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Populations become increasingly feminized with age. Since older women are more vulnerable to poverty, they may find it more difficult than men to access health care. This study examines factors that may constrain older persons in Southeast Asia from meeting their health-care needs when sick. Our analysis of household survey data from Cambodia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam shows that women are more likely to have reported sickness or injury than men, a difference that is meaningful and statistically significant. While women in Cambodia and the Philippines are more likely to seek treatment than men, the gender difference is reversed in Viet Nam where the stigma and discrimination associated with some diseases may more strongly deter women. The probability of seeking treatment rises with age more sharply for women than men in all countries. However, for the subsample of elders, the gender difference is not significant.

In responding to the challenge of rapid population aging in Asia, promoting healthy and active aging has become a key policy priority in many countries. There is an opportunity to realize a “silver demographic dividend” by harnessing the potential of healthy and productive older people. This paper presents the findings of a regional comparative study that quantifies the health capacity to work of older persons in seven East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Along with improvements in the health status of older Asians over time, the additional (or untapped) working capacity of older men aged 55–64 years is estimated to have increased by 0.74 years on average over the past 15 years, with substantial variation across countries, gender, and other individual characteristics. For example, additional work capacity increased by 0.24 years in Japan and Viet Nam during the review period and by 2.24 years in the People’s Republic of China. In contrast, additional work capacity declined by 0.17 years in Indonesia. The proportion of all men aged 60–64 who are not working but are able to do so ranges from 7.8% (Viet Nam) to 21.1% in Figure 8 (Malaysia), with the proportion even higher for men in their late 60s. Older adults with higher levels of education and those living in urban areas generally have greater untapped work capacity. The potential silver demographic dividend, measured by the aggregate untapped work capacity of older workers above retirement age, is significant and has the potential to boost the gross domestic product of many countries in the region.

This study aimed to estimate the work capacity of older Indonesians based on their health condition and other characteristics. Two analytic methods were used in this analysis—the Milligan–Wise method and the Cutler–Meara–Richards-Shubik method—and they found relatively small and substantial additional work capacities, respectively. The results showed that mortality alone may not be able to explain the additional work capacity due to only small improvements in the health conditions of older people. The effect of poverty, the dominance of the informal sector, low educational attainment and skills, and inadequate government social protection and assistance were also responsible for the continued employment of older people until serious health conditions halted their economic activities. Thus, several features were highlighted in this study: (i) the feasibility of extending the pensionable age, (ii) flexible terms for a pension scheme for informal workers, (iii) improved health conditions by expanding the noncontributory health insurance, and (iv) upgraded skills for older workers.

Thailand’s aging population has impacted its labor force. This study examines additional health capacity to work (AHCW) with established methods. Data were obtained from the mortality registry as well as national health, aging, labor force, and welfare surveys. Utilizing the Milligan–Wise method, the estimated AHCW for those aged 50–69 was 1.3 years (an 8.7% increase) for males and 1.9 years (17.8%) for females, based on the 2005 employment–mortality relationship. With the Cutler–Meara–Richards-Shubik method, the estimated AHCW for those aged 60–69 in 2015 ranged from 0.9 years (13.6%) to 2.0 years (31.3%) for males and from 1.2 years (23.2%) to 1.5 years (29.6%) for females. We also found that older informal workers in Thailand need to work to maintain their standards of living due to limited retirement benefits. Effective policy measures should be implemented to protect informal workers’ health, prevent pensioners from being impoverished, facilitate a more flexible working environment, and help workers maintain skills and job competencies.

In this paper, we estimated the additional health capacities to work of older Vietnamese adults by applying the Milligan–Wise and Cutler–Meara–Richards-Shubik methods with various nationally representative datasets. In following these methods, we postulated that older adults’ mortality rates, life expectancies, and health statuses were comparable to their younger counterparts. We found that there were significant differences in employment rates between various groups of older male and female adults, in which women generally had higher capacities to work than men if they both had similar mortality rates. Along with other sociodemographic and economic factors, health status is a significant factor in determining the probability of being employed for older adults. Based on these findings, we discuss needed policy options, with a focus on health-related issues, for Viet Nam to unleash the potential work capacities of older adults.

Elemental concentrations in some herbal medical products, produced by different ayurvedic pharmacies in India, were determined using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (EDXRF). All the eight products, which were studied, contained mercury, and four out of the eight products contained arsenic in varied amounts. Daily mercury and arsenic intakes by the patients taking these products, determined from the doses prescribed by the manufacturers, exceeded the recommendations by WHO. The present work does not argue on the toxicity of heavy metals in drugs but gives information about the presence of heavy metals at levels more than the required recommendations by various health regulatory bodies. This level of As and Hg calls for caution as far as their safe intake is concerned.

We present evidence against the well-established education–health gradient by relating education to measured hypertension status in 5,873 men and 6,152 women aged 40$+$ in Indonesia. Once a basic set of covariates was controlled for, the two variables were not statistically significantly related. We argue that this lack was due to neglect of chronic diseases. It appears that the assumption of full information in theories on the education–health gradient is too strong to be applied to the developing world. Therefore, more information needs to be provided to the public regarding the seriousness of chronic diseases and preventive and curative methods.

