Effect of education and gender on household ownership of asset types in rural Western Kenya Region

Asset development is a key strategy to promote economic and social development. Measurement of inequality has been given relatively little attention to the asset ownership by households. The study examines relative importance of asset types and extent to which household headship factors affect ownership among households of Western Kenya. The study was cross sectional descriptive using quantitative methods. A total of 538 households were selected for the study comprising 184(34%) households with under-five death and 355(66%) as controls. Findings show that the extent to which asset types demonstrate significant differential inequality in ownership (p-value <0.05) varies by household headship factors, where gender clustered by education shows the highest number of asset types exhibiting significant inequality 17(50%) between households; followed by education 7(21%) and lastly gender 4(12%). Results underscore importance of high education, although the impact is different across the different genders.The impact is greater among the male headed households Key Words: Rural households, asset types, asset ownership, household headship, education, gender

Knowledge and behaviour as determinants of anti-malarial drug use in a peri-urban population from malaria holoendemic region of western Kenya

Abstract Background The appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs determines therapeutic efficacy and the emergence and spread of drug-resistant malaria. Strategies for improving drug compliance require accurate information about current practices at the consumer level. This is to ascertain that the currently applied new combination therapy to malaria treatment will achieve sustained cure rates and protection against parasite resistance. Therefore, this cross-sectional study was designed to determine knowledge and behaviour of the consumers in households (n = 397) in peri-urban location in a malaria holoendemic region of western Kenya. Methods The knowledge and behaviour associated with anti-malarial use were evaluated. Using clusters, a questionnaire was administered to a particular household member who had the most recent malaria episode (within Results Consumers' knowledge on dosage and duration/frequency demonstrated that only 29.4% used the correct artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) dosage. Most respondents who used quinine identified the correct duration of use (96.4%) since its administration was entirely at health facilities. To assess behaviours during use of anti-malarial drugs, respondents were stratified into those who took drugs with prescription (39.4%) and without prescription (61.6%). For those without prescription, the reasons given were; procedure of acquisition less costly (39.0%), took same drug for similar symptoms (23.0%), not satisfied with health services (15.5%), neighbour/friend/relative previously taken the same drug (12.5%) and health institution was far from their location (10%). Conclusion Majority of consumers in the study area were knowledgeable on the symptoms of malaria. In addition, majority acquired ineffective anti-malarial drugs for treatment and reported sub-optimal treatment regimens with the currently recommended drugs. Furthermore, behaviours which constrain the successful up-scaling of ACT were common, creating a challenge in the desire to turn efficacy to effectiveness of the combination therapy programme. It will be important to direct and focus interventions in creating awareness on the importance of using recommended drugs to lessen the use of less efficacious anti-malarials. In addition, the consumers need to be educated on the importance of drug adherence in such areas to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant malaria.</p

Genetic analysis of phenotype in Trypanosoma brucei: a classical approach to potentially complex traits.

The genome of the African trypanosome, Trypanosoma brucei, is currently being sequenced, raising the question of how the data generated can be used to determine the function of the large number of genes that will be identified. There is a range of possible approaches, and in this paper we discuss the use of a classical genetic approach coupled with positional cloning based on the ability of trypanosomes to undergo genetic exchange. The genetics of these parasites is essentially similar to a conventional diploid Mendelian system with allelic segregation and an independent assortment of markers on different chromosomes. Data are presented showing that recombination occurs between markers on the same chromosome allowing the physical size of the unit of recombination to be determined. Analysis of the available progeny clones from a series of crosses shows that, in principal, large numbers of progeny can readily be isolated from existing cryopreserved products of mating and, taking these findings together, it is clear that genetic mapping of variable phenotypes is feasible. The available phenotypes for analysis are outlined and most are relevant to the transmission and pathogenesis of the parasite. Genetic maps from two crosses are presented based on the use of the technique of AFLP; these maps comprise 146 and 139 markers in 30 and 21 linkage groups respectively. Segregation distortion is exhibited by some of the linkage groups and the possible reasons for this are discussed. The general conclusion, from the results presented, is that a genetic-mapping approach is feasible and will, in the future, allow the genes determining a number of important traits to be identified