Community In Southwest Nigeria Research Articles

Intimate Partner Violence among Women in a Migrant Community in Southwest Nigeria

This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to determine attitudes to and the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women of reproductive age in a migrant community in southwest Nigeria. All consenting females aged 15-49 years in the area sampled were interviewed. A structured questionnaire administered in the local language was used to obtain information on attitudes toward IPV in seven hypothetical situations as well as their exposure to IPV. Eighty-seven percent of women had ever experienced IPV, while 20% experienced IPV in the preceding 12 months. Regarding attitudes to IPV, 79.5% of women believed that wife beating was justified in at least one of seven situations. Respondents who were not living with a male partner were more likely than their counterparts who were married/cohabiting to accept IPV (p = 0.03). There is a need for a cultural reorientation through appropriate health education interventions.

Road Traffic Injuries Among Semi-Urban African Children: Assessment Of Severity With The Pediatric Trauma Score

Background: In Africa, road traffic injuries (RTI) have become significant causes of childhood morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, trauma severity scoring is rarely applied in the management. Objectives: To evaluate the severity of childhood RTI using the Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS) in Ilesa; a semi-urban community in Southwest Nigeria. Methodology: A 12-month prospective study of consecutive children with RTI seen at the Children Emergency Room (CHER) of the Wesley Guild Hospital. Information was obtained and analysed regarding the pattern of RTI, the PTS and outcome. Results: A total of 263 children had RTI representing 8.0 percent of all CHER attendances. Pedestrians accounted for 60.8 percent cases. The mean PTS was 8.59 (± 2.85). Majority (63.5 percent) of the children sustained minor trauma (high PTS > 9). Statistically significant higher percentages of children who sustained major trauma (low PTS ≤ 8) were pedestrians, motorcycle victims, presented late, had penetrating, or multiple injuries, head injury, lost consciousness or convulsed. All 26 (9.9 percent) children who died following RTI (representing 17.6 percent of all CHER deaths) had low PTS (2.65 ± 3.02). All deaths were within 24 hours of RTI with no late deaths. Conclusions: RTI pose significant health hazard to children in the community studied. The PTS showed good relationship to RTI outcome. Because of its simplicity and reliability in assessing trauma severity and prognosis, we advocate its use for the evaluation of childhood RTI.

Evidence of a major gene effect for angiotensinogen among Nigerians.

To dissect the genetic pathway of hypertension, we measured angiotensinogen in 685 members of 186 families recruited from a rural community in southwest Nigeria. Commingling and segregation analyses were carried out. A mixture of two and/or three distributions fits the data significantly better than a single distribution in commingling analysis, suggesting a major gene effect. Segregation analysis confirmed that a recessive major gene model for low values of angiotensinogen provides the best fit to the data and about 13% of the variance was due to the recessive gene segregation.