Browsing by Author "Shane A. Norris"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Consensus study on factors influencing the academic entrepreneur in a middle-income country’s university enterprise
    (2023-05-20) Alfred Austin Farrell; James Ashton; WitnessMapanga; Maureen Joffe; Nombulelo Chitha; Mags Beksinska; Wezile Chitha; Ashraf Coovadia; Clare L. Cutland; RobinL. Drennan; Kathleen Kahn; Lizette L. Koekemoer; Lisa K.Micklesfield; JacquiMiot; Julian Naidoo; Maria Papathanasopoulos; Warrick Sive; Jenni Smit; StephenM. Tollman; Martin G. Veller; Lisa J.Ware; Jeffrey Wing; Shane A. Norris
    Purpose – This study aims to ascertain the personal characteristics of a group of successful academic entrepreneurs in a South African university enterprise and the prevalent barriers and enablers to their entrepreneurial endeavour. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a Delphi process to identify and rank the characteristics, enablers, barriers and behaviours of entrepreneurial academics, with a Nominal Group Technique applied to establish challenges they encounter managing their enterprise and to propose solutions. Findings – Perseverance, resilience and innovation are critical personal characteristics, while collaborative networks, efficient research infrastructure and established research competence are essential for success. The university’s support for entrepreneurship is a significant enabler, with unnecessary bureaucracy and poor access to project and general enterprise funding an impediment. Successful academic entrepreneurs have strong leadership, and effective management and communication skills. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is the small study participant group drawn from a single university enterprise, which complicates generalisability. The study supported the use of Krueger’s (2009) entrepreneurial intentions model for low- and middle-income country (LMIC) academic entrepreneur investigation but proposed the inclusion of mitigators to entrepreneurial activation to recognize contextual deficiencies and challenges.
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    Genomic and environmental risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases in Africa: methods used for Phase 1 of the AWI-Gen population cross-sectional study
    (2018-07-12) Stuart A. Al; Cassandra Soo; Godfred Agongo; Marianne Alberts; Lucas Amenga-Etego; Romuald P. Boua; Ananyo Choudhury; Nigel J. Crowther; Cornelius Depuur; F. Xavier GómezOlivé; Issa Guiraud; Tilahun N. Haregu; Scott Hazelhurst; Kathleen Kahn; Christopher Khayeka-Wandabwa; Catherine Kyobutung; Zané Lombard; Felistas Mashinya; Lisa Micklesfield; Shukri F. Mohamed; Freedom Mukomana; Seydou Nakanabo-Diallo; Hamtandi M. Natama; Nicholas Ngomi; Engelbert A. Nonterah; Shane A. Norris; Abraham R. Oduro; Athanase M. Somé; Hermann Sorgho; Paulina Tindana; Halidou Tinto; Stephen Tollman; Rhian Twine; Alisha Wade; Osman Sankoh; Michèle Ramsay
    There is an alarming tide of cardiovascular and metabolic disease (CMD) sweeping across Africa. This may be a result of an increasingly urbanized lifestyle characterized by the growing consumption of processed and calorie-dense food, combined with physical inactivity and more sedentary behaviour. While the link between lifestyle and public health has been extensively studied in Caucasian and African American populations, few studies have been conducted in Africa. This paper describes the detailed methods for Phase 1 of the AWI-Gen study that were used to capture phenotype data and assess the associated risk factors and end points for CMD in persons over the age of 40 years in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We developed a population-based cross-sectional study of disease burden and phenotype in Africans, across six centres in SSA. These centres are in West Africa (Nanoro, Burkina Faso, and Navrongo, Ghana), in East Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) and in South Africa (Agincourt, Dikgale and Soweto). A total of 10,702 individuals between the ages of 40 and 60 years were recruited into the study across the six centres, plus an additional 1021 participants over the age of 60 years from the Agincourt centre. We collected socio-demographic, anthropometric, medical history, diet, physical activity, fat distribution and alcohol/tobacco consumption data from participants. Blood samples were collected for disease-related biomarker assays, and genomic DNA extraction for genome-wide association studies. Urine samples were collected to assess kidney function. The study provides base-line data for the development of a series of cohorts with a second wave of data collection in Phase 2 of the study. These data will provide valuable insights into the genetic and environmental influences on CMD on the African continent
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    Meta-analysis of sub-Saharan African studies provides insights into genetic architecture of lipid traits
    (2022-05-11) Ananyo Choudhury; Jean-Tristan Brandenburg; Tinashe Chikowore; Dhriti Sengupta; Palwende Romuald Boua; Nigel J. Crowther; Godfred Agongo; Gershim Asik; F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé; Isaac Kisiangani; Eric Maimela; Matshane Masemola-Maphutha; Lisa K. Micklesfield; Engelbert A. Nonterah; Shane A. Norris; Hermann Sorgho; Halidou Tinto; Stephen Tollman; Sarah E. Graham; Cristen J. Willer; AWI-Gen study; H3Africa Consortium; Scott Hazelhurst; Michèle Ramsay
    Genetic associations for lipid traits have identified hundreds of variants with clear differences across European, Asian and African studies. Based on a sub-Saharan-African GWAS for lipid traits in the population cross-sectional AWI-Gen cohort (N = 10,603) we report a novel LDL-C association in the GATB region (P-value=1.56 × 10−8). Meta-analysis with four other African cohorts (N = 23,718) provides supporting evidence for the LDL-C association with the GATB/FHIP1A region and identifies a novel triglyceride association signal close to the FHIT gene (P-value =2.66 × 10−8). Our data enable fine-mapping of several well-known lipid-trait loci including LDLR, PMFBP1 and LPA. The transferability of signals detected in two large global studies (GLGC and PAGE) consistently improves with an increase in the size of the African replication cohort. Polygenic risk score analysis shows increased predictive accuracy for LDL-C levels with the narrowing of genetic distance between the discovery dataset and our cohort. Novel discovery is enhanced with the inclusion of African data.
