Digital Commons Network^™

Health And Socioeconomic Resource Provision For Older People In South Asian Countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan And Sri Lanka Evidence From Neesama, Natasha Roya Matthews, George James Porter, Mathew Varghese, Nidesh Sapkota, Murad Khan, Ammu Lukose, Stella-Maria Paddick, Malathie Dissanayake, Naila Zaman Khan, Richard Walker

Brain and Mind Institute

Background: The global population is ageing rapidly, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) undergoing a fast demographic transition. As the number of older adults in LMICs increases, services able to effectively address their physical and mental health needs will be increasingly important.

Objective: We review the health and socioeconomic resources currently available for older people in South Asian countries, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to identify gaps in available resources and assess areas for improvement.

Methods: We conducted a search of grey and published literature via Google Search, Compendex, EBSCO, JSTOR, Medline, Ovid, ProQuest databases, …

The Emotional Well-Being Of Menstruating Women In South Asia: A Rapid Systematic Review, Payal Patel

Master of Public Health Capstone Presentations

In South Asia, many girls and women experience period poverty which is defined to be a lack of access to or affordability of menstrual hygiene products, washing facilities, and disposal methods. There is also a lack of education and conversation that surrounds menstruation, leading to there being stigma and taboo. With an absence of Wash, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities, women and girls in South Asia are unable to change their pads safely and privately, have access to clean water, and successfully manage their hygiene and health. Apart from the lack of education and WASH facilities, there are also unfair …

Hypertension In Women: A South-Asian Perspective, Fatima Farrukh, Amin Abbasi, Misbah Jawed, Aysha Almas, Tazeen Jafar, Salim S. Virani, Zainab Samad

Medical College Documents

Introduction: Hypertension is an important contributor to cardiovascular disease related morbidity and mortality. Despite the magnitude of its negative impact on cardiovascular outcomes, treatment and control of hypertension remain suboptimal in both men and women.
Materials and methods: Numerous databases, i.e., PubMed, ScienceDirect, etc., were searched using keywords to identify relevant studies to our narrative review. The findings from the most pertinent articles were summarized and integrated into our narrative review on hypertension in women.
Results: The pathophysiology of essential hypertension is still being delineated in both men and women; there are multiple sex specific factors in association with the …

Conclusion: Comparing Women's Representation In Asian Parliaments, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This chapter explains important findings from this study while identifying common trends across Asia and the sub-regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. It examines to what degree Asian parliamentarians have prioritized substantive representation of women (SRW). It assesses whether SRW was a primary reason or motivation behind why members of parliament (MPs) entered politics in the first place and whether they viewed SRW as a pressing issue for their governments to address. MPs interviewed in this study expressed what they felt were the most important issues today that need government’s attention. MPs were asked whether they make …

Social Contributors For The Rise Of Covid-19 Infections In South Asia: A Large Cross-Sectional Survey, Zouina Sarfraz, Azza Sarfraz, Muzna Sarfraz, Nishwa Azeem, Namrata Hange, Miguel Felix, Ivan Cherrez-Ojeda

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: The ongoing global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in South Asia on 30th January 2020 in India. Ever since, certain countries have witnessed multiple waves of COVID-19, requiring attention by public health experts and strategists in the region. The objectives of this study are to assess social contributors to the recurrent waves of COVID-19 in South Asia including first demographic traits, second household characteristics and social measures, third workplace trends and personal protective equipment use, and fourth satisfaction and attitudes concerning public health measures and vaccination status. …

Community-Based Asthma Assessment In Young Children: Adaptations For A Multicentre Longitudinal Study In South Asia, Mohammad Shahidul Islam, Samin Huq, Steven Cunningham, Jurgen Schwarze, Asmd Ashraful Islam, Mashal Amin, Farrukh Raza, Benazir Baloch, Muhammad Imran Nisar, Sajid Bashir Soofi

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Systematic assessment of childhood asthma is challenging in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings due to the lack of standardised and validated methodologies. We describe the contextual challenges and adaptation strategies in the implementation of a community-based asthma assessment in four resource-constrained settings in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
Method: We followed a group of children of age 6-8 years for 12 months to record their respiratory health outcomes. The study participants were enrolled at four study sites of the 'Aetiology of Neonatal Infection in South Asia (ANISA)' study. We standardised the research methods for the sites, trained field staff …

Child Mortality In Africa And South Asia: A Multidimensional Research And Policy Framework, Rachel Kimani, Samwel Gatimu

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Globally, progress has been made to address the diagnosis and management of common and avoidable acute illnesses that contribute to child mortality. Nevertheless, regions across sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia continue to have the highest rates of mortality in children younger than 5 years, with most deaths occurring after discharge from health facilities, indicating a gap in care following hospitalisation.

