ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Adequate nutrition is needed to enhance the immune system, especially at the time of COVID-19 pandemic for disease prevention and treatment. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess physicians' knowledge to nutrition-related issues of COVID-19 infection and explore their attitudes to offering nutritional counselling to patients. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional online study conducted among doctors in private and public institutions across the six (6) geo-political zones in Nigeria using the social media online platforms of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) from August 17 to September 26, 2020. A categorisation of the knowledge score into sufficient and insufficient was done using the mean (sd) knowledge score. The attitude score was categorised into positive and negative using the median (IQR) attitude score, and bivariate analysis was used to test for associations. RESULTS: Responses were gotten from a total of 176 doctors over six weeks of data collection. Majority 97(55.1%) were females, and 84 (47.7%) had practised between 11 and 20 years. Majority 95(54.0%) had insufficient knowledge, while 128(72.7%) of the respondents had a negative attitude to nutrition counselling of patients regarding COVID-19. Females had significantly better knowledge about nutrition-related issues of COVID-19 (p=0.004). However, there was no significant difference in the respondents' attitude based on professional cadre, gender, place of practice, and years of practice. CONCLUSION: Respondents were deficient in the knowledge of common food items containing relevant nutrients essential for boosting immunity. Hence, there is a need to encourage physicians training in nutrition and nutritional counselling.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Prediabetes is a condition in which individuals have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes mellitus. Inadequate moderate-intensity physical activity, amidst other risk factors, is a well-documented risk factor for prediabetes. Hospital administrative staff can be particularly vulnerable to prediabetes because of the greater number of hours spent in a sitting or sedentary position during administrative duties. The aim of this study was to find the prevalence of prediabetes and to determine its predictors among administrative staff of a tertiary health centre in southwestern Nigeria. METHOD: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out among 300 administrative staff of the University College Hospital, Ibadan over a period of three months. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire that was adapted from the generic WHO-STEPs instrument approach to surveillance of chronic non-communicable diseases risk factors. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Descriptive analyses were performed to estimate the prevalence of prediabetes while the independent predictors of prediabetes were investigated using multinomial logistic regression model. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 51.2 ± 5.3 years. There were 164 (54.7%) males and 136 (45.3%) females that participated in the study. The prevalence of prediabetes was 22.3%. Based on the final multivariable multinomial model, the independent predictors of prediabetes included; male sex (OR= 1.24; 95% CI= 1.082 - 2.460), positive family history of diabetes mellitus (OR= 1.57; 95% CI= 1.088 - 2.611), alcohol intake (OR= 1.13; 95% CI= 0.688 - 1.543) and inadequate moderate-intensity physical activity (OR= 1.49; 95% CI= 1.027 - 2.936). CONCLUSION: There was a high prevalence of prediabetes among the administrative staff of University College Hospital, Ibadan. Regular screening of hospital employees for prediabetes is highly recommended. Work-place exercise should be advocated to improve moderate-intensity physical activity among hospital employees.
