Area-level deprivation and individual-level socioeconomic correlates of the diabetes care cascade among black south africans in uMgungundlovu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

South Africa is experiencing a rapidly growing diabetes epidemic that threatens its healthcare system. Research on the determinants of diabetes in South Africa receives considerable attention due to the lifestyle changes accompanying South Africa's rapid urbanization since the fall of Apartheid. However, few studies have investigated how segments of the Black South African population, who continue to endure Apartheid's institutional discriminatory legacy, experience this transition.

Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Diabetes Mellitus in South Africa: Results from the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1).

In South Africa, there are a limited number of population estimates of the prevalence of diabetes and its association with psychosocial factors. This study investigates the prevalence of diabetes and its psychosocial correlates in both the general South African population and the Black South African subpopulation using data from the SANHANES-1. Diabetes was defined as a hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥6.

Individual and area-level socioeconomic correlates of hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control in uMgungundlovu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Background: Hypertension is the second leading risk factor for death in South Africa, and rates have steadily increased since the end of Apartheid. Research on the determinants of hypertension in South Africa has received considerable attention due to South Africa's rapid urbanization and epidemiological transition. However, scant work has been conducted to investigate how various segments of the Black South African population experience this transition.

Prevalence of multimorbidity of cardiometabolic conditions and associated risk factors in a population-based sample of South Africans: A cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Ageing populations have led to a growing prevalence of multimorbidity. Cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CM), the co-existence of two or more cardiometabolic disorders in the same person, is rapidly increasing We examined the prevalence and risk factors associated with CM in a population-based sample of South African adults.

Study Design: Data were analysed on individuals aged ≥15 years from the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES), a cross sectional population-based survey conducted in 2011-2012.

Race, geographical location and other risk factors for hypertension: South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011/12.

Background: Hypertension is the leading cardiovascular disease in Africa. It is increasing in prevalence due partly to the epidemiological transition that African countries, including South Africa, are undergoing. This epidemiological transition is characterised by a nutrition transition andurbanisation; resulting in behavioural, environmental and stress changes that are subject to racial and geographic divides.

Racial disparities in psychological distress in post-apartheid South Africa: results from the SANHANES-1 survey.

Purpose: South Africa has long endured a high prevalence of mental disorders at the national level, and its unique social and historical context could be a contributor to an increased risk of mental health problems. Our current understanding is limited regarding the relative importance of various social determinants to mental health challenges in South Africa, and how existing racial inequities may be explained by these determinants.

Methods: This study attempted to elucidate potential social determinants of mental health in South Africa using data from the nationally representative South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1).

The Implications of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease on Public Health Policy and Health Promotion in South Africa.

The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis states that environmental influences in utero and in early life can determine health and disease in later life through the programming of genes and/or altered gene expression. The DOHaD is likely to have had an effect in South Africa during the fifty years of apartheid; and during the twenty years since the dawn of democracy in 1994. This has profound implications for public health and health promotion policies in South Africa, a country experiencing increased prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and risk factors and behaviours for NCDs due to rapid social and economic transition, and because of the DOHaD.

A decade of tobacco control: the South African case of politics, health policy, health promotion and behaviour change.

Background: The South African (SA) government has implemented comprehensive tobacco control measures in line with the requirements of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The effect of these measures on smoking prevalence and smoking-related attitudes, particularly among young people, is largely unknown.

Objective: To describe the impact of a comprehensive health promotion approach to tobacco control amongst SA school learners.

Beta-blockers for hypertension.

Background: This review is an update of the Cochrane Review published in 2007, which assessed the role of beta-blockade as first-line therapy for hypertension.

Objectives: To quantify the effectiveness and safety of beta-blockers on morbidity and mortality endpoints in adults with hypertension.

Search Methods: In December 2011 we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline, Embase, and reference lists of previous reviews; for eligible studies published since the previous search we conducted in May 2006.

Beta-blockers for hypertension.

Background: This review is an update of the Cochrane Review published in 2007, which assessed the role of beta-blockade as first-line therapy for hypertension.

Objectives: To quantify the effectiveness and safety of beta-blockers on morbidity and mortality endpoints in adults with hypertension.

Search Methods: In December 2011 we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline, Embase, and reference lists of previous reviews; for eligible studies published since the previous search we conducted in May 2006.

Rapid increases in overweight and obesity among South African adolescents: comparison of data from the South African National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey in 2002 and 2008.

Objectives: To aid future policy and intervention initiatives, we studied the prevalence and correlates of overweight and obesity among participants in the South African National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey in 2002 and 2008.

Methods: The survey collected data from nationally representative cross-sectional samples of students in grades 8 through 11 (n = 9491 in 2002 and 9442 in 2008) by questionnaire and measurement of height and weight. We stratified data on overweight and obesity rates by age, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity.

Defining research to improve health systems.

Robert Terry and colleagues present working definitions of operational research, implementation research, and health systems research within the context of research to strengthen health systems.

Expansion of cancer care and control in countries of low and middle income: a call to action.

Substantial inequalities exist in cancer survival rates across countries. In addition to prevention of new cancers by reduction of risk factors, strategies are needed to close the gap between developed and developing countries in cancer survival and the effects of the disease on human suffering. We challenge the public health community's assumption that cancers will remain untreated in poor countries, and note the analogy to similarly unfounded arguments from more than a decade ago against provision of HIV treatment.

Underweight, overweight and obesity among South African adolescents: results of the 2002 National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey.

Objective: The present paper reports the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity by gender, ethnicity and grade, among participants in a 2002 national survey among South African school-going youth that included height and weight measurements.

Design: A stratified two-stage sample was used. Nationally representative rates of underweight, overweight and obesity were calculated using weighted survey data and compared using chi2 analysis.

South Africa's experience of the closure of the cellulose sulphate microbicide trial.

The researchers who conducted the cellulose sulphate microbicide trial share the lessons they learned from the trial's early closure.

Beta-blockers for hypertension.

Background: Two recent systematic reviews found first-line beta-blockers to be less effective in reducing the incidence of stroke and the combined endpoint of stroke, myocardial infarction, and death compared to all other antihypertensive drugs taken together. However, beta-blockers might be better or worse than a specific class of drugs for a particular outcome measure so that comparing beta-blockers with all other classes taken together could be misleading. In addition, these systematic reviews did not assess the tolerability of beta-blockers relative to other antihypertensive medications.

Coronary artery disease and risk factors in Black South Africans--a comparative study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify and compare coronary risk factors in different South African ethnic groups with angiographically documented significant coronary artery disease (CAD).

Design: An observational retrospective analysis.

Methods: Hospital records of 500 consecutive patients with no previous coronary interventions who underwent coronary angiography at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto over a 2-year period were reviewed.