Factors associated with the knowledge, practice and perceptions of contraception in rural southern Nigeria

Background: Significant proportion of maternal deaths in Nigeria is due to complications of unsafe abortions, and these abortions are responses to unwanted pregnancies that could have been prevented by effective contraceptive programming. Despite intense programmatic efforts by the Nigerian government and various non-governmental agencies toreverse the trend, there has been little evidence to suggest a systematic improvement in these indicators. Methodology: A household random survey of 1,528 women aged between 15-49 years was undertaken at Amukpe community in Nigeria, to determine theirknowledge, practice and perceptions of contraception. Results: The results showed that 86.2% of the respondents had secondary or less level of education and 19.2% of the respondents were single parents. The level of contraceptive awareness was high (92.3%) and88% of the respondents became aware of contraception in the last 14 years. Friends/relatives (40.6%), followed by nurses (31.7%) and then doctors (17.3%) were the common sources of contraceptive awareness. The most  widely known contraceptive methods were injectables,condoms, POP and OCP. The specific knowledge of emergency contraception was poor. The factors associated with low contraceptive usage were poor level of training and ineffective conveyance of relevant information to clients by health personnel, low literacy levels,extremes of reproductive age and extremes of parity. Others were fear of side effects, lack of knowledge, and lack of spousal consent.Conclusion: Contraceptive usage remain poor despite high level of awareness. Effective educational and counseling interventions are likely to improve providers’ and consumers’ knowledge and subsequent uptakeof contraceptive usage

Factors associated with the knowledge, perception and practice of Pap smear screening for cervical cancer in Southern Nigeria

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Antenatal determinants of oro-facial clefts in Southern Nigeria

Objectives: Cleft lip with or without cleft palate, is the most common serious congenital anomaly that affects the orofacial regions. The management and care of the cleft patient constitutes a substantial proportion of the workload of the Nigerian maxillofacial surgeon and allied specialties. Yet, there are no specific programmes targeted at this group. We believe that the findings of this study is capable of identifying useful interventions for designing programs that will lead to a reduction in the burden of orofacial cleft in Nigeria. Methods: It was a transverse cross-sectional study that was undertaken at the Maxillofacial Units of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Central Hospital, Benin City respectively. The prevalence and antenatal determinants of cleft lip and palate were determined. Results: Cleft lip and palate were often encountered in clinical practice in Benin City with a prevalence of 1.35%. The results showed that orofacial clefts were commoner in females and that the combined unilateral cleft lip and palate was the commonest entity encountered amongst the cases. The following risk factors were associated with the risk of development of cleft lip and palate: Paternal age >40years, maternal age >35years, genetic/family history, low socio-economic status, alcohol consumption and indulgence in the intake of herbal medications in pregnancy. Conclusion: Public health education programmes and advocacy activities geared towards raising awareness of the identified risk factors for the development of cleft lip and or cleft palate would go a long way to obviate the occurrence and reduce the burden