plueme/wizJson huggingface dataset:
The Research and Development Project on Local Health Communication: Pattani was to search for those interested in and having the potential to become a “Health Communicator” in the area.  That would believably lead to good health for the locals.  The Project was conducted using a Participatory Action Research approach.  

The research team embarked on the project by studying officers dealing directly with health services.  They included 477 hospital officers, public health officers and volunteers, sharing their problems and needs.  Then, a forum was organized in order to gather information and opinions from a supporting group on health communication.  The group was made of executives and members of both public and private health organizations, local media organizations, and community leaders.  Moreover, 5,000 flyers were distributed to pass on the concept of “health communicator.”  It was found that interested people regarded taking part in this project as a means to improve their communication and media production skills.    

After having analyzed the needs of prospective health communicators, the research team organized two types of skill enhancing activity: (1) Radio Program Production and (2) Animated Media Production for Children.  The former was organized for health service providers while the later was specifically for child teachers and care-takers from five provinces.    

The research results showed that forming a network of health communicators in the area can be achievable.  However, needed are initiative support, diffusion of health communication concept, continuous skill enhancing, communication system between areas/groups, and analysis of target groups.  It is important to clearly identify who are supporters, communicators, audiences, and connectors.  Additionally, the fair management system of benefits is also vital.
The action research on “Developing Shan Health Communicators in Chiang Mai Province” is a project under the Popular Health Communication System Research and Development (HCS) program, which aims to develop health communication system for disadvantage minorities who have different language and culture from the Thai majority. The target beneficiaries of this research are the Shan migrant workers from Myanmar, working in manual labor sectors in Chiang Mai. Illegal status, hard works in exploitative conditions and the inability to communicate in Thai prevent these migrants to access health information and services. The research project has thus developed Shan health communicators to work on health communication by organizing trainings on concept of health communication, knowledge on health protection and treatment and communication techniques, and supporting health communicators to organize health communication activities namely hosting the health promotion program via the community radios, producing radio drama and organizing public forum in various places. The results from 10 month project implementation (March-December 2008)   are 1) Shan health communicators have increased their knowledge on health problems, prevention and treatment and communication skill. 2) Health networks are expanded among the health communicators themselves and between them and government officers, non-government workers, academics whose works relate to the Shan, their health and communication.  3) Health communication systems and mechanism to support health communication among worker migrants have been initially developed especially in setting up training curriculum and process for health communicators and increasing communication channels. To promote health communication among migrant workers, the project recommends that  1) health communicators to work with migrant workers should be increased in both quantity and quality by developing health communication training institute with relevant curriculum and training programs. 2) Education related agencies should increase non-formal education classes for migrant workers to study Thai language and culture. 3)  Local governments and religious organizations should play more active role in  promoting health among migrant workers. 4)  Health communication channels should be expanded and used more efficiently in health promotion. 5) The public campaign to reduce ethnic prejudice and promote the peaceful coexistence between people from different ethnic and religious background is needed to be done.
Thailand’s government has initiated a plan to make the country the Medical Hub of Asia. The plan has been aimed to increase numbers of foreigners coming into the country for medical services, which, as a result, will bring in as much as 80,000 million baht in the year 2008. Private hospitals around the country have been readily carrying out the promising plan, making it seem even more agreeable. However, in spite of the expected good outcomes, this plan is also creating,
in public hospitals and medical schools, numerous problems which themselves will trigger many more in the future of the country’s public health. This Medical Hub of Asia plan will rapidly damage Thailand’s noble medical and healthcare service systems.
This synthesis paper was aimed at sheding light on the current performance of the Road Accident Victim Protection Act, 1992. It also attempted to identify ways and means to improve the status quo. The paper drew from the literature information pertinent to the law and its enforcement in Thailand and to similar laws and their enforcement in other countries. A comparison of concepts, principles and evidence related to these laws and their performance was also made. Public interest was put ahead of private interests in the comparison. It was found that over a period of 16 years of the law’s enforcement, it succeeded to a certain extent in protecting the interests of Thai road accident victims in terms of compensation
for medical costs and loss of life. Nevertheless, success came at the expense of road accident victims and health insurance systems:
1. Hundreds of thousands of victims and their families were not covered by insurance due to ignorance, concern about legal action under the fault system of the law, and difficulties in making claims owing to the complicated extra rules and regulations set up by private insurance companies.
