Examining the Link Between Religion and Corporate Governance: Insights From Nigeria

This article examines whether the degree of religiosity in an institutional environment can stimulate the emergence of a robust corporate governance system. This study utilizes the Nigerian business environment as its context and embraces a qualitative interpretivist research approach. This approach permitted the engagement of a qualitative content analysis (QCA) methodology to generate insights from interviewees. Findings from the study indicate that despite the high religiosity among Nigerians, religion has not stimulated the desired corporate governance system in Nigeria. The primary explanation for this outcome is the presence of rational ordering over religious preferences thus highlighting the fact that religion, as presently understood and practiced by stakeholders, is inconsistent with the principles underpinning good corporate governance

Evidence for perinatal and child health care guidelines in crisis settings: can Cochrane help?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is important that healthcare provided in crisis settings is based on the best available research evidence. We reviewed guidelines for child and perinatal health care in crisis situations to determine whether they were based on research evidence, whether Cochrane systematic reviews were available in the clinical areas addressed by these guidelines and whether summaries of these reviews were provided in Evidence Aid.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Broad internet searches were undertaken to identify relevant guidelines. Guidelines were appraised using AGREE and the clinical areas that were relevant to perinatal or child health were extracted. We searched The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to identify potentially relevant reviews. For each review we determined how many trials were included, and how many were conducted in resource-limited settings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six guidelines met selection criteria. None of the included guidelines were clearly based on research evidence. 198 Cochrane reviews were potentially relevant to the guidelines. These reviews predominantly addressed nutrient supplementation, breastfeeding, malaria, maternal hypertension, premature labour and prevention of HIV transmission. Most reviews included studies from developing settings. However for large portions of the guidelines, particularly health services delivery, there were no relevant reviews. Only 18 (9.1%) reviews have summaries in Evidence Aid.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We did not identify any evidence-based guidelines for perinatal and child health care in disaster settings. We found many Cochrane reviews that could contribute to the evidence-base supporting future guidelines. However there are important issues to be addressed in terms of the relevance of the available reviews and increasing the number of reviews addressing health care delivery.</p

Paediatric HIV test in a south-eastern tertiary centre: does provider initiated testing and counseling increase the uptake rate?

Background: Provider Initiated Testing and Counseling (PITC) encourage early detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and prompt treatment once diagnosis is confirmed. It was primarily designed to augment the universal screening of clients at presentation to a health facility. Sustaining PITC in health facilities appears to be facing numerous challenges with reduction of testing ratesObjectives: The study was carried out to determine the rate of uptake of HIV testing prior to and during PITC era, and to assess the influence of PITC on HIV testing rate in children at the service points of the hospitalMethodology: Data were extracted from clinical records of all children (aged below 18 years) who presented in our centre Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) Nnewi, Nigeria from March 2005 to December 2010 (era of voluntary counseling and testing); and from January 2010 to March 2015 (era of PITC) using questionnaires. Analysis was done with SPSS version 20.Results: Out of a total of 76,825 children who presented to the hospital from March 2005 to March 2015, seven thousand five hundred and three children (9.8%) were tested for HIV. The highest uptake of HIV testing was 18.7% recorded in 2011, with subsequent decline until 2015 (11.8%). There was significant association between year of testing and result of tests (P=0.001)Conclusion: Provider initiated testing improved the uptake of HIV testing in our centre when compared to voluntary testing, but this was not sustained.Keywords: Voluntary Counseling and testing, HIV screenin , Infectious diseases, Communicable disease