Journal of epidemiology and community health
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Mar 2007
Charcoal burning suicides in Hong Kong and urban Taiwan: an illustration of the impact of a novel suicide method on overall regional rates.
Following the first case in Hong Kong in 1998, the method of committing suicide by charcoal burning has spread to other communities. This aim of this study was to examine the impact of charcoal burning suicides on both overall suicide rates and older-method suicide rates in Hong Kong and urban Taiwan. ⋯ The lack of parallel decreases in the suicides rates of older methods with the rise of charcoal burning suicides suggests limited substitution between the methods. The preponderance of the rise in suicide deaths associated with charcoal burning suggests that its invention, followed by wide media dissemination, may have specifically contributed to the increase in suicides in both regions. As a similar increase was found in urban Taiwan as in Hong Kong, charcoal burning suicide should not be viewed as merely a local health problem and has the potential to become a major public health threat in other countries.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Jan 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialEye discomfort, headache and back pain among Mayan Guatemalan women taking part in a randomised stove intervention trial.
Indoor air pollution (IAP) from combustion of biomass fuels represents a global health problem, estimated to cause 1.6 million premature deaths annually. ⋯ In addition to reducing discomfort for women, tangible improvements in symptoms experienced by a substantial proportion of women may help to gain acceptance and wider use of planchas.
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Dec 2006
Women's health in a rural community in Kerala, India: do caste and socioeconomic position matter?
To examine the social patterning of women's self-reported health status in India and the validity of the two hypotheses: (1) low caste and lower socioeconomic position is associated with worse reported health status, and (2) associations between socioeconomic position and reported health status vary across castes. ⋯ Even in a relatively egalitarian state in India, there are caste and socioeconomic inequalities in women's health. Implementing interventions that concomitantly deal with caste and socioeconomic disparities will likely produce more equitable results than targeting either type of inequality in isolation.