No abstract

Purpose: Breastfeeding has been endorsed by the World Health Organization as the most effective method to feed infants. To find out the breastfeeding practices and examine the factors affecting the practice among mothers attending immunization clinics at Primary Health Centers within Ado-Ekiti in Nigeria. Methodology: A total of 450 respondents were randomly selected with Fisher’s formula using a cross-sectional descriptive study design. Multistage sampling techniques was used to select two out of fifteen wards in Ado Local Government Area through random sampling by balloting, out of which two Primary Health Care was selected one from each Local Government Area. Adapted, semi-structured, interview administered questionnaire was used, data was entered and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 and p value set at 5%. Findings: Out of the respondents, 152 (33.8%) exclusively breastfed their babies and 163 (36.2%) initiated breastfeeding within one hour after delivery. One hundred and thirty-two (29.3%) gave pre-lacteal feeding to their babies, of whom 93 (70.4%) gave water and glucose. From the multivariate analysis, the mothers that were employed were more likely to exclusively breastfed their babies with OR of 1.58 and p value of <0.05. The primiparous mothers were less likely to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of delivery OR of 0.62 and p value of 0.03. Recommendation: Significant numbers of the mothers were still not practicing exclusive breastfeeding and not initiating breastfeeding early enough after delivery. There is need to educate women especially the primiparous mothers on the benefits of early initiation of breastfeeding and danger of pre-lacteal feeding.

Purpose: Gastroenterological diseases have been documented to be common in primary care practice especially with data from western world. This study seeks to investigate its true burden and outcomes in primary care setting in this environment. Methodology: It was a 10-year retrospective cross-sectional study carried out at the general outpatient clinic of the family medicine department of Ekiti state university teaching hospital which is part of a larger survey and made use of secondary data. Findings: The study observed the prevalence of gastroenterological diseases in primary care to be 3.9% with majority of disorders being peptic ulcer disease and dyspepsia, 54.8% and 25.0% respectively. Gastroenterological diseases were poorly investigated in this study 12.2% with Abdominal Ultrasound been the most requested 63.6% and endoscopy request was 6.5%. The majority of those that presented with gastroenterological diseases were treated and discharged home, peptic ulcer diseases 100% and dyspepsia above 90%. Recommendations: This study showed that the prevalence of gastroenterological disorders in the primary care practice in our environment may not be as high as it’s been documented for other regions of the world. This study recommends further study into the prevalence of gastroenterological disorders using standardized definitions. Primary care doctors are encouraged to be abreast of the frequently changing diagnostic criteria in gastroenterology

Purpose: Communication between the spouse on family planning issues predisposes to the approval of the man for the wife to use contraceptives. Most don’t even initiate communication as a result of misconceptions surrounding family planning. This study examined how misconception and spousal communication affect the use of family planning. Methods: The study was a cross sectional study carried out in a rural community. Multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 464 women of reproductive age group. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the participants by trained research assistants. Data was entered into SPSS version 25 and analysis was carried out. Univariate analysis was done using mean, and tables, bivariate analysis was done using chi square and level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 32.5 ± 8.1, 110 (23.7%) had ever used contraceptive. Out of the respondents, 150 (32.3%) agreed that family planning can cause infertility and 188 (40.5%) agreed that it makes women gain weight.  One hundred and seventy-six (37.9%) had discussed family planning with their husbands out of which 167 (94.9%) got approval from them. Among respondents that discussed family planning with their husband, 66 (37.5%) of them had ever used family planning and those that didn’t discussed only 44 (15.3%) ever used contraceptive. This difference is statistically different with p value of p < 0.05. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: Spousal communication increases the utilization of family planning therefore; women should be encouraged to discuss with their husbands. This study will contribute to policy on improvement of family planning utilization when married couples are allowed to attend joint session focused on educating couples on the need, benefits and misconceptions surrounding family planning.