2. Unnecessary costs were incurred under the current compensation system operated by private insurance companies.
3. Opportunities to make use of medical care with ongoing quality improvement were lost, which could have been financed by a more efficient compensation system.
4. The burden of medical care costs on the victims was shifted to other health insurance schemes due to cumbersome access to the road victim compensation scheme.
Proposed strategies to improve the current system are the following:
1. Replace the existing law with a proposed bill so that public agencies will replace private insurance companies; hence, unnecessary costs could be cut and claim procedures could be simplified greatly.
2. Modify premium collection by point-of-sale revenue collection from the price of fuel. This would preclude the need to pay commissions and other costs related to premium collection.
3. Adopt the compensation recovery unit model of the United Kingdom to improve efficiency in processing claims.
4. Expand the scope of missions to include financing for quality improvement of medical care and road accident injury prevention.
This study was aimed at developing a framework for assessing the competencies of health research managers and conducting self-assessment of 20 health research managers working for the-Health Systems Research Institute and its affiliates. The research managers were purposively sampled and self-assessment was conducted through a self-administered questionnaire. The average age of the persons sampled was 44.16 years and the average duration of working as a health research manager was 2 years and 5 months.
The self-assessment framework was developed by reviewing relevant documents. The Health Research Management Modules produced by WHO were considered as providing the conceptual framework for drafting the self-assessment questionnaire, which was later improved by the working group comprising a number of experienced health research managers. The self-assessment framework included eight domains of competencies as follows: 1) organization analysis; 2) research program planning and management; 3) research project planning and management; 4) capacity-building of the health research system; 5) information system for research and knowledge management; 6) financial management system for research projects; 7) management for research utilization; and 8) general management.
Results show no competency domain was assessed as good or best (average score equal to or more than 3). Competency for capacity-building of the health research system was scaled as the poorest (2.40), while the competency of research project planning and management was scored as the highest (2.67). The average score of every domain was higher for more experienced health research managers (over 3 years of working in this position) than for the less experienced ones (less than 3 years’ experience).
This study helped to identify clearer roles and competencies of health research managers. However, the competency framework needs improvement since its validity and reliability have not been tested, and the number of subjects sampled in this study was small.
This study was conducted to determine the effect of changing antihypertensive drug administration time during the period January 1, 2008 to October 31, 2008 among patients who received treatment at Nongjik Hospital, Pattani Province. The 140 patients studied received antihypertensive drugs once daily. Determination of the blood pressure before and during the Ramadan period were carried out among 70 patients without changing drug administration time, compared with those 70 patients with changing the time concerned. Data were collected from OPD cards, glucose level records of the patients, and monitoring change records during the Ramadan period. The SPSS for Windows software package was used to analyze the data.
The distributions by sex, age, and items of antihypertensive drug use were comparable between both groups. Both groups had significantly lower mean weight and systolic blood pressure during the Ramadan period, compared with figures before Ramadan. There were no statistically significant differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressures between both groups.
It is suggested that before the Ramadan period, good health education about food intake, exercise, administration schedules, and hypotension should be given to Muslim patients with hypertension.
This study was aimed at estimating the economic cost of productivity loss associated with alcohol consumption in term of absenteeism and presenteeism among the Thai population in 2007.
A cross-sectional household survey was carried out among the Thai population aged 15 to 60 years from 4,330 households, who were in paid employment. The impairment rate due to absenteeism and presenteeism for each drinking category was compared using the Kruskal Wallis test for univariate analysis while the generalized linear model (GLM) was used in multivariate analysis. Cost of productivity loss was then calculated as the product of the excess impairment rate, labor force participation rate, income per year, and total number of drinkers in that category.
According to the univariate analysis, the productivity loss in former drinkers, responsible drinkers, and harmful drinkers was significantly higher than in the abstainers at 5.6 percent, 1.7 percent, and 5.7 percent respectively. According to the study, the cost of productivity loss due to alcohol in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism was approximately 26,700 million to 45,464 million baht by using a deterministic approach and univariate analysis, and probalistic approach and multivariate analysis, respectively.
Alcohol consumption is associated with high economic cost in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism in Thailand. This finding can be used to promote the public’s awareness of and draw their attention to the negative impact of alcohol in terms of productivity loss. According to the study, the government and employers should implement more effective policy aimed at reducing alcohol consumption among the working population in order to reduce the economic cost related to absenteeism and presenteeism.
