Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: Tuberculosis (TB) poses a major public health challenge in South Africa and in the Northern Cape Province. The province has the third highest in TB incidence rate in the country. Poor adherence to TB treatment impacts negatively on treatment outcomes. Siyanda district in the Northern Cape Province has the second highest number of TB defaulters in the province despite the fact that 79.9% of these patients are on Community Based Direct Observation of Treatment (CBDOT). Aim: To explore the reasons for defaulting of TB patients from TB treatment in the CBDOT Programme in the Siyanda district, Northern Cape Province Study design: This was a qualitative exploratory study. Study population and sampling: Two TB nurses with varying years of experience in the TB Control Programme serving as key informants were selected from the participating facilities in the study area. Ten TB defaulters who were on the CBDOT programme were selected from the Electronic TB Register. Two focus group discussions (FGDs) comprising of purposively selected DOT Supporters (five in one group and six in the other) from different NGOs in the community were selected for maximum variation. Data collection: Key informant interviews were conducted with the TB nurses. Records of all defaulters in the study population were reviewed including clinic progress notes and patient TB treatment cards. In-depth interviews were conducted with the TB patients. FGDs were conducted with DOT supporters. Analysis: Analysis commenced simultaneously with collection of data. This enabled the researcher to continuously review and reflect on the data collected. Thematic content analysis was done.Categories emerged through the inductive process of the data analysis. Notes that were kept during data collection, reflections, audiotapes and transcripts were used to support the thick description of the findings. Results: The participants generally appreciated the programme and mostly had a good relationship with the DOT supporters. However, the quality of care exacerbated by inadequate health services such as lack of adherence counselling training of health professionals, low levels of education amongst TB defaulters, were found to be major contributory factors to TB defaulting. The patients interrupted treatment several times before defaulting, were not counselled during the interruption phase and understood TB messages differently. TB defaulters in the Siyanda District face socio economic challenges which include alcohol abuse, a major historic ill in the district and the grape farming community in the region. The impact of the disability grant on TB treatment adherence remains anecdotal and requires further research as TB defaulters did not admit to defaulting so that they could continue benefiting from the disability grant although these statements were refuted by the DOT supporters and key informants. The attitude of employers and fear of losing employment were also contributing factors. Conclusion and recommendations: It has become evident that TB in the Siyanda District is a public health issue. The predominantly rural, impoverished and transient community that moves to the farms to seek employment requires a CBDOT programme that will address pertinent challenges in the district to achieve a positive reduction in the TB defaulter rate. It will require collaboration with stakeholders including farmers, to address the challenges posed by the disease. Improved staff allocation, staff capacity development and community education are also recommended to improve quality of care.

The aim of the diploma thesis is a description of accreditational process in health care facility, namely in a medical institution, finding of potentional problems by accreditational standards implementing and the influence of accredidation on health care quality in health care facility.

