Human health alters the sustainability of fishing practices in East Africa.

Understanding feedbacks between human and environmental health is critical for the millions who cope with recurrent illness and rely directly on natural resources for sustenance. Although studies have examined how environmental degradation exacerbates infectious disease, the effects of human health on our use of the environment remains unexplored. Human illness is often tacitly assumed to reduce human impacts on the environment. By this logic, ill people reduce the time and effort that they put into extractive livelihoods and, thereby, their impact on natural resources. We followed 303 households living on Lake Victoria, Kenya over four time points to examine how illness influenced fishing. Using fixed effect conditional logit models to control for individual-level and time-invariant factors, we analyzed the effect of illness on fishing effort and methods. Illness among individuals who listed fishing as their primary occupation affected their participation in fishing. However, among active fishers, we found limited evidence that illness reduced fishing effort. Instead, ill fishers shifted their fishing methods. When ill, fishers were more likely to use methods that were illegal, destructive, and concentrated in inshore areas but required less travel and energy. Ill fishers were also less likely to fish using legal methods that are physically demanding, require travel to deep waters, and are considered more sustainable. By altering the physical capacity and outlook of fishers, human illness shifted their effort, their engagement with natural resources, and the sustainability of their actions. These findings show a previously unexplored pathway through which poor human health may negatively impact the environment.

The Kanyakla study: Randomized controlled trial of a microclinic social network intervention for promoting engagement and retention in HIV care in rural western Kenya.

BACKGROUND: Existing social relationships are a potential source of "social capital" that can enhance support for sustained retention in HIV care. A previous pilot study of a social network-based 'microclinic' intervention, including group health education and facilitated HIV status disclosure, reduced disengagement from HIV care. We conducted a pragmatic randomized trial to evaluate microclinic effectiveness. METHODS: In nine rural health facilities in western Kenya, we randomized HIV-positive adults with a recent missed clinic visit to either participation in a microclinic or usual care (NCT02474992). We collected visit data at all clinics where participants accessed care and evaluated intervention effect on disengagement from care (≥90-day absence from care after a missed visit) and the proportion of time patients were adherent to clinic visits ('time-in-care'). We also evaluated changes in social support, HIV status disclosure, and HIV-associated stigma. RESULTS: Of 350 eligible patients, 304 (87%) enrolled, with 154 randomized to intervention and 150 to control. Over one year of follow-up, disengagement from care was similar in intervention and control (18% vs 17%, hazard ratio 1.03, 95% CI 0.61-1.75), as was time-in-care (risk difference -2.8%, 95% CI -10.0% to +4.5%). The intervention improved social support for attending clinic appointments (+0.4 units on 5-point scale, 95% CI 0.08-0.63), HIV status disclosure to close social supports (+0.3 persons, 95% CI 0.2-0.5), and reduced stigma (-0.3 units on 5-point scale, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.17). CONCLUSIONS: The data from our pragmatic randomized trial in rural western Kenya are compatible with the null hypothesis of no difference in HIV care engagement between those who participated in a microclinic intervention and those who did not, despite improvements in proposed intervention mechanisms of action. However, some benefit or harm cannot be ruled out because the confidence intervals were wide. Results differ from a prior quasi-experimental pilot study, highlighting important implementation considerations when evaluating complex social interventions for HIV care. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trial number: NCT02474992.