Background: As part of the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative in South Africa, the Bukhali health promotion intervention is being implemented by community health workers (CHW's) with young women in urban Soweto. The perspectives of these CHW's have not been fully explored.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted to describe CHW's perspectives and experiences of delivering the Bukhali intervention.
Study Objectives: To examine 1) multidimensional sleep profiles in pre-schoolers (3-6 years) across geocultural regions and 2) differences in sleep characteristics and family practices between Majority World regions (Pacific Islands, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America) and the Minority World (the Western world).
Methods: Participants were 3507 pre-schoolers from 37 countries. Nighttime sleep characteristics and nap duration (accelerometer: n=1950) and family practices (parental questionnaire) were measured.
Background: The Canadian Chiropractic Association (CCA) initiated a quality improvement project to develop best practices aimed at enhancing the patient experience.
Objectives: (1) Identify and prioritise the key moments in the new patient experience that could be improved by providing chiropractors with focused support and resources; (2) explore views, barriers, and enablers to implementing these best practices; and (3) develop recommendations to facilitate the adoption of these practices.
Methods: We conducted a qualitative needs assessment using a human-centred design approach, focused on understanding the needs and experiences of end-users to create tailored solutions.
Building on the evidence from the first paper in this Series highlighting the fundamental importance of healthy and nurturing environments for children's growth and development in the next 1000 days (ages 2-5 years), this paper summarises the benefits and costs of key strategies to support children's development in this age range. The next 1000 days build on the family-based and health-sector based interventions provided in the first 1000 days and require broader multisectoral programming. Interventions that have been shown to be particularly effective in this age range are the provision of early childhood care and education (ECCE), parenting interventions, and cash transfers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFollowing the first 1000 days of life that span from conception to two years of age, the next 1000 days of a child's life from 2-5 years of age offer a window of opportunity to promote nurturing and caring environments, establish healthy behaviours, and build on early gains to sustain or improve trajectories of healthy development. This Series paper, the first of a two-paper Series on early childhood development and the next 1000 days, focuses on the transition to the next 1000 days of the life course, describes why this developmental period matters, identifies the environments of care, risks, and protective factors that shape children's development, estimates the number of children who receive adequate nurturing care, and examines whether current interventions are meeting children's needs. Paper 2 focuses on the cost of inaction and the implications of not investing in the next 1000 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Insufficient physical activity, excessive screen time and short sleep duration among young children are global public health concerns; however, data on prevalence of meeting World Health Organisation 24-h movement behaviour guidelines for 3-4-year-old children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited, and it is unknown whether urbanisation is related to young children's movement behaviours. The present study examined differences in prevalence of meeting 24-h movement behaviour guidelines among 3-4-year-old children living in urban versus rural settings in LMICs.
Methods: The SUNRISE Study recruited 429, 3-4-year-old child/parent dyads from 10 LMICs.
Background: Sleep, sedentary behaviour, physical activity, and the composition of these movement behaviours across the 24-h day are associated with cognitive function in early years children. This study used a Goldilocks day compositional data analysis approach to identify the optimal duration of sleep, sedentary behaviour, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity associated with desired cognitive function outcomes in early years children.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included 858 children aged 2.
Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf
October 2024
Sports Med Open
September 2024
Background: Biomechanical parameters can distinguish a skilled rower from a less skilled rower and can provide coaches with meaningful feedback and objective evidence to inform coaching practices on rowing technique. Therefore, it is critical to understand which technical characteristics can be related to the fundamental rowing performance indicators. The aim of this systematic scoping review was to describe the current focus and density of rowing biomechanics research specific to on-water rowing and provide a guide for practitioners and researchers on future directions for on-water rowing biomechanics research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Valid, reliable, and easy-to-administer scales are crucial for identifying mental health conditions, especially in LMICs where such scales tend not to be validated. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the psychometric properties and factorial structure of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in a sample of young women in Soweto, South Africa.
Methods: The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were administered to 6028 women aged 18-28 years old.
Purpose: To compare the safety and effectiveness of standalone Kahook Dual Blade (KDB) excisional goniotomy to standalone ab-interno Xen gel stent implantation in eyes with moderate-to-severe open-angle glaucoma (OAG).
