Life with Limited Privacy due to Housing Challenges: Impact on Children’s Psychological Functioning

This study investigated the influence of limited living space and privacy on children’s psychological functioning. The study invited 240 participants, of which 120 children were in the experimental group and 120 in the comparison group. The participants in the experimental group were recruited from communities facing living space and personal privacy challenges, while the participants in the comparison group came from privileged communities with relatively adequate living space. The children’s psychological functioning dimensions measured were anxiety, depression, conduct disorder, addictive and risk behaviours, delay of gratification, sexual risk behaviours, and perceptions of social support. The results showed that the two groups differed significantly in levels of anxiety, depression, conduct disorder, and addictive and risk behaviours. The findings of the study indicate the need to offer psychological support to children facing living space and privacy challenges. Implications for further studies in the area of housing and psychological wellbeing are discussed

Voluntary withdrawal from anti-epileptic drugs: impact on employee performance, health and safety

An investigation to ascertain the impact of voluntary withdrawal from prescribed medication for epileptic employees.The study sought to investigate the impact of voluntary withdrawal from anti-epileptic drugs on performance, health and safety. Employees with epilepsy working in sheltered workshops participated in the study. There were 100 participants. The results of the study showed depressed performance indicators in the group that had stopped taking medication. The group with controlled epilepsy showed better performance than the group with uncontrolled epilepsy. Health-related absenteeism, and occupational hazard statistics were found to be associated with voluntary withdrawal from anti-epileptic medication

The ethical concerns of using medical male circumcision in HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa

This position paper seeks to explore the ethical concerns surrounding the use of medical male circumcision as an effective method of preventing HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. The study explores research that looked at the effectiveness of medical male circumcision in clinical trials. While clinical trials reveal that medical male circumcision showed statistically significant results in HIV prevention, there is still a paucity of studies that take into consideration the ethical challenges posed by medical male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper argues that rolling out medical male circumcision to the larger community without adequately addressing the ethical concerns could weaken programme initiation, implementation and evaluation in sub-Saharan Africa

Choice-Disability and HIV Infection: A Cross Sectional Study of HIV Status in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland

Interpersonal power gradients may prevent people implementing HIV prevention decisions. Among 7,464 youth aged 15–29 years in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland we documented indicators of choice-disability (low education, educational disparity with partner, experience of sexual violence, experience of intimate partner violence (IPV), poverty, partner income disparity, willingness to have sex without a condom despite believing partner at risk of HIV), and risk behaviours like inconsistent use of condoms and multiple partners. In Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland, 22.9, 9.1, and 26.1% women, and 8.3, 2.8, and 9.3% men, were HIV positive. Among both women and men, experience of IPV, IPV interacted with age, and partner income disparity interacted with age were associated with HIV positivity in multivariate analysis. Additional factors were low education (for women) and poverty (for men). Choice disability may be an important driver of the AIDS epidemic. New strategies are needed that favour the choice-disabled

Operation Murambatsvina: Impact on psychological functioning of the survivors

No Abstract.African Safety Promotion Vol. 5(2) 2007: pp. 51-6

Fear and Guilt in HIV and AIDS Prevention

The social learning theory concepts of fear and guilt are regarded as inhibitory factors in disease prevention, and this article examines the possibility of incorporating fear and guilt training courses into HIV and AIDS prevention programmes. HIV and AIDS educators could help participants understand the role of fear and guilt in health promotion, and that fear of external negative reinforcement does not adequately protect them from HIV and AIDS. It is posited in this article that the development of guilt in individuals is alearning process that can result in the inhibition of risky sexual behaviour, arguing that fear–guilt interaction in individuals is a social control mechanism that can be facilitated through social learning processes and moral developmen

An Assessment of Community Members` Knowledge of Drug-resistant Tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

The aim of this study was to assess community members’ knowledge of drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS. Accordingly, community  members’ knowledge of drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and HIV and AIDS was assessed in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. The study sample was made up of residents of Ward 40, Greenbushes, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. Participants in this study were at least 18 years old. There were 100 participants, 47 male and 53 female. The results revealed that female respondents were more aware and knowledgeable about DR-TB and HIV and AIDS than male respondents

The Impact of Dwindling Donor Funding on HIV and AIDS Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study seeks to investigate the impact of dwindling donor funding on HIV and AIDS projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study surveyed literature on theeffects of diminishing donor funding on people living with HIV and AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Factors associated with reduced donor funding identified in this study were the global financial crisis, governance issues, the shift in research interests, and the politics of medical research and patenting. These factors were discussed as perennial problems that tend to discourage the donor community from extending further humanitarian assistance to the continent. The study suggested ways of indigenising the production of medicines, and financing HIV and AIDS projects in Sub-Saharan Africa

A Locus of Control-based HIV and AIDS Risk Reduction Training among University Students

The aim of this study was to investigate the effi cacy of a locus of control-based training programme in reducing HIV and AIDS risk among university students. The locus of control-based variables that formed the training programme were social systems control, deferment of gratifi cation,personal values and expectancies, and social alienation. The study was a pretest post-test repeated measures design. Data were analysed using Levene’s test of homogeneity of variance and Friedman’s test to assess the impact of the training programme. The results showed that the locus of control-based training programme signifi cantly reduced locus of control-related health risks and HIV and AIDS risk among the participants