Knowledge and awareness of high blood pressure in Ward F, Ifako-Ijaiye local government area, Lagos State, Nigeria

Objectives: In Nigeria; most people living with an elevated blood pressure are unaware of it until they suffer complications. The aim of this study was to determine levels of awareness of high blood pressure in Ward F; Ifako-Ijaiye local government area; Lagos; Nigeria.Design: A multistage sampling technique was used to select 250 participants as the study population. Setting and subjects: Trained interviewers administered questionnaires to collect information from the participants and measured their blood pressure to determine whether or not they had the correct information on their blood pressure readings. Outcome measures: The questionnaire included questions on respondents' knowledge of high blood pressure; sources of information or knowledge; awareness of blood pressure status and blood pressure measurement. Results: Radio was found to be the most utilised source of information on high blood pressure. The level of awareness of high blood pressure was 79.2; while 21.6 of participants were aware of having high blood pressure. However; 37.2 had high blood pressure readings. Conclusion: Even though the level of awareness among participants was relatively high (79.2); the study showed that many people who had high blood pressure readings were unaware of having high blood pressure. The knowledge of high blood pressure among these participants was insufficient; especially in grassroots communities. There is an urgent need for community-based high blood pressure awareness programmes

Determinants of young people's sexual behaviour concerning HIV and AIDS in the practice population of a university health centre in Lagos, Nigeria

Background: AIDS has been a scourge of universities in Africa for a long time. This study was launched at ground-level to fight the dreaded disease by concentrating on young people and to counter the ignorance that surrounds the disease even in numerous African universities. This study of the student community was carried out by family doctors at the University Health Department to determine the prevalence of the determinants of young people's reproductive health behaviour. Objectives: This study is aimed at determining young people's sexual behaviour concerning HIV and AIDS in the practice population of a university in Lagos, Nigeria. Method: Self-administered 63-item questionnaires were distributed amongst 2000 randomly selected students of the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria in September 2005, using a semistructured form of the Comprehensive Youth Survey questionnaire, developed by FOCUS (led by Pathfinder International, Futures Group International and Tulane University School of Public Health. Results: The age distribution of the respondents was designated in the age groups of 15-19 years (15.8%), 20-24 years (60.1%), 25-29 years (19.6%), 30-34 years (2.8%). Demographics of note were that 88.3% of the fathers of the respondents were literate and that 94.5% of the fathers earned more than one US $ per day. The majority of the respondents (99.1%) indicated adherence to one religious faith or the other and 58.8% believed definitely that religion shaped their attitudes about sexual intercourse and sexuality. More than half (64.0%) denied having had sex at all in the three months preceding the study. Furthermore, 68.8% affirmed that it was common amongst friends of their age to use condoms. A significant number of respondents (65.5%) thought that their friends have drunken alcohol. Almost all of the respondents (94.3%) had a positive perception of their family. Conclusion: The Programming for HIV and AIDS Reduction on university campuses in Africa should be conducted comprehensively rather than monothematically and should, take into consideration the five thematic areas of behaviour change communication amongst young people concerning their reproductive health