Many researchers worldwide report that health behaviours tend to be highly clustered, and can be addressed simultaneously. Yet, more remains unknown than known about how to optimize multiple preventive health behaviour change to mitigate health risks associated with noncommunicable diseases, which currently presents major public health concerns, and represents the greatest global health security threats in the future. There are emerging shifts in epidemiology of these chronic diseases, not only by gender, socioeconomic status, disability, ethnicity, but most recently by age-albeit subject characteristics, as they are increasingly causing premature deaths. Nevertheless, the problem remains a neglected public health issue in Uganda, and at Makerere University in particular. A cross-sectional sample of 381 undergraduate female students completed the self-administered questionnaire, whose results were subjected to binary logistic regression modeling to determine extents to which subject characteristics influenced adoption of preventive health behaviours. Multivariate regression models suggest that course of study significantly (p=.013) influenced physician visits, with adjusted odds ratio of 0.32. Pentecostal (p=.018) and Anglican (p=.002) affiliations significantly influenced screening behaviour, with corresponding odd ratios of 0.37 and 0.34. Pentecostal (p= .021), like Science course (p=.030) significantly influenced physical activity, with corresponding odds ratios of 0.34 and 0.44. With respect to multiple preventive health behaviours, only course of study showed significant (p=.036) influence on adoption of all three desired behaviours, with adjusted odds ratio of 3.15. The study contributes to body of knowledge on multiple health behavioral change and the healthy Universities concept. Future health promotions should consider issues around equitable access to essential information, and take advantage of religious places of worship and leaders to channel messaging.

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Background: This study aims to test effectiveness of animalcellphone based disease surveillance and reporting model for Yersinia pestis, a primarily flea-borne bacteria that causes animal and human plague. In Uganda, Y. pestis is believed to be maintained in the wild rodents by Arvicanthis niloticus and Crocidura spp. These natural reservoirs do not develop clinical plague, unlike the domestic rat "Rattus rattus", which die in large numbers when infected. Upon deaths, rodent fleas go on rampage for alternative source of blood meals, putting humans at risk of Y. pestis infection.Methods & Materials: This study utilizes Rattus rattus die offs "Rat Fall" to monitor transmission of Y. pestis in the rodent populations. Village Health Teams (VHTs) from 85 utmost risk villages were trained and equipped to safely collect and report carcasses. When village members report rodent die offs, the frontline VHTs collect and deliver to the carcass the plague laboratory. A toll free land line was installed in the laboratory for effective communication. Following a positive carcass, ecological investigation, health education and Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) are undertaken in the case village. The study also tracks time lags between major events, right from time the rodent carcass was reported, to time when IRS or any other appropriate response is undertaken by the health authorities.Results: Since inception in July 2013, 15 out of 435 rodent carcasses from 10 different villages; have tested positive for Y. pestis. The average time elapsed from VHT reporting rodent die off to VHT receiving laboratory results ranged from 1-3 days, while days elapsed to IRS ranged from less than 5 to more than 30. Rattus rattus constituted over 76% of all reported carcasses, the others were Arvicanthis niloticus (14.5%), Crocidura Spp. (1.8%), Mastomys Spp.(1.8%), Mouse (1.4%), Zelotomys hildegardeae (0.9%), Lophuomys silkapusi (0.5%), and unidentified (3.4%). Human cases reduced drastically from 153 in 2008 to a low of 6 in 2014, and only 1 in 2015.Conclusion: Partial results from this study suggest that animalbased disease surveillance and reporting models can be effective in reducing human plague in remote settings like the West Nile Uganda where the disease is endemic.

Despite increasing knowledge of potential benefits of research utilization in improving quality of healthcare management decision (HMDs) outcomes and practice, the use of research evidence by healthcare authorities continues to be a global concern. We examined individual predictors of research utilization in management decisions of healthcare authorities in a local government's context of Arua district in West Nile Uganda. The observational cross-sectional survey design was used, involving 225 questionnaires and nine key informant interviews, and the extent of influence of individual variables on research uptake was determined by estimation of predicted probabilities, and the corresponding odds ratios and coefficients using the binary logistic regression model. The results reveal that research utilization was significantly influenced by individual characteristics, whose overall predicted probability was 0.030 (p<0.05) with attitudinal variables being most significant, whereby belief in research-based HMDs (p= 0.020) or improved quality of HMDs (p= 0.012) recorded high corresponding odds ratios. Hence, the study substantiates the multifactorial nature of research utilization, being influenced to varying extents by individual factors, and emphasizes attitudinal change, information sharing and capacity building to increase uptake.