102 research outputs found
Effectiveness of educational interventions on hypertensive patients' self-management behaviours: an umbrella review protocol
No full textBackground: Although different educational interventions have been widely used to manage and treat hypertension, alone or in combination with other interventions, there is a significant variation in their claimed effectiveness.Review question/objective: The objective of this umbrella review is to determine the effectiveness of educational interventions, alone or in combination with other interventions, for improving blood pressure control and self-management practices among hypertensive patients. The review question is: Do educational interventions, alone or in combination with other interventions, improve self-management practices among patients with hypertension?Methods: We will conduct a review of systematic reviews involving studies that implemented educational interventions, alone or in combination with other interventions, designed to change self-care practices among hypertensive patients who are 18 years and above, regardless of their sex and ethnicity. Following the guidelines set forth in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis statement, a comprehensive literature search will be conducted from September to December 2023 on six electronic databases: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science Core Collection and Google Scholar. Search terms will be developed using database-specific indexed terms and text words derived from the review aim. We will present the effects of the educational interventions, alone or in combination with other interventions, on hypertension self-management practices. We will report the outcome data with 95% CIs for each study. Relative risk, mean differences or ORs will be used, depending on the measuring indices in each study.Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required as this study will use aggregated data from previously published systematic reviews. However, we have registered the protocol in PROSPERO. We confirm that all methods will be performed following the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. The findings from this study will be disseminated through presentations at academic conferences and publication in peer-reviewed international journals.PROSPERO registration number CRD42022375581
Incarcerated individuals and education programmes in Nigeria: A task for social workers
No full textMuch is not known about education programmes for Nigerian incarcerated individuals. Consequently, different correctional institutions worldwide have different forms of correctional education offered to incarcerated individuals. Nigerian incarcerated individuals perceive that there are implementations of education programmes offered to them. However, little or nothing is known about how incarcerated individuals perceive these education programmes. To this end, this study ascertains the incarcerated individuals’ perception of education programmes as well as the expectations of social work profession in ensuring that incarcerated individuals in correctional institutions are provided with quality education. In-depth interviews involving 20 convicted incarcerated individuals from Owerri correctional centre were conducted. Thematic analysis was used in analyzing data generated for the study. Findings show that education programmes are available and essential, but the quality of the programme does not go down well with the incarcerated individuals. It also revealed that incarcerated individuals were not allowed to decide on the type of education programme to be involved in. To this end, their participation in the programme is jeopardized. The findings further revealed that little or nothing is known about social workers in prison education. Therefore, the inclusion of correctional social workers as an integral part of education programmes that aim to reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate incarcerated individuals becomes necessary
The roles and experiences of informal carers providing care to people with advanced cancer in Africa—A systematic review and critical interpretive analysis
No full textThere is an increasing prevalence of cancer in Africa with approximately 80% of cancers diagnosed at an advanced stage. High out-of-pocket healthcare costs and overstretched health systems lead to heavy reliance on informal carers for cancer care. This study aims to explore the roles and experiences of informal carers including the impact of cancer care on individuals and communities and support available for carers. We carried out a systematic review following PRISMA reporting guidelines and used critical interpretative synthesis to identify themes and develop an informal carers’ experience framework. We searched nine databases and screened 8,123 articles from which 31 studies were included in the review. Most studies were from Sub-Saharan Africa (29/31, 94%), particularly Uganda (9, 29%). Carers were mostly women, aged 30–40 years, and siblings, spouses, or children. Caring roles included care coordination, fundraising, and emotional support. Caring was time-consuming with some carers reporting 121 hours/week of caring, associated with the inability to pursue paid work and depression. Four themes demonstrated carers’ experiences: 1) intrapersonal factors: strong sense of familial obligation, and grappling with gender roles, 2) interpersonal factors: impact of a cancer diagnosis on households, changing social and sexual relationships, 3) community factors: navigating cultural norms on nature and location of care, and 4) health system influences: barriers to accessing healthcare services, and tensions between traditional and biomedical medicine. These themes aligned with Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model which aided our development of a framework for understanding informal carers’ experiences’. Our review highlights multifaceted roles and experiences of informal carers in Africa, amidst cultural and community impacts. Carers experience a strong obligation and willingly undertake the role of carer, but at the expense of their social, economic, and psychological wellbeing. Support for carers, including flexible working hours/ carers’ allowance, should be incorporated as part of universal health coverage
