Prevalence of menstrual disorders among adolescent girls in Osogbo, South Western Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Menstrual disorders are common sources of morbidity among adolescent girls and often cause anxiety for these girls and their families. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to determine the patterns of menstruation as well as the prevalence of menstrual disorders and their consequences among adolescent girls in Osogbo, South Western Nigeria. SUBJECTS: Adolescent school girls aged 10-19 years comprised the sample. METHODS: The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. A pre-tested, self administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 402 adolescents selected from private secondary schools in the Osogbo Local Government Area (LGA) of Osun State, using a multistage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15. RESULTS: A total of 391 (97.8%) respondents had heard about menstruation before, with the three most important sources of information being their mothers (81.8%), teachers (7.4%), and peer groups (6.1%). The mean age at menarche was 12.5±1.0 years. Menstrual bleeding lasted between 2-7 days in 81.1% and cycle length lasted for 21-35 days in 81.6% of the respondents. The three most important menstrual disorders they experienced were dysmenorrhea (77.8%), menorrhagia (57.4%) and metrorrhagia (18.6%), among others. Menstrual disorders, especially dysmenorrhea, interfered with the daily activities of the respondents. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of menstrual disorders among adolescents in the Osogbo LGA is high. Measures should be undertaken to educate the adolescents and their mothers about menstrual disorders and to mitigate their effects on the social and academic lives of these adolescents.

Public perception of climate change and its impact on health and environment in rural southwestern Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Climate change (CC) has received extensive media attention recently, and it is currently on the international public health agenda. A study of knowledge and attitudes to climate change, most especially from rural Nigerian communities, is important for developing adaptation strategies. This is a study of public perceptions of CC and its impact on health and environment in rural southwestern Nigeria. METHODS: This was a community-based descriptive cross-sectional study of 1,019 rural respondents using a multistage sampling method. The research instrument used was a pretested, structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. χ2, Cramér's V, and Kendall's τ-c statistics were employed in addition to fitting the data to a logistic regression model to explore associations found significant on bivariate analysis. RESULTS: Mean age of respondents was 36.9 (±12.4) years. About 911 (89.4%) of respondents opined that there has been a change in climate in the last 10 years. Supernatural reasons were prominent among respondent-reported causes of CC. Identified risky behavior contributing to CC included smoking (10.7%), bush burning (33.4%), and tree felling (41.0%). Poor knowledge of causes but good knowledge of effects of CC were found in this study. About two-thirds of respondents had a positive attitude to causes of CC, while half had a positive attitude to the effects of CC. A significant association was found between educational status (P˂0.001, Kendall's τ-c=-0.042), occupational status (P˂0.01, Kendall's τ-c=0.088), and attitude to causes of CC. Further analysis using logistic regression showed that occupational status was significantly associated with likelihood of having a positive attitude, but educational status and marital status were not. CONCLUSION: Rural areas of Nigeria are vulnerable to the adverse effects of CC. Respondents' poor knowledge but positive attitude to CC calls for dissemination of adequate information on CC in sustained health-promotion programs.

Prevalence and pattern of utilization of voluntary counseling and testing services and HIV infection in Ogbomoso, southwestern Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: Human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, infection has been a major problem across the globe with a high socioeconomic burden. Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) is a measure put in place to encourage people to know their HIV status with essential counseling support to help them cope with a positive or a negative test result. This study was carried out to determine the utilization of VCT services, prevalence of HIV among VCT attendees, and the distribution of the viral infection based on gender and age in Ogbomoso, an urban community, southwestern Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The health records of patients in Adebayo Alata Primary Health Centre, Ogbomoso South, Nigeria, between 2008 and 2011, were used. RESULTS: A total of 1,490 patients used the VCT services during the period of study, out of which 271 (18.19%) were males and 1,219 (81.81%) were females. A consistent number of people used the VCT service throughout the period of study. HIV infection was higher in females (2.15%) than males (0.54%). The viral infection was more prevalent in people above 14 years of age (2.62%). However, none of these differences observed in gender and age were statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: It was concluded that HIV infection has neither gender nor age bias. Efforts should be made to increase the provision of VCT services and ensure its continued utilization in an attempt to maintain a healthy social and reproductive health culture, improve maternal and child health in the context of HIV transmission, and improve global child survival.

Prevalence and determinants of anemia among primary school pupils of a peri-urban community in Osun State, Nigeria.

UNLABELLED: This study was carried out to ascertain the prevalence of anemia and the determinants among primary school pupils in a peri-urban community. METHODS: The study is a descriptive cross sectional study of 141 pupils selected by a stratified sampling technique. Interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect sociodemographic variables, nutritional habits among others. General physical examination, Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and anthropometric measurements for determining Body-Mass Indices (BMI) were then determined. RESULTS: Of 139 pupils, only 3 (2.1%) had normal values (BMI of 18.6-25 kg/m2) while 133 (95.7%) were underweight (BMI of 13-18.5 kg/m2) and others wasted (BMI < 13 kg/m2). None were overweight or obese. Only 38 (27.3%) of the respondents had a normal PCV; 94 (67.6%) had mild anemia, and 7 (5.0%) had moderate anemia. None had severe anemia. The mean PCV among the males was 31.06% +/- 3.46 and among the female: 31.25% +/- 4.26.Among respondents less than 6 years old, 23 (85.2%) were anemic, 82.7% among those 6-10 years, and 43.2% among 11-15 years old. The difference was statistically significant (p = .0000). A higher proportion of males, 52 (76.5%) than females 49 (69.0%) were anemic (not statistically significant, p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study shows that pupils in Osun State, Nigeria have a high prevalence of anemia and that younger pupils have a higher prevalence and physical consequences of anemia than older pupils. Most of the children were found to be malnourished. Further research is recommended on other possible causes of anemia, such as the prevalence of intestinal worms and hemoglobinopathy.