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published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

No abstract available. / Thesis (MMed)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

INTRODUCTION Chronic non-communicable diseases (CND) become the reason of 50 percent of deaths in the welfare societies. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that in the 2025 CND, especially cardiovascular diseases will remain the most important health problem in Europe and in the world [The World health Report, 1998]. The mortality rates from IHD, as well as overall mortality in Lithuania, increased since 1995, a tendency for decrease during the last decade has been observed. According to the Lithuanian Statistics, the mortality rate from IHD in 2001 was 628.2/100000 inhabitants per year [Lithuanian Ministry of Health, 2004]. It decreased almost by quarter as compared to 1995; nevertheless, the mortality rates from IHD in Lithuania exceed the average (mean) of the European Union countries nearly by two fold [WHO Data Base, 2003]. The investigations in the world, as well as in Lithuania have shown that the risk factors (RF) of the CND are common for all the CND [V.Grabauskas, 1995, IU.Haq, 1999]. In Lithuania the epidemiological research on CND has been performed in the context of the international integrated preventive program on non-communicable diseases (CINDI) [J.Petkevičienė, 1994, J.Klumbienė, 1999]. Therefore, the role of the family doctor in the primary prevention of CND, especially the ischemic heart disease (IHD), becomes very important in a certain community. The investigation in Lithuanian have shown that every second 35-64 year old man or woman... [to full text]

<p>Hypertension is one of the most common non-communicable diseases, and it is the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases, death and disability worldwide, especially in developing countries. Physical activity has been regarded as a commonly accepted modality for preventing and treating hypertension. However, despite its known benefits, this modality of treatment and prevention of&nbsp / hypertension continues to be underused. The present study aimed to determine the demographic, social and health-related factors that are associated with levels of physical activity participation among adults with hypertension in Kigali, Rwanda. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 252 adults with hypertension and 87 healthcare professionals through the Godin Leisure-Time&nbsp / Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) and Physical Activity Exit Interview (PAEI). Two thirds of the participants (69.44%) were classified as sedentary. The following factors were found to be significantly&nbsp / (P&lt / 0.05) associated with the levels of physical activity: age, marital status, and level of education, residence, tobacco / past and current users, alcohol / current user, diabetes mellitus, BMI, perceived health status, self-efficacy, and blood pressure. None of the healthcare professionals were considered good physical activity counsellor. The findings of the present study highlight the need for the implementation of health promotion strategies aimed at promoting physical activity lifestyle among individuals with hypertension in Rwanda. Efforts should be made in educating people with hypertension on the benefits of integrating regular physical&nbsp / activity in their daily lives. Furthermore, healthcare professionals should be educated concerning how to promote physical&nbsp / activity to all patients especially those with hypertension.</p>

Hypertension is one of the most common non-communicable diseases, and it is the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases, death and disability worldwide, especially in developing countries. Physical activity has been regarded as a commonly accepted modality for preventing and treating hypertension. However, despite its known benefits, this modality of treatment and prevention of hypertension continues to be underused. The present study aimed to determine the demographic, social and health-related factors that are associated with levels of physical activity participation among adults with hypertension in Kigali, Rwanda. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 252 adults with hypertension and 87 healthcare professionals through the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) and Physical Activity Exit Interview (PAEI). Two thirds of the participants (69.44%) were classified as sedentary. The following factors were found to be significantly (P<0.05) associated with the levels of physical activity: age, marital status, and level of education, residence, tobacco; past and current users, alcohol; current user, diabetes mellitus, BMI, perceived health status, self-efficacy, and blood pressure. None of the healthcare professionals were considered good physical activity counsellor. The findings of the present study highlight the need for the implementation of health promotion strategies aimed at promoting physical activity lifestyle among individuals with hypertension in Rwanda. Efforts should be made in educating people with hypertension on the benefits of integrating regular physical activity in their daily lives. Furthermore, healthcare professionals should be educated concerning how to promote physical activity to all patients especially those with hypertension. / Magister Scientiae - MSc

Thesis (Ph.D. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

In this dissertation we present mathematical models that help answer health policy questions relating to HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV), and analyze bias in Markov models of disease progression. We begin by developing a Markov decision process model that examines the timing of testing and treatment for diseases with asymptomatic periods such as HCV. We explicitly consider secondary infections, false positives and negatives, and behavioral modification from information from test results. We derive sufficient conditions for testing and/or treating in a dynamic environment, i.e., when unscheduled patients arrive. We also develop a detailed simulation model for general testing and/or treating for HCV. A key finding is that the current policy recommendations on testing for HCV may be too restrictive, and that it is cost-effective to test the overall population if done at the appropriate times. The Markov models used in the study of HCV motivated the next topic where we examine bias in Markov models of diseases. We examine models in which the progression of the disease varies with severity and find sufficient conditions for bias to exist in models that do not allow for transition probabilities to change with disease severity. We apply the results to HCV and find that the bias is significant depending on the method used to aggregate the disease data. We close with a discussion on a specific question in HIV policy where we develop a Bernoulli process transmission model in which, for a given individual, each risky person-to-person contact is treated as an independent Bernoulli trial. Using the model and data from the Urban Men's Health Study, we estimate the affect that interventions at venues, namely bathhouses, in which high-risk behavior takes place would have on HIV transmission.

For explanation and prediction of the evolution of infectious diseases in populations, researchers often use simplified mathematical models for simulation. We believe that the results from these models are often questionable when the epidemic dynamics becomes more complex, and that developing more realistic models is intractable. In this dissertation we propose to simulate infectious disease propagation using dynamic and complex networks. We present the Simulator of Epidemic Evolution using Complex Networks (SEECN), an expressive and high-performance framework that combines algorithms for graph generation and various operators for modeling temporal dynamics. For graph generation we use the Kronecker algorithm, derive its underlying statistical structure and exploit it for a variety of purposes. Then the epidemic is evolved over the network by simulating the dynamics of the population and the epidemic simultaneously, where each type of dynamics is performed by a separate operator. All dynamics operators can be fully and independently parameterized, facilitating incremental model development and enabling different influences to be toggled for differential analysis. As a prototype, we simulate two relatively complex models for the HIV epidemic and find a remarkable fit to reported data for AIDS incidence and prevalence. Our most important conclusion is that the mere dynamics of the HIV epidemic is sufficient to produce rather complex trends in the incidence and prevalence statistics, e.g. without the introduction of particularly effective treatments at specific times. We show that this invalidates assumptions and conclusions made previously in the literature, and argue that simulations used for explanation and prediction of trends should incorporate more realistic models for both the population and the epidemic than is currently done. In addition, we substantiate a previously predicted paradox that the availability of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment likely causes an increased HIV incidence.