Knowledge, perceptions, beliefs, and opinions of the employees about GBV: a national online study in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: GBV has been global public health, family, and social problem for several decades as it is expensive for society and the economy. The study was conducted to determine the possible differences in knowledge, perceptions, beliefs, and opinions about GBV, as a whole, across gender and employment sectors in South Africa. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study using mixed-method design where we used an online survey with two open-ended questions. Perception about GBV Prevention among Employees (GBVPREV) questionnaire consisting of six Sect. (43 questions) was developed and tested. Cronbach's alpha, Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), including Kaiser-Meyer Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) and Bartlett's test of Sphericity, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey HSD were used. Content analysis was used for analysing qualitative information from two open-ended questions. RESULTS: Among the 2 270 employees, more than half (68.1%) were females. Males were 677 (29.8%), and members of the LGBTQIAP + community were 32 (1.4%). There were statistically significant differences among males, females, and LGBTQIAP + on employee knowledge of adult experiences, employee knowledge of violence against children, employee perceptions, employee beliefs, and employee opinions and recommendations. The employees believe that all sectors of society should collaborate in addressing GBV in South Africa. They felt that victims should be encouraged to come forward, that society should be less judgemental, that stigma should be addressed and that there should be more empathy for victims. CONCLUSION: Most of the respondents, who were female and had tertiary education, were employed in the private sector, and were very aware of the prevalence of GBV in South Africa, agreed that support for both victims and perpetrators must be provided in private sector organizations. Even though it has been acknowledged for decades that gender inequality and GBV are reciprocal drivers, the persistence of both human rights violations will continue if all stakeholders do not collaborate.

Effect of the coronavirus pandemic on nutrition and health of adults in Calabar, Nigeria: A post-lockdown analysis.

Background: The food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world is currently being threatened by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, an evolving health crisis. Aim: To evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on nutrition and health of adults in Calabar, especially after the hard lockdown. Setting: Online cross-sectional survey in Calabar, Nigeria. Method: After sample size determination, an online questionnaire was designed, content-validated by nutrition experts and piloted on 20 respondents. The questionnaire link was circulated for 6 weeks (April-May, 2021). The questionnaire was structured to gather socio-economic data, lifestyles of the participants (especially younger adults) and changes in dietary intake and health. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation were used to define the proportion of responses for each question and check for association. Results: No glaring nutrition or health problems was observed in the surveyed population (385 respondents), but many (50%) earned very low monthly income (< 50 000 naira). A drop in finances seemed to have indirectly caused a decrease in food consumption post-lockdown. A strong association between age and health risks was observed; similarly, alcohol intake was significantly affected by income and age. Conclusion: The pandemic caused many changes in people's dietary habits and lifestyles, including financial setbacks. Apparently, education and proper enlightenment play a major role in food choices (despite limited resources), thus ensuring adequate nutrition and reducing health risks in the face of a pandemic. Contribution: This study has affirmed the efficacy of nutrition education and proper awareness in ensuring healthy dietary choices, optimal health and reduced risks of diseases.

Modelling of South African Hypertension: Application of Panel Quantile Regression.

Hypertension is one of the crucial risk factors for morbidity and mortality around the world, and South Africa has a significant unmet need for hypertension care. This study aims to establish the potential risk factors of hypertension amongst adults in South Africa attributable to high systolic and diastolic blood pressure over time by fitting panel quantile regression models. Data obtained from the South African National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Household Surveys carried out from 2008 to 2018 (Wave 1 to Wave 5) was employed to develop both the fixed effects and random effects panel quantile regression models. Age, BMI, gender (males), race, exercises, cigarette consumption, and employment status were significantly associated with either one of the BP measures across all the upper quantiles or at the 75th quantile only. Suggesting that these risk factors have contributed to the exacerbation of uncontrolled hypertension prevalence over time in South Africa.

Modelling of South African Hypertension: Comparative Analysis of the Classical and Bayesian Quantile Regression Approaches.

Hypertension has become a major public health challenge and a crucial area of research due to its high prevalence across the world including the sub-Saharan Africa. No previous study in South Africa has investigated the impact of blood pressure risk factors on different specific conditional quantile functions of systolic and diastolic blood pressure using Bayesian quantile regression. Therefore, this study presents a comparative analysis of the classical and Bayesian inference techniques to quantile regression. Both classical and Bayesian inference techniques were demonstrated on a sample of secondary data obtained from South African National Income Dynamics Study (2017-2018). Age, BMI, gender male, cigarette consumption and exercises presented statistically significant associations with both SBP and DBP across all the upper quantiles (τ∈{0.75,0.95}). The white noise phenomenon was observed on the diagnostic tests of convergence used in the study. Results suggested that the Bayesian approach to quantile regression reveals more precise estimates than the frequentist approach due to narrower width of the 95% credible intervals than the width of the 95% confidence intervals. It is therefore suggested that Bayesian approach to quantile regression modelling to be used to estimate hypertension.