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A continuous assessment and a categorical diagnosis of the presence of mental health, described as flourishing, and the absence of mental health, characterized as languishing, is applied to a random sample of 1050 Setswana-speaking adults in the Northwest province of South Africa. Factor analysis revealed that the mental health continuum-short form (MHC-SF) replicated the three-factor structure of emotional, psychological and social well-being found in US samples. The internal reliability of the overall MHC-SF Scale was 0.74. The total score on the MHC-SF correlated 0.52 with a measure of positive affect, between 0.35 and 0.40 with measures of generalized self-efficacy and satisfaction with life, and between 0.30 and 0.35 with measures of coping strategies, sense of coherence, and community collective self-efficacy. The total score on the MHC-SF correlated -0.22 with the total score on the General Health Questionnaire. Criteria for the categorical diagnosis were applied, and findings revealed that 20% were flourishing, 67.8% were moderately mentally healthy, and 12.2% were languishing. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized two-continua model of mental health and mental illness found in the USA. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present retrospective study was to uncover the factor(s) responsible for the poor outcome of cadaver kidney grafts from female donors in male recipients.The 741 transplantations performed at our center from August 1983 to September 1997 were distributed into four groups according to recipient and donor gender: female donor to female recipient (F to F: n=117), male donor to female recipient (M to F: n=172), female donor to male recipient (F to M: n=170), and male donor to male recipient (M to M: n=282). All the patients received immunosuppressive therapy based on corticosteroids and cyclosporine, associated or not with either azathioprine or prophylactic anti-lymphocyte globulin.Overall graft survival was lower in the F to M group than in the three other groups (p=0.009). Failures due to rejection were more frequent during the 1st post-transplant trimester in female than in male donor grafts, irrespective of recipient gender (p=0.025). All failures due to technical problems occurred during the first 3 months post-transplantation: they were more frequent in the F to M group than in the three other groups (p=0.040); this could be related to the older age of the donors in the former group. After the first post-transplant year, failures due to causes other than rejection remained low in the F to F group but increased steadily in the three other groups (p=0.007). Specific survival rates were not correlated with the time-evolution of mean serum creatinine values, daily doses and trough levels of cyclosporine in the four groups of grafts. In conclusion, the poor outcome of F to M grafts results from combined immunologic and technical factors exerting their effects early in the course of transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of urbanization occurring in many developing countries may have consequences for reproductive endocrine function. Here, we test predictions concerning variation in South African male testosterone levels among subgroups across an urbanization gradient representing differences in both geography and socioeconomic status. Subjects included 364 males aged between 20 and 82 comprising a cross-sectional study conducted between 1996 and 1998. Testosterone levels were measured from serum samples obtained between 08:00 and 11:00. In ANCOVA analysis, male testosterone levels differed significantly along this rural-to-urban gradient, with members of the most urban group having higher testosterone levels than groups of farmers and inhabitants of informal housing areas adjacent to towns. Testosterone levels declined with age and were negatively related to body mass index (BMI). Testosterone levels did not differ according to HIV status. Further exploratory ANCOVA analyses revealed that physical activity levels, depression, affect, and hostility were not significantly associated with variation in testosterone levels. These data help document causes of variation in male testosterone levels in a context of urbanization and may have implications for clinical outcomes such as the development of a male hormonal contraceptive or prostate cancer., (Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:123-132, 2006. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)