Publications by authors named "Sudirman Nasir"

In the past three decades, there has been a rise in young academy movements in the Global North and South. Such movements, in at least Germany and the Netherlands, have been shown to be quite effective in connecting scientific work with society. Likewise, these movements share a common goal of developing interdisciplinary collaboration among young scientists, which contributes to the growth of a nation's-but also global-scientific endeavors.

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Communities with higher levels of social capital perform better than communities with lower social capital in community-level water and sanitation interventions and have better health outcomes. Although research recommends bolstering social capital to improve intervention outcomes, few studies provide empirical evidence on the effect of intervention activities on social capital. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of participatory design and community engagement activities on social capital among urban informal settlements in Suva, Fiji and Makassar, Indonesia enrolled in the Revitalizing Informal Settlements and their Environments trial using the Short Adapted Social Capital Assessment Tool.

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Seagrass meadows are an important component of coastal ecosystems globally, and they capture and store organic carbon in living biomass and sediments. Geographical estimates of blue carbon in seagrass habitats are regionally biased, with limited information from the Indo-Pacific region, including Indonesia. Seagrass extent in Indonesia is declining rapidly, and it has been suggested that marine protected areas (MPAs) are an important instrument to support protection of seagrass ecosystems and their services.

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Background: Maternal and child health (MCH) services have been affected by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in all countries, including Indonesia. Information regarding the impact of COVID-19 on MCH service access and provision is limited, particularly in the context of rural Indonesian communities. This study aimed to explore the experiences of Indonesian mothers and midwives from a rural regency regarding MCH services delivery during the pandemic.

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Background: Women living in urban informal settlements may be particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic because of increased economic and psychosocial stressors in resource-limited environments.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the associations between food and water insecurity during the pandemic and depression among women living in the urban informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia.

Methods: We implemented surveys at 3 time points among women enrolled in the Revitalizing Informal Settlements and their Environments trial.

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Obesity is strongly associated with multiple risk factors. It is significantly contributing to an increased risk of chronic disease morbidity and mortality worldwide. There are various challenges to better understand the association between risk factors and the occurrence of obesity.

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A pilot village volunteer programme (VVP) was implemented to produce new knowledge about the extent to which 24 trained village volunteers, taking an integrated One Health approach, could assist their communities by disseminating information on better agricultural and health practices. Just prior to the six-month pilot, the volunteers were mentored in a four-day training programme by local agricultural extension and public health experts. On returning to their villages, contacts and activities by volunteers with local community members were monitored using a CommCare application, enabling uploaded data to be accessed in real-time.

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We conducted an interdisciplinary One Health study of potential links between agricultural, health and associated livelihood factors on the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa-growing families in West Sulawesi. Our 2017 survey of 509 cocoa smallholder family members in 120 households in Polewali-Mandar District, West Sulawesi, Indonesia showed that farmers face many challenges to improving their livelihoods, including land management, agricultural practices, nutrition and human health, animal health, aging and demographic changes. Price fluctuations, limited access to capital and poor health deterred farmers from applying agricultural inputs and resulted in levels of low cocoa production (275 kg/annum per household).

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Background: Indonesia has been shifting from ensuring access to health services towards improving service quality. Accreditation has been used as quality assurance (QA) mechanism, first in hospitals and subsequently in primary health care facilities, including Puskesmas (community health centres). QA provides measures of whether services meet quality targets, but quality improvement (QI) is needed to make change and achieve improvements.

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The objective of this research was to investigate serotype diversity pattern of dengue hemorrhagic fever virus by using real-time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. It was an explorative laboratory research in endemic dengue fever area in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, that is, Makassar municipality and Maros and Gowa region. Serological examination was carried out using real-time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method to determine the serotype of dengue virus.

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Maternal health promotion is a defined activity in the community integrated posts (Posyandu) in Indonesia. However, it is often neglected due to limited knowledge and skills of the community health workers (kader). We conducted health promotion training for the kader and village midwives in four villages in Cianjur district.

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Background: In LMICs, Community Health Workers (CHW) increasingly play health promotion related roles involving 'Empowerment of communities'. To be able to empower the communities they serve, we argue, it is essential that CHWs themselves be, and feel, empowered. We present here a critique of how diverse national CHW programs affect CHW's empowerment experience.

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Background: There are few studies exploring the social context of controlled drug use amongst young people in Indonesia. This qualitative study examines the experience of young people in a slum area (lorong) in Makassar, eastern Indonesia, who use drugs but are not drug dependent and who employ various forms of self regulation to control their use.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight controlled drug users.

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Background: The association between socio-economic marginalisation in urban poor neighbourhoods and the prevalence of violence, crime, drug use and drug dealing has been well documented. However few studies have explored the social context of the transition to, initiation and maintenance of drug injection career in slum areas in developing countries. This study examines the lived experience of young men in initiating and maintaining drug injection in slum areas, commonly named lorong, in the city of Makassar, Indonesia.

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