Year Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus ­ A Survey of Rural Communities in Southern Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The exponential rise in the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) necessitates the introduction of strategies for early diagnosis to reduce the burden of the disease. This study assessed the prevalence of prediabetes and also determined the 10-year risk of developing T2DM in Southern Nigerian rural communities by adopting the validated Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) tool. METHODS: 273 participants from 3 Southern rural communities aged 18 years and older were recruited in this cross-sectional study.Data in the FINDRISC stratification tool and Random Blood Glucose (RBG) variables were obtained for the participants. IBM SPSS version 21 was used to analyze the data with a level of significance put at p< 0.05. RESULTS: The participants' mean age was 54.20±16.61 years. The prevalence of prediabetes among the study participants based on RBG was 4.8% (3.8% of males and 6.6% of females, respectively).Most of the study participants (41%) had a low risk of developing T2DM which meant that 1 in 100 participants would become diabetic in a 10-year period, based on the FINDRISC scale. Amongst the male participants, the Total Diabetes Risk Score (TDRS) showed significant positive correlation with the RBG (r=0.315, p=0.001); similarly, a weak positive correlation between TDRS and RBG was noted among female participants. CONCLUSION: The propensity of developing T2DM in 10 years was indisputably low amongst rural dwellers in the Southern Nigerian rural communities studied. Further studies to compare the risk of developing T2DM between rural and urban communities would be required

Health – Seeking Behaviour of Rural Dwellers for the Treatment of Presumptive Malaria in North-Western Nigeria / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia

Malaria is endemic throughout Nigeria. Majority of Nigerians, 70%, live in rural areas where subsistence farming is the main occupation. Most of them live below poverty line, earning less than USD1.25 a day. Their health-seeking behaviour for treatment of malaria is infl uenced by their low socioeconomic status since cost of treating malaria varies according to type of drug prescribed and source of treatment. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the health-seeking behaviour of rural dwellers for treatment of presumptive malaria in Gimba village, a rural community of Kaduna State, Nigeria. It was conducted during Community Diagnosis posting of trained fi nal year medical students of Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, in July 2012. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from all households in the community. Data analysis was done using STATA (Version 11. Stata Corporation 2009). Most of the respondents were farmers (69.7%). The category of household members that were most affected by malaria (presumptive) were under fi ves (47.4%) followed by housewives (26.5%). Majority of the households (73%) treated their last episodes of presumptive malaria at private drug vendor shops. There was a statistically signifi cant association between cost of treatment and place of seeking treatment (p < 0.001).The result indicated that most rural dwellers patronise unprofessional drug vendors for cheaper treatment of presumptive malaria. This jeopardizes malaria control efforts. For successful malaria control, it is recommended that the treatment of malaria should be free or subsidized and policies that favour Rural Economic Development should be implemented

Health-Seeking Behavior of Rural Dwellers in Southern Nigeria: Implications for Healthcare Professionals.

The Nigerian rural people demonstrate undesirable health-seeking behavior because of their cosmological and nosological notions which ascribe etiology of diseases and ill-health to entities far beyond the realm of the stethoscope. The present review is therefore solicited to enhance the health status of rural dwellers by providing potentially useful guidance that will enhance the knowledge of healthcare professionals with respect to the peculiar health-seeking behavior of rural dwellers so as to promote good patient-physician interaction and to provide empirical basis for rational health policy formulation. A manual literature and internet (Google, Medline, Embase, HINARI and Cochrane data bases) search showed that in a pluralistic medical milieu in which the rural dwellers find themselves, the decision to seek healthcare, where to do this and the form of care perceived as appropriate are all influenced by a multiplicity of factors relating to the person, the facility and the socio-cultural environment. Primarily, religious beliefs, use of Traditional African Medicine (TAM) and patients’ perception of reality influence health-seeking behavior. In order to adequately and successfully manage the Nigerian rural patients, the healthcare provider must pay attention to patients’ impression of illness and underpinning health beliefs during consultation, in therapeutics and in handling evolving complications of TAM and ethical dilemmas. Improvement of rural infrastructure and behavioral health promotion campaigns among the rural people together with rational health policy formulation and regulation of TAM practice, are imperative.