Adherence to treatment instructions with antiretroviral therapy (ART) is very crucial for successful treatment outcome. However, sticking to treatment instructions pose-great challenges to HIV/AIDS patients. This cross-sectional study was on HIV infected adults attending ART clinic in Nigeria to explore nonadherence factors in relation to their socioeconomic characteristics. Validated structured questionnaire was administered to 221 participants. Results showed a high nonadherence rate of 85.1%. The commonest occurring factors of non-adherence were forgetfulness (53.8%), busy schedule (38.8%), side effects of drugs (31.9%), and stigma (31.9%). Males were more likely to complain from busy schedule, feeling healthy, fear of partner disclosure, long waiting period, and long term regimen. Patients with no formal education were more likely to attribute non-adherence to poor communication, side effects of drugs, and stigma. Employed patients seemed to miss their drugs more than the unemployed and artisans. The high non-adherence rate has serious implications for the control of HIV in infected individuals and management of HIV in general. Nurses should intensify efforts on patient education and counseling.
Breast cancer patients generally have low rates of survival due to being diagnosed at advanced stages raising critical issues about prevention and avoidance of risk factors. Breast self examination makes women more “breast aware”, which in turn may lead to an earlier diagnosis of breast cancer. In Nigeria, the statistics of breast cancer have overtaken cancer of the cervix to become the commonest malignancy in women. This study was carried out to determine the awareness of breast cancer risk factors and practice of breast self examination among female students of the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus. The descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population of the study was all the female students that reside in hostels in the campus (2400) in number. A sample of 240 students was selected using quota sampling technique. Structured questionnaires based on the research objectives were used for data collection. The results of the study showed that most of the students have little knowledge of breast cancer risk factors and majority of the students do not practice BSE monthly. It was recommended that there should be regular organization of seminars and workshops for students to address sensitive topics like breast cancer risk factors and breast self examination.
Palliative care (PC) has continued to be less available, underutilized, and unintegrated in many of the healthcare systems, especially in Africa. This scoping review synthesized existing published papers on adult PC in Africa, to report the barriers to PC and to assess the methodologies used in these studies. Eight electronic databases and Google Scholar were searched to identify relevant studies published between 2005 and 2018. Overall, 42 publications (34 empirical studies and 9 reviews) that reported issues related to barriers to adult PC were selected. Three themes identified were individual-level, system-level, and relational barriers. The studies reviewed predominantly utilized cross-sectional and retrospective study design, underscoring the need for more studies employing qualitative design. Findings highlight the need for health education, training opportunities, more funding, communication, and timely referral. Future works could focus on underlying factors to these barriers and ethno-religious perspectives to PC in Africa.
Objective: This survey examined the barriers to cervical cancer screening uptake by adult women in Nnewi, a town located in southeast Nigeria. Methods: In this descriptive survey, data were collected data from 379women aged between 21 and 65 years using the adapted version of the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap smear test questionnaire. Results: The major perceived barriers to the practice of cervical cancer screening were fear of the result (2.32±1.05), lack of knowledge of what pap smear is (2.32±0.90), and lack of information about when and where pap smear could be done (2.25±1.07). The logistic regression model showed that the following perceived barriers predicted uptake of cervical cancer screening (P< 0.05): time constraint (
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