This research studied the expectation of agriculturists who had to build a sustainable occupation for agricultural development that would protect natural resources and the environment, decrease the adverse effects of chemicals and produce safe food and a happy social condition, among other positive outcomes. It studied personal factors, the economy, and social aspects, compared with the expectation of sustainable development. The sample comprised 240 persons who were interviewed in order to collect data. The statistics were analyzed by percentage value, average, standard deviation, t-test, and one-way ANOVA.
The study results found that most of the sampled household heads were males, aged 41 to 50 years, with a primary education, lacking social position, living in their village for more than 5 years, and had been trained in agriculture by their parents. Farm size was 11-20 rais, family farm labor averaged 9 persons, the individuals had a yearly income of 50,000 - 99,999 baht, household expenses of 10,000 - 19,999 baht per year, made occupational investments of 20,000 - 40,001 baht per year, and were likely to be members of an agricultural group.
Their expectations with regard to technology transfer, community business development for production, processing and marketing, plant and animal breeding modification were at a moderate level. However, those expectations with regard to technology support, soil, water and environmental resource development were at a high level. As for problems, operational guidelines and suggestions, the respondents
revealed that there were many problems, such as the quality of soil, lack of rain and irrigation, plant and animal breeds, organic fertilizer, labor, knowledge of breed selection, products, markets, investment and governmental support. Agricultural institutes played only a minor role in agricultural occupation development. It was suggested that group members be allowed to participate, to submit their opinions, to plan and to make decisions.
The objective of this clinical preliminary study was to evaluate the hemostatic efficacy of a chitosan derivative-based hemostat prototype (MTEC prototype), compared with that of two commercial materials, SPONGOSTAN@ Standard and Algisite-M, in split-thickness skin graft donor sites. The study was conducted at Ang Thong Hospital in Ang Thong Province involving eight patients who underwent skin grafting during the period June-November 2008. The three tested materials were randomly put on wound sites from the direction of the patients’ toes to their heads. Gauze was placed on top of the materials. To secure the materials, they were gently pressed by hand. Bleeding was visually observed and the wound sites were photographed at 5 and 8 minutes. At each time point, the wounds were uncovered for 30 seconds for the observation of blood ooze. The wounds were photographed again at 5 1/2 and 8 1/2 minutes. At last, the materials and gauze were weighed for the determination of blood loss. The results revealed that the amount of blood loss found in the materials was in the following order: SPONGOSTAN@ Standard < Algisite-M < MTEC prototype, while the amount of blood loss found in the gauze was in the following order: MTEC prototype < SPONGOSTAN@ Standard < Algisite-M. Nonetheless, there were no significant differences in the total amount of blood loss when the wound sites were treated with these three materials. From visual observation, the MTEC prototype, however, seemed to stop the bleeding most efficiently as determined by the least blood ooze apparent at 8 1/2 minutes.
Public health decentralization has been an item on the national agenda in compliance with the 1997 Constitution of Thailand. In principle, the central administration of the Ministry of Public Health was responsible for decentralizing its part of public health programs and resources to local administrative organizations according to the Decentralization Plan for Local Administration. The Ministry of Public Health established the Office for Supporting Public Health Decentralization so that it could act as a policy coordinator and a preparation facilitator for transferring public health programs and activities to local administrative organizations. In 2007, the Ministry of Public Health initiated a pilot project to transfer 22
health centers to 19 local administrative organizations in 16 provinces. The individual experiences of this project indicate that community participation was necessary. Other important factors on part of local administrative organizations were their supplementary budgets for public health activities and investment, shortened command-control line, clearer pathway of health personnel positions and leadership of
community development. Good relationship between health centers and local administrative organizations were undeniably helpful for the transferring processes. Lessons learned from this project were if the transferring would carry out for more health centers, communication of the transfer vision, processes, advantages, precaution and possible contingencies and solutions should be thoroughly made from policy
to implementation level. Human resources for transferred public health programs must be carefully planned. Administrative and Consultative Office at provincial level should be established to help solve out administrative inquiries and provide technical consultation from the starting point to monitoring and continuous evaluations. Then, the lessons learned and applications from local levels would help support the better development.
This article emphasizes primary prevention and its application through physical examinations.
