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Rural residential energy consumption accounts for 46.6% of total building-related energy consumption of China. In Northeast China, energy consumption for space heating represents a significant proportion of total rural residential energy consumption and has reached 100 million tce (tons of standard coal equivalent), or more than 60% of total household energy consumption. In terms of energy consumption per square meter of gross floor area, rural residential energy consumption for heating is more than that of cities (20kgce/m2). However, the average indoor temperature of most rural residence is below 10°C, much less than that in cities (18°C). Hence, it is an important task for Chinese energy saving and emission reduction to reduce rural residential energy consumption, while enhancing indoor thermal comfort at the same time.

Restricted by local technology and low economic level, rural residences currently have poor thermal insulation resulting in severe heat loss. This paper reports on research aimed at developing design strategies for improving thermal insulation properties of rural residences with appropriate technology. A field survey was conducted in six counties in severe cold areas of Northeast China, addressing the aspects of indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, internal and external surface temperature of building envelop enclosure, and so on.

The survey data show the following:

1. Modern (after 2000) brick-cement rural residences perform much better than the traditional adobe clay houses and Tatou houses (a regional type of rural residence in Northeast China – see figure A) in overall thermal performance and indoor thermal comfort;

2. Among the traditional residential house types, adobe clay houses have better heat stability and thermal storage capacity than Tatou houses;

3. Applying an internal or external thermal insulation layer can greatly improve rural residential thermal insulation properties, and is an economical and efficient solution in rural areas;

4. In terms of roofing materials, tiled roofs show much better thermal insulation properties than thatch roofs;

5. Adopting passive solar techniques can form a transition space (greenhouse) against frigid temperatures, resulting in interior temperatures 5.91°C higher than the outside surroundings. It is evident that local passive solar room design offers significant heat preservation effects and lower cost ($12/m2), embodies the ecological wisdom of rural residents, and is therefore important to popularize.

The above experimental results can provide guidance in energy conservation design for both self-built residences and rural residences designed by architects. In addition, the results can also provide experimental data for energy-saving studies for rural residences in China.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants of intention for energy and water conservation behavior in Prishtina, Kosovo by using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) conceptual framework and then examine the influence of intention and demographic factors on the conservation behavior itself. In addition, the present study examines the differences between urban and rural consumers in Prishtina in terms of their intention for energy and water conservation behaviors and their actual conservation behavior.

This study uses a qualitative approach by conducting ten in-depth interviews followed by one focus group with urban consumers and ten in-depth interviews followed by one focus group with rural consumers in Prishtina to analyze the influence of determinants on the conservation intention. In addition, the present study uses the quantitative research method to empirically examine the influence of intention and demographic variables on the actual conservation behavior.

The findings show that there is a difference between the urban and rural sample populations in Prishtina in terms of determinants that influence their intention to conserve energy and water. While attitude is the strongest determinant among the urban population, the social norms seem to be the strongest antecedent of the behavioral intention among the rural population. In addition, the study finds that the intention, income, family size and place of residence as a whole influence the actual behavior; however, the manifestation of the influence of separate variables on the actual conservation varies between urban and rural population. While intention is very strong among urban respondents and the actual conservation behavior is less dependent on the income level and family size, in the case of rural respondents, intention alone is not sufficient to predict the actual behavior and varies also on the income level.

The study brings unique and new knowledge about the application of the TPB in the context of small and developing economies bridging the research gaps arising from few scholarly research studying the differences between urban and rural populations.

The differences in the distribution of factors associated with under-five mortality (UFM) can help explain the rural-urban inequities in UFM. The determinants contributing to UFM in rural and urban areas have not been previously explored in Bhutan. This study examined the factors associated with UFM in rural and urban Bhutan and the role of the factors in explaining UFM disparity.

The dataset of 6,398 single births (4,999 in rural and 1,399 in urban areas) from the 2012 Bhutan National Health Survey was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis accounting for the complex survey design was performed to investigate the determinants.

The UFM rate was 2.75 times higher in rural than in urban Bhutan. In rural communities, children of younger mothers, born in households without safe sanitation and electricity, and central and eastern regions had increased UFM odds. Whereas, children born to working mothers and educated fathers, and born in households with non-working household heads had lower UFM odds in urban areas. A higher number of births and smaller household size was associated with an increased UFM odds irrespective of rural-urban residence. Environmental factors were attributable for the largest portion of rural UFM disadvantage.

