Browsing by Author "Phillips, J.S."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    An analysis of health promoting and risky behaviours of health science students of the University of the Western Cape
    (University of the Western Cape, 2007) Steyl, Tania; Phillips, J.S.; Dept. of Physiotherapy; Faculty of Community and Health Sciences
    Assessing and understanding the health needs and abilities of university and college students is vital in creating healthy campus communities. Student learning is a central part of the higher education academic mission, and health promotion serves this mission by supporting students and creating healthy learning environments. Findings from various studies suggest that students entering the university setting put themselves at risk through unhealthy behaviours. Health science students are the future health professionals who will teach health promotion and disease prevention. The aim of this study was to determine and analyse health risk behaviours and health promoting behaviours among health science students at the University of the Western Cape. The study further aimed to identify the factors influencing these students' engagement in these risk behaviours.
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    The cumulative incidence of musculoskeletal injuries among student dancers at Tshwane University of Technology
    (2009) Magida, Nontembiso; Phillips, J.S.
    Dance movements requires explosive power, sustained effort and both local and general endurance. Musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) are the most frequent medical problems among dancers in ballet, which is partly owing to inadequate training and dancers not being properly prepared for the demands of the dance performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine the cumulative incidence of musculoskeletal injuries amongst student dancers at TUT. The study used a prospective, cohort design. A total of 49 student dancers at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) were followed up over 16 weeks in the 2007 academic year. The student dancers completed a questionnaire about previous injuries, and factors influencing injuries. Of the 49 student dancers, 41 (83%) consent to participate. There were 10 cumulative injuries incurred by 41 student dancers over 16 weeks period i.e. 7.1 %, 0.06 injuries incurred per student month at risk.The main limitations to this study were small sample size and possible reporting biases. Further research should aim to standardize injury definitions and classifications.
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    Designing and determining the effectiveness of a health promotion programme for clients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from an urban South African community
    (University of the Western Cape, 2013) Steyl, Tania; Phillips, J.S.
    Diabetes mellitus, an international pandemic, is one of the greatest threats to global public health. It is estimated that 70% of patients with diabetes are living in developing countries. Since the inception of the Primary Health Care approach in South Africa in 2004, the number of patients with diabetes has doubled to an estimated 1.5 million South Africans. The overall aim of the study was to develop, implement and determine the effectiveness of a health promotion intervention for adult clients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from a South African urban community. The overarching design of the study was that of mixed methods, specifically the parallel mixed design. The first phase of the study was to determine the current practices regarding the management of diabetes mellitus and the study sample comprised of three hundred and thirty five adult clients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and eighteen health care professionals of randomly-selected community health centres (CHCs) in the four sub-structures of the Cape Metropolitan District. Data was collected from the adult clients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with structured, self-administered questionnaires and focus group discussions while semi-structured interviews were done with the health care professionals. The second phase of the study aimed to design a health promotion programme and both a review of the literature and a Delphi study were done to develop the proposed programme.
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    The effect of a sports-based HIVv prevention programme on HIV risk related behaviours among high school learners
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Wasiu, Awotidebe Adedapo; Phillips, J.S.; Lens, W.
    Background: The Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become a global public health challenge amid the growing concern of adolescent risky sexual behaviour, influenced by biological and psycho-social factors. There is an increasing demand for adolescent sexual risk reduction interventions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa which remains the hub of HIV epidemic worldwide. Sport-based HIV prevention programme has been identified as one of the interventions, in addition to other approaches to provide young people with appropriate HIV knowledge and skills to either delay or reduce risk-taking behaviour. Despite the potential of sport-based programme for sexual risk reduction, there is limited information on how to adapt it to meet adolescent needs in terms of design, contents, and delivery. This information is necessary to provide sufficiently strong evidence to support widespread implementation of sport-based programme, especially in rural African schools. Therefore, the study aimed to measure the impact of a sport-based HIV prevention intervention in the reduction of HIV related sexual risk behaviour among rural high school learners aged 13-18. Method: The overall study design was a concurrent mixed method, utilizing both the quantitative and qualitative approach. The population for the quantitative and the qualitative studies was made up of two high schools in a predominantly “Coloured” community in Ceres. Two classes each were randomly selected from grades 8-10 in both intervention and control school. The intervention was developed through a process of focus group discussions with the Grassroot Soccer (GRS) staff and it was guided by the Social Cognitive