Quality of life (QOL) of adolescents has been scarcely documented in a general population sample. The study was aimed at translating and adapting the Adolescent Duke Health Profile to Vietnamese, validating the questionnaire, determining reference value, and identifying determinants of poor QOL.Following a cross‐cultural methodology, the Adolescent Duke Health Profile (ADHP) had content adapted to Vietnamese by alteration of 2 out of 17 items. Test–retest validity was checked in 408 adolescents. Construct validity and internal consistency were assessed in a 1408 probability sample of adolescents in Vietnam, and determinants were analysed by multiple linear regression.The ADHP showed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.87–0.92) and satisfactory construct validity in relation with drug abuse or not, or with parent situation living in couple or alone. Test–retest reliability was acceptable (ICC=0.7–0.8) and major determinants were age, sex, education, chronic disease, alcohol and drug use.This works provide a validated, simple health related QOL scale suited to adolescent population with reference values. Taking into account determinants identified will help program prevention and intervention health policy and to evaluate the effect of these actions.

Pre-abortion counselling has a role in promoting safe sex practices and in preventing repeated unplanned pregnancies and repeated abortions among abortion-seeking women. Such counselling is essential in Vietnam, especially given the common use of abortion. Arguably, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the delivery of pre-abortion counselling is more urgent for young women, who have historically been ignored by State reproductive health initiatives and are increasingly exposed to transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unplanned pregnancies and abortion. This paper charts urban Vietnamese service providers' discourses in pre-abortion counselling specific for reducing risks of additional unwanted pregnancies, repeat abortion and STI/HIV transmission among young Vietnamese women. Thirteen providers working in counselling delivery, management and programme-planning at the Reproductive Health Care Centre of Ho Chi Minh City participated in this study. Through qualitative interviews, this paper elicits a range of provider attitudes, considerations and approaches in pre-abortion counselling and presents these discourses using participant anecdotes. Demonstrated among participant responses were five key pre-abortion counselling phases for promoting effective family planning among young women. Topics covered in these counselling phases included abortion complications, post-abortion fertility return, contraception, behaviour change and STI/HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health basics (SRH). The service provider discourses gleaned from this study are foundational for further research and development of best practice guidelines in pre-abortion counselling.

Résumé Au Vietnam, comme dans la plupart des pays en développement, la santé des adolescents n’est pas considérée comme prioritaire, et pourtant il existe beaucoup de grands problèmes concernant ce groupe de population. Cette étude a pour objectif de décrire les représentations de la santé des lycéens de Hô Chi Minh-Ville. Elle est réalisée sur un échantillon représentatif de 543 lycéens de 16 à 19 ans, en utilisant un instrument adapté d’un questionnaire créé et validé au Centre de Médecine Préventive de Nancy-Vandœuvre. Les adolescents interrogés ont présenté leurs concepts de la santé de manière très diverse : à la fois de façon classique – absence de maladie – mais aussi de façon globale et positive – la forme, la force, le développement, le bonheur. La comparaison avec d’autres études réalisées, avec le même questionnaire en Algérie et en France, montre certaines constantes transculturelles dans les représentations de la santé, et des particularités tenant à chaque société et à chaque culture.

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