International Public Health Commons^™

The Associations Of Physical Activity And Sedentary Behavior With Self-Rated Health In Chinese Children And Adolescents, Yahan Liang, Youzhi Ke, Yang Liu

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

Objective

The study aimed to analyze the independent and joint associations of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) with self-rated health (SRH) among Chinese children and adolescents.

Methods

Cross-sectional data on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), school-based PA, extracurricular physical activity (EPA), screen time (ST), homework time, and SRH were assessed through a self-report questionnaire in the sample of 4227 Chinese children and adolescents aged 13.04 ± 2.62 years. Binary logistic regression was used to compare gender differences in PA, SB, and SRH among children and adolescents, and analyses were adjusted for age and ethnicity.

Results

In independent associations, boys …

The Correlation Between Vaccine Hesitancy And Privilege: Exploring The Degree To Which Education And Income Foster Resistance To Vaccination Efforts, Sophie Goldenberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Vaccine hesitancy is a public health issue of growing concern. Extensive pre-existing literature offers several explanations and conflicting viewpoints regarding reluctance toward vaccinations. However, minimal research has been done exploring the upstream social determinants driving vaccine hesitancy. Utilizing academic and gray literature and interviews with experts in the field, this study addresses this gap in knowledge with the research question: To what extent does privilege impact vaccine hesitancy and resistance? Vaccine hesitancy appears globally and is particularly concerning given the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Additionally, due to inconsistent causes, vaccine hesitancy is difficult to combat. In referencing the history …

Implementation Of A Drive-Through Covid-19 Mass Vaccination Site: Experiences From Louvax–Broadbent In Louisville, Kentucky, Ruth Carrico, Sarah Beth Hartlage, Valenchia Brown Msn, Aprn, Fnp-C, Sarah M. Bishop, Luanne Didelot, William Hayden, Beverly Williams Coleman, Sarah Tan, Delanor Manson, Kellie Kane, Dawn Balcom, Paul Kern

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Background: Response to the COVID-19 pandemic has required innovative approaches to vaccination, including methods to rapidly and safely immunize communities. A major challenge to such a response involved access to untapped healthcare worker resources. The Louisville, Kentucky, response involved the use of a large volunteer workforce to supplement local public health employees in planning and implementing a large-scale drive-through vaccination event. The objective of this manuscript was to outline processes involved in training a mass immunization workforce and implementating a large-scale COVID-19 community vaccination.

Approach: Competency-based and standardized training was provided for every volunteer before working their shift. Volunteers worked …

Effect Of Living Arrangements On Cognitive Function In Chinese Elders: A Longitudinal Observational Study, Yanwei Lin, Qi Zhang, Tingxian Wang, Zhirong Zeng

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Objective To examine how living arrangement as a social contextual factor can affect Chinese elders’ cognitive function.

Setting and participants Our sample consists of 2486 Chinese elders from two waves (2014 and 2018) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) that was administered in 22 of China’s 31 provinces using a multi-stage, disproportionate, purposive random sampling method. The CLHLS aims to better understand the determinants of healthy longevity in China and collects extensive data on a large population of fragile elders aged 80–112 in China.

Outcome measures Cognitive function was measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Living arrangement …

More Than Brides Alliance—Marriage: No Child’S Play, Endline Evaluation Brief, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief summarizes key results from the endline evaluation of the More than Brides Alliance (MTBA) project “Marriage: No Child’s Play” (MNCP) in India, Malawi, Mali, and Niger. The MTBA consists of partners Save the Children Netherlands, Simavi, Oxfam Novib, and the Population Council, along with 25 local implementing partners. The MNCP project—which took place from 2016 to 2020—aimed at being holistic and targeting pathways to child marriage on multiple levels simultaneously, treating communities as either having the full MNCP package or no intervention. The Population Council’s MNCP evaluation was designed to estimate program impact and trends among girls at …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Instruction Guide [Arabic], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

English Summary:
The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, engage stakeholders at different levels and with different viewpoints, and build concrete and meaningful programming for adolescent girls. The toolkit contains all the materials needed to help make a preliminary assessment of the assets a girl should acquire and the age by which she should acquire them. This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s List of …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Arabic], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

[In Arabic] The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, engage stakeholders at different levels and with different viewpoints, and build concrete and meaningful programming for adolescent girls.