Sustainability and the digital supply chain
No full textIn the digital age, with growing awareness of sustainable development particularly in supply chains, there is need to provide insight on how the application of emerging information technologies may aid in actualizing supply chain sustainability. In this chapter, we discuss the relations between sustainability and the digital supply chain. The digital supply chain has the potential to improve sustainable practices and achieve sustainability goals. Specifically, we utilize the lens of the triple-bottom-line (TBL) approach, to illustrate how digital technologies can aid in supply chain sustainability improvements spanning economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Furthermore, using technology-organization-environment (TOE) theory, we emphasize that sustainability in digitally enriched supply chains can be facilitated by factors that relate to technological, organizational, and environmental contexts. We evaluate relevant constructs and implications for managers and decision makers to further explore digital supply chains for sustainability implementation and improvements
A non-randomised controlled study to assess the effectiveness of a new proactive multidisciplinary care intervention for older people living with frailty
No full textBACKGROUND: Integrated care may improve outcomes for older people living with frailty. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a new, anticipatory, multidisciplinary care service in improving the wellbeing and quality of life (QoL) of older people living with severe frailty. METHODS: A community-based non-randomised controlled study. Participants (≥65 years, electronic Frailty Index ≥0.36) received either the new integrated care service plus usual care, or usual care alone. Data collection was at three time points: baseline, 2-4 weeks, and 10-14 weeks. The primary outcome was patient wellbeing (symptoms and other concerns) at 2-4 weeks, measured using the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS); the secondary outcome was QoL, measured using EQ-5D-5L. To test duration of effect and safety, wellbeing and QoL were also measured at 10-14 weeks. Descriptive statistics were used to characterise and compare intervention and control groups (eligible but had not accessed the new service), with t-test, Chi-Square, or Mann-Whitney U tests (as appropriate) to test differences at each time point. Generalised linear modelling, with propensity score matching, was used for further group comparisons. Data were analysed using STATA v17. RESULTS: 199 intervention and 54 control participants were recruited. At baseline, intervention and control groups were similar in age, gender, ethnicity, living status, and body mass index, but not functional status or area deprivation score. At 2-4 weeks, wellbeing had improved in the intervention group but worsened in the control (median IPOS -5 versus 2, p<0.001). QoL improved in the intervention group but was unchanged in the control (median EQ-5D-5L 0.12, versus 0.00, p<0.001). After adjusting for age, gender, and living status, the intervention group had an average total IPOS score reduction at 2-4 weeks of 6.34 (95% CI: -9.01: -4.26, p<0.05); this improvement was sustained, with an average total IPOS score reduction at 10-14 weeks of 6.36 (95% CI: -8.91:-3.80, p<0.05). After propensity score matching based on functional status/area deprivation, modelling showed similar results, with a reduction in IPOS score at 2-4 weeks in the intervention group of 7.88 (95% CI: -12.80: -2.96, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the new, anticipatory, multidisciplinary care service may have improved the overall wellbeing and quality of life of older people living with frailty at 2-4 weeks and the improvement in wellbeing was sustained at three months. ETHICS APPROVAL: NHS Research Ethics Committee 18/YH/0470 and IRAS-250981. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was retrospectively registered at the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) registry (registration date: 01/08/2022, registration number: ISRCTN10613839)
The impact of an educational intervention on undergraduate students’ knowledge, acceptability, and willingness to pay for dapivirine vaginal ring in Nigeria's first indigenous university: a single-arm, non-randomized study
No full textBackground: This study aimed to assess the impact of an educational intervention on knowledge, acceptability, and willingness to pay (WTP) for dapivirine vaginal ring (DPV-VR) by undergraduate female students at the University of Nigeria (UNN). Methods: A cross-sectional design was adopted to obtain responses from the respondents using a validated 23-item questionnaire. A sample size of 1500 was estimated from five systematically sampled faculties. Their acceptability was accessed before and after educating them on the dapivirine vaginal ring (DPV-VR). WTP was determined in Naira (N490/$1) using contingent valuation. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the findings, with inter-faculty comparison done with the Chi-squared test. Results: 1017 students responded to the questionnaire. The modal age was 18–24years (754 [74.1%]), and most of them (886 [87.1%]) were unmarried. More than half of the respondents had tested for HIV (531 [52.2%])), with 3 (1.5%), 3 (1.7%), 2 (0.6%), 2 (1.8%) and 1 (0.5%) student from Arts, Biological Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine, respectively, having positive results. Only 304 (29.9%) of the students had prior knowledge of DPV-VR. There was about a two-fold increase in the acceptability of the dapivirine vaginal ring (DPV-VR) (294 to 596) after the intervention (p ≤ 0.001). Most of the students (466 [45.8%]) indicated that they would be willing to pay < N410.00 for a single dapivirine vaginal ring (DPV-VR). Conclusions: Many of the female students at UNN were willing to use the dapivirine vaginal ring (DPV-VR); even more after they were informed of its importance. Most of the students were willing to pay less than one dollar out-of-pocket for the ring
