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Hinga AN, Molyneux S, Marsh V. Towards an appropriate ethics framework for Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS): learning from issues faced in diverse HDSS in sub-Saharan Africa. BMJ Glob Health 2021; 6:bmjgh-2020-004008. [PMID: 33408190 PMCID: PMC7789450 DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2020] [Revised: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) collect data on births, deaths and migration from relatively small, geographically defined populations primarily in Africa and Asia. HDSS occupy a grey area between research, healthcare and public health practice and it is unclear how ethics guidance that rely on a research-practice distinction apply to HDSS. This topic has received little attention in the literature. In this paper, based on empirical research across sub-Saharan Africa, we map out key ethical issues for HDSS and assess the relevance of current ethics guidance in relation to these findings. Methods We conducted a qualitative study across seven HDSS sites in sub-Saharan Africa, including individual in-depth interviews and informal discussions with 68 research staff, document reviews and non-participant observations of surveillance activities. Qualitative data analysis drew on a framework approach led by a priori and emergent themes, drawing on the wider ethics and social science literature. Results There were diverse views on core ethical issues in HDSS, including regarding the strengths and challenges of community engagement, informed consent and data sharing processes. A key emerging issue was unfairness in the overall balance of benefits and burdens for residents and front-line staff when compared with other stakeholders, particularly given the socioeconomic contexts in which HDSS are generally conducted. Conclusion We argue that HDSS operate as non-traditional epidemiologic research projects but are often governed using ethics guidance developed for traditional forms of health research. There is a need for specific ethics guidance for HDSS which prioritises considerations around fairness, cost-effectiveness, ancillary care responsibilities, longitudinality and obligations of the global community to HDSS residents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Nginyo Hinga
- Health Systems and Research Ethics, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
| | - Sassy Molyneux
- Health Systems and Research Ethics, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
| | - Vicki Marsh
- Health Systems and Research Ethics, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
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Oduaran OH, Tamburini FB, Sahibdeen V, Brewster R, Gómez-Olivé FX, Kahn K, Norris SA, Tollman SM, Twine R, Wade AN, Wagner RG, Lombard Z, Bhatt AS, Hazelhurst S. Gut microbiome profiling of a rural and urban South African cohort reveals biomarkers of a population in lifestyle transition. BMC Microbiol 2020; 20:330. [PMID: 33129264 PMCID: PMC7603784 DOI: 10.1186/s12866-020-02017-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/19/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Comparisons of traditional hunter-gatherers and pre-agricultural communities in Africa with urban and suburban Western North American and European cohorts have clearly shown that diet, lifestyle and environment are associated with gut microbiome composition. Yet, little is known about the gut microbiome composition of most communities in the very diverse African continent. South Africa comprises a richly diverse ethnolinguistic population that is experiencing an ongoing epidemiological transition and concurrent spike in the prevalence of obesity, largely attributed to a shift towards more Westernized diets and increasingly inactive lifestyle practices. To characterize the microbiome of African adults living in more mainstream lifestyle settings and investigate associations between the microbiome and obesity, we conducted a pilot study, designed collaboratively with community leaders, in two South African cohorts representative of urban and transitioning rural populations. As the rate of overweight and obesity is particularly high in women, we collected single time-point stool samples from 170 HIV-negative women (51 at Soweto; 119 at Bushbuckridge), performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on these samples and compared the data to concurrently collected anthropometric data. RESULTS We found the overall gut microbiome of our cohorts to be reflective of their ongoing epidemiological transition. Specifically, we find that geographical location was more important for sample clustering than lean/obese status and observed a relatively higher abundance of the Melainabacteria, Vampirovibrio, a predatory bacterium, in Bushbuckridge. Also, Prevotella, despite its generally high prevalence in the cohorts, showed an association with obesity. In comparisons with benchmarked datasets representative of non-Western populations, relatively higher abundance values were observed in our dataset for Barnesiella (log2fold change (FC) = 4.5), Alistipes (log2FC = 3.9), Bacteroides (log2FC = 4.2), Parabacteroides (log2FC = 3.1) and Treponema (log2FC = 1.6), with the exception of Prevotella (log2FC = - 4.7). CONCLUSIONS Altogether, this work identifies putative microbial features associated with host health in a historically understudied community undergoing an epidemiological transition. Furthermore, we note the crucial role of community engagement to the success of a study in an African setting, the importance of more population-specific studies to inform targeted interventions as well as present a basic foundation for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- O. H. Oduaran
- Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Division of Human Genetics, National Health Laboratory Service, and School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - F. B. Tamburini
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
| | - V. Sahibdeen
- Division of Human Genetics, National Health Laboratory Service, and School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - R. Brewster
- School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
| | - F. X. Gómez-Olivé
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- INDEPTH Network, East Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - K. Kahn
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- INDEPTH Network, East Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - S. A. Norris
- SAMRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- School of Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - S. M. Tollman
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- INDEPTH Network, East Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - R. Twine
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - A. N. Wade
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - R. G. Wagner
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- INDEPTH Network, East Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - Z. Lombard
- Division of Human Genetics, National Health Laboratory Service, and School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - A. S. Bhatt
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
- School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
