Causal attribution of mental illness in south-eastern Nigeria

Background: Understanding of mental illness in sub-Saharan Africa has remained under-researched in spite of the high and increasing neuropsychiatric burden of disease in the region. Aims: This study investigated the causal beliefs that the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria hold about schizophrenia, with a view to establishing the extent to which the population makes psychosocial, biological and supernatural attributions. Method: Multi-stage sampling was used to select participants (N = 200) to which questionnaires were administered. Results: Mean comparison of the three causal models revealed a significant endorsement of supernatural causation. Logistic regressions revealed significant contributions of old age and female gender to supernatural attribution; old age, high education and Catholic religious denomination to psychosocial attributions; and high education to biological attributions. Conclusions: It is hoped that the findings would enlighten, augment literature and enhance mental health care service delivery

Pathways to mental healthcare in south-eastern Nigeria

In sub-Saharan Africa, traditional and faith healers provide competing services alongside biomedical professionals. This may be associated with delays in reaching specialised mental health services, and hence with longer duration of untreated illness. As first line care constitutes a crucial stage in accessing of psychiatric care, investigating pathways to mental healthcare can highlight help-seeking choices. This study explored the pathways to care for mental illness preferred by a non-clinical sample of the population in south-eastern Nigeria. Multistage sampling was used to select participants (N = 706) who completed questionnaires on help-seeking. Results showed a significant preference for biomedical (90.8%) compared to spiritual (57.8%) and traditional (33.2%) pathways. Higher education predicted preference for the biomedical model, while low education was associated with traditional and spiritual pathways. Protestants preferred the spiritual pathway more than did Catholics. The use of biomedical care is potentially undermined by poor mental health infrastructure, a lack of fit between the culture of biomedical care and the deep-seated cultural/religious worldviews of the people, stigma surrounding mental illness, and the likelihood of a social desirability bias in responses. A complementary model of care is proposed

HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, sexual practices and predictors of condom use among long-distance truck drivers in Nigeria

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Voluntary Counseling and Willingness to Screen among Nigerian Long Distance Truck Drivers

Background: Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) is an important preventive strategy in the control of HIV/AIDS and Long distance truck drivers (LDTD) have been identified as an important group in the transmission of HIV/AIDS. This study aims to assess knowledge and perception of Nigerian long distance truck drivers on HIV/AIDS, voluntary counseling and testing and their willingness to undergo HIV screening. Materials and Methods: One hundred and ninety seven LDTD in Enugu, Nigeria were surveyed using pre tested structured questionnaires. Results: Awareness of HIV/AIDS was high (94.9%) amongst the drivers and the media was their commonest source of information. Similarly the awareness of VCT was high (94.4%). One hundred and eight (54.8%) respondents were willing to undergo HIV screening test if offered freely and 86 (43.7%) others have previously been screened. Educational status was a significant determinant of willingness to undergo HIV screening p<0.05. The reasons for screening were mainly doctors′ recommendation (19.3%) and voluntary self screening (18.8%). The commonest reasons for not wanting to undergo screening were the feeling of not being at risk (27.9%), fear of a positive result (10.2%) and cost of screening test (9.6%). Conclusion: There is a critical need to improve HIV screening participation amongst Long distance drivers in Nigeria

Knowledge and attitude of secondary school teachers in Enugu to school based sex education.

Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude to sex education among secondary school teachers in Enugu. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study of 300 teachers drawn from nine randomly selected secondary schools in Enugu metropolis was carried out. Pre-tested self administered structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Results: Three hundred teachers, 215 females and 85 males were interviewed. The mean age of the teachers was 38.1±7.5 years. Sixty-nine (23.0%) had adequate knowledge of sex education and 282 (94.0%) approved the inclusion of sex education into the school curriculum. The commonest reason for disapproval of sex education was fear that it would lead to promiscuity amongst the students. Educational status and marital status of the teachers were significant determinants of positive attitude to sex education