Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Diabetes Mellitus in Public Secondary Schools Teachers in Ekiti State

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a non-communicable disease and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. The estimated prevalence of diabetes in Africa is 1% in rural areas and ranges from 5% to 7% in urban sub-Saharan Africa. 3 Nigeria is the most populous country in African and she contributes about one sixth of the Africa's diabetic population. This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and accessing its risk factors among public secondary school teachers in Ekiti State. Methodology: This survey is a cross-sectional study carried out among 357 public school teachers in Ekiti State using a multi stage sampling technique. Data was gathered using a semi structured questionnaire and Accu Check Glucometer machine for Fasting Blood Sugar. Analysis was done using SPSS version 23 and level of significance was taken as P = 0.05. Result: Mean age was 42.9±9.2 years. Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus was 5.6%. Family history (15%), Alcohol intake (14.0%) and smoking (11.2%) were major risk factors in the respondents. Poor vision is the main complication being experienced by the respondents (40.3%). Predictors of Diabetes Mellitus as found by this study include increasing age (starting from above 40years), cigarette smoking, alcohol intake and positive family history. Conclusion: Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus is high compared to what it was before. Alcohol intake, smoking and family history were major risk factors while poor vision is the commonest complication. It is recommended that all efforts must be made to put in mechanism that will halt this undesired progression through control of risk factors.

Assessment of Willingness to pay for Community-Based Health Insurance among Artisans in a selected Community of Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria

Background: Community-based health insurance (CBHI) has emerged as a more efficient and equitable approach to healthcare financing. It was designed to ensure that sufficient resources are made available for members to access effective healthcare. This study assessed the willingness to pay (WTP) for CBHI among artisans in a town in Ekiti State, South West Nigeria. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted among 416 artisans in a town in Ekiti State. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was designed and used for data collection on sociodemographic data and WTP for CBHIS. Data entry and analysis was done using IBM SPSS software version 25.0. Results: The mean age and standard deviation of the respondents was 29.7±10.9 years with male to female ratio of 1:1.4. Most of the respondents were willing to pay (86.3%) and willing to enroll other household members (73.6%) in the CBHI. A large percentage (44.3%) of those willing to pay were ready to pay between ₦1,000-₦5,000 (US$2.63­US$13.16) per year while 39.6% preferred frequency of payment to be annually. Positive predictors of WTP for CBHI were age groups ≥50 years and 40-49 years than <20 years (AOR:13.270, 95%CI: 1.597-110.267; AOR:142.996, 95%CI: 10.689-1913.009). Females than males (AOR:9.155, 95%CI: 3.680-22.775), tertiary level of education than no formal of education (AOR:23.420, 95%CI: 1.648-850.921), no children than ≥5 children (AOR:20.099, 95%CI: 2.705-149.364), earn ≥₦30,000 (US$78.95) than <₦30,000 (AOR:2.248, 95%CI: 1.278-6.499). often and somethings fall ill than seldom fall ill (AOR:6.505, 95%CI: 1.623-26.065; AOR:4.889, 95%CI: 1.674-14.279) Conclusion: WTP for CBHI was high among the artisans, however, there is a variation across the amount and frequency of payment. Therefore, policy that is flexible enough to allow artisans enroll and pay a premium that is affordable, at an acceptable frequency, should be formulated by the Government.

Estimation of staute from toe lengths: an evaluation of the Hausa population in Nigeria using linear modeling

Background: Statue determination has remained a basic requirement in determining human identity and ethnicity. Usually in situations when whole anatomical structures are unavailable, forensic expert would be expected to rely on smaller structures such as the phalanges, patella ribs and other fragmentary bones. Aim: The present study evaluates toe anthropometry and its usability as predictors of the stature of the Hausa ethnic group in Nigeria. Methods: Six hundred and sixty four (664) subjects comprising of equal percentage of adult males and females were included in the study group. Toe lengths of both feet (coded as big toe or first toe [1T] to the fifth toes [5T]) were measured using a digital Vernier calliper with accuracy of 0.01mm while stature was taken using a stadiometer with accuracy of 0.1m. SPSS (IBM®) t-test was to evaluate gender difference in the measured dimensions; while SPSS and XLSTAT (2015) Automatic & Generalized Linear Modelling were used to determine the predictability of stature from the toe lengths. The significance level was set at 95% as P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The automatic (multiple) regression analysis showed that the males displayed significantly higher mean values than the females for all measured parameters (P<0.001). The general population regression formulae were derived and only three (3) variables (R2T, R5T and L3T) significant contributors to the models for stature prediction for the general Gp (R2=0.385, F[3, 660]=137.68, P<0.001) and female F (R2=0.137, F[3, 328]=17.367, P<0.001) population, while only the L.1T could predict male M stature (R2=0.139, F[1, 330] = 54.489, P<0.001). Single regression gender-specific formulae were derived for the measurements that provided significant R2 values. Conclusion: This study suggested that estimation of a stature of Hausa ethnic group could be made possible by using specific toe measurements. However, lengths of toe may not be so reliable in the estimation of stature, but could be used for sex discrimination in forensic investigation

