Uptake of Cervical Cancer Screening Services Among Female Medical Practitioners in Ogun State, South-West Nigeria

Background: There is an increasing awareness of cancer screening services in the general population, but the uptake of the services varies. Objective: To determine the uptake of cervical cancer screening services among female medical doctors as service providers. Methods: This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional, descriptive study of female doctors practising in Ogun State, Nigeria. The questionnaires were self-administered, and convenience sampling method was used. Results: A total of 85 female doctors were surveyed. A little over half of the respondents (57.6%) reported routine medical checks and 54.2% of the respondents had a check up in the last two years. Seventy percent of the respondents who had a routine medical check-up and screening for cervical cancer were within the age range 31-50 years, and there were significant relationships between age and routine medical check-up and screening for cervical cancer (p values =0.014 and 0.005 respectively. Thirty-three of the respondents (39.8%) had ever been screened for cervical cancer while only 30.1% of the respondents had been screened for cervical cancer in the last three years. The majority of the respondents (59.8%) did not approve of making cervical cancer screening a condition for social benefits. Conclusion: Female medical doctors had a low uptake rate for cervical cancer screening services. The low uptake may adversely affect the cervical cancer screening campaigns targeted at the general population. Mandatory cervical cancer screening, as a prerequisite for social benefit, may improve the uptake rates for the screening services

Socio-clinical factors related to the perinatal outcome of teenage pregnancies in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Background: The incidence of teenage pregnancies is rising in most parts of the world. This is associated with a wide spectrum of complications inthe teenage mothers and their infants.Objective: To determine the social and clinical factors related toperinatal outcome of teenage pregnancies.Methods: A retrospective study of mothers aged < 20years managed at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu between 2008 and 2011 was done. Mothers aged 20 years and above were used as controls and comparisons were made using bivariate analysis.Results: The prevalence of teenage pregnancies was 1.3%. The mean age of the cases was 17.8 years (range of 16 - 19 years). Compared to the controls, significantly higher proportions of the cases had less than senior secondary education, were unmarried, with relatively younger spouseswho were mainly unemployed or employed as unskilled workers. In addition, teenage mothers were significantly more likely to havepreterm deliveries and babies with 1-minute Apgar scores <7. Stillbirthrate, early neonatal mortality rate and hospitalization rate were also higher among the cases. Poor perinatal outcome was more common among the cases in the lower socio-economic classes and those with low education.Conclusion: Socio-economic factors are directly or indirectly related to poor outcomes of teenage pregnancies.Key words: Perinatal mortality, Socio-economic factors, Stillbirth,Teenage pregnanc