4 research outputs found
Relationship between adolescents’ family function with socio-demographic characteristics and behaviour risk factors in a primary care facility
No full textBackground: The family as a unit of care has great effect in tackling adolescent problems and this could be influenced by family functioning.
Objective: This study assesses the relationship between adolescents’ family functioning with socio-demographic characteristics and behavioural risk factors.
Method: The research was a cross-sectional, hospital-based study carried out at the General Outpatients Department, University College Hospital (GOPD,UCH), Ibadan, over a period of three months. Four hundred subjects were recruited using a modified Guideline for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) questionnaire, with an incorporated family APGAR (Adaptation,Partnership, Growth, Affection, Resolve) score table. The results were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 11 and the findings on the family assessment and behavioural risk factors were relayed to the respondents.
Results: The ages of the adolescents ranged from 10 to 19 years. Of the subjects, 8% were sexually active. Mean age for first coitus among the respondents was 15 ± 2.4 years. The rate of ingestion of alcohol and cigarette smoking was very low. The family APGAR scores obtained revealed that 84.5% subjects were rated as having a functional family (7–10 points) and 15.5% of the subjects were rated as having a dysfunctional family (0–6 points). There was a significant association between perceived family function and subjects’ occupation (p = 0.01), parent social class (p = 0.00) and subjects’ sexual activities (p = 0.00).
Conclusion: The majority of the adolescents were rated as having functional families. Dysfunctional families had significantly sexually active respondents
Pattern of breast cancer risk factors among pre and post‑menopausal women at a Primary Care Clinic in Nigeria
No full textContext: The incidence of breast cancer is increasing worldwide. In black women, breast cancer is associated with aggressive features and poor survival.Objective: Identification of risk factors such as early age of menarche, obesity and family history of breast cancer may permit preventive strategies.Study Design: A cross‑sectional comparative study design was used and questionnaires were administered to 400 adult women at a tertiary health centre in Nigeria. The data was analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 17; the level of significance set at alpha = 0.05.Results: There was significant association between pre‑menopausal and post‑menopausal women with positive family history of breast cancer with P = 0.010. Majority of the respondents with a positive family history of breast cancer were menopausal (P = 0.010). There was a statistically significant association between menopausal status and ever consuming alcohol‑based herbal concoctions (P = 0.010) and in those whose partners smoked cigarettes (P = 0.001). Majority of respondents were not currently on any form of contraceptives. Parity, breastfeeding and use of hormonal contraceptives were all statistically significant (P < 0.001, P < 0.001 and P = 0.004, respectively). Almost all the women in our study, 97%, had never had a mammogram. There was a significant association between pre‑menopausal and post‑menopausal women with positive family history of breast cancer (P = 0.010).Conclusion: With increasing incidence of breast cancer worldwide and late presentation in developing countries with high morbidity and mortality, effective screening for risk factors will go a long way in reducing the incidence of breast cancer.Keywords: Breast cancer; Nigeria; risk factors; wome
Sustaining menstrual regulation policy: a case study of the policy process in Bangladesh
No full textBangladesh introduced menstrual regulation (early abortion) into its national
family planning program in 1979, and for more than 20 years women with unwanted
pregnancies have been able to avail themselves of a relatively safe and accessible
service. Over the years, however, concern has been expressed about deficiencies in
the implementation of the policy, and by the mid-1990s, the menstrual regulation
(MR) policy was approaching a critical juncture. The introduction of health sector
reforms and the waning of international and domestic support raised questions
regarding the sustainability of the policy. This study was conducted to determine the
factors that influenced the development of and support for the MR policy in
Bangladesh, in order to explore how far those factors might influence future
sustainability.
The study used an analytic framework based on literature from the policy
field to test what factors were important in the policy process in Bangladesh.
Qualitative data was gathered from interviews and documents in an inductive
approach to determine the development of the MR policy, which was then subjected
to a retrospective analysis of the entire life cycle of the MR policy-how it came to
be placed on the policy agenda, how and why it was formulated the way it was, and
why it was not implemented as well as it could have been. Data gathered from
interviews and document reviews were then used in a political mapping exercise
undertaken in a prospective analysis for the policy, providing insights in relation to
the future sustainability of the MR policy.
The research suggested that the analytic framework used was helpful in
providing a systematic analysis of contextual conditions, agenda-setting
circumstances, and policy characteristics that could explain much of the variability in
the policy process. The role of international donors and attitudes toward religion
were found to be particularly relevant to explaining the policy process. The study
concluded that the MR policy would likely not be sustained in the future unless
purposeful action were taken to mobilise additional bureaucratic and political
resources in support of the policy
A New Form of Authoritarianism? Rethinking Military Politics in Post-1999 Nigeria
No full textDespite the vast research that has been done on the Nigerian military, virtually all of these studies have failed to critically examine the accepted role of the military in the democratising phase. This is important because the relationship between the political elite and the military in post-military authoritarian states guarantees either democratic consolidation, or its reversal. In Nigeria, despite an appearance of significant progress in subordinating the military institution to democratic civilian authority, the military remains a crucial political actor in the polity. It appears that the military has yet to accept the core democratic principles of civilian oversight of the institution. This thesis, therefore, explores whether a new form of military authoritarianism is emerging in Nigeria, with the aim of understanding Nigeria’s military behaviour in a transitional phase, from prolonged military authoritarianism to democratisation. To examine this military behaviour, Alfred Stepan’s concept of military prerogatives that was used to understand the military’s behaviour in a transitional phase in Latin America is applied to Nigeria.
A crucial understanding of authoritarianism in Nigeria is initially discussed in this study using mainly document analysis strategy to examine whether multi-ethnic states, such as Nigeria, tend to have authoritarian systems. Six hypotheses form the core analysis of this thesis: first, that the military has retained significant military prerogatives; second, that retired military officers are gaining influential political and economic positions; third, autonomous military involvement in human rights abuses since 1999; and fourth, that civilian government oversight remains weak, and facilitates military authoritarianism. These hypotheses are primarily analysed using the elite interview technique. During the first half of 2011, the author conducted field research where serving and retired military officers were interviewed. The fifth hypothesis is that the military has intervened in politics post-1999. The examination of this hypothesis relies primarily on key security-related media reports (mostly newspaper editorials) on the military after 1999. The examination of the final hypothesis, that increases in military expenditures might facilitate a new form of military authoritarianism, relies primarily on descriptive statistical analysis. In addition, this study collated relevant historical materials that relate to the military, utilising national archival collections.
The empirical findings of this research did not identify a new form of military authoritarianism in Nigeria. The study, however, argues that the unrestricted institutional framework accorded the military has contributed significantly to authoritarian practices in the post-military era in Nigeria. This study discovered that there were similarities between the Brazilian and Nigerian militaries in regard to their military spending during their period in power. Both countries had lower defence budgets. Just as in Brazil, it appears that part of the reason the Nigerian military decided to relinquish power in 1999 had to do with its desire to gain a higher budget, something that was precluded in a military government struggling to retain a sense of legitimacy. The military needed a higher budget to modernise and re-professionalise its institution after more than a decade in power. This feature, which the Nigerian military shares with the Brazilian military, appears to justify the application to Nigeria of Alfred Stepan’s concept of military prerogatives.
