Background: Fear of falling (FoF) in the elderly is one of the major public health concerns in this era of aging of the population. As there is limited evidence on how cognitive function may differ by social support level in relation to FoF among the elderly, this cross-sectional study aims to investigate the prevalence of FoF and the associations between cognitive impairment and FoF by the social support level, after adjustments for potential confounders. Methods: Data from the "Health needs assessment of elderly in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam in 2018" survey of 725 elderly aged 60 years or older were used for analysis. FoF was assessed using the Fall Efficacy Scale-International. High FoF was defined as a score above 28. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure the perception of support. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between cognitive function and FoF by social support levels (p < 0.05). Results: The prevalence of high FoF among the elderly was 40.8%. Female gender, advanced age, a marital status of single or formerly married, living alone, history of injury, history of falls, chronic diseases (arthritis and/or hypertension), limitations of the IADL and BADL, visual difficulty and walking difficulty, low social support, and cognitive impairment were all significantly associated with a high FoF. After adjustments for the age, gender, marital status, history of falls and health-related factors, cognitive impairment remained significantly associated with a high FoF among the elderly with a low to moderate social support level (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.49-5.89), but not in those with a high social support level. Conclusions: A high FoF was associated with impairment of cognitive function among the elderly who perceived themselves as having low or moderate support levels, even after adjustments for socio demographic and physical functional factors. However, this association was not observed among the elderly who perceived themselves as having high social support levels. Fall prevention programs for the elderly with various levels of social support should be carefully devised, keeping in mind the cognitive function levels of the target recipients.

Background: Fear of falling (FoF) in the elderly is one of the major public health concerns in this era of aging of the population. As there is limited evidence on how cognitive function may differ by social support level in relation to FoF among the elderly, this cross-sectional study aims to investigate the prevalence of FoF and the associations between cognitive impairment and FoF by the social support level, after adjustments for potential confounders. Methods: Data from the “Health needs assessment of elderly in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam in 2018” survey of 725 elderly aged 60 years or older were used for analysis. FoF was assessed using the Fall Efficacy Scale - International. High FoF was defined as a score above 28. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure the perception of support. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between cognitive function and FoF by social support levels (p <0.05). Results: The prevalence of high FoF among the elderly was 40.8%. Female gender, advanced age, a marital status of single or formerly married, living alone, history of injury, history of falls, chronic diseases (arthritis and/or hypertension), limitations of the IADL and BADL, visual difficulty and walking difficulty, low social support, and cognitive impairment were all significantly associated with a high FoF. After adjustments for the age, gender, marital status, history of falls and health-related factors, cognitive impairment remained significantly associated with a high FoF among the elderly with a low to moderate social support level (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.49-5.89), but not in those with a high social support level. Conclusions: Impairment of cognitive function was associated with a high FoF among the elderly who perceived themselves as having low or moderate support levels, even after adjustments for socio demographic and physical functional factors. However, this association was not observed among the elderly who perceived themselves as having high social support levels. Fall prevention programs for the elderly with various levels of social support should be carefully devised, keeping in mind the cognitive function levels of the target recipients.

Background: Fear of falling (FoF) in the elderly is one of the major public health concerns in this era of aging of the population. As there is limited evidence on how cognitive function may differ by social support level in relation to FoF among the elderly, this cross-sectional study aims to investigate the prevalence of FoF and the associations between cognitive impairment and FoF by the social support level, after adjustments for potential confounders. Methods: Data from the “Health needs assessment of elderly in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam in 2018” survey of 725 elderly aged 60 years or older were used for analysis. FoF was assessed using the Fall Efficacy Scale - International. High FoF was defined as a score above 28. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure the perception of support. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between cognitive function and FoF by social support levels (p <0.05). Results: The prevalence of high FoF among the elderly was 40.8%. Female gender, advanced age, a marital status of single or formerly married, living alone, history of injury, history of falls, chronic diseases (arthritis and/or hypertension), limitations of the IADL and BADL, visual difficulty and walking difficulty, low social support, and cognitive impairment were all significantly associated with a high FoF. After adjustments for the age, gender, marital status, history of falls and health-related factors, cognitive impairment remained significantly associated with a high FoF among the elderly with a low to moderate social support level (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.49-5.89), but not in those with a high social support level. Conclusions: A high FoF was associated with impairment of cognitive function among the elderly who perceived themselves as having low or moderate support levels, even after adjustments for socio demographic and physical functional factors. However, this association was not observed among the elderly who perceived themselves as having high social support levels. Fall prevention programs for the elderly with various levels of social support should be carefully devised, keeping in mind the cognitive function levels of the target recipients.

