Blood donation practices and willingness to donate among residents of an urban slum in Lagos Nigeria.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: This study was carried out to assess the blood donation practices and willingness to donate among residents of an urban slum. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross sectional descriptive study design with a qualitative and quantitative component. Multistage sampling was used to select 400 respondents for the questionnaire interview while three FGD sessions were conducted guide among three groups of participants namely youths, men and women. The information collected was analyzed manually (FGD) and with Epi info version 3.5.3. RESULTS: Majority of the questionnaire respondents were female, married, traders, had at least secondary school education, with mean age of 37.6 years. Only 12.0% had donated in the past, the main reason given by non donors was that they had never been asked to donate; this was also a key finding in the FGD. Willingness to donate was positively associated with being a male, single and Christian, age was a significant predictor of previous donation while more of the previous donors were still willing to donate, more for family/friends (p=0.036) than voluntarily (p=0.001) this view was supported by the participants at the FGD. CONCLUSION: Members of this urban slum had poor practice of blood donation,had positive attitude and were willing to donate, there is need to mobilise and organise outreach blood donation programs to convert attitude into actual practice.

ORAL HEALTH QUALITY OF LIFE IN A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE POPULATION.

INTRODUCTION: Oral health related quality of life is utilized in health services research to examine trends in oral health and population-based needs assessment. OBJECTIVE: To assess both the generic and orthodontic specific aspects of the Oral health-related quality of life of a University undergraduate population. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out among 420 undergraduate students, aged 18-30years old, attending the University of Lagos, Nigeria. The data collection was carried out through oral interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Two Oral health related quality of life instruments were used (1) A generic scale: the Shortened version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) and (2) A condition specific scale: the Psychosocial impact of dental aesthetics questionnaire (PIDAQ). Data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). RESULTS: With respect to the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) scale, the overall mean score recorded by the students was 10.43+7.85. The physical pain subscale recorded the highest impact with 93.3%, while the least impact was recorded in the handicap subscale, with 29.9%. The Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ) scales revealed significant gender differences, with the subscales of 'social impact', 'psychological impact' and 'aesthetic concern' recording low mean subscale values. CONCLUSION: . The mean Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) score of the students (10.43 + 7.85) in this study reflects that the oral health status of most of the students did not significantly affect their Oral health-related quality of life. However, the physical pain domain was the most severely affected aspect of their Oral health-related quality of life. The Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics (PIDAQ) scale scores recorded significant gender differences.

Knowledge of health insurance among primary health-care managers in Shongom LGA, Gombe State, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was formally launched in Nigeria in 2005 as an option to help bridge the evident gaps in health care financing, with the expectation of it leading to significant improvement in the country's dismal health status indices. Primary Health Care (PHC) is the nation's adopted strategy for health service delivery and its managers are central to the success of any health-related programme. There is paucity of specific data about what this critical group of people know about health insurance. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the level of knowledge of managers of the Shongom PHC system about health insurance. METHODS: The study was of a descriptive cross-sectional design carried out among twenty-eight PHC managers of government-provided and community-owned health facilities/units in Shongom LGA, Gombe State, northeastern Nigeria. RESULTS: Among the respondents, 17.9% had good knowledge about health insurance while 35.7% and 46.4% had fair and poor scores respectively. Respondents in government-provided facilities/units had 6.3%, 37.5% and 56.3% for good, fair and poor scores respectively, while their counterparts in community-owned facilities had 33.3% for each of the score grades. CONCLUSION: The research showed that knowledge about health insurance among managers in this rural PHC system was below average.