Not everyone can afford an apple a day: stigma and food insecurity in rural South African young adults.

The HIV epidemic in South Africa has created a generation of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs). Little is known about the experiences of these "former" OVCs once they pass their 18th birthday. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the experiences of food insecurity for rural South African young adults. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews with 11 men and 9 women aged 18-25, and 2 focus group discussions. Many ate a single meal a day provided by the school feeding scheme or by friends. Despite this, nearly all participants emphasised the emotional and social, rather than the physical, tolls of food insecurity. These experiences of social shame predominantly stem from instrumental stigma - the perception within the broader community that because these former OVCs lived in relative poverty they would not be able to contribute to the web of community ties which function as a social safety net. Interventions designed to support former OVCs must focus on building social capital and supporting emotional resiliency in addition to providing material support.

The relationship between the Ottawa Valve Collapse Scale (OVCS) and clinical outcomes in septoplasty patients.

The Ottawa Valve Collapse scale (OVCS) was developed to classify the severity of nasal valve collapse (NVC) in patients with nasal obstruction. The goal of this study was to determine, in patients who have nasal obstruction due to a septal deviation, whether those with a higher OVCS grade will have a reduced improvement in patient-centered clinical outcomes at one-year following septoplasty with inferior turbinate diathermy compared to those with a normal or lower OVCS grade. This study was a prospective study of 78 patients who completed an assessment using the NOSE questionnaire before and at one-year following the surgical intervention. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to asses for differences in scores between OVCS groups. There was a significant improvement in NOSE scores one year post-septoplasty (p < 0.01). There was no difference in NOSE score improvement when comparing the grades of the OVCS at one-year (F = 0.09, p = 0.968). Though the OVCS was designed to categorize the severity of NVC preoperatively, there is no evidence that it is helpful in predicting which patients will demonstrate poor results following septoplasty. Future studies are required to further evaluate the OVCS and whether complimentary assessments will improve its clinical utility.