil price shocks in oil rich versus oil poor provinces. We find that long run income growth, following oil windfalls, significantly and robustly reduces fertility in oil producing provinces. To explain these results, we document that oil windfalls have translated to higher incomes in oil-producing provinces promoting parents to invest in the human capital of their children, in terms of acquiring more schooling and delaying girls’ age of marriage. Investing in women's education has persisted over the long-run causing a further delay in the age of first marriage and the giving of first birth.

Equalization through the People’s Republic of China’s Intergovernmental Fiscal System: The Effectiveness of Central and Provincial Transfers

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) fiscal system is characterized by very high expenditure decentralization and heavy reliance on transfers to finance public services. The government’s embrace of inclusiveness and equalization as national goals has raised questions about whether transfers can deliver equalization. This paper seeks to answer this question by analyzing newly available fiscal data compiled from government websites. We find the allocation of central transfers remains strongly region based, resulting in high intra-regional inequality among provinces. Poorer provinces also tend to retain more central transfers at their own (provincial) level. Those provinces with greater pretransfer inequality tend to exert greater equalization efforts, but these are not necessarily proportional to their pretransfer inequality. As a result, some localities are left out of the PRC’s countrywide equalization program. These equalization patterns remained highly persistent during the coronavirus disease shock in 2020. Collectively, the findings highlight that the PRC’s complex intergovernmental fiscal system still poses challenges for equalization.

Is the coupling and coordination of economic, social and environmental development crucial to the governance of relative poverty?

As the primary goal of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), poverty eradication is still one of the major challenges faced by countries around the world, and relative poverty is a comprehensive poverty pattern triggered by the superposition of economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Therefore, Therefore, this paper introduces the perspective of coupled coordination to consider the formation of relative poverty, constructs indicators in three major dimensions: economic, social, and environmental, proposes a fast and more accurate method of identifying relative poverty in a region by using machine learning, measures the degree of coupled coordination of China's relatively poor provinces using a coupled coordination model and analyzes the relationship with the level of relative poverty, and puts forward suggestions for poverty management on this basis using typology classification. The results of the study show that: 1) the fusion of data crawlers, remote sensing space, and other multi-source data to construct the dataset and propose a fast and efficient regional relative poverty identification method based on big data with low comprehensive cost and high identification accuracy of 0.914. 2) Currently, 70.83% of the economic-social-environmental systems of the relatively poor regions are in the dysfunctional type and are in a state of disordered development and malignant constraints. The regions showing coupling disorders are mainly clustered in the three southern prefectures of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and Sichuan, and their spatial distribution is relatively concentrated. 3) The types of poverty and their coupled and coordinated development in each region show large spatial variability, requiring differentiated poverty eradication countermeasures tailored to local conditions to achieve sustainable regional economic-social-environmental development.

Spatial Patterns of Piped Water and Sanitation in Rural Vietnam: An Application of Small Area Estimation

Diarrhea is one of the main causes of mortality for under five-year-old children, and this disease can be attributed to deficient hygiene, sanitation, and water supply. Detailed data on piped water and sanitation is very important for targeting, monitoring, and evaluating antipoverty programs. In this study, using a small area estimation method, we estimate per capita expenditure, the poverty rate, and the rates of households with piped water, improved latrines, and hand washing with soap at the provincial and district level in rural Vietnam. It shows that poorer provinces and districts tend to have remarkably lower access to piped water and improved latrine. Provinces in the Northern Mountain and Central Highlands have the lowest proportion of access to piped water and sanitation. There is a great spatial variation in poverty and access to water and sanitation. Within the same provinces, the level of poverty and access to water and sanitation varies largely across districts.