This paper presents an integrated model of household behavior, in which households derive utility not only from flow choices (of goods and leisure activities) but also from stock variables representing the status in health, psychological stress, social standing/reputation, political affiliation, religious identity, and any other status deemed relevant for their well-being. To attain the status in any of these dimensions, proper investment is necessary in accordance with a suitable mediating function that connects flow choices to the status in question. We depart from the position that statuses activate motivation, thereby affecting the efficiency of activities including working time. In particular, health not only yields utility of its own kind but also affects the productivity of households, thereby expanding their budget sets and raising the utility they attain now and in the future. Health, however, must be attained and maintained, and this has to be accomplished in accordance with a plausible health-production function defined on the space of goods and leisure activities. The same can be said about knowledge and skill acquisition, which requires investment of certain activities and goods through an appropriate mediating function. Similar relationships also hold for social, psychological, and other statuses, which can only be acquired through proper mediating functions. While the utility calculus appears complex, we demonstrate that the optimum choice of goods and leisure activities is guided by the rationality principle that requires that the composite marginal utility, defined as the total of all marginal utilities from the entire sources of utility, direct or mediated, be balanced with properly measured cost of acquiring it, which is shown to equal, the price or the wage rate on the market adjusted for a change in the efficiency of working time mediated through health enhancement and/or an increase in the productive efficiency of working hours due to knowledge and technology acquisition. Because our model includes utility arising from status-orientation in multiple dimensions, and because the extent and the range of such utility are socio-cultural-regime-specific while also being shaped by the household-specific receptivity and orientation to this regime, our model can potentially explain a diverse range of choice behavior some of which appear anomalous or even counter-intuitive to the rationality principle in the traditional sense. This added explanatory power helps close a gap between economics and other social sciences.

This paper shows the added value of using the existing specific domain knowledge to generate new derivated variables to complement a target dataset and the benefits of including these new variables into further data analysis methods. The main contribution of the paper is to propose a methodology to generate these new variables as a part of preprocessing, under a double approach: creating 2nd generation knowledge-driven variables, catching the experts criteria used for reasoning on the field or 3rd generation data-driven indicators, these created by clustering original variables. And Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence techniques like Clustering or Traffic light Panels help to obtain successful results. Some results of the project INSESS-COVID19 are presented, basic descriptive analysis gives simple results that even though they are useful to support basic policy-making, especially in health, a much richer global perspective is acquired after including derivated variables. When 2nd generation variables are available and can be introduced in the method for creating 3rd generation data, added value is obtained from both basic analysis and building new data-driven indicators.

AUSTRALIA – First iPS Cell Line Puts Australia in the Lead of Stem Cell Research.

AUSTRALIA – New Treatment Hope for Prostate Cancer.

CHINA – AIDS Is China's Top Killer Among Infectious Diseases.

CHINA – Anti-bird Flu Drug for Human Clinical Trial Approved by China.

CHINA – China Plans 120 Billion Dollar Health Reform By 2011.

CHINA – 13 000 Fowl Culled in China After Bird flu.

CHINA – China-Russia Joint Research Center.

CHINA – Pig's Adult Stem Cells Produce Better Skins.

CHINA – More Health Scares Amid Slowdown, Warns China.

INDIA – Indian Experts Find Bacteria to Beat Global Heat.

INDIA – Two Indian Firms to set up Pre-clinical Trial Units in Malaysia.

JAPAN – Breakthrough in Universal Flu Vaccine Development.

SINGAPORE – Taiwan Pork Banned by AVA.

SINGAPORE – Stem-Cell Treatment For Joint Pain Gives New Hope.

SINGAPORE – Next Generation Healthcare Information System.

SINGAPORE – Top US University Sets up Research Centre in Singapore.

SINGAPORE – Increase in Life-saving Umbilical Cord Donations.

SINGAPORE – Singapore and China Scientists Report Breakthrough Research in Psoriasis.

SOUTH KOREA – Harmful Bacteria in French Baby Formula.

SOUTH KOREA – World's First Cloned Wolves to Test Reproductive Fitness.

TAIWAN – Genetic Testing on the Rise.

TAIWAN – Chinese Herbal Medicines Contain Western Drug Ingredients.

VIETNAM – Bird Flu Strikes in Five Provinces in Vietnam.

VIETNAM – Opening of Vietnam's First Stem Cell Bank, "MekoStem".

VIETNAM – Hanoi Suffers Worst Measles Outbreak in Decade.

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OTHER REGIONS — EUROPE – Cancer Morbidity 'to Double in 40 Years'.

OTHER REGIONS — NORTH AMERICA – Scientists Close in on 'Universal' Vaccine for Flu.

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Global Academic-Industry Partnership in Translational Research.

U.S. and Korean Research Institutes Combine Expertise in Viral Infectivity Analysis.

The New Hip Thing: Flying halfway around the globe for a new hip.

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Frequent Monitoring of Atrial Fibrillation Patients and Anticoagulants.

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TauRx enters collaborative R&D agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma.

