Transport fare and road traffic crashes in Nigeria: insights from a geographical analysis.

Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are significantly high in Nigeria with serious social and health consequences. While existing studies on RTCs have mainly focused on the effect of socio-economic, environmental, human and mechanical factors to address the high rates, the relationship between road transport fares and RTCs has been glossed over in literature. Thus, this study examines the influence of road transport fares and other covariates on RTCs. Data on RTCs and the predictors between 2017 and 2022 were obtained from the records of the National Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Road Safety Corps. Spatial statistical techniques were used for the data analysis. RTCs vary across the country, and Northern Nigeria is the hot spot. Results from the spatial analysis show that road transport fares, population density, and illiteracy rate are significant predictors of RTCs. The study recommends striking a balance between fare affordability, the quality of service provided, and the implementation of effective transportation strategies.

Epidemiology of suicidal behaviors among junior and senior high school adolescents: Exploring the interactions between bullying victimization, substance use, and physical inactivity.

Suicide is a pandemic among global youths and adolescents. Still, there is insufficient evidence to show whether the interactions between bullying victimization, physical inactivity, substance use, and mental health illness aggravate suicidal behaviors among high school students. Based on the Global School-Based Student Health Survey, we analyzed the individual and interaction impacts of bullying victimization, physical inactivity, substance use, and suicidal behaviors among 3,632 adolescents. The 12-month prevalence of suicidal thoughts and plans among senior high school students was over fifty percent. Junior high school students had higher rates of suicide attempts and bullying victimization than senior high school students. Multivariate results indicate that bullying victimization, substance use, and physical inactivity were significantly associated with suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts among high school students. The interaction of physical inactivity and alcohol was significantly associated with suicidal thoughts in junior high school. In contrast, the interaction of bullying and alcohol was associated with suicidal plans among senior high school adolescents. We hope the findings from this study will generate interventions toward reducing the suicide epidemic in Ghana.

Bullying Victimization of Children with Mental, Emotional, and Developmental or Behavioral (MEDB) Disorders in the United States.

Though preventable, children with disabilities have a high risk of victimization, contributing to worsening health conditions. Hence, this study examined the exposure of school-age children with mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral (MEDB) disorder to bully victimization. This study used the 2018 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) data of 23,494 children ages 5-17 to estimate multilevel logistic regression with fixed and random effects. Children's health conditions were treated as level one variables, while family poverty level and neighborhood characteristics such as vandalism and presence/absence of recreational centers were treated as level two variables. The paper presents the prevalence of bullying victimization among children with at least one disorder (MDBB = 39.5%), anxiety (20.6%), depression (10.8%), ADD/ADHD (18.3%), behavioral problems (14.9%), learning disability (11.9%), Tourette syndrome (0.5%), developmental delay (10.1%), Autism spectrum disorder (4.6%), speech disorder (10.7), and intellectual disability (1.6%), respectively. Bullying victimization was positively associated with anxiety (AOR = 1.995, 95% CI = 1.634-2.436), depression (AOR = 2.688, 95% CI = 2.031-3.557), developmental delay (AOR = 1.804, 95% CI = 1.422-2.288), but inversely associated with Autism spectrum disorder (AOR = 0.614, 95% CI = 0.399-0.946). Neighborhood disorganization and poverty were also associated with bullying victimization. The NSCH data suggests that children with disabilities in the US had a higher prevalence rate of victimization. Consequently, effective bullying prevention strategies that can protect and improve children's quality of life with special needs should be prioritized. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-021-00368-8.

A 2-year pandemic period analysis of facility and county-level characteristics of nursing home coronavirus deaths in the United States, January 1, 2020-December 18, 2021.

Nursing home residents are highly susceptible to COVID-19 infection and complications. We used a generalized linear mixed Poisson model and spatial statistics to examine the determinants of COVID-19 deaths in 13,350 nursing homes in the first 2-year pandemic period using the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and county-level related data. The average prevalence of COVID-19 mortality among residents was 9.02 (Interquartile range = 10.18) per 100 nursing home beds in the first 2-year of the pandemic. Fully-adjusted mixed model shows that nursing homes COVID-19 deaths reduced by 5% (Q2 versus Q1: IRR = 0.949, 95% CI 0.901- 0.999), 14.4% (Q3 versus Q1: IRR = 0.815, 95% CI 0.718 - 0.926), and 25% (Q2 versus Q1: IRR = 0.751, 95% CI 0.701- 0.805) of facility ratings. Spatial analysis showed a significant hotspot of nursing home COVID-19 deaths in the Northeast US. This study contributes to nursing home quality assessment for improving residents' health.

'Gentrification is not improving my health': a mixed-method investigation of chronic health conditions in rapidly changing urban neighborhoods in Austin, Texas.

