Psychoactive substance use in a sample of community outreach participants; prevalence, correlates and ease of incorporating care

Background: The misuse of licit and illicit substances has continued to constitute a profound effect and harm across various societies. This study examined the nature of substance use, abuse and dependence in a community setting in Jos, Plateau State and the ease of carrying out screening, brief intervention and referral for substance use problems.Methods: Data for this study was gathered through a community-based medical outreach with a total of 1170 residence (M=36.97, SD=15.33), within the research area in participation. A cross-sectional research design was used to examine the prevalence and correlates of psychoactive substance consumption (excluding alcohol).Results: Analysis revealed that tobacco 51%, marijuana 22%, opioids 15%, sedatives 6%, and amphetamine 2%, were the current most significant substances used within the population. The ASSIST and MINI diagnostic criteria noted a significant rate of substance abuse and dependence (p<0.05) for tobacco, marijuana, amphetamine, inhalants, sedatives, hallucinogens, and opioid. Brief intervention based on the FRAMES techniques as employed in this study, was used in a total of 211 participants among whom 36 further received counseling for substance abuse and 60 were referred for specialized drug treatment therapy due to substance dependence. Gender, living environment, employment status and occupation were significant predictors of substance use across the participants. Specifically, male, participants who have stable accommodation, those with regular employment and students were found to be the group with the most significant rates of substance and substance use disorders.Conclusions: This study concludes among others, that the ASSIST, MINI and Brief Intervention were indeed effective for substance-related diagnosis in community-based medical programs and can be effectively incorporated into routine services with adequate planning, training and execution

Dental anxiety among patients visiting a University Dental Centre

Objective: Fearful individuals often avoid care despite extensive dental needs and anxious patients feel more pain and of longer duration than less anxious patients. This study was designed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with dental anxiety among patients visiting a University Dental Centre in Nigeria. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted using an anonymous structured questionnaire randomly administered to patients attending the University College Hospital Dental Centre, Ibadan. The questionnaire requested for socio-demographic data, dental visit behaviour, history of traumatic dental treatment and level of apprehension when anticipating a visit to the dentist and physician. The level of dental anxiety was determined using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). An MDAS score of 19 and above indicated high dental anxiety. Upon examination, DMFT of each patient was determined. Result: A total of 471 respondents of which 262 (55.6%) were females participated in the study. Only 7.43% of the participants had MDAS score ≥19. About 10% of the females had high dental anxiety compared with 4.94% recorded for the males (p=0.01). Dental anxiety was more common among the younger age group, irregular oral health care seekers and among those with history of traumatic dental treatment. The respondents were more relaxed when anticipating a visit to a physician. Only gender could be used to predict high dental anxiety. Female gender significantly displayed high dental anxiety (odd ratio=3.05 and p=0.04) . The mean DMFT score for the patients was 2.48±3.30. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental anxiety among the respondents in this study was 7.43% and only gender could be used to predict dental anxiety

Response of Guinea Grass (\u3cem\u3ePanicum maximum\u3c/em\u3e Jacq) to Application of Cow Dung in South West Nigeria

The yield of forage species from the world\u27s grazing land is limited by poor soil and unproductive species (Jones & Wild, 1975; Cooke, 1982). The use of manure on pasture land not only represents a low cost disposal method but also a means of recycling nutrients for plant growth and counteracting the decreasing organic matter content in most agricultural soils. In agro-pastoral production systems, the interaction between crops and livestock is important. Manures are used mainly to complement inorganic fertiliser in the production of food crops. There is a dearth of information on the response of pasture grass to application of cow dung and so the response of two Panicum maximum ecotypes to cow dung was evaluate

DRY MATTER AND PROTEIN DEGRADABILITIES OF SOME FEED INGREDIENTS SOLD IN ABEOKUTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

A study was carried out to determine the chemical composition and evaluate the dry matter and crude protein degradabilities of some commercial feed ingredients sold in Abeokuta, Nigeria, viz corn offal, brewers dried grain, soybean meal, wheat offal, groundnut meal and maize meal. The feed samples as obtained from different sources were incubated in triplicates for 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 hours in 3 rumen-fistulated goats. The incubation was used to estimate the in sacco dry matter (DM) and N degradation characteristics. The dry matter contents of the feedstuffs ranged from 799.3 – 956.0 g/kg. All the feedstuffs recorded low crude protein contents and high washing loss at 0 hour. They recorded more than 70% dry matter degradability at 48 hours, which implied that they were all highly degradable in the rumen. Feeding these feedstuffs in large quantities terminants may lead to diarrhea and bloat due to the accumulation of methane and ammonia gases in the rumen. However, their incorporation into high fibre diets may be advantageous in supplying rumen degradable nutrients to complement the undegradable dietary nutrients from fibrous feeds.Â

CHARACTERISATION OF MULTIVARIATE TRAITS IN SWAZI INDIGENOUS GOATS

Swazi goats from two different regions in Swaziland kept in communal systems were characterised based on phenotypic measurements. Objective measurements for 200 goats included body weight (BW), abdominal circumference (AC), body length (BL), chest circumference (CC), face length (FL), neck circumference (NC), neck length (NL), rump height (RH) and height at withers (HW), while qualitative traits included coat colour, coat texture and presence or absence of horns. Seven coat colours were observed across both regions. Goats with straight coat texture (82%), short hair length (68%) and with horns (84%) were predominantly more. Goats in Manzini region had the lower BW, AC, BL and CC (51.77±1.32, 61.77±1.32, 62.49±0.66, 57.96±1.18) than Shiselweni goats (53.09±1.01, 71.09±1.00, 73.67±0.94, 53.83±0.90). The study provided a reference for phenotypic and genetic diversity for Swazi goats useful for designing genetic strategies for improved production, food security and sustainable utilisation

FORAGE YIELD AND NUTRITIVE QUALITY OF TWO GROUNDNUT (ARACHIS HYPOGAEA L) VARIETIES AS INFLUENCED BY FERTILIZER TYPES

This study was carried out to investigate the forage yield and nutritive quality of two groundnut (SAMNUT 22 and local) varieties as influenced by fertilizer type in the humid ecological zone of Nigeria. The study was a 3 x 2 factorial experiment in a split-plot design with the fertilizer type (poultry droppings, NPK and the control) as the main plot and variety (SAMNUT 22 and Local) as the sub-plot which amounts to six treatments with three replicates. The inorganic-fertilized SAMNUT 22 had the highest forage dry matter (DM) yield (10.23 t/ha). The inorganic-fertilized local variety had the highest DM (94.60 %) and the least DM value (93.68 %) recorded for inorganic-fertilized SAMNUT 22. The highest and least crude protein (21.71 % vs 18.28%) contents were recorded for inorganic-fertilized local and unfertilized SAMNUT 22 variety, respectively. The neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) that were recorded for the unfertilized SAMNUT 22 were the highest with values 58.13 %, 25.86 % and 3.35 %, respectively. The highest gas (57.75 ml/200mgDM) production, methane (13.50 ml/200mgDM) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (70.22 %) were recorded for unfertilized local variety, unfertilized SAMNUT 22 and organic-fertilized local variety, respectively. The unfertilized SAMNUT 22 had the highest tannin content of 6.43 mg/100g and saponin content of 9.29 mg/100g whereas the organically fertilized Local variety had the highest oxalate (140.65 mg/100g) content. In conclusion, the two varieties and especially SAMNUT 22 when inorganic fertilizer was applied have proved to be good feed resource with regards to high yield, CP and low anti-nutrient quality and are recommended as forage of high nutritive values for ruminant animal production. &nbsp