Are Primary Health Care Workers in Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State Making Diagnosis or Classification of Diseases before Giving Treatment?

Abstract

Diagnosis is the establishment of a disease condition affecting an individual by a clinician. It is the end result of a process in which a clinician synthesis various combinations of symptoms and signs exhibited by a patient to make a list of possible disease conditions afflicting the patient. This study aimed to ascertain whether Primary Health Care Workers In the Ikere Local Government of Ekiti State were making diagnoses or classifications of diseases before giving treatments. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether Primary Health Care Workers In the Ikere Local Government of Ekiti State were making diagnoses or classifications of diseases before giving treatments. The study was a retrospective cross-sectional in nature and used secondary data from eight (8) primary health centers within the Local Government, comprising of two (2) Comprehensive and six (6) Basic Health Centers. A total of 513 out-patient cards were examined in the eight selected health facilities. Data was collected and analysed using SPSS version 2.0. Attempt at making a diagnosis were made in 206(40.2%), while no diagnosis were made in 307 (59.6%). 40 different diagnoses were made with malaria alone, 113 (54%) been the most diagnosed. Other diagnoses included wound 17 (8.1%), road traffic accident 10 (4.8%), malaria in combination with typhoid 8 (3.8%), malaria with peptic ulcer and malaria with infection at 2 (1%) each, dysentery, and typhoid 4 (1.9%) each. The uses of physical examination and laboratory investigation as well as diagnosis/ classification before treatment, were low. Keywords: Classification, Diagnosis, Primary health care, Primary health care workers.