These slides are from a quest lecture given at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia (2012). It gives an overview of my PhD study which was centred on investigating the potential health implications of urbanisation in Vietnam, in addition to exploring NGO engagement with policy makers and government authorities in implementing public health policy.

1. Case Study: Vietnam
Developing Urban Health Indicators
for Low Income Countries
Stephanie Steels
University of Manchester

2. Presentation Outline
• My PhD study
• Some results
• Challenges of collecting data in Vietnam
• Conclusion

3. My PhD study
• Split into two parts:
Part one: to explore the feasibility of using the
EURO-URHIS data collection tools in Vietnam.
Part two: to explore the types of data used by NGOs
in Vietnam, the barriers to using them, and NGO
relationships with multi-sectoral stakeholders.

4. Vietnam

5. Existing data collection
Name of indicator Availability Name of indicator Availability
1. Population by age and
gender
 12. Low birth weight Different definition
2. Population Projections X 13. Mothers’ age distribution Different definition
3. Marital status  14. Causes of death X
4. Birth rate  15. HIV/AIDS incidence Different definition
5. Total fertility rate  16. Lung cancer incidence X
6. Population density  17. Breast cancer incidence X
7. Population by education  18. Diabetes prevalence X
8. Unemployment rate  19. Communicable diseases Some
9. Life expectancy at birth  20. GPs employed X
10. Infant mortality  21. Preventive actions –
Vaccinations
Some
11. Perinatal mortality Different definition

6. Total Population

7. Life Expectancy at Birth

8. Infant MortalityInfantdeathsper1000livebirths

9. Population density by urban area

10. Challenges with the Vietnamese study
• Ethical approval is a lengthy process in
Vietnam
• Cultural and Political issues
– No longer able to collect data in Hanoi
• Change in Adult data collection methodology
– No reliable postal system
– Face-to-face interviews

11. Conclusions
• It has been possible to collect data using the
Existing data collection tool
• Ethical approval process is close to completion
• Challenges with conducting the study in
Vietnam have led to:
– Delay in data collection
– Changes to the adult survey data collection
methodology
• NGO study is still ongoing

12. Thank you for listening.