The Sub-Saharan African MuSculOskeletal Network - SAMSON

SAMSON is a research network across West, East and Southern Africa.

SAMSON aims to:

  1. Build sustainable capacity in Musculoskeletal Health Research by creating a collaborative research platform
  2. Share learning in Musculoskeletal Health Research through the life course to reduce the burden of Musculoskeletal disease
  3. Inform health policy, promote training, research capacity development, knowledge transfer and public engagement through the life course for Musculoskeletal disease
  4. Provide guidance to standardise methods for Musculoskeletal assessment across Sub-Saharan Africa

Research Outputs by SAMSON partners

Sex-Specific Associations Between Cardiac Workload, Peripheral Vascular Calcification, and Bone Mineral Density: The Gambian Bone and Muscle Aging Study
- The GamBAS Study
The IMpact of Vertical HIV infection on child and Adolescent SKeletal development in Harare, Zimbabwe (IMVASK Study): a protocol for a prospective cohort study
- The IMVASK Study
Osteoporosis, Rather Than Sarcopenia, Is the Predominant Musculoskeletal Disease in a Rural South African Community Where Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevalence Is High: A Cross-Sectional Study
Pregnancy-Related Change in pQCT and Bone Biochemistry in a Population With a Habitually Low Calcium Intake
Intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate accentuates bone loss associated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate-containing antiretroviral therapy initiation in young women living with HIV
Nutrition in adolescent growth and development
Effect of HIV infection on growth and bone density in peripubertal children in the era of antiretroviral therapy: a cross-sectional study in Zimbabwe
- The IMVASK Study

News from SAMSON researchers

Launch of the MUFASSA Study
Global Call to Action on fragility fractures - News from the Fragility Fracture Network
Congratulations to Cynthia Kahari, 2020 Recipient of the ASBMR Phoebe Leboy Professional Development Award!

Workshops

Fractures E3 Work Package 1 Training - The Gambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe 21st-31st January 2022

This in-depth six day workshop was delivered by Fractures E3 Investigators from in-country teams and the Universities of Bristol and Southampton. This hybrid event facilitated the successful delivery of both in-person and online training across all three sites. The event, consisting of day long sessions, and provided each in-country research team with training on study methods, study tools and data management, data collection and recording, sampling, consenting, questionnaires, anthropometry and physical measures, measures and test, bloods and imaging for the vertebral fractures prevalence and in-depth musculoskeletal phenotyping study.

Fractures E3 Work Package 2 Training - The Gambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe 24 Jan- 4th Feb 2022

These were held in The Gambia and Zimbabwe on 24 Jan- 4th Feb 2022. The teams from across UK sites, Bristol, Oxford and Southampton, and in-country teams ran a ten day workshop training on hip fracture incidence, recruitment, identification, management, GCP, anthropometry and physical assessment. Workshops were attended by fieldworkers, imaging assistants, research assistants, study nurses and data management.

Epidemiological and Statistical Methods and Musculoskeletal Research Training Workshop, Harare, Zimbabwe. 11th - 13th March 2019

<p>This three-day workshop built on the successes of our 2018 research training workshop, to deliver a two-day international, multi-disciplinary programme of epidemiology and statistical training. Day three was dedicated to training in the practical conduct of forearm pQCT and the analysis of bone age on hand and wrist radiographs. This workshop was funded through a University of Bristol GCRF Global Impact Acceleration Account grant from the UKRI entitled &lsquo;Musculoskeletal Knowledge Exchange between Zimbabwe and Bristol; a SAMSON initiative&rsquo;.</p>

Strategic Workshop, Durban, South Africa, 16th-20th July 2018

This meeting brought together a multi-disciplinary, international group of principal investigators who aim together to submit successful global health funding applications. This workshop was funded through University of Bristol Global Challenges Research Funding and Academy of Medical Sciences GCRF Networking Funding and hosted by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Musculoskeletal Research Training Workshop, Harare, Zimbabwe, 19th-22nd March 2018

This 4 day workshop was designed for researchers in Zimbabwe who are working, or planning to work, in the field of musculoskeletal health research.

SAMSON partners include:

Makerere University, Uganda
MRC Unit The Gambia
The Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI), Zimbabwe
The University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), South Africa
The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
University of Bristol, UK
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology, University of Southampton, UK
Nuffield Department of Orthopedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences
University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Zambia

SAMSON is open to new partners. This website is currently under development and we welcome user feedback.

info@theSAMSON.org