Prisoners in this study, and as in previous reports, had high prevalence rates of psychiatric morbidity. Thus, prisoners have a need for regular psychiatric screening and treatment. The consequences of untreated psychiatric morbidity and the need for improved health care services and infrastructure in the prison were discussed.

Aim This study focused on the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale to determine the prevalence of dental anxiety and assess the psychometric properties in Nigerian population. Materials and methods Included in the study were 619 participants (204 males and 415 females) chosen conveniently from among the dental patients, students of post basic nursing and staff nurses, all from University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. The mean age was 31.34 (11.77) years. Participants completed a questionnaire containing the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. Results The prevalence of high dental anxiety was found to be 10.7% at the cut-off point ≥ 19. Cronbach's alpha for the present Nigerian sample was 0.80. Factor analysis revealed one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 2. This factor explained 55.9% of the variance of the items. In addition, the MDAS showed a significant difference between the genders, with the female (X̄ =13.86;SD= 4.64) reporting higher dental anxiety score than the male (X̄ =12.62;SD= 4.73). Conclusion MDAS demonstrated satisfactory and acceptable psychometric properties. Therefore, dental surgeons, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other therapists can use MDAS as an objective tool for detecting and possible management of high dental anxiety in Nigeria. How to cite this article Koleoso ON, Akhigbe KO. Prevalence of Dental Anxiety and the Psychometric Properties of Modified Dental Anxiety Scale in Nigeria. World J Dent 2014;5(1):53-59.

Risky behaviours in adolescents, apart from substance use, and their associate factors, have not been thoroughly investigated in Nigeria. Hence, there is a need to study the prevalence of risky behaviours and their relationship with gender and other potential risk factors. Data comprising socio-demographic, risky behaviours, personality traits, religious orientation and substance use were obtained from 300 randomly selected secondary school students. Two risk groups (low and high) based on the number of risky behaviours were determined. Male was a risk factor for theft (OR ¼ 2.1; 95%CI ¼ 1.17e3.95), bullying (OR ¼ 2.76; 95%CI ¼ 1.37e5.56) and fighting (OR ¼ 2.14; 95%CI ¼ 1.35e3.40). Fifty-two (17.3%) of the students were of high-risk behaviour group. Furthermore, private school (b ¼ 1.05; P ¼ 0.010), poor perceived relationship with teachers (b ¼ 1.21; P ¼ 0.002), polygamy (b ¼ 1.20; P ¼ 0.002) and lifetime cigarette use (b ¼ 1.07; P ¼ 0.027) were predictors of high-risk behaviour group. Substantial proportion of adolescents in Nigeria exhibit risky behaviours of which gender and other factors play a significant role.

Background: Research on body image objectification in Nigeria is scanty, particularly with regards to disordered eating attitudes. Thus, this study examined the relationship between the 2 constructs among secondary school students in the country. Methods: Overall, 270 students were selected through convenience sampling from 3 schools randomly selected from a local government area in South West Nigeria, and completed a questionnaire containing the 26-item eating attitudes test (EAT-26) and objectified body consciousness scale (OBCS). The students were classified to 2 groups using the EAT-26 cut-off point of 20, and the differences in the mean scores of the 3 sub-scales of OBCS were determined between the groups. Results: There were more females than males (56.7% vs. 43.3%) with a mean age of 16.1 years. Eighty-five students scored above the cutoff point of 20, thus, prevalence rate of disordered eating attitudes was 31.5%. There was no significant association between the sociodemographic variables and disordered eating attitudes. The appearance control belief (a subscale of OBCS) was significantly lower in students with disordered eating attitudes (t = 2.18, P = 0.03), whereas, the remaining 2 subscales of OBCS was not significantly associated with disordered eating attitudes. Conclusions: Appearance control belief seems to be the most important in the eating attitudes of Nigerian adolescents in selfobjectification. However, more research is needed to shed more light on this matter.

Background: The Sleep Quality Questionnaire (SQQ) is a short and easy-to-understand resourceful tool for measuring poor sleep quality; however, it remains to be validated.Aim: The focus of this study is to determine its reliability and validity among Nigerian adolescents.Setting: Four gender-mixed schools within Benin City, Nigeria were selected to participate in the study.Methods: Questionnaires containing the SQQ, the Sleep Condition Indicator (SCI), which is a validated scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) from 377 students selected from the junior and senior secondary school students were analysed.Results: The mean age calculated was 14.78 years for 174 male and 203 female students. Cronbach’s alpha for the SQQ scale was 0.70. It correlated strongly with the SCI (rho = 0.93, p = 0.00), weakly with the HADS depression (rho = -0.19, p 0.01) and anxiety (rho = -0.30, p 0.01), but had no association with gender. Factor analysis revealed three factors with an eigenvalue greater than 1. Factors 1–3 accounted for 31.78%, 15.16% and 11.26% of the variance, respectively, totalling 58.2%. The reliability of each of the three factors was as follows: factor 1, 0.75; factor 2, 0.47; and factor 3, 0.62. The SQQ demonstrated good specificity and sensitivity at a cut-off point of 18.Conclusion: It is therefore recommended that the SQQ be included in the screening of sleep-related problems in adolescents, both in the primary and secondary care settings in Nigeria.Contribution: The research shows that the Sleep Quality Questionnaire is both a reliable and valid screening tool among adolescents in Nigeria. Its brevity and simplicity further promote its use in clinical and non-clinical settings.