Using WhatsApp support groups to promote responsive caregiving, caregiver mental health and child development in the COVID-19 era: A randomised controlled trial of a fully digital parenting intervention.

Objective: Digital interventions hold important potential for supporting parents when face-to-face interventions are unavailable. We assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a digital parenting intervention in Zambia and Tanzania.

Methods: Using a randomised controlled trial, we evaluated the Sharing Stories digital parenting intervention for caregivers of children aged 9-32 months with access to a smartphone in their household.

Integrating Psychosocial Support for Children in the Education Sector in Zambia: Lessons from the Programme Implementation Process.

Literature suggests that psychosocial support programmes can improve wellbeing and mental health among learners. There is however limited documentation on methodologies and factors that shape integration of such programmes within the education sector. This qualitative study aimed to contribute towards addressing this knowledge gap by analysing the implementation process of the Mainstreaming of Psychosocial Support in the Education Sector programme in Zambia.

Physicochemical and Functional Properties of Chemically Pretreated Sweet Potato Flour.

Sweet potato () is a nutritious crop abundant in calories and bioactive compounds such as beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, polyphenols, and dietary fibre. This study investigated the effect of pretreatments on the physicochemical and functional properties of sweet potato (NSP) flour. Flour samples were prepared by randomly assigning NSP slices to two treatments (citric acid and sodium metabisulphite) at 5, 10, and 15 g/L concentration for 10 min.

Monitoring diagnosis, retention in care and viral load suppression in children testing HIV polymerase chain reaction-positive in two districts in South Africa.

Background: Retention in care is associated with improved virological control and survival among HIV-infected children. However, retention of children in HIV care remains a challenge.

Objectives: To describe, using routine laboratory HIV test data, the retention-in-care and virological outcomes of HIV-infected children aged <18 months in two districts in South Africa.