Gender Differences in Perceived Sources of Stress: A Cross Sectional Survey of Public Secondary School Teachers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Individuals, especially teachers, who work in serving professions involving interaction with other people, may be more liable to suffer psychological discomfort as a result of stress. However, the level of stress suffered may be dependent on the sources that generate the stress. The study, therefore, was conducted to determine the perceived sources of stress among male and female public secondary school teachers in Ebonyi state. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 4,360. A sample size of 436 (male 220, female 216) teachers participated in the study. This sample size was arrived following the suggestions of Nwana (2014) that if the population of a study is in a few thousands, 10% could be used. A self-developed questionnaire titled: Sources of Stress Questionnaire (SSQ) was used as instrument for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by five experts in the field of Health Education and Psychology. The reliability of the instrument was computed using Cronbach alpha procedure which yielded a coefficient of 0.81. Data collected for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Independent samples t-test was used to test the hypothesis at an alpha level of 0.05. The results revealed that the public secondary school teachers in Ebonyi state studied had a high level stress which was perceived to have been generated by administrative-related, workload-related, environmental-related and economic-related sources. It was recommended that government should improve the working condition of the teachers in order to scale down their stress levels. Keywords: Gender, Stress, Secondary School teachers, Public DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-15-13 Publication date:May 31st 202

Education, Health and Housing in Ogoni Community: Does Government or Oil Firms Intervention Matter?

This paper examines the impact of interventions of government and Oil companies on the social wellbeing (education, health and housing) of Ogoni community in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Measurement of such impacts is an essential requirement for policy formulation and strategic planning. Primary data used in this study were collected through a survey of 400 households using a multistage sampling technique. The results reveal that government interventions in provision/renovation of school building and provision of scholarship have positive effect on school completion in the community. Making basic education free is a good policy; but if the households would need their children to be involved in income generation, such policy may fail. Thus, empowering the household heads and other working-class adult members of the household to raise enough income for the household would help the children become available to benefit from free education policy or even household-funded education

Federation Account Allocation in Nigeria: Implication for Growth

This paper considers whether there is statistical growth evidence of federal government allocation share, state governments’ allocation share, and state governments’ internally generated revenue in Nigeria. Time-series data going back to 1970 was used. After studying the time-series properties of these variables for stationarity, a dynamic model was estimated. The regression result suggests that, in the long run, growth can be influenced positively by the share of the federal government allocation and the state governments’ internally generated revenue. In the contrary, result suggests that state governments’ allocation share has negative impact on economic. Keywords: Growth; Government; Revenue; dynamic model; correlatio

Households’ Perception of Factors Influencing Agricultural Productivity in Ogoni Community: An Ordinal Logit Approach

Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood in Ogoniland of Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Ascertaining the determinants of agricultural productivity in the community is therefore important in meeting food security and income needs. This study uses survey data of 400 households in Ogoni community. The data was collected using a multistage sampling method. An ordinal logit regression model was estimated. Descriptive analyses indicate that 75.8% of the surveyed households were involved in agricultural production and that only 37.1% of the households involved in agriculture had lost their agricultural produce due to oil spoilage in the last two years. The ordinal logit regression model identifies government intervention towards cleaning of polluted land and water, land degradation, air pollution and household income as significant determinants of agricultural productivity in the community. However, land degradation and air pollution are negatively associated with agricultural productivity while government intervention towards cleaning of polluted land and water and household income are positively related to agricultural productivity in Ogoni community. On the other hand, the result indicates that corporate social responsibility of oil firms towards cleaning of polluted land and water), oil spill and education attainment of household head are not among the significant determinants of agricultural productivity in Ogoni community

Knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture: A cross sectional study among medical doctors in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: Blood culture is one of the most important investigations done in clinical microbiology laboratories. Not only has it been long recognized as the ggold standardh for diagnosis of Blood Stream Infections (BSIs), very important decisions regarding septicaemic patientsf management are based on it. Being a user-dependent diagnostic test, quality of results often depends on the performer.Aim: To study the knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture among doctors in a Nigerian tertiary hospital.Materials and Methods: A pre-tested self-administered semi- structured questionnaire developed by the research team was used to access the biodata, knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture among doctors in our institution.Results: Forty-eight (54.5%) out of the 88 doctors studied had good knowledge regarding blood culture, 34 (38.6%) moderate knowledge and 6 (6.8%) poor knowledge. Majority of the senior registrars (75.0%),  registrars (64.3%) and house officers (65.9%) studied had good  knowledge while majority of the consultants (75.0%) had moderate knowledge. Doctors from paediatrics (62.5%) and internal medicine (60.0%) departments had higher proportions with good knowledge  compared to those from surgery (57.9%) and obstetrics and gynaecology (45.0%) (p = 0.240). Majority of the doctors with <10 years experience as doctors (57.0%) had good knowledge compared to 33.3% recorded among those .10 years. Attitude and practice was generally positive.Conclusion: Through this study areas of unsatisfactory knowledge, attitude and practice of blood culture were identified.This will help in designing an educational intervention programme for the purpose of addressing identified problems areas in blood culture.KEYWORDS: Blood culture, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Doctor

Patterns of sexually transmitted infections in patients presenting in special treatment clinic in Ibadan south western Nigeria

Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are infections that are often transferred from one person to another during sexual activity. In developing countries, an increase in the incidence of STIs is attributed to increasing urbanization, modernization, travel, education and exposure to Western media which has led to increased sexual activity, especially among young people. Methods: This is a retrospective study carried out in the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Nigeria. The records of a total of 506 patients who attended the clinic between Jan 2010-Dec 2011 were retrieved. The records of the patients' complaints were taken. Detailed demographic data and history of genital symptoms was taken. Results: The records of 506 patients were used 43.7% (221) were males and 56.3% (285) were females. The patient's age ranged from one to eighty, the 1-10 age groups and the 71-80 ages were the least represented age group. Age, sex, level of education, presenting  omplaints, presence of yeast cells, VDRL positivity were variables that were looked at. Of these only sex and occupation were risk factors for transmission of STI. Conclusion: Good clinical care for patients with STIs should extend beyond therapy and include help to avoid future infections. Control activities should focus on the primary prevention of infection through safer sexual practices. Strategies for improving secondary prevention (health care-seeking behavior and case management) should include identification of people at risk and targeting them for intervention

Hookworm presenting as acute febrile illness and surgical abdomen

Hookworm is estimated to infect about 500 million people worldwide. It is usually associated with diarrhoea, abdominal pain and iron deficiency anaemia, but diagnosis can be missed because it sometimes presents unusually or mimics other diseases. We present in this report the case of an 18-year-old asthmatic medical student who was referred to a general surgeon on account of abdominal pain of 8 days duration. His problem started initially with fever, chills and rigor which was managed as malaria but no improvement. The diagnosis shifted from enteric fever to peptic ulcer disease, and his worsening condition was later reviewed as acute abdomen. Abdominal X-ray and ultrasound were normal. Stool microscopy showed numerous ova of hookworm. He was then treated with albendazole leading to full recovery on subsequent follow up. Hookworm disease can mimic a lot of other clinical conditions. A careful review of literature is a reminder that the clinical presentation of hookworm can be diverse and misleading. The current report emphasizes the fact that hookworm should always be considered a possible differential in endemic regions when clinicians are confronted with acute non-malaria febrile illnesses or cases of acute surgical abdomen. Keywords: acute abdomen, fever, hookworm

Rabies in Nigeria: A review of literature

Rabies, also known as hydrophobia is an acute, viral disease of all warm blooded animals including man. It is caused by the rabies virus (RABV), a bullet–shaped, enveloped RNA virus, 45-100 nm in diameter & 100-430 nm in length with projections and helical nucleocapsid, one of the better known encephalitis viruses of the family Rhabdoviridae and genus Lyssavirus type 1It is a major public-health problem in most parts of the developing world. The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) plays a principal role (accounting for over 99%) as a reservoir and transmitter of the disease to humans. Developing countries account for almost all the reported human deaths (99.9%) and most cases of human post-exposure treatments. Rabies is an important public health problem especially in the developing countries and this articles aims to draw attention to this neglected disease.Keywords: rhabdoviridae, rabie

Prevalence of Tuberculosis among patients attending two Secondary Hospitals in Abeokuta Ogun State.

This study was conducted to examine the rate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection among individuals attendingthe outpatient clinic of two hospitals in Abeokuta Metropolis in Southwestern Nigeria. Of the 132 individuals examined, the overall rate of tuberculosis infection was 16.7%. Infection was highest among patients in the 21-40 year age group (11.4%). Results also showed that 10.6% of male patients were infected with tuberculosis and 6.1% of female patients infected with tuberculosis. There was no significant difference between the sex and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. There was also no significant difference between age-groups and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. But there was a significant difference between the ESR and tuberculosis infection. Cette étude a été menée afin d’examiner le taux d’infections à Mycobacteriumtuberculosi schez les individus suivis à la clinique externe de deux hôpitaux de métropole de Abeokuta au Sud-ouest du Nigéria. Sur les 132 individus examinés, le taux global d'infection de la tuberculose était de 16,7%. L'infection était plus élevée chez les patients âgés de 21-40 ans (11,4%). Les résultats ont également montré que 10,6% des patients de sexe masculin ont été infectés par la tuberculose et 6,1% des patientes infectées par la tuberculose. Il n'y avait pas de différence significative entre le sexe et l'infection à Mycobacteriumtuberculosis. Il n'y avait pas de différence significative entre les groupes d'âge et l'infection à Mycobacteriumtuberculosis. Mais il y avait une différence significative entre l'ESR et la tuberculose.Article in English

Age and sex prevalence of infectious dermatoses among primary school children in a rural South-Eastern Nigerian community

Introduction: Various dermatoses, due to their morbidity characteristics, have been shown to negatively impact on learning. The most epidemiologically important seem to be the infectious types because of their transmissibility and amenability to simple school-health measures. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and sex/age correlates of infectious dermatoses in a rural South-eastern Nigerian community.Methods: The pupils were proportionately recruited from the three primary schools based on school population. Stratified simple random samplingmethod was adopted and a table of random numbers was used to select required pupils from each arm. Clinical and laboratory examination wasdone to establish diagnoses of infectious skin disease. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results: The 400 pupils consisted of 153 males and 247 females. Age range was between 6 and 12 years. The prevalence of infectious  dermatoses was 72.3%. The five most prevalent clinical forms of infectious dermatoses, in order of decreasing prevalence, were tinea capitis (35.2%), scabies (10.5%), tinea corporis (5.8%), tinea pedis (5.5%), and impetigo (5.0%). More cases, generally, occurred among males than females  (80.4% vs 67.2%)); while some specific clinical types, pediculosis and seborrheic dermatitis, exhibited predilection for females. Pyodermas and scabies were significantly more prevalent in the 7-9 age-group; while tinea capitis, tinea corporis, seborrheic dermatitis and pediculosis were more associated with .10 age-group.Conclusion: Infectious dermatoses were highly prevalent in the surveyed population. Many of the clinical types exhibited sex- and age-specificity