Physical examinations can be categorized into various types: pre-employment, pre-placement,
periodic, return-to-work, exit, post-exposure, and upon illness. This article also gives some hints on
selecting physical examination services.
An  attempt  to  include  “spiritual  health”  into  WHO  definition  of  health  has  been  made  since  1980.  It  was  proposed  by  member  states  of  WHO  in  Eastern  Mediterranean  Region.  There  were  both  proponents  and  opponents  of  the  proposal.  Finally  the  Executive  Board  of  WHO  has  concluded  to  propose  amendment  of  the  definition  of  health  from  that “the  state  of  complete  physical,  mental  and  social       well-being  and  not  merely  the  absence  of  the  disease  or  infirmity”  to  “the  dynamic  state  of  complete  physical,  mental,  spiritual  and  social         well-being  and  not  merely the  absence  of  disease  or  infirmity.”  However,  the  proposal  did  not  become  the  resolution  at  the  World  Health  Assembly. Thus  the  definition  of  health  remains  the  same  as  stated  in  the  preamble  of  the  Constitution  of  WHO.  In  Thailand  there  was  a  movement  to  include  the  “spiritual  health”  into  the  definition  of  health  during  the  campaign  on  health  system  reform  in  the  last  decade.  Such  movement  brought  about  strong  controversy  rooted  from  some  leading  Buddhist  organizations  which  rejected  the “spiritual  dimension”  as  a  concept  influenced  by  theist  paradigm  which  is  opposite  to  Buddhism.  Finally,  the  consensus  has  been  reached  to  accept  the  term  “intellectual  well-being”  as  the  fourth dimension  of  health.  The  Health  Act  B.E.  2007  has  then  defined  health  as  “the state  of  human  being  which  is  perfect  in  physical,  mental,  spiritual  and  social  aspects  all  of  which  are  holistic  in  balance.”  There  are  still  some  problems  in  the  new  definition  of  health  concerning  the exact  meaning  of  mental  and  spiritual  well-being  especially  when  translates  into  English.  This  paper  proposed  not  to  try to reach  consensus  in  this  issue  which  is  very  complicate,  since  the  four  dimensions  have  covered  all  aspects  of  health.  It  also  proposed  Buddhist  way  of  development  of  the  four  dimensions  of  health  as  an  example.  The  people  in  different  faith  can  freely  develop  or  extend  their  means  on  the  basis  of  their  own  faith.
A survey of institutional long-term care for persons, age 60 and over, in Thailand aims to study the background information on long-term care institutions. The number of personnel, competencies of care provider, types of services, and characteristics of care receivers in the north, north-eastern, central, Bangkok area, and the southern part of Thailand were investigated.
	The findings revealed that there were 138 long-term care institutions, 49.28% situated in Bangkok with 43.48% being nursing homes. While residential homes provided all levels of care needed, nursing homes offered services ranging from care assistants for service at homes and palliative care in the institutions. However, 45% of nursing home had no professional nursing staff and 45.5% of institution had not been registered. Public residential homes had the highest number of beds while long-term care hospitals had the highest cost of services.
	The majority of residents were female; ages 60-70, widowed, almost half had no adult children, and 86.8% had chronic illnesses. The most common illnesses were hypertension, arthritis, joint pain, diabetes, and heart disease. Information from health screening revealed that 41.6% had dementia and 29.5% had moderate to severe depression. From functional assessment, 15.9% were at a total dependency level. Interestingly, 52.3% of the residents had moderate to total dependency, 55.6% of them were in residential homes and need to be cared for 20-27 hours per week.
	The majority of care providers was female, age range of 15 to 30 years old, had a high school level education, and was care assistants. Helper, occupational therapist and nurses were often found in the residential homes, nursing homes and long-term care hospital respectively while only social workers were found in the residential home. Although the majority of them had been trained in care of older persons, negative attitudes toward residents were still present. Work satisfaction was found at a high level while satisfaction for salary was at a moderate level. Nevertheless, they still wanted to continue working and gave more attention to knowledge, personal development and how to improve their standards of care giving.
		The policy recommendation is: to promote collaboration between public and private sectors, encourage local authority to be a key provider, develop services to meet all level of care needs, set up care standards, and form a regulator and registration body. The practical recommendation is to promote the development of competent care providers and to provide more varieties of services. Further study using qualitative research methodology should be carried out for in-depth information.