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BACKGROUND: Family interactions, which are always multi-faceted, are complicated further by family members with disabilities. In resource-poor settings, policies and programmes that address the needs of and challenges faced by families are often inaccessible or unavailable. Approximately 13% of the families in Tanzania have at least one member with a disability, yet family-centred research on caring for disabled children and adolescents is scarce in this context.

OBJECTIVE: The aim is to explore the needs and challenges faced by families that care for children and adolescents with physical disabilities in the Kilimanjaro Region of north-eastern Tanzania.

METHODS: This qualitative study had a constructivist grounded-theory design. In-depth interviews, using a semi-structured interview guide based on the social-capital framework, were conducted with 12 female participants aged between 24 and 80. A conceptual model of family needs, inspired by Maslow's hierarchy of needs, informed the analysis.

RESULTS: Challenging needs were grouped into five categories, which were linked to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and related to the central concept of 'adaptive adjustment': (1) 'barely surviving'; (2) 'safety needs in jeopardy'; (3) 'sociocultural protection'; (4) 'self-esteem far beyond reach', and (5) 'dreaming of self-actualisation'.

CONCLUSION: Families caring for children and adolescents with physical disabilities in north-eastern Tanzania have needs that extend beyond the available and accessible resources. Families can adjust and adapt by avoiding certain situations, accepting the reality of their circumstances and exploring alternative ways of coping. A sustainable support system, including social networks, is essential for meeting basic needs and ensuring safety.

Objective: To investigate whether high-intensity lower extremity constraint-induced movement therapy can improve balance, leg strength, and dual-task ability.

Design: A longitudinal cohort study in a real-world outpatient clinic.

Patients: 147 community-dwelling participants in the subacute and chronic poststroke phases.

Methods: Participants received lower extremity constraint-induced movement therapy for 6 hours/day during 2 consecutive weeks, including balance, strength, and functional training. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Single-Leg-Stance (SLS) bilaterally, one Repetition Maximum (1RM) in a leg press, symmetry of leg strength (Diff-1RM), Timed Up and Go (TUG), and the TUG Manual test were assessed before, after, and 3 months after lower extremity constraint-induced movement therapy.

Results: Compared with preintervention data, statistically significant improvements after lower extremity constraint-induced movement therapy (p < 0.001) were demonstrated for balance with an absolute value in BBS at 1.9 points (effect size 0.38) and SLS at 2.4 s (effect size 0.24), and for leg strength at 10.2 kg (effect size 0.54) for the affected leg. Diff 1RM decreased significantly at 5.8 kg (effect size 0.39) and improvements on dual-task ability at 2.7 s were significant (effect size 0.14). The effects persisted at the 3-month follow-up.

Conclusions: High-intensity lower extremity constraint-induced movement therapy may be a feasible treatment option for middle-aged stroke patients to affect balance, leg strength, and dual-task ability positively in an out-patient clinical setting.

Introduction: Caring for physically disabled children, particularly in contexts where resources are often insufficient or absent, exposes primary carers to significant psychological strain. The lack of structured mechanisms to address this psychological burden poses a considerable threat to the wellbeing of both carers and the children with disabilities under their care. However, research on the psychological wellbeing of carers in Tanzania is scarce. This study aimed to evaluate the psychological wellbeing and symptoms of anxiety and depression, along with associated factors, of carers of children, and adolescents with physical disabilities in the Kilimanjaro region.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from November 2020 to June 2021 in the Kilimanjaro region, involving 212 carers. The Swahili versions of the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index and Hopkins Symptoms Check List-25 were used to assess psychological wellbeing and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics V.28. Multivariable linear and binary logistic regression were used to assess the associations.

Results: More than four fifths (81%) of the carers were parents, and most of these parents were mothers (92%). Of the 212 carers, more than half (51%) exhibited poor psychological wellbeing, 42% had symptoms of anxiety, and 38% symptoms of depression. Notably, poor psychological wellbeing was significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Results of a multivariable regression analysis indicated that extended family support was associated with better psychological wellbeing and lower odds of symptoms of anxiety and depression. A higher estimated monthly income was associated with better psychological wellbeing, and lower odds of symptoms of depression. Access to rehabilitation for the child was associated with improved psychological wellbeing and decreased likelihood of symptoms of anxiety.

Conclusion: Many carers of children, and adolescents with physical disabilities in Tanzania are at high risk of having poor psychological wellbeing, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Support from extended-family networks is crucial in promoting good psychological wellbeing. The government in Tanzania should improve rehabilitation services, especially in disadvantaged rural areas, and integrate mental-health screening for carers in both rehabilitation programmes and primary healthcare.

Objectives: To describe the characteristics and disability-related needs of children and adolescents with physical disabilities in the Kilimanjaro region, North-Eastern Tanzania.

Design: A cross-sectional community survey was conducted from November 2020 to June 2021. Trained research assistants interviewed primary children’s carers using a questionnaire based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth Framework. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics V.27. The Pearson χ2 test was used to examine differences between age, gender and self-reported needs. The independent t-test assessed difference in needs according to age and gender.

