Economic vulnerabilities, mental health, and coping strategies among Tanzanian youth during COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated struggles for youth living in poor households. Youth in rural Tanzania are particularly vulnerable given widespread poverty, lack of formal sector employment opportunities, and health risks. We examine influences of the pandemic on economic insecurity and mental health and explore the coping strategies employed by youth and their households.

The dose-response association between LEAP 1000 and birthweight - no clear mechanisms: a structural equation modeling approach.

Background: Birthweight is an important indicator of maternal and fetal health globally. The multifactorial origins of birthweight suggest holistic programs that target biological and social risk factors have great potential to improve birthweight. In this study, we examine the dose-response association of exposure to an unconditional cash transfer program before delivery with birthweight and explore the potential mediators of the association.

Ghana's Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (1000) Program Seasonally Impacts Birthweight: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis.

Low birthweight (LBW) prevalence remains high in African countries and evidence of cash transfer impacts on birthweight, particularly by season of infant birth, is limited. This study examines overall and seasonal cash transfer impacts on LBW in rural Ghana. Data come from a longitudinal, quasi-experimental impact evaluation of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) 1,000 unconditional cash transfer program for impoverished pregnant or lactating women in rural districts of Northern Ghana.

Transactional sex among adolescent girls and young women enrolled in a cash plus intervention in rural Tanzania: a mixed-methods study.

Introduction: Transactional sex or material exchange for sex is associated with HIV infection among adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa. The motivations for engaging in transactional sex vary from the fulfilment of basic needs, to enhancing social status or for romantic reasons with the expectation that men should provide. Transactional sex is also associated with HIV risk behaviours, such as multiple sexual partners and other determinants of HIV risk, including partner violence and abuse, alcohol consumption and inconsistent condom use.

Knowledge of and access to frontline workers among poor, rural households in Amhara region, Ethiopia: a mixed-methods study.

Background: Social protection programmes have effectively reduced poverty and improved food security. However, the effects of poverty require an intersectoral approach to adequately address poor nutrition and health. Identifying gaps in knowledge and access to frontline workers who oversee these integrations is critical for understanding the potential for integrated social protection programming to improve these outcomes.

Health services availability and readiness moderate cash transfer impacts on health insurance enrolment: evidence from the LEAP 1000 cash transfer program in Ghana.

Background: Expanding health insurance coverage is a priority under Sustainable Development Goal 3. To address the intersection between poverty and health and remove cost barriers, the government of Ghana established the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Government further linked NHIS with the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) 1000 cash transfer program by waiving premium fees for LEAP 1000 households.

Associations of total urinary arsenic with total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein among 12-17-year-old participants from the 2009-2016 NHANES cycles: A cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Hypertension and diabetes are highly prevalent among US adults. Arsenic exposure is associated with these cardiometabolic morbidities but the relationship between arsenic exposure and cholesterol markers of cardiometabolic disease has not been elucidated, especially at younger ages, when many chronic diseases may initiate. This study examined the association of total urinary arsenic with total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and explored effect modification by weight status.

Disability status and multi-dimensional personal well-being among adolescents in the Southern Highlands Region of Tanzania: results of a cross-sectional study.

Objective: Examine how disability status among adolescents is associated with the following domains of personal well-being: schooling, livelihoods, health, violence and psychosocial well-being. It is hypothesised that adolescents with a disability will have greater deficits in these areas of well-being compared with their healthier counterparts.

Design: Cross-sectional data from 2018 were obtained from the second round of an on-going study of adolescents living in poor households in two regions of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania (Iringa and Mbeya).

Geographically weighted machine learning model for untangling spatial heterogeneity of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) prevalence in the USA.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) prevalence in the United States varies substantially across spatial and temporal scales, attributable to variations of socioeconomic and lifestyle risk factors. Understanding these variations in risk factors contributions to T2D would be of great benefit to intervention and treatment approaches to reduce or prevent T2D. Geographically-weighted random forest (GW-RF), a tree-based non-parametric machine learning model, may help explore and visualize the relationships between T2D and risk factors at the county-level.

Co-exposure to inorganic arsenic and fluoride prominently disrupts gut microbiota equilibrium and induces adverse cardiovascular effects in offspring rats.

Co-exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) and fluoride (F) and their collective actions on cardiovascular systems have been recognized as a global public health concern. Emerging studies suggest an association between the perturbation of gut bacterial microbiota and adverse cardiovascular effects (CVEs), both of which are the consequence of iAs and F exposure in human and experimental animals. The aim of this study was to fill the gap of understanding the relationship among co-exposure to iAs and F, gut microbiota perturbation, and adverse CVEs.

Gut microbiota perturbations and neurodevelopmental impacts in offspring rats concurrently exposure to inorganic arsenic and fluoride.

Many "hot spot" geographic areas across the world with drinking water co-contaminated with inorganic arsenic (iAs) and fluoride (F), two of the most common natural contaminants in drinking water. Both iAs and F are known neurotoxins and affect neurodevelopment of children. However, very few studies have investigated the neurodevelopmental effects of concurrent exposure to iAs and F, which could potentially pose a greater risk than iAs or F exposure alone.

Seasonal temperatures and hydrological conditions improve the prediction of West Nile virus infection rates in Culex mosquitoes and human case counts in New York and Connecticut.

West Nile virus (WNV; Flaviviridae: Flavivirus) is a widely distributed arthropod-borne virus that has negatively affected human health and animal populations. WNV infection rates of mosquitoes and human cases have been shown to be correlated with climate. However, previous studies have been conducted at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, and the scale-dependence of these relationships has been understudied.