Household Food Security Support Initiatives on the Social Well-being of Single Orphans

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of household food security support initiatives on the social well-being of single orphans in Rangwe Sub-County. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed research design using qualitative and quantitative data. The target population was single orphan households and members of community-based organizations dealing with orphans. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from single orphan parents, focus group discussions with community-based organization members, and an observation guide tool. A snow ball sampling method was used to collect data from 308 households using the semi-structured questionnaire. Questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, mode, standard deviations) and results are summarized using percentages, graphs, pie charts, and frequency distribution tables. Qualitative data from focus group discussions were transcribed and thematically analyzed. Qualitative data from observations were thematically analyzed. The study found out that household food security initiatives were not adequate in terms of their availability, sufficiency and utilization and affected the social-wellbeing of the single orphans in a number of ways; missing school, falling ill more often, not having a sense of belonging, not playing with others and getting worried. The study's findings indicate that additional food support initiatives targeting single orphans are inadequate. Government policymakers and non-government organizations should prioritize strategies to support households in food generating activities such as farming alongside education of farmers to improve yields, ensure that households have information about different food support initiatives and how to access them, and leverage additional donor funds to support the community-based organization activities that have existing infrastructure and networks to target single orphan households for food support

Effects of Different Types of Zeolites on the Degradation Kinetics of Malathion Pesticide in Water

The study examined the effects of selected types of zeolites as an environmentally benign and friendly way to degrade, S-1, 2-bis (ethoxycarbonyl) ethyl O, O-dimethylphosphorodithioate (malathion), used as a model pesticide, from river water. The effect of the size of zeolite channels and dimensionality (such as 1D, 2D, and 3D), Si/Al ratio, and operating pH were studied to find a suitable type of zeolite and conditions to optimize the pesticide degradation. Mordenite (MOR (1D): Si/Al=6.83, and Si/Al=10.72), ferrierite (FER (2D): Si/Al=10.71), ZSM-5 (MFI (3D): Si/Al=6.83 and Si/Al=10.72) and USY (FAU (3D): Si/Al=2.77) zeolites were individually mixed with a water sample collected from Monjolinho River in São Carlos (SP), Brazil and the degradation trend studied. The results showed that all the zeolites accelerated the degradation of malathion. Nevertheless, lower zeolite Si/Al ratio and larger 3D channels or cavities had a positive influence on the degradation rate. The FAU zeolite presented the stronger degradation of the malathion with a half-life of 16.5 followed by ZSM-5 with 24.8, ferrierite with 29.7, and finally mordenite with 30.3 hours

Factors associated with adherence to dietary prescription among adult patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis in national referral hospitals in Kenya : a mixed-methods survey

CITATION: Opiyo, R. O., et al. 2019. Factors associated with adherence to dietary prescription among adult patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis in national referral hospitals in Kenya : a mixed-methods survey. Renal Replacement Therapy, 5:41, doi:10.1186/s41100-019-0237-4.The original publication is available at https://rrtjournal.biomedcentral.comIntroduction: Adherence to dietary prescriptions among patients with chronic kidney disease is known to prevent deterioration of kidney functions and slow down the risk for morbidity and mortality. This study determined factors associated with adherence to dietary prescription among adult patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis. Methods: A mixed-methods study, using parallel mixed design, was conducted at the renal clinics and dialysis units at the national teaching and referral hospitals in Kenya from September 2018 to January 2019. The study followed a QUAN + qual paradigm, with quantitative survey as the primary method. Adult patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis without kidney transplant were purposively sampled for the quantitative survey. A sub-sample of adult patients and their caregivers were purposively sampled for the qualitative survey. Numeric data were collected using a structured, self-reported questionnaire using Open Data Kit “Collect software” while qualitative data were collected using in-depth interview guides and voice recording. Analysis on STATA software for quantitative and NVIV0 12 for qualitative data was conducted. The dependent variable, “adherence to diet prescription” was analyzed as a binary variable. P values < 0.1 and < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant in univariate and multivariate logistic regression models respectively. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed. Results: Only 36.3% of the study population adhered to their dietary prescriptions. Factors that were independently associated with adherence to diet prescriptions were “flexibility in the diets” (AOR 2.65, 95% CI 1.11–6.30, P 0.028), “difficulties in following diet recommendations” (AOR 0.24, 95% CI 0.13–0.46, P < 001), and “adherence to limiting fluid intake” (AOR 9.74, 95% CI 4.90–19.38, P < 0.001). Conclusions: For patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis, diet prescriptions with less restrictions and requiring minimal extra efforts and resources are more likely to be adhered to than the restrictive ones. Patients who adhere to their fluid intake restrictions easily follow their diet prescriptions. Prescribed diets should be based on the individual patient’s usual dietary habits and assessed levels of challenges in using such diets. Additionally, diet adherence messages should be integrated with fluid limitation messages. Further research on understanding patients’ adherence to fluid restriction is also suggested.Publisher's versio

Combined bar and line charts.

The bar chart shows the variation in anaemia prevalence by age (5–14 yrs) and the line graph shows mean Hb (adjusted for altitude) by gender across all age groups (5–14 yrs).</p

Box plot of the prevalence rates across clusters identified by SatScan and LISA cluster analysis.

(A) shows distribution of anaemia prevalence across schools and villages in cluster 1 and cluster 2 identified from SatScan analysis; (B) shows distribution of anaemia prevalence across High-High, High-Low, Low-High and Low-Low LISA clusters.</p

Fig 3 -

(A) Variation of mean Hb (adjusted for altitude) for each age (5–14 yrs) across the 82 schools. The blanks in white indicate missing samples for that age group. (B) Boxplots showing the distribution of anaemia prevalence among schools by county.</p

Thiessen polygons representing 82 school catchment areas.

The Western Kenya shapefile was based on the County Integrated Development Plans 2021 [22]. (TIF)</p

Fig 4 -

(A) Anaemia prevalence for each school catchment (computed from empirical Hb measurements), (B) Spatial scan statistics results of anaemia clusters for schools, (C) Spatial scan statistics results of anaemia clusters for villages and (D) LISA cluster map showing anaemia hotspots (red) and cold spots (blue). The corresponding LISA significance map in shown in S2 Fig. The Western Kenya county level shapefile was based on County Integrated Development Plans 2021 [22].</p