Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m 2 . In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, the...

Given the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge negative impacts it is causing, researching on COVID-19-related issues is very important for designing proactive and comprehensive public health interventions to fight against the pandemic. We describe the characteristics of COVID-19 patients detected in the two phases of the epidemic in Vietnam. Data used in this paper were mainly obtained from the official database of the Ministry of Health of Vietnam. Descriptive statistics were carried out using Stata 16 software. As of 18 May 2020, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases detected in Vietnam was 324, 16 cases from 4 cities and provinces in the first phase (during 20 days, 0.8 cases detected per day) and 308 cases from 35 cities, provinces in the second phase (during 76 days, 4.1 cases detected per day). Vietnam has mobilized its entire political system to fight the COVID-19 and achieved some initial successes. We found both similarities and differences between the two phases of the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam. We demonstrated that the situation of the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam is getting more complicated and unpredictable.

Objective: This study aims to describe the updated smoking cessation and quit attempt rates and associated factors among Vietnamese adults in 2020. Methods: Data on tobacco use among adults in Vietnam in 2020 was derived from the Provincial Global Adult Tobacco Survey. The participants in the study were people aged 15 and older. A total of 81,600 people were surveyed across 34 provinces and cities. Multi-level logistic regression was used to examine the associations between individual and province-level factors on smoking cessation and quit attempts. Results: The smoking cessation and quit attempt rates varied significantly across the 34 provinces. The average rates of people who quit smoking and attempted to quit were 6.3% and 37.2%, respectively. The factors associated with smoking cessation were sex, age group, region, education level, occupation, marital status, and perception of the harmful effects of smoking. Attempts to quit were significantly associated with sex, education level, marital status, perception of the harmful effects of smoking, and visiting health facilities in the past 12 months. Conclusions: These results may be useful in formulating future smoking cessation policies and identifying priority target groups for future interventions. However, more longitudinal and follow-up studies are needed to prove a causal relationship between these factors and future smoking cessation behaviors.

Objective : Reading is a crucial academic behavior, which directly affects the formation of personality and develops people's thinking. In the higher education environment, reading culture helps students acquire new knowledge quickly and effectively. However, in recent years, young people and students tend to be lazy to read books, afraid of reading academic books while prefer reading comics and novels. At the same time, the dominance of the internet and audio-visual equipment makes reading in schools and universities become less attractive. This study was conducted with two objectives: (1) To describe the current situation of reading culture; and (2) To identify some factors affecting the reading culture of full-time bachelor students in Hanoi University of Public Health in 2019. Thereby, contributing to raise students' awareness about the roles of reading and providing information to help improving the quality and performance of the university’s library. Methods: The study was conducted on 420 full-time bachelor students from the first year to the fourth year, belonging to four majors of the Hanoi University of Public Health in 2019. Main findings: The study results showed that among 420 full-time bachelor students, 41.0% read books on a regular basis and 80.0% liked reading books. With regression bionary logistic analasys, associated factors with reading frequency includes: Going to library weekly (OR=1,87; p=0,004; CI95%: 1,22 – 2,84) and Completed reading the document assigned by teachers (OR=1,61; p=0,043; CI95%: 1,01 – 2,55). In addition, students who were reading addiction were likely to read all the book assigned, which was higher than the students who did not like reading. Conclusions: With full-time Bachelor students at Hanoi University of Public Health, percentages of students with frequent reading behavior were not high in general. However, it could be seen that the reading behavior of students was influenced by the teachers’ activities. Therefore, teachers should enhance checking books and course materials that students have read before classes as well as setting a criteria on the minimum number of academic books students should read while doing their assignments so that students are more aware of the importance of academic reading while studying at university. Keywords: reading books, college students, current situation, associated factor