Ownership of mobile phones and willingness to receive childhood immunisation reminder messages among caregivers of infants in Ondo State, south-western Nigeria

Background. The timely completion of the childhood immunisation schedule for children under the age of 1 year by caregivers is key to reducing the high morbidity and mortality of vaccine-preventable diseases among infantsglobally.Objective. To determine the ownership of mobile phones among caregivers of children under the age of 1 year, their knowledge about immunisation service delivery and willingness to receive childhood immunisation schedule reminder messages in Ondo State, south-western Nigeria.Method. A descriptive cross-sectional study using semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaires was conducted with 615 caregivers of infants, who brought their children to clinics conducting immunisation in 24 health facilities in rural, semi-urban and urban settlements in Ondo State in December 2014.Results. The mean (standard deviation, SD) age of respondents was 28.49 (6.01) years, 76.7% were Yoruba, 91.4% were married and living with their spouses and 4.2% were single. Mobile phone ownership was 74.5% among rural-based respondents, and 95.8% among urbanbased.Forty-six percent of the respondents had good knowledge of immunisation, vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccination schedules,while 27.5% had poor knowledge. The majority of the respondents (99.7%) were willing to receive childhood immunisation reminder messages on their mobile phones. About 50% of the respondents preferred to receive reminder messages at any time, rather than specific times. The most preferred language for reminders was English (54.5%). Residing in an urban area and having post-secondary education were predictors of mobile phone ownership.Conclusion. The high mobile phone ownership level, and the willingness of caregivers of infants in this study area to receive immunisation schedule reminder messages, is encouraging, and should be optimised to improve routine immunisation uptake. However, caregivers of infants in rural areas need to be provided with mobile phone support, and trained in their usage in order to benefit from such an intervention in childhood immunisation

Indications and outcome of tracheostomy in Ilorin, North Central Nigeria: 10 years review

Background: The study aims to highlight common indications as well as outcome of treatment among patients with tracheostomy in Ilorin, North-Central Nigeria. Methods: A review of clinical records of all patients with tracheostomy over a period of ten years (2002-2011), using the Theatre, Ward, ICU and the emergency register after approval from the ethical review committee. Data retrieved included; demographic profile, primary diagnosis, indication for tracheostomy, surgical technique, hospital admission and care outcome of management. All information retrieved input and analysed using an SPSS version 17.0 and data analyzed descriptively. Results: Seventy-six patients had complete data for analysis, age range from 1-89yrs, and mean age of 41.9yrs. There are 48males and 28 females with M:F ratio of 1.6:1. Majority of the patients were in the 3rd­5th decade. About 47.4% had temporary tracheostomy. The commonest indication for tracheostomy is upper airway obstruction secondary to aerodigestive tract tumors in 60.5%, then trauma in 26.3%. The complications are higher among the under tens'. Out of the 36 temporary tracheostomy only 18 were successfully decannulated. The mean hospital stay was 22±2days. Overall 15% mortality was recorded. Conclusion: Common reason for tracheostomy is essentially same earlier documentation in developing countries, common among males, emergency type still most common, neoplasm, prolonged intubation and trauma are the commonest indications, its complication is still high among the under tens'. The outcome is good with 15% mortality due to the primary disease and not from tracheostomy

Factors associated with undernutrition and overweight in elderly patients presenting at a primary care clinic in Nigeria

Background: Undernutrition and overweight are commonly overlooked health problems of the elderly, often due to the implicit assumption that undernutrition is a rare occurrence in old age and overweight is an invariable consequence of ageing. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study of 500 patients aged 60 years and above who presented consecutively at the general outpatient department, University College Hospital, Ibadan, between September and October 2009, was undertaken. The main outcome measures were prevalence of nutritional problems (undernutrition and overweight), healthcare utilisation pattern and morbidities. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) tool was used to assess undernutrition, while body mass index was used to assess body weight. Results: The prevalence of undernutrition and overweight was 7.8% and 54.1%, respectively. Previous hospital admission (p < 0.001) and chronic morbidities like hypertension (p < 0.001), osteoarthritis (p < 0.001) and psychosomatic disease (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with undernutrition, but not with overweight. Logistic regression analysis showed that previous hospital admission (OR = 2.105, 95% CI 1.479-2.996) and hypertension (OR = 0.122, 95% CI 0.048-0.306) were the most important factors contributing to the development of undernutrition. Conclusion: Nutritional problems were prevalent among the elderly in this setting. Co-morbidities in the elderly constitute risk factors to be addressed in order to reduce the occurrence of nutritional problems. Health workers should always assess the elderly for nutritional problems, together with other morbidities with which they may present, and institute appropriate management

Malaria prevention practices among mothers delivering in an urban hospital in southwest Nigeria.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The pregnant woman is more prone to malaria than her non-pregnant counterpart with grave consequences for both mother and baby. This study aims at determining the malaria prevention practices among pregnant women in an area hyper-endemic for malaria. METHODS: For the study 983 parturient mothers were enrolled in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria. Information was collected on sociodemographic characteristics, use of malaria chemoprophylaxis, use of anti-vector measures, and malaria parasitaemia. RESULTS: Most mothers [956/972 (98.4%)] reported the use of anti-vector measures for malaria prevention. These include, window screens (78.9%), insecticides spray (69.9%), mosquito coils (25.3%), untreated bednets (2.5%), and insecticide-treated nets (1.1%). Most mothers used anti-vector measures either singly or in combination. About 86% (840/972) of the mothers used drugs for chemoprophylaxis. Thirteen (1.3%) mothers used chemoprophylaxis alone (CP), 135 (13.9%) used anti-vector measures alone (AV) while 820 (84.4%) used chemoprophylaxis plus anti-vector (CPAV). Weekly dose of pyrimethamine [214 (25%)] and intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine [598 (71.2%)] were the widely used chemoprophylactic drugs. The prevalence of patent parasitaemia at delivery was 7.7% (1/13), 12.1% (99/820) and 16.3% (22/135) among CP, CPAV and AV groups respectively. Geometric mean parasite densities among the respective groups were 7840/microl, 1228/microl and 8936/microl. CONCLUSION: Window screens and insecticide sprays were widely used for malaria prevention while the use of ITN was very low among enrolled mothers. There is a need to pay concerted efforts to improve ITN usage rate in Nigeria.