Introduction: Caring service provided by nurses was one of the main factor of medical service system of Viet Nam. During recent years, nurses and midwives service had made significant progress in improving the quality of health caring service. However, jobs of nurses and midwives in Vietnam were still facing some problems and challenges: lack of both quality and quantity, discrepant structure. This study aimed to evaluate the human resource situation as well as the satisfaction level of nurse and midwife staff in state –run local hospitals, which would be the foundation for the plan of developing nurse and midwife system in order to satisfy the healthcare need of the patients. Objectives: To investigate the satisfaction rate and satisfaction involved factors with particular jobs of nurses and midwives at treatment systems in the public hospitals in Quang Tri province in year 2015. Data was collected using self-administrative questionnaires and entered and analysed by the statistical software of SPSS Version 20.0. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out in Dec. 2015 on a total of 433 nurses, midwives working at clinical departments of 12 governmental hospitals in Quang Tri province. Results: General job satisfaction rate with the particular jobs was 52.9%. Factors involving satisfaction of nurses, midwives with their jobs included: working position, hospital level of care, clinical departments, and monthly income getting from hospital (p<0.05). Conclusions: It was highly necessary to improve working conditions and environment, and income, to ensure treatment regimens and policies, to make further training and higher working position feasible, to heighten role and responsibility on working and to develop hospital in order to raise the satisfaction rate of nurses and midwives, and hence to enhance the quality of patient care in hospitals. Key words: Nurses, midwives, satisfaction, quality of care

Introduction: In Vietnam, in recent years, nurse and midwife service has made remarkable progress in improving the quality of healthcare services. However, the jobs of nurses and midwives in our country are still facing some problems and challenges: human resource in term of nurses, midwifes lack of both quality and quantity, discrepant structure. The ratio of nurses and midwives are lower than the required ratio at medical facilities whose ratio 3/5 nurses/doctor. The rate of nurses and midwives who have education level higher than colleges do not achieve the goal of 30%. There is imbalance in structure and distribution in human resources in the countryside and remote areas. In order to evaluate the situation of human resources in term of nurses and midwives in state – run hospitals in province. This study aims to provide clear evidence for the plan of developing nurse and midwife system in order to satisfy the healthcare need of the patients. Objectives: To describe the situation of human resources and to define the demand of human resources development in term of nurses, midwives for treatment systems in state-run hospitals in Quang Tri province in year 2015. Method: Cross sectional study was conducted in December 2015. Secondary data reports from hospitals were collected, analyzed and assessed for adequacy level according to Analyzing, assessing the situation of human resource and comparing to the current regulations including Joint Circular No 08/2007/ TTLT-BYT-BNV guiding the payroll of state health facilities, Decision of the Prime Minister No 153/2006/QĐTTg and national action program on the nursing, midwife jobs period from now until 2020 with Decision No. 1215/QD-BYT April 12, 2013 by the Minister of Health. Results: The ratio of current healthcare providers over treatment bed did not meet the requirement regarding to scale of hospital bed number and grade. Number of nurses and midwives at clinical departments was insufficient as required. Number of nurses, midwives over doctors was under the aimed ratio of the Health Ministry. Conclusions: Human resources of hospitals need to be provided to meet the need in hospital bed number and grade. Also, it was necessary to increase the number of nurses, midwives in order to ensure the minimal required ratio according to the number of beds and doctors at clinical departments. Key words: medical human resource, nurses, midwives, human resource need