Mobile phones enhance self-care, psychological adjustment and engagement in non-disclosed youth living with HIV, and can be used to increase care coverage. Findings underline the importance of policies to increase access by locating, counselling and engaging HIV-infected youth in care.
Background: Non-specific low back pain is a common health problem incurring immense health and social costs with concomitant disability, which has assumed significant public health importance in our setting. The impact from this condition is multi-factorial, and includes pain, activity limitations and impairment of quality of life. This study therefore aimed to examine the level of low back pain disability, its correlates and predictors, and the impact on selfperceived quality of life. It also sought to determine the predictors of health-related quality of life among low back pain patients in a Family Practice setting in Calabar, Nigeria. Method: This was a cross-sectional analytical study involving 350 consecutively selected patients with nonspecific low back pain. Standardized questionnaires were used including: the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaire, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the Short-form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire and the Visual Analogue Pain Scale. These were used to assess low back pain disability, psychological distress, healthrelated quality of life and pain intensity respectively. Result: The mean age of the respondents was 36.16 ± 9.93 years. Majority (70.6%) were females and had chronic pain lasting more than three months. Most of the respondents (88.9%) characterized their pain as severe. The mean health-related quality of life score was 45.82 ± 4.3. Factors associated with severe disability were: psychological distress and pain intensity. Significant correlations were observed between disability, pain intensity and psychological distress using Pearson's correlation analysis. Independent risk factors for disability were psychological distress and those with chronic pain lasting more than 3 months. Overweight and obese subjects were more likely to have poor health-related quality of life when compared with those with normal body mass index (X 2 =8.81, P<0.05). The significant predictors of poor health-related quality of life using logistic regression were overweight/obesity and those with severe disability. Conclusion: This study identified significant correlations between low back pain disability, pain intensity and psychological distress. These correlations could be informative and should guide family physicians in the management of the index problem in our environment. The perception of quality of life in individuals with low back pain should also raise awareness of issues connected to the problem and encourage more research into this area.
The 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in two states of Nigeria created social challenges because of the socio-cultural and behavioural implications of the disease. The outbreak lasted for three months, had twenty cases, eight deaths, and a case fatality of 40%. Ebola control guidelines suggest consideration of the socio-cultural responses to the outbreak. Therefore this study sought to identify the socio-cultural responses that influenced Ebola control, and determined nurses' preparedness to provide relevant socio-cultural care during the Ebola outbreak. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to explore the socio-cultural and behavioural perspectives of Ebola in different communities for 3 weeks during the epidemic. Qualitative data were collected from 178 conveniently selected adults living in four communities in two South-South states of Nigeria; transcribed and analysed using NVivo 7.0. Quantitative data were collected from 85 nurses randomly selected from 6 community health centres, and data were analysed using descriptive statistics on SPSS 20.0. Approval for the study was obtained from the Ministry of Health of both states. Results revealed five themes: "naming the disease", "beliefs that impede Ebola control", "socio-cultural practices that impede control", "behavioural responses that enhance control" and "social concerns about the epidemic". Only 41% nurses were able to identify the Ebola-related socio-cultural factors; over 55% did not see socio-cultural factors as playing any important role in Ebola care; and only 36.5% agreed that they need training to provide such care. This study sheds light on the rarely considered issue of socio-cultural influence on Ebola control, and the results reveal low level of nurses" preparedness to deal with socio-cultural issues and provide relevant socio-cultural care during the epidemic. Although certain sociocultural beliefs and practices influencing EVD control existed in Nigeria during the epidemic, nurses working in the community had inadequate knowledge of these.
There has been recent outbreaks of food poisoning associated with Listeria monocytogenes. Most of the outbreaks were attributed to fresh meat and dairy products, and processed foods. This study was therefore carried out to examine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in fish, beef & chicken sold in area markets in Calabar. A total of two hundred and fifty five (255) samples; fresh raw fish, chicken and beef were obtained from six different markets and were analyzed for possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes using compact Dry LS plate. Out of the two hundred and fifty five (255) samples analysed, the results obtained showed one hundred and sixty two (63.5%) were positive. Beef showed a prevalence rate of 88% while chicken and fish showed prevalence rates of 64.7% and 37.7% respectively. The highest bacterial count was recorded in beef (7.2x10 3 cfu/g) and lowest in fish (1.08 x 10 2 cfu/g). The market locations also played a role as the Akim market beef showed the highest load followed by Goldie market and Mayne avenue market.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.