Le taux de décès par suicide augmente avec l’âge dans la plupart des pays du monde, en particulier pour les hommes. En revanche, la prévalence des tentatives de suicide (TS) et des idées suicidaires parmi les personnes âgées est moindre que dans les autres classes d’âge. Les facteurs associés au décès par suicide dans la population générale sont surtout les troubles psychiatriques, y-compris les troubles de l’usage de substances, et les antécédents de TS. En ce qui concerne les personnes âgées, on peut y ajouter des facteurs spécifiques, comme l’isolement, les maladies et douleurs chroniques, ou la perte d’autonomie. La démence ne semble en revanche pas constituer un facteur de risque. Les mesures de prévention du suicide les mieux établies sont basées sur la restriction de l’accès aux moyens, le traitement des troubles psychiatriques et les systèmes de maintien d’un suivi après TS. La formation de sentinelles (« gatekeepers ») est une mesure réputée efficace mais qui n’a pas été évaluée indépendamment d’autres interventions avec un bon niveau de preuve. Des interventions s’adressant aux personnes âgées vivant dans la communauté ont également été développées mais leur efficacité sur les comportements suicidaires a rarement été évaluée avec un bon niveau de preuve. En France, comme dans la plupart des pays européens, environ 10 % des personnes de plus de 75 ans et le tiers des plus de 90 ans vivent dans des établissements hébergeant des personnes âgées (EHPA). Les études actuelles ne permettent pas de dire si le fait d’être institutionnalisé augmente le risque suicidaire, déjà très élevé dans ces classes d’âge. Les EHPA ou EHPAD (Établissement d’Hébergement pour Personnes Âgées Dépendantes) pourraient malgré tout constituer un terrain de choix pour valider des interventions visant à diminuer le risque suicidaire parmi les personnes âgées. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous présentons en premier lieu une revue systématique de la littérature portant sur les interventions visant à diminuer le risque suicidaire en EHPA. Nous n’avons retrouvé dans la littérature que six articles, dont quatre portent sur l’évaluation de la formation de sentinelles parmi le personnel. Aucune étude ne présente l’impact des interventions sur les comportements suicidaires. Nous exposons en deuxième lieu une étude visant à mieux évaluer au cours d’un suivi d’un an, les effets de la formation de sentinelles parmi le personnel de douze EHPAD du département du Rhône par comparaison à douze autres dans lesquels aucune formation particulière sur ce sujet n’avait été menée. Nous montrons que la formation de sentinelles a des impacts très larges, amenant les institutions à développer des stratégies de prévention multimodales et à modifier la prise en charge des résidents suicidaires. Cependant, les résultats sont hétérogènes selon le contexte institutionnel. En dernier lieu, nous proposons une étude qualitative menée auprès de membres du personnel de trois EHPAD visant à analyser les représentations sociales qu’ont ces personnes du suicide des personnes âgées. Nous montrons que ces représentations sont similaires à celles de la population générale et tendent à légitimer et banaliser le suicide des personnes âgées. En conclusion, nous proposons plusieurs pistes de recherche. L’une d’entre elles consisterait à évaluer de manière rétrospective les taux de décès et de TS dans un grand nombre d’EHPA, par exemple sur l’ensemble d’une région, afin que cette évaluation puisse servir de comparaison avec les personnes non-institutionnalisées et surtout de base afin de mesurer l’efficacité d’un programme multimodal de prévention du suicide dans certains EHPAD. Par ailleurs, nous proposons de mieux cerner les facteurs associés aux suicides ou aux TS parmi les résidents d’EHPAD par l’étude exhaustive des données issues du dossier médical et des transmissions infirmières, bien plus riches que pour des personnes non-institutionnalisées / Suicide death rates are increasing with age in most countries worldwide, especially for men. On the contrary, Suicide attempts (SA) and suicidal ideations seem less prevalent in the elderly than in other age groups. Factors associated with death by suicide in the general population are mainly psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders, and a history of SA. As far as the elderly are concerned, other specific factors play a role, such as loneliness, low social connectedness, physical illness, chronic pain or functional disability. Dementia does not seem to be a factor associated with suicide risk. Evidence based suicide prevention strategies are centred on restricting access to means of suicide, treating psychiatric disorders, and chain of care strategies after SA. Gatekeeper training, though deemed effective, has not been evaluated independently from other strategies and requires further investigations. Interventions targeting the elderly have also been proposed but their effect on suicidal behaviours has not been evaluated with a good level of evidence. In France, as in most European countries, about 10% of elderly aged 75 and over, and a third of those aged 90 and over live in nursing homes. The current scientific literature is still inconclusive on whether living in a nursing home is increasing or decreasing the suicide risk for the elderly, which is already very high. Nursing homes could nonetheless be a setting of choice to study suicide prevention interventions targeting the elderly. In this doctoral thesis, we first propose a systematic review of the scientific literature describing suicide prevention interventions in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. We could include only six studies, four of which evaluate gatekeeper training for the nursing homes staff. We found no study evaluating the impact of interventions on suicidal behaviours. In a second study, we assessed during a one-year follow-up, the impact of gatekeeper training among the staff of twelve nursing homes in the Rhône département compared to twelve others where no specific training on suicidal risk had been organized. We show that gatekeeper training can have broad impacts, leading nursing homes to implement multi-level prevention programmes and improving the way suicidal residents are taken care of. Yet, results are heterogeneous across nursing homes, depending mainly on the institution’s context. In a last study, we used a qualitative study design to assess the social representations that nursing homes employees have on the suicide of elderly people. We show that these social representations are similar to those in the general populations, which are inclined to justify and accept elderly suicide. As a conclusion, we detail some proposals for future research. The first would be to assess retrospectively the number of suicide and SA in a large number of nursing homes, enabling us to compare with elderly suicide and SA rates in the community, and above all to set a baseline for comparing suicide et and SA rates before and after implementing multilevel suicide prevention strategies in some of these nursing homes. The second study could take advantage of the numerous medical and paramedical data collected daily in the nursing homes to better understand factors associated with suicides and SA in the elderly

Der Umgang mit möglicher Selbstgefährdung demenzerkrankter Bewohner durch das selbständige Verlassen des Wohnbereichs wird in Altenpflegeeinrichtungen häufig und kontrovers diskutiert. In dieser Studie wurde untersucht, ob eine milieutherapeutische Intervention in Form eines Vorhangs vor der Ausgangstür die Bewohner am Verlassen des Wohnbereichs hindert. Das wesentliche Untersuchungsziel war es dabei zu erfassen, ob Veränderungen in Verhalten und Wohlbefinden der Bewohner zu verzeichnen sind.