This study helps to understand the rural-urban differences in the factors influencing UFM in Bhutan. The findings suggest that policies aimed to improve environmental and socioeconomic conditions, women empowerment, and those aimed to enhance health utilization can help reduce the rural-urban child survival disparity and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal target.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the associations of gender, ethnicity, urban‐rural residence, and poverty, on children's unpaid work. It examines whether the Nigerian experience parallels previous research in India and Latin America, which finds an ethnic gap in children's unpaid work.

To achieve the stated objectives, the 2004 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey EdData Survey (2004 NDES) were analyzed.

The series of logistic regression results confirm the existence of gender, urban‐rural residence, and wealth inequalities in children's unpaid work. For example, girls, children in rural areas and poor children conduct more unpaid work than boys, urban children, and non‐poor children, respectively. In addition, the series of logistic regression results indicate that an ethnic inequality persists in children's unpaid work only when religion, parental attitude on child labor and gender bias in schooling, and region of the country in which the child resides are not controlled for in the analysis.

While previous research in India and Latin America finds an ethnic divide in children's unpaid work, this research contributes to knowledge by discovering that the ethnic gap in children's unpaid work that exists in Nigeria is mediated by a regional effect/variable.

The purpose of this paper is to understand disparities in child immunization and nutritional status among children by migration status in urban India.

The study utilized third round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 2005-2006) data, which is the Indian version of Demographic and Health Survey. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression models were used to study the levels and factors associated with child nutrition and immunization by migration status.

Results suggest that malnutrition and no immunization are very high among children of rural-urban migrants and full immunization is lower than urban non-migrants and urban-urban migrants. More than half of the children from marginalized households suffer from the problem of undernutrition among rural-urban migrants. Multivariate results show economic status, age of the mother, education, caste and media exposure are negatively associated with malnutrition and positively associated with immunization. Children from south, north-east and east are found to have lesser chance of being malnourished than north region of India.

The challenges experienced by rural-urban migrants are reflected over their children and needs a greater attention among policy makers in India.

The finding of this study that children of the rural-urban migrants are in a disadvantageous position in terms of nutrition and immunization. This reflects the precarious condition of rural-urban migrants who initially settles in poor neighbourhoods, which are characterized by lack of adequate sanitation and clean water, poor housing and overcrowding, and difficulty in access to modern health services brought out by many researchers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the socio-economic inequalities that exist in the use of unhygienic menstrual practices in India and its states, as well as to identify the contribution of various socio-economic factors that leads to these inequalities.

Data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21) for 240,285 menstruating women aged 15–24 years is used to examine the above objectives. The concentration index for unhygienic menstrual practices is calculated to measure the socio-economic inequalities, which are then decomposed into their determining factors.

The state of Punjab experiencing the highest level of economic inequality, followed by Telangana and Haryana. The results from decomposition analysis suggest that rural residence (13%), illiteracy (7%), poor economic status (53%), not reading newspaper (12%) and not watching TV (14%) contribute 99% to the total socio-economic inequality in using unhygienic menstrual practices in India. The contribution of economic status to total inequalities is more in all the states except for Kerala and Mizoram, where caste and residence play an important role.

This paper signifies the role of economic inequality in the use of unhygienic menstrual practices in India as well as the contribution of various socio-economic factors contributing towards these inequalities. The results from decomposition analysis suggest the need for unique health intervention strategies for different states following the evidence of major contributions to total inequalities in the use of unhygienic menstrual practices.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of maternal healthcare services (MHS) utilisation in Ghana.

In this paper, logit and negative binomial regressions were used to model data from a recent nationally representative survey (the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey). The analysis is observational, without causal implications. The authors measure MHS utilisation by four indicators: antenatal care (ANC) use, the number of ANC clinic visits, choice of health facility delivery and postnatal care (PNC) use.

Age, parity, education, marital status, wealth, residence and health facilities concentration proved to be significant predictors of MHS use in Ghana. Specifically, older, married and educated women; women of lower parity; those living in urban areas and women from wealthier households were more likely to use MHS. The authors also find that health facilities and personnel predicted higher MHS use. Lastly, women with frequent stillbirths had higher MHS use.

