Consumers’ views and use of labels on food items sold in Bulawayo urban province, Zimbabwe

Food labels are a medium by which consumers acquire knowledge about packaged foods they are considering to purchase. The label makes the first impression about a product and has a great effect on the purchasing decision for consumers. In recent years, literate consumers have become interested in nutritional issues. Lifestyle, age, dietary and safety concerns have been the contributing factors to nutritional awareness by consumers. Nutritional labels can generally have a positive impact on food consumption and may save health-care costs for those consumers with health concerns. On the other hand, for those consumers who are illiterate, price may be more important in making purchase decisions. This study intended to investigate how consumers in Bulawayo Urban Province (Zimbabwe) view and use labels on packaged food items. Seventy-five randomly selected consumers were questioned about their perceptions, attitudes and use of label information using open ended structured questionnaires. The consumers were selected on the basis of being present at the supermarkets at the time of sampling. The respondents were interviewed at different times of the day to cater for employed and unemployed people. The results obtained indicate that the extent to which food labels are used depends on factors such as price of food products, individual health needs and gender. For consumers who use food labels to make their purchase decisions, not all the information on the label is considered. Items on the labels to which the consumers responded were brand, nutritional profile and mass of product in relation to the price. The label elements which were extensively used by consumers in this study are date mark (81.3%), weight of food (89.3%) and price (77.3%). The least used element is the nutritional panel (50.7%). About 44% of the consumers were not sure about the trustworthiness of the information given on food labels. Food labels are important to a greater extent for people with special dietary requirements, while the remainder of the studied population are influenced by price in their purchase decisions. Consumers seem not to understand some of the information on the food labels because of the difficulties in interpreting what is written.Keywords: Consumer, packaged food, labels, nutrition, nutritional panel, perceptions, purchase, behaviou

Waste management through life cycle assessment of products

The rapid growth of a population in a country can contribute to high production of waste. Municipal waste and industrial waste can bring unhealthy and unpleasant environment or even diseases to human beings if the wastes are not managed properly. With increasing concerns over waste and the need for 'greener' products, it is necessary to carry out Life Cycle Assessments of products and this will help manufacturers take the first steps towards greener designs by assessing their product's carbon output. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment, and to assess the impact of those energy and material used and released to the environment. The aim of the study was to use a life cycle assessment approach to determine which waste disposal options that will substantially reduce the environmental burdens posed by the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle. Several important observations can be made. 1)Recycling of the PET bottle waste can significantly reduce the energy requiredacross the life cycle because the high energy inputs needed to process the requisite virgin materials greatly exceeds the energy needs of the recycling process steps. 2)Greenhouse gases can be reduced by opting for recycling instead of landfilling andincineration. 3)Quantity of waste emissions released from different disposal options was identified. 4)Recycling is the environmentally preferable disposal method for the PET bottle. Industry can use the tools and data in this study to evaluate the health, environmental, and energy implications of the PET bottle. LCA intends to aid decision-makers in this respect, provided that the scientific underpinning is available. Strategic incentives for product development and life cycle management can then be developed

Vitamin D: the role of the sunshine vitamin

The importance of vitamin D in physical disorders has been well documented. Deficiency in this vitamin is associated with a wide range of physical and mental disorders that include, heart problems, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, various cancers, and asthma. In mental health vitamin D deficiency is associated with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease among others. Risk factors for vitamin D deficiency include darker skin, lack of adequate sun exposure, autoimmune diseases, influenza, old age and the use of certain medicines like anticonvulsants. Vitamin D is likely to play an important role in the management and prevention of various mental health problems. In particular, adequate vitamin D during the perinatal stage is likely to impact positively on the long term mental health of a person

