Policy mapping for establishing a national emergency health policy for Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The number of potential life years lost due to accidents and injuries though poorly studied has resulted in tremendous economic and social loss to Nigeria. Numerous socio-cultural, economic and political factors including the current epidemic of ethnic and religious conflicts act in concert in predisposing to and enabling the ongoing catastrophe of accident and injuries in Nigeria. METHODS: Using the "policymaker", Microsoft-Windows(®) based software, the information generated on accidents and injuries and emergency health care in Nigeria from literature review, content analysis of relevant documents, expert interviewing and consensus opinion, a model National Emergency Health Policy was designed and analyzed. A major point of analysis for the policy is the current political feasibility of the policy including its opportunities and obstacles in the country. RESULTS: A model National Emergency Health Policy with policy goals, objectives, programs and evaluation benchmarks was generated. Critical analyses of potential policy problems, associated multiple players, diverging interests and implementation guidelines were developed. CONCLUSIONS: "Political health modeling" a term proposed here would be invaluable to policy makers and scholars in developing countries in assessing the political feasibility of policy managing. Political modeling applied to the development of a NEHP in Nigeria would empower policy makers and the policy making process and would ensure a sustainable emergency health policy in Nigeria

Incidence, patterns and severity of reported unintentional injuries in Pakistan for persons five years and older: results of the National Health Survey of Pakistan 1990–94

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>National level estimates of injuries are not readily available for developing countries. This study estimated the annual incidence, patterns and severity of unintentional injuries among persons over five years of age in Pakistan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>National Health Survey of Pakistan (NHSP 1990–94) is a nationally representative survey of the household. Through a two-stage stratified design, 18, 315 persons over 5 years of age were interviewed to estimate the overall annual incidence, patterns and severity of unintentional injuries for males and females in urban and rural areas over the preceding one year. Weighted estimates were computed adjusting for complex survey design using <it>surveyfreq </it>and <it>surveylogistic </it>option of SAS 9.1 software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall annual incidence of all unintentional injuries was 45.9 (CI: 39.3–52.5) per 1000 per year; 59.2 (CI: 49.2–69.2) and 33.2 (CI: 27.0–39.4) per 1000 per year among males and females over five years of age, respectively. An estimated 6.16 million unintentional injuries occur in Pakistan annually among persons over five years of age. Urban and rural injuries were 55.9 (95% CI: 48.1–63.7) and 41.2 (95% CI: 32.2–50.0) per 1000 per year, respectively. The annual incidence of injuries due to falls were 22.2 (95% CI: 18.0–26.4), poisoning 3.3 (95%CI: 0.5–6.1) and burn was 1.5 (95%CI: 0.9–2.1) per 1000 per year. The majority of injuries occurred at home 19.2 (95%CI: 16.0–22.4) or on the roads 17.0 (95%CI: 13.8–20.2). Road traffic/street, school and urban injuries were more likely to result in handicap.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is high burden of unintentional injuries among persons over five years of age in Pakistan. These results are useful to plan further studies and prioritizing prevention programs on injuries nationally and other developing countries with similar situation.</p

Physicians in preventive and social medicine have a role to play in road safety and accident prevention

No AbstractPort Harcourt Medical Journal Vol. 3 (1) 2008: pp. 116-11

The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in Aba, South Eastern Nigeria

Background: Any degree of glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy is regarded as Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). The incidence of diabetes in pregnancy in any obstetric population will vary according to whether diabetic screening is done routinely or not in these populations.Objective: To determine the prevalence of GDM in Aba , Abia State, Nigeria.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study among antenatal clinic attendees to determine the prevalence of GDM. A structured pretested questionnaire was used to collect and record data on the medical and sociodemographic characteristics of the subjects. Blood samples were collected from the subjects and fasting or random blood sugar determined using a glucometer.Results: The study showed the prevalence of GDM in Aba to be 2.2%. Three of the four subjects with GDM had a positive familial history of diabetes mellitus.Conclusion: The prevalence of GDM is low in the population studied.Keywords: Prevalence, Gestational Diabetes Mellitu

Significance of viscous dissipation, nanoparticles, and Joule heat on the dynamics of water: The case of two porous orthogonal disk

This research explores the association between the Viscous dissipation and joule heat effect for hybrid-nanofluids (HNfd) flow across absorbent surfaces. Expanding/contracting geometry with permeable factor advanced work for (HNfd), which are accumulated of Silver (Ag-Metallic) and copper (Cu-Metallic). The flow passes through the orthogonally moving porous disks with a magnetic field. Comparison and critical study of the bottom and top porous surfaces of the discs are also shown here. Comparability transformations, the prime PDEs of the current model are transformed into high-order nonlinear ODEs, which are subsequently resolved numerically using the “Shooting Method.” As discussed graphically the characterization of the flow, and thermal are demonstrated in detail, while the numerical result calculate in the upper and lower porous disk of a physical parameter such as skin friction coefficient (Cf) and Nusselt number (Nu) at lower and upper disks are respectively discussed