PLoS One
December 2023
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hypertension is the primary risk factor for stroke and heart disease, which are leading causes of death in South Africa. Despite the availability of treatments, there is an implementation gap in how best to deliver hypertension care in this resource-limited region.
Methods: We describe a three-arm parallel group individually randomized control trial to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of a technology-supported, community-based intervention to improve blood pressure control among people with hypertension in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we explored how vulnerable, immunocompromised groups and caregivers of the elderly experienced and perceived the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely between the 5th andthe 18th of April 2020 in the three South African provinces hardest hit by Covid-19, namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. In total, 60 qualitative key informant interviews and one focus group discussion were conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
February 2023
Self-perceived health (SPH) is a widely used measure of health amongst individuals that indicates an individual's overall subjective perception of their physical or mental health status. As rural to urban migration increases, the health of individuals within informal settlements becomes an increasing concern as these people are at high health and safety risk due to poor housing structures, overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of services. This paper aimed to explore factors related to deteriorated SPH status among informal settlement dwellers in South Africa.
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