Data which were collected using Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) tools from 984 randomly sampled tertiary education students in Malawi is described in this ...paper. The questionnaires were designed on Google forms, but both online and printed forms were employed to enhance response rate. Stored in Mendeley data repository, the data set includes basic demographic information about study participants, frequency of internet and social media use, and transformed variables linked to cases of common mental disorder. Although the data was primarily collected to assess the link between internet addiction and mental health among college students in Malawi, it is a potential source for the several psychometric studies. Moreover, the presented SRQ-20 data should also be useful for measuring anxiety and studying psychiatric symptoms and personality type among the college students. The study design, materials and methods used when collecting this data may also be replicated in other related psychological research studies in the educational field.
Tourism is one of the major industries that contributes to economic development in many countries including Malawi. However, for the industry to reach its full potential in generating growth and ...employment there is need to ensure that required skills are available for the industry to tap from. The need for skills is even greater now than ever before due to globalization forces. Globalization and increasing competition mean that the ability of the human factor to deliver quality products and services is a key source of competitive advantage worldwide. There is greater need now than before for employees in the sector to possess additional skills that go beyond core hospitality operations. Regardless of this realization there still exists skills gaps between those that students have and those that industry demand. Therefore, this paper aims at assessing the skills gaps and training needs in the tourism industry in Malawi. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used in the study. The results show that tertiary institutions focus more on the theoretical knowledge delivery and provide less practical experiences to the students, yet the industry requires more practical knowledge. There are serious skills and knowledge gaps in the accommodation services, food and beverage services, travel services and attractions and transport services in Malawi. It is recommended that students should be provided with more internship opportunities before their graduation to ensure that they acquire some basic requisite practical skills.
Abstract
Background
All sustainable developmental goals (SDGs) require implementing sustainable strategies and monitoring to track progress. But what is known of sub-Sahara Africa (SSA)'s efforts in ...following this stride to reduce by 30% mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through prevention (SDG 3.4), by considering the effect of social determinants of health (SODHs) on type 2 diabetes increasing prevalence?
Methods
Our search produced 2005 unique articles. Only 10 studies were used in the analysis of this study. These studies include 1 from Botswana, 2 from Ghana, 2 from Kenya, 3 from Nigeria and 2 from South Africa. The findings were evaluated in a greater extent.
Results
All studies (100%) showed non-adherence to exercise and poor glycemic control. 7 studies (70%) on education revealed lack of knowledge or misconceptions, 5 studies (50%) with obesity showed a strong linkage between obesity and type 2 diabetes, and 4 studies (40%) on diet, showed diets high in carbohydrates, saturated fats, and sodium predisposition to type 2 diabetes. All studies (100%) linked urbanization with an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes.
Conclusions
Changes in SODHs seem to be contributing to the growing prevalence of diabetes in SSA. These changes with other key data should be considered and tailored to policy processes, environment, infrastructures, and norms for prevention strategies and informing dashboard development for SDG 3.4.
Key messages
Social determinants of health must reflect in relevant causal pathways, settings, and sectors for preventive intervention such as in taxation; regulation of food advertising, school, and healthcare. Analysis of the effect of the changing social determinants of health on type 2 diabetes, will assist in establishing indicators for the dashboard development for SDG 3.4 for sub-Sahara Africa.
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Telang flower noodles are one of the new innovations of noodle products. The addition of telang flower juice gives a blue color and gives very many benefits to the body. Telang flowers contain ...flavonoids that act as antioxidants. This content can be developed as a series of processed food industries that can have an effect on health. The telang flower (Clitoria terenatea) is a flower that is high in antioxidants that usually grows in the yard of a house, forest or even the outskirts of a garden. This flower is better known by the public as a medicinal plant that is used as an eye medicine, a medicine to eliminate sputum in chronic bronchitis, reduce fever, and irritate the urinary and urinary tract content. This flower can also be used as a food coloring. Methods of counseling and training by giving materials followed by training and question and answer sessions. Counseling and training activities have a significant effect on the knowledge of PKK mothers. Based on the results of the counseling, it is hoped that PKK Senden RT 01 RW 11 Danguran, South Klaten can apply knowledge and experience related to the utilization of butterfly pea through making butterfly pea noodles to increase knowledge and skills.
This chapter analyses socioeconomic factors associated with depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malawi. There are many mental health disorders - ranging from anxiety to depression, all the way ...to phobias. The after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been detrimental to citizens' social and economic welfare at both national and household levels. Socially, the containment measures and restrictions directly affected access to social services, such as child healthcare and education, religion, and culture. Economically, the pandemic has slowed down the global economy, the national economy, and household income by losing jobs and businesses. The current study used the sixth wave of the 2021-2022 High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19 produced by the Malawi National Statistical Office. The survey had 1,584 respondents. The current study found that males (19%) were more likely to be depressed than females (17%), indicating that gender-specific factors may contribute to depression. Further, the older age group (55+ years) seemed to have less depression, which suggests that certain protective factors may develop with age. In addition, the effect of wealth status on depression was heterogeneous, suggesting that dealing with depression may require a multifaceted approach that considers factors beyond financial resources.
This chapter evaluates users' experiences of the Vitalk mental health app (treatment group) compared to the users of a generic mental health information website (control group). In this ...double-blinded study, 1,493 participants were divided into a treatment group using the Vitalk app and a control group using a generic mental health information website. Of these, 1,138 attended a post-study workshop at the end of the two-month trial period, where they took part in focus group discussions discussing their experiences of using Vitalk or the mental health website. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data and arrange responses into major and minor themes. Participants displayed extensive knowledge of common mental health challenges they faced as health workers and discussed factors affecting the usability of their respective mental health resources. Vitalk users enjoyed the interactive format and benefited from the psychoeducation, cognitive behavioural therapy-led techniques and exercises. However, digital illiteracy was a significant hindrance among users and concerns regarding the exorbitant costs of Internet data bundles in Malawi, which would likely influence the continued use of Vitalk among users (stickiness).
Targeted noninvasive control of the nervous system and end-organs may enable safer and more effective treatment of multiple diseases compared to invasive devices or systemic medications. One target ...is the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway that consists of the vagus nerve to spleen circuit, which has been stimulated with implantable devices to improve autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Here we report that daily noninvasive ultrasound (US) stimulation targeting the spleen significantly reduces disease severity in a mouse model of inflammatory arthritis. Improvements are observed only with specific parameters, in which US can provide both protective and therapeutic effects. Single cell RNA sequencing of splenocytes and experiments in genetically-immunodeficient mice reveal the importance of both T and B cell populations in the anti-inflammatory pathway. These findings demonstrate the potential for US stimulation of the spleen to treat inflammatory diseases.
Ultrasound (US) has been shown to stimulate brain circuits, however, the ability to excite peripheral nerves with US remains controversial. To the best of our knowledge, there is still no in vivo ...neural recording study that has applied US stimulation to a nerve isolated from surrounding tissue to confirm direct activation effects. Here, we show that US cannot excite an isolated mammalian sciatic nerve in an in vivo preparation, even at high pressures (relative to levels recommended in the FDA guidance for diagnostic ultrasound) and for a wide range of parameters, including different pulse patterns and center frequencies. US can, however, reliably inhibit nerve activity whereby greater suppression is correlated with increases in nerve temperature. By prohibiting the nerve temperature from increasing during US application, we did not observe suppressive effects. Overall, these findings demonstrate that US can reliably inhibit nerve activity through a thermal mechanism that has potential for various health disorders, though future studies are needed to evaluate the long-term safety of therapeutic ultrasound applications.
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