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With economic pressures on families increasing, more women are working outside the home leaving their children in day care centres. In a community-based, descriptive cross-sectional study, the feeding pattern in two groups of children under two years old, cared for in two different rearing environments: home environment and day care centres, was compared, and the effect of rearing environment on their feeding pattern was assessed. Two groups of children from lower-middle socio-economic backgrounds were recruited into the study. Using simple random sampling, 250 under two years old children attending day care centres in a medium-high density area of Osogbo metropolis and 250 under two years old children cared for in the home environment in the same area were enrolled in the study. Information was collected by use of a pre-tested and structured questionnaire administered to the parents of the children, the proprietors and the attendants of the day care centres. The feeding pattern of the children in both groups revealed a low level of breast-feeding practices, early initiation of complementary feeding and short total duration of breast-feeding. The study also showed that putting children in day care centres may militate against the mother being able to practise exclusive breast-feeding and may also affect total duration of breast-feeding. The study concluded that rearing environment has an effect on the feeding patterns of children. Health education of both mothers and health professionals and provision of creches or day care centres by companies, institutions, hospitals and schools in their premises are recommendations for improving the situation. (Contains 4 tables.)

BACKGROUND: Nigeria is the second largest country with paediatric HIV infections. Mother to Child transmission of HIV remains a major source of paediatric infection in Nigeria. This study was conducted to determine the outcomes of HIV exposed infants in selected Primary Health Care Centres. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study on HIV exposed infants between January 2015 to July 2016. A proforma was used to abstract information from clinic records on socio-demographics characteristics, ARV prophylaxis, mode of delivery, birth weight, infant prophylaxis, early infant diagnosis (EID), referral to ART. Descriptive and multivariate analysis was done to determine predictors of HIV infection among exposed infants. RESULTS: 170 exposed infants were recruited, and more than two-third of the infants were males (74.1%) with median age 4±3months ranging from (0 -11months). One hundred and fifty (88.2%) received infant prophylaxis and 116 (68.2%) had EID done at 6weeks. Of the 170 exposed infants 19(11.1%) were positive at 18months. Predictors of HIV infection were age of mothers =30years (Adjusted Odd's Ratio = 2.5,95%CI 1.9 - 16.93), Vaginal tear (Adjusted OR= 2.7,95%CI 2.1- 19.21), infants whose maternal CD4 count < 500(Adjusted OR= 3.5,95%CI 1.7 -15.02) and infant received prophylaxis other than daily Nevirapine for 6weeks (Adjusted OR=3.0,95%CI 2.4-12.74). CONCLUSION: The positivity rate among studied exposed infants was high. Continuous placement of younger HIV positive mothers and exposed infants on recommended prophylaxis and timely early infant diagnosis will go a long way in reducing the burden of paediatric HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a globally accepted developmental agenda, and it is expected that everyone everywhere in the world would be aware, knowledgeable and be willing to contribute to its attainment. This study aims to assess the level of awareness, knowledge of, and attitudes towards the SDGs among members of a university community. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 450 students and staff of Osun State University, Southwestern Nigeria, selected from three of its six multi-campuses via multistage sampling. Data were collected by means of semi-structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0. RESULTS: The mean age for the respondents was 26(10.2) years. Only 43% of the respondents were aware of the SDGs and only 4.2% had good knowledge of the SDGs. However, 56.3% had positive attitude towards it. More respondents with good knowledge of the SDGs were either acadenic staff or those have been enlightened via personal study of the SDGs or through other means. Similarly having a positive attitude was associated with being an academic staff/high level of education as well as belonging to the middle age group. (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The awareness of and attitudes towards the SDGs was just fair. However, the level of knowledge was abysmally low, and this has serious negative implications for SDGs attainment. Pertinent individual and population-level methods of enlightening people about the SDGs must be put in place in educational settings; curricular changes are imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To obtain baseline data and assess the level of awareness and attitudes towards glaucoma among rural communities of Osun State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This was a community-based study that involved interviews and descriptive cross-sectional analysis. Serial-recruitment was performed of consenting participants who presented at a community-based screening service in March 2011. Socio-demographic data and information about glaucoma were obtained through face-to-face semi-structured questionnaires. Results: The study population comprised 259 respondents (mean age 49.73 ± 16.6 years; range 18 to 90 years). There were 159 females (61.4%). Skilled workers were the most common 130/259 (50.3%) participants. Only 41 (15.8%; 95% CI: 11.4-20.2) participants had ever heard of glaucoma. Sources of information were from visits to an eye clinic for 21/41 (51.2%; 95% CI: 35.9-66.5) participants and 15/41 (36.6%) participants who know someone with glaucoma. Reponses to the causes of glaucoma included 20/41 (48.8%; 33.5-64.1) participant who said 'I don't know' and 24.4% of participants who responded 'curse-from-God'. Responses to questions on treatment included 20/41 (48.8%) participants who responded 'I don't know how it can be treated' and 10/41 (36.6%) said 'medically'. Thirty 30/41 (73.2%) participants would refuse surgery, half of them because 'it cannot cure or reverse the disease' while (26.7%) would refuse out of 'fear'. Only 8/41 (19.5%; 95% CI: 7.4-31.6) would accept surgery for maintenance. Statistically significant predictors of glaucoma awareness were older participants, males and skilled workers (teachers) (P = 0.028, P = 0.018, P = 0.0001, respectively). Conclusions: The outcomes of study indicate a low level of awareness of glaucoma. Health education at all levels of health and eye care services is required to prevent ocular morbidity and irreversible blindness from glaucoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Climate change (CC) has received extensive media attention recently, and it is currently on the international public health agenda. A study of knowledge and attitudes to climate change, most especially from rural Nigerian communities, is important for developing adaptation strategies. This is a study of public perceptions of CC and its impact on health and environment in rural southwestern Nigeria. Methods: This was a community-based descriptive cross-sectional study of 1,019 rural respondents using a multistage sampling method. The