Faculty of Health Sciences

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    Variation by Geographic Scale in the Migration-Environment Association: Evidence from Rural South Africa
    (Federal Institute for Population Research, 2017) Hunter, L.M.; Leyk, S.; Maclaurin, G.J.; Nawrotzki, R.; Twine, W.; Erasmus, B.F.N.; Collinson, M.
    Scholarly understanding of human migration’s environmental dimensions has greatly advanced in the past several years, motivated in large part by public and policy dialogue around “climate migrants”. The research presented here advances current demographic scholarship both through its substantive interpretations and conclusions, as well as its methodological approach. We examine temporary rural South African outmigration as related to household-level availability of proximate natural resources. Such “natural capital” is central to livelihoods in the region, both for sustenance and as materials for market-bound products. The results demonstrate that the association between local environmental resource availability and outmigration is, in general, positive: households with higher levels of proximate natural capital are more likely to engage in temporary migration. In this way, the general findings support the “environmental surplus” hypothesis that resource security provides a foundation from which households can invest in migration as a livelihood strategy. Such insight stands in contrast to popular dialogue, which tends to view migration as a last resort undertaken only by the most vulnerable households. As another important insight, our findings demonstrate important spatial variation, complicating attempts to generalize migration-environment findings across spatial scales. In our rural South African study site, the positive association between migration and proximate resources is actually highly localized, varying from strongly positive in some villages to strongly negative in others. We explore the socio-demographic factors underlying this “operational scale sensitivity”. The cross-scale methodologies applied here offer nuance unavailable within more commonly used global regression models, although also introducing complexity that complicates story-telling and inhibits generalizability.
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    Social class, parents' education and dental caries in 3- to 5-year-old children
    (1990) Chosack, A.; Cleaton-Jones, P.; Matejka, J.; et al
    The caries prevalence of 1273-, 4- and 5-y-old white children was determined with mirror and probe under natural light at mother and child clinics. The social class of the family, the educational level of the mother and that of the father were determined from a questionnaire filled in by the accompanying adult at the time of examination. Both social class and parent's education had a statistically significant influence on the caries prevalence: those in the lower social classes and with parents without tertiary education had a much higher prevalence of caries
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    Desegregating health statistics and health research in South Africa
    (1997) Walker, A. R. P.; Sitas, F.; Cleaton-Jones, P. E.; et al
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    Dental caries in 11-year-old Indians in four religious groups
    (1990) Dockrat, M.; Cleaton-Jones, P.
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    Permanent denition caries in KwaZulu and Namibia 11-year-olds
    (1990) Hargreaves, J. A.; Cleaton-Jones, P.; Matejka, J.; et al
    The permanent dentitions of 11-year-old children in Namibia (n = 295) and KwaZulu (n = 308) living in rural and urban areas were examined using WHO caries diagnostic criteria. In low fluoride areas (less than 0.15 ppmF) significantly more caries was present in rural compared to urban KwaZulu but the prevalences in rural and urban Namibia were similar although significantly higher than in an area with 1.56ppmF in the drinking water. There was significantly more caries in rural Namibia than KwaZulu but the urban prevalences in both regions were similar. It is suggested that the urban findings are useful predictors for the needs of 11-year-old black children but local baseline surveys should be undertaken before considering dental programmes, treatment or preventive, for different rural communities in South Africa.
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    Analysis of attendance rates at Soweto dental clinics 1995 - 2002
    (2004) Harkison, B. N.; Cleaton-Jones, P. E.
    BACKGROUND: Patient attendance rates at Soweto dental clinics increased during the year after the implementation of free primary oral health care in 1995. OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to examine if the attendance rates continued to increase between April 1995 and March 2002. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Monthly clinic records were used to record casual (pain and sepsis treatment) and booked patient attendance (restorative, prosthetic and orthodontic treatment) and number of dental operators in the nine primary health care clinics and one hospital clinic in Soweto. Data were analysed with SAS and Prism software. RESULTS: Total patient attendances in the primary health care clinics significantly increased from 6,161 in 1995 to 10,519 in 2002 (P<0.05) due to an increase in casual patients Booked patients decreased and patients treated per operator increased. In the hospital clinic the casual patient attendances decreased but booked patients significantly increased (P<0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Patient attendance rates increased between 1995 and 2002 with an increase in dental operator workload.
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    Oral glucose clearance in 12-year-old South Africans
    (1997) Lowe, L. G.; Cleaton-Jones, P. E.; Smit, A. M.
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    Virodene — support misguided
    (1997) Kalk, W. J.; Cleaton-Jones, P. E.; Allwood, C. W.; et al
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    Social accountability and nursing education in South Africa
    (2015) Armstrong, S.J; Rispel, L.C
    BACKGROUND: There is global emphasis on transforming health workforce education in support of universal health coverage. OBJECTIVE: This paper uses a social accountability framework, specifically the World Health Organization's six building blocks for transformative education, to explore key informants' perspectives on nursing education in South Africa. METHODS: Using a snowballing sampling technique, 44 key informants were selected purposively on the basis of their expertise or knowledge of the research area. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key informants after informed consent had been obtained. The interviews were analysed using template analysis. RESULTS: South Africa has strategic plans on human resources for health and nursing education, training, and practice and has a well-established system of regulation and accreditation of nursing education through the South African Nursing Council (SANC). Key informants criticised the following: the lack of national staffing norms; sub-optimal governance by both the SANC and the Department of Health; outdated curricula that are unresponsive to population and health system needs; lack of preparedness of nurse educators; and the unsuitability of the majority of nursing students. These problems are exacerbated by a perceived lack of prioritisation of nursing, resource constraints in both the nursing education institutions and the health training facilities, and general implementation inertia. CONCLUSION: Social accountability, which is an essential component of transformative education, necessitates that attention be paid to the issues of governance, responsive curricula, educator preparedness, and appropriate student recruitment and selection.