Methods: A single-center, retrospective study including eyes with moderate-to-severe OAG undergoing standalone KDB goniotomy or Xen gel stent implantation was conducted. Intraocular pressure (IOP), the number of antiglaucoma medications taken daily, and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were recorded at baseline and for up to 36-months.
Purpose XEN45 Gel Stent and glaucoma drainage device (GDD) implantation is safe and effective for glaucoma treatment and should be taught during glaucoma fellowship training. However, complications may still occur, with potentially sight-threatening consequences. The purpose of this study is to describe the management of complications following a series of XEN45 Gel Stent and GDD surgeries performed over the course of glaucoma fellowship training.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExecutive function (EF) theory and research continues to under-represent the contexts in which the majority of the world's children reside, despite their potential to support, refute, or refine our current understandings. The current study sought to contribute to our understanding of EF in low-income settings in South Africa by investigating longitudinal associations of context-specific risk and protective factors for EF development in three- to five-year-old children who had limited access to ECCE services before the age of five. Child-caregiver dyads (N = 171) participated in two rounds of data collection (approximately seven months apart) during which child EF was assessed using the Early Years Toolbox; context-specific risk and protective factors were assessed through a caregiver questionnaire.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Data modernization efforts to strengthen surveillance capacity could help assess trends in use of preventive services and diagnoses of new chronic disease during the COVID-19 pandemic, which broadly disrupted health care access.
Methods: This cross-sectional study examined electronic health record data from US adults aged 21 to 79 years in a large national research network (PCORnet), to describe use of 8 preventive health services (N = 30,783,825 patients) and new diagnoses of 9 chronic diseases (N = 31,588,222 patients) during 2018 through 2022. Joinpoint regression assessed significant trends, and health debt was calculated comparing 2020 through 2022 volume to prepandemic (2018 and 2019) levels.
Background: There is limited evidence from globally diverse samples on the prevalence and correlates of meeting the global guideline of 180 minutes per day of total physical activity (TPA) among 3- to 4-year-olds.
Methods: Cross-sectional study involving 797 (49.2% girls) 3- to 4-year-olds from 17 middle- and high-income countries who participated in the pilot phases 1 and 2 of the SUNRISE International Study of Movement Behaviours in the Early Years.
This paper describes the 30-year evolution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) to provide evidence to support our perspective that SNAP-Ed has earned its position as a pillar of the public health infrastructure in the US. Legislatively designated as a nutrition education and obesity prevention program, its focus is the nearly 90 million Americans with limited income. This audience experiences ongoing health disparities and is disproportionately affected by public health crises.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe analysed the licences issued by British local government authorities under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, which regulates the private keeping of wild animals categorised as "dangerous", to assess the scope and scale of private keeping of dangerous wild animals in Great Britain. Results are compared with historical data from England and Wales, showing that there has been an overall decrease both in the total population of dangerous wild animals privately kept under licence and the number of licences, resulting primarily from a decrease in the farming of wild boar and ostrich, and from certain other species no longer requiring a licence to be kept. Nonetheless, the private keeping of dangerous wild animals remains prevalent, with a total population of 3950 animals kept under licence, and at least one-third of local authorities in Britain licensing keepers of one or more such animals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: As nearly two-thirds of women presenting at their first antenatal visit are either overweight or obese in urban South Africa, the preconception period is an opportunity to optimise health and offset transgenerational risk of both obesity and non-communicable diseases. This protocol describes the planned economic evaluation of an individually randomised controlled trial of a complex continuum of care intervention targeting women and children in Soweto, South Africa (Bukhali trial).
Methods And Analysis: The economic evaluation of the Bukhali trial will be conducted as a within-trial analysis from both provider and societal perspectives.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med
April 2024
Background: Although studies from high-income countries have examined social support during pregnancy, it remains unclear what type of support is received by expectant mothers from low- and middle-income country settings.
Aim: To explore young women's social support networks during pregnancy in Soweto, South Africa.
Setting: This study was undertaken in an academic hospital based in the Southwestern Townships (Soweto), Johannesburg, in Gauteng province, South Africa.
Direct assessments of executive functions (EFs) are increasingly used in research and clinical settings, with a central assumption that they assess "universal" underlying skills. Their use is spreading globally, raising questions about the cultural appropriateness of assessments devised in Western industrialized countries. We selectively reviewed multidisciplinary evidence and theory to identify sets of cultural preferences that may be at odds with the implicit assumptions of EF assessments.
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