Asian Journal of Medicine and Health

Knowledge and beliefs a community holds about mental illness, has remarkable impact on help seeking path to care and stigmatizing attitudes expressed towards the mentally ill.

Aims: This study examines causal attributions, the perceptions and attitudes towards mental illness and the help seeking behaviour of a community in the south-south region of Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: This is cross sectional descriptive study which was conducted among residents of Ekom Iman community in Akwa Ibom State in the South-South region of Nigeria between March, 2019 and July, 2019. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select the study participants. Causal belief, attitude toward mental illness and help seeking behaviour were assessed using a structured questionnaire. 

Results: A total of 130 respondents participated in the study. The average age of respondents was 31.62±8.2 years, consisting of 64.4% males and 35.6% females. Majority, 74.6% had secondary education. Poor knowledge of mental illness and stigmatizing attitudes are common. Most of the respondents prefer to keep a high social distance from the mentally ill and are unwilling to maintain close social contacts with them expressed as refusal to share a room (74.7%), marry (92.5%), keeping friendship with them (66.4%). Many believe psychoactive substance abuse (86.2%), brain illnesses/trauma (55.4%) and supernatural factors (72.6%) are etiologic to mental illness. Most respondents considered faith healers (64.3%) and orthodox medical professionals (30.8%) as first choices of treatment and the options best able to treat them.

Conclusion: Causal beliefs of mental illness affects help seeking behavior. Poor knowledge and exposure to mental illness was common. Attitudes towards mental illness were generally negative and stigmatizing. Multidisciplinary community interventions are required to ensure high social acceptance and preference for orthodox professional treatment of mental illness.

Background: Any pregnancy occurring in a young woman who has not reached her 20th birthday is considered as a teenage pregnancy. Globally, approximately a tenth of all births are to women younger than 20 years old and more than 90% of such births occur in developing countries. Socioeconomic deprivation, low contraceptive usage and early marriage are common contributing factors.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence, pattern and predisposing factors to teenage pregnancy at University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Methodology: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of 198 cases of teenage pregnancies managed at University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), from 1^st January 2008 to 31^st December 2015.

Results: The teenage pregnancy prevalence rate was 15 per 1,000 deliveries (1.5%). Low level of education (below secondary) was seen in 81.3% of the women. A socio-cultural factor like early marriage was noted in 56.1% of the women and only 26.8% of the teenage mothers had ever used any form of contraception.

Conclusion: The teenage pregnancy rate in Port-Harcourt showed a downward trend. Contraceptive awareness creation for teenagers, implementation of teenage-friendly policies, education of the girl child coupled with promotion of moral and sex education will further reduce the trend.

Marital Stability is interpreted as whether a couple in a marriage remains together, instead of separating or getting divorced. It is also called as marital longevity or duration of marriage. The objective of the study was to find the relationship between marriage duration and socio demographic variables of married couples in India. Thirty married couples were randomly selected using stratified random sampling. Three groups were formed based on the duration of the marriage such as married for 10 to 20 years, 21 to 30 years and 31 to 40 years. The respondents were asked about their demographic information like age, education, occupation, income and age at marriage. Data analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The result indicated a negative correlation between length of marriage and education which means higher the education lesser the length of marriage. The role of education, income and age at marriage on marital stability was discussed and it was concluded that not only socio-demograhic factors, but also social and psychological factors to be considered to interpret the marital stability.

Introduction: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a great global public health problem caused by a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system, destroying or impairing their function. In the early stages of infection, the person has no symptoms. HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, transfusion of contaminated blood, through contaminated needles and between a mother and her infant. In 2017, globally, 36.9 million people are living with HIV and 940000 people died from HIV related causes. The total number of people living with HIV in India is estimated at 21.40 lakhs people in 2017.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among college students from engineering colleges in Pondicherry from April 2018 to September 2018. The selection of study subjects was done using simple random sampling. After getting informed consent from the individuals a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was administered. Data were entered on and analysed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Descriptive statistics were used and results were expressed as proportions. 

Results: The majority of the students, about 92.4% had heard about HIV/AIDS, about 92.4% of the participants were aware that HIV can spread through body fluids such as blood, sexual contact, urine. More than half 52.7% of students are aware that migrant workers, lorry drivers, commercial sex workers are high-risk groups for HIV/AIDS. 68.8% of students don’t know their HIV status. 65.2% were not willing to isolate HIV infected people from society.

Conclusion: There is an immediate need for more health education and awareness campaign among students about HIV/AIDS. The Ministry of Education found better methods  to deliver the necessary information about HIV/AIDS through the Internet, social media and mobile applications, information hotlines, pamphlets and printed educational  materials.

Beach Bean is a species of flowering plant of the genus Canavalia in the pea family, Fabaceae that has a pantropical distribution. This study aims to determine the phytochemical and neutraceutical activities of Beach Bean grown in Anyigba area of Kogi State, Nigeria. Beach Bean (Canavalia rosea) leaf and seed were dried in the powder form, then the leaves and seeds of 200 grams each were extracted in 2000 ml of aqueous. The macerated for 48 hours and filtered using filter paper and filter pump. The sample was concentrated using a rotary evaporator and freeze-dried to powdered form. The filtrate obtained from each extraction was tested for alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, phenol, fat and oils, steroids, tannins and glycosides. The proximate analysis of the samples was carried out for moisture content, ash, fat, crude protein, crude fibre after drying the samples of Beach Bean at room temperature. Vitamins A, E, B and C were determined and the mineral elements were determined by the dry ash extraction. The phytochemical components of secondary metabolites of the extracts from the obtained result, anthraquinone and tannins (leaf) were not present in the extracts. The proximate composition of nutritive value of seed and leaves has a higher value of crude protein of amounting to 50.84% while the leaves have crude protein value of 30.59%, carbohydrates percentage of the leaves was higher (40.60%) while the seed has 26.98%. The percentage of ash content which is an indicator of the quality of mineral nutrients present has a value of 8.45% in leaves and 2.53% in the seed. By implication, the leaves are richer in mineral nutrients/elements than the seeds. This research classified a large number of nutraceuticals available from various sources and their significant uses in the treatment of various diseases such as Cardiovascular, Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, Alzheimer, Parkinson, Inflammatory, and Allergy. These are cured by herbal nutraceuticals or food herb dietary condiment for phytotherapeutic purposes.