Improving care seeking behavior toward cervical cancer screening participation among Gwafan community women, North-Central Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally and the second most common cancer in low- to middle-income countries, and its screening rate is yet to reach the 70% WHO target. Most interventions that proved effective in improving screening participation in some communities did not achieve the desired behavioral outcome in some settings. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of care-seeking behavior interventions on cervical cancer screening participation. METHOD: A pragmatic multiphase mixed methods design was adopted for this study, and three phases of the human-centered design process were used for data collection. Deductive thematic analysis was used for qualitative data, while SPSS was used for quantitative data analysis. RESULTS: The findings show a significant relationship between participants' tribes p values (0.03) 0.05 and screening participation. Before the intervention, most (77.4%) were afraid of exposing their private parts; 75.9% were afraid of being diagnosed with cervical cancer; and the majority felt the procedure was embarrassing and painful. Free screening, awareness, and knowledge, offering transport, the use of influencers, and sample collection by a female care provider are among other facilitators to screening. Screening participation improved from 11.2% preintervention to 29.7% postintervention (average mean screening score from 1.890.316 to 1.70000.458). All participants who were screened postintervention said the procedure was not embarrassing or painful and that they were not afraid of the procedure or the screening environment. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, screening habits in the community were low before intervention, as this may have resulted from women's feelings and past experiences with screening services. Sociodemographic variables may not directly predict screening participation. Care-seeking behavior interventions have significantly increased screening participation postintervention.

Comparison of Zuspan regimen and its 12-hour modification in women with severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in two hospitals in Abeokuta.

BACKGROUND: Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) are leading causes of maternal mortality (with severe pre-eclampsia/eclampsia [SPE/EC] being causes of death). Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) has proven to be the drug of choice for SPE/EC management. However, its availability and cost remain a drawback to its use in developing countries. This study aimed to compare Zuspan regimen with its 12-hour modification for SPE/EC management in two major hospitals in Abeokuta, Ogun state, South Western Nigeria. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial of non-inferior parallel design carried out at Federal Medical Centre and Sacred Heart Hospital, Abeokuta involving 148 consenting women who were randomized into two groups A and B. Both groups had 4 g loading dose of MgSO4, but the duration of maintenance was reduced to 12-hours in Group A (intervention) while Group B received the standard Zuspan regimen (control). Outcome measures were the occurrence/recurrence of convulsions (primary), maternal side effects and perinatal outcomes (secondary). RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in the occurrence/recurrence of seizures between the two groups for both SPE/EC. No signs of maternal toxicity were observed in both arm of the study. There were no statistically significant differences in the perinatal/neonatal death and Apgar scores at 1 and 5 min. However, there was a significant increase in the number of days on admission in the control group of those neonates delivered to mothers with eclampsia. CONCLUSION: A 12-hr modification of Zuspan regimen was found to be non-inferior to the standard Zuspan regimen in the management of SPE/EC.