Research Articles (Health Systems and Public Health)
Recent Submissions
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Sustainable workforce : South African Audiologists and Speech Therapists
(World Health Organization, 2020-07-01)Background: Audiologists and Speech Therapists play a vital role in addressing sustainable development goals by supporting people who are marginalised due to communication challenges. The global burden of disease and ... -
Exploring national human resource profile and trends of Prosthetists / Orthotists in South Africa from 2002 to 2018
(Taylor & Francis, 2020)Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 estimated that around 35–40 million people require prosthetic or orthotic services. The Framework and Strategy for Disability and Rehabilitation 2015–2030 for South ... -
Changes in surgical practice in 85 South African hospitals during COVID-19 hard lockdown
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2020)Background. In preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa (SA) began a national lockdown on 27 March 2020, and many hospitals implemented measures to prepare for a potential COVID-19 surge. Objectives. To report ... -
Sustainable workforce : South African audiologists and speech therapists
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2020-07-01)Background: Audiologists and Speech Therapists play a vital role in addressing sustainable development goals by supporting people who are marginalised due to communication challenges. The global burden of disease and ... -
Home visits by community health workers in rural South Africa have a limited, but important impact on maternal and child health in the first two years of life
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2020-06-29)Background: More than 50% of Africa’s population lives in rural areas, which have few professional health workers. South Africa has adopted task shifting health care to Community Health Workers (CHWs) to achieve the ... -
Healthcare workers' adherence to infection prevention and control guidelines for respiratory infectious diseases : a rapid qualitative evidence synthesis
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2020-07-02)COVID-19 spreads easily between people who are in close contact, or through coughs and sneezes. As the number of cases continues to increase, healthcare workers (HCWs) are notably at risk as a result of frequency of contact ... -
South African healthcare workers and COVID-19 : a shared responsibility to protect a precious and limited resource
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2020)Healthcare workers (HCWs) in African countries face high risks of occupational exposure to many pathogens, including tuberculosis, measles, HIV and Ebola.[1,2] The novel coronavirus SARSCoV- 2 poses an arguably greater ... -
From easing lockdowns to scaling-up community-based COVID-19 screening, testing, and contact tracing in Africa : shared approaches, innovations, and challenges to minimize morbidity and mortality
(Oxford University Press, 2020)The arrival of COVID-19 to the African continent resulted in a range of locally relevant lockdown measures, which curtailed the spread of SARS-CoV-2 but caused economic hardship for large sections of the population. African ... -
Psychosocial interventions targeting mental health in pregnant adolescents and adolescent parents : a systematic review
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2020-05-14)Background: Pregnancy and parenthood are known to be high-risk times for mental health. However, less is known about the mental health of pregnant adolescents or adolescent parents. Despite the substantial literature ... -
Mind the gap! Risk factors for poor continuity of care of TB patients discharged from a hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa
(Public Library of Science, 2018)Background: TB patients discharged from hospitals in South Africa experience poor continuity of care, failing to continue TB treatment at other levels of care. Factors contributing to poor continuity of TB care are ... -
COVID-19 in Africa : care and protection for frontline healthcare workers
(BioMed Central, 2020)Medical staff caring for COVID-19 patients face mental stress, physical exhaustion, separation from families, stigma, and the pain of losing patients and colleagues. Many of them have acquired SARS-CoV-2 and some have ... -
Systematic review of genetic factors in the etiology of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in African populations
(Frontiers Media, 2019)Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), one of the most aggressive cancers, is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, constituting a major health burden. It has the most divergence in cancer incidence globally, with ... -
Parenting in a time of COVID-19
(Elsevier, 2020)Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is changing family life. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates 1·38 billion children are out of school or child care, without access to ... -
Decisive and strong leadership and intersectoral action from South Africa in response to the COVID-19 virus
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2020)South Africa (SA) reported its first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on 5 March 2020. For the 14 days from then until the time of writing (5 - 19 March), we have seen decisive, strong leadership from the ... -
Tracking progress on the health status and service delivery outcomes for neonates and children in the Metro West geographic service area of the Cape Metropole, 2010 - 2015
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2019-04)Background. Monitoring the health status of populations of children is one of the building blocks of the health system. The provision of an indicator dashboard with disaggregated data that are collected over time can be ... -
Comparison of non-invasive methods of assessing liver fibrosis in combination ART-experienced Zimbabweans
(AOSIS, 2019-04-11)Background: The prevalence of morbidity and mortality associated with liver disease among HIV-infected individuals on combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) is high. Early screening of liver disease is essential, as it ... -
Epidemiology of traumatic orthopaedic injuries at Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana
(South African Orthopaedic Association, 2018)Background: Traumatic injuries pose a significant and increasing challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. One major type of traumatic injury is the traumatic orthopaedic injury, whose epidemiology is unknown in Botswana. ... -
Who can we reach and who can we keep? predictors of intervention engagement and adherence in a cluster randomized controlled trial in South Africa
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2020-02-27)Background: Engaging and retaining young men in community-based interventions is highly challenging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the individual factors that predict intervention engagement and adherence in ... -
Economic evaluation of safety-engineered devices and training in reducing needlestick injuries among healthcare workers in South Africa
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2018)Background. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at increased risk of contracting various communicable diseases. Needlestick injuries (NSIs) are a common mechanism of exposure. Training in basic universal precautions and utilisation ... -
Antibiotic prescribing practice and adherence to guidelines in primary care in the Cape Town Metro District, South Africa
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2018)Background. Knowledge of antibiotic prescribing practice in primary care in South Africa is limited. As 80% of human antibiotic use is in primary care, this knowledge is important in view of the global problem of antibiotic ...