Health and human rights in eastern Myanmar prior to political transition: a population-based assessment using multistaged household cluster sampling

BMC International Health and Human Rights

Research Article

Mahn Mahn¹  Saw Nay Htoo²  Aye Lwin²  Linda S Smith³  Thomas Lee⁴  Adam K Richards⁵  Parveen K Parmar⁶  Jade Benjamin-Chung⁷  Eh Kalu Shwe Oo⁸  Daniel Reh⁹  Cynthia Maung^1,10  Sai Laeng^1,11 

[1] Back Pack Health Worker Team, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand;Burma Medical Association, PO Box 156, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand;Community Partners International, 2560 Ninth St., Suite 315b, 94710, Berkeley, CA, USA;Community Partners International, 2560 Ninth St., Suite 315b, 94710, Berkeley, CA, USA;Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA;Community Partners International, 2560 Ninth St., Suite 315b, 94710, Berkeley, CA, USA;Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA;Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St, 02115, Boston, MA, USA;Community Partners International, 2560 Ninth St., Suite 315b, 94710, Berkeley, CA, USA;Division of Epidemiology, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 101 Haviland Hall, 94720-7358, Berkeley, CA, USA;Karen Department of Health and Welfare, PO box 189, 63110, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand;Karenni Mobile Health Committee, Mae Hong Son, Thailand;Mae Tao Clinic, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand;Shan State Development Foundation, Chiang Mai, Thailand;

关键词: Burma;    Myanmar;    Human Rights;    Health;    Mortality;    Malaria;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-698X-14-15

 received in 2013-10-14, accepted in 2014-04-25,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMyanmar/Burma has received increased development and humanitarian assistance since the election in November 2010. Monitoring the impact of foreign assistance and economic development on health and human rights requires knowledge of pre-election conditions.MethodsFrom October 2008-January 2009, community-based organizations conducted household surveys using three-stage cluster sampling in Shan, Kayin, Bago, Kayah, Mon and Tanintharyi areas of Myanmar. Data was collected from 5,592 heads of household on household demographics, reproductive health, diarrhea, births, deaths, malaria, and acute malnutrition of children 6–59 months and women aged 15–49 years. A human rights focused survey module evaluated human rights violations (HRVs) experienced by household members during the previous year.ResultsEstimated infant and under-five rates were 77 (95% CI 56 to 98) and 139 (95% CI 107 to 171) deaths per 1,000 live births; and the crude mortality rate was 13 (95% CI 11 to 15) deaths per thousand persons. The leading respondent-reported cause of death was malaria, followed by acute respiratory infection and diarrhea, causing 21.2% (95% CI 16.5 to 25.8), 16.6% (95% CI 11.8 to 21.4), and 12.3% (95% CI 8.7 to 15.8), respectively. Over a third of households suffered at least one human rights violation in the preceding year (36.2%; 30.7 to 41.7). Household exposure to forced labor increased risk of death among infants (rate ratio (RR) = 2.2; 95% CI 1.1 to 4.4) and children under five (RR = 2.1; 95% CI 1.3 to 3.6). The proportion of children suffering from moderate to severe acute malnutrition was higher among households that were displaced (prevalence ratio (PR) = 3.3; 95% CI 1.9 to 5.6).ConclusionsPrior to the 2010 election, populations of eastern Myanmar experienced high rates of disease and death and high rates of HRVs. These population-based data provide a baseline that can be used to monitor national and international efforts to improve the health and human rights situation in the region.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Parmar et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.