Performance evaluation of a communication network

This work uses a simulation package to analyze the performance of a specific X.25 Value Added Communication Network (VAN), comprising a Network Administrator and a cluster of Network Concentrators (NCs). Detailed models of the network elements are developed, and system performance is analyzed in terms of network response time for the terminal users communicating across the network, identification of areas of bottlenecks in the NC system, and NC system throughput. The througput parameter is represented by the percentage of the output traffic to the load offered from the network of terminals. The performance of the Network Administrator system is also modeled, focusing particularly on the automatic restoration of service to failed NCs through downloading of operating software sets over the X.25 network. The final part consists of a model of a modification of the network manager components of the network as proposed in the DM upgrade project. In this section, NC loading time is again the desired performance indicator. It is shown that there is no noticeable improvement in this parameter between the original system and the proposed upgrade, both systems having a minimum loading time of about 3.5 to 6 minutes for a small network

Un-African aging? Discourses of the socio-spatial welfare for older people in urban Zimbabwe

Global discourse has evidenced that the physical and social environment continues to have a large bearing on how people age, resulting in growing recognition of the socio-spatial needs of older people in urban environments. This article examines the representation of Zimbabwe’s older people, a subject that has rarely been the focus of critical analysis. A sample of national policy documents and media articles were carefully selected and inspected to determine the level of presence of older people’s welfare using discourse analysis. The article shows how the discourses on spaces of welfare for older people in Zimbabwe are layered and multidimensional. This includes challenges of access to spaces of welfare, the abandonment and neglect of older people, as well as the changes to family and community support known as Ubuntu

Treatment outcomes of patients on anti-retrovirals after six months of treatment, Khami Clinic, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

A CAJM review of HIV/AIDS treatment of infected patients on medication after 6 months of administering anti-retrovirals.It was in 1985 that the first case of HIV tested positive in Zimbabwe. The AIDS epidemic has grown since then to become one of the most serious public health challenges to ever face the nation. According to the 2003 HIV estimates, 24,6% of adults aged 15 to 49 years were infected. Whilst they cannot cure HIV/AIDS, treatment of HIV with Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) can transform the natural course of HIV infection by reducing morbidity and mortality as has been observed in many industrialized countries. It is recommended for patients with symptomatic AIDS, WHO Adult Stage IV and advanced Stage III irrespective of the CD4 cell count or total lymphocyte count

Ecosystem services bundles:challenges and opportunities for implementation and further research

Background : the concept of ‘ecosystem services bundles’, i.e. ecosystem services that repeatedly appear together across space and/or time, has been developed and refined as part of an integrated approach to assess interactions between ecosystem services. Nevertheless, published evidence of actual use of bundles in decision-making is lacking. In the light of this gap, a review of what bundle approaches have shown and what they can bring to decision-making is timely. Method : we conducted two separate systematic reviews. The first one addressed emerging issues within what we identify as the diverse utilisation and definition of the concept of ‘bundle’ in the literature. The second one focused on papers dealing with bundles as sets of consistently associated services. Review Synthesis : the review first highlights that the confusion surrounding the term ‘bundle’ in ecosystem services literature threatens to weaken the potential for analysis of bundles to inform decision-making. Then, thanks to the review of peer-reviewed papers that detect bundles as sets of consistently associated services, we analyse the diversity of methodological choices and we detail the interactions observed between different ecosystem services across the literature. We also show that landscape features, socio-economic conditions and institutional factors are all potential drivers for the occurrence of specific bundles in a landscape. Discussion : overall, it appears that the analysis of bundles provides an opportunity to enhance policy effectiveness. Nevertheless, the methodological challenges linked to the identification and interpretation of bundles call for careful and reflective study designs. We anticipate that this review will lead to a better understanding by scientists and practitioners of the potential for bundle studies to inform decision-making

Changes in care-a systematic scoping review of transitions for children with medical complexities

