Background: The worldwide growth of non-communicable diseases requires important lifestyle adaptations. The earlier a healthy lifestyle is adopted, the better. Enabling a healthy lifestyle for children during the preschool years ideally involves the cooperation of parents and teachers. Health promotion with parents and teachers is most effective…

Life Orientation sexuality education in South Africa faces many pedagogical challenges, not least among which is that it is sometimes perceived as irrelevant to learners' real interests and concerns. Learners report that the content is repetitive and that they learn more from peers than from the reiterated lessons of risk and disease avoidance…

Reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma is critical in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Although national campaigns and prevention programs have been implemented across South Africa to address this critical concern, assessing the impact of these initiatives is difficult as it requires that measurement of HIV/AIDS-related stigma is uniform and comparable…

Young men in South Africa can play a critical role in preventing new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, yet are seldom targeted for HIV prevention. While reported condom use at last sex has increased considerably among young people, consistent condom use remains a challenge. In this study, 74 male higher education students gave their…

In this article we report on the manner in which participatory action research (PAR) was utilised by teachers in developing a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) school plan, in collaboration with university researchers. The need for a structured HIV and Aids school plan emerged during the course of a…

Reduced HIV risk behavior and increased use of care and support services have been demonstrated among adults accessing HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT). The impact of VCT on adolescents is, however, not known. Focus group discussions were held with adolescents and parents in two South African townships to establish the perceptions of and…

Developing and disseminating a preventive HIV vaccine is a primary scientific and public health objective. However, little is known about HIV vaccine acceptability in the high-prevalence setting of South Africa--where young adults are likely to be targeted in early dissemination efforts. This study reports on six focus groups (n = 42) conducted in…

This paper follows up an unexpected finding from a community survey that identified drinking and smoking as the most important tuberculosis (TB) risk factor, far ahead of ones commonly associated with TB such as poverty, overcrowded living conditions, and HIV-positive status. It reports perceptions of drinking and smoking from a three-phased study…

Although prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programs are predicated on maternal behavior change, little is known about sociocultural factors affecting maternal-child care practices in this arena. The authors used narrative methods (key informant workshops, questionnaires, focus groups, and case study analysis) to explore how…

This paper emerges out of a larger qualitative study that aimed at mapping barriers to basic education experienced by children and adults in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The study was undertaken in Richmond district and involved a range of centres of learning (formal and informal) including three high schools, five primary schools,…