Though there are extensive studies on neighborhood effects on health, this relationship remains elusive and requires continuous empirical evidence to support existing findings. Gentrification is a process of neighborhood change that affects most longtime residents. This study examined the health impact of the rapidly changing physical and cultural environment using oral history interviews, electronic interviews, and a quantitative structured survey. The study draws on the social determinants of health framework to explain the self-reported chronic health conditions (SR-CHCs) among 331 residents in Austin, Texas. The study employed non-linear techniques suitable for Poisson distribution to estimate the association between gentrification and SR-CHCs and complemented by direct quotes from in-depth interviews (IDIs). Perceived gentrification score significantly vary by marital status (p < 0.001), educational attainment (p < 0.001), and gender (p < 0.01), while SR-CHCs only significantly varies by educational attainment, p = 0.015). Multivariate results show that gentrification was positively associated with SR-CHCs, after adjusting for socioeconomic variables. Compared to the Hispanics, blacks were 97% more likely to report multiple counts of SR-CHCs (IRR = 1.969, 95% CI 1.074-3.608), and participants with high household income were 8% less likely to report multiple CHCs (IRR = 0.920, 95% CI 0.870-0.973). Drawing from the empirical findings, this study recommends both area-based and individual-level policies to mitigate neighborhood change's impact on residents' health. Finally, this study further adds to the understanding of social determinants of health in understanding chronic health within the changing urban physical and socio-ecology systems. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10901-021-09847-8.

Determinants of Gender-Based Violence and Its Physiological Effects Among Women in 12 African Countries.

Goals 3 and 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are to promote good health and well-being and to achieve gender equality, respectively. To successfully move toward these goals in the area of gender equality, there is the need to understand the underlying legislative or laws that protect women and girls from all forms of domestic violence (DV), including gender-based violence (GBV). The cardinal objective of this study, therefore, was to examine the risk factors of GBV and the physiological effects of GBV. To date, few studies have quantified the relationship between laws on DV and the incidence of DV/GBV. This article fills that gap by using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data of 12 African countries. We applied multivariate logistic regression to estimate the association of the absence of laws on DV, men dominant power, history of violence, alcohol consumption, women's attitude toward men's violence perpetration, and decision-making power with the scores of GBV and physiological effects of GBV. Group Kruskal-Wallis Rank test was used to determine the variation of the two outcomes among the 12 countries. Results show significant disparities in the score of GBV, H test (11) = 168,217, p < .001, and score of physiological effects, H test (11) = 122,127, p < .001, among the 12 countries. Specifically, Ghana, Namibia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Togo reported the highest physiological effect of GBV. Presence of DV laws, male dominance, alcohol consumption, history of abuse, and women empowerment predict GBV and the physiological effect of GBV. Thus, building strong legal frameworks against all forms of DV and empowering women may reduce the incidence of GBV and physiological effects of GBV for all African women.

A retrospective cross-national examination of COVID-19 outbreak in 175 countries: a multiscale geographically weighted regression analysis (January 11-June 28, 2020).

OBJECTIVE: This study retrospectively examined the health and social determinants of the COVID-19 outbreak in 175 countries from a spatial epidemiological approach. METHODS: We used spatial analysis to examine the cross-national determinants of confirmed cases of COVID-19 based on the World Health Organization official COVID-19 data and the World Bank Indicators of Interest to the COVID-19 outbreak. All models controlled for COVID-19 government measures. RESULTS: The percentage of the population age between 15-64 years (Age15-64), percentage smokers (SmokTot.), and out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPExp) significantly explained global variation in the current COVID-19 outbreak in 175 countries. The percentage population age group 15-64 and out of pocket expenditure were positively associated with COVID-19. Conversely, the percentage of the total population who smoke was inversely associated with COVID-19 at the global level. CONCLUSIONS: This study is timely and could serve as a potential geospatial guide to developing public health and epidemiological surveillance programs for the outbreak in multiple countries. Removal of catastrophic medical expenditure, smoking cessation, and observing public health guidelines will not only reduce illness related to COVID-19 but also prevent unecessary deaths.

Fertility knowledge, contraceptive use and unintentional pregnancy in 29 African countries: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: We examined the association between incorrect knowledge of ovulation and unintentional pregnancy and child among young women in sub-Saharan Africa countries. METHODS: Using Pearson's Chi-square, t test, multiple logistic regression, and likelihood ratio test, we analyzed Demographic and Health Survey data (2008-2017) of 169,939 young women (15-24 year). RESULTS: The range of prevalence of incorrect knowledge of ovulation was 51% in Comoros and 89.6% in Sao Tome and Principe, while unintentional pregnancy ranged between 9.4% in the Republic of Benin and 59.6% in Namibia. The multivariate result indicates a strong association between incorrect knowledge of ovulation and unintentional pregnancy (OR = 1.17; p < 0.05) and unintentional child (OR = 1.15; p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent women (15-19) generally have poor knowledge of ovulation and are more likely to report an unintentional pregnancy/child than women between ages 20-24. To reduce the burden of unintentional child/pregnancy in Africa, fertility knowledge should not only be improved on but must consider the sociocultural context of women in different countries that might affect the adoption of such intervention programs. Pragmatic efforts, such as building community support for young women to discuss and share their experiences with professionals and educate them on fertility and sexuality, are essential.