The differences across cultures in the enforcement of conformity may reflect their specific histories.

Population ageing is rapidly becoming a global issue and will have a major impact on health policies and programmes. The World Health Organization’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) aims to address the gap in reliable data and scientific knowledge on ageing and health in low- and middle-income countries. SAGE is a longitudinal study with nationally representative samples of persons aged 50+ years in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa, with a smaller sample of adults aged 18–49 years in each country for comparisons. Instruments are compatible with other large high-income country longitudinal ageing studies. Wave 1 was conducted during 2007–2010 and included a total of 34 124 respondents aged 50+ and 8340 aged 18–49. In four countries, a subsample consisting of 8160 respondents participated in Wave 1 and the 2002/04 World Health Survey (referred to as SAGE Wave 0). Wave 2 data collection will start in 2012/13, following up all Wave 1 respondents. Wave 3 is planned for 2014/15. SAGE is committed to the public release of study instruments, protocols and meta- and micro-data: access is provided upon completion of a Users Agreement available through WHO’s SAGE website (www.who.int/healthinfo/systems/sage) and WHO’s archive using the National Data Archive application (http://apps.who.int/healthinfo/systems/surveydata).

Gaps in research focusing on work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses is evident within developing contexts like South Africa. This study identified the relationship between work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses. A total of 1200 nurses from four hospitals were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study (75% response rate). Participants completed five questionnaires and multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine significant relationships between variables. Staff issues are best associated with burnout as well as job satisfaction. Burnout explained the highest amount of variance in mental health of nurses. These are known to compromise productivity and performance, as well as affect the quality of patient care. Issues, such as security risks in the workplace, affect job satisfaction and health of nurses. Although this is more salient to developing contexts it is important in developing strategies and intervention programs towards improving nurse and patient related outcomes.

Objective: To estimate antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence rates during pregnancy and postpartum in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCI Web of Science, NLM Gateway, and Google scholar databases were searched. We included all studies reporting adherence rates as a primary or secondary outcome among HIV-infected pregnant women. Two independent reviewers extracted data on adherence and study characteristics. A random-effects model was used to pool adherence rates; sensitivity, heterogeneity, and publication bias were assessed. Results: Of 72 eligible articles, 51 studies involving 20 153 HIV-infected pregnant women were included. Most studies were from United States (n = 14, 27%) followed by Kenya (n = 6, 12%), South Africa (n = 5, 10%), and Zambia (n = 5, 10%). The threshold defining good adherence to ART varied across studies (>80, >90, >95, 100%). A pooled analysis of all studies indicated a pooled estimate of 73.5% [95% confidence interval (CI) 69.3–77.5%] of pregnant women who had adequate (>80%) ART adherence. The pooled proportion of women with adequate adherence levels was higher during the antepartum (75.7%, 95% CI 71.5–79.7%) than during postpartum (53.0%, 95% CI 32.8–72.7%; P = 0.005). Selected reported barriers for nonadherence included physical, economic and emotional stresses, depression (especially postdelivery), alcohol or drug use, and ART dosing frequency or pill burden. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that only 73.5% of pregnant women achieved optimal ART adherence. Reaching adequate ART adherence levels was a challenge in pregnancy, but especially during the postpartum period. Further research to investigate specific barriers and interventions to address them is urgently needed globally.

Nurses have been found to experience higher levels of stress-related burnout compared to other health care professionals. Despite studies showing that both job satisfaction and burnout are effects of exposure to stressful working environments, leading to poor health among nurses, little is known about the causal nature and direction of these relationships. The aim of this systematic review is to identify published research that has formally investigated relationships between these variables. Six databases (including CINAHL, COCHRANE, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PROQUEST and PsyINFO) were searched for combinations of keywords, a manual search was conducted and an independent reviewer was asked to cross validate all the electronically identified articles. Of the eighty five articles that were identified from these databases, twenty one articles were excluded based on exclusion criteria; hence, a total of seventy articles were included in the study sample. The majority of identified studies exploring two and three way relationships (n = 63) were conducted in developed countries. Existing research includes predominantly cross-sectional studies (n = 68) with only a few longitudinal studies (n = 2); hence, the evidence base for causality is still very limited. Despite minimal availability of research concerning the small number of studies to investigate the relationships between work-related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and the general health of nurses, this review has identified some contradictory evidence for the role of job satisfaction. This emphasizes the need for further research towards understanding causality.

Obesity among young people increases lifetime cardiovascular risk. This study assesses the prevalence of overweight/obesity and its associated factors among a random sample of university students from 22 universities in 22 low, middle income and emerging economy countries. This cross-sectional survey comprised of a self-administered questionnaire and collected anthropometric measurements. The study population was 6773 (43.2%) males and 8913 (56.8%) females, aged 16 to 30 years (mean 20.8 years, SD = 2.6). Body mass index (BMI) was used for weight status. Among men, the prevalence of underweight was 10.8%, normal weight 64.4%, overweight 18.9% and obesity 5.8%, while among women, the prevalence of underweight was 17.6%, normal weight 62.1%, overweight 14.1% and obesity 5.2%. Overall, 22% were overweight or obese (24.7% men and 19.3% women). In multivariate regression among men, younger age, coming from a higher income country, consciously avoiding fat and cholesterol, physically inactivity, current tobacco use and childhood physical abuse, and among women older age, coming from a higher income country, frequent organized religious activity, avoiding fat and cholesterol, posttraumatic stress symptoms and physical childhood abuse were associated overweight or obesity. Several gender specific risk factors identified can be utilized in health promotion programmes.