The Health Promotion Research and Development Research Unit
Research
focus
Established research accomplishments and the relevance of health promotion research
Given the fact that South Africa is a middle-income country with a history of a struggle for justice, strong traditional values and established cultural practices, it is important to conduct research using the life course perspective, within the pervading social cultural context. This approach enables the investigation of the determinants of health in people from birth to old age. The current demographic profile of the country shows a large proportion of young people, whilst simultaneously experiencing a steady increase in an ageing population.
South Africa's health profile consists of a triple burden of disease:
- Communicable diseases;
- Non-communicable diseases; and
- Injuries from non-natural causes such as road accidents and violence.
Prevention continues to be the cornerstone of political reform and transformation and requires an understanding of health, individual, community, organisational and corporate behaviour. By conducting nationally representative studies, such as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) we obtain an understanding into risk factors, behaviours that place people at risk and therefore future mortality and morbidity indicators as the country's democracy matures.
The social change in the young democracy has led to an increased migration and urbanisation as people have moved from rural to urban areas. This ultimately changed and continues to change the traditional family structure as well as the social and disease profile. It is therefore imperative to conduct research to develop interventions that are well designed, carefully pre-tested and scientifically evaluated, using established methods such as the randomised control trial in order to inform policy.
Over the past 10 years South Africa has seen an expansion of gender-reform policies, with much research directed at women and girls. This has led to a feminisation of interventions with poor emphasis on men's health and behaviour. We therefore focus, among other things, on developing interventions from a family life perspective that targets both men and women as partners in a family unit.
|
