A comparative cross-sectional assessment of the preventive and healthy life style practices of doctors in port Harcourt, Rivers State

Lifestyle modification in relation to disease prevention and outcome has recently received increasing awareness around the world and in Nigeria. Poor lifestyle choices make people susceptible to many chronic illnesses including thirteen cancers. Medical doctors are gate keepers and educators of health.Objectives:The aim of the study was to assess the level of knowledge of healthy living and preventive health among doctors in Port-Harcourt and ascertain the practices and to investigate the barriers and facilitators of healthy living among doctors in Port-Harcourt.Methods: It was a comparative cross-sectional study with purposive sampling method. The tool used was an online questionnaire. MS Excel and SPSS was used for data analysis. Ethical approval was obtained from UPTH ethical committee. Results: A total of 201 doctors participated. With 54.7% being females and 53.2% within the 30-40 years age group. Resident doctors accounted for 42.8%. 92% received some form of lifestyle education; seminars (48.1%), CME's (47.0%), and social media (44.9%) were the top three. Just 15.2% knew what the daily portion of fruit was and 82.6% knew the cut off for obesity. 50% were aware of the recommended exercise frequency. 60% concluded that adults should sleep for 7-9 hours, however, 61.2% slept for 4-6 hours a day. 84.6% of respondents did not have a dedicated physician.Conclusion: There is a knowledge gap among doctors which impacts everyday lifestyle choices regarding, diet, exercise and rest. More doctors need their own personal physicians and hospital management should establish strong lifestyle policies.

Abrupt introduction of distance learning during the covid­19 pandemic: What psychological impact on teachers?

As soon as the COVID 19 , the Moroccan education ministry decided to adopt distance learning (DL). Our target was to study the psychological impact of DL on Moroccan teachers during the pandemic. This cross-sectional study used an online questionnaire based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Among %, and the average age was 41.1±11.5 years. 79.1% participated in DL, 58.8% were required to acquire DL tools and 71.6% had never received DL training. Between the start and the end of confinement, we noticed a decrease in the motivation of teachers.36.2% had definite depressive symptomatology and 41.3% had certain anxiety symptomatology with a significant predominance in women. The frequencies of depression and anxiety were higher in those who had participated in DL, but the association was not significant. Depression was significantly frequent among teachers who were obliged to acquire tools to practice DL P=0.02, those who had never received training DL P=0.046, and those who were not satisfied with the situation P=0.03. We didn't find a direct association between DL and anxiety and depression, which the small sample size may explain, but we did find an association with the variables related to DL

Current Practice of adolescent preventive services among paediatric residents in Nigeria

Background. There has been a growing recognition of the challenge of Nigerian adolescents' health issues and the need to address it. Adolescent preventive services (APS) constitute an effective mechanism to reduce adolescent morbidities. Objective. To evaluate the current practice of APS among Nigerian paediatric residents. Methods. For this cross-sectional survey, we designed an anonymous questionnaire based on Guidelines of APS of the American Medical Association to elicit information on residents' current practice regarding screening adolescents for specific morbidities. Results. A total of 103 residents participated in the study; nearly 60% were from federal teaching hospitals. The majority (78.6%) attended to adolescents at least once a week. In the last month, the adolescent medicine service most commonly provided by respondents was general health guidance (66.7%). Altogether, less than one-fifth of the residents have recently asked at least two specific questions to screen adolescents for eating disorders, violence, safety issues, depression, substance or sexual abuse. Senior registrars were more likely than registrars to screen adolescents for hypertension (75.0% v. 29.1%, p=0.032), depression (50.0% v. 16.5%, p=0.043) and abuse (62.5% v. 22.1%, p=0.023). Also, residents with <5 years in practice were more likely to screen for relationship issues (p=0.045).Conclusion. The current level of practice of APS is low among paediatric residents in Nigeria. There is a need to restructure their ongoing practice and training to emphasise preventive paediatrics and other issues pertinent to adolescent care

Health Risk Behaviors of High School Learners and their Perceptions of Preventive Services offered by General Practitioners

