BACKGROUND The theme of the 2014 Southern African Rural Health Conference was 'Building resilience in facing rural realities'. Retaining health professionals in South Africa is critical for sustainable health services. Only 12% of doctors and 19% of nurses have been retained in the rural areas. The aim of the workshop was to understand from health practitioners why they continued working in the...

The authors would like to acknowledge the role of the Central Statistics Office in data collection and entry. Margaret Beaver provided substantial contributions to the training of enumerators and data entry personnel. Patricia Johannes provided valuable formatting and editing assistance. The authors acknowledge financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID...

BACKGROUND We sought to demonstrate that the relationship between urban or rural residence and overweight status among women in Sub-Saharan Africa is complex and confounded by wealth status. METHODS We applied multilevel logistic regression to data from 30 sub-Saharan African countries which were collected between 2006 and 2012 to examine the association between women's overweight status (bod...

This paper investigates household dissolution and changes in asset wealth (socio-economic position) in a rural South African community containing settled refugees. Survival analysis applied to a longitudinal dataset indicated that the covariates increasing the risk of forced household dissolution were a reduction in socio-economic position (asset wealth), adult deaths and the permanent outmigra...

BACKGROUND In Kenya, >1,200 laboratory-confirmed 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) (pH1N1) cases occurred since June 2009. We used population-based infectious disease surveillance (PBIDS) data to assess household transmission of pH1N1 in urban Nairobi (Kibera) and rural Lwak. METHODS We defined a pH1N1 patient as laboratory-confirmed pH1N1 infection among PBIDS participants during August 1, 20...

Like PFOA-based coatings, the new compounds are also made from, contaminated with, or break down into perfluorochemicals (PFCs), including new coatings for household products like stain-resistant fabrics and carpet, waterproof clothing, and food packaging. Like PFOA, they persist in the environment and can cross the placenta to contaminate babies before birth. But unlike PFOA – for which there ...

BACKGROUND To assess the prevalence of food insecurity and associated factors among rural households in north-east of Iran. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, a total of 4647 rural households (18,061 persons) were studied in Neyshabur, a city in north-east of Iran. The Iranian version of the Six-Item Short questionnaire of Household Food Security Scale was used to measure food insecurity....

BACKGROUND Evidence from the Early 2000s quantified limited coverage of household water supplies in countries of the former Soviet Union. The study objectives were to measure changes in access to piped household water in seven of these countries between 2001 and 2010 and examine how these varied by household economic status. METHODS Cross-sectional household sample surveys were conducted in 2...