The primary health care system in Vietnam has been playing an important role in prevention and control of diseases. This study aimed to describe the capacity of commune health stations in Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). A mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative approaches) approach was applied to collect data in 20 commune health stations. The participants, including health workers, stakeholders, and patients with NCDs, were selected for the study. The findings reported that the main activities of prevention and control of NCDs at commune health stations (CHSs) still focused on information-education-community (IECs), unqualified for providing screening, diagnosis, and treatments of NCDs. The capacity for prevention and control of NCDs in CHSs was inadequate to provide health care services related to prevention and control of NCDs and unmet with the community's demands. In order to ensure the role and implementation of primary care level, there is an urgent need to improve the capacity of CHSs for prevention and control of NCDs, particularly a national budget for NCDs prevention and control, the essential equipment and medicines recommended by the World Health Organization should be provided and available at the CHSs.

The authors developed a depression scale in the Vietnamese language that contains culturally consistent items describing the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of depressed individuals and items describing common clinical characteristics of depressed Vietnamese patients. After pretesting, the preliminary 43-item scale was given to 21 depressed Vietnamese patients and a matched community sample of 44. Fifteen items accounted for 96% of the variance between the two groups and were used as the final form of the Vietnamese Depression Scale. A cutoff of 13 points (of a possible 34) identified 91% of the patients and 96% of the community sample.

Out-of-pocket expenditure/payment (OOP) is one of the indicators measuring the achievement of Universal Health Coverage. This article aimed to compare OOP among the insured and uninsured for their outpatient and inpatient health care services. The data of 6710 individuals using outpatient care and 924 individuals using inpatient care at 78 district hospitals and 246 commune health centers in 6 provinces from the World Bank survey, "The 2015 Vietnam District and Commune Health Facility," were used for analysis. In the ordinary least square model, the estimated coefficient of the insurance status variable suggested that insurance reduced OOP by 31.1% for outpatient care and 31.5% for inpatient care of the insured as compared with the uninsured (P <0.001). For outpatient care, insurance reduced OOP more for those enrollees using commune health centers than those using district health facilities, 42.3% and 20.2%, respectively. For inpatient care at district health facilities, insurance reduced OOP by 34.9% as compared with the uninsured (P <0.001). The study suggested that more active solutions should be created to promote the universal health insurance in Vietnam.

Out-of-pocket payment is one of the indicators measuring the achievement of Universal Health Coverage. According to the World Health Organization, for countries from the Asia Pacific Region, out-of-pocket payments should not exceed 30%-40% of total health expenditure. This study aimed to identify factors influencing out-of-pocket payment for the near-poor for outpatient healthcare services as well as across health facilities at different levels. The data of 1143 individuals using outpatient care were used for analysis. Healthcare payments were analyzed for those who sought outpatient care in the past 6 months. The Heckman selection model was used to control any bias resulting from self-selection of the insurance scheme. The finding revealed that health insurance reduces average out-of-pocket payments by about 21% ( P < .001). Using private health facilities incurred more out-of-pocket payments than public health facilities ( P < .001). The study suggested that health insurance for the near-poor should be modified to promote universal health coverage in Vietnam.

Background Previous studies have observed lower utilization of maternal healthcare services by ethnic minority groups in Vietnam compared with the majority Kinh community. This study sought to assess the utilization of maternal healthcare service-associated factors within 12 ethnic minority groups. Method The cross-sectional study enrolled 996 women from 12 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam in 2019. Women had pregnancy outcomes in the last 5 years. The two variables for maternal healthcare utilization were [1] a minimum of four antenatal contacts and [2] health facility-based delivery. We examined the association of individual characteristics of maternal healthcare services using multilevel modeling. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported. Results This nationally representative study found that 34.1% of women from ethnic minority backgrounds had four or more antenatal contacts during pregnancy, ranging from 8.3% in Mong community to 80.2% in Cham An Giang. Most of the women (94.4%) delivered at health facilities. Factors independently correlated with having fewer than four antenatal contacts included being illiterate, early marriage, unemployment, religious affiliation, household economy, and distance to the nearest health facility. Factors significantly associated with home delivery were living in the most disadvantaged areas and having fewer than four antenatal contacts. Conclusion Substantial inequity exists in antenatal coverage both within ethnic minority groups and between socio-economic groups. The low coverage of having at least four antenatal contacts and its' correlates with facility-based delivery suggests that the government should focus efforts on increasing the number of antenatal contacts for ethnic minority women.