This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s Asset Cards (110), set of Age Cards (age 6 to 20), and Program Planning Worksheet (sample provided). The Age Cards are to be printed out and placed according to the instructions. The …

Bangladesh: Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices & Needs—Responses From Three Rounds Of Data Collection Among Adolescent Girls In Districts With High Rates Of Child Marriage, Sajeda Amin, Ubaidur Rob, Sigma Ainul, Md. Irfan Hossain, Forhana Rahman Noor, Iqbal Ehsan, Mehnaz Manzur

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

From April 20–30, 2020, during a nationwide lockdown, the Population Council Bangladesh conducted the first round of a rapid phone-based survey on COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The survey randomly selected girls who had provided phone numbers during enrollment in a skills-building program that began before the pandemic. The survey’s objective was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent lives and to design programs that would contribute to protecting girls and meet social distancing guidelines imposed by the government. Phone interviews were conducted with 479 girls living in the districts of Chapainawabganj, Kushtia, and Sherpur who were participants in …

Building Assets For Humanitarian Settings, Women's Refugee Commission, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document is the Women’s Refugee Commission and the Population Council’s adaptation of the Building Assets Toolkit and its core activity, the Asset Exercise, for use in humanitarian contexts. An asset-building exercise is a thoughtful way to build intentional program content for girls to determine what assets they need in order to survive and thrive. This is particularly important for programs intended to reach the poorest girls in the poorest communities based on sound evidence on the reality of their lives. The Council’s Building Assets Toolkit is rooted in this exercise, helping practitioners, policymakers, and advocates build tailored, meaningful, …

Adolescent Girls Initiative–Kenya: Endline Evaluation Report, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Beth Kangwana, Nicole Maddox, Yohannes Dibaba Wado, Benta Abuya, Valsa Shah, John A. Maluccio

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Early pregnancy is a challenge for girls in Kenya that often has immediate effects on their educational opportunities, future implications for their social, health, and economic outcomes, and negative impacts on their children. For girls to achieve well-being in early and late adolescence, no single-sector intervention—whether education, health, wealth creation, or prevention of violence—will be adequate. The Adolescent Girls Initiative–Kenya (AGI-K) delivered multisectoral interventions to over 6,000 girls aged 11–15 in two marginalized areas of Kenya: the Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi and Wajir County in Northeastern Kenya. These interventions were carried out for two years (2015–17) and comprised a …

Bangladesh: Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices And Needs, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

No abstract provided.

Adapting The Asset Exercise For Humanitarian Contexts, Women's Refugee Commission, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

As a guiding program theory, asset-building centers on the idea that skills, knowledge, relationships, and concrete resources can all constitute assets, or “stores of value,” that girls can, in turn, mobilize to make healthy choices, seek support, navigate institutions, and access entitlements. This approach is inherently multisectoral, rooted in a commitment to prioritize understanding of and respond to the diversity of girls’ needs, capacities, and experiences. The Asset Exercise operationalizes the concept of “asset-building” into concrete terms. The exercise consists of a deck of 100 “asset cards,” and eight “age cards.” Asset cards reflect both intrinsic qualities, concrete knowledge, and …

Associations Between Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting And Early/Child Marriage: A Multi-Country Dhs/Mics Analysis, Jamlick Karumbi, David Gathara

Reproductive Health

Over the last several decades, global efforts to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) have intensified through the combined efforts of international and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and religious and civil society groups. Evidence of the wider impacts of FGM/C and interventions for its abandonment is small but emerging. The practice of FGM/C has frequently been linked to a girl’s marriageability and is thought to be associated with child marriage, either directly, as a cause of early/child marriage, or vice versa, or indirectly, resulting from common causes. Evidence of the relationships between these two practices to inform programming and policy for …

The Perception, Usage, And Knowledge Of Moringa Oleifera In Mare-Brignol, Haiti After Increased Education And Access, Preethashree Anbukkarasu, Phillip Saad, Nichika R. Holdrum, Chinelo Germain, Leticia Ebihara, Archi Patel

Digital Repository: Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence

No abstract provided.

