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TB is rated as one of the world’s deadliest diseases and South Africa ranks 9th out of the 22 countries with hardest hit of TB. Although many pieces of research have been carried out on this subject, this paper steps further by inculcating past knowledge into the model, using Bayesian approach with informative prior. Bayesian statistics approach is getting popular in data analyses. But, most applications of Bayesian inference technique are limited to situations of non-informative prior, where there is no solid external information about the distribution of the parameter of interest. The main aim of this study is to profile people living with TB in South Africa. In this paper, identical regression models are fitted for classical and Bayesian approach both with non-informative and informative prior, using South Africa General Household Survey (GHS) data for the year 2014. For the Bayesian model with informative prior, South Africa General Household Survey dataset for the year 2011 to 2013 are used to set up priors for the model 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary medical male circumcision is an integral part of the South African government’s response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Following circumcision, it is recommended that patients abstain from sexual activity for six weeks, as sex may increase the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission and prolong the healing period. This paper investigates the resumption of sexual activity during the healing period among a cohort of school-going males in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The analysis for this paper compares two groups of sexually active school-going males: the first group reported having sex during the healing period (n = 40) and the second group (n = 98) reported no sex during the healing period (mean age: 17.7, SD: 1.7).The results show that 29% (n = 40) of young males (mean age: 17.9, SD: 1.8) who were previously sexually active, resumed sexual activity during the healing period, had on average two partners and used condoms inconsistently. In addition, those males that engage in sexual activity during the healing period were less inclined to practice safe sex in the future (AOR = 0.055, p = 0.002) than the group of males who reported no sex during the healing period. These findings suggest that a significant proportion of young males may currently and in the future, subject themselves to high levels of risk for contracting HIV post circumcision. Education, as part of a VMMC campaign, must emphasize the high risk of HIV transmission for both the males their partners during the healing period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly examines the epistemic orientation of the Politics discipline in South Africa, and specifically in ‘formerly white universities’. The focus is to expose the disparity between this epistemic orientation and the South African locale that it finds itself in; that is, a locale whose history is different from its ‘imperial center’, yet is diagnosed and measured in accordance with instruments defined by this very same center. To break with the hegemony of this episteme, I suggest, not only is it essential to have Black thinkers take their place in the South African academic community, but to develop a more African-based curriculum that responds, adequately, to South African and Continental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In many sub-Saharan African countries, confronting the dual epidemic of HIV and NCDs is a public health priority especially in high HIV burden countries such as South Africa. Evidence shows that poor health as a consequence of NCDs and HIV among the workforce increases absenteeism and leads to decrease in productivity. However, the prevalence of these co-occurring chronic conditions and associated factors is unknown in the educator workforce. Improved understanding has implications for their management and wellbeing of educators. This paper reports the prevalence of selected NCDs and associated factors among HIV positive educators in South Africa using the 2015/6 survey of Educators in Public Schools in South Africa. Methods: This was a second-generation surveillance undertaken among educators in selected public schools in all nine provinces in South Africa. A multi-stage stratified cluster design with probability proportional to size sampling was used to draw a random sample of schools. Factors associated with presence of NCDs were determined using a multivariate backward stepwise logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 1 365 schools were sampled within which 21 495 (85.5%) educators were interviewed. Out of 2691, HIV Positive educators that responded to the questions on NCDs, 36.9% reported having NCDs. The most commonly reported NCDs were high blood pressure (17.4%), and stomach ulcers (13.5%). The increased odds of reporting the presence of NCDs was significantly associated with being female than male [aOR = 1.5: 95% CI (1.1–1.9), p<0.002], age 45 to 54 years [aOR = 1.8: 95% CI (1.4–2.2), p = p<0.001], and age 55 years and older than those 18 to 24 years [aOR = 2.7: 95% CI (1.8–3.9), p<0.001). The decreased odds of reporting the