Community Education Challenges in Young Adults of South Western Uganda

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the major challenges to community education and any health problem in Bushenyi district of South Western Uganda. Data collection was done through questionnaire and participants were randomly selected. This was a cross-sectional study carried out for a period of three months in 2012. A questionnaire was used to collect data and using onsite observations the responses were validated. A total of 260 participants from 65 homesteads were included in the study from 52 households. 144 were females and 116 males, of which 52.4% of the children were female and the rest male. The mean ± SEM age of females and males was 36 ± 8.6 and 29 ± 8.6 years respectively. In all the homesteads, 71% were headed by an adult male and only 29% were found to be headed by an adult female while none was headed by children. Inferential analysis showed (P = 0.02) that there are more females than male in the homesteads. Majority of the homesteads are being taken care of by women instead of men probably as a result of the high mortalities due to HIV/AIDS in the past decade and above all the movement of most men to urban centers in search of better sources of employment to support their families. Among school going age participant's i.e. children and adolescents, only 59.6% were found to be attending school. There was no statistical significance (P = 0.16) between school attendance and age. Family responsibilities such as cooking for younger siblings by female participants, obligations on open * Corresponding author. K. I. Kasozi et al. 66 market days are thought to be secondary limiting factors for community development and livelihood amongst young persons; thus a follow up study would be conducted to assess their associations in this community as this would raise major child abuse concerns which would need to be reported to the legal authorities for follow up.

Malnutrition amongst HIV adult patients in selected hospitals of Bushenyi district in southwestern Uganda

“…These observations show that disadvantaged persons need to be supported with income-generating activities so that their reliance on third parties (usually relatives) to buy medications is reduced as this would help reduce on the malnourished population and reduce on the health care burden 10 . Community education and economic activities which would improve on the patient status of living would be promoted in prospective extension activities within the district 12 . This would help protect patients against protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), which has been shown to be highly prevalent in developing countries 42 .…”

“…This emphasis on children has subsequently led to an unintentional neglect of the adult-elderly population. This is important since 8.5% (12,000) of the population in Bushenyi district is HIV positive 6,7 , showing a need to revise current extension prioritization activities in several rural communities of Uganda to improve patient outcomes since a compromised immunity following HIV infection can easily lead to a grave prognosis once malnutriton is poorly handled 8 .…”

“…This implies that a majority of the patients are poor, and would often not be able to work, thus a low economic status, and unable to buy nutritional supplements 11 . This situation would also be complicated by an inefficient extension system which systematically neglects adults over children in the provision of nutrition counseling services 12 , 13 . This is especially true in rural communities since HIV patients with opportunistic infections have been associated with an increased risk to malnutrition 14 , showing the importance of location in affecting patient outcomes within Africa.…”