« More Than Brides Alliance (Mtba) » : Rapport D’Évaluation À Mi-Parcours Au Mali Et Au Niger, Andrea J. Melnikas, Grace Saul, Mouhamadou Gueye, Aissa Diarra, Sajeda Amin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

L’Alliance « Plus qu’une épouse » (More Than Brides Alliance—MTBA) a été formée, rassemblant les forces d’une équipe diversifiée, compétente pour la mise en œuvre et la recherche de programmes destinés aux adolescents. Le volet recherche de l’Alliance MTBA vise à fournir des preuves et des connaissances sur ce qui fonctionne pour retarder le mariage des enfants en Inde, au Malawi, au Mali, au Niger et au Pakistan en évaluant le programme d’intervention de l’Alliance MTBA et en examinant les facteurs spécifiques du mariage des enfants dans chaque contexte. Dans ce rapport, nous visons à évaluer les succès du programme …

Examining Early Marriage In India: Qualitative Findings, Neelanjana Pandey, Komal Saxena, Andrea J. Melnikas

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The More Than Brides Alliance (MTBA) implements the “Marriage: No Child’s Play” program (2016–20) in India, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Pakistan. The MTBA is a holistic program that addresses early marriage through multiple strategies, including: sexual and reproductive health and rights, livelihoods, education, and prevalent community social norms around marriage. Furthermore, the program operates at multiple levels (girl, family, community, block, and district) to address individual, familial, and structural barriers to reducing child marriage in these communities. This report first looks at the legal environment in which programs operate by examining participants’ awareness of laws, acts, and programs related to …

Accelerating Action To End Child Marriage In Bangladesh—Project Brief, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Bangladesh ranks among the five countries with the highest rate of child marriage in the world. Community norms and values are among the underlying factors that support the practice of child marriage in Bangladesh. The Population Council is partnering with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to delay marriage as part of the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage. This program is being implemented to generate evidence on reduction of child marriage through an adolescent skills-building program. The project works to empower girls with life-skills and livelihood and gender-awareness trainings, as well as engaging communities …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Spanish], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

La Caja de herramientas: Fortalecimiento de habilidades del Population Council ayuda a los profesionales, los encargados de formular políticas y los defensores a crear contenido personalizado, significativo y positivo para ayudar a subpoblaciones específicas de niñas. La caja de herramientas guía a los profesionales a través de una serie de pasos que deben tomarse para definir objetivos de sentido común: qué información, habilidad o activo físico (como una tarjeta de identificación) debe tener una niña en un entorno particular para una edad en particular. Este documento consta de las tarjetas de activos que forman parte de la Caja de herramientas: …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Swahili], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

[In Swahili] The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, engage stakeholders at different levels and with different viewpoints, and build concrete and meaningful programming for adolescent girls.

This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s Asset Cards (110), set of Age Cards (age 6 to 20), and Program Planning Worksheet (sample provided). The Age Cards are to be printed out and placed according to the instructions. The …

Um Só Currículo: Actividades Para Uma Educação Integrada Em Sexualidade, Género, Hiv E Direitos Humanos, International Sexuality And Hiv Curriculum Working Group, Nicole Haberland, Deborah Rogow

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Education on sexuality and HIV can help adolescents develop the capacity for healthy, respectful relationships and protect themselves from unwanted and unsafe sex, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections. A 2015 Population Council study found that sexuality and HIV education programs that address gender and power in intimate relationships are five times more likely to be effective than programs that do not. However, most curricula still do not address these issues. "It’s All One Curriculum" provides a rationale, content, and sample activities for placing gender and rights at the center of sexuality and HIV curricula—both as stand-alone modules and integrated …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Portuguese], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

[In Portuguese] The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, engage stakeholders at different levels and with different viewpoints, and build concrete and meaningful programming for adolescent girls.

This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s Asset Cards (110), set of Age Cards (age 6 to 20), and Program Planning Worksheet (sample provided). The Age Cards are to be printed out and placed according to the instructions. The …

More Than Brides Alliance: Midline Evaluation Report, Andrea J. Melnikas, Grace Saul, Santosh Kumar Singh, James Mkandawire, Mouhamadou Gueye, Aissa Diarra, Sajeda Amin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The More than Brides Alliance (MTBA) was formed to bringing together the strengths of a diverse team skilled in adolescent program implementation and research. The goal of the research presented in this report is to promote an evidence-based programmatic approach to delaying marriage in India, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Pakistan by gathering detailed quantitative and qualitative information from the program areas over time to examine the impact of the present intervention and inform future strategies. This report highlights data from the midline survey on a set of outcomes approximately midway through the MTBA intervention and compares them with the same …

Does Education Improve Health In Low- And Middle Income Countries? Results From A Systematic Review, Stephanie Psaki, Barbara Mensch, Erica Chuang, Andrea J. Melnikas

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Despite enormous progress in expanding school enrollment globally, improvements in health have not always followed, raising important questions: Does education, in fact, enable women, men and their families to be healthier? And if so, how? To fill this gap in knowledge, the GIRL Center conducted a systematic review of the evidence for the effects of education on health in low- and middle-income countries.

