Efficacy of rational emotive behavior therapy for the improvement of knowledge and risk perception of hypertension among university lecturers in South East Nigeria: REBT for university lecturers' hypertension improvement.

BACKGROUND: This study determined the effectiveness of a rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) intervention on knowledge of risks of hypertension among university lecturers in South-east geopolitical zone of Nigeria. METHODS: The study used a group randomized controlled trial design to group the participants into treatment group and a waiting-list control group and the hypertension knowledge questionnaire and the Perceived Risks of Hypertension Questionnaire to collect a pretest, posttest, and follow-up data of this study. The sample of the study was 84 university lecturers in public universities in Southeast Nigeria (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State) who satisfies the requirements to participate in the study. The study lasted for 10 weeks. The data collected for the study were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and t test statistics. RESULTS: The findings of this study were that REBT health educational intervention effectively increased the education foundation and business education lecturers' knowledge and perceived risk of hypertension compared to participants in waitlist group. Lastly, the outcomes of the follow-up measures indicate that the increased knowledge and perceived risks of hypertension acquired during the training program was sustained by the treatment group one month after the end of program. CONCLUSION: The REBT health educational intervention program could be utilized to increase knowledge and perceived risks of hypertension among university lecturers in public universities in Southeast Nigeria.

Supporting business educators and students against COVID-19 trauma using trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of COVID-19 manifests in peoples' mental health and psychological dispositions and may also result to acute distress, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on victims. The objective of this study was to support business educators' and students' mental health against coronavirus trauma using trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). METHODS: The participants (n = 74 - educators and students) who indicated PTSD symptoms based on the self-reporting questionnaire they filled, were randomly assigned to treatment and waitlist control groups. The TF-CBT manual was used for the intervention. The intervention was a 14-week treatment with 2 weeks follow-up meeting. Using repeated measures of Analysis of Variance, we determined the level of improvement of each participant in the treatment group against Coronavirus trauma at the end of the intervention. RESULTS: The study established that gender has no significant difference in determining the effects of Coronavirus trauma on participants. Through intervention, the PTSDs and depression arising from Coronavirus event were significantly reduced in the treatment group. Again, there was a significant improvement in the participants' general mental health at the end of the intervention. Hence, we established the implication for research and practice in line with the outcome of the study. The study advocates that TF-CBT should be employed by educational institutions in Nigeria to cushion the traumatic effects of coronavirus and future disasters on both workers and students. CONCLUSION: We conclude that mental health problems remain a serious challenge among business educators and students in this COVID-19 pandemic era. The study established that low educational qualifications, PTSD symptoms and negative coping strategies are the factors aggravating the general low mental health of the study participants. Finally, we advocate that the educational institutions in Nigeria should adopt TF-CBT interventions to support staff and students' mental health against adverse effects of COVID-19.

Effects of rational emotive psychotherapy consort on business education students' perception about image of technical vocational education and training in South-East Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: We determined the effects of rational-emotive psychotherapy on the perception of Business Education Students about TVET Image. Negative perception about TVET by youths, parents and the society has made TVET programs unattractive, uninteresting, less productive and by extension created an unhealthy organizational climate. Improving participants' perception will assist them to mitigate the effect of irrational beliefs, emotional distress, strengthening their psychosocial wellbeing and occupational health. METHOD: This study adopted a pre-test-post-test control group design. Data were collected from 568 participants comprising 104, 137, and 333 from nine federal, state and private owned universities in South-East Nigeria. RESULTS: The result showed that rational-emotive psychotherapy significantly improved the emotional distress, perceptions of TVET image and positively addressed the organizational climate among participants in the intervention group compared to the participants in the waitlist group. The result also revealed that occupational risk management practices of the participants in the intervention group improved significantly more than those in the waitlist group. From the result, we conclude that TVET institutions can apply the REBT model as an intervention program for improving the perceptions of stakeholders about TVET image in order to increase students' interest, boost their self-confidence, self-esteem, and zeal for TVET practices. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the REBT-oriented therapy helped to improve the emotional distress, irrational beliefs, and poor perception of the Business Education students who perceived TVET programs as an inferior and low-esteemed profession.