Background: Unintended pregnancies resulting in several maternal morbidities and mortalities are still a major public health challenge in most parts of the world. Female secondary school students are particularly vulnerable due to their engagement in unsafe sex and low uptake of family planning services. The study assessed respondents’ level of knowledge on, attitude to and practice of family planning.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 240 consenting female junior secondary school students in two public schools in Ogbomoso, South West Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling method was employed in recruiting the study participants and facilitated self-administered semi-structured questionnaire used for data collection. Descriptive statistics was done and Chi-square test used to compare categorical variables. The level of statistical significance was set at p <0.05.Results: The mean age of the respondents was 13.6±2.3 and 69.5% of them were early adolescents (10-13years of age). Almost all (92.3%) of the respondents were aware of family planning but only 58.1% and 55.3% of them had good knowledge on and positive attitudes towards family planning respectively. In all, 64.0% of the sexually active respondents had ever used family planning. Condom was the commonest family planning method ever used; reported by 65.0% of those who had ever used family planning. Fear of side effects was the main reason among non-users.Conclusions: Family planning uptake among sexually active female students is low in Southwest Nigeria. There is urgent need for aggressive awareness campaigns to improve the knowledge score and attitude of students to family planning in Nigeria.

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Background: The burden of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is assuming an epidemic proportion globally, causing grave hepatic and other complications. Mother-to-child transmission is one of the main ways of acquiring the disease. It is thus incumbent on researchers to delve more into the epidemiology of HBV. The objectives of this study is to assess respondents’ knowledge on HBV, estimated the burden of the disease among pregnant women attending antennal clinics in Ogbomoso, Nigeria and identified significant determinants of HBV positive status of the participants.Methods: This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 168 pregnant women recruited using systematic random technique. Pretested interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out.Results: Mean age of the respondents was 34±10 years, 90.5% of the respondents were 20-40 years old. HBV awareness level among the respondents was 51.8% and more than half (59.5%) of them possessed poor knowledge of the virus. Twelve percent (12.0%) of the respondents were seropositive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Significant determinants of HBsAg positivity were; Level of education (AOR=0.11, CI=1.56-3.47), Socio-economic class (AOR=3.23, CI=1.48-3.02) and family type (AOR=4.51, CI=0.19-0.35).Conclusions: The burden of HBV was high among pregnant women in the study population. Awareness and knowledge of the respondent was low. Authors recommend aggressive awareness campaigns on the disease. Improving the socio-economic conditions of women will go a long way in reducing the scourge of this dreadful disease in Nigeria.

In the version of this article initially published, an author's name was incorrect (Yesdhambel T. Nigatu). The correct name is 'Yeshambel T. Nigatu'. Another author's name and affiliation were incorrect (Mowafa Housseh;

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