The results for health facilities and personnel suggest that increasing the supply of health centres and workers may enhance MHS use. The authors conclude that women of lower socio-economic status have worse MHS use, meaning empowering such women might increase such women's MHS use.

Existing data suggest falling MHS use in Ghana. Yet, the extant works are based on relatively old data or lack external validity (besides using limited MHS indicators). This paper provides recent and generalisable evidence for public health policies. Additionally, this paper tests the statistical significance of some supply-side factors that have yet to be emphasised in the literature.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2022-0199.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify inequalities in utilization of maternal health care services and measure the relative contribution of different factors affecting it in the context of Nepal.

The paper uses data from the latest round of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. Two stages of stratified cluster samplings were used. A total of 13,200 women aged 15-49 were interviewed.

Results of concentration index estimates in three selected indicators suggest considerable inequalities in maternal health care utilization. The decomposition analyses indicate that the critical factors contributing to inequalities in <3 antenatal care visits are poor economic status of households (32 percent) and women (23 percent) and their partners’ illiteracy (23 percent). However, in case of no institutional delivery, apart from the poor economic status of household (51 percent) and women's illiteracy (16 percent), the rural place of residence (21 percent) has emerged as critical factors contributing to inequalities. In case of no postnatal care within a day, birth order (21 percent) becomes a significant factor, next to the poor economic status of the household (41 percent) in terms of the relative contribution to total inequalities.

Policies and program targeting maternal health interventions need to consider equity with efficiency in utilization of maternal health care services, and further to achieve the targets of millennium development goal 5 in Nepal.

This study is an innovative effort to estimate inequalities in maternal health care services in the context of Nepal by using inequality decomposition model. For the first time, this study estimates the relative contribution of different socioeconomic factors contributing to inequalities in maternal health care services in Nepal.

Upgraded water and better sanitation are essential for human health, but it is still a challenge to get admittance to these facilities and the concerns of public health becomes most victims. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the socioeconomic and demographic forecaster linked with admittance to safer water and upgraded sanitation facilities in Rwanda. The study uses the cross-sectional data from the 2014 to 2015 Rwanda Demographic Health Survey and uses linear generalized models for the analysis.

The logit and probit regressions were used to analyze whether or not any forecaster variables influenced the predicted variable.

The findings showed that the households with the highest education background were 11.55 times more probable to have admittance to upgraded water sources compared to those who had none level of education. Likewise, the respondents with secondary and higher education were, respectively, 9.55 times and 4.09 times more probable to have admittance to upgraded latrine facilities. The authors found the increase of household size as significantly associated with admittance to the upgraded water source and latrine facilities compared to those families with fewer household members. The results also found that wealthier households had a larger odds ratio significance in getting admittance to upgraded water sources and sanitation facilities compared to poorer households. The study results found the greatest gap in access to upgraded water sources and sanitation facilities in rural areas compared to urban areas.

The implications of the study results call for water policy formulation and implementation in Rwanda, as well as generally for other developing countries.

In Rwanda, this is the first study that empirically inspected the relationship between socioeconomic and demographic forecasters on admittance to upgraded water and sanitation facilities.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2019-0452

The purpose of this paper is to assess the prevalence and socio-economic determinants of common mental disorders among youth in India.

The study utilizes data from “Youth in India: Situation and Needs 2006-2007”. One-way analysis of variance is used to compare different groups. Poisson regression models are used to test the relationship of household, parental, and individual factors with mental health problems.

An estimated 11-31 million youth suffer from reported mental health problems in India. Results suggest that the household and individual factors like place of residence, wealth quintile, age, education, and occupation are the most important determinants of mental health problems among Indian youth. Parental factors lose their statistical significance once individual factors are controlled.

Little is known about correlates of mental health among youth. Strengthening on-going programmes and creating awareness about mental health issues through various programmes may help improve scenario. The two limitations of the study are: first, data covering all the states would have given a broader and clear picture of the issue; and second, due to cross-sectional nature of the data the study is not able to look into the cause-effect relationship.

There are few studies which have explored mental health problems covering smaller areas in India. This is the first and the largest study conducted on a representative population of Indian youth to determine the correlates of reported mental health problems using General Health Questionnaire-12.