presence of NCDs was significantly associated with not being absent from school for health reasons [aOR = 0.7: 95% CI (0.6–0.9), p = 0.003]. Conclusion: NCDs care and active screening should be an integral part of HIV programmes including interventions such as prevention, treatment, care and support amongst public school educators in SA. The education department will need to invest in health promotion intervention programmes to prevent and mitigate the negative impact of NCDs and HIV on the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Measures used to assess equitable relationship dynamics, including the sexual relationship power scale (SRPS) have previously been associated with lower HIV-risk among young women, and reduced perpetration of intimate partner violence among men. However, few studies describe how the SRPS has been adapted and validated for use within global youth sexual health studies. We examined gender-specific psychometric properties, reliability, and validity of a SRPS used within a South African youth-engaged cohort study. Methods: Young men and women (16–24 years) enrolled in community-based cohorts in Durban and Soweto (2014–2016) reporting a primary partner at 6-month follow-up completed a 13-item (strongly agree/agree/disagree/strongly disagree) South African adaptation of Pulerwitz’s SRPS (range 13–52, higher scores indicating greater sexual relationship power [SRP] equity). SRPS modifications were made using gender-specific exploratory factor analyses (EFAs), removing items with factor loadings <0.3. Cronbach alphas were conducted for full and modified scales by gender. Using modified scales, unadjusted and adjusted regression models examined associations between 1. relevant socio-demographic and relationship determinants and SRP equity, and 2. SRP equity and sexual relationship related outcomes. All models adjusted for education, age, site, and current employment. Results: 235 sexually-active youth (66% women, median age = 20) were included. Mean scores across all 13 scale items were 2.71 (SD 0.30) for women and 2.70 (SD 0.4) for men. Scale Cronbach’s alphas were 0.63 for women and 0.64 for men. EFAs resulted in two gender-specific single-factor SRPS. Modified SRPS Cronbach alphas increased to 0.67 for women (8-items) and 0.70 for men (9-items). After adjusting for age, site and current employment, higher education remained associated with SRP equity across genders. In adjusted models, correlates of SRP equity included primary partnerships that were age-similar (<5 years older) and <2 years in length for women and living in Soweto and younger age for men. Greater SRP equity among women was also independently associated with no recent partner violence. Conclusions: Results highlight important gender differences in SRP equity measures and associations, highlighting the critically need for future research to examine gendered constructions of SRP equity in order to accurately develop, validate and use appropriate measures within quantitative surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa ranks third among 22 high burden countries in the world. TB which remains a leading cause of death causes one in five adult deaths in South Africa. An in-depth understanding of knowledge, attitudes and practices of young people towards TB is required to implement meaningful interventions. We analysed young men and women (18–24 years)'s TB knowledge including TB/HIV coinfections, testing rates and factors associated with them. A cross sectional cluster-based household survey was conducted in two provinces. Participants completed computer-assisted self-interviews on TB knowledge, testing history and TB/HIV coinfections. A participant was regarded as knowledgeable of TB if s/he correctly answered the WHO-adopted TB knowledge questions. We built three multivariate regression models in Stata 13.0 to assess factors associated with knowing TB alone, testing alone and both knowing and testing for TB. 1955 participants were interviewed (89.9% response rate). Their median age was 20 years (IQR19-22). Sixteen percent (16.2%) of the participants were social grant recipients, 55% were enrolled in a school/college and 5% lived in substandard houses. A total of 72% had knowledge of TB, 21% underwent screening tests for TB and 14.7% knew and tested for TB. Factors associated with TB knowledge were being female, younger, a student, social grant recipient, not transacting sex and having positive attitudes towards people living with HIV (PLWH). Factors associated with TB testing were being a student, receiving a social grant, living in OR Tambo district, HIV knowledge and having a family member with TB history. Factors associated with both TB knowledge and testing were being female, a student, using the print media, living in OR Tambo district and having a family member with a TB history. The study demonstrates the importance of demographic factors (gender, economic status, family TB history, and location) and HIV factors in explaining TB knowledge and testing. We recommend extending community TB testing services to increase testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, physiotherapists have become concerned with cultural, economic, philosophical, political, and social questions and have been exploring