Twenty-one Years of Undergraduate Medical Student Research Training at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa.

Introduction: Since 2001, undergraduate medical students at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa, plan, perform, and report on their research projects during semesters 2-5 of their ten-semester training. We describe the research modules and review the projects of the first 21 years.

Methods: This cohort study included all undergraduate medical student projects that formed part of the first 21 presentations of the research modules.

Anaemia prevalence and dietary diversity among women in the rural Free State, South Africa.

Background: Anaemia, a global public health problem that particularly affects women, holds major consequences for human health.

Aim: Determining dietary diversity, prevalence of anaemia and contraception use.

Setting: Rural women, 25-49 years, in the Free State Province, South Africa.

Obesity, undernutrition and the double burden of malnutrition in the urban and rural southern Free State, South Africa.

This study compared the diet and anthropometric status of adults (25-64 years) in rural and urban South Africa. Anthropometric status of adults and preschool children (<7 years old) from the same households were also determined. A descriptive cross-sectional design was applied.

Reported health, lifestyle and clinical manifestations associated with HIV status in people from rural and urban communities in the Free State Province, South Africa.

Background: HIV infection impacts heavily on the infected individual's overall health status.

Aim: To determine significant health, lifestyle (smoking and alcohol use) and independent clinical manifestations associated with HIV status in rural and urban communities.

Methods: Adults aged between 25 and 64 years completed a questionnaire in a structured interview with each participant.

Household food security and HIV status in rural and urban communities in the Free State province, South Africa.

Higher socioeconomic status impacts profoundly on quality of life. Life-event stressors, such as loss of employment, marital separation/divorce, death of a spouse and food insecurity, have been found to accelerate disease progression among people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The objective of this study was to determine significant independent sociodemographic and food security factors associated with HIV status in people from rural and urban communities in the Assuring Health for All study, which was undertaken in rural Trompsburg, Philippolis and Springfontein and urban Mangaung, in the Free State Province of South Africa.

Antimicrobial susceptibility profile of uropathogens in Maluti Adventist Hospital patients, 2011.

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are amongst the most common infections encountered globally and are usually treated empirically based on bacterial resistance to antibiotics for a given region. Unfortunately in Lesotho, no published studies are available to guide doctors in the treatment of UTIs. Treatment protocols for Western countries have been adopted, which may not be applicable for this region.

Household food security and hunger in rural and urban communities in the Free State Province, South Africa.

Household food security impacts heavily on quality of life. We determined factors associated with food insecurity in 886 households in rural and urban Free State Province, South Africa. Significantly more urban than rural households reported current food shortage (81% and 47%, respectively).