Setting: Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania.

Participants: Children and adolescents, aged 2–18 years, with physical disabilities (n=212).

Results: Almost 40% had severe speech (n=84) and joint mobility (n=79) impairments, and more than half (n=124) had severe or complete difficulties walking. In aspects of self-care (caring for body parts, toileting, dressing, eating and drinking), most had severe and complete difficulties. Almost 70% (n=135) of households were located near health facilities without rehabilitation services. About one-quarter (n=51) had never received rehabilitation services. More than 90% (n=196) needed assistive devices, and therapeutic exercises (n=193). Over three-quarters needed nutritional supplements (n=162).

Conclusion: Children and adolescents with physical disabilities in North-Eastern Tanzania have impaired speech and joint mobility, and difficulties in communication, self-care and walking. Rehabilitation services essential for addressing these impairments and activity limitations are either scarce or inaccessible. Action is needed to facilitate urban and rural access to rehabilitation services in order to improve the well-being of children and adolescents with physical disabilities.

Background: Among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), low level of daily physical activity (PA) is the main risk factor for developing cardiovascular, metabolic, and musculoskeletal comorbidities. Increasing PA in people with COPD is complex as PA behavior itself is complex and multifaceted, including personal, physiological, and psychologicalelements as well as social and environmental factors. Although eHealth solutions such as web-based support or websites haveshown positive effects on PA in people with COPD, the results are inconclusive, and it is still unclear how eHealth solutionsmight be used to support positive changes in PA behavior in people with COPD.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of increasing objective PA when using a web-based eHealth tool amongpeople with COPD.

Methods: This study was part of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial with in-depth interviews between the 3- and 12-month follow-ups. The methodology used was constructivist grounded theory. All sampling included participants from the randomized controlled trial intervention group, that is, participants who had access to the eHealth tool in question and agreed to be contacted for an in-depth interview. Inclusion of participants continued until data saturation was reached, resulting in an inclusion of 14 (n=8, 57% women) participants aged between 49 and 84 years and living in 8 municipalities in Middle and Northern Sweden. Two interviews were conducted face-to-face, and the remaining interviews were conducted via telephone. All interviews were recorded using a Dictaphone.

Results: The analysis resulted in 3 main categories: welcoming or not welcoming action, having or lacking resources, and lowering the threshold. The first 2 categories contain barriers and facilitators, whereas the third category contains only facilitators. The categories lead to the more latent theme Perceiving enough control to enable action, meaning that it seems that perceiving the right amount of control is essential to maintain or increase the level of PA when using an eHealth tool, among patients with COPD. However, the right amount of control seemed to depend on the individual (and context) in question.

Conclusions: The core category indicates that a need for a certain sense of control was interpreted as necessary for increasing the PA level as well as for using an eHealth tool to help increase the PA level. The eHealth tool seemed to strengthen or weaken the perception of control by either providing support or by being too demanding on the user. Perceptions varied depending onother environmental factors. The Fogg Behavior Model illustrated how motivational levels, ability levels, and functional triggers interact within our findings. Thus, this study provides further evidence for the importance of empowering the patients to boost their level of agency and their ability to improve PA levels.

Background: Clinical complications following spinal cord injury are a big concern as they account for increased cost of rehabilitation, poor outcomes and mortality.

Objective: To describe the occurrence of traumatic spinal cord injury and associated clinical complications during hospi- talisation in North-East Tanzania.

Method: Prospective data were collected from all persons with traumatic spinal cord injury from North-East Tanzania from their admission to discharge from the hospital. Neurological progress and complications were assessed routinely. Data were captured using a form that incorporated the components of the core data set of the International Spinal Cord Society and were analysed descriptively.

Results: A total of 87 persons with traumatic spinal cord injury were admitted at the hospital with a mean age of 40.2 ± 15.8 years. There were 69 (79.3%) males, and 58 (66.6%) of the injuries resulted from falls. Spasms (41 patients, 47.1%), neuropathic pain (40 patients, 46%), and constipation (35 patients, 40.2%) were the most commonly reported complications. The annual incidence rate in the Kilimanjaro region was at least 38 cases per million.

Conclusion: The incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury in the Kilimanjaro region is relatively high. In-hospital compli- cations are prevalent and are worth addressing for successful rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: Self-management strategies are regarded as highly prioritized in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment guidelines. However, individual and structural barriers lead to a staggering amount of people with COPD that are not offered support for such strategies, and new approaches are urgently needed to circumvent these barriers. A promising way of delivering health services such as support for self-management strategies is the use of eHealth tools. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the usage of, and factors affecting the use of, eHealth tools over time in people with COPD.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed, among people with COPD, to explore and describe the experiences of an eHealth tool over time and factors that might affect usage.

METHODS: The eHealth tool included information on evidence-based self-management treatment for people with COPD, including texts, pictures, videos as well as interactive components such as a step registration function with automatized feedback. In addition to the latter, automated notifications of new content and pedometers were used as triggers to increase usage. After having access to the tool for 3 months, 16 individuals (12 women) with COPD were individually interviewed. At 12 months' access to the tool, 7 (5 women) of the previous 16 individuals accepted a second individual interview. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. User frequency was considered in the analysis, and participants were divided into users and nonusers/seldom users depending on the number of logins and minutes of usage per month.

