Child maltreatment remains a major health threat globally that requires the understanding of socioeconomic and cultural contexts to craft effective interventions. However, little is known about research agendas globally and the development of knowledge-producing networks in this field of study. This study aims to explore the bibliometric overview on child maltreatment publications to understand their growth from 1916 to 2018. Data from the Web of Science Core Collection were collected in May 2018. Only research articles and reviews written in the English language were included, with no restrictions by publication date. We analyzed publication years, number of papers, journals, authors, keywords and countries, and presented the countries collaboration and co-occurrence keywords analysis. From 1916 to 2018, 47,090 papers (53.0% in 2010–2018) were published in 9442 journals. Child Abuse & Neglect (2576 papers; 5.5%); Children and Youth Services Review (1130 papers; 2.4%) and Pediatrics (793 papers, 1.7%) published the most papers. The most common research areas were Psychology (16,049 papers, 34.1%), Family Studies (8225 papers, 17.5%), and Social Work (7367 papers, 15.6%). Among 192 countries with research publications, the most prolific countries were the United States (26,367 papers), England (4676 papers), Canada (3282 papers) and Australia (2664 papers). We identified 17 authors who had more than 60 scientific items. The most cited papers (with at least 600 citations) were published in 29 journals, headed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (7 papers) and the Lancet (5 papers). This overview of global research in child maltreatment indicated an increasing trend in this topic, with the world’s leading centers located in the Western countries led by the United States. We called for interdisciplinary research approaches to evaluating and intervening on child maltreatment, with a focus on low-middle income countries (LMICs) settings and specific contexts.

Dengue fever (DF) outbreaks occur intermittently in Vietnam, and the most recent epidemic happened in 2017. However, attempts to measure the burden of DF in relation to the quality of life and the cost of treatment for patients during an epidemic period are constrained. This study explored the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the cost of illness among patients with dengue fever in Vietnam. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bach Mai Hospital from September to November 2017. The EuroQol-5 dimensions-5 levels (EQ-5D-5L) was used to measure HRQOL. Cost-of illness was measured by collecting data about the direct medical cost, the non-medical cost, and the indirect cost. Among 225 patients, most of the participants experienced problems regarding mobility (62.3%), self-care (71.8%), usual activities (64.6%), and anxiety/depression (64.1%). The mean EQ-5D index was 0.66 (SD = 0.24). The median cost of illness for inpatient and outpatient groups were US $110.10 (IQR = US $4.40–1200.00) and US $36.10 (IQR = US $1.80–816.30), respectively. Indirect costs accounted for a major proportion in both groups. Lower-skilled workers and those with a higher severity of the disease had significantly lower HRQOL. Meanwhile, people who were inpatients, had comorbidities, had higher incomes, and who experienced a longer disease duration, had a higher cost of treatment. In conclusion, high costs and severe health deterioration, especially in psychological dimensions, were found in patients with DF in Vietnam. Strengthening primary health care services and communication campaigns are necessary to relieve the burden of diseases and could possibly contribute to effective DF control and prevention strategies.

Introduction: Although e-health interventions are widely implemented as a supportive measure to smoking cessation, there is a lack of evidence in the feasibility of its application among Vietnamese youths, which is considered to be one of the most frequent internet using populations. This study assessed the quitting attempts among smokers and their preference and willingness to pay for smartphone-based cessation supporting applications in a sample of active internet users approached. Methods: A total of 1082 participants were recruited for the online-based survey from August to October 2015 in Vietnam. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, health information seeking behaviors on the internet, smoking status, quitting attempts and willingness to pay for smartphone-based cessation supporting applications were collected. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the associated factors with current smoking and willingness to pay for the smoking cessation application. Results: About 11% of participants were current smokers while 73.4% had attempted to quit smoking. Only 26.8% of the individuals indicated that they were willing to utilize a smartphone application to assist them in quitting. Participants who were male, had partners/spouse and lived at other places were more likely to smoke cigarette. Meanwhile, people who spent 50–70% of their online time to read health information were less likely to smoke. Results also show that living with family and never sharing health information on the internet were negatively associated with a participant’s willingness to pay for the smartphone application. Meanwhile, people who highly trusted health information were more likely to be willing to pay for the application. Conclusions: This prevalence of smoking and associated factors can provide potential indicators for creating several public health interventions in the new environment with the increasing development of information technology. This study implies that in order to expand the coverage of smoking cessation interventions, we recommend the integration of e-health interventions with clinical- or telephone-based conventional models by providing smartphone applications and information on the internet from reliable sources.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) improves the health and well-being of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, PLWH), and reduces their risk of transmitting the virus to sexual partners. However, patterns of sexual risk behavior among HIV-positive patients taking ART in Vietnam remain largely unknown. In this study, we sought to examine sexual risk behaviors and their associated factors among HIV-positive patients receiving ART in northern Vietnam. The socio-demographic characteristics, ART use, health status, and sexual behaviors of 1133 patients taking ART in the Hanoi and Nam Dinh provinces were explored through face-to-face interviews. There were 63.5% of patients who had one sex partner, while 3.6% and 5.6% of patients had sexual intercourse with casual partners or sex workers, respectively, in the previous 12 months. Most participants tended to use condoms more often with commercial sex partners (90.2%) and intimate partners (79.7%), and less often with casual partners (60.9%). Higher age (odds ratio, OR = 1.0; 95% CIs = 1.0, 1.1) or suffering pain/discomfort (OR = 1.7; 95% CIs = 1.2, 2.4) were factors more likely to be associated with multiple sex partners. Patients who were self-employed were more likely to have sexual intercourse with casual partners/sex workers (OR = 2.1; 95% CIs = 1.1, 4.0). Meanwhile, a higher score on the EuroQol visual analog scale (EQ-VAS), an unknown HIV stage, and a longer duration of ART were adversely associated with not using condoms with casual partners/sex workers. Patients with longer durations of ART had a lower likelihood of not using a condom with casual partners/sex workers (OR = 0.5; 95% CIs = 0.3, 0.8). Our study underscored a relatively high rate of unsafe sexual behaviors among HIV-positive patients. Continuing to improve the physical and psychological well-being of HIV-positive patients in Vietnam is important in reducing the spread of HIV via risky sexual behaviors. In addition, safe-sex education should be provided to older people, and to those who are self-employed.