- Department of Medicine (Hematology), Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
| | - S. Hazelhurst
- Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Anstey Watkins J, Wagner F, Xavier Gómez-Olivé F, Wertheim H, Sankoh O, Kinsman J. Rural South African Community Perceptions of Antibiotic Access and Use: Qualitative Evidence from a Health and Demographic Surveillance System Site. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2020; 100:1378-1390. [PMID: 30994091 PMCID: PMC6553901 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.18-0171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Knowledge and practices of rural South African populations with regard to antibiotic access and use (ABACUS) remain understudied. By using the case of four villages in the north east of the country, our aim was to investigate popular notions and social practices related to antibiotics to inform patient-level social interventions for appropriate antibiotic use. To achieve this, we investigated where community members (village residents) were accessing and sourcing medication, and what they understood antibiotics and antibiotic resistance (ABR) to be. Embedded within the multicountry ABACUS project, this qualitative study uses interviews and focus group discussions. A sample of 60 community members was recruited from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System, situated in Mpumalanga Province, from April to August, 2017. We used the five abilities of seek, reach, pay, perceive, and engage in access to healthcare as proposed by Levesque’s “Access to Healthcare” framework. Respondents reported accessing antibiotics prescribed from legal sources: by nurses at the government primary healthcare clinics or by private doctors dispensed by private pharmacists. No account of the illegal purchasing of antibiotics was described. There was a mix of people who finished their prescription according to the instructions and those who did not. Some people kept antibiotics for future episodes of infection. The concept of “ABR” was understood by some community members when translated into related Xitsonga words because of knowledge tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS treatment regimens. Our findings indicate that regulation around the sale of antibiotics is enforced. Safer use of antibiotics and why resistance is necessary to understand need to be instilled. Therefore, context-specific educational campaigns, drawing on people’s understandings of antibiotics and informed by the experiences of other diseases, may be an important and deployable means of promoting the safe use of antibiotics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jocelyn Anstey Watkins
- Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, The University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
| | - Fezile Wagner
- Medical Research Council, Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Francesc Xavier Gómez-Olivé
- Medical Research Council, Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Heiman Wertheim
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc Center for Infectious Diseases, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Nuffield Department of Medicine, Centre for Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Osman Sankoh
- Statistics Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone.,International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health (INDEPTH) Network, Accra, Ghana.,Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - John Kinsman
- Department of Public Health Sciences, Global Health (Division of International Health - IHCAR), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.,Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Epidemiology and Global Health (Umeå Centre for Global Health Research), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
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Twine R, Lewando Hundt G, Kahn K. Dilemmas of Ethics in Practice in Longitudinal Health Research: Identifying Opportunities for Widening Participation of Residents. FRONTIERS IN SOCIOLOGY 2019; 4:33. [PMID: 33869357 PMCID: PMC8022611 DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2018] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Background: Mechanisms for widening participation of local participants in research studies can improve governance of public health research. Research conducted in longitudinal health study areas depends on there being mutual trust and respect over time between the local residents and researchers. Ethics in practice needs consideration alongside procedural ethics. By widening participation of the experimental public-local residents and resident service providers-ethics in practice and accountability are strengthened. Methods: The study was undertaken in a longitudinal health study area in rural South Africa using multiple qualitative methods. The sample included 35 individual and five group interviews with resident local leaders and service providers, 24 individual and eight group interviews with residents of the study area, and ten researchers' reflections on two critical incidents from ethnographic field notes on dilemmas of ethics in practice. The interviews were all audio-recorded (besides one where consent to record was not given) and then transcribed verbatim and translated from Shangaan into English. Thematic analysis was conducted. Results: Residents requested the reporting back of personal screening test results from research studies, and raised informed consent issues. Researchers recognized the importance of mechanisms to increase their accountability to residents throughout the research process, and the complexity of informed consent and fieldwork procedures within research studies. Conclusion: This study elicited the views of residents and researchers in a longitudinal health study area to seek guidance on how to strengthen participation in research governance. Three strategies were identified by participants to widen participation of the experimental public. Firstly, increasing study budgets so that individual screening test results could be personally delivered back to participants. Secondly, more rigorous field staff training in informed consent and study procedures with ongoing monitoring and supervision from researchers. Thirdly, increased earlier involvement of residents in research protocol development through study advisory groups. Additional strategies include deeper involvement of Community Advisory Groups and more focused dissemination of research results to specific audiences. In general, there is a need to identify strategies for increased accountability of researchers and participatory governance through involvement of the experimental public in all aspects of longitudinal public health research as part of the ethics in practice and democratization of science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhian Twine
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Gillian Lewando Hundt
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
| | - Kathleen Kahn
- MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- INDEPTH Network, Accra, Ghana
- Epidemiology and Global Health Unit, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
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