Elialilia S Okello
Biographic Data
| ID | 221319 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elialilia S Okello |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elialilia S |
| FAMILY NAME | Okello |
| SIGNATURE | OKELLO E S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0507-1815 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Impact of the micro-research model on building research capacity in undergraduate health professions students in HIV-related research
BACKGROUND: Low-income settings such as Uganda bear a disproportionately high burden of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, but contribute little to knowledge production to address their health challenges. The training of health professionals traditionally focuses on clinical skills with less emphasis on research; yet, in practice, health professionals are expected to do operational research. In this study, we evaluate the impact of a micro-research model…
I know your problems; take your bag and go home”
The findings suggest that drivers of suboptimal social and school participation among secondary schoolgirls exist at the individual, interpersonal relationship, school, and societal levels. Multi-level evidence-based multicomponent interventions to improve menstrual health at all socio-ecological levels are warranted for optimal social and school participation among schoolgirls
Ashamed of being seen in an HIV clinic”
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03858998. Registered on 01 March 2019
Self-Efficacy and One-Year HIV Outcomes for Hospitalized People with HIV in Tanzania
Examining the causal pathways through which the Daraja intervention led to sustained improvement in HIV outcomes, including retention in HIV care, ART adherence, and viral load suppression, could highlight critical mechanisms for improving post-hospital outcomes in people with HIV. This pre-specified analysis of the Daraja trial assessed five mediators identified from the Gelberg-Andersen model (self-efficacy, social support, perceived need for H…
Geographic mobility and treatment outcomes among people in care for tuberculosis in the Lake Victoria region of East Africa
Geographic mobility may disrupt continuity of care and contribute to poor clinical outcomes among people receiving treatment for tuberculosis (TB). This may occur especially where health services are not well coordinated across international borders, particularly in lower and middle income country settings. In this work, we describe mobility and the relationship between mobility and unfavorable TB treatment outcomes (i.e., death, loss to follow-u…
Understanding traditional healer utilisation for hypertension care using the Andersen model
Hypertension disproportionately affects people living in African countries, where there are many challenges to appropriate diagnosis and treatment, and many people with hypertension utilise traditional healers as their primary source of healthcare. In this study, we sought to understand factors driving healer utilisation among people with hypertension. We conducted 52 semi-structured interviews with traditional healers, patients and healthcare pr…
Understanding barriers and facilitators to clinic attendance and medication adherence among adults with hypertensive urgency in Tanzania
Hypertensive urgency is a major risk factor for cardiovascular events and premature deaths. Lack of medication adherence is associated with poor health outcomes among patients with hypertensive urgency in resource-limited settings. To inform the development of tailored interventions to improve health outcomes in this population, this study aimed at understanding facilitators and barriers to clinic attendance and medication adherence among Tanzani…
There is nowhere to take the child’
The participants were concerned about childhood alcohol and substance use, but the complexity and magnitude of the problem left them feeling incapacitated in responding. Relevant factors were identified on the community, institutional, and the government level, such as a lack of leadership in addressing it, a loss of mandate to interfere in child-rearing, inadequate services, weak legal structures, and missing government action. A strengthening o…
As soon as they can hold a glass, they begin taking alcohol’
To our knowledge, this is the first study to describe the context and conditions of childhood substance use before age 10 in Mbale District, Uganda. The study shows that community members attributed early childhood substance use to a social context of widespread use in the community, which was exacerbated by conditions of material and emotional deprivation. These social determinants for this practice deserve public health attention and interventi…
Factors Associated with Short and Long Term Mobility and HIV Risk of Women Living in Fishing Communities Around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda
Mobility is linked to negative HIV care continuum outcomes. We sought to understand factors associated with short and long term mobility among women in fishing communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. From 2018 through 2019 we conducted a cross-sectional survey of women aged 15 years and above, randomly selected from a census of six fishing villages, around Lake Victoria. Data collected included: demographics, risky sexual behaviour on the mos…
Understanding mobility and sexual risk behaviour among women in fishing communities of Lake Victoria in East Africa
Women exhibited circular and seasonal mobility patterns over varying distances and duration away from their home communities. These mobility patterns may limit women's access to trial/health services and put them at risk of HIV-infection. Interventions should be tailored to take into account mobility patterns of seasonal work observed in this study