A Cross-sectional Survey of the Willingness of Tertiary Hospital Staff to Donate Blood in Sagamu, Nigeria

Background: Available donor blood rarely meets the demand in sub-Saharan Africa due to obstacles to blood donation. Willingness to donate blood is adjudged an important step to the actual practice of donating blood.Objective: To assess the willingness of the members of staff of the hospital to donate blood and determine factors affecting their willingness or otherwise.Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A proportional allocation of participants was carried out at the various departments in the hospital using self-administered questionnaire. Results: Overall, 183 (73%) of the 246 respondents expressed willingness to donate blood, 111(45%) of whom have been asked to donate blood in the past. Only 91(37%) had donated blood in the past. Significantly higher proportion of health staff showed the willingness to donate blood generally and voluntarily compared to non-health staff. Significantly higher proportion of respondents with tertiary education showed the willingness to donate blood. Two hundred and eighteen (88.8%) were willing to donate blood to help the patient in need while fear of exposure to HIV infection, needle prick and dizziness constituted the major factors discouraging blood donation (19.9%, 18.7% and 18.3% respectively.Conclusion: Willingness to donate blood was mostly based on the primordial motivation of helping the patient in need which does not translate to blood donation. There is a need to improve awareness and advocacy on blood donation among hospital staff and the general population

Bioactive constituents and antibacterial screening of two nigerian plant extracts against selected clinical bacteria

Background: The growing desires to combat antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria necessitate the need to search for new antimicrobials agents from other sources such as plants.Objectives: The present study investigated the antibacterial activities and bioactive components of Nymphaea lotus and Spondias mombin against selected clinical bacteria.Material and Methods: Extracts of N. lotus and S. mombin were prepared by 72 hours maceration in 70% methanol. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Citrobacter freundi and, Klebsiella oxytoca against the two extracts was carried out by disk diffusion method while minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) was by agar-well dilution and broth dilution method, respectively. The bioactive compounds of the plants were identified by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis.Results: Extracts of N. lotus showed better antimicrobial activities than S. mombin against all the clinical bacterial isolates with an MIC range of 3.13 ­ >12.5mg/mL compared to S. mombin with MIC range of 6.25 ­ >12.5mg/mL. The GC-MS results revealed the presence of 21 and 25 compounds for N. lotus and S. mombin respectively. Benzoic acid derivatives were in abundance in both plants with approximately 71.5% and 82.1% in N. lotus and S. mombin respectively.Conclusions: The findings from this study provided further evidence on their ethno-botanical claims and additional information on the potentials of the studied plants as effective medicinal plants with antimicrobial activity against clinical bacteria. This highlights the need for continuous exploration of medicinal plants for novel compounds with better antimicrobial property as option for the treatment of resistant bacterial infection

The Relationship between Basal Blood Pressure and Body Mass Index in Apparently Healthy Nigerian Adolescent Students

Background: In contrast to the situation in developed countries, very few studies have been done on blood pressure (BP) determinants among Nigerian adolescents. Aim: To evaluate the relationship between basal BP and body mass index (BMI) in a group of healthy Nigerian secondary school students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 1080 adolescent students selected by a two-stage multi-phase cluster sampling technique. The height, weight and BP of each student were taken using standard methods. Pearson correlation was used to describe the strength of association between variables. Multiple stepwise regressions were conducted to determine the individual or combined contribution(s) of some variables to the variation in BP levels.Results: Mean BMI for males and females were 17.63 ± 2.54 kg/m2 and 18.87 ± 1.81 kg/m2 respectively. Forty six students (4.3%) were overweight. Mean systolic and diastolic BPs were 113.13 + 11.44 mm Hg and 68.29 + 8.07 mm Hg respectively. Thirty-five subjects (3.2%) had systolic or diastolic BP above the 95th percentile for age and sex. Twenty-four (68.6%) of these subjects were also found to be overweight. A moderate positive correlation was observed between both systolic and diastolic BP and BMI. Regression analysis showed that weight, height and BMI were predictors of systolic BP. Height and BMI were the only predictors of diastolic BP. Conclusion: These findings suggest that there is a moderate association between basal BP and BMI