scholarly journals Genesis, Procedures, Attrition Rate and Major Reasons for Missing Measurement Session by the Study Participants in the Ellisras Longitudinal Study

Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Phuti Makgae ◽  
Betty Sebati ◽  
Hlengani Siweya ◽  
Kotsedi Monyeki

The noncommunicable diseases’ (NCDs) profile is changing rapidly from one country to another. A well-formulated cohort study in Africa could answer major questions relating to the changing profile of NCDs risk in Africa. The aim of the present study was to outline the genesis, procedures, attrition rate and major reasons for study participants to miss measurement sessions in the Ellisras Longitudinal Study (ELS). Method: The ELS followed multiple longitudinal designs comprising repeated measurements in more than one cohort with overlapping ages. Age cohort and time of measurement effects could be identified. A cluster random sampling method was used to sample 2255 participants (1201 males and 1054 females), aged 2 to 10.9 years at baseline (November 1996). Information on lifestyle (tobacco and smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and socioeconomic status) and biological risk factors for NCD and educational achievements were collected over time. The participants were followed 17 times over the past 25 years with measurements (blood pressure and anthropometry) collected twice during the first consecutive 8 years to account for growth dynamics and other health-related variables. The attrition rate for ELS sample for boys (14%–27.3%) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than girls (7.9%–18.6%) from May 1999 to November 2003. There was a significant (p < 0.05) increase (25.3%–70.3%) in attrition rate from November 2009 to December 2015. The ELS participant migration to urban areas provided a unique opportunity to investigate the effect of urban life on these rural young adults given the previous data collected on the same subjects at a younger age (3–10 years at baseline in 1996). Conclusion: A well-formulated ELS study in Africa could answer major questions relating to the changing magnitude of NCDs risk factor profiles in Africa.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarikuwa Natnael ◽  
Mistir Lingerew ◽  
Metadel Adane

Abstract Background Diarrheal disease is still one of the most common causes of mortality and morbidity in children under five in developing countries, including Ethiopia. Lack of specific data on the prevalence of acute diarrhea and associated factors among under-five children in the semi-urban areas of Gelsha, found in northeastern Ethiopia’s South Wollo zone, remains a major gap. Therefore, this study was designed to provide data that is important for proper planning of intervention measures to reduce the problem in this area. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 340 systematically selected children under five in semi-urban areas of Gelsha from January to March 2019. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and an observational checklist. Bivariable (crude odds ratio [COR]) and multivariable analysis (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]) were employed using binary logistic regression model with 95% CI (confidence interval). Variables with a p-value < 0.05 from the multivariable analysis were declared as factors significantly associated with acute diarrhea. Result The prevalence of acute diarrhea among children under five in the study area was 11% (95%CI: 7.8–14.3%). About two-thirds (63.60%) of study participants used water from improved sources. About half (54.90%) of study participants practiced poor handwashing and 45.10% practiced good handwashing. We found that factors significantly associated with acute diarrhea were a child’s age of 12–23 months (AOR = 4.68, 95% CI: 1.45–1.50), the presence of two or more under-five children in the house (AOR = 2.84, 95% CI: 1.19–6.81), unimproved water sources (AOR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.28–6.87) and presence of feces around the pit hole/slab/floor of the latrine (AOR = 3.34, 95% CI: 1.34–8.31). Conclusion The prevalence of acute diarrhea among children under five was relatively high. To reduce the problem, various prevention strategies are essential, such as the provision of health education to mothers/caregivers that focuses on keeping sanitation facilities clean and child care, and construction of improved water sources. Furthermore, implementing a strong health extension program, advocating an open defecation-free environment, and practicing a community-led total sanitation and hygiene approach might be helpful to sustainably reduce childhood diarrhea.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tolksdorf ◽  
P. Cornel ◽  
M. Wagner

Abstract The SEMIZENTRAL approach is an infrastructure solution for the challenges of high growth dynamics and resource scarcity in fast growing urban areas. The integration of water, wastewater, waste, and energy in one system increases resource efficiency. District-wise realization enables the infrastructure system to grow at the same rate as the city. The concept has been realized for the first time on a scale of 12,000 population equivalent in Qingdao, China. Greywater and blackwater are collected separately; treated greywater is reused for toilet flushing. Reclaimed blackwater is used for irrigation. The analyses of the wastewater composition reveal significant differences in comparison to design values as well as to literature values for greywater and blackwater. Unexpected user behaviour, as well as cross-connections, are likely reasons. The greywater and blackwater treatment processes in the Resource Recovery Center were adapted to the influent's characteristics, so that legal effluent limits are fulfilled, despite changes in influent quality. Small systems often show higher influent variability. Design data for systems with source separation are still lacking. Measurement campaigns in areas similar to the planning area are recommendable, but might not always be possible. In addition, there is a risk of cross-connections between blackwater and greywater, though this can be reduced. For these reasons, there is (possibly high) uncertainty regarding design values for greywater and blackwater. Correspondingly, the treatment processes need to be designed flexibly. For future implementation, technical risks deriving from source separation have to be weighed against the expected higher acceptance of reuse of treated greywater in households. Intra-urban reuse of total wastewater, in combination with extensive public relations programs, might be an alternative.


