African health sciences最新文献

Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of refugee adolescents and youths is a neglected area with high unmet needs. This paper presents the levels and factors associated with Knowledge and attitudes towards SRH services in the same population in Palorinya settlement, Uganda. The cross-sectional study utilized proportional stratified sampling techniques to generate data from 801 participants. Knowledge of SRH focused on family planning, sexually transmitted infections, and menstruation. Multivariable modified Poisson and logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with knowledge and attitudes regarding SRH. Overall, knowledge of FP and STIs was high, at 75% and 94.5%, respectively, but knowledge of menstruation was low, at 6.5%. Having knowledge of FP was associated with age 16-19 years (APR 1.75, 95% CI=1.55-1.98), age 20-24 years (APR 1.86; 95% CI=1.63-2.12), having a monthly income (>=50,000 (APR=1.33; 95%CI (1.12-1.59)] and being married/in-union (APR=1.09, 95%CI:1.02-1.1.16). Nearly the same pattern was observed for knowledge of STIs, menstruation, and positive attitudes toward SRH. The level of knowledge of SRH on STIs and FP was higher than what was reported in other studies among young refugees in Africa. Knowledge on SRH increased with education; thus, increasing opportunities for higher education level is likely to improve knowledge on SRH, though this is subject to further investigations.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed a range of diagnostic tuberculosis (TB) over the years. A little is documented about the uptake in the WHO African Region (WHO/FR).

Objective: We assessed the uptake of the endorsed diagnostic technologies for tuberculosis through a literature review.

Methods: We reviewed literature in French and English from PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embase for TB diagnostics endorsed by WHO between January 2007 and December 2017, extending to December 2021 for recent technologies. We included publications from the 47 countries in the WHO/AFR. Data were analyzed using PRISMA diagrams and STATA 14.0.

Results: Out of 3,399 articles, 1,716 articles were screened, and 92 qualified for analysis. The majority of articles were on Xpert MTB/RIF (XPERT) 22 (47%), Line Probe Assay (LPA), 10 (21%), and Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) 9 (19%). For rollout, 11 (24%) of countries had publications on Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and 16 (36%) on XPERT. The median years for uptake were 6 for MGIT, 5 for XPERT, and 2.5 for LPA. For the rollout, the median years for MGIT, LPA, and XPERT were 7, 6, and 5 respectively.

Conclusion: Our study shows that the uptake and rollout are slow. Future studies should identify factors affecting rapid uptake and rollout.

Background: Patient satisfaction is a fundamental measure of healthcare quality and service responsiveness. In Kenya's public health system, understanding patient experiences is essential for enhancing care delivery under the UHC agenda. This study examined the influence of socio-demographic and individual factors on patient satisfaction.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was employed involving 277 adult patients selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected via a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 27. Descriptive statistics summarized patient characteristics, while chi-square tests and binary logistic regression identified associations and predictors of satisfaction (p < 0.05).

Results: Overall, 49.8% of respondents reported being satisfied, while 24.6% were dissatisfied. Employment status showed a borderline significant association with satisfaction (χ ² = 21.00, p = 0.050), whereas age (p = 0.855), gender (p = 0.687), income (p = 0.088), education (p = 0.740), and marital status (p = 0.875) were not significant predictors. Among individual-level factors, effective communication with providers was the strongest predictor of satisfaction (B = 0.857, p = 0.0008, OR = 2.357). Other variables such as trust (B = 0.236, p = 0.140), waiting time (B = 0.191, p = 0.079), affordability (B = -0.121, p = 0.419), and understanding of treatment (B = -0.163, p = 0.196) were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: Patient satisfaction was moderate and influenced more by interpersonal interactions than demographic profiles. Communication quality emerged as the most important determinant. Enhancing relational aspects of care through communication training and routine feedback systems may improve satisfaction and align public health services with patient-centered care goals.

Background: Postmenopausal symptoms vary between individuals and cultures. There are limited data on postmenopausal symptoms among Ugandan women.

Objective: To determine the age at natural menopause and the prevalence of menopausal symptoms among postmenopausal women in Kabale Municipality, in South-Western Uganda.

Methods: A cross-sectional study on 218 postmenopausal women aged 45 to 65 years from Kabale Municipality to collect data on socio-demographics, reproductive history and menopausal symptoms. Statistical analyses comprised descriptive statistics, Shapiro-Wilk test and two-sample tests of proportions, with significance defined as P < 0.05.

Results: The Median age at menopause was 45 years. 100 % of participants reported experiencing at least one menopausal symptom. Symptoms were most frequently reported in the somato-vegetative domain (98.6%) followed by the psychological domain (95.4%)and least frequently in the urogenital domain (93.6%). The most prevalent individual menopausal symptom was hot flushes (88.1%) and the least prevalent was dyspareunia (14.2%). 73% of participants reported depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: The current study showed the highest prevalence of menopausal symptoms on the African continent. The most prevalent menopausal symptom is hot flushes and the least prevalent is dyspareunia. Urgent psychological support is needed to address the highly prevalent depressive symptoms.

Background: Globally, the ever-increasing numbers of teenage pregnancies reported is worrying, despite the commitment of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) declaration, 1994. Behind these numbers, there are voluminous untold stories. This study documented vividly the lived experiences of teenage pregnant and breastfeeding mothers born during the Lord's Resistance Army LRA war in Acholi sub region that lasted for two decades (1986-2006).

