Psychosocial management of uterine fibroids among patients attending University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin: Implications for counselling

Abstract

Fibroid is one of the commonest diseases among women and it is becoming burdensome worldwide. This study investigated the psychosocial management of uterine fibroid among patients attending the University of Ilorin of Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Nigeria. The differences in the respondents’ age, educational attainment and type of occupation were also examined. The descriptive survey was considered appropriate for the study. The sample consisted of one hundred (100) fibroid patients who were purposively selected for the study. The instrument employed for this study was a 20-items questionnaire tagged: Psychosocial Management of Fibroid Questionnaire (PMFQ). The validity of the questionnaire was ascertained and a reliability of 0.82 was established. The data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical tool at 0.05 alpha level. The results showed that the psychosocial management of fibroid among patients attending UITH, include talking to people about their feelings and engaging in communal services among others. It was found that age, type of occupation and educational qualification had no significant influence on the psychosocial management of fibroid among patients. It was concluded that Counselling Centres should be established in all government and private hospitals which should be equipped with professional counsellors to further help patients in the psychosocial management of fibroids.Keywords: Psychosocial management, Uterine Fibroid, Patients, Teaching Hospitals, Counselling Implications