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Influencing factors on sustainable development: a case study in Quang Tri province, Vietnam

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Abstract

Background Sustainable development (SD) is a common concept. Knowledge and attitudes are essential in the SD process. This study assesses the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of local people about SD. Aim To study the factors that influence the understanding of the concept, contents, and indicators of different aspects affecting the health and environmental issues. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out from June to July 2007 among 546 households in the Quang Tri province. Data were gathered on basis of socio-demographic variables, namely age, gender, education, occupation, income, and region. Chi square tests and multivariate analysis were performed on the obtained data. The data were cleaned and analysed using SPSS 15.0 for windows. Results Occupation is related to knowledge, attitude, or practice. Income is related to knowledge or practice. Gender related to only attitude. Lastly, region is related to attitude or practice. The proportion of wrong understanding about SD is 2.0 times (95% CI: 1.3; 3.1, p < 0.001) higher than that of the people who have good understanding about it. The rate of willingness to do any related SD programmes of the people who understanding is 2.1 times (95% CI: 1.4; 3.2, p < 0.001) higher than that of the people who have bad one. Conclusions This study shows that knowledge on sustainability of the local communities is low. Occupation and income influence understanding of SD more than region, age, gender, and education. Most of the local people who do not understand SD in general, do not want to participate or act in SD programmes.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Leonard Kaufman (Department of Medical Statistics, Free University of Brussels, Belgium), Mrs. Nguyen Quynh Anh (Hanoi School of Public Health), MD. Hoang Nam Thai (Family Health International, Vietnam Office), and MD. Hoang Minh Duc (National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology) for their helpful comments and Miss. Rachel Sandra Stephen Waghchoure (World Wide Funds, Pakistan) for her English review of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Le Trinh Hai & Pham Hoang Hai

  2. General Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, Ministry of Health, 138A Giang Vo, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Tran Anh Dung

  3. Human Ecology Department, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Free University of Brussels, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Brussels, Belgium

    Luc Hens

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  1. Le Trinh Hai
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  2. Pham Hoang Hai
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  3. Tran Anh Dung
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  4. Luc Hens
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Correspondence to Luc Hens.

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Annex

Annex

1.1 Annex 1: The list of explanatory variables

Demographic information

  • Age: 16–24 years old = 1, 25–75 years old = 2;

  • Gender: male = 1, female = 2;

  • Education: tertiary/university = 1, not tertiary/university = 2;

  • Occupation: farmer = 1, trader = 2, government official and teacher = 3;

  • Income($US per year per house): <2,251 = 1, 2,251–4,500 = 2.

Knowledge: including:

Knowing the concept of SD: No = 0, Yes = 1.

Identifying the content of SD: <5 issues = 0, 5–9 issues = 1 (the sum of the scores for 9 issues: Using safe drinking water (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Living within a fresh air area (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Increasing forest land (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Access to health care centre (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Pupils go to a school (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Employment (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Enough food (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + High population growth (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Having sanitation (No = 0 or Yes = 1).

Identify SDIs: less than 5 indicators = 0, 5–16 indicators = 1 (the sum of the scores of 16 indicators: Life expectancy at birth (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Mortality rate under age five (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Nutritional status of infants (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Access to safe water (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Percentage of population with adequate sewage disposal facilities (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Immunisation against infectious childhood diseases (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Contraceptive prevalence rate (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Percentage of population with access to primary health care facilities (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Arable land per capita (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Soil erosion (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Land use changes (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Use of agricultural pesticides (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Air pollutions + Faecal coliform in freshwater (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Percentage of forest area (No = 0 or Yes = 1) + Abundance of selected key species).

Attitude: want to participate in the programmes, No = 0, Yes = 1.

Practice: doing relative programmes of health care or/and environment, No = 0, Yes = 1.

Annex 2: To understand, perform, and participate in SDa
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Annex 3: Logistic regression analysis
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Hai, L.T., Hai, P.H., Dung, T.A. et al. Influencing factors on sustainable development: a case study in Quang Tri province, Vietnam. Environ Dev Sustain 12, 103–116 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-008-9183-y

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