human settlements experience continual change. in recent years, many rural areas have experienced dispersed grow (rural sprawl) and population declines in traditional village centers (hollowing). these paradoxical phenomena have occurred in most developing countries, including rural iran. this study examines this phenomena in three iranian villages of kahak area of qom province, and develops a ...

BACKGROUND Delays seeking care worsen the burden of tuberculosis and cost of care for patients, families and the public health system. This study investigates costs of tuberculosis diagnosis incurred by patients, escorts and the public health system in 10 districts of Ethiopia. METHODS New pulmonary tuberculosis patients > or = 15 years old were interviewed regarding their health care seeking...

The present study was conducted with an objective to clinically assess rural school going children in the Rural Area of Bhilwara District. The study was conducted in village Hurda of Hurdapanchayatsamiti in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. A total of 120 school going children (15 girls and 15 boys from each school) were selected. In the Clinical assessment, respondents revealed, an equal number ...

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight in rural regions of Tabriz, a province in the northwest of Iran. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using routinely collected data of pregnant mothers from rural health centers. Eight health centers were randomly selected in rural areas of Tabriz. Totally, 874 women aged...

background and purpose: equity in access to health care has become a desirable policy objective. therefore, accessibility to health care should be provided based on health needs rather than socio- demographic variables. this will lead to a better utilization of health care and improvement of equity in health. the aim of this paper is to examine the effects of family socio-economic status as an ...

Introduction In order to provide effective healthcare to the rural population, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) by government of India proposed introduction of female health workers village level. These workers are called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and their role is to act at an interface between the community and the government healthcare services. More specifically, she...

This project has established a hub-and-spoke model of data-cum-voice communication in a group of six villages in Pondicherry in South India. The village centers can communicate with each other as well as to the Internet. A hybrid of technologies is used -wired with wireless for communication and solar with mains for power supply. The hub provides connectivity to the Internet through dial-up tel...

BACKGROUND The strategy of health policy has been changed for improving the performances to meeting the increasing healthcare demands. However, limited evidences were found to prove that the bundled payment was valid for service delivering in public sector. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a bundled policy on strengthening the county-village communication and improving t...

The health status of underprivileged young females is a global concern. This intervention study in rural Upper Egypt used an integrated approach to develop a model for primary care health promotion services to female adolescents. An initial household survey and focus group discussions identified the health problems of a sample of 671 adolescent women aged 12-20 years recruited from one village....