Mass Media Exposure and Intention to use Contraceptives in North-West Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria

The population has been increasing and is expected to continue to increase rapidly.  This increases is projected to be due to the population growth in the less developed countries.  The rapidly the population of a country grows, the more the stress on the economy to keep up with the pace of needed infrastructure that enhances quality of life of the citizenry.  The main driver of population growth is the use of contraceptives especially among currently married women.  The data for this paper is from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.  A subset of currently married women age 15-49 was extracted.  The paper set to find out the factors affecting mass media exposure; how exposure to mass media effect a woman’s intention to use contraceptives; as well as the correlates of a woman’s intention to use contraceptive.  The level of education, religion, occupation, place of residence, ownership of radio, and television as well as household access to electricity have significant effect on the likelihood of married women being exposed to mass media.  The level of education of a woman also have significant effect on intention to use any contraceptive. The effective use of the mass media will increase the proportion of married women who will want to use any contraceptive in the future as such on the long run there will be an improvement in the contraceptive prevalence rate for the zone and indeed the country. Keywords: Mass Media, Intention, Contraceptive, Currently Married women

Factors associated with teenage pregnancy and fertility in Nigeria

Teenage pregnancy and fertility are often debated in literature as reasons of health concern and as a social problem. In understanding the issues that are related to teenage fertility and pregnancy in Nigeria, the paper uses the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey Data. A subset of women age 15 to 19 is extracted from the women data. The article sets to find out the variables that predict the odds of a teenager being currently pregnant, have borne a child in the five years preceding the survey as well as either currently pregnant as at the time of survey or having had a child in the last five years before the survey.  The results show that apart from the age of the teenager, marital status is another strong predictor of the likelihood of being currently pregnant or having a child in the 5 years preceding the survey. An increase in age was associated with increase in the odds of being pregnant and of having born a child. Ensuring that female teenagers remain in school is vital to mitigating the negative outcomes of teenage pregnancy and child bearing.  The treatise in this paper shows that teenage pregnancy and childbearing is a severe policy mediation area if the trend of population growth rate will be curtailed. Keywords: Teenage Pregnancy, Fertility, Nigeria, Demographic, Health Surve

Social Contract: The Case of Maternal Health in Nigeria 1999 – 2008

The state of maternal and child health is both an indicator of a society’s level of development and the performance of the health care delivery system.  Many complications and subsequent poor outcomes for women are lessened by providing good quality care, including early detection of problems and appropriate and timely interventions.  The paper used three rounds of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data in comparing women’s access and utilization of antenatal, delivery and postnatal care.  The trend was examined in the light of the urgency of attaining the MDGs.  The results show a worsening situation for safe motherhood. The social contract need be strengthened by the state intensifying its policies and programmes towards ensuring that the health and welfare of all persons are safeguarded and not endangered or abused; there are adequate medical and health facilities for all persons. Keywords: Social Contract, Maternal Health, Antenatal, Contraceptives, Postnata

The Effects of Soret and Dufour on a Steady MHDFree Convection Flow over an Inclined Porous Plate with Viscous Dissipation

This paper deals with the effects of Soretand Dufouron a steady MHD free convection flow over an inclined porous plate with viscous dissipation. The models were non-dimensionalisedand the following parameters arise in the flow: Soret number Sr, Dufour number Du, Prandtl number Pr, magnetic parameter M, Schmidtl number Sc, radiation parameter R, permeability of porous medium K, thermal Grashof number Gr, solutalGrashof number Gm, Eckert number Ec and inclination angle . The influences of these parameters which control the flow were analysedand given a place in this work. The dimensionless governing equations of flow field are solved numerically by collocation weighted residual method. The effects of various parameters on the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are discussed and displayed graphicall