"Background: Adolescence spans nearly a decade in which young people may initiate health risk behaviors like unsafe sexual practices and alcohol; tobacco and other drugs use (ATOD use). Most adolescent mortality and morbidity; attributable to such health risk behaviors; are preventable. Managing the consequences of health risk behaviors is costly and does not reduce the number of young people initiating these unhealthy lifestyle choices. The emphasis needs to shift towards the provision of adolescent primary and secondary preventive services. Overseas efforts involve national health risk behavior screening; the application of national guidelines for primary health care workers in all contexts and continuing evaluation so that appropriate region specific policies can be instituted. With the completion of our second South African National Health Risk Behavior survey and the implementation and evaluation of the National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative in government clinics; we lack national guidelines for the primary health care worker to administer adolescent preventive services. Furthermore; the NAFCI initiative does not involve the general practitioner in the private sector. The aim of the research is to assess how the economically disadvantaged youth from public schools access the private sector general practitioner for preventive services related to health risk behaviors. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among senior high school learners (Grades 10; 11 and 12) from 18 randomly selected secondary public; co-educa -tional schools with an ordinary curriculum in the Johannesburg educational districts; during the first three school terms of 2002. A self administered research questionnaire was used to ascertain learners self reported involvement in health risk behaviors and their interaction with their GP in dealing with these health risk behaviors. Results: 1139 learners completed the research questionnaires. 1. Learners reported a high prevalence of health risk behaviors: 65for alcohol use; 57for sexual activity; 39for tobacco use and 15for drug use. 2. The predominant pattern of substance use was the experimental pattern of having tried these substances: 40for cigarette use; 53for alcohol use; 54for injected drug use and 57for other drug use. The majority of sexually active adolescents were practicing unsafe sex (55had multiple partners; 52without condoms and 28without family planning). 3. Learners reported a high prevalence of coexisting health risk behaviors: 44for alcohol use and sexual activity; 36for tobacco and alcohol use and 26for tobacco use and sexual activity. 4. Risk perception was lower for sexual activity (25felt in danger and 5felt affected) than for substance use (an average of 82felt in danger and 40felt affected). Of the 1139 learners; only 271 learners (24) had a GP in private practice. 1. The adolescent-GP interaction was favorable for preventive service delivery: 70of learners had medical aid cover; 41were seeing their GP for more than five years; 92were the ""family?? doctor; 80had visited their GP in the past 6 months and 60had consulted on their own at least once. 2. Primary preventive service delivery to those not involved in health risk behaviors was poor: 28for sexual activity; 24for drug use; 23for alcohol use and 19for tobacco use. 3. Uncovering of health risk behaviors occurred to varying degrees: 40for sexual activity; 18with alcohol use; 18with tobacco use and 11with drug use. 4. Secondary preventive service delivery to those involved in health risk behaviors was better: averages of 89for sexual activity; 84for drug use; 54for tobacco use and 38for alcohol use. Statistically significant learner and general practitioner demographics highlighted the complex dynamics involved in this interaction. Conclusions: The study showed that adolescents from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have a high prevalence of health risk behaviors but utilize the general practice resource to a limited degree. Despite the interaction between adolescent and general practitioner being conducive to the receipt of primary and secondary preventive services; this was not optimal"

Implementing a community-based tuberculosis programme in the Omaheke region of Namibia: nurses' perceived challenges

Tuberculosis (TB) is a resurgent disease in many regions of the world; including Namibia; fuelled by poor TB control programmes; human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and poverty. The purpose of this survey was to identify nurses' perceived challenges in implementing a community-based TB programme in the Omaheke region of Namibia. Structu- red interviews were conducted with 40 nurses involved in providing TB treatment and care in the Omaheke region. Patient-related challenges which hampered TB treatment included alcohol and drug abuse; poverty and stigma. Lack of transport for nurses to do community-based TB work; centralised TB services and patients' lack of transport were access-related challenges. Knowledge-related challenges involved a lack of TB knowledge by both nurses and community members. The HIV pandemic has increased the number of TB patients and increased nurses' workloads; aggravating the burden of TB as a resurgent disease in this region. Decentralisation of TB care to community and family levels would be necessary to reduce the number of people with active TB in the community; and to enhance the TB cure rates; in the Omaheke region of Namibia. In order to implement a successful communitybased TB programme; the patient-related; access-related and knowledge-related challenges; perceived by the nurses; need to be addressed effectively

Missed opportunities for immunisation at Kasungu

"This study aimed to quantify the frequency with which women of child-bearing age and children of less than 23 months have ""missed opportunities"" i.e have an incomplete immunisation schedule; are seen by a health worker at a facility where vaccination is available; and yet leave without being immunised"

Missed opportunities for immunisation at Kasungu

"This study aimed to quantify the frequency with which women of child-bearing age and children of less than 23 months have ""missed opportunities"" i.e have an incomplete immunisation schedule; are seen by a health worker at a facility where vaccination is available; and yet leave without being immunised"

Strategies to improve immunization services in urban Africa

The urban poor constitute a rapidly increasing proportion of the population in developing countries. Focusing attention on underserved urban slums and squatter settlements will contribute greatly to immunization programme goals, because these areas account for 30-50% of urban populations, usually provide low access to health services, carry a large burden of disease mortality, and act as sources of infection for the city and surrounding rural areas. Improvement of urban immunization programmes requires intersectorial collaboration, use of all opportunities to vaccinate eligible children and mothers, identification of low-coverage neighbourhoods and execution of extra activities in these neighbourhoods, and community mobilization to identify and refer persons for vaccination. Improved disease surveillance helps to identify high-risk populations and document programme impact. New developments in vaccines, such as the high-dose Edmonston-Zagreb vaccine, will allow changes in the immunization schedule that facilitate the control of specific diseases. Finally, operational research can assist managers to conduct urban situation assessments, evaluate programme performance at the "micro" level, and design and monitor interventions

Some facts on child survival and some ways to achieve it

Provides the reader some information on diseases which are a major cause of death and suffering of children within the 0-4 age group