more flexible ways of speaking about and practicing physiotherapy. While recognizing the need to embrace a broader range of perspectives, physiotherapy educators and other medical educators have been at a loss as to how to best achieve this. Drawing on two examples from South Africa and New Zealand, we seek to illustrate possibilities and barriers to teaching social sciences to physiotherapy students, specifically theories of embodiment as an alternative to the biopsychosocial model. We review each educator’s choice of embodiment theory in curriculum design and the role of the educator’s disciplinary background on teaching, learning, and assessing that learning. Against this background, we explore physiotherapy students’ experiences with theories of embodiment and possible transformative implications for their self-worth and/or professional practices. We suggest that students were able to explore physiotherapy’s relation to the body and the profession’s historical inattention toward the body as a philosophical/theoretical construct. From the lessons learned, some can perhaps be usefully passed onto others thinking of introducing a more diverse and inclusive approach of the body; one that we argue will be needed in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The first policy action outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the implementation of national social protection systems. This study assesses whether social protection provision can impact 17 indicators of five key health-related SDG goals amongst adolescents in South Africa. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal survey of adolescents (10–18 years) between 2009 and 2012. Census areas were randomly selected in two urban and two rural health districts in two South African provinces, including all homes with a resident adolescent. Household receipt of social protection in the form of ‘cash’ (economic provision) and ‘care’ (psychosocial support) social protection, and health-related indicators within five SDG goals were assessed. Gender-disaggregated analyses included multivariate logistic regression, testing for interactions between social protection and socio-demographic covariates, and marginal effects models. Findings: Social protection was associated with significant adolescent risk reductions in 12 of 17 gender-disaggregated SDG indicators, spanning SDG 2 (hunger); SDG 3 (AIDS, tuberculosis, mental health and substance abuse); SDG 4 (educational access); SDG 5 (sexual exploitation, sexual and reproductive health); and SDG 16 (violence perpetration). For six of 17 indicators, combined cash plus care showed enhanced risk reduction effects. Two interactions showed that effects of care varied by poverty level for boys’ hunger and girls’ school dropout. For tuberculosis, and for boys’ sexual exploitation and girls’ mental health and violence perpetration, no effects were found and more targeted or creative means will be needed to reach adolescents on these challenging burdens. Interpretation: National social protection systems are not a panacea, but findings suggest that they have multiple and synergistic positive associations with adolescent health outcomes. Such systems may help us rise to the challenges of health and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: WHO recommends a male circumcision (MC) prevalence rate higher than 80% to have a substantial impact on the HIV-AIDS epidemic in Eastern and Southern Africa. Orange Farm, a township in South Africa, has a free-for-service voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) clinic in operation since 2008. Following an intense campaign from 2008 to 2010, MC prevalence rate increased to 55.4% (ANRS-12126). Ongoing and past VMMC campaigns focused on youths, through school talks, and adults at a community level. The main objective of the study was to assess the change in MC prevalence rate among adults aged 18–19 and 18–49 years in the past 5 years. Methods: A cross-sectional survey (ANRS-12285) was conducted among a random sample of 522 adult men in 2015. MC status and characteristics of participants were collected through a genital examination and a face-to-face questionnaire. Results: MC prevalence rate among young adult men aged 18–19 years increased markedly from 61.2% (95%CI: 57.4% to 65.0%) in 2010 to 87.5% (76.0% to 94.6%) in 2015 (p<0.001). In the same period, among men aged 18–49 years, MC prevalence rate varied slightly from 55.4% (53.6% to 57.1%) to 56.7% (52.4% to 60.9%). In 2015, 84.9% (79.2% to 89.5%) of uncircumcised adult men reported that they were willing to be circumcised. However, we estimated that only 4.6% (11/237; 2.5% to 7.9%) of the uncircumcised men underwent circumcision in 2015, despite 117/185 (63.2%; 95%CI: 56.1% to 69.9%) who reported that they were definitely willing to become circumcised. Conclusions: In Orange Farm, VMMC campaigns were successful among the youth and led to a sufficiently high MC prevalence rate to have a substantial impact in the future on the HIV-AIDS epidemic. However, despite high acceptability and a free VMMC service, VMMC campaigns since 2010 have failed to increase MC prevalence rate among adults to above 80%. These campaigns should be revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]