The impact of the livelihoods and income fortification and socio-civic transformation project on the quality of life, wellbeing, self-esteem, and quality of neighbourhood social environment among the youth in slum areas of in Kampala, Uganda

Background: Various interventions to improve the quality of life (QoL) among slum dwellers across sub Saharan Africa have been implemented. However, the interventions impacts remain less understood. We assessed the impact of the Urban Program on Livelihoods and Income Fortification and Socio-civic Transformation (UPLIFT) project on QoL, psychological wellbeing, self-esteem, and the quality of neighbourhood social environment of young people aged 13–25 years in slum areas of Makindye and Nakawa Divisions in Kampala, Uganda. Methods: The study was designed as a mixed method evaluation using repeated cross-sectional survey and grounded theory in both the intervention and comparison communities. The intervention effect was estimated using the difference-in-differences Kernel propensity-score matching technique, with bootstrapping. The “rcs” option was used given that data were from repeated cross-sectional surveys. A thematic analysis was adopted for the qualitative data to triangulate and complement the quantitative data. Results: The UPLIFT project led to an improvement in QoL, psychological wellbeing, and self-esteem of young people. In terms of QoL, the project led to a six-percentage point increase in quality of living conditions scores (where higher scores reflect better living conditions; lower ones, worse living conditions). However, a negative effect was observed for personal independence whilst the project did not have any impact on social relations. In terms of self-esteem and psychological wellbeing, the project led to a 4.6-point increase in self-esteem scores, a 5.4-point increase in self-acceptance scores, a 5.3- point increase in purpose in life scores, a 5.7 - point increase in personal growth, and a 10.7-point increase in autonomy scores. However, the project had a negative effect on personal independence; and had no impact on environmental mastery and the quality of neighbourhood social environment. Conclusion: Functional community-owned assets accumulation and capacity building initiatives for young people in slum areas improved their psychological wellbeing and quality of life. However, such initiatives do not appear to address social relationships and personal independence of young people in slum areas

The epidemiological burden of and overall distribution of chronic comorbidities in coronavirus disease-2019 among 202,005 infected patients : evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose The main purpose of this study was to examine the overall distribution of chronic comorbidities in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infected populations and the risk of the underlying burden of disease in terms of the case fatality ratio (CFR). Methods We carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on COVID-19 patients published before 10th April 2020. Twenty-three studies containing data for 202,005 COVID-19 patients were identified and included in our study. Pooled effects of chronic comorbid conditions and CFR with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using random-effects models. Results A median age of COVID-19 patients was 56.4 years and 55% of the patients were male. The most prevalent chronic comorbid conditions were: any type of chronic comorbidity (37%; 95% CI 32–41%), hypertension (22%; 95% CI 17–27%), diabetes (14%; 95% CI 12–17%), respiratory diseases (5%; 95% CI 3–6%), cardiovascular diseases (13%; 95% CI 10–16%) and other chronic diseases (e.g., cancer) (8%; 95% CI 6–10%). Furthermore, 37% of COVID-19 patients had at least one chronic comorbid condition, 28% of patients had two conditions, and 19% of patients had three or more chronic conditions. The overall pooled CFR was 7% (95% CI 6–7%). The crude CFRs increased significantly with increasing number of chronic comorbid conditions, ranging from 6% for at least one chronic comorbid condition to 13% for 2 or 3 chronic comorbid conditions, 12% for 4 chronic comorbid conditions, 14% for 5 chronic comorbid conditions, and 21% for 6 or more chronic comorbid conditions. Furthermore, the overall CFRs also significantly increased with higher levels of reported clinical symptoms, ranging from 14% for at least four symptoms, to 15% for 5 or 6 symptoms, and 21% for 7 or more symptoms. Conclusions The chronic comorbid conditions were identified as dominating risk factors, which should be considered in an emergency disease management and treatment choices. There is urgent need to further enhance systematic and real-time sharing of epidemiologic data, clinical results, and experience to inform the global response to COVID-19

В городе Владимире

В городе Владимире провалилось проведение конкурса красоты

[In Press] The risk and protective factors for suicidal burden among 251 763 school-based adolescents in 77 low- and middle-income to high-income countries : assessing global, regional and national variations

Background. Adolescent suicide is a global public health concern and the second leading cause of adolescent death worldwide. This study aimed to estimate the burden of adolescent suicidal behaviours and its association with violence and unintentional injury, psychosocial, protective, lifestyle and food security-related factors amongst school-based adolescents across 77 countries in the six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. Methods. This study comprised a sample of 251 763 adolescents drawn from the latest Global School-based Student Health Survey of school-based adolescents, aged 11-17 years, across 77 countries. Logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate the adjusted effect of independent factors on adolescent suicidal behaviours. Results. The population-weighted 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI), suicidal planning (SP) and suicidal attempts (SA) amongst school-based adolescents was 18, 18 and 16%, respectively. Adolescent suicidal behaviours (i.e. SI, SP and SA) were respectively associated with being physically attacked, physical fighting, high levels of anxiety, feeling lonely, being bullied, lack of parental support, poor peer support, not having close friends and high levels of sedentary behaviours. Overall, these associations also extended to the context of food insecurity across regions and country income groups, where the magnitude of association slightly varied from odds ratios of 1.25 times to 3.13. Conclusions. The burden of school-going adolescent suicidal thoughts, suicide planning and suicide attempts is of particular concern in low-resource countries. Comprehensive suicide prevention programmes for school-going adolescents in LMICs are needed that address socio-cultural inequities related to violence and unintentional injury, social support and psychological factors, protective, and lifestyle-related factors

Variation in the prevalence of different forms of bullying victimisation among adolescents and their associations with family, peer and school connectedness : a population-based study in 40 lower and middle income to high-income countries (LMIC-HICs)

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of different forms of bullying victimization experiences and their association with family functioning, peer relationships and school connectedness among adolescents across 40 lower and middle income to high-income countries (LMIC-HICs). Data were drawn from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) school-based survey of adolescents aged 11–15 years, between 2013 and 2014. We estimated the weighted prevalence by categorising experiences into traditional bullying victimization only, cyberbullying victimization only, and combined traditional and cyberbullying victimization, at country and country income classification. We used multinominal logistic regression models to estimate the adjusted association with the form of bullying victimization by demographic characteristics, family functioning, peer relationships and school connectedness. Overall, 8.0% reported traditional bullying victimization only (8.8% males, 7.4% females), 2.3% of adolescents reported cyberbullying victimization only (2.1% males, 2.2% females), and 1.7% reported combined traditional and cyber bullying victimization (1.7% males, 1.8% females). All three forms of bullying victimization during adolescence were significantly associated with poor family functioning, poor peer relations and poor school connectedness. A consistent finding is that traditional bullying victimization is considerably more common among adolescents across both LMICs and HICs than cyberbullying victimization. This study also demonstrated that a significant proportion of adolescent’s experience victimization in both forms. Positive family functioning, strong peer relationships and greater school connectedness are associated with a lower risk of both forms of bullying victimization