Browsing by Subject "Communication"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A Qualitative study of language barriers between South African health care providers and cross-border migrants
    (2017) Hunter-Adams, Jo; Rother, Hanna-Andrea
    Abstract Background Communication with health care providers represents an essential part of access to health care for the over 230 million cross-border migrants around the world. In this article, we explore the complexity of health communication from the perspective of cross-border migrants seeking antenatal care in Cape Town, South Africa in order to highlight the importance of high quality medical interpretation. Methods As part of a broader study of migrant maternal and infant nutrition, we conducted a secondary data analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews (N = 23) with Congolese (n = 7), Somali (n = 8) and Zimbabwean (n = 8) women living in Cape Town, as well as nine focus group discussions (including men: n = 3 and women: n = 6) were conducted with migrant Somalis, Congolese, and Zimbabweans (N = 48). We first used content analysis to gather all data related to language and communication. We then analysed this data thematically. Results Zimbabwean participants described how the inability to speak the local South African language (IsiXhosa) gave rise to labelling and stereotyping by healthcare staff. Congolese and Somali participants described medical procedures, including tubal ligation, which were performed without consent. Partners often tried to play the role of interpreter, which resulted in loss of income and non-professional medical interpretation. Participants’ highlighted fears over unwanted procedures or being unable to access care. Challenges of communication without a common language (and without professional medical interpretation), rather than outright denial of care by healthcare professionals, mediated these encounters. Conclusion Although there are several factors impeding cross-border migrants’ access to health care, effective communication is a prerequisite for quality care. Free-to-patient professional medical interpretation would not only benefit migrant populations but would benefit the broader community where language and health literacy are barriers to accessing health care. Novel approaches to language access may include technology-enabled professional interpretation.
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    Condom use and sexuality communication with adults: a study among high school students in South Africa and Tanzania
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2013) Namisi, Francis; Aaro, Leif; Kaaya, Sylvia; Onya, Hans; Wubs, Annegreet; Mathews, Catherine
    BACKGROUND: Fostering adolescents' communication on sexuality issues with their parents and other significant adults is often assumed to be an important component of intervention programmes aimed at promoting healthy adolescent sexual practices. However, there are few studies describing the relationship between such communication and sexual practices, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examined the relationships between adolescents' communication with significant adults and their condom use in three sites in this region. METHODS: Data stem from a multi-site randomized controlled trial of a school-based HIV prevention intervention implemented in Cape Town and Mankweng, South Africa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Only data from comparison schools were used. The design is therefore a prospective panel study with three waves of data collections. Data were collected in 2004 from 6,251 participants in 40 schools. Associations between adolescents' communication with adults about sexuality issues and their use of condoms were analysed cross-sectionally using analysis of variance, as well as prospectively using multiple ordinal logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Cross-sectional analyses showed that consistent condom users had significantly higher mean scores on communication (across topics and communication partners) than both occasional users and never-users, who had the lowest scores. After controlling for condom use at the first data collection occasion in each model as well as for possible confounders, communication scores significantly predicted consistent condom use prospectively in all three ordinal logistic regression models (Model R2 = .23 to .31). CONCLUSION: The findings are consistent with the assertion that communication on sexuality issues between adolescents and significant adults results in safer sexual practices, as reflected by condom use, among in-school adolescents. The associations between communication variables and condom use might have been stronger if we had measured additional aspects of communication such as whether or not it was initiated by the adolescents themselves, the quality of advice provided by adults, and if it took place in a context of positive adult-adolescent interaction. Studies with experimental designs are needed in order to provide stronger evidence of causality.
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    Different use of medical terminology and culture-specific models of diseaseaffecting communication between Xhosa-speaking patients and English-speakingdoctors at a South African paediatric teaching hospital
    (2006) Levin, M E
    Background. Language and cultural differences between patients and health care providers may have adverse health consequences. Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital is a paediatric teaching hospital in Cape Town where staff communicate mainly in English or Afrikaans, while many patients speak Xhosa as their first language. Objectives. To examine whether differences in the definitions of common respiratory medical terminology by patients and doctors cause miscommunication and to explore culturespecific models if used by parents in their definitions. Design. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three speech communities, viz. 8 English-speaking doctors and 33 Xhosa-speaking parents, educated to grade 12 level or less and recruited from two areas in the hospital, the short-stay ward (Xhosa s-s) and the allergy clinic (Xhosa allergy). The sum of both groups of Xhosa-speaking patients are referred to as ‘Xhosa all’. Definitions were elicited for common respiratory terminology in both Xhosa and English. Contrastive linguistic analysis was used to identify the semantic properties for each group in order to condense the groups’ definitions into representative ‘core definitions’. Differences in the definitions of terminology were identified and words were classified as concordant (used in the same way) or discordant (used in different ways) by the three speech communities. Results. Parents experience difficulty in understanding terms used by doctors and words in common use were understood differently by these two groups. Most Xhosa words were not in the doctors’ vocabulary, and some common English words were not in the parents’ vocabulary. Where words were in the vocabulary of both groups, significant differences existed in the number and range of definitions, with many clinically significant discordances of definition being apparent. Some common examples relevant to paediatric respiratory problems are presented. Three culture-specific explanatory models of respiratory illness, ingqele, xakaxa and idliso, are illustrated.