research instrument used was a pretested, structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. χ², Cramér's V, and Kendall's τ-c statistics were employed in addition to fitting the data to a logistic regression model to explore associations found significant on bivariate analysis. Results: Mean age of respondents was 36.9 (±12.4) years. About 911 (89.4%) of respondents opined that there has been a change in climate in the last 10 years. Supernatural reasons were prominent among respondent-reported causes of CC. Identified risky behavior contributing to CC included smoking (10.7%), bush burning (33.4%), and tree felling (41.0%). Poor knowledge of causes but good knowledge of effects of CC were found in this study. About two-thirds of respondents had a positive attitude to causes of CC, while half had a positive attitude to the effects of CC. A significant association was found between educational status (P,0.001, Kendall's τ-c=-0.042), occupational status (P,0.01, Kendall's τ-c=0.088), and attitude to causes of CC. Further analysis using logistic regression showed that occupational status was significantly associated with likelihood of having a positive attitude, but educational status and marital status were not. Conclusion: Rural areas of Nigeria are vulnerable to the adverse effects of CC. Respondents' poor knowledge but positive attitude to CC calls for dissemination of adequate information on CC in sustained health-promotion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues in Nigeria despite efforts to control it. Meaningful efforts aimed at combating this disease must be multisectoral. However, despite the major influence religious leaders have in this society, their role has not been well studied. The aim of the study was to assess the perceptions and activities of religious leaders on prevention of HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and care of people living with the virus in Ibadan, Nigeria. Materials and methods: In a cross-sectional study, 336 leaders from eight religious denominations in Ibadan were surveyed utilizing a self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire. Respondents were selected by cluster sampling technique. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 15. Results: The mean age of respondents was 37.9 (± 13.5) years. The majority (97.6%) were aware of the HIV/AIDS scourge, and most had good knowledge of routes of transmission and modes of prevention (85.7%). Attitudes to people living with HIV/AIDS were positive in 84.2% respondents, and many practiced preventive measures (94.9%). One hundred and ninety (56.5%) respondents had ever preached about HIV/AIDS transmission and treatment to their congregations, while 257 (76.5%) used their position as a medium of educating their congregation about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it. Further analysis showed that respondents who were Christians (P = 0.026), had ever been married (P = 0.004), and were males (P = 0.002) were more likely to have ever preached about health issues to their congregations (individual role). Conclusion: The study concluded that the religious leaders are well informed about HIV/AIDS and have adequate knowledge and positive attitudes towards people living with AIDS. However, they need encouragement and training to enable them to more effectively harness their position for HIV prevention and to control programs and activities among their congregation to thereby play a crucial role in the war against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions result in the death of thousands of women, while millions suffer from permanent or temporary disabilities, problems that the use of emergency contraception can ameliorate. This study was therefore carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of emergency contraception (EC) among college students in Osogbo metropolis. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 594 college students in Osogbo metropolis in Osun State, Nigeria, using pretested, semistructured questionnaires. Respondents were selected by multistage sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 15. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 23.45 ± 3.63 years. Mean age at first sexual exposure was 19.34 ± 4.34 years. Awareness about EC was fairly high among the respondents, (403, 67.8%), with categorized scoring of outcome variables showing that 60.8% of respondents had good general knowledge and only 27.9% had a positive attitude towards EC. However, only 66 (29.9%) of the sexually active respondents had ever used EC before the study, while 26 (21.5%) of the 121 sexually active female respondents admitted to having had an abortion. Bivariate analysis revealed that respondents' knowledge of, and attitude towards, EC were significantly related to age (P< 0.00000001), respondents' course of study (P< 0.00000001), and their level in college (P = 0.0000002), while the use of EC among the sexually active students was significantly related to respondents' knowledge of EC (P = 0.017). Conclusion: Fairly high awareness, good general but poor comprehensive knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor use characterized the practice of EC among our study population. There is therefore a need for health-education initiatives about EC, addressing specific areas of poor knowledge and clarification of common misconceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues in Nigeria despite efforts to control it. Meaningful efforts aimed at combating this disease must be multisectoral. However, despite the major influence religious leaders have in this society, their role has not been well studied. The aim of the study was to assess the perceptions and activities of religious leaders on prevention of HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and care of people living with the virus in Ibadan, Nigeria., Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 336 leaders from eight religious denominations in Ibadan were surveyed utilizing a self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire. Respondents were selected by cluster sampling technique. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 15., Results: The mean age of respondents was 37.9 (± 13.5) years. The majority (97.6%) were aware of the HIV/AIDS scourge, and most had good knowledge of routes of transmission and modes of prevention (85.7%). Attitudes to people living with HIV/AIDS were positive in 84.2% respondents, and many practiced preventive measures (94.9%). One hundred and ninety (56.5%) respondents had ever preached about HIV/AIDS transmission and treatment to their congregations, while 257 (76.5%) used their position as a medium of educating their congregation about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it. Further analysis showed that respondents who were Christians (P = 0.026), had ever been married (P = 0.004), and were males (P = 0.002) were more likely to have ever preached about health issues to their congregations (individual role)., Conclusion: The study concluded that the religious leaders are well informed about HIV/AIDS and have adequate knowledge and positive attitudes towards people living with AIDS. However, they need encouragement and training to enable them to more effectively harness their position for HIV prevention and to control programs and activities among their congregation to thereby play a crucial role in the war against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.