Major New Asean Health and Well-Being Study.

The Benefits of Perforin Revealed.

Singapore Scientists First to Perform the Largest Genome-wide Association Study on Central Corneal Thickness.

Molecular Simulations Confirm Role of Functional Rotation in Multidrug Resistance.

Agricultural Biotechnology and Food Security.

Innovating for the Future – A Focus on the Dutch Life Sciences and Health Sector.

LatAM Biotechnology – An Outsider Looking In & an Insider Looking Out Perspective.

Singapore-Based AAMG To Lead Project Management to Establish Zhuhai-Singapore Life Science Park which will offer World-Class Health & Medical Services in Southern China

Boston Therapeutics’ Hong Kong Affiliate Advance Pharmaceutical’s BTI-320 Clinical Trial Reaches Mid-Point by Enrolling 30 Patients at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

China Green Agriculture’s Online Sales Platform Begins Operations

Mixed-species Flocks Important for Biodiversity Conservation in Tropics

LICP Designs Hydrogels with Extraordinary Mechanical Properties and Good Self-recovery

AstraZeneca and Ironwood Report Positive Top-Line Data from Phase III IBS-C Trial Designed to Support Linaclotide Approval in China

GE to Build Wind Education Centre in China

Chinese Scientists Edit Genes to Produce Artificial Sperm Capable of Creating “army of half-cloned mice”

Brain ‘switch’ can Turn off Drug Addiction, Say Shanghai Scientists

Mindray Medical Completes Acquisition of Wuhan Dragonbio

China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. Announces Formation of Special Committee to Consider “Going Private” Proposal

BioNano Genomics Announces Addition of Gene Company as China Mainland and HK/Macau Distributor

Novel Imaging Technology REFI takes Clinicians closer to detecting Stage 0 Tumour Lesions

P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program Celebrates 10 Billion Litre Milestone in Singapore.

New In-Vitro Studies Reinforce Efficacy of BETADINE® Skin Cleanser against Viruses that Cause Hand Foot & Mouth Disease.

Singapore Ranked Fifth in its Readiness to Achieve a Fully Integrated Health System Reveals First Future Health Index.

SCIEX Announces High Throughput, Industrialised Omics Solutions.

Novartis Expands Partnership with Medicines for Malaria Venture to Develop Next-Generation Antimalarial Treatment.

ADVA Launches Dengue Mission Buzz Barometer Tool to Boost Critical Dengue Prevention Awareness and Preparedness Amongst ASEAN Community.

Innovative Diagnostics Awarded Unprecedented Westgard Sigma Certification in Singapore.

Imagene Labs Introduces Region’s First Complete Genetics-Based Wellness Solutions.

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals and A*STAR Enter RON Antibody Licensing and Research Collaboration Agreement.

Hidden HIV Revealed: New Insights into Latent HIV Infections.

Agilent Technologies Introduces Transformational Technology for Gas Chromatography.

Merck Joins DiViNe Consortium to Address Low Yields, High Costs of Vaccine Purification Processes.

FEI Celebrates Shipment of 1,000th Helios DualBeam System.

From Home to Hospital: Digitisation of Healthcare.

Microsoft with RingMD, Oneview Healthcare, Vital Images, Aruba, and Clinic to Cloud: The Ecosystem of Healthcare Solutions Providers in Asia.

Data Helps in Improving Nursing Practice, Making Better Decisions.

Launch of Asian Branch for QuintilesIMS Institute.

SINGAPORE – Biofourmis to Run New Study on How Singapore’s Lifestyle Affects Heart Health SingHEART Vitals Study with Support from IMDA.

SINGAPORE – Smart Nation Boost: Singapore Engineers Develop Remote Vital Signs Monitoring System.

ESMO ASIA 2016 CONGRESS, SINGAPORE – Routine Blood Test Predicts How Long Cancer Patients Will Survive.

ESMO ASIA 2016 CONGRESS, SINGAPORE – Cancer Costs Leaving Patients in Debt.

ESMO ASIA 2016 CONGRESS, SINGAPORE – Asian Head and Neck Cancer Patients Live Longer with Immunotherapy than Mixed Race Group.

JAPAN – Avastin® Received Orphan Drug Designation for the Treatment of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma.

UNITED STATES – Recovery from Brain Injury and Better Sleep Go Hand in Hand.

UNITED STATES – Erasing the Line between Imaging and Analysing.

UNITED STATES – Smoking While Pregnant May Compromise Children’s Kidney Function.

UNITED STATES – You Are What You Exhale.

UNITED STATES – A Diet of Fruits, Vegetables May Help Kidney Disease Patients.

TAIWAN – TLC to Proceed with TLC599 Phase 2 Trial in Taiwan.

TAIWAN – TLC Reports Results of Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial of TLC599 for Sustained Pain Relief in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee.

JAPAN – Chugai to Join Global Initiative for Addressing Rise of Non-Communicable Diseases in Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries.

AUSTRALIA & MALAYSIA – Holista CollTech Collaborates with Nobel Prize Nominee to File Patent for World’s First Low-GI Sugar with All-Natural Ingredients.