Background: Children with medical complexity (CMC) and their parents are affected physically and mentally during transitions in care. Coordinated models of care show promise in improving health outcomes. Objective: The purpose of this scoping review was to examine research related to CMC and their parents and transitions in care. The aim was 3-fold: (1) to examine the extent, range, and nature of research activity related to the impact of transitions on physical and mental health for CMC and their parents; (2) to summarize and disseminate research findings for key knowledge users; and (3) to identify research gaps in the existing literature to inform future studies. Methods: Twenty-three sources were identified through database searches and five articles met the inclusion criteria of CMC (multi-organ involvement or technology-dependent) (or parents of CMC) transitioning from hospital to alternate levels of care where outcome measures were physical or mental health-related. Results: Numerical analysis revealed substantial variation in methodological approaches and outcome measures. Content analysis revealed two themes for parents of CMC during this transition: (1) emotional distress, and (2) high expectations; and three themes for CMC: (1) improved health, (2) changes in emotion, and (3) disrupted relationships. Conclusion: The findings from this scoping review reveal for parents, transitions in care are fraught with emotional distress and high expectations; and for CMC there are improvements in quality of life and emotional health post-hospital to home transitions when collaborative models of care are available. This review serves as an early attempt to summarize the literature and demonstrate a need for further research

Dissemination and participation in early warnings and disaster risk reduction in South Africa

Governments cannot effectively manage and handle disasters, particularly at the local community level, without actively engaging vulnerable people. The key to achieving sustainability in disaster recovery is community participation and information dissemination. The informal settlements’ lack of access to information and public engagement hampered their ability to recovery, thus prompting this study. Therefore, many cities and intervention partnerships faced information and participation gaps in disaster risk reduction (DRR). The study’s rationale was to determine the participation and communication of Khayalitjha household heads, regarding DRR information dissemination for sustainable human settlement, using a cross-sectional household survey of 295 household heads from Khayalitjha in situ informal settlement in the Free State provinces of South Africa. The security of dwelling unit tenure concept was an indirect indicator used to measure social resilience. The key findings revealed that community volunteers, ward committee members and most of the respondents, were responsible for initiating the DRR and disaster preparedness planning process. This indicated that local government needs to strengthen the human resource capacity building for DRR management information dissemination at a local level. The church, school, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were the preferred modes of communication for early warnings of disaster information. Contribution: Despite advocating for a multidisciplinary stakeholder approach, urban DRR studies tend to ignore communities in high disaster-risk areas. Employing social resilience, it aims to extend the DRR information dissemination strategy to in situ informal settlements beyond the communication and public participation advocacy strategies of local municipal urban cities

Antibiotic prescription patterns of South African general medical practitioners for treatment of acute bronchitis

Background: Antibiotic resistance is a significant public health problem. Prudent use of antibiotics is crucial in reducing this resistance. Acute bronchitis is a common reason for consultations with general medical practitioners, and antibiotics are often prescribed even though guidelines recommend not prescribing them for uncomplicated acute bronchitis. Objective: To analyse the antibiotic prescription patterns of South African (SA) general medical practitioners in the treatment of acute bronchitis. Methods: The 2013 claims for members of 11 health insurance schemes were analysed to assess antibiotic prescription patterns for patients diagnosed with acute bronchitis. The patterns were assessed by type of bronchitis, chronic health status of the patients, sex and age group. The types of antibiotic prescribed were also analysed. Results: Of 166 821 events analysed, an antibiotic was prescribed in more than half (52.9%). There were significant differences by type of bronchitis and chronic health status. Patients with viral bronchitis were more likely to be prescribed an antibiotic than those with bacterial bronchitis (odds ratio (OR) 1.17, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08 - 1.26). Patients with a chronic illness were less likely to be prescribed an antibiotic than those without (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.57 - 0.60). More than 70% of the antibiotics prescribed were cephalosporins, penicillins and other beta-lactams. Conclusions: Prescription rates of antibiotics for acute bronchitis by SA general medical practitioners are high. There is an urgent need to follow the guidelines for antibiotic use for acute bronchitis to reduce the likelihood of increasing resistance to available antibiotics.IS