An assessment of validity and responsiveness of generic measures of health-related quality of life in hearing impairment

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.Purpose: This review examines psychometric performance of three widely used generic preference-based measures, that is, EuroQol 5 dimensions (EQ-5D), Health Utility Index 3 (HUI3) and Short-form 6 dimensions (SF-6D) in patients with hearing impairments. Methods: A systematic search was undertaken to identify studies of patients with hearing impairments where health state utility values were measured and reported. Data were extracted and analysed to assess the reliability, validity (known group differences and convergent validity) and responsiveness of the measures across hearing impairments. Results: Fourteen studies (18 papers) were included in the review. HUI3 was the most commonly used utility measures in hearing impairment. In all six studies, the HUI3 detected difference between groups defined by the severity of impairment, and four out of five studies detected statistically significant changes as a result of intervention. The only study available suggested that EQ-5D only had weak ability to discriminate difference between severity groups, and in four out of five studies, EQ-5D failed to detected changes. Only one study involved the SF-6D; thus, the information is too limited to conclude on its performance. Also evidence for the reliability of these measures was not found. Conclusion: Overall, the validity and responsiveness of the HUI3 in hearing impairment was good. The responsiveness of EQ-5D was relatively poor and weak validity was suggested by limited evidence. The evidence on SF-6D was too limited to make any judgment. More head-to-head comparisons of these and other preference measures of health are required.Medical Research Counci

Social Perceptions of Forest Ecosystem Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The forests of the Albertine Rift are known for their high biodiversity and the important ecosystem services they provide to millions of inhabitants. However, their conservation and the maintenance of ecosystem service delivery is a challenge, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our research investigates how livelihood strategy and ethnicity affects local perceptions of forest ecosystem services. We collected data through 25 focus-group discussions in villages from distinct ethnic groups, including farmers (Tembo, Shi, and Nyindu) and hunter-gatherers (Twa). Twa identify more food-provisioning services and rank bush meat and honey as the most important. They also show stronger place attachment to the forest than the farmers, who value other ecosystem services, but all rank microclimate regulation as the most important. Our findings help assess ecosystem services trade-offs, highlight the important impacts of restricted access to forests resources for Twa, and point to the need for developing alternative livelihood strategies for these communities

Development of fishery indicators for local management initiatives — a case study for Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

In attempts to achieve sustainability, ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management are becoming increasingly applicable. Indicators to assess the success of management measures are an important component of this approach. Data from a recreational linefishery are used to develop and propose a simple set of indicators to assess local fishery sustainability. The indicators have been organised within a framework based on the ecological, institutional and social sustainability domains and scored through a rapid assessment matrix. Results indicate that the estuarine, rock-and-surf (coastal) and skiboat-based fisheries in Plettenberg Bay on the south coast of South Africa are presently non-sustainable. The institutional domain had very low scores whereas the socio-economic domain had the highest scores. The validity and usefulness of the indicators as a tool for the development of local fishery management plans are discussed. Keywords: EAF; indicators; local management; Plettenberg Bay; rapid assessment matrix; recreational fisheries; South Africa; sustainabilityAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2007, 29(3): 511–52

Spawning observations of Pomadasys commersonnii in the marine section of the Knysna estuarine bay, Western Cape, South Africa

Knowledge of the location and timing of spawning events is critical for fisheries management. As is the case for many southern African fishes, the spotted grunter Pomadasys commersonnii was historically thought to reproduce in the coastal waters off KwaZulu-Natal Province (KZN), South Africa, with subsequent egg and larval dispersal towards the Eastern Cape (EC) and Western Cape (WC) provinces facilitated by the Agulhas Current. More recently,year-round residency within areas of the EC and the observation of reproductively mature individuals in certain WC estuaries has provided some support for spawning events southwest of KZN. This study reports empirical evidence of active spawning in the sheltered marine section of the Knysna estuarine bay, WC. Observations of spawning behaviour were noted during large aggregations of adult fish over shallow sandbanks in February 2017. A single male and female were collected, and their reproductive organs were macroscopically staged as ‘spawning.’ Gonad histological examination verified active spawning of the female via the presence of hydrated oocytes, migratory nucleus oocytes and post-ovulatory follicles. Future research should focus on the identification and conservation of critical spawning events and investigate the potential role of large marine-dominated estuarine systems in the life history of this and other marine estuarine-dependent species. Lastly, the results of this study contribute towards a knowledge base that challenges the traditional theory of northeastward spawning migrations as the sole life-history strategy for numerous South African fishery species