Improving the Efficacy and Safety of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy by Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Randomized Controlled Study of Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer with a Large Tumor

In the present study, we conducted a prospective randomized trial to compare the efficacy and safety of TP-based NACT+CCRT vs. CCRT in LACC patients with large tumor masses. The majority of the participants in this study came from Guizhou, China's poorest province. Because of financial and healthcare constraints, most cervical cancer patients in this region are in an advanced stage and have a sizeable local mass when they are admitted. Our study showed that compared to CCRT, NACT+CCRT might could improve the treatment completion rate, increase CR and OS, and distant metastases and radiation-related adverse effects for LACC patients with large tumor masses. However, further validation of this result requires extended follow-up periods. The complete response (CR) rate of patients in the NACT+CCRT group was significantly higher than in the CCRT group (87.7%vs 67.6%, X2 = 54.540, P = 0.000). In the NACT+CCRT group, the 1- and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates were significantly higher than those in the CCRT group (96% vs 89% and 89% vs 79%, X2 = 5.737, P = 0.017). Additionally, the rate of recurrences and distant metastases was significantly lower in the NACT+CCRT group than in the CCRT group (4.11% vs 7.35%, X2 = 4.059, P = 0.021). Most treatment-related adverse events in both groups were grade 3, with the CCRT group having a considerably greater occurrence than the NACT+CCRT group. From the above results we found that Compared to CCRT, NACT+CCRT might could improve the treatment completion rate, increase CR rate and 1- and 2-year OS rates, and reduce distant metastases rate and adverse effects for LACC patients with large tumor masses. The majority of the participants in this study came from Guizhou, China's poorest province. Because of financial and healthcare constraints, most cervical cancer patients in this region are in an advanced stage and have a sizeable local mass when they are admitted. Our study showed that compared to CCRT, NACT+CCRT might could improve the treatment completion rate, increase CR and OS, and distant metastases and radiation-related adverse effects for LACC patients with large tumor masses. However, further validation of this result requires extended follow-up periods.

Analysis of The Allocation of Special Autonomy Funds in Infrastructure, Education and Health as The Areas With The Largest Allocation to Poverty Levels in Aceh

Aceh's poverty rate is still high enough to make Aceh the fifth poorest province in Indonesia. This is a concern because Aceh received additional transfer funds in the form of Special Autonomy Funds which are used for seven areas, namely, infrastructure maintenance and development, people's economic empowerment, poverty alleviation, education, social, health, and Aceh. However, of these seven areas, the areas that received the largest allocation were infrastructure, education, and health, while the other fields tended to get relatively small allocations. Nevertheless, infrastructure, education, and health continue to have an influence on poverty. For this reason, this study aims to determine how the influence of infrastructure, education, and health as fields that have a large allocation of funds in the Special Autonomy Fund on poverty levels. This study used panel data from 22 districts/cities in Aceh in the 2014-2021 research period. This study used regression panel fixed effect model data to see the estimated results. The results of this study show that the allocation of Special Autonomy Fund in infrastructure, education, and health has not significantly affected poverty rates in Aceh.

Inequality in electricity consumption and economic growth: Evidence from a small area estimation study.

Our study uses a small area estimation method to estimate the average and inequality of per capita kWh consumption for small areas in Vietnam. It shows evidence of a large spatial heterogeneity in the electric power consumption between districts and provinces in Vietnam. Households in the mountains and highlands consumed remarkably less electricity than those in the delta and coastal areas. Notably, we find a U-shaped relationship between the inequality of electricity consumption and economic levels in Vietnam. In poor districts and provinces, there is very high inequality in electricity consumption. Inequality is lower in middle-income districts and provinces.

The Potential Relationship Between Income Inequality and Environmental Quality in Iran: The Panel Quantile Regression Approach

This paper addresses the relationship between income inequality and environmental quality in the agriculture sector as the most related sector to the environment. In this context, we used a panel data set for 28 provinces of Iran during 2003-2017 and implemented panel quantile regression. To choose the best econometric specification the Taylor diagram is used. To explore whether the effect on income inequality on CO2 emission is different for rich and poor provinces, we consider the GINI × GDP interaction term in the model. Results confirmed that EKC in the agriculture sector of Iran, and a major and significant effect of energy consumption on CO2 emission. Findings indicated a threshold per capita income ($ 17.60 thousand) from which the effect of income inequality on carbon emissions changes. Based on these results, Marginal Properties to Emit (MPE) is more significant for poor people in low-income provinces than rich ones. Therefore, the government should adopt appropriate policies to increase the income of farmers so that the policy of income distribution, along with social justice, also improves the quality of the environment.