Delivering Results In Girls' Education: How To Evaluate What Works, What Doesn't, And What We Don't Know, Stephanie Psaki

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Girls around the world face daunting challenges when it comes to enrolling in primary school, completing secondary school, and gaining the basic knowledge and skills they need to be empowered, healthy, and productive adults. Many governments and organizations have risen to meet that challenge through policies and programs designed to remove common barriers to girls’ education. But as the number of actors in this space grows, and resources to address these challenges remain scarce, it is essential to ensure that investments are targeted toward the most effective policies and programs. This brief lays out the basics of program evaluation. The …

My Experience In Swaziland With Give Hope, Fight Poverty, Megan Kaser

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Megan Kaser, a recent 2017 alum in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University, describes her experience with Give Hope, Fight Poverty (GHFP)—a nonprofit organization in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in physician assistant studies. GHFP’s mission is “to foster philanthropy domestically by designing service-learning programs that engage U.S. college students with rural communities in Swaziland, Africa, and work together to educate, empower, and lift orphaned and vulnerable children—particularly those living in child-headed households— out of poverty” (Give Hope, Fight Poverty, n.d.). By incorporating college students in the implementation of GHFP orphan education …

Girlsread! Girls’ Rights: An Empowerment Curriculum, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Nicole Haberland, Barbara Mensch, Pamela Nyirenda, Diana Bulanda-Shalala

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This curriculum guide is designed to help female mentors in the GirlsRead! program in Zambia to directly engage girls in critical thinking about gender inequalities and discrimination, and help them build the assets and confidence needed to act on their own behalf and as progressive voices in their communities. GirlsRead! participants are girls in grade 7—the last year of primary school—when they are at high risk of leaving school. The curriculum includes 19 sessions that cover a range of topics from gender equality to sexuality to rights, in meetings that provide a space and opportunity for girls to regularly interact …

A Study Of Employment Outcomes Among Technical And Vocational Secondary Education Graduates In Egypt [Arabic], Salma Nasser, Ali Rashed

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In Egypt, some 450,000 students graduate from technical and vocational schools each year. Yet just over 50 percent are employed immediately following their graduation. This brief explores the kinds of jobs that are available to these graduates, and the factors that affect the remaining 50 percent who do not join the work force. The report aims to understand the types of training that best prepare students for the available jobs, differences in opportunities for male and female graduates, and connections between work and the home and/or community circumstances that may hinder employment. The report offers recommendations for improving the education …

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Health, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) intervention was conducted over two years to support more than 11,000 vulnerable adolescent girls in Zambia. It was led by the Population Council in partnership with the Young Women’s Christian Association of Zambia (YWCA), the National Savings and Credit Bank of Zambia (Natsave), and the Government of Zambia. To assess the impact of AGEP on mediating and longer-term demographic, reproductive, and health outcomes, Population Council researchers designed and implemented a longitudinal, cluster randomized controlled trial across all program areas. This brief presents the final AGEP findings, highlighting, in the Zambian context, what can be …

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Endline Technical Report, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Paul C. Hewett, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Jere R. Behrman

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The theory of change behind the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) posited that adolescent girls are empowered by building social, health, and economic assets that they can then draw on to reduce vulnerabilities and expand opportunities. In the long term, they will then increase their likelihood of completing school, delaying sexual debut, and reducing risks of early marriages, unintended pregnancies, acquisition of HIV, and other possibly detrimental outcomes. This endline report indicates that, while there were some changes for the program participants in the medium and long term, they did not translate into longer-term effects on reproductive and demographic outcomes …

Pedaling Toward The Future: Increasing And Maintaining The School Attendance Of Adolescent Girls In Indigenous Communities Of Rural Guatemala, Paola Broll

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Population Council Guatemala, with the support of UNFPA and other donors, developed a strategy of expansion and scale up of Abriendo Oportunidades (AO) through geographic conglomerates with an ecological approach. They provided 250 bicycles as an additional component of AO to assess its effectiveness in increasing mobility and school attendance in four municipalities in Guatemala. This brief describes how the project was successful in increasing mobility, reinsertion, and completion of the 2017 school year among its participants. Results show that the provision of bicycles to adolescents participating in the Abriendo Oportunidades program increased school reintegration from the 2016 cycle to …