Who cares? Implications of care-giving and -receiving by HIV-infected or -affected older people on functional disability and emotional wellbeing.

This paper examines how care-giving to adults and/or children and care-receiving is associated with the health and wellbeing of older people aged 50+ in rural South Africa. Data used are from a cross-sectional survey adapted from World Health Organization's Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) conducted in 2009/10 in rural South Africa. Bivariate statistics and multivariate logistical regression were used to assess the relationship between care-giving and/or care-receiving with functional disability, quality of life or emotional wellbeing, and self-rated health status, adjusted for socio-demographic factors. Sixty-three per cent of 422 older people were care-givers to at least one young adult or child; 27 per cent of older people were care-givers due to HIV-related reasons in young adults; 84 per cent of participants were care-recipients mainly from adult children, grandchildren and spouse. In logistic regressions adjusting for sex, age, marital status, education, receipt of grants, household headship, household wealth and HIV status, care-giving was statistically significantly associated with good functional ability as measured by ability to perform activities of daily living. This relationship was stronger for older people providing care-giving to adults than to children. In contrast, care-givers were less likely to report good emotional wellbeing; again the relationship was stronger for care-givers to adults than children. Simultaneous care-giving and -receiving was likewise associated with good functional ability, but about a 47 per cent lower chance of good emotional wellbeing. Participants who were HIV-infected were more likely to be in better health but less likely to be receiving care than those who were HIV-affected. Our findings suggest a strong relationship between care-giving and poor emotional wellbeing via an economic or psychological stressor pathway. Interventions that improve older people's socio-economic circumstances and reduce financial hardship as well as those that provide social support would go some way towards mitigating this relationship.

Translating global health research aims into action: the example of the ALPHA network.

There is increasing consensus on the importance of strengthening global health research to meet health and development goals. Three key global health research aims are to ensure that research (i) addresses priority health needs, (ii) contributes to policy development, and (iii) adds value to investments in developing countries through South-South collaboration and capacity-strengthening in the South. The ALPHA network (Analysing Longitudinal Population-based HIV/AIDS data on Africa) is an illustrative example of how these global health research aims can be translated into action. The network facilitates additional collaborative HIV epidemiological research among six independent research projects in Africa studying population-based cohorts. Under the first of the earlier mentioned aims, the network addresses key epidemiology research issues in HIV/AIDS which are crucial to making progress and monitoring progress in the response against HIV/AIDS. Under the second aim, the network's scientific programme of research has contributed to strengthening the evidence base on HIV epidemiology in Africa and has informed policy development in areas such as targeted HIV prevention, social support, monitoring epidemic response and epidemic forecasting. Under the third aim, investment in the network has added value to the research investment in the individual projects through capacity development among African researchers as well as through the collaborative research outputs of the individual projects. Lessons from the network are relevant to collaborations facing similar challenges in other areas of global health research. These include the importance of establishing transparent and efficient governance for research collaborations, developing advance consensus on data sharing, ensuring effective communication for networking and demonstrating the added value of research investment in South-South collaborations.

Age at first sex in rural South Africa.

OBJECTIVES: To identify factors associated with sexual debut and early age at first sex (AFS) among young men and women (12-25 years) in a population with a high prevalence and incidence of HIV in rural South Africa. METHODS: Longitudinal data from four rounds (2003-7) of a prospective population-based HIV and sexual behaviour survey in rural KwaZulu-Natal were used to investigate the distribution and predictors of earlier first sex. Survival analyses were used, and each analysis considered men and women separately. RESULTS: Among the 4724 women and 4029 men who were virgins at the beginning of the period, the median AFS was 18.5 and 19.2 years, respectively. In multivariable models, factors associated with earlier AFS across gender were periurban residence (vs rural), ever use of alcohol and knowing at least one person who had HIV, while school attendance had a significant protective effect. Other factors were important for one gender only. Maternal death was significantly associated with earlier AFS for women, in the same way that paternal death was for young men, while mother's membership of the same household significantly delayed AFS of young men. The analysis of early first sex confirmed the same factors to be important as in the overall analyses for men and women. CONCLUSION: Given the association of individual, household and community level factors with sexual debut, a multisectorial approach to prevention and targeting in youth programmes is recommended.

Reported number of sexual partners: comparison of data from four African longitudinal studies.