Qualitative study of the influence of antidepressants on the psychological health of patients on antiretroviral therapy in Uganda
The study set out to explore how HIV-positive individuals conceptualise and describe depression and its manifestation in their lives, and how this may change over time in the context of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and antidepressant treatment. We conducted in-depth interviews using a semi-structured interview guide with 26 adult HIV-positive clients receiving ART in Uganda. We asked the participants to describe their depression and its impact on…
Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
BACKGROUND: World wide, there is plentiful evidence regarding the role of stigma in mental illness, as well as the association between poverty and mental illness. The experiences of stigma catalyzed by poverty revolve around experiences of devaluation, exclusion, and disadvantage. Although the relationship between poverty, stigma and mental illness has been documented in high income countries, little has been written on this relationship in low a…
Caregivers' Experiences With Major Depression Concealed by Physical Illness in Patients Recruited From Central Ugandan Primary Health Care Centers
In this article, we present caregivers' grapples with major depression seen among their physically ill patients. A thematic analysis of 29 in-depth caregiver interviews identified four themes: (a) caregivers' perceptions of depression, (b) barriers to caregivers' focus on depression, (c) resources and opportunities for managing depression, and (d) caregivers' perspectives on consequences of depression. Patients' physical illnesses concealed depre…
Explanatory Models and Help-Seeking Behavior
In this article, the authors present findings from a qualitative study exploring how people diagnosed with depression conceptualize their condition and how their conceptualization shaped their efforts to seek help. They used an interview guide based on an explanatory model framework for data collection. Four major themes emerged from the analysis: (a) somatization, social meaning of illness, and help seeking; (b) meaning and perceived consequence…
Lay Concepts of Depression among the Baganda of Uganda
The literature indicates that although depression is highly prevalent, it is rarely recognized as such. The aim was to test the use of case vignettes in exploring the explanatory models of various subtypes of depression, in six individual interviews, and four focus-group discussions. Depressive symptoms presented in these vignettes seem to be conceptualized as a problem related to cognition (thinking too much) rather than emotion (sadness) and th…
Lay Concepts of Depression among the Baganda of Uganda
The literature indicates that although depression is highly prevalent, it is rarely recognized as such. The aim was to test the use of case vignettes in exploring the explanatory models of various subtypes of depression, in six individual interviews, and four focus-group discussions. Depressive symptoms presented in these vignettes seem to be conceptualized as a problem related to cognition (thinking too much) rather than emotion (sadness) and th…
Lay Concepts of Depression among the Baganda of Uganda
The literature indicates that although depression is highly prevalent, it is rarely recognized as such. The aim was to test the use of case vignettes in exploring the explanatory models of various subtypes of depression, in six individual interviews, and four focus-group discussions. Depressive symptoms presented in these vignettes seem to be conceptualized as a problem related to cognition (thinking too much) rather than emotion (sadness) and th…
Explanatory Models and Help-Seeking Behavior
In this article, the authors present findings from a qualitative study exploring how people diagnosed with depression conceptualize their condition and how their conceptualization shaped their efforts to seek help. They used an interview guide based on an explanatory model framework for data collection. Four major themes emerged from the analysis: (a) somatization, social meaning of illness, and help seeking; (b) meaning and perceived consequence…
Caregivers' Experiences With Major Depression Concealed by Physical Illness in Patients Recruited From Central Ugandan Primary Health Care Centers
In this article, we present caregivers' grapples with major depression seen among their physically ill patients. A thematic analysis of 29 in-depth caregiver interviews identified four themes: (a) caregivers' perceptions of depression, (b) barriers to caregivers' focus on depression, (c) resources and opportunities for managing depression, and (d) caregivers' perspectives on consequences of depression. Patients' physical illnesses concealed depre…
Stakeholder perceptions of mental health stigma and poverty in Uganda
BACKGROUND: World wide, there is plentiful evidence regarding the role of stigma in mental illness, as well as the association between poverty and mental illness. The experiences of stigma catalyzed by poverty revolve around experiences of devaluation, exclusion, and disadvantage. Although the relationship between poverty, stigma and mental illness has been documented in high income countries, little has been written on this relationship in low a…
Qualitative study of the influence of antidepressants on the psychological health of patients on antiretroviral therapy in Uganda
The study set out to explore how HIV-positive individuals conceptualise and describe depression and its manifestation in their lives, and how this may change over time in the context of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and antidepressant treatment. We conducted in-depth interviews using a semi-structured interview guide with 26 adult HIV-positive clients receiving ART in Uganda. We asked the participants to describe their depression and its impact on…