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    Organisation as communication: an empirical study of how the communication of impact investing is shaping its development in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya
    (2017) Malumba, Zanele; Giamporcaro, Stephanie
    Over the years, investors demand greater transparency on how their funds are being invested. Whilst in the past it would have been enough for investment firms to seek primarily financial returns against all else; it is now becoming more common for investors to demand some form of positive impact above and beyond financial returns. In response to this, many strategies that seek more than just financial returns have been developed and impact investing being one such strategy. This research explores how fund managers and, or investors operating in the impact investment space communicate their practices to stakeholders in order to obtain an understanding of what they understand impact investing to be, and for those who may be investing for impact, understand the type of impact they seek to attain and also to appreciate how impact is being measured. The research findings suggest that despite much effort being put into the development of impact investing as a distinctive field, there are still a number of issues to iron out particularly with how companies communicate impact. The confusion and use of related terminology interchangeably is also an issue that is found to be detracting instead of adding to the development of the field.
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    Pandemic influenza preparedness in the WHO African region: are we ready yet?
    (BioMed Central, 2018-11-14) Sambala, Evanson Z; Kanyenda, Tiwonge; Iwu, Chinwe J; Iwu, Chidozie D; Jaca, Anelisa; Wiysonge, Charles S
    Background Prior to the 2009 pandemic H1N1, and the unprecedented outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) caused by the H5N1 virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) called upon its Member States to develop preparedness plans in response to a new pandemic in humans. The WHO Member States responded to this call by developing national pandemic plans in accordance with the International Health Regulations (IHR) to strengthen the capabilities of Member States to respond to different pandemic scenarios. In this study, we aim to evaluate the quality of the preparedness plans in the WHO African region since their inception in 2005. Methods A standard checklist with 61 binary indicators (“yes” or “no”) was used to assess the quality of the preparedness plans. The checklist was categorised across seven thematic areas of preparedness: preparation (16 indicators); coordination and partnership (5 indicators); risk communication (8 indicators); surveillance and monitoring (7 indicators); prevention and containment (10 indicators); case investigation and treatment (10 indicators) and ethical consideration (5 indicators). Four assessors independently scored the plans against the checklist. Results Of the 47 countries in the WHO African region, a total of 35 national pandemic plans were evaluated. The composite score for the completeness of the pandemic plans across the 35 countries was 36%. Country-specific scores on each of the thematic indicators for pandemic plan completeness varied, ranging from 5% in Côte d’Ivoire to 79% in South Africa. On average, preparation and risk communication scored 48%, respectively, while coordination and partnership scored the highest with an aggregate score of 49%. Surveillance and monitoring scored 34%, while prevention and containment scored 35%. Case investigation and treatment scored 25%, and ethical consideration scored the lowest of 14% across 35 countries. Overall, our assessment shows that pandemic preparedness plans across the WHO African region are inadequate. Conclusions Moving forward, these plans must address the gaps identified in this study and demonstrate clarity in their goals that are achievable through drills, simulations and tabletop exercises.
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    The utilization of theatre as a medium for development communication : an examination of the Lesotho experience
    (1990) Mda, Zanemvula K G; Taylor, Mavis; Fielding, Michael Lonsdale
    This thesis undertakes to investigate the nature and function of theatre-for-development. The objectives are to place theatre-for-development in the context of development communication theory, and to examine how theatre functions as communication. In the process of this examination a new model of theatrical communication in theatre-for-development, and a new paradigm of intervention, are evolved. The thesis begins by exploring the reasons for the failure of existing media systems to serve the needs of development in Africa. The failures are mostly due to the fact that the majority of the people have minimal or no participation in information generation and dissemination. Theatre is identified as one medium that could be utilized towards the realization of democratizing communication systems, and of giving the periphery access to the production and distribution of messages. The thesis then proceeds to review crucial literature in theatre-for-development and on development communication. The literature that has been selected has particular relevance in that while it treats current perspectives in these disciplines, it gives an historical account of theatre in Africa, and an account of the various perspectives and orthodoxies in the history of mass communication in general, and development communication in particular. The major case study of the thesis is a theatre-for-development cooperative society in Lesotho called Marotholi Travelling Theatre. The thesis therefore discusses the problems of underdevelopment in Lesotho. Since this study deals with-development communication, and attempts a structural examination of the context of theatre-for-development, the reader is introduced to the conditions that engender the theatre that is analyzed in the study. An account of the communication environment is also given. Because the communication environment of the rural areas in Lesotho is characterized by the predominant use of oral and traditional methods, popular and traditional media in Lesotho are also examined. After setting a theoretical framework by examining theatrical communication in theatre-for-development, and the rules underlying it, the thesis proceeds to analyze five plays created by Marotholi Travelling Theatre. First, a brief history of each play is given, and this is followed by an analysis of how the play functions as a vehicle for conscientization, and as communication. The plays are discussed in the context of five different methodologies of theatre-for-development: agitprop, participatory agitprop, simultaneous dramaturgy, forum theatre, and comgen theatre. It is in the process of this analysis that a new model of theatrical communication in theatre-for-development is evolved. The new paradigm of intervention that is posited also emanates from the analysis of the plays. It illustrates the extent to which the various methodologies of theatre-for-development can be utilized either for development (and, therefore, liberation), or for dissemination. The thesis concludes by focussing on the salient points that have emerged in the analysis. Crucial points are summarized, and recommendations for an effective utilization of theatre as a medium for development communication are posited.