This thesis acquaints the reader with specifics in health care business, it defines closely a field of influence of a medical rehabilitation and also describes a provision of health care services in the field of physiotherapy. The main goal of the thesis is to prepare basis and elaboration of the business plan for establishing of a private health care facility and an independent physiotherapeutic practise in Tachov district in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part describes the health care system in the Czech Republic, further defines medical rehabilitation and it specifies field of physiotherapy closely. At the same time in my thesis, I mentioned a theoretical basis for establishing of a company including a brief and clear instruction on how to proceed in setting up a private health care facility "step by step". In the practical part, an analysis of the internal and external environment in the area of the newly developed health care facility in Tachov district is performed. Furthermore, in this part, a SWOT analysis is processed and described, which determines the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and threats for the new enterprise. In this part of thesis it is crucial the preparation of the business plan, which takes into account demographic data, the location of health care facility and...

Esta tesis propone una solución a la problemática actual del crecimiento poblacional de los adultos mayores a nivel mundial a través de un centro de atención residencial en el distrito de San Martín de Porres. Se analizan los antecedentes de la tipología, así como referentes a tomar en cuenta para tener una investigación teórica y arquitectónica completa que nos den una visión global del proyecto. A su vez, se analizan los usuarios para la elaboración de un programa arquitectónico que cumpla con satisfacer las distintas necesidades. Se consideran los aspectos físicos y psicológicos del adulto mayor para el planteamiento de la arquitectura, eligiendo como énfasis la neuro-arquitectura, la cual evitará el deterioro cognitivo y el aislamiento de los usuarios residentes. Por consiguiente, se analizarán referentes para el énfasis, el cual nos ayudará a obtener las características que debe tener la arquitectura dentro de los distintos espacios. Finalmente, mediante la sinergia del análisis del entorno urbano, como la teoría, el programa elaborado, y el énfasis se busca brindar un espacio residencial que cuente con un área de atención médica básica el cual fomente la participación activa del adulto dentro de un entorno urbano a nivel barrial, mejorando su calidad de vida. / This thesis proposes a solution to the worldwide current problem of the elderly growing population through a residential care center in San Martín de Porres. The antecedents of the typology are analyzed, as well as references to take into to have a complete theoretical and architectural investigation that gives us a global vision of the project. At the same time, the users are analyzed to create an architectural program that meets the different needs. The physical and psychological aspects of the elderly are considered for the approach to architecture, choosing neuro-architecture as emphasis in this project, which will avoid cognitive deterioration and isolation of resident users. Consequently, references will be analyzed for this emphasis, which will help us to obtain the characteristics that architecture should have within the different spaces. Finally, through the synergy of the analysis of the urban environment, the previous theory, the elaborated program, and the emphasis we provide a residential space that has a medical care area which encourages the active participation of the adult in an urban environment. at a neighborhood level, improving their quality of life. / Trabajo de investigación

No description available.

