Chapters authored
Metabolic Syndrome in Reproductive Health: Urgent Call for Screening
Metabolic syndrome (MetSy) is a compilation of interrelated pathologic conditions characterized by central obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance and atherogenic dyslipidaemia. The prevalence of MetSy is rising globally. There is growing evidence which linked the individual components of MetSy to the increasing prevalence of poor reproductive health in both the male and female community. This text reviews the recent evidence associating MetSy to poor reproductive health as well as the underlying pathophysiology. The aims to study the relationship between MetSy and reproductive health. The effects of MetSy on fertility were examined and supporting evidence explaining the pathophysiology of dysfunction with each MetSy component extracted from the following medical databases, including CINAHL, MED- LINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and ERIC were described. Noncommunicable disease is rising at an alarming rate globally. Metabolic disorders like hyperlipidaemia, obesity, and insulin resistance can directly or indirectly affect the reproductive health and fertility in both men and women through the interruption of hypothalamic – pituitary – gonadal axis functions. Metabolic syndrome’s adverse effects are likely transgenerational (Barker hypothesis), where children born to obese mothers are at increased risk for obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. Therefore MetSy deserves attention and screening should be upscaled at all contacts for all age group of patients to save the future generations.
Part of the book: Lifestyle and Epidemiology
The Need to Strengthen Primary Health Care Services to Improve Mental Health Care Services in South Africa
Despite the reported increase in the prevalence of mental disorders, including substance abuse disorders, required services in South Africa have not been improved to meet the demands for these challenges. Although South Africa has invested in a process to conduct a re-engineering of primary health care services to address a range of common health challenges in communities, this process has not demonstrated adequate policy and practice changes toaddress emerging challenges in providing services for mental health disorders at primary health care level. In particular, primary health care services do not include routine screening for common mental disorders, which include depression, anxiety, postnatal depression and substance abuse, although there are easy to use tools for such screening. This has resulted in a failure for early detection of these mental health challenges by the health system. The chapter argues that making moderate changes to the current offerings of primary health care can result in major achievements in offering mental health services, which in turn will benefit the patients and assist health services to address the increasing scourge of mental disorders, which include substance abuse.
Part of the book: Primary Health Care