Self-reported adherence to treatment: a study of socioeconomic factors and psychiatric morbidity among male and female patients with HIV infection in Sokoto, Nigeria. Running title: Treatment adherence, socioeconomic factors and psychiatric morbidity in HIV patients.

OBJECTIVE: Adherence to treatment is important and relevant in HIV treatment. Previous studies in sub Sahara Africa and south western Nigeria reported that psychiatric morbidity influence treatment adherence. The present study was to examine treatment adherence among the male and the female patients with HIV infection and the effect of socioeconomic factors and psychiatric morbidity on treatment adherence. METHODS: A total of 159 patients which comprised of 48 male and 111 female who were eligible for this cross sectional prospective study were included having given their consent to participate. Questionnaire relating to socioeconomic factors and treatment adherence were administered. Psychiatric morbidity was assessed using HADS. Data was analyzed with SPSS for windows version 16.0. RESULTS: Treatment adherence was poor in 5.3% of the patients. The male patients had slightly better adherence than the female patients. Factors associated with poor treatment adherence include poor clinic attendance, presence of anxiety symptoms in males and poor education attainment in females. CONCLUSION: Treatment adherence is related to socioeconomic factors and psychiatric morbidity. Treatment protocol in which mental health and detailed socioeconomic circumstance of patient is an integral part should be encouraged.

Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity using GHQ-28 among cleft lip patients in Sokoto.

BACKGROUND: In the management of cleft lip, attention is usually focused on physical deformity and functional anomaly. Previous studies on psychiatric morbidity challenged this position. However, most of these studies were from western society. Few studies have reported on the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among adult Nigerian patients with cleft lip. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective cross-sectional study, 200 patients with cleft lip, who were between the age of 20 and 39 years, were assessed using standardized semistructured psychiatric instrument. Additionally, 100 healthy subjects matched for gender and educational attainment served as control. A questionnaire related to sociodemographic variables was designed and administered to the two groups. GHQ-28 was used to assess for the presence of psychiatric morbidity. Graphpad instat was used for data analysis. RESULT: More than a quarter of the patients have psychiatric morbidity which was greater than the control (P<0.001). Sociodemographic attributes associated with high psychiatric morbidity include male gender (P=0.0018), widowhood (P<0.0001), age group 30--34 years (P<0.0001), and being unemployed (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: In addition to reconstructive surgery, psychiatric evaluation and intervention would be of benefit in the management of cleft lip patients.