Author(s):  
Parth H. Vyas ◽  
Kamaxi Bhate ◽  
Mukesh Bawa ◽  
Vikrant Pagar ◽  
Amol Kinge

Background: Hypertension is a major long-term health condition and is the leading cause of premature deaths among persons experiencing sedentary urban life style behaviors such as high calorie diet, lack of physical exercise and job stress. The objectives of the present study was to determine prevalence & various risk factors of hypertension among municipal school teachers in an urban slum.  Methods:The study area was a field practice area of tertiary care hospital in a metropolitan city. Municipal school teachers from suburban slums were the study participants. Teachers above 35 years of age and want to participate in study were included. The total sample size obtained was 220.Results: 40% of the teachers were belonged to 35-40 years of age group. 70.9% of the study participants were women. Among 220 teachers 36.4% were having normal blood pressure. 43.6% teachers were in the pre- hypertension stage, while 14.5% and 5.5% were in stage- 1 and stage- 2 hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension was 20%. In present study it was found that as the age advances chances of contracting hypertension also increases [P=0.006]. Statistically significant relation between obesity and hypertension is seen [P=0.007]. There was a significant relation between physical activity and prevalence of hypertension [P = 0.021].Conclusions:Increasing age, obesity and sedentary lifestyle are proportionally related to the development of hypertension which was statistically significant. 


Author(s):  
Teresa Correa ◽  
Sebastián Valenzuela

This trend study describes changes and continuities in the stratification of usage of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp in Chile between 2009-2019—the decade that witnessed the rise of social media. Using the Youth, Media and Participation Study—a probabilistic survey conducted on an annual basis among 1,000 individuals aged 18 to 29 living in the three largest urban areas in Chile (N = 10,518)—we analyze how frequency of use and type of activities conducted on social media has varied over time along socioeconomic status, gender, and age cohort. Instead of a uniform trend towards less (or greater) inequality, the results show that each platform exhibits a unique dynamic. For instance, whereas SES-based inequality in frequency of use has decreased on Facebook over time, it has remained stable on WhatsApp and increased on Twitter and Instagram. In addition, significant differences in the likelihood of conducting different activities (e.g., chatting, commenting news, sharing links) remained across groups, even on platforms such as Facebook where frequency of use has equalized over time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Muñoz

During the past 20 years, street vendors in various cities in the Global South have resisted aggressive state sanctioned removals and relocation strategies by organizing for vendors’ rights, protesting, and creating street vending member organizations with flexible relationships to the local state. Through these means, street vendors claim “rights in the city,” even as the bodies they inhabit and the spaces they produce are devalued by state legitimizing systems. In this article, I present a case study of the Union de Tianguistas y Comerciantes Ambulantes del Estado de Quintana Roo, a “bottom-up” driven, flexible street vending membership organization not formalized by the state in Cancún. I argue that the Union becomes a platform for street vendors to claim rights to the city, and exemplifies vending systems that combine economic activities with leisure spaces in marginalized urban areas, and circumvent strict vending regulations without being absorbed into or directly monitored by the state. Highlighting the Union’s sustainable practices of spatial transformation, and vision of self-managed spaces of socioeconomic urban life in Cancún, illuminates how the members of the Union claim rights to the city as an example of a process of awakening toward imagining possibilities for urban futures that moves away from the state and capitalists systems, and akin to what Lefebvre termed autogestion toward resisting neoliberal ideologies that currently dominate urban planning projects in the Global South.