Methods: Qualitative cross-sectional case study design was used. Data was collected between January-March 2020. We interviewed 15 pregnant and lactating teenage mothers who were purposively selected. Data was collected using in-depth interviews (IDI) and analysed thematically using atlas ti version 5.

Results: The lived experiences prior to their pregnancy, characterized by orphan-hood, school drop out, single parenthood, lack of basic needs and large family size posed server hardships and were detrimental. Equally, their experiences during and after pregnancy was troublesome as close to 80% of the participants were sole parenting. Stigma, worries, limited baby care skills and inadequate basic needs all mirrored very gloomy lived experiences of the teenage pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

Conclusion: The hardship life experienced prior to the teenage pregnancy was so detrimental and as such greatly contributed to the teenage pregnancy and motherhood. These factors were largely caused by the two decades of the LRA war that weakened the family and societal fabrics. The study recommends promotion of sexuality education, mentorship and skills building for young parents (mothers).

Background: In Nigeria, barriers to immunisation such as myths and misconceptions arising from belief, lack of knowledge and social or family influence exist. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of Short Message Service (SMS) delivered health education messages on barriers to childhood immunization in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.

Methods: The study is a pre-and-post-test quasi-experimental study conducted among 262 parents of infants in Maiduguri, Nigeria. One SMS-delivered health education message was sent to parents of infants one week to the immunisation date for the 6th, 10th, and 14th-week immunization schedule. The immunisation fact messages were adapted from UNICEF and translated to Hausa language. At baseline and endline, the Searching for Hardship to Shots (SHOT) survey questionnaire was administered to determine barriers to immunization. Data collected were analysed using Wilcoxon signed rank test. The results were significant if the p-value was <0.05 at a 95% confidence interval.

Results: Findings of the study indicate that overall, SMS delivered health education significantly (p-value = 0.001) reduced total barrier to parental immunization. Additionally, interventions significantly reduce access and importance (p-value = 0.001) barriers, although barriers regarding parental concern was reduced, it was however, not statistically significant (p-value = 0.055).

Conclusion: The study affirms the important role of mobile communication health technology in improving outcome of immunization in Nigeria.

Background: Paediatric sepsis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Timely diagnosis remains a challenge due to the limitations of conventional blood culture. This study evaluates procalcitonin as a biomarker for bacterial sepsis in children aged 0-59 months in a resource-limited setting.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out between June 2023 and February 2024. It involved 298 children aged 0-59 months with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) who were admitted to the Emergency Pediatric Unit and Special Care Baby Unit of Federal Teaching Hospital, Owerri. Serum procalcitonin levels were measured using ELISA, and blood cultures were processed using the BacT/Alert system. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of procalcitonin were compared against blood culture results.

Results: Of the 298 children, 142 (47.7%) had culture-proven sepsis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of serum procalcitonin were 66.9%, 89.7%, 85.6%, and 74.9%, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) for serum procalcitonin was 0.80 across all age groups which were statistically significant.

Conclusions: Procalcitonin has a good diagnostic accuracy in detecting bacterial sepsis in children and can complement blood culture in resource-limited settings. Further studies are recommended to explore its application in routine clinical practice.

Introduction: This study aimed to examine the awareness and perspectives of health professions students on patients' rights.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 294 undergraduate health profession students from three academic programs at a university in Uganda. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Inferential analysis was performed using the Kruskall Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests.

Results: Most respondents were male (57%), with a mean age of 24 years (SD 4) and 57.1% were medical students. One hundred ninety-two students (65%) were aware of the Uganda Patients Charter and had mainly learned about it from class (46%) and online (20%). 63% agreed that a health provider may give medical treatment without the patient's informed consent. There were significant gender differences in the patients' right to impartial access to health care (p= 0.039) and voluntary participation in clinical training (p= 0.047). There were significant differences in perspectives on the patient's right to participate in care decisions and choose treatment plans across the three academic programs (p = 0.006).

Conclusion: Most students were conversant with the different patient rights prescribed in the Uganda Patients Charter. However, they seemed not to appreciate the patient's right to informed consent in medical care.

Background: Three-quarters of all mental health problems begins between 10-24 years. When not treated, adolescents and young people with mental health problems are at high risk of abuse, suicide, and substance use, which have long-term consequences that negatively impact physical, and economic productivity. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of mental health problems among secondary school students 10-24 years in the Kilimanjaro region, northern Tanzania.

Methodology: We utilized secondary data from two repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2019 and 2022 among students aged 10-24 years in the Kilimanjaro region, northern Tanzania. A chi-square test was used to compare mental health problem proportions by survey year and other participant characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression estimated odds ratios and 95% confidence interval to determine factors associated with mental health problems.

Results: The median age of 4955 study participants was 15 (14, 17), 64% were 15-19 years, 53.9% were females, and 65% participated in survey 1. The overall prevalence of mental health problems was 29.2% (survey 1; 27.4% and survey 2; 32.6%). Overall, higher odds of mental health problems were among students aged 20-24 years than those aged 10-14 years, among females, currently using any substances, ever had sex, ever been physically attacked, ever been bullied, and those ever-missed classes.

Conclusion: Mental health problems are highly prevalent among secondary school adolescents and young people in the Kilimanjaro region and were common among those aged 20-24 years, females, final year students, current substance users, history of having sex, ever missed classes, and being bullied. In-school programs for mental health issues awareness among students should be improved.