Shantanu Sharma, Sucheta Rawat, Faiyaz Akhtar, Rajesh Kumar Singh and Sunil Mehra
The authors intend to assess the village health sanitation and nutrition committees (VHSNC) on six parameters, including their formation, composition, meeting frequencies…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors intend to assess the village health sanitation and nutrition committees (VHSNC) on six parameters, including their formation, composition, meeting frequencies, activities, supervisory mechanisms and funds receipt and expenditures across nine districts of the three states of India.
Design/methodology/approach
The cross-sectional study, conducted in the states of Uttar Pradesh (five districts), Odisha (two districts) and Rajasthan (two districts), used a quantitative research design. The community health workers of 140 VHSNCs were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The details about the funds' receipt and expenditures were verified from the VHSNC records (cashbook). Additionally, the authors asked about the role of health workers in the VHSNC meetings, and the issues and challenges faced.
Findings
The average number of members in VHSNCs varied from 10 in Odisha to 15 in Rajasthan. Activities were regularly organized in Rajasthan and Odisha (one per month) compared to Uttar Pradesh (one every alternate month). Most commonly, health promotion activities, cleanliness drives, community monitoring and facilitation of service providers were done by VHSNCs. Funds were received regularly in Odisha compared to Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Funds were received late and less compared to the demands or needs of VHSNCs.
Research limitations/implications
This comprehensive analysis of VHSNCs' functioning in the selected study areas sheds light on the gaps in many components, including the untimely and inadequate receipt of funds, poor documentation of expenditures and involvement of VHSNC heads and inadequate supportive supervision.
Originality/value
VHSNCs assessment has been done for improving community health governance.
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Keywords
Shantanu Sharma, Faiyaz Akhtar, Rajesh Kumar Singh and Sunil Mehra
This study aims to assess the associations of early marriage and spousal age difference (independent of early marriage) with reproductive and sexual health and autonomy in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the associations of early marriage and spousal age difference (independent of early marriage) with reproductive and sexual health and autonomy in decision-making among married women before conception.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study was a part of a three-year community intervention to improve the preconception health of young married women (20–35 years) in the West Delhi district of India. The six key outcomes assessed were: knowledge of reproductive health, discussions related to sexual health, history of anemia, use of contraceptives by women, frequency of consumption of meals per day and the autonomy in decision-making for household expenditures. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were used to explore the associations between the two key predictors (early marriage or spousal age difference), sociodemographic variables and six outcomes. The results were expressed as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 2,324 women, enrolled from four wards in the district using cluster-based sampling, were interviewed.
Findings
Around 17% of women were married by the exact age of 18, and 20% were elder or just one year younger than their husbands. Women who were married early had low reproductive health knowledge (OR (95% CI): 0.48 (0.38–0.60)) and a lower probability of expressing autonomy (OR (95% CI): 0.78 (0.62–0.97)). However, women older than men or younger by just one year in the married relationship had higher reproductive health knowledge (OR (95% CI): 1.25 (1.01–1.54)) than women younger than men more than two years.
Originality/value
Under the umbrella of the preconception care domain, frontline workers should emphasize counseling girls and young women to marry late and delay the first pregnancy.
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Yuting Jiang, Shengli Deng, Hongxiu Li and Yong Liu
The purposes of this paper are to (1) explore how personality traits pertaining to the dominance influence steadiness compliance model manifest themselves in terms of user…
Abstract
Purpose
The purposes of this paper are to (1) explore how personality traits pertaining to the dominance influence steadiness compliance model manifest themselves in terms of user interaction behavior on social media and (2) examine whether social interaction data on social media platforms can predict user personality.
Design/methodology/approach
Social interaction data was collected from 198 users of Sina Weibo, a popular social media platform in China. Their personality traits were also measured via questionnaire. Machine learning techniques were applied to predict the personality traits based on the social interaction data.
Findings
The results demonstrated that the proposed classifiers had high prediction accuracy, indicating that our approach is reliable and can be used with social interaction data on social media platforms to predict user personality. “Reposting,” “being reposted,” “commenting” and “being commented on” were found to be the key interaction features that reflected Weibo users' personalities, whereas “liking” was not found to be a key feature.
Originality/value
The findings of this study are expected to enrich personality prediction research based on social media data and to provide insights into the potential of employing social media data for the purpose of personality prediction in the context of the Weibo social media platform in China.