I. List of studies that faculties of the Health Management System Dept. involved as researchers:

1. "Home-based care and support for people living with HIV in Danang city", in collaboration with the Vietnam Public health Association, supported by Atlantic Philanthropies. This is a semi-experimental research using both quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the impacts of this home-based care and support model. The research will be conducted in 3 stages: before, during, and after intervention, scheduled over a duration of 2 years. Participatory approach is part of the design to get data from both program implementors and beneficiaries.
2.  Measuring Women's and Children's Passive Cigarette Smoking: part of an international research project initiated by John Hopkins University to find out the extent and all factors of passive smoking in women and children. Vietnam is one of 31 countries selected to participate in this research, and the Department worked with the Vietnam Association of Public Health in conducting standard interviews and measuring the nicotin concentration in the air and hair of women and children in 40 randomly selected households with children of from 3 months to 10 years of age in Thai Binh city. Data and samples were sent to John Hopkins for analysis.
3. A combination between community based-survey and ethnographic research: Health seeking behaviors among women with Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs) in Chilinh, Hai Duong, Vietnam

BACKGROUND: A community-based survey in 2000 conducted by the Hanoi School of Public Health with 378 women revealed a heavy clinical disease burden of (RTIs) (42.6%) for women in Chi Linh, Hai Duong. Objectives of the study are to describe the health seeking behaviors among women with RTIs in Chi Linh, to explore the contextual factors that contribute to their RTIs and shape their patterns of RTI treatment to provide insight recommendations for improving the quality of RTIs treatment and prevention services in Chi Linh.

METHODS: The study combined ethnographic research with an in-depth analysis of relevant survey data from the survey in 2000. The ethnographic research was conducted with different subjects such as women, men, health staff from district and commune levels in Chi Linh. Different ethnographic techniques such as free listing, pile sorting, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 22 married women aged from 18-49.

FINDINGS

- Among 72 women of 378 in total reported experiencing symptoms, only 36% them sought care either from public health sector (e.g. in commune or district health centers) (33.2%) or private doctors (2.8%).

- This finding also matches with what the ethnographic research found that women did not seek treatment because of the lack of recognition of RTIs and their perception that vaginal discharge or pelvic discomfort was a natural occurrence.

- Other contextual factors such as poor quality of health services, inappropriate health education, time constrain, poverty and gender inequity are barriers that contribute to women’s poor utilization of health services.

- This study also revealed some significant associated factors with RTIs such as the use of sanitary pad during menstrual period (OR=1.7) and working in the water (OR=8).

RECOMENDATIONS

- Improve health education programs in order to change incorrect beliefs and practices. This will help to increase the need for timely medical examination and treatment. Apart from women, men also need to be a targeted group for advocacy campaign. RTIs counseling should integrate with other counseling services.

- It is necessary to assess the implementation of family planning programs so that people do not rely on health campaigns which can lead to late presentation.

- Strengthen capacity building for health staff by providing them with effective training which integrates theory and practice. Promote sharing information and skills among staff at district and commune levels.

4. Client satisfaction with reproductive health-care quality: integrating business approaches to modeling and measurement

Health-care managers are increasingly interested in client perceptions of clinic service quality and satisfaction. While tremendous progress has occurred, additional perspectives on the conceptualization, modeling and measurement of these constructs may further assist health-care managers seeking to provide high-quality care. To that end, this studydraws on theories from business and health to develop an integrated model featuring antecedents to and consequences of reproductive health-care client satisfaction. In addition to developing a new model, this study contributes by testing how well Western-based theories of client satisfaction hold in a developing Asian country. Applied to urban, reproductive health clinic users in Hanoi, Vietnam, test results suggest that hypothesized antecedents such as pre-visit expectations, perceived clinic performance and how much performance exceeds expectations impact client satisfaction.However, the relative importance of these predictors appears to vary depending on a client’s level of service-related experience. Finally, higher levels of client satisfaction are positively related to future clinic use intentions. This study demonstrates the value of: (1) incorporating theoretical perspectives from multiple disciplines to model processes underlying health-care satisfaction and (2) field testing those models before implementation. It also furthers research designed to provide health-care managers with actionable measures of the complex processes related to their clients’ satisfaction.

II. List of studies that faculties of the Health Management System Dept. involved as research team members:

1. Survey on Adolescent Health in Gia Lam, Hanoi: Audio-Computer Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) application for adolescent health research supported by Ford Foundation
2. “Advocacy Assessment of the Reproductive Health Projects in 8 provinces” supported by Pathfinder International, Ipas and Engender Health.
3. “Reducing the social acceptability of smoking in Vietnam” project in collaboration with the PATH Canada supported by Atlantic Philanthropies
4. “Needs and Supply Assessment on the HIV/AIDS counseling in Lang Son and Hai Phong in 1999”
5. “Situation analysis in Reproductive health sector in Vietnam” funded by UNFPA. 1999-2000