Work-related psychological distress among teachers in southwest Nigeria: a rural and urban comparison

Background: The jobs of teachers involve high demand and low control, which predisposes them to psychological distress. Differences in the basic infrastructure in rural and urban areas may influence the psychological health status of teachers. Objectives: We assessed the prevalence of psychological distress and associated work-related factors among secondary school teachers in rural and urban areas of southwest Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study design was utilised. Teachers from rural (n = 578) and urban (n = 596) areas were selected using multistage sampling. Sociodemographic and occupational characteristics were recorded, and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) was used to assess psychological distress, using a cut-off score of ≥ 3 to indicate distress. Data were analysed using SPSS version 23. Chi-square analysis was used to test for differences between categorical variables and Student's t-test was used to check for differences in means. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine predictors of psychological distress. Statistical significance was set at 5%. Results: Rural-based teachers were significantly younger than those in urban locations (p = 0.013), had fewer mean years of work experience (p = 0.043), taught larger class sizes (p < 0.000), had more financial dependants (p = 0.001), and spent less time at work each day (p < 0.000). More rural- than urban-based teachers had other jobs in addition to teaching (p = 0.023). Overall, 38.1% of the teachers were psychologically distressed: 42.7% in rural and 33.6% in urban schools (p = 0.001). Factors associated with psychological distress were being married (p = 0.007), teaching in a public school (p = 0.007), and teaching > 5 subjects (p < 0.001). The adjusted odds of psychological distress were higher in teachers in rural schools (AOR 1.30, 95% CI 1.02­1.67), and in public schools (AOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.19­2.11). The adjusted odds increased by 19% for every additional subject taught, and by 2% for every hour spent teaching. Conclusion: Teachers in rural schools had more psychological distress than those in urban ones. Distress was associated with both individual and workrelated characteristics. Teachers' work conditions in rural schools need to be improved to provide an incentive for them to work and remain in remote

Knowledge and perception of family medicine among medical students at University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: Postgraduate training in Family Medicine in Nigeria began over three decades ago, but it was not until recently that the National University Commission (NUC) made it a policy for all Nigerian universities to include undergraduate Family Medicine training in their curriculum. This study aimed to assess the awareness and perception of Family Medicine among medical students at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of four weeks (June 11­July 6, 2018) among 131 fourth-year, 118 fifth-year and 163 sixth-year medical students at UCH, Ibadan. Data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: Data were collected from 309 (75% of the target population). The mean age of the respondents was 22.3 ± 2.3 years. The majority (74.4%) did not have a family member who was a doctor and only 2.3% had a family member who was specialising in Family Medicine. Most of the participants (68.9%) had good knowledge of Family Medicine, while 57.3% had good perception of Family Medicine as a specialty. Importantly, an increase in year of clerkship was associated with an increase in the knowledge of Family Medicine among the respondents. Conclusion: It was observed that with increase in length of exposure to Family Medicine as a specialty, knowledge and perception of the specialty improved among the medical students. It is imperative that all the medical schools in Nigeria implement the NUC directive and start undergraduate Family Medicine training

Parenting styles and socio-demographic dynamics associated with mental health of in-school adolescents in Ibadan, south-west Nigeria

Background: Positive parenting and enabling socio-demography, engenders good conduct in adolescence. Balanced parental demandingness and emotional responsiveness, deployed by authoritative parents, supports adolescents' mental health. Parental emotional responsiveness deters peer-pressured risky behaviours; while parental negligence, permissiveness, or demandingness encourages mental health problems. This is especially in the context of unfavourable socio-demographic setting.Aim: We aimed to evaluate parenting styles and socio-demographic factors associated with adolescents' mental health.Method: A cross-sectional multistage study was conducted with 286 in-school adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria. Data were collected with questionnaires. The questionnaires evaluated socio-demography, mental health, and perceived parenting styles using the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) and Scale of Parenting Styles (SPS) questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 21.Results: Some of the adolescents in this study, experienced peer problems (4.9%), conduct problems (9.4%), hyperactivity problems (0.7%), emotional problems (14.3%), and they lacked pro-social behaviours (11.1%). In comparison to adolescents who perceived fathers as authoritative, adolescents who perceived fathers as less demanding experienced emotional (p = 0.01) and peer (p = 0.02) problems. Perceived maternal negligence and authoritarian parenting was associated with more peer problems (1.5±2.3 and 1.3±2.2) in comparison to perceived maternal authoritative style (0.6±1.5). Most adolescents from lower social class experienced conduct (88.8%; p = 0.07) and emotional problems (73.2%; p = 0.20).Conclusion: Competent parenting style and socio-economic resources supports resilience to mental health problems in adolescents

Role of Patients' Demographic Characteristics and Spatial Orientation in Predicting Operative Difficulty of Impacted Mandibular Third Molar

Background: The influence of patient factors such as age; sex; weight; body mass index (BMI) and spatial orientation on operative difficulty of impacted mandibular third molar (M3) surgery is a subject of controversy in the literature. Aim: To assess the risk indicators of operative difficulty of mandibular third molar surgery at our institution. Subjects and Methods: A descriptive cross.sectional study involving patients that presented for wisdom tooth extraction between January 2010 and December 2011. The correlation between patientsf factors such as age; sex; weight; height; BMI; radiographic spatial relationship of the impacted tooth and operation time was determined with Spearmanfs rank correlation coefficient. Statistically significant variables were selected for multiple regression analysis to determine which factors contribute most to operative difficulty of M3. P value was set at 0.05. Statistical analysis used SPSS 17.0. Results: Only patientsf age and radiographic spatial relationship showed a statistically significant correlation with operation time (P = 0.038 and 0.008; respectively). Linear regression analysis of patientsf age and angulation of M3 showed that both contribute 44.8 risk of increased operation time (regression coefficient = 0.448); with M3 angulation contributing more significantly to increase in operation time (P = 0.001) than increasing age of the patient (P = 0.005). Conclusions: Findings from this study have shown that increasing age of the patient and the angulation of M3 impaction increases the risk of operative difficulty of the impacted M3 significantly