Oldewage-Theron W H, Dicks E G, Napier C E, Rutengwe R
Vaal University of Technology, Private Bag X 021, Vanderbijlpark 1900, South Africa.
Public Health. 2005 Apr;119(4):312-20. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2004.08.012.
The United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) has indicated that urban poverty is primarily found in squatter settlements. At present, 13.5% of all South African households live in informal settlements. The main hypothesis for this empirical study was that micromechanisms would not negatively influence food, nutrition and health of residents in an informal settlement in the Vaal Triangle, South Africa. This hypothesis was tested empirically against the UNICEF framework of the immediate, underlying and basic causes of malnutrition. The purpose of this study was to establish a situation analysis of children and women before designing any intervention.
The objectives covered in this paper include Phases I and II of the project, namely planning of the project and determining the demographic and health profile of the sample as part of a situation analysis.
This is a community participatory project. After a strategic participatory planning workshop with stakeholders, a plan of operation document, guiding all field undertakings, was drawn up (Phase 1), followed by a cross-sectional baseline survey (Phase II), situation analysis (Phase III), and implementation of community-based intervention studies (Phase IV). Impact measurement will follow in Phase V.
After the planning meeting and obtaining consent, a pretested, structured demographic and health questionnaire was used to obtain data from 357 randomly selected households in an informal settlement. Data were statistically analysed for means and standard deviations.
The findings of the workshop evaluation indicated that 100% of the participants (n = 34) agreed that a need existed for this project, 74% (n = 24) understood the relevance, and 64% (n = 22) realized the importance for sustainable community development. In the baseline survey, 89% of the respondents lived in zinc shacks with two rooms or less (32.2%), three or four rooms (41.5%) or four rooms or more (26.3%). The household size was six people or more (33%), five people (18.5%), four people (21.3%) and three people or less (27.2%). The unemployment rate was 94.2% for respondents and 80.1% for their partners. The majority of households (42.6%) had a monthly income of <R500 (71 US dollars). The major health problems observed were chronic coughing (42%) and headaches (50.4%). Death of a child under 5 years of age was reported by 27.7% of respondents, of which 34.8% were stillborn, over the previous 5 years.
These findings confirmed that poverty and household food insecurity were major problems. As such, these results form the basis for planning and implementing sustainable community-based intervention projects to promote public health nutrition in the Vaal Triangle, South Africa. It is, however, important to ensure community participation during all phases of the project to ensure sustainability.
联合国儿童基金会（UNICEF）指出，城市贫困主要集中在棚户区。目前，南非13.5%的家庭居住在非正式定居点。本实证研究的主要假设是，微观机制不会对南非瓦尔三角地区一个非正式定居点居民的食物、营养和健康产生负面影响。该假设依据联合国儿童基金会关于营养不良的直接、根本和基本原因的框架进行了实证检验。本研究的目的是在设计任何干预措施之前，对儿童和妇女的状况进行分析。
本文涵盖的目标包括项目的第一阶段和第二阶段，即项目规划以及确定作为状况分析一部分的样本的人口统计学和健康状况。
这是一个社区参与式项目。在与利益相关者举行战略参与式规划研讨会后，起草了一份指导所有实地工作的运营计划文件（第一阶段），随后进行了横断面基线调查（第二阶段）、状况分析（第三阶段）以及基于社区的干预研究实施（第四阶段）。第五阶段将进行影响评估。
在规划会议并获得同意后，使用经过预测试的结构化人口统计学和健康问卷，从一个非正式定居点随机抽取的357户家庭中获取数据。对数据进行了均值和标准差的统计分析。
研讨会评估结果表明，100%的参与者（n = 34）同意该项目有必要，74%（n = 24）理解其相关性，64%（n = 22）认识到其对社区可持续发展的重要性。在基线调查中，89%的受访者居住在两居室及以下（32.2%）、三居室或四居室（41.5%）或四居室及以上（26.3%）的锌皮棚屋里。家庭规模为六人及以上（33%）、五人（18.5%）、四人（21.3%）和三人及以下（27.2%）。受访者的失业率为94.2%，其伴侣的失业率为80.1%。大多数家庭（42.6%）月收入低于500兰特（71美元）。观察到的主要健康问题是慢性咳嗽（42%）和头痛（50.4%）。27.7%的受访者报告在过去5年中有5岁以下儿童死亡，其中34.8%为死产。
这些结果证实贫困和家庭粮食不安全是主要问题。因此，这些结果为规划和实施可持续的基于社区的干预项目以促进南非瓦尔三角地区的公共卫生营养奠定了基础。然而，在项目的所有阶段确保社区参与以确保可持续性很重要。