RESULTS: Three main categories, namely, ambiguous impact, basic conditions for usage, and approaching capability emerged from the analysis, which, together with their subcategories, reflect the participants' experiences of using the eHealth tool. Nonusers/seldom users (median 1.5 logins and 1.78 minutes spent on the site per month) reported low motivation, a higher need for technical support, a negative view about the disease and self-management, and had problematic health literacy as measured by the Communicative and Critical Health Literacy Scale (median [range] 154 [5-2102]). Users (median 10 logins and 43 minutes per month) felt comfortable with information technology (IT) tools, had a positive view on triggers, and had sufficient health literacy (median [range] 5 [5-1400]). Benefits including behavior changes were mainly expressed after 12 months had passed and mainly among users.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings of this study indicate that the level of motivation, comfortability with IT tools, and the level of health literacy seem to affect usage of an eHealth tool over time. Besides, regarding behavioral changes, gaining benefits from the eHealth tool seems reserved for the users and specifically after 12 months, thus suggesting that eHealth tools can be suitable media for supporting COPD-specific self-management skills, although not for everyone or at all times. These novel findings are of importance when designing new eHealth tools as well as when deciding on whether or not an eHealth tool might be appropriate to use if the goal is to support self-management among people with COPD.

BACKGROUND: The long-term impact of transient ischaemic attack is largely unknown.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the long-term perceived impact of transient ischaemic attack and explore the influence of sex and age on these perceptions; and to evaluate the relationships between activities of daily living, participation and overall recovery, and the other domains of the Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 (SIS).

METHODS: A retrospective study among adult community-dwelling individuals from 6 months up to 10 years after onset of transient ischaemic attack. A total of 299 survivors of transient ischaemic attack responded to the SIS.

RESULTS: Most self-reported disabilities involved emotion, strength, and participation domains of SIS and remained stable until 10 years post-transient ischaemic attack. Women reported significantly more disabilities for emotion and hand function. Elderly subjects (age > 65 years) reported more disabilities for strength, mobility, hand function, activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living, and participation. The activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living, participation, and overall recovery demonstrated significant, although low-to-moderate, associations with other SIS domains after transient ischaemic attack.

CONCLUSION: The broadly perceived disabilities were demonstrated consistently and played a significant meaningful role in everyday life and recovery among community-dwelling individuals up to 10 years after a transient ischaemic attack. These findings indicate the need for long-term multi-professional follow-up with holistic rehabilitation to improve overall recovery among survivors of transient ischaemic attack.

Aim: To describe the quality of life of persons with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in a rural area of a low-income country.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which snowballing was used to identify persons with TSCI in their homes. A Kiswahili version of the short version of the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed descriptively and independent samples t-tests were used to calculate the difference in the mean scores between groups.

Results: Eighty persons with TSCI with a mean age of 42.29 +/- 11.4 years were identified, 68.8% of whom were males. The highest scoring domains were psychological (12.76 +/- 2.55) and social relationships (12.62 +/- 2.95). The lowest scores were for physical (11.48 +/- 2.74) and environment (9.59 +/- 2.68) domains. Significantly higher scores were associated with younger age in: physical (0.05), social relationships (0.01), and environment (0.02) domains (p value < 0.05).

Conclusions: Persons with TSCI in the Kilimanjaro rural area registered a relatively low quality of life in which the most affected domains are physical health and environment.

Background: Stroke causes great suffering and severe disability worldwide, and rehabilitation following a stroke seeks to restore lost functions. The extent to which stroke patients get access to rehabilitation in Tanzania is not well estimated, and drawing a current picture of the rehabilitation services for these persons is the first step in developing a more effective rehabilitation model in the country. Objective: The objective of this study was to establish the characteristics of stroke and its rehabilitation at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), a consultant referral hospital in northern Tanzania.

Methods: This was a records-based descriptive study in which demographic, clinical, and rehabilitation information of stroke patients admitted to the KCMC between January 2012 and December 2015 was collected and audited. The means, percentages, and proportions were used to summarise the demographic, clinical, and rehabilitation patterns using SPSS version 24.0 software. The chi-squared statistic was used to examine the relationships between categorical variables, and a p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Of the 17,975 patients admitted to the KCMC during the period of the study, 753 (4.2%) had suffered a stroke, with a mean age of 68.8 ± 16.4 years. The predominant cause of stroke was hypertension, which accounted for 546 (72.5%) patients. A total of 357 (47.4%) patients had various forms of rehabilitation during the admission to hospital. Following a discharge home 240 (31.9%) patients did not return to the hospital for the continuation of rehabilitation.

Conclusion: Stroke patients at the KCMC lack access to rehabilitation therapies. Insufficient access to rehabilitation therapies may warrant the need to explore alternative approaches such as tele-rehabilitation technologies in Tanzania.