Perception and practices relating to hepatitis B Infection among in-school adolescents in Ogun State, Nigeria

Objective: This study examined the perception and practices relating to Hepatitis B infection among In-school adolescents in Ogun State, Nigeria.Methods: A cross-sectional study of 300 in-school adolescents selected by a multi-stage sampling method. Data were elicited using a pretested self-administered questionnaire which included questions relating to respondents' risky practices, and a 35-point Hepatitis B perception scale. Descriptive statistics, as well as Chi-square statistics, were generated using IBM SPSS Version 23, and the significance level was set at 0.05.Results: The mean age of the respondents was14.31 ± 1.73years and slightly over half (51.7%) were females. Less than half (45%) of the adolescents perceived themselves to be susceptible to Hepatitis B infection, while 31% perceived Hepatitis B infection to be a serious disease. Almost half (49%) of the adolescents had unfavorable perceptions. The most common risky practices among the respondents were sharing skin-piercing instruments with their family members (79%) and friends (68.7%). There are significant associations between sex (gender) and risky practices such as the practices of unsafe sex (X2= 9.11; p=0.10); having multiple sexual partners (X2= 12.08;p =0.02); and sharing skin-piercing instruments (X2= 5.52;p=0.01) with more males reporting the above practices than females. Conclusion/Recommendation: To minimize the identified risky practices and unfavorable perception, educational intervention programs aimed at promoting Hepatitis B virus preventive behaviors and increasing the level of perception of vulnerability and seriousness of HBV infection among in-school adolescents should be conducted.

Diarrhea Treatment Behaviour among Mothers of Under-five Children Attending Primary Health Care Clinic in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Aims: Diarrhoea is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among children under the age of five years. This study assessed diarrhea treatment behaviour among mothers of under-five attending Ibadan north local government Primary Health Care clinic, Oyo state. Study Design: The survey design was adopted for the study. Primary data was collected from the participants. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Ibadan north local government Primary Health Care clinic, Oyo state, Nigeria in 2015. Methodology: A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 370 women randomly selected for the study. Data gathered included socio-demographic, knowledge, treatment behavior, home preparation and use of oral rehydration solution (ORS). Analysis of data was done using descriptive statistics and results presented in frequency tables. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 17) was used for all analyses. Results: Results obtained from the study showed that the majority of the women were traders (35%), Christians (54%), between the ages of 20 and 30 (61%), married (67%) with children below 3 years of age (54%) and indicated that they have had previous births (51%). Most of the respondents had up to secondary education (75%) and indicated that they experience diarrhoea episodes with their children frequently (55%). almost all the women (98%) have heard of diarrhoea and the major source of information was the health workers. Knowledge analysis showed that the respondents have inadequate knowledge regarding causes and prevention measures for diarrhoea. However, 87% of the mothers knew that watery stool is a sign of diarrhea in children and 62% agreed that they gave their children ORS to drink each time they have episodes of diarrhoea. The most common treatment behaviour among the respondents (92% of respondents) was seeking medical attention from hospital during persistent diarrhoeal episode. Further results showed that respondents have inadequate knowledge of preparation and administration of ORS. Conclusion: In conclusion this research showed that there is still a knowledge gap as regards preventive healthcare behaviour in the study area. The need for corroborative post-natal child healthcare education to strengthen the efforts of the healthcare service providers in fighting diarrhoea is thus recommended.

Assessing the Influence of Clinic-based Health Education on Pregnant Women's Utilization of Primary Health Care Services in Ogun State.

Aims: The paper assessed the influence of clinic-based health education (C-BHE) on pregnant women’s attitude in relation to birth preparedness, complication and readiness (BP/CR) and utilization of Primary Health Care (PHC) services in Ogun State. Study Design: Quasi-experimental design was used. Primary data was collected from surveyed participants. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted between February and May 2013 in Ikenne, Ogun state, Nigeria. Methodology: Stratified sampling method was used to allocate 48 pregnant women, attending ante-natal care, each to experimental and control groups, making a total of 96 respondents. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The women in the experimental group were exposed to two hours of health education discussion addressing pertinent maternal health issues weekly for five weeks. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test. All tests were measured at p≤0.05 level of significance. Results: Results showed that the women were between 19 and 24 years, had up to secondary education, recorded parity of 1-2 while timing of first visit was between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation and number of Ante-natal visits were ≥ 4. At baseline, there were no significant difference in the attitudes and desires for utilization of PHC facility for delivery for the experimental and control groups. However, after intervention, the mean scores for variables measuring attitudes to BP/CR and desire to utilize PHC facility for the experimental group increased and were significantly higher than the control group. Follow-up evaluation confirmed that the C-BHE increased actual utilization of PHC centre for delivery among the respondents in the experimental group (75%) as compared to the control group (42%). Conclusion: Corroborative intervention programme initiatives, directed at creating more awareness about benefits of professional attendants during delivery, stimulating attitudinal change towards BP/CR and fostering necessary confidence in the PHC services for pregnant women should be encouraged.