Fertility Behaviour and Women's Empowerment in Oyo State

This paper examines the relationship between women’s empowerment and fertility behaviour in Ibadan Metropolis.  Data for this paper was collected using systematic random sampling technique; the respondents were women aged 15-49years.  The data included descriptive information on the characteristics of husbands and wives.  Ordinal and Logistic regression were used as statistical tools.  The paper found that women’s empowerment affects their fertility. Fifty-one per cent of the respondents are not using any family planning method, while majority of them have formal education of at least primary school education.  It was also found that the discussion of the number of children to have significantly affects women’s fertility.  From the findings, encouraging both sexes to have more education will be important and necessary to increase the chances of women’s empowerment.  Furthermore, encouraging women to make use of family planning methods will be important and necessary to reduce women’s fertility. Keywords: Fertility, Empowerment, Family Planning, Reproductive rights, Autonom

Access to Safe Water - A way to Mitigating Onchocerciasis in Nigeria

Onchocerciasis is a major cause of blindness in many African countries and Nigeria is not an exception.  The vector transmitting the disease abounds in fertile riverside areas. Attempts have been made in fighting the disease through control of the vector and use of drugs.  Search for preventive alternatives is the main objective of this paper.  The paper uses the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data, a cross-sectional national data. The analysis is household based. This paper examines households that are likely to have incidence of Onchocerciasis.  Onchocerciasis has in the past greatly reduced the economic productivity and as such exacerbate poverty.  Chi-Square tests and T-tests were statistical tools used by the paper. The results show that there exists a regional variation in the incidence of Onchocerciasis across the country (?2= 925.71, p=0.000).  The paper also found that there is a significant difference in incidence of Onchocerciasis by wealth index (?2= 326.89, p=0.000).  Households with river as source of water are significantly more likely to have Onchocerciasis than those that river is not their source.  The situation is more precarious in the rural areas (?2= 250.09, p=0.000). Households with river as source are more likely to have more members with Onchocerciasis (t=11.79, p=0.000).  The provision of safe water to households especially in the rural areas is a sure alternative to mitigating onchocerciasis. Keywords: Water, Onchocerciasis, River Blindness, Nigeri

Coronavirus Outbreak in Nigeria and DPT3 Vaccination

COVID-19 has its origin in China. The index case in Nigeria was an Italian citizen from Milan confirmed on the 27th of February 2020. Ever since, there has been a continuous increase in number of cases. The pandemic has exposed the weakness in our health system and port monitoring system. When the timeline and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals were being decided, it was not imagined that the world would experience a pandemic like COVID-19. Nigeria is ranked 160 out of 166 countries in the 2020 SDG Index with a score of 49.3. Nigeria tops the list of countries in which about two-thirds of children aged 12-23 months have not yet been reached with a single dose of the diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) vaccine. Nigeria is one of the African countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper assessed the patterns of COVID-19, the third dose of DPT (DPT3) coverage as well as the plausible link between vulnerability to COVID-19 and DPT3 coverage. The paper analysed the NCDC daily situation reports from inception to October 10, 2020. Immunization coverage for DPT3 in Nigeria is lower than in sub-Saharan Africa. Vulnerability to COVID-19 cuts across the states irrespective of whether there has been an increase or decrease in DPT3 coverage. The attending disruption in healthcare services consequent on the pandemic is likely to negatively affect the DPT3 coverage rate across the country

Severe Acne Skin Disease: A Fuzzy-Based Method for Diagnosis

Dermis ailments are disorders that hurt or damage the dermis that has an enormous impact on the everyday life of a person. People’s tight schedule has significantly impacted their accessibility for repetitive examinations, thereby preventing individuals from consulting a medical practitioner. Network-centered medicinal schemes’ popularity is increasingly becoming a model for helping individuals recognize how crucial the level of an ailment is. Acne dermis ail�ment is one of the extremely well-known dermis sicknesses that troubles the sebaceous glands, thus repetitive diagnosis could assist to avoid blisters. Fuzzy based approach for diagnosing acne skin disease was proposed in this paper. It was suggested that the approach assisted solving the shortcomings of previous expert system methods. Expert machine reasoning is related to literary ambi�guity. The proposed system of used fuzzy rules to address inaccuracy in the expert system’s analysis. It was proven that the scheme was 82% accurate, indicating good performance. The Fuzzy expert system built had shown an extreme level of guidance, medical care recommendations and demonstrated the degree of seriousness of acne dermis state in patients