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Background: Substance use is an escalating public health problem in South Africa resulting in risky behaviours and poor educational attainment among adolescents. There is a huge battle to overcome substance use among learners as more drugs become easily available with the mean age of drug experimentation reported to be at 12 years of age. It is important to continuously understand the trends in substance use in order to assess if there are positive changes and provide evidence for the development of context-specific effective interventions. This paper outlines the prevalence of substance use among selected high schools in a district in Limpopo province. Methods: To determine the prevalence of substance use among selected high school learners in a district in Limpopo Province, a cross-sectional school survey of 768 learners was conducted. Data was analysed using SPSS v 26. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the independent and dependent variables and Chi-Square test was used to investigate associations between demographic characteristics and substance use among high school learners. Results: The most abused substances by learners were alcohol (49%), cigarettes (20.8%) and marijuana (dagga/cannabis) (16.8%). In a lifetime, there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in cigarette smoking with gender, school, and grade; with more use in males (14.2%) than females (7.6%); in urban schools (14.6) than peri-urban (6.7%) and more in Grade 12 (6.4%). There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in alcohol use with more use in Grade 10 (12.6%) and varied use among male and female learners but cumulatively more alcohol use in females (27.7%). Drug use varied, with an overall high drug use in urban schools (20.7%). Conclusions: Substance use is rife among high school learners in the district and health promotion initiatives need to be tailored within the context of socio-demographic characteristics of learners including the multiple levels of influence such as peer pressure, poverty, unemployment and child headed families. Additional research is required to investigate the factors leading to a notable gradual increase in use among female learners and into the environmental and family settings of learners in influencing substance use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Violence against women (VAW) research is a sensitive topic, which has been conducted mainly using face-to-face methods. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and restrictions on movement presented an opportunity to conduct VAW research using remote methods. We discuss how we adapted methods, reflect on lessons learned, and make recommendations highlighting key considerations when conducting remote research on a sensitive topic of VAW. Methods: We designed and conducted an exploratory qualitative study using remote methods with 18 men and 19 women, aged 18 years and older, who lived with their partner or spouse during lockdown in South Africa. The aim of the study was to explore experiences of COVID-19 lockdown, and its link to women and children's experiences of violence in the homes. Data presented in this paper draws from researchers' reflections drawn from debriefing sessions during the research process, and from participants' interview transcripts. Findings: Remote recruitment of participants took longer than anticipated, and we had to re-advertise the study. We could not ensure safety and privacy during interviews. Regardless of all the safety and privacy measures we put in place during the research process, some participants had an adult person present in the room during interviews, and the researchers had no control over interruptions. Rapport was difficult to establish without an in-person connection, which limited disclosure about violence experience (amongst women) and perpetration (amongst men). Conclusions: Given the methodological and ethical challenges which limited disclosure of VAW remotely, we conclude that telephone interviews used in our study impacted on the quality of study data. Therefore, we do not recommend VAW research to be conducted remotely, unless it is essential and participants are already known to the interviewer and trust has been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]