HIV/AIDS scourge remains high in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa such as Nigeria, which is home to about 3.3 million HIV positive individuals and represents the second largest burden of HIV/AIDS care, treatment and demand worldwide after South Africa. Anti-retroviral treatment options though a welcome development, has increased the number of people living with this chronic illness, and most of them depend on family members for physical and emotional support. Traditional gender norms in Nigeria ensure that legitimately, women and girls are the first options for caregiving roles. This mandatory role has in turn imposed psychosocial disruption in the lives of female family members in Calabar, Nigeria. This descriptive study utilized convenient sampling technique, Zarit Burden Interview scale and semistructured questionnaires for data collection (260 respondents), and data analyses were achieved using SPSS16.0. The study showed that a significant (p < .05) proportion of women (91%) were involved in providing care, including children from 10 years and above. Caregivers had minimal social support which increased the burden they experienced. The need for policy that recognizes and supports female caregivers ("silent cornerstone") to reduce burden and ensure high quality care of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Nigeria is advocated.Keywords female caregivers, PLWHA, burden of caregiving, Nigeria 2 SAGE Open consequences from physically and emotionally demanding work of caregiving. The physical tasks performed by the caregivers transcend minor to complex tasks, which is similar to those carried out by paid health or social service providers. These impart a great degree of burden on the caregivers especially, as they combine the caregiving services with their official roles in the society. Caregiving has increased the burden of care on many households particularly the females, by worsening their economic status and subjecting them to imminent poverty. The need for heal thcare system and government to promulgate policies that will support female caregivers and also enhance quality of care to PLWHA in Nigeria becomes imperative. This study therefore highlights the extent of burden experienced by female caregivers compared to male counterparts and the support available to all caregivers of PLWHA in Calabar Municipality, Nigeria. Women and Burden of CareWomen constitute about 50% of the people living with HIV today worldwide (WHO, 2013). In 2007, the prevalence of HIV infection had been on men than women (UNAIDS, 2008), but with the turn of events women now bear the burden of this devastating disease more than men (WHO/ UNICEF/ UNFPA/World Bank, 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa, women constitute 60% of people living with HIV and the proportion of women living with HIV has been increasing in the last 10 years (WHO, 2013). These figures vindicate the words of Lewis (2005) that HIV/AIDS in Africa has a "female face." Apart from biological vulnerability of women to HIV, the African traditional gender norms stipula...
Background: Work-related conflict (WRC) may be inevitable but can interfere with nurses' roles performance if not well managed. Nurses are unique in the directions from where conflicts emerge: administrators, nursing colleagues, physicians, Para-medical staff, patients and their families. Un-resolved conflicts may be linked to poor communication resulting from refusal to cooperate, poor team collaboration and problem-solving, decreased clients' satisfaction, distrust, split camps, gossips and disruption of work-flow. This study investigated sources of WRC and their influence on nurses' independent and interdependent roles in a Tertiary Hospital in South-south Nigeria. Methods: A 50-items WRC questionnaire built on a four-point Likert-type scale was used to collect data from a random sample of 242 nurses of all ranks, representing 40% of the target population of 585. The instrument had internal consistency of r = .81 and test-retest reliability of r = .83. Data were analyzed using independent t-test determined at significance level of .05. Results: Results showed that female respondents were 237 (98%) while 5 (2%) were males. The major sources of WRC included: conflicts as a result of overwork and poor rewarding system each with frequency of 222 (92%); patients-related conflict and leadership conflicts each with frequency of 218 (90%); misunderstanding involving nursing colleagues with a frequency of 194 (81%); poor work environment 192 (80%); conflicts with other health professionals with 189 (78%) frequency and discrimination issues with 180 (61%) frequency. Furthermore, there was no significant influence of WRC on nurses' independent and interdependent roles. (Cal. t =-4.6; P = .00; Observed mean = 37.7 < Expected mean = 40.0 and Cal. t =-9.3; P = .00; Observed mean = 17.5 < Expected mean = 20.0). Conclusions: Many sources of WRC were observed among the nurses but they were found to have no influence on their roles' performance probably due to the ethical and legal implications of nursing duties. Recommendations included effective and timely communication at all times among nurses, hospital administrators and other stake-holders.
Background: Visual impairment among school children is relatively common and research provides evidence for integration of comprehensive eye care into school health programmes.Aim: To determine the prevalence and determinants of visual impairment in school-aged children in Southern Nigeria.Setting: School aged children from 10 public and private-owned schools in Cross River State, Southern Nigeria. Methods:This cross-sectional analytic study used a multistage random sampling technique to select 2418 school children aged 6-17 years. Comprehensive eye examinations were performed on the study. The logistic regression analysis with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to test hypotheses.Results: Of the 2418 school children selected, 2110 (87%) were assessed. The prevalence 'of uncorrected, presenting and best corrected visual acuity of 0.3 (20/40) or worse in the better eye' was 7.3%, 7.2% and 0.19%, respectively. Errors of refraction were the cause of the impairment in 198 (70.7%; 63.5-76.0) eyes with reduced vision, followed by glaucoma suspects 38 (19.2%; 13.8-24.8), amblyopia (3.0%; 1.1-6.4) and corneal opacity 3 (1.5%; 0.3-4.3). The major and independent predictors of visual impairment were age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.97, 95% 1.45-2.67), high socio-economic status (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.68, 95% 1.36-2.09) and female gender (AOR 1.35, 95% 1.00-1.88). Conclusion:The common causes of visual impairment in school-aged children are avoidable, and are mostly because of uncorrected refractive error, which could reflect inadequate refractive error services in the area.
The potential of antenatal care for reducing maternal morbidity and mortality and improving newborn survival and health is widely acknowledged. The study sought to investigate Health Care Providers knowledge and practice of focused antenatal care in a cottage Hospital Okpatu. Qualitative ethnographical research design was adopted, while in-depth interview guide and observational checklist were the instruments for data collection. Findings revealed poor knowledge of concept, components, timing of visits on focused antenatal care and non compliance with the guidelines for the practice of focused antenatal care, because of health workers lack of knowledge on focused antenatal care. Conclusively, effort to improve antenatal care should address shortage of trained staff through expanding training opportunities. Based on the above, intensive awareness and retraining of health workers and monitoring and supervision of health care providers on evidence based focused antenatal care is recommended for health care providers in the study area. There is need for health care providers to motivate local government authority in the area to supply more equipment to ensure adequacy of resources to deliver quality care. Also, there should be strategies for implementation of existing policy concerning Focused antenatal care in the study area.
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.