Well-being, health and health-related behaviours in primary schoolchildren in South Africa

The Department of Human Movement Science (HMS) at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth, South Africa), the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health (DSBG) at the University of Basel (Basel, Switzerland) and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) (Basel, Switzerland) have been working closely together since 2018. This four-year research project entitled "Well-being, health, and health-related behaviours in primary schoolchildren living in South Africa" was funded by the Botnar Foundation (Basel, Switzerland).

The aim of the KaziAfya project was to investigate the prevalence of infectious diseases and inflammatory and cardiovascular risk markers in three African countries (Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa and Tanzania) and to test cost-effective prevention programmes that combine multimicronutrient supplementation with physical activity to promote the health and well-being of African schoolchildren.

In this report, focussing on South Africa, we provide general information about the project, give an overview of the variables studied, present descriptive results for all variables to document the health status of the children at baseline and to illustrate changes in health outcomes over time (from baseline to follow-up), both for the whole sample and separately for boys and girls and for schoolchildren attending different grades. The reports for the other two African countries mentioned are currently being prepared.