Family and clinical indicators of domestic violence among pregnant women in Ilorin, North-Central Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: domestic violence affects one in four families and has significant health consequences on sufferers. When it occurs among pregnant women, it can be associated with pregnancy-related complications. There is dearth of data on the association between certain family and clinical factors of pregnant women, and domestic violence in Nigeria. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and pattern of domestic violence and its association with certain clinical factors and family functioning of pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, North-Central Nigeria. METHODS: a total of 333 respondents were recruited for the cross-sectional study between June and August, 2017 using systematic sampling technique. Structured questionnaires were used to obtain information about domestic violence and family functioning among the study participants. Blood pressure, urinalysis and packed cell volume of respondents were obtained following standard procedures. Data were analyzed using SPSS-20 and Chi-square was used to identify significant risk factors for domestic violence among the study subjects. RESULTS: the results of this study showed that the prevalence of domestic violence among the study population was 34.5%. The most common form of violence in this study was psychological aggression (74.8%), followed by sexual coercion (47.8%), then physical assault (14.8%) and physical assault with injury (3.5%). There was a statistically significant association between domestic violence and; 1) family dysfunction p<0.001); 2) anaemia (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: pregnant women presenting with anaemia as well as those from dysfunctional families are particularly at high risk of domestic violence and as such, special attention should be drawn to these factors with a view to screen and identify victims of abuse during routine antenatal clinic visits.

Adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination in Kwara State, North-central Nigeria.

Safe and effective vaccination remains the mainstay of control of COVID-19 because there is still no universally recommended treatment. This strategy is however being threatened by vaccine hesitancy and resistance due to fear of adverse events and safety concerns. It is, therefore, necessary to study post-vaccination adverse events (AE) in various populations and geographical areas. The objective of this study was to analyze the adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination in five major immunization centers of Kwara State Nigeria. A retrospective descriptive study of the adverse events following AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination that were reported from five immunization centers of Kwara State, North-central Nigeria from March to July 2021 was carried out. Statistical Package for Social Science version 26 was used for analysis. Adverse event classification and severity were compared based on age, gender, and time to onset of adverse event and vaccine dose type using the Chi-square test. The incidence of COVID-19 vaccine AE was 1.6%. There was female predominance (51.6%) and a mean age of 41.6±13.7 years. Most of the AE (95.8%) were systemic and mild (81.1%) without a requirement for any therapeutic intervention. Fatal outcome was not reported in any of the AE and the time to outcome of AE was 2 days in most cases (45.3%). No significant association was found between the variables studied and the adverse event type and severity. The low incidence and mild nature of adverse events reported in this study will add to the body of knowledge regarding vaccine adverse events and may eventually impact vaccine uptake.