Coverage of safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene: An application of small area estimation

Disaggregated information on welfare indicators is useful for targeted policies. This study constructs geographic maps of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for provinces and districts in Vietnam (which has 63 provinces and 712 districts). The study finds that poorer provinces and districts tend to have remarkably lower access to safely managed sanitation and water. Provinces in the Northern Midlands and Mountain Areas, and Central Highlands have the lowest level of access to safely managed sanitation and drinking water. There is a great variation in the availability of WASH facilities between districts within the same provinces. Additionally, the study highlights that districts with a higher population of ethnic minorities tend to experience lower rates of access to safely managed sanitation and drinking water. Even within the same district, moreover, ethnic minorities face greater challenges in accessing safely managed sanitation and drinking water compared to the majority Kinh population.

Short-term outcomes of hepatic resection at a newly established HPB unit in a resource poor province of Pakistan

Short-term outcomes of hepatic resection at a newly established HPB unit in a resource poor province of Pakistan

Evolution of Multidimensional Poverty in Crisis-Ridden Mozambique

Mozambique experienced important reductions in the poverty rate until recently, before two major natural disasters hit, an armed insurgency stroke in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and the country started suffering from a hidden debt crisis with associated economic slowdown. As the last available national household expenditure survey is from 2014/15, just before these crises started unfolding, there is need for a poverty assessment based on alternative data sources. We study the evolution of multidimensional poverty in Mozambique using survey data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Using both the standard Alkire–Foster multidimensional poverty index and the first-order dominance (FOD) method, we find that the multidimensional poverty reduction trend observed between 2009–11 and 2015 halted between 2015 and 2018. Meanwhile, the number of poor people increased, mainly in rural areas and in the central provinces. Importantly, the poorest provinces did not improve their rankings over time, and between 2015 and 2018, no progress took place for most areas and provinces, as measured by the FOD approach.

Chinese Interprovincial Income Disparity via Regional Mobility Dynamics

The growth paths in China diverge widely between the rich coastal and poor inland provinces. As a result, the impact of institutional effects on reducing provincial disparity in terms of the “Go West” policies implemented in the early-2000s appears to be based on the biased cultural attitudes of elites. In this study, the provincial disparity is studied from the perspective of regional mobility dynamics from 1993 to 2016 employing the X-convergence technique. With regards to findings, the study reveals the predominance of divergence among thirty-one provinces from 1993 until 2005 and convergence during 2005–2014. However, within the low-income group of provinces, the convergence started predominating after 2008. This suggests that some of the poorest of the poor provinces began to grow faster to catch up with the rest only from 2008, and therefore, the decline in regional disparity truly happened from 2008 which could be the result of “Go West” policy implementation in the early-2000s. Another important finding of this study is the prevalence of persistence between the income groups indicating rich provinces remain rich and poor remain poor. The implications of this study are particularly important for regional decision making in planning for economic cohesion.

Vjera i praznovjerje u Morlaka Cetinske krajine u 18. stoljeću

In the 18th century, Dalmatia was a poor province of the once strong Venetian Republic, on whose territory some of the largest and most destructive Venetian-Ottoman wars were fought. These wars changed the territory, population, customs and religion. The population of Dalmatia, specifically Dalmatian Zagora (Hinterland), also endured that period, while also firmly defending their material, social, cultural and spiritual well-being. The Morlach population lived in their spirituality by believing in the Christian God, but also by practicing a variety of superstitious customs.

