HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam ranks fourth in international comparisons for self-care readiness, with an overall score of 3.04 out of 4, behind only Singapore, Australia and Germany, according to a recent study.
Self-care is an essential component of primary healthcare, with WHO defining it as the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote and maintain health, prevent disease, and cope with illness with or without the support of healthcare professionals.
The Ministry of Health’s Health Strategy and Policy Institute, in collaboration with Opella Vietnam, announced the findings of the study, titled “Assessment of Vietnam’s Readiness for Self-Care and Its Influencing Factors”, on December 15.
Conducted since June, it applied the Global Self-Care Federation’s Self-Care Readiness Index, which comprises four key enablers and 14 component indicators.
The assessment framework has been used in 20 countries worldwide. The research combined desk reviews with field studies in four localities representing different regions of Vietnam: Phu Tho, Bac Ninh, Hue, and An Giang.
Fieldwork employed both qualitative and quantitative methods, including five exhaustive interviews with policymakers, 28 focus group discussions involving health officials, healthcare providers and the general public, and structured questionnaire interviews with 171 healthcare providers and 418 consumers.
Vietnam’s scores across the four key enablers were: Stakeholder Support and Adoption (2.79), Consumer and Patient Empowerment (3.06), Self-Care Health Policy (3.05), and Regulatory Environment (3.26).
Of the 14 component indicators, nine recorded scores between 3 and 3.75, indicating relatively strong overall readiness, although development remains uneven across different areas.
Although Vietnam’s readiness for self-care is relatively strong compared to the region, the study highlights the need to further enhance public awareness, strengthen healthcare workers’ counselling capacity, and improve access to reliable information.
Priority areas include expanding mainstream communication on self-care; accelerating the rollout of electronic health records integrated with VNeID to enable people to access medical histories, test results, and medication information; promoting electronic labelling for medicines, particularly over-the-counter products; and piloting community-based self-care models as a foundation for a future national self-care strategy.
Dr Nguyen Khanh Phuong, director of the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, said the findings show that Vietnam has built a solid foundation for advancing self-care, while also identifying clear opportunities to strengthen mainstream communication, healthcare counselling, and safe access to reliable information.
“This provides a strong basis for developing practical models and national directions for self-care in Vietnam.”
Dr Valentina Belcheva, country head of Opella Vietnam and Cambodia, described the study as an important milestone, noting that it offers, for the first time in Vietnam, a systematic view of the needs and barriers people face in their self-care journey./.
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The total value of medical expenses not covered by the health insurance fund is estimated at around 24.8 trillion VND (942 million USD) per year. Health insurance contributions remain low, at 4.5% of the salary or reference base used for calculation.