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    Obesity, hypertension, and tobacco use associated with left ventricular remodeling and hypertrophy in South African women: Birth to Twenty Plus Cohort
    (2022) Andrea Kolkenbeck‑Ruh; Larske M. Soepnel; Simone H. Crouch; Sanushka Naidoo; Wayne Smith; Shane A. Norris; Justine Davies; Lisa J. Ware
    Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a marker of increased risk in developing future life-threatening cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, it is unclear how CVD risk factors, such as obesity, blood pressure (BP), and tobacco use, are associated with left ventricular (LV) remodeling and LVH in urban African populations. Therefore, we aimed to identify the prevalence of LVH as well as the health factors associated with LV remodeling and LVH, within black South African adult women and their pre-pubescent children. Methods: Black female adults (n=123; age: 29–68 years) and their children (n=64; age: 4–10; 55% female) were recruited from the Birth to Twenty Plus Cohort in Soweto, South Africa. Tobacco and alcohol use, physical activity, presence of diabetes mellitus, heart disease, and medication were self-reported. Height, weight, and blood pressure were measured in triplicate to determine the prevalence of obesity and hypertension respectively. Echocardiogra‑ phy was used to assess LV mass at end-diastole, based on linear measurements, and indexed to body surface area to determine LVH. Results: Hypertension and obesity prevalences were 35.8% and 59.3% for adults and 45.3% and 6.3% for children. Self-reported tobacco use in adults was 22.8%. LVH prevalence was 35.8% in adults (75% eccentric: 25% concentric), and 6.3% in children. Concentric remodeling was observed in 15.4% of adults, however, concentric remodeling was only found in one child. In adults, obesity [OR: 2.54 (1.07–6.02; p=0.02)] and hypertension [3.39 (1.08–10.62; p=0.04)] signifcantly increased the odds of LVH, specifcally eccentric LVH, while concentric LVH was associated with selfreported tobacco use [OR: 4.58 (1.18–17.73; p=0.03)]. Although no logistic regression was run within children, of the four children LVH, three had elevated blood pressure and the child with normal blood pressure was overweight. Conclusions: The association between obesity, hypertension, tobacco use, and LVH in adults, and the 6% prevalence of LVH in children, calls for stronger public health eforts to control risk factors and monitor children who are at risk.
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    Physical Activity and Its Association With Body Mass Index: A Cross-Sectional Analysis in Middle-Aged Adults From 4 Sub-Saharan African Countries
    (2023-08-17) Monica Mut; Lisa J. Ware; Lisa K. Micklesfield; Michele Ramsay; Godfred Agongo; Palwende R. Boua; Isaac Kisiangani; Ian Cook; Francesc Xavier Go´mez-Olivé; Nigel J. Crowther; Chodziwadziwa Kabudula; Shane A. Norris; Tinashe Chikowore
    Background: This study aimed to explore association of self-reported physical activity domains of work, leisure, and transport-related physical activity and body mass index (BMI) in 9388 adult men and women from the Africa-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic (AWI-Gen) study in Africa. Africa-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic is a large, population-based cross-sectional cohort with participants from 6 sites from rural and urban areas in 4 sub-Saharan African countries. Methods: A sex-stratified meta-analysis of cross-sectional data from men and women aged 29–82 years was used to assess the association of physical activity with BMI. Results: Overall, meeting physical activity guidelines of at least 150 minutes per week was associated with 0.82 kg/m2 lower BMI in men (β = −0.80 kg/m2 ; 95% confidence interval [CI], −1.14 to −0.47) and 0.68 kg/m2 lower BMI in women (β = −0.68 kg/m2 ; 95% CI, −1.03 to −0.33). Sex and site-specific differences were observed in the associations between physical activity domains and BMI. Among those who met physical activity guidelines, there was an inverse association between transport-related physical activity and BMI in men from Nanoro (Burkina Faso) (β = −0.79 kg/m2 ; 95% CI, −1.25 to −0.33) as well as work-related physical activity and BMI in Navrongo men (Ghana) (β = −0.76 kg/m2 ; 95% CI, −1.25 to −0.27) and Nanoro women (β = −0.90 kg/m2 ; 95% CI, −1.44 to −0.36). Conclusions: Physical activity may be an effective strategy to curb rising obesity in Africa. More studies are needed to assess the impact of sex and geographic location-specific physical activity interventions on obesity.