Community Perspectives Towards Provider- Initiated Testing for HIV in Macha

Background: In Zambia, at least eighty per cent (80%) of the adult population does not know about their HIVstatus11. In order to increase uptake of HIV testing, Ministry of Health introduced provider- initiated HIV counseling and testing for individuals attending health facilities in 200812. However, since the policy was introduced, there has been no research evidence on how the community perceives the policy and how it has influenced their health seeking behavior.Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore community perspectives on provider-initiated HIV testing.Design: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive design. The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Multistage sampling was used to select households for interviews. Adults above 18 years of age were interviewed from the selected households using a structured interview questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated into the local language to enhance understanding of the subject. Purposive sampling was instituted to  select key informants for in-depth interviews. Logistic regression was applied to determine  independent predictors  for supporting provider- initiated HIV testing. In-depth interviews were translated and transcribed into computer files; common themes were identified, after which data was categorized using the Nvivo statistical package.Results: A total of 809 respondents and 12 (twelve) key informants participated in the study. The age range for the cohort was 18-80 years, with mean age of 35.8 years. Of the whole study population, 42.8% were males while 57.2% were females.The study found that the majority of respondents (61.9%) were not aware of the  providerinitiated HIV  testing policy. Despite this scenario, the majority (80.3%) of respondents and all the key informants supported the  policy. Furthermore, most (89.5%) respondents indicated that they would accept to be tested if they were to be  hospitalized. Support for the policy was on the premise that the community has realized the importance of HIV  testing as an entry point to HIV care, treatment, and support.Conclusion: The Macha community is in support of provider –initiated HIV testing policy although awareness of  the policy is low. It is evident that the majority of respondents have been able to observe benefits associated with  testing through the ART services going on at the hospital. However, there was more preference for  communitybased voluntary counseling and testing. According to the community, mobile VCT services were more preferred because they saved costs of travel to the health facility and reduced stigma

Tobacco smoking prevalence among in-school adolescents aged 13-15 years: baseline for evaluation of the implementation of the FCTC in Lusaka district, Zambia

Background: Tobacco use is a major public health concern worldwide. Zambia has been controlling tobacco use in terms of legislative interventions, and acceding to the World Health organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The study was aimed to determine the baseline prevalence of current smoking to be used in the evaluation of the implementation of the WHO FCTC. Methods: Survey data from the 2002 and 2007 Global Youth Tobacco Surveys (GYTS) were used to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use. The standard protocol for GYTS was used in the surveys, and only data for students aged 13 to 15 years was used in the analysis. Data were analyzed using SUDAAN (Research Triangle institute), and SPSS (version 11.5) software packages. Weighted analysis was used to produce estimates together with their 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: The current cigarette smokers were 9.2% in 2002 and 6.8% in 2007 (p>0.05), with an overall rate of 7.4% (95%CI [7.1, 7.7]). No significant difference in current cigarette smoking rates was observed between sexes. However, compared to students of age 15 years, those of ages 13 and 14 years were less likely to be current smokers (AOR=0.82, 95%CI [0.77, 0.88]) for 13 years, and AOR=0.90, 95%CI [0.85, 0.96] for 14 years). Conclusion: The results of this study show that Lusaka district is in the first stage of the tobacco epidemic. There is urgent need, guided by the WHO FCTC, for effective interventions to be put in place before the epidemic becomes unmanageable

Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders: Prevalence, contributing factors and coping strategies among Physiotherapy personnel in Lusaka, Kitwe and Ndola districts, Zambia

Background: Injuries at a work place comprise a substantial part of injury burden. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs) are common in the field of physiotherapy because the nature of job tasks is physically challenging and therapeutic procedures are often repetitive, labour intensive and involve direct contact with patients. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence, contributing factors and coping strategies for WRMDs among physiotherapy personnel in Lusaka, Kitwe and Ndola districts of Zambia.Methods: Data was collected using a selfadministered semi structured questionnaire in a cross sectional study. Data were summarized using percents for categorical variables, mean (standard deviation) for continuous variables, and median (Q1, Q3) for skewed variables.Results: A total of 120 physiotherapists participated in the survey and of these 82 (68.3%) experienced WRMDs that lasted for more than 3 days in the previous 12 months to the survey. Most (40.7%) participants experienced work-related injuries within the first five years after graduation. The majority of the participants indicated that the following work factors contributed to WRMDs: treating a large number of patients per day (97.5%), repeatedly performing the same task (94.9%), performing manual therapy techniques (93.2%), working in the same position for long periods (92.1%), and lifting and transferring patients (88.6%).Conclusions: WRMDs are common among physiotherapy personnel in Lusaka, Kitwe and Ndola districts of Zambia. Outcomes underlines the importance of further research with larger sample sizes to examine factors associated with WRMDs among physiotherapy personnel in this country.&#160