OBJECTIVE: To compare reported numbers of sexual partners in Eastern and Southern Africa. METHODS: Sexual partnership data from four longitudinal population-based surveys (1998-2007) in Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa were aggregated and overall proportions reporting more than one lifetime sexual partner calculated. A lexis-style table was used to illustrate the average lifetime sexual partners by site, sex, age group and birth cohort. The male-to-female ratio of mean number of partnerships in the last 12 months was calculated by site and survey. For each single year of age, the proportion sexually active in the past year, the mean number of partners in the past year and the proportion with more than one partner in the past year were calculated. RESULTS: Over 90% of men and women between 25 and 45 years of age reported being sexually active during the past 12 months, with most reporting at least one sexual partner. Overall, men reported higher numbers of lifetime sexual partners and partners in the last year than women. The male-to-female ratio of mean partnerships in the last year ranged from 1.41 to 1.86. In southern African cohorts, individuals in later birth cohorts reported fewer sexual partners and a lower proportion reported multiple partnerships compared with earlier birth cohorts, whereas these behavioural changes were not observed in the Ugandan cohorts. Across the four sites, reports of sexual partnerships followed a similar pattern for each sex. CONCLUSIONS: The longitudinal results show that reductions in the number of partnerships were more evident in southern Africa than in Uganda.

Low effectiveness of syndromic treatment services for curable sexually transmitted infections in rural South Africa.

OBJECTIVES: Syndromic sexually transmitted infection (STI) treatment remains a cost-saving HIV prevention intervention in many countries in Africa. We estimate the effectiveness of syndromic treatment for curable STIs in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and the trend in STI prevalences before and after the introduction of syndromic treatment in 1995. METHODS: Data were available from various clinical studies, surveys of public and private health providers, the general population and women attending antenatal, family planning and child immunisation clinics in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal between 1987 and 2004. Overall effectiveness was defined as the estimated proportion of the annual number of symptomatic curable STI episodes cured by syndromic treatment based on separate estimates for six curable STI aetiologies by gender. RESULTS: Median overall effectiveness was 13.1% (95% CI 8.9 to 17.8%) of symptomatic curable STI episodes cured. Effectiveness increased to 25.0% (95% CI 17.3 to 33.8%), 47.6% (95% CI 44.5 to 50.8%) or 14.3% (95% CI 9.9 to 19.4%) if 100% treatment seeking, 100% correct treatment provision or 100% cure were assumed, respectively. Time-trends were difficult to assess formally but there was little evidence of decreasing STI prevalences. Including incurable but treatable herpes simplex virus (HSV)-2 ulcers in the effectiveness calculation would halve the proportion of ulcers cured or correctly treated, but this reduction could be entirely countered by including episodic antiviral treatment in the national guidelines. CONCLUSION: Overall effectiveness of syndromic treatment for curable STIs in rural KwaZulu-Natal remains low and there is little evidence of reduced curable STI prevalences. As syndromic treatment is likely to be a cost-saving HIV prevention intervention in South Africa, innovative strategies are urgently needed to increase rates of treatment seeking and correct treatment provision.

New approaches to spatially analyse primary health care usage patterns in rural South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: To develop indices to quantitatively assess and understand the spatial usage patterns of health facilities in the Hlabisa district of South Africa. METHODOLOGY: We mapped and interviewed more than 23 000 homesteads (approximately 200 000 people) in Hlabisa district, South Africa and spatially analysed their modal primary health usage patterns using a geographical information system. We generated contour maps of health service use and quantified the relationship between clinic catchments and distance-defined catchments using inclusion and exclusion error. We propose the distance usage index (DUI) as an overall spatial measure of clinic usage. This index is the sum of the distances from clinic to all client homesteads divided by the sum of the distances from clinic to all homesteads within its distance-defined catchment. The index encompasses inclusion, exclusion, and strength of patient attraction for each clinic. RESULTS: Eighty-seven per cent of homesteads use the nearest clinic. Residents of homesteads travel an average Euclidean distance of 4.72 km to attend clinics. There is a significant logarithmic relationship between distance from clinic and their use by homesteads (r(2)=0.774, P < 0.0001). The DUI values range between 31 and 198% (mean=110%, SD=43.7) for 12 clinics and highlight clinic usage patterns across the district. CONCLUSIONS: The DUI is a powerful and informative composite measure of clinic usage. The results of the study have important implications for health care provision in developing countries.