Childhood Mortality During And After Acute Illness In Africa And South Asia: A Prospective Cohort Study, Childhood Acute Illness And Nutrition (Chain) Network, Abdoulaye Hama Diallo, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayeem Bin Shahid, Ali Fazal Khan, Ali Faisal Saleem, Benson O. Singa, Blaise Siezanga Gnoumou, Caroline Tigoi, Syed Asad Ali, Zaubina Kazi

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Mortality among children with acute illness in low-income and middle-income settings remains unacceptably high and the importance of post-discharge mortality is increasingly recognised. We aimed to explore the epidemiology of deaths among young children with acute illness across sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia to inform the development of interventions and improved guidelines.
Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we enrolled children aged 2-23 months with acute illness, stratified by nutritional status defined by anthropometry (ie, no wasting, moderate wasting, or severe wasting or kwashiorkor), who were admitted to one of nine hospitals in six countries across sub-Saharan Africa and …

A Note On The Relationship Between Covid-19 And Stock Market Return: Evidence From South Asia, Md Arafat Rahman, Md Mohsan Khudri, Muhammad Kamran, Pakeezah Butt

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose:

The transformation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from a regional health crisis in a Chinese city to a global pandemic has caused severe damage not only to the natural and economic lives of human beings but also to the financial markets. The rapidly pervading and daunting consequences of COVID-19 spread have plummeted the stock markets to their lowest levels in many decades especially in South Asia. This concern motivates us to investigate the stock markets’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This study aims to investigate the causal impact of …

An Epidemiological, Strategic And Response Analysis Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In South Asia: A Population-Based Observational Study, Hafiz Muhammad Salman, Javaria Syed, Atif Riaz, Zouina Sarfraz, Azza Sarfraz, Syed Hashim Abbas Ali Bokhari, Ivan Cherrez Ojeda

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Introduction: South Asia has had a dynamic response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The overall burden and response have remained comparable across highly-burdened countries within the South Asian Region.
Methodology: Using a population-based observational design, all eight South Asian countries were analyzed using a step-wise approach. Data were obtained from government websites and publicly-available repositories for population dynamics and key variables.
Results: South Asian countries have a younger average age of their population. Inequitable distribution of resources centered in urban metropolitan cities within South Asia is present. Certain densely populated regions in these countries have better testing and healthcare facilities …

Sweet Asceticism: An Ethnographic Study Of Female Renouncers In The Chaitanya Vaiṣṇava Tradition, Leena Taneja

All Works

This paper is based on an ethnographic study which aims to examine female asceticism in the Chaitanya Vaishnava sect, a Hindu devotional school found in the region of Vrindavan in Northwest India. Asceticism, meaning to renounce worldly life, is deeply rooted in Hindu practice. Yet, despite its wide acceptance, female asceticism has remained on the margins of Hindu religious experience. Despite the lack of a model of asceticism for women, scripturally and sociologically, female ascetics are a growing religious group in India. This paper seeks to use empirical data collected during two years of fieldwork to examine how asceticism is …

A Mediation Analysis Of The Role Of Girl Child Marriage In The Relationship Between Proximity To Conflict And Past-Year Intimate Partner Violence In Post-Conflict Sri Lanka, Ruvani W. Fonseka, Lotus Mcdougal, Anita Raj, Elizabeth Reed, Rebecka Lundgren, Lianne Urada, Jay G. Silverman

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background
Studies from many contexts indicate that proximity to conflict is associated with increased likelihood of intimate partner violence (IPV), and girl child marriage is associated with both proximity to conflict and increased IPV. In this study, we consider whether girl child marriage acts as a mediator of the association between proximity to conflict and IPV in the context of Sri Lanka, which sustained long-term conflict until 2009.
Methods
We analyzed responses of currently partnered women between ages 18 and 49 in the 2016 Sri Lankan Demographic and Health Survey (N = 13,691). Using logistic regression analyses, we measured associations …

Does Proximity To Conflict Zones Moderate Associations Between Girl Child Marriage, Intimate Partner Violence, And Contraception In Postconflict Sri Lanka?, Ruvani W. Fonseka, Lotus Mcdougal, Anita Raj, Elizabeth Reed, Rebecka Lundgren, Lianne Urada, Jay G. Silverman

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Women’s primary contraceptive method type is impacted by the gender inequities of girl child marriage and intimate partner violence (IPV). Outside of South Asia, proximity to conflict zones has been found to impact contraceptive use, girl child marriage, and IPV, possibly moderating associations between these variables. We created multinomial regression models using the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey data from postconflict Sri Lanka to study associations between primary contraceptive method type (modern spacing methods, sterilization, and traditional methods compared to no method) and the gender inequities of girl child marriage and past year sexual, physical, and emotional IPV and to …

Clinical Characteristics And Prognostic Factors Of Atrial Fibrillation At A Tertiary Center Of Pakistan – From A South-Asian Perspective – A Cross-Sectional Study, Intisar Ahmed, Aiysha Nasir, Pirbhat Shams, Hunaina Shahab, Muhammad Hassan, Faryal Subhani, Ghurfan Adnan, Awais Farhad, Aamir Hameed, Yawer Saeed

Section of Cardiology

Background: There is lack of large data from South-Asian region on atrial fibrillation and it is imperative that clinical presentation, prognostic factors, management pursued, and outcomes are known for this part of the world. Once collective evidence for the region is known, region-specific guidelines can be laid forward.
Objectives: To evaluate clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of atrial fibrillation at a tertiary care center of Pakistan.
Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted at a tertiary care center of Pakistan. Period of study ranged from July-December 2018. All hospitalized patients who were admitted with atrial fibrillation as a primary or …