Welcome to Maria van der Merwe’s publications list. Please feel free to browse the selection below and contact Maria if you have any questions or comments.
Peer reviewed
Hove J, D’Ambruoso L, Twine R, Mabetha D, Van der Merwe, M, Mtungwa I, Khoza S, Kahn K & Witter S. Developing stakeholder participation to address lack of safe water as a community health concern in a rural province in South Africa. Global Health Action, 2021;14:1, 1973715.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2021.1973715
Van der Merwe M, D’Ambruoso L, Witter S, Twine R, Mabetha D, Hove J, Byass P, Tollman S & Kahn K. Collective reflections on the first cycle of a collaborative learning platform to strengthen rural primary health care in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Health Research Policy and Systems, 2021; 19:66.
https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12961-021-00716-y
Swart R, Van der Merwe M, Spires M & Drimie S. Child-centred food systems: Ensuring healthy diets for children. In: May J, Witten C & Lake L (eds) South African Child Gauge 2020. Cape Town: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.
Cowan E, D’Ambruoso L, Van der Merwe M, Witter S, Byass P, Ameh S, Wagner RG and Twine R. Understanding non-communicable diseases: combining health surveillance with local knowledge to improve rural primary health care in South Africa. Global Health Action, 2021; 14:1, 1852781.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2020.1852781
Oladeinde O, Mabetha D, Twine R, Hove J, Van der Merwe M, Byass P, Witter S, Kahn K and D’Ambruoso L. Building cooperative learning to address alcohol and other drug abuse in Mpumalanga, South Africa: a participatory action research process. Global Health Action, 2020;13:e1726722.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2020.1726722
Witter S, Van der Merwe M, Twine R, Mabetha D, Hove J, Goosen G and D’Ambruoso L. Verbal autopsy with participatory action research (VAPAR) programme in Mpumalanga, South Africa: protocol for evaluation. BMJ Open, 2020;10:e3036597.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/2/e036597
Hussain-Alkhateeb L, D’Ambruoso L, Tollman S, Kahn K, Van der Merwe M, Twine R, Schiöler L & Petzold M. Enhancing the value of mortality data for health systems: adding Circumstances Of Mortality CATegories (COMCATs) to deaths investigated by verbal autopsy. Global Health Action, 2019;12(1):31680068.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2019.1680068
Schneider H, Van der Merwe M, Marutla B, Cupido C and Kauchali S. The whole is more than the sum of the parts: establishing an enabling health system environment for reducing acute child malnutrition in a rural South African district. Health Policy and Planning, 2019, 34(6):430-439.
https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/34/6/430/5529295
D’Ambruoso L, Van der Merwe M, Oghenebrume W, Byass P, Goosen G, Kahn K, Masinga S, Mokoena V, Spies B, Tollman S, Witter S and Twine R. Rethinking collaboration: developing a learning platform to address under 5 mortality in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. Health Policy and Planning, 2019, 34(6):418-429.
https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/34/6/418/5523687
Hove J, D’Ambruoso L, Mabetha D, Van der Merwe M, Byass P, Kahn K, Khoza S, Witter S and Twine R. “Water is life”- developing community participation for clean water in rural South Africa. British Medical Journal Global Health, 2019;4:e001377
https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/3/e001377
Schiever J, Visser J, Van der Merwe M and Nel DG. Evaluation of nutrition care to adult patients on HAART attending primary healthcare facilities in Mpumalanga. South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2018;32(1):13-20.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16070658.2017.1412183
Bhardwaj S, Pattinson R, Kauchali S, Dlamini N, Marshall C, Van der Merwe M and Barron P. Implementation of strategies to improve programme effectiveness lead to an improvement in maternal and child health outcomes in South Africa. South African Medical Journal, March 2018;108(Suppl 1):s44-s49.
https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-d2091d3c3
Grobler L, Durao S, Van der Merwe M, Wessels J and Naude C E. Nutritional supplements for people being treated for active tuberculosis: A technical summary. South African Medical Journal, January 2018;108(1):16-18.
http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/view/12176
Wariri O, D’Ambruoso L, Twine R, Ngobeni S, Van der Merwe M, Spies B, Kahn K, Tollman S, Wagner R and Byass P. Initiating a participatory action research process in the Agincourt health and socio-demographic surveillance site. Journal of Global Health, 2017;7(1):e010413.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28685035
D’Ambruoso L, Kahn K, Wagner RG, Twine R, Spies B, Van Der Merwe M, Gomez-Olicve X, Tollman S and Byass L. Moving from medical to health systems classifications of deaths: extending verbal autopsy to collect information on the circumstances of mortality. Global Health Research and Policy, 2016;1(2).
https://ghrp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41256-016-0002-y
Van der Merwe SM, Du Plessis L and Jooste H. Comparison of infant feeding practices between two sub-districts with different baby friendly status in Mpumalanga province. South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015;28(3):121-127.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16070658.2015.11734546
Reports
D’Ambruoso L, Abbott P and Van der Merwe M. South Africa case study: Building support and policy change for integrated school health. Fostering policy support for family and child health and wellbeing. November 2019.
https://www.tarsc.org/publications/documents/FCH-South%20Africa%20case%20study2019.pdf
Conferences – oral presentations
D’Ambruoso L, Twine R, Ngobeni S, Van der Merwe M, Spies B, Wariri O, Kahn K, Tollman S, Wagner RG, Byass P (2016). Capturing community priorities: using participatory action research to examine child mortality in the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, South Africa. 5th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, Vancouver. 14-18 November 2016.
Conferences – poster presentations
Schiever JF, Visser J and Van der Merwe M. Evaluation of nutrition care to adult patients on HAART attending Primary Healthcare facilities in Mpumalanga. South African National Nutrition Congress 2016, Somerset West. 3-5 September 2016.
Invited talks
‘Evaluation of a learning platform to strengthen primary health care in rural Mpumalanga.’ MRC / Wits Agincourt Unit academic meeting, online. 18 June 2021.
‘WHO Code – global perspective and national update.’ Western Cape Government Provincial Breastfeeding Webinar, online. 28 August 2020.
‘Global nutrition equity – the new buzzword but what does it mean.’ ADSA lunchtime forum on Economics, Food and Nutrition: relationships between these concepts in the time of COVID-19 and beyond, online. 8 July 2020.
‘Poverty and hunger: fact or fiction in a South African COVID-19 context’. ADSA lunchtime forum on Economics, Food and Nutrition, online. 1 July 2020
Van der Merwe M. “Making grains whole again”. Plant based eating symposium of the Mpumalanga branch of the Association for Dietetics in South Africa, Schoemanskloof. 20 November 2019.
Van der Merwe M. “Packing a punch with plants”. Plant based eating symposium of the Mpumalanga branch of the Association for Dietetics in South Africa, Schoemanskloof. 20 November 2019.
Van der Merwe M and Botha M. Infant feeding recommendations, regulations and practices – the South African story. Updates on feeding the South African child – symposium of the Nutrition Society of South Africa Northern Branch, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, 15 September 2017.
Van der Merwe M. Breastmilk expression, storage and banking. Sensitive Midwifery Symposium, Nelspruit, 25 August 2016.
Van der Merwe M. Classification and management of malnutrition in children. Association for Dietetics in South Africa Lowveld branch symposium, Nelspruit, 12 March 2014.
Van der Merwe M. Regulations relating to foodstuffs for infants and young children – From Code to Practice. Association for Dietetics in South Africa Mpumalanga Highveld symposium, Ermelo, 29 October 2013.
Van der Merwe M. Impact of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative on infant feeding. Gauteng Breastfeeding Forum Symposium, Centurion, 30 August 2013.