Viet Nam - FilaBavi HDSS INDEPTH Core Dataset 1999-2011

V4: Updated version

2013-10-22

Develoed during iSHARE2 workshop

Although Vietnam initiated health sector reform in 1989, attempting to mobilize more resources for health, make the health sector more responsive, and improve equity in healthcare requires good data for formulating and monitoring change. Although there have been some cross-sectional surveys and publications such as the Ministry of Health’s ‘‘Health Statistics Yearbook’’, there remained a lack of appropriate data. Thus, in1996, the Health Systems Research Project (HSRP), a collaboration between Vietnamese and Swedish public health scientists, identified the need for a field site for this purpose. With the assistance of Sida/SAREC, FilaBavi, an epidemiological field laboratory sited in the Bavi District, was created.

Many other developing countries have experienced similar problems linked to the lack of appropriate data and information at the community level for policy makers and health managers. After a workshop organized in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from 9 to 12 November 1998, a network called INDEPTH (International Network of field sites with continuous Demographic Evaluation of Population and Their Health in developing countries) was constituted, now consisting of 31 sites from 17 countries, including FilaBavi (www.indepth-network.net).

FilaBavi’s overall aim was to implement a longitudinal epidemiological surveillance system in the Bavi District of Vietnam to generate basic health and healthcare data, supply information for health planning, serve as a background and sampling frame for specific studies, and constitute a setting for epidemiological training of research students. Specific aims included:

- Developing an epidemiological surveillance system among a representative sample of the population in Bavi District, Hatay Province, Vietnam;

- Generating basic health data, e.g. on fertility and mortality, in order to supply information for health planning;

- Constituting a setting for epidemiological research training of Vietnamese and Swedish research students;

- Providing household and individual backgrounddata, a sampling frame, and a professional field organization for specific studies, in order to economize on resources and increase cost

effectiveness in research and research training;

- Serving as an appropriate research setting for intervention studies, based on findings generated by the field laboratory, and health priority discussions with the community and relevant

authorities.

Event history data

Individual