A decision support framework for socially responsible supplier selection in the Nigerian banking industry
No full textPurpose: sustainability trends have changed the modus operandi in businesses even as the market environment becomes more socially conscious. However, relatively little research has been conducted on integrating social sustainability aspects with a focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the selection of suppliers in the service sector, particularly the banking industry. In this paper, this study aims to propose a CSR decision support methodology to evaluate and prioritize socially responsible suppliers.Design/methodology/approach: a novel integrated decision support methodology composed of Shannon Entropy and TOmada de Decisão Interativa e Multicritério (TODIM) methods is introduced. The Shannon-Entropy approach is used to estimate CSR factor weights, and TODIM is used to rank the suppliers, with the process completed in a group decision setting.Findings: a Nigerian bank was used as a case study to test and show the usefulness of the CSR-based decision framework in evaluating and selecting socially responsible suppliers. The results show the topmost ranked suppliers that are recommended for future negotiations by the case (bank). The study will enable banks to select socially responsible suppliers, which could accelerate the attainment of sustainability objectives, protect their reputations and improve competitiveness.Originality/value: this study pioneers the application of a novel decision methodology based on Shannon Entropy and TODIM in selecting socially sustainable suppliers in the Banking sector of an African emerging economy-Nigeria
Factors associated with antibiotic utilisation among household heads living in the staff quarters of the University of Nigeria
No full textThe World Health Organization (WHO) and global health authorities have highlighted the misuse of antibiotics as a critical public health issue, prompting increased examination of antibiotic use practices. This study assessed factors influencing antibiotic utilization among household heads living in the staff quarters of a Nigerian university. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 randomly selected household heads residing in the staff quarters of the University of Nigeria using a 25-item questionnaire. Retrieved data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS (Version-27), with the significance level set at p ≤ 0.05. 93 respondents participated in this study (response rate = 93%), 38 (40.9%) males. Postgraduate degrees were the highest qualifications of 51 (58.6%) respondents. While 41 (43.2%) respondents sometimes used antibiotics without a prescription, 33 (34.7%) trusted their prescriber’s decision on the prescription (or not) of antibiotics, with 41 (43.2%) obtaining antibiotics from pharmacies without prescriptions. Family size (p = 0.015), gender (p = 0.022), and educational level (p = 0.047) were all related to their antibiotic use practices. Many staff who are residents of the university-provided quarters at the University of Nigeria inappropriately use antibiotics. Family size, gender, and educational level were identified as determinants of antibiotic use
Impact of health systems interventions in primary health settings on type 2 diabetes care and health outcomes among adults in West Africa: A systematic review protocol.
No full textType 2 diabetes is a major global public health challenge, particularly in the African region. Though evidence exists on pharmacological agents and non-pharmacological interventions in maintaining blood glucose concentration, the healthcare systems' ability to meet patients' needs may be inadequate. The management of non-communicable diseases, particularly diabetes, has been postulated to depend on functioning health systems. This systematic review will, therefore, summarize the current evidence on existing health systems interventions in primary health settings for type 2 diabetes care and health outcomes in West Africa and will explore the impact of these system-level interventions on service availability, accessibility and quality, as well as individualized outcomes such as glycemic control, disease awareness and treatment adherence. The review will be conducted according to the reporting guidance in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P). The health system framework by Witter et al., 2019 will guide the system-level interventions and the search strategy to be explored in this review. This framework was designed to integrate the six building blocks of the World Health Organization (WHO) health systems framework and it delineates how they work synergistically to improve specific health outcomes. We will search the following databases PubMed, Google Scholar and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) between January 2000 to January 2024. We will also search Cairn.info for articles published between January 2005 to January 2024. The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing Risk of Bias will be implemented in each included study. We will conduct a narrative synthesis and make comparisons across findings using Excel-generated tables. In Conclusion, this systematic review will outline the existing system-level interventions that aim to or already improve type 2 diabetes services in primary health settings in West Africa and will offer suggestions for the strengthening and co-production of successful interventions that can be generalized to the entire sub-region
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