Spatial Differences and Socioeconomic Determinants of Health Poverty

The study aims to develop health poverty index (HPI) using the Alkire Foster (AF) Method for Pakistan based on district representative data obtained from Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) 2012-13. Using HPI, this study investigates the spatial differences of health poverty at sub-national level and explores the socioeconomic determinants. The analysis reveals that the headcount health poverty is 41 percent in Pakistan. Further, the ratio is very high in rural areas (50 percent) as compared to urban areas (22 percent). Provincial analysis shows that Punjab is the least poor province (36 percent) while Balochistan is the poorest province (62 percent). The majority of the households are deprived in term of cost of health services, post-natal care and child immunisation. Empirical analysis shows that income, regional variation, education and awareness play very important role in explaining health poverty. To eradicate health deprivation, area and dimension specific policies are required to make efficient use of scarce resources. JEL Classification: I12, I32, J18 Keywords: Health Poverty, Spatial Analysis, Alkire Foster Method

MÔ HÌNH HỖ TRỢ GIÁO DỤC HÒA NHẬP CHO TRẺ KHUYẾT TẬT TẠI TỈNH QUẢNG NGÃI

The research was done to find models to support vocational education for children with disabilities that are interested in scientists in the field both domestic and international sites in order to maximize mobilization and ensure quality learning for these children in schools. Quang Ngai is a poor province in Vietnam with a relatively high number of children with disabilities and limited access to inclusive education in preschools and high schools. In order to accompany Quang Ngai province to realize the identified goals of educating children with disabilities in the National Strategy of Education 2011-2020, the CBM Organization (Federal Republic of Germany) has sponsored the Project to support inclusive education for children with disabilities with consultation from the Faculty of Special Education - Hanoi National University of Education, period 2016 to the end of 2021. The article briefly presents the results of theoretical research as a basis for the design of a theoretical model, focusing on introducing a model to support inclusive education for children with disabilities which was implemented in the practice of Quang Ngai province during and after the Project implementation from 2016 to the end of December 2021.

Availability of Physical Rehabilitation Facilities for People with Disabilities in Iran: A Comparative Study on Universal Health Coverage.

Iran, like many other countries, has committed to providing universal and equal access to health care and rehabilitation for people with disabilities by joining the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Thus, this study aimed to examine the availability of rehabilitation facilities on national and sub-national levels. This cross-sectional study was conducted between May and December 2019. The data of rehabilitation facilities including infrastructure and rehabilitation workforce in health system settings were obtained using rehabilitation master list. The data were collected from the Vice-Chancellor for the Treatment Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the Rehabilitation of the State Welfare Organization, and Licensing and Planning the Medical Council in the 32 provinces of Iran and analyzed using Excel version 2016. On the national level, the following situation was found: in inpatient settings: 1.1 beds per million population; in outpatient settings: physiotherapy 42.6, optometry 16.4, audiology 10.5,occupational therapy 8.2, speech therapy 8.1, orthotic & prosthetic 4.5, physical medicine & rehabilitation 3.8 centers; day-care centers 11.7 and rehabilitation centers 1.3 centers, community-based rehabilitation (CBR): 15.9 units, rehabilitation home care 2 centers, rehabilitation nursing home care 1.6 centers and medical rehabilitation home care 0.3; Long-term care centers: residential care 4.1 centers per million population. Regarding rehabilitation work force: physiotherapists 84, speech therapists 34.8, occupational therapists 32.5, optometrists 31.2, audiologists 27.9, prosthetists and orthotists 10.3 therapists and physical medicine & rehabilitation 5.1 specialists per million populations. On the sub-national level, there were no outpatient rehabilitation centers in 12 of the provinces and the distribution of day rehabilitation centers in the rich provinces was 10 times higher. The number of CBR units, rehabilitation home care and rehabilitation nursing home were 40, 22, and 23 times higher in rich provinces than in poor provinces, respectively and there were no medical rehabilitation home care centers in 21 provinces. Regarding long-term care, the residential care centers in the richest province were 8 times higher. According to the WHO report and the rehabilitation expert panel, it was concluded that the number of rehabilitation facilities including rehabilitation centers and workforce was limited in Iran and that the available centers were also poorly distributed in the provinces of the country. This made it difficult for people to have fair access to rehabilitation services. It appears that health policymakers should pay special attention to further developing rehabilitation facilities.