The background and problem statement focuses on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the use of mobile technology to improve compliance within a primary health care (PHC) context in South Africa. South Africa is one of the countries, globally, with the highest HIV incidence and prevalence and ART enrolled patients visiting PHC facilities. Compliance to ART plays an integral part in effective HIV/AIDS management. HIV/AIDS management entails a complex process of patient education and pharmacological control to improve ART compliance in South Africa. Studies were done in South Africa on reminder messages as most studies focused on chronic conditions in general. A literature review explored what is known about ART and mobile technology to improve compliance. Literature confirmed that compliance through reminder messages were done worldwide and in Sub-Saharan countries. Previous research indicated that the compliance rate of the patients increased through reminder messages. Yet there is a gap in the literature regarding reminder messages combined with health education on ART compliance. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of reminder messages combined with health education on ART compliance among patients receiving ART at a PHC facility Methodology: The study followed a quantitative, experimental, intervention, randomised multi-group, pre- and post measurement design (Creswell, 2012:1, Welman et al., 2012:80). The research design is experimental because the researcher applied an intervention (reminder messages) to two experimental groups. Random sampling was applied and participants were grouped into three groups: Group A, (control group), Group B, (reminder messages only) and Group C (reminder messages combined with health education). A preand post-measurement design is followed as each participant’s pill count and return date were measured before and after the reminder messages with/without health education were given. The sample size was 202 eligible patients receiving Regime 1 and 2 ART’s (Lamuvidine, Tenofovir, Efavirenz, Nevirapine, Alluvia® and Zidovudine) at a PHC facility in the North West, South Africa (N=202). The sample size was determined with guidance of statistical services to ensure that results obtained from the study would be reliable and significant. Data collection was done in three phases. Phase one (1) consisted of collecting the biographical data and a pre-measurement of pill count and return dates for participants in Groups A, B and C. Phase two (2) consisted of sending bi-weekly messages (Group B) via WinSMS and with health education (Group C) for three (3) months. Phase three (3) consisted of post-measurement of participants’ pill count and return date for Groups A,B and C. Data collection stretched over six months (October 2013-March 2014), namely three months pre-measurement, then activation of intervention combined with another three months post-measurement. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was conducted through SPSS (SPSS Inc., 2013). Descriptive statistics indicated that more female patients visited the PHC facility for ART on a more regular basis. It was concluded that the experimental group proved a slight increase in compliance with regards to return date after the SMS intervention. No difference was noted in compliance to pill counts. It can also be concluded that pill counts is a complex monitoring procedure with room for error from the patients’ aspect. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The background and problem statement focuses on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the use of mobile technology to improve compliance within a primary health care (PHC) context in South Africa. South Africa is one of the countries, globally, with the highest HIV incidence and prevalence and ART enrolled patients visiting PHC facilities. Compliance to ART plays an integral part in effective HIV/AIDS management. HIV/AIDS management entails a complex process of patient education and pharmacological control to improve ART compliance in South Africa. Studies were done in South Africa on reminder messages as most studies focused on chronic conditions in general. A literature review explored what is known about ART and mobile technology to improve compliance. Literature confirmed that compliance through reminder messages were done worldwide and in Sub-Saharan countries. Previous research indicated that the compliance rate of the patients increased through reminder messages. Yet there is a gap in the literature regarding reminder messages combined with health education on ART compliance. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of reminder messages combined with health education on ART compliance among patients receiving ART at a PHC facility Methodology: The study followed a quantitative, experimental, intervention, randomised multi-group, pre- and post measurement design (Creswell, 2012:1, Welman et al., 2012:80). The research design is experimental because the researcher applied an intervention (reminder messages) to two experimental groups. Random sampling was applied and participants were grouped into three groups: Group A, (control group), Group B, (reminder messages only) and Group C (reminder messages combined with health education). A preand post-measurement design is followed as each participant’s pill count and return date were measured before and after the reminder messages with/without health education were given. The sample size was 202 eligible patients receiving Regime 1 and 2 ART’s (Lamuvidine, Tenofovir, Efavirenz, Nevirapine, Alluvia® and Zidovudine) at a PHC facility in the North West, South Africa (N=202). The sample size was determined with guidance of statistical services to ensure that results obtained from the study would be reliable and significant. Data collection was done in three phases. Phase one (1) consisted of collecting the biographical data and a pre-measurement of pill count and return dates for participants in Groups A, B and C. Phase two (2) consisted of sending bi-weekly messages (Group B) via WinSMS and with health education (Group C) for three (3) months. Phase three (3) consisted of post-measurement of participants’ pill count and return date for Groups A,B and C. Data collection stretched over six months (October 2013-March 2014), namely three months pre-measurement, then activation of intervention combined with another three months post-measurement. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was conducted through SPSS (SPSS Inc., 2013). Descriptive statistics indicated that more female patients visited the PHC facility for ART on a more regular basis. It was concluded that the experimental group proved a slight increase in compliance with regards to return date after the SMS intervention. No difference was noted in compliance to pill counts. It can also be concluded that pill counts is a complex monitoring procedure with room for error from the patients’ aspect. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Unsafe and unnecessary injections are administered in many developing and transitional countries. Injection device security is recommended in order to improve injection safety. Injection device stock depletions have been reported to contribute to unsafe injection practices. Poor distribution of health products has been reported in many parts of Uganda including Mpigi district. As a way of improving injection safety, this study explored the challenges encountered in maintaining an effective distribution system. A Cross-sectional, descriptive study of public and private-not-for-profit health care units in Mpigi district was conducted. 38 health care facilities were selected by stratified disproportionate sampling. Data on device security, the use of equipment and the distribution system were collected and analysed using descriptive statistics. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)