Theory. The intervention was delivered to grade 8-10 learners by GRS peer facilitators using the GRS generation skillz curriculum that consists of 12-week sessions in the intervention school. Quantitative data were analysed with multivariate statistical techniques and qualitative data with thematic analysis approach. Results: The data that assessed the behavioural and protective factors to understand why learners in rural schools engage in risky sexual behaviour showed that about 27.2% of the learners reported being sexually active. Of the sexually active learners, 48.7% reported engaging in sex by 14 years or younger and nearly 42.2% reported multiple sexual partners with significant higher proportion of boys than girls. Nearly 55.2% of the sexually active learners reported irregular condom use and 46.3% did not use a condom at the last sexual encounter. The majority of the learners (87%) did not know their HIV status. Being male (OR = 6.60;95% C I = 1.62 – 26.84) and peer influence (OR = 3.01; 95% CI = 1.97-4.60) were the strongest predictors of reporting sexual intercourse and early sexual activities before the age 15 respectively. Though the knowledge of HIV was low, those with greater knowledge of HIV were more likely to use a condom at last the sexual encounter (OR = 1.22; 95% C I =1.03-1.44). The learners who participated in sport-based intervention were 1.43times likely to report higher self-efficacy to refuse sex compared to the control group (OR = 1.43; 95% C.I =1.07-1.92).The process evaluation indicated that the sport-based intervention was well received among the learners as it gave them free space to freely express themselves. Conclusion: The findings have shown that sport-based intervention can be successfully implemented in school and is a promising approach to reduce risks associated with risky sexual behaviour in learners. However, the quality of the programme delivery was hampered by irregular session‟s schedule and language of instruction. The process suggests for a longer exposure period and because of social-cultural diversity, learners must be provided with the ownership of the programme in schools.
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    An intervention programme for management of overweight and obese Nigerians in Lagos State, Nigeria
    (University of the Western Cape, 2014) Akindele, Mukadas Oyeniran; Phillips, J.S.; Igumbor, Ehimario
    Over the past decades there has been a global increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. The increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity leads to surging of associated co-morbidities of overweight and obesity in low/medium income countries which eventually overburdens the vulnerable health systems threatens by malnutrition and communicable diseases in low/medium income countries. The designed interventions to curb overweight/obesity in high income countries might be inappropriate to apply in low income countries, such as Nigeria, due to the different cultural norms and values regarding types of food, and physical activity. The overall aim of this study is to design an intervention that will be culturally appropriate for overweight and obesity management among Nigerians. The convergent parallel mixed method design specifically was used in this study. This involves simultaneous timing of carrying out both quantitative and qualitative strands of mixed methods during the same phase of the research process, prioritizes the methods equally, and keeps the strands autonomous during analysis and then mixes the results during overall implementation/execution. The population for the quantitative part was Nigerians residing within sixteen enumeration areas of Alimosho Local Government area of Lagos State, Nigeria. Overweight and obese Nigerians as well as traditional healers and healthcare professionals were purposely selected for the qualitative phase. Delphi study was the last phase of study which involved recruitment of healthcare professionals in the management of overweight and obesity. A sample size of 2250 was projected and approached for this while 1571 consented and participated in the study. This gave a response rate of 69.82%. About 51.2% of the sample population was male and 48.8% female. The mean age of the total sample was 35.36(SD =11.66). Using BMI, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was 42.3% using BF%, the prevalence of body fatness was 39.2% of which 62.5% were females. Data analysis shows strong positive correlation between other measures of body fatness (.694 to .872) except WHR with low but positive relationships between BF% (184), BMI (.280), WC (.495), and negative relationships with HC (-.077) and BAI (-.076). Gender, marital status and age are predictors of overweight and obesity among Nigerians. Type of diet, meal timing, reduced physical activity and genetic factor were perceived as the causes of overweight and obesity. Diet therapy, an increase in physical activity and the use of herbs were various ways perceived to assist in reducing excess body weight. Among the challenges faced by overweight and obese Nigerians were lack of time for exercise because of the nature of their jobs, lack of recreational facilities, lack of motivations and support from family members to reduce weight, lack of money and poor/lack of knowledge to reduce weight. Experts unanimously agreed that the content of a culturally appropriate intervention should be individualised and to include physical activity/exercise, diet therapy, education and self-monitoring. There was a unanimous decision that the intervention should be done for a duration of 12 weeks at health facility and should be held for between 1-2 times per week if holding at community (excluding community/ public health facility) for 12 weeks in total. In addition, experts agreed that the use of media such as television, radio, weekly newspapers and magazines should be used for preventive campaigns.
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    Prevalence of physical inactivity among school going adolescents in Nairobi, Kenya
    (University of the Western Cape, 2006-11) Kibet, Jepkemoi Joanne; Phillips, J.S.; Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio)
    In developing economies and specifically Sub-Saharan Africa physical inactivity has been identified as a risk factor along with tobacco use