Care-recipient perspectives on the responsiveness of Orthopedic surgical services in a tertiary center in Nigeria

Responsiveness optimisesthe system-based approach to meeting legitimate demands by healthcare recipients. This study assessed the responsiveness of orthopaedic services at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) from the perspectives of the care recipients. Methods:Descriptive cross-sectional study among 442 consecutively recruited recipients of orthopaedic services at UPTH from March to June 2020. Close-ended questionnaire with responsiveness conceptualised by five constructs: dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, quality of basic amenities and choice of care provider, each measured along 4-point response scale. The internal consistency reliability of the responsiveness scale was determined by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Descriptive (frequency, percentages, bar charts) and inferential (ordinal logistic regression) statistics were conducted and p-values ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Response rate was 97.3% and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the responsiveness scale was 0.83. Participants' mean age was 38.5±14.8years with more being males (55.8%), privately employed (34.9%) and completed secondary education (82.5%). Proportion of respondents who gave excellent ratings across responsiveness domains were dignity (32.8%), autonomy (34.2%), confidentiality (26.3%), amenities (25.8%) and no excellent rating for choice of provider. Marital, employment and visit status were the most consistent factors associated with feedback on autonomy, choice of providers, confidentiality domains.Conclusion: More orthopaedic patients were pleased with the level of autonomy and dignity than choice of providers and quality of basic amenities. There is the need for enhanced responsiveness of orthopedic services to meeting the unique needs of patients and achieving improved quality of care and patient outcomes

Women autonomy and demand for maternal health services in Nigeria: Evidence from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey

mproving women autonomy can be vital in determining the uptake of healthcare services, especially in a patriarchal society with gender rights concerns. Using the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and employing Zero Inflated Negative Binomial regression, the effect of household decision-making power with considerations to women autonomy on the demand for maternal health services in Nigeria was examined. The result of the analysis suggests that women autonomy in deciding expenditures on household healthcare services, and autonomy in deciding their income expenditures significantly increases the likelihood of demand for maternal healthcare services. On the other hand, when the husband/partner makes sole decision, as well as joint decision making concerning expenditure on household healthcare services and expenditure of woman's income reduces the likelihood of demand for maternal healthcare services in the country. This reduction was however much more when husband alone takes the decision than when decisions were taken jointly. Other socioeconomic variables like higher maternal education, and household wealth, also increased the demand for maternal healthcare services. We recommend that government should put in place policies that will help increase women's participation in household decision-making through the sensitization and capacity building initiatives such as improved educational quality for women. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[4]: 65-74).

Ethical Dilemma involving autonomy and COVID-19 testing

Background: In December 2019, an atypical form of pneumonia was discovered in Wuhan, China and it has spread to different parts of the world including Nigeria. Testing for the causative agent which is the severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus-2 is one of the strategies to contain the pandemic. For some reason, some patients with clinical symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 may refuse to be tested for the disease. Methodology: A review of studies conducted on COVID-19 testing and ethical dilemma associated with it was done using Google Scholar, PubMed and Cochrane reviews. Conclusion: Ethical dilemma exists in testing for COVID-19 as some patients may refuse testing even when it is necessary and they present with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19. The right to autonomy according to the principles of medical ethics is necessary for every medical consultation but may not be important in pandemics as the person becomes a health threat and harmful to the public.

Linkages between Autonomy; Poverty and Contraceptive Use in two Sub-Saharan African Countries

The paper presents the interaction effect of poverty-wealth status and autonomy on modern contraceptive use in Nigeria and Namibia with a view to examining whether poor women with less autonomy are less likely to use modern contraception than other women. A weighted sample of 3;451 currently married women in 2006-07 Namibia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and 23;578 in 2008 Nigeria (DHS) are used in the analysis. In Nigeria; the odd of using modern contraception is nearly 15 times higher among rich women with more autonomy than their counterparts who are poor and are less autonomous and 5.5 times higher among Namibian women. The study concluded that contraceptive behaviors of currently married women of Namibia and Nigeria are not independent of the linkage between poverty and autonomy and thus recommended that more concerted efforts be made in addressing poverty and improving the autonomous status of women in sub-Sahara Africa