Background: Although retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of childhood blindness, its impact in lower income countries is not well documented. The World Health Organization has proclaimed that infants at risk for ROP should have screening eye examinations and access to treatment. Patients and Methods: A prospective study was conducted from January 1 through December 31, 2001, at Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for premature infants who weighed 1 ,500 g or less at birth or were 33 gestational weeks or younger. Serial examinations were used to classify ROP, and treatment outcomes were noted. Results: Two hundred twenty-five consecutive infants were included in the data analysis. Birth weights ranged from 900 to 2,000 g (mean, 1 ,512 g). Gestational ages ranged from 26 to 36 weeks (mean, 31 weeks). ROP was present in 103 (45.8%) of the 225 infants. In infants who weighed 1 ,250 g or less at birth, the ROP rate was 81 .2% (26 of 32 infants). Threshold ROP was present in 9.3% of the 225 infants but in 25% of the 32 infants. Twenty-four eyes received treatment, whereas 16 lacked the family resources. Of the 24 treated eyes, 1 8 (75%) had a favorable outcome. Of the 1 6 untreated eyes, only 3 had a favorable outcome. Conclusions: ROP incidence is high in Vietnam, similar to that in the United States. However, larger, older infants are at risk in Vietnam and the rate of severe ROP seems to be higher. This necessitates an ROP screening paradigm different from that currently used in the United States. J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 2003;40: 208-212.

PurposeCorruption has been evidenced as one of the major factors that drive a firm's dynamics and growth. This study examines the relationship between corruption and financing structure decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a longitudinal data set from the Vietnam's SME Survey in the period 2007–2013 and adopt the two-stage least squares method to deal with endogeneity.FindingsAfter controlling for endogeneity and firm heterogeneity, the authors find that, overall, corruption does significantly affect the decisions of financing sources. Given that, corruption increases the use of informal debt and decreases the levels of formal debt, owner's equity and retained earnings.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest implications for corruption-combating actions and policies.Originality/valueDifferent from previous studies that either provide evidence of government corruption and a firm's capital structure at the country level or focus on corruption and debt only, we deliver a more comprehensive analysis on the nexus between corruption and various financing sources.

The study seeks to evaluate the impacts of three types of credit -formal, semi-formal, and informal credits -on the well-being of households in Vietnam's rural areas. Based on data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys in 2014 and 2016, the research uses the instrumental variable fixed-effect models to estimate the effects of three kinds of credit on household's per capita income and expenditure. There are some significant findings. First, in rural areas, formal credit is the most popular source with stable and cheap borrowing costs. Informal credit is a complement to formal credit to meet urgent needs. Funding agriculture activities is the most commonly cited purpose of borrowing, followed by purchasing assets. The highest misuse rate belongs to the group of loans for agriculture production. Second, the results show that credit helps smoothen consumption rather than generate income for rural households. Three types of credit have insignificant or negative effects on household's per capita income. Formal loans significantly improve total expenditure and spending on healthcare and education. Informal and semi-formal credits show a little influence on consumption. Informal loans have a significantly positive effect on healthcare expenditure. In contrast, having semi-formal loans tends to decrease spending on foods.

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