Early Changes in Health-Related Quality of Life as a Biomarker of Survival in African Patients with HIV-Associated Kaposi Sarcoma.

Sub-Saharan Africa bears the largest public health burden of Kaposi sarcoma (KS), a leading cause of cancer mortality. Quality of life (QOL) assessments in cancer patients can provide information on prognosis beyond traditional biomarkers or biological measures. The prognostic value of QOL measures in patients with HIV-KS was evaluated.

South Africa's male homicide epidemic hiding in plain sight: Exploring sex differences and patterns in homicide risk in a retrospective descriptive study of postmortem investigations.

South Africa has an overall homicide rate six times the global average. Males are predominantly the victims and perpetrators, but little is known about the male victims. For the country's first ever study on male homicide we compared 2017 male and female victim profiles for selected covariates, against global average and previous estimates for 2009.

Mortality trends and differentials in South Africa from 1997 to 2012: second National Burden of Disease Study.

Background: The poor health of South Africans is known to be associated with a quadruple disease burden. In the second National Burden of Disease (NBD) study, we aimed to analyse cause of death data for 1997-2012 and develop national, population group, and provincial estimates of the levels and causes of mortality.

Method: We used underlying cause of death data from death notifications for 1997-2012 obtained from Statistics South Africa.

Primary School Children's Nutrition Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Behavior, after a Three-Year Healthy Lifestyle Intervention (HealthKick).

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of HealthKick(HK), a healthy lifestyle intervention, on nutrition knowledge, behavior, and dietary self-efficacy of school children in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

Design: A three-year cluster randomized control trial at primary schools in low socioeconomic settings with a baseline study in 2009 and follow-up in 2010 and 2011.

Participants: Participants were Grade four children (n=500) at eight schools in the intervention group and at eight schools in the control group (n=498).

Did HealthKick, a randomised controlled trial primary school nutrition intervention improve dietary quality of children in low-income settings in South Africa?

Background: Numerous studies in schools in the Western Cape Province, South Africa have shown that children have an unhealthy diet with poor diversity and which is high in sugar and fat. HealthKick (HK) was a three-year randomised controlled trial aimed at promoting healthy eating habits.

Methods: Sixteen schools were selected from two low-income school districts and randomly allocated to intervention (n = 8) or control school (n = 8) status.

Injury-related mortality in South Africa: a retrospective descriptive study of postmortem investigations.

Objective: To investigate injury-related mortality in South Africa using a nationally representative sample and compare the results with previous estimates.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of medico-legal postmortem investigation data from mortuaries using a multistage random sample, stratified by urban and non-urban areas and mortuary size. We calculated age-specific and age-standardized mortality rates for external causes of death.

Differing patterns of overweight and obesity among black men and women in Cape Town: the CRIBSA study.

Objectives: To ascertain the prevalence and determinants of overweight/obesity in the 25-74-year-old urban black population of Cape Town and examine the changes between 1990 and 2008/09.

Methods: In 2008/09, a representative cross-sectional sample, stratified for age and sex, was randomly selected from the same townships sampled in 1990. Data were collected by questionnaires, clinical measurements and biochemical analyses.

A high burden of hypertension in the urban black population of Cape Town: the cardiovascular risk in Black South Africans (CRIBSA) study.

Objective: To determine the prevalence, associations and management of hypertension in the 25-74-year-old urban black population of Cape Town and examine the change between 1990 and 2008/09 in 25-64-year-olds.

Methods: In 2008/09, a representative cross-sectional sample, stratified for age and sex, was randomly selected from the same townships sampled in 1990. Cardiovascular disease risk factors were determined by administered questionnaires, clinical measurements and fasting biochemical analyses.

Implementation of national guidelines, incorporated within structured diabetes and hypertension records at primary level care in Cape Town, South Africa: a randomised controlled trial.

Background And Objectives: Many clinical management guidelines for chronic diseases have been published, but they have not been put into practice by busy clinicians at primary care levels. This study evaluates the implementation of national guidelines incorporated within a structured diabetes and hypertension clinical record (SR) in Cape Town in a randomised controlled trial (RCT).

Methods: Eighteen public sector community health centres (CHC) were randomly selected and allocated as intervention or control CHC.

The effectiveness of adapted, best practice guidelines for smoking cessation counseling with disadvantaged, pregnant smokers attending public sector antenatal clinics in Cape Town, South Africa.

Aim And Objectives: To evaluate the effect of a smoking cessation intervention, based on best practice guidelines on the quit rates of disadvantaged, pregnant women in Cape Town, South Africa.

Design: Quasi-experimental using a natural history cohort as a control group, consisting of women attending antenatal care in 2006 and an intervention cohort, attending the same clinics a year later.

Setting: Four, public sector antenatal clinics in Cape Town staffed and managed by midwives.

Hypertension and diabetes: poor care for patients at community health centres.

Objectives: To identify health care provider-related determinants of diabetes and hypertension management in patients attending public sector community health centres (CHCs).

Methods: A random sample of 18 CHCs in the Cape Peninsula providing hypertension and diabetes care was selected. Twenty-five patients with diabetes and 35 with hypertension per clinic were selected and interviewed by trained fieldworkers, and their medical records were audited.

A food-based dietary strategy lowers blood pressure in a low socio-economic setting: a randomised study in South Africa.

Objective: To assess the impact of a food-based intervention on blood pressure (BP) in free-living South African men and women aged 50-75 years, with drug-treated mild-to-moderate hypertension.

Methods: A double-blind controlled trial was undertaken in eighty drug-treated mild-to-moderate hypertensive subjects randomised to an intervention (n 40) or control (n 40) arm. The intervention was 8-week provision of six food items with a modified cation content (salt replacement (SOLO ), bread, margarine, stock cubes, soup mix and a flavour enhancer) and 500 ml of maas (fermented milk)/d.