In our 8th issue of our Research Digest, we have assembled 64 abstracts published from March through April 2019 that feature evidence from Botswana (2), Eswatini (2), Lesotho (2), Malawi (12), Mozambique (4), Namibia (1), South Africa (32), Tanzania (3), Zambia (11) and Zimbabwe (14).
Advocacy and human rights
Resource
May 12, 2019
INTRODUCTION: HIV self-testing (HIVST) provides couples and individuals with a discreet, convenient and empowering testing option. As with all HIV testing, potential harms must be anticipated and mitigated to optimize individual and public health benefits.
Blog
April 17, 2019
Rural communities in low- and middle-income countries face specific challenges in accessing health care. And yet, these communities are often the most vulnerable and most in need. So how can we overcome these barriers to provide everyone with the health care they have a right to? How do we maximize the available healthcare resources to effectively address inequalities and ensure sustainable service delivery?
Resource
April 12, 2019
Mental illness is a common comorbidity of HIV and complicates treatment. In Botswana, stigma impedes treatment of mental illness.
Resource
April 12, 2019
Current policy in South Africa requires measurement of blood pressure at every visit in primary care. The number of patients regularly visiting primary care clinics for routine care is increasing rapidly, causing long queues, and unmanageable workloads.
Resource
April 12, 2019
In sub-Saharan Africa, harmful alcohol use among male drinkers is high and has deleterious consequences on adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV clinical outcomes, and couple relationship dynamics.
Resource
April 12, 2019
Several tools have been developed to collect information on health facility preparedness to provide sexual violence response services; however, little guidance exists on how this information can be used to better understand which functions a facility can perform.
Resource
April 12, 2019
There is a need for a culturally adapted, evidence-based, psychotherapy treatment that is effective, acceptable, and feasible for integration into primary care in South Africa. This qualitative study used exit interviews to examine participants' experiences of an adapted cognitive-behavioural therapy treatment for adherence and depression, task-shifted and delivered by nurses in two peri-urban HIV clinics near Cape Town.
Resource
April 12, 2019
Stigma and discrimination affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people compromise health and human rights and exacerbate the HIV epidemic. Scant research has explored effective LGBT stigma reduction strategies in low- and middle-income countries.
Resource
April 12, 2019
There has been a proliferation of organizations in Zambia touting the mobilization of traditional games as a tool to prevent HIV. However, there is a dearth of evidence on how culturally important activities like traditional games are being incorporated into programing.
