Background: Stroke has a great adverse effect not only on the lives of stroke survivors but also on the informal caregivers, as they provide care ranging from assistance in activities of daily living, leading to a high risk of depression and other psychological morbidities. Objectives: This study explored the prevalence of depression and associated factors among primary caregivers of stroke survivors in Nigeria. Methods: A cross sectional survey on the prevalence of depression among primary caregivers of stroke survivors was conducted at selected hospitals in Maiduguri, Nigeria. A sample of convenience was used to recruit participants in this study. The Beck depression inventory was used to screen for depression. Data form and patients folders were used to obtain socio-demographics and clinical characteristics of participants and stroke survivors. Result: A total of 115 primary caregivers participated, out of which 53% were male and 47% were female. The mean age and overall beck depression inventory score were 30.78 ± 9.66 and 15.42 ± 7.84, respectively. The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 46.1%. Type of stroke (P = 0.03) and post stroke duration (P = 0.02) of stroke survivors cared for was found to be associated with depression among caregivers of stroke survivors. Conclusions: Caring for the patients with stroke presents increased in the psychological impact of caregiving for stroke survivors, it is therefore recommended that information, education, and support should be provided to primary caregivers as they are key in sustaining rehabilitation gains and long term overall well-being of stroke survivors.

The urgency to curtail the devastating effects of the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic has led to the implementation of several measures to limit its spread, including movement restrictions and social distancing. As most developing countries rely solely on hospital visitations for their medical needs, this impediment to assessing healthcare services compounded by low uptake of telehealth services could result in dire consequences. This is a cross-sectional study among Healthcare providers (HCP) and Healthcare consumers (HCC) in Nigeria. We administered a pre-validated self-administered online questionnaire comprising questions to assess the knowledge, use, perceptions, and benefits of telemedicine among study participants. Descriptive statistics were used to examine participants’ perceptions on telemedicine use and to summarize participants’ characteristics. A total of 158 healthcare providers and 1381 healthcare consumers completed the online survey. Ninety percent of HCP reported that they used some form of telemedicine to deliver health care, and 63% of HCC had received healthcare through telemedicine. A significant proportion of HCP (62%) and HCC (69%) agreed that telemedicine would improve healthcare consultation experience and satisfaction. However, fewer (21%) HCP agreed that they liked that there would be no physical contact with patients using telemedicine. In contrast, 52% of HCC agreed that they liked that there would be no physical contact with healthcare providers while using telemedicine. The majority of the participants believed that benefits of telemedicine would include: being a safe way for healthcare delivery during pandemics (HCP = 62%, HCC = 83%), affordability (HCP = 62%, HCC = 82%), and time-saving (HCP = 54%, HCC = 82%,). Teleconsultation services have been shown to aptly complement face-to-face hospital visits in ensuring effective triaging in hospitals and providing adequate healthcare delivery to patients regardless of geographical and physical barriers. These results support telemedicine use for the provision of healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background The quality assessment provides information on the overall strength of evidence and methodological quality of a research design, highlighting the level of confidence the reader should place on the findings for decision making. This paper aimed to assess the quality (methodology and quality of reporting) of ageing studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Method This paper is the second of a Four-Part Series paper of a previous systematic mapping review of peer-reviewed literature on ageing studies conducted in SSA. We updated the literature search to include additional 32 articles, a total of 544 articles included in this paper. Downs & Black checklist, Case Report guidelines checklist, the 45-items Lundgren et al. checklist, and the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool were used to assess the methodological quality of quantitative, case reports, qualitative, and mixed-method studies. Quality assessment was piloted and conducted in pairs for each study type. Depending on the checklist, each study was classified as excellent, good, fair, or poor. Result Of the 544 articles, we performed the quality assessment of a total of 451 quantitative studies [Randomized control trials (RCTs) and pre-post (n=15), longitudinal (n=122), case-control (n=15) and cross-sectional (n=300); 4 case reports, 74 qualitative and 15 mixed-method studies. Only 20.4% (n=111) articles were of high quality [one RCT, 27 longitudinal, 4 case-control, 48 cross-sectional studies, 19 qualitative, and 12 mixed-method studies]. The remaining 433 were rated as moderate quality (n=292, 53.7%), fair quality (n = 96, 17.7%) and poor quality (n = 45, 8.2%). Most (80%) quantitative articles’ sample size is small, resulting in insufficient power to detect a clinically or significant important effect. Three-quarter (75%) of the qualitative studies did not report their research team characteristics and a reflexivity component of the 45-items Lundgren et al. checklist. Mixed-method studies with low quality did not report the qualitative studies properly. Conclusion We conclude that the methodological and quality reporting of published studies on ageing in SSA show variable quality, albeit primarily moderate quality, against high quality. Studies with a large sample size are recommended, and qualitative researchers should provide a section on research team members’ characteristics and reflexivity in their paper or as an appendix.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a 6-week circuit training on the cardiovascular endurance and quality of life of an apparently healthy adult female population. Methodology: This study adopted a pre and post-test experimental design. A total of 60 adult females who were randomly selected into experimental group and control group participated in the study. The variables for this study were obtained using a proforma which contained the anthropometric parameters, respiratory rate, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, maximum oxygen consumption, partial oxygen saturation, hip circumference and waist-hip ratio. The stations of exercises used included jumping lunges, curtsy lunges, torso rotation, knee raise claps, abdominal twist or knee combo, kick raise. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and paired t-test. Continuous variables were reported in tables as mean± Standard deviation (SD). Results: Findings from the study showed that there was a significant difference (P<.05) in partial oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, mean atrial pressure, maximal oxygen consumed, and heart rate. No significant effect was found in the domains of the quality of life of the experimental group. Conclusion: Circuit training has positive effects towards improvement of cardiovascular endurance and maintenance of functional quality of life (QOL). It is therefore necessary for circuit training to be encouraged as a strategy that can be used among young female adults.

Background With the growing population of older adults in Nigeria comes a simultaneous rise in the incidence of dementia in the country. Adequate knowledge of dementia is needed to effectively administer interventions for persons living with dementia. Physiotherapy is one of the professions providing care for people with dementia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of dementia among physiotherapists in Nigeria. Methods An online survey method was used to collect data from the sample population of practicing physiotherapists in Nigeria. Data was collected using the 21-item Dementia Knowledge Assessment Tool Version Two (DKAT2) and the respondents also provided some demographic information. Mann Whitney test, Kruskal Wallis test and Spearman’s rho correlation were used to test for association between the DKAT2 scores and the demographic variables and this association was further explored with multiple linear regression analysis. Results A total number of 223 physiotherapists participated in this study. The findings of the study show that there is limited knowledge of dementia among the physiotherapists. Number of years of professional experience and specialty groups predicted significantly higher knowledge scores. Conclusion The knowledge deficits found among physiotherapists in Nigeria indicate that older adults living with dementia might not be receiving the best evidence-based physiotherapy treatments for their condition. This research therefore advocates for an educational intervention to be carried out within the physiotherapy profession in order to improve the quality of services rendered to their patients.