Author(s):  
Douglas K. Miller

The story of Native American urbanization and the urban relocation program typically concludes with a generation of Native people either stuck on “skid row” or fighting for a way out through the “Red Power” movement. There was a different but equally important outcome, however, in that many Native people made successful transitions to urban life on their own terms, while many others returned to reservation or rural Native communities and saw new opportunities there while drawing upon urban experiences to make contributions to tribal economic and political initiatives. Virtually an entire generation of new Native American tribal leaders drew upon years of experience living in major urban areas where they gained a more intimate understanding of how settler economies, politics, and power networks functioned.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Lindelof ◽  
Claus Vinther Nielsen ◽  
Birthe D. Pedersen

Background:Individuals’ attitude toward physical activity may contribute to their willingness to participate in such behavior. This study qualitatively and longitudinally explored obese adolescents’ attitudes to physical activity.Methods:Fifteen obese adolescents were recruited at a weight loss camp. Participants were followed for 2.5 years with 3 yearly rounds of participant observations and interviews. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach.Results:Four categories were identified: 1) throughout the study participants became more sedentary as they de-selected activities like bike riding; 2) participants did not perceive their increasing inactive lifestyle as hindering weight loss as they consider such activities as futile compared with vigorously hard exercise; 3) participants frequently failed to participate in hard exercise, like going to the gym; and 4) participants had a genuine antipathy against being physical active.Conclusions:Among others, a reason why obese adolescents fail to live an active life is that they find limited pleasure in such behavior. It is argued that obese adolescents need a positive attitude toward physical activity if they are to be more active. With reference to Bourdieu’s theory of practice, it is hypothesized that such attitude needs to be learned through everyday life by experiencing joy and meaning by being physical active.


Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Monti

Urban sociology is among the earliest and richest areas of sociological inquiry. It touches on topics and problems related to the way urban areas develop and the way people live in urban areas. While most of the attention of urban sociologists has been on more contemporary urban settings in Western societies, they’ve shown increasing interest in urban development and urban life in so-called developing countries and the Far East, especially India and China. By nature an interdisciplinary pursuit, five major academic fields contribute to urban sociology: anthropology, economics, history, political science, and social psychology. Specialists in these respective disciplines read and cite each other’s work and borrow from each other’s theoretical insights. One major profession, urban planning, is affiliated with urban sociology. It, too, has its own entry in Oxford Bibliographies in Geography “Urban Planning and Geography”. Another broad field that draws on all the same intellectual sources is urban studies. It was added to the curricula of US colleges and universities in the late 1960s in response to the turmoil that was occurring in many urban areas at that time. Given all the rich disciplinary sources that feed into urban sociology, this area of inquiry probably can be best understood by the themes that allow researchers to connect the disparate kinds of studies they do. The several sections into which this essay is divided have works that reflect one or more of the following four themes: (1) Urban sociologists focus on either the physical development of urban places (i.e., urbanization) or the way of life or culture practiced there (i.e., urbanism). (2) The work of urban sociologists asks how urban places are built and laid out. It also asks how urban settlements might be rebuilt or developed so they better serve or complement the way people live there. (3) Some urban sociologists look at smaller groups or venues such as neighborhoods (i.e., “micro” studies). Others look at much larger geographic areas and whole communities (i.e., “macro” studies). (4) Persons who do this kind of work tend to be either optimistic about the prospects for urban places and people or, more frequently, pessimistic about how well they will fare.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1121-1127
Author(s):  
Emily T Murray ◽  
Rebecca Lacey ◽  
Barbara Maughan ◽  
Amanda Sacker

Abstract Background Children who spend time in non-parental care report worse health later in life on average, but less is known about differences by type of care. We examined whether self-rated health of adults who had been in non-parental care up to 30 years later varied by type of care. Methods We used longitudinal data from the office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. Participants were aged &lt;18 and never-married at baseline of each census year from 1971 to 2001. Separately for each follow-up period (10, 20 and 30 years later), multi-level logistic regression was used to compare self-rated health outcomes by different care types. Results For combined census years, sample sizes were 157 896 dependent children with 10 years of follow-up, 166 844 with 20 years of follow-up and 173 801 with 30 years of follow-up. For all follow-up cohorts, longitudinal study members who had been in care in childhood, had higher odds of rating their health as ‘not good’ vs. ‘good’; with highest odds for residential care. For example, 10-year follow-up odds ratios were 3.5 (95% confidence interval: 2.2–5.6) for residential care, 2.1 (1.7–2.5) for relative households and 2.6 (2.1–3.3) for non-relative households, compared with parental households after adjustment for childhood demographics. Associations were weakest for 10-year, and strongest for 20-year, follow-up. Additional adjustment for childhood social circumstances reduced, but did not eliminate, associations. Conclusion Decades after children and young people are placed in care, they are still more likely to report worse health than children who grew up in a parental household.


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