Understanding mobility and sexual risk behaviour among women in fishing communities of Lake Victoria in East Africa
Women exhibited circular and seasonal mobility patterns over varying distances and duration away from their home communities. These mobility patterns may limit women's access to trial/health services and put them at risk of HIV-infection. Interventions should be tailored to take into account mobility patterns of seasonal work observed in this study
Understanding barriers and facilitators to clinic attendance and medication adherence among adults with hypertensive urgency in Tanzania
Hypertensive urgency is a major risk factor for cardiovascular events and premature deaths. Lack of medication adherence is associated with poor health outcomes among patients with hypertensive urgency in resource-limited settings. To inform the development of tailored interventions to improve health outcomes in this population, this study aimed at understanding facilitators and barriers to clinic attendance and medication adherence among Tanzani…
There is nowhere to take the child’
The participants were concerned about childhood alcohol and substance use, but the complexity and magnitude of the problem left them feeling incapacitated in responding. Relevant factors were identified on the community, institutional, and the government level, such as a lack of leadership in addressing it, a loss of mandate to interfere in child-rearing, inadequate services, weak legal structures, and missing government action. A strengthening o…
As soon as they can hold a glass, they begin taking alcohol’
To our knowledge, this is the first study to describe the context and conditions of childhood substance use before age 10 in Mbale District, Uganda. The study shows that community members attributed early childhood substance use to a social context of widespread use in the community, which was exacerbated by conditions of material and emotional deprivation. These social determinants for this practice deserve public health attention and interventi…
Factors Associated with Short and Long Term Mobility and HIV Risk of Women Living in Fishing Communities Around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda
Mobility is linked to negative HIV care continuum outcomes. We sought to understand factors associated with short and long term mobility among women in fishing communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. From 2018 through 2019 we conducted a cross-sectional survey of women aged 15 years and above, randomly selected from a census of six fishing villages, around Lake Victoria. Data collected included: demographics, risky sexual behaviour on the mos…
Geographic mobility and treatment outcomes among people in care for tuberculosis in the Lake Victoria region of East Africa
Geographic mobility may disrupt continuity of care and contribute to poor clinical outcomes among people receiving treatment for tuberculosis (TB). This may occur especially where health services are not well coordinated across international borders, particularly in lower and middle income country settings. In this work, we describe mobility and the relationship between mobility and unfavorable TB treatment outcomes (i.e., death, loss to follow-u…
Understanding traditional healer utilisation for hypertension care using the Andersen model
Hypertension disproportionately affects people living in African countries, where there are many challenges to appropriate diagnosis and treatment, and many people with hypertension utilise traditional healers as their primary source of healthcare. In this study, we sought to understand factors driving healer utilisation among people with hypertension. We conducted 52 semi-structured interviews with traditional healers, patients and healthcare pr…
I know your problems; take your bag and go home”
The findings suggest that drivers of suboptimal social and school participation among secondary schoolgirls exist at the individual, interpersonal relationship, school, and societal levels. Multi-level evidence-based multicomponent interventions to improve menstrual health at all socio-ecological levels are warranted for optimal social and school participation among schoolgirls
Ashamed of being seen in an HIV clinic”
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03858998. Registered on 01 March 2019
Self-Efficacy and One-Year HIV Outcomes for Hospitalized People with HIV in Tanzania
Examining the causal pathways through which the Daraja intervention led to sustained improvement in HIV outcomes, including retention in HIV care, ART adherence, and viral load suppression, could highlight critical mechanisms for improving post-hospital outcomes in people with HIV. This pre-specified analysis of the Daraja trial assessed five mediators identified from the Gelberg-Andersen model (self-efficacy, social support, perceived need for H…
Impact of the micro-research model on building research capacity in undergraduate health professions students in HIV-related research
BACKGROUND: Low-income settings such as Uganda bear a disproportionately high burden of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, but contribute little to knowledge production to address their health challenges. The training of health professionals traditionally focuses on clinical skills with less emphasis on research; yet, in practice, health professionals are expected to do operational research. In this study, we evaluate the impact of a micro-research model…
Medicine (13 works) · Qualitative research (9 works) · Nursing (8 works) · Psychiatry (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Public health (7 works) · Family medicine (6 works) · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions (6 works) · Biostatistics (5 works) · Environmental health (5 works)