75,072 research outputs found
A nuanced approach to adolescent sexual and reproductive health services legislation: is it enough?
No full textSouth Africa has progressive legislation enabling adolescents to access various sexual and reproductive health services independently, without consent from their parents or legal guardians. However, are adolescents who engage in consensual sex sufficiently protected, especially the girl child? In a recent article in the South African Medical Journal, Prof. Ann Strode from the University of KwaZulu-Natal���s School of Law and Dr Zaynab Essack, an HSRC senior research specialist, identified the strengths and weaknesses of this legislation.
The Benefits of Being Economics Professor A (and not Z)
No full textAlphabetic name ordering on multi-authored academic papers, which is the convention in the economics discipline and various other disciplines, is to the advantage of people whose last name initials are placed early in the alphabet. As it turns out, Professor A, who has been a first author more often than Professor Z, will have published more articles and experienced afaster growth rate over the course of her career as a result of reputation and visibility. Moreover, authors know that name ordering matters and indeed take ordering seriously: Several characteristics of an author group composition determine the decision to deviate from the default alphabetic name order to a significant extent.performance measurement, incentives, economists, name ordering
Final word on Jersey Dutch
No full textIn this article, William Z. Shetter compares and contrasts the dialects that developed between different Dutch colonies in the New World. He explores in-depth the nuances of Jersey Dutch, and provides theories to explain how Dutch and colonial languages blended. The article is reprinted from American Speech, December 1958, Volum XXXIII, No. 4
Facilitating access to adolescent sexual and reproductive health services through legislative reform: lessons from the South African experience
No full textSouth Africa (SA) has progressive legislation enabling adolescents to access various sexual- and reproductive-health services (SRH) independently, without consent from parents or legal guardians. This article reviews the SA legislative framework for adolescent access to SRH interventions. It outlines the five approaches adopted in current legislation to address adolescents' capacity to independently consent to specified health interventions, based on age, capacity and public policy requirements, or combinations thereof. Rather than subsume various
health interventions under the umbrella of medical treatment, SA has separately legislated on many SRH interventions (e.g. HIV testing, contraceptives and terminations of pregnancy, among others). We identify strengths and weaknesses of the SA approach, and conclude with lessons learned from the SA experience which could inform discussion and debate on the most appropriate ways for countries to consider law reform that facilitates adolescent access to SRH services
South African research ethics committee review of standards of prevention in HIV vaccine trial protocols
No full textHIV prevention trials provide a prevention package to participants to help prevent HIV acquisition. As new prevention methods are proven effective, this raises ethical and scientific design complexities regarding the prevention package or standard of prevention. Given its high HIV incidence and prevalence, South Africa has become a hub for HIV prevention research. For this reason, it is critical to study the implementation of relevant ethical-legal frameworks for such research in South Africa. This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to explore the practices and perspectives of eight members of South African research ethics committees (RECs) who have reviewed protocols for HIV vaccine trials. Their practices and perspectives are compared with ethics guideline requirements for standards of prevention.
Embedding gender equity in G20 health systems: from commitments to continuity for resilience and justice
No full textHSRC Policy Brief, OctoberHealth equity is both a moral imperative and a social and economic necessity. This brief calls for systemic reforms to embed gender equity as a permanent principle within the health systems of G20 member countries. Building on foundations laid by the W20, it advocates a shift from episodic advocacy towards durable
institutional resilience.N/
Understanding constraints and enablers of turnaround time for ethics review: the case of institutional review boards in Tanzania
No full textIndependent ethics review of research is required prior to the implementation of all health research involving
human participants. However, ethics review processes are challenged by protracted turnaround times, which may negatively impact the implementation of socially valuable research. Previous research has documented delays in ethics review in developed and developing countries. This study aimed to determine the extent of variability in turnaround times for protocol review among different institutional review boards (IRBs) within Tanzania. This descriptive cross-sectional study employed a mixed-method approach, with qualitative and quantitative components. Seven IRBs were purposively sampled from the 15 accredited IRBs operational in Tanzania during the study period, April 2017-April 2018. Quantitative data were analysed using STATA software and qualitative data were analysed thematically. Results. The median time for review across all IRBs was 32 days, with a range of 1-396 days. Qualitative results identified five key themes related to turnaround time from interviews with participants. These included: (1) procedures for receiving and distribution of protocols, (2) number of reviewers assigned to protocols, (3) duration of reviewing protocols, (4) reasons for delayed feedback, and (5) training of research ethics committee members. The study showed that the median days for ethical approval in Tanzania was 32 days. We observed from this study that electronic submission systems facilitated faster turnaround times. Failure to adhere to the submission checklists and guidelines was a major obstacle to the turnaround time.
South African research ethics committee review of standards of prevention in HIV vaccine trial protocols
No full textHIV prevention trials provide a prevention package to participants to help prevent HIV acquisition. As new prevention methods are proven effective, this raises ethical and scientific design complexities regarding the prevention package or standard of prevention. Given its high HIV incidence and prevalence, South Africa has become a hub for HIV prevention research. For this reason, it is critical to study the implementation of relevant ethical-legal frameworks for such research in South Africa. This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to explore the practices and perspectives of eight members of South African research ethics committees (RECs) who have reviewed protocols for HIV vaccine trials. Their practices and perspectives are compared with ethics guideline requirements for standards of prevention.
"I started that day and continued for 2 years": a case report on adolescent 'whoonga' addiction
No full text'Whoonga' is a new craze drug that young people in South Africa are increasingly using. It consists of a cocktail of drugs and is considered to be highly addictive. Yet, there is a paucity of research that describes young people���s experiences of using this drug. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, this case report describes the highly addictive and destructive nature of adolescent whoonga addiction. The adolescent���s narrative revealed that initial experimentation with ���whoonga��� has the potential to rapidly escalate into full addiction over a short period of time. Whoonga addiction was also associated with involvement in criminal activities to support the adolescent���s high drug use demands. Whoonga is a dangerous street drug that requires immediate attention is South Africa
Gauging life stressors and their impact on youth mental health: report on a convening of the BEING mental-health initiative of the Science for Africa Foundation,16-17 January 2024, Nairobi, Kenya
No full textHosted by the Science for Africa (SFA) Foundation in Nairobi, KenyaThis report presents findings from a two-day convening hosted by the Science for Africa (SFA) Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on identifying emerging stressors impacting youth mental health in 13 focus countries. The meeting was attended by representatives of 11 of the 13 countries excluding Egypt and Morrocco. Utilising the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and the Relational Well-being Approach, representatives from 11 countries engaged in exercises and discussions to identify and rank critical mental health stressors at personal, societal, and environmental levels. Participants also considered potential solutions to address these priority youth mental health stressors and concerns
- …
