SM Journal of Public Health & Epidemiology

Archive Articles

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Situational Analysis of Patient Safety Culture in Public Health Institutions in South-South Nigeria

Background: Patient safety culture (PSC) is increasingly being seen as vital, measurable and improvable concept in improving quality of health care globally. This study assessed the PSC among clinical staff in primary and tertiary health facilities in the Nigerian health care setting.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of clinical staff from one tertiary and 12 primary health facility in south south zone of Nigeria. Perceptions of PSC were measured with 5-point Likert scale along the 8 domains of the 62-item ambulatory version of the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ-AV). Positive PSC was inferred with scores ≥ 75%.

Results: The response rates from staff in the primary and tertiary facilities were 76.5% and 40.2% respectively while the Cronbach’s alpha for the entire scale was 0.89 with a range of 0.59 - 0.80 in the domains of the SAQ-AV. The mean age of the respondents was 33.1 ± 6.79 years; more were nurses (27.3%), females (57.6%) and work as permanent staff (74.5%). The level of PSC was significantly higher in the primary level of care along the domains of the SAQ-AV except for job satisfaction and stress recognition.

Conclusions: The overall level of PSC was low and there were significant variations between levels of practice. These findings call for appropriate interventions to improve PSC among health care providers in Nigeria.

Daprim Samuel Ogaji, Emudiaga-Ohwerhi Mabel and Adedotun Daniel Adesina 


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Stakeholders

Background: Although condoms present an effective way of reducing HIV and STIs among adolescents, consensus regarding promotion of condoms in schools and a theoretical framework for understanding these perspectives is lacking. The study explored stakeholders’ perspectives on condom promotion in selected schools in Lusaka, Zambia.

Methods: A qualitative study driven by a case study design. Data collected through In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with 12 different stakeholder’s and5 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) as well as 7 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with pupils were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: Two broader themes identified during the study; in support of condom promotion and against condom promotion in schools. Stakeholders (parents, teachers, pupils, civil society organizations, government officials, the church and human rights and gender activists) in support of condom promotion supported the idea basing their arguments on ’health related benefits ’, educational and empowerment reasons’, and ‘social and economic reasons. On the other hand, stakeholders against condom promotion felt that condom promotion is ‘against their culture and sex norms,’ ‘promote immoral sexual behavior among pupils, and against Christian teachings.

Mixed opinions were obtained from IDIs and FGDs on the issue of condom promotion in schools. However, an interesting finding of the study is that all the participants in FGDs, KIIs and IDIs seemed to agree that young people already know what sex is and therefore, like adults pupils must be given the information and knowledge in order to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies. Stakeholders were also in agreement that in schools some pupils are sexually active while others are young and may not be sexually active.

Conclusion: Decisions regarding promotion of condoms in schools revolve around health related benefits, educational and empowerment reasons, social and economic dynamics, moral and religious values as well as issues of culture and traditions.

Nathan Kamanga¹,², Joseph M Zulu³ and Oliver Mweemba¹


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Health Diagnosis through Drawings in a Tanzanian Child Population

Population’s health is related to the social context in which its members live. The aim of this study is to investigate the Newlands (Tanzania) children perception have of the environmental factors that may affect their health, in order to facilitate the design of Health Promotion training programs in the future. The study uses children’s drawing technique, based on the observation and analysis of different factors that appear on a child’s drawings. The results shows a high index of images of violence and malnutrition as consequences of social, economic, religious and cultural phenomena that Newland’s children population might engage with. Two different trends were observed: a female one associated with correct eating habits, and masculine one where unhealthy habits were prevalent. The results obtained provide a wide spectrum of ideas that help design Environmental and Health Promotion courses, in order to train the child population to anticipate and manage environmental health risks.

Maria Sandin Vazquez* and Paula Garcia Sanz 


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Food Safety Knowledge, Handling Practice and Associated Factors among Food Handlers of Hotels/Restaurants in Asosa Town, North Western Ethiopia

Background: Food safety is a public health concern. An adequate supply of safe, wholesome and healthy food is essential to the health and well-being of humans. However food itself can cause a threat for health. People can get sick when they eat food contaminated with hazards, this referred to as food borne disease.

Food borne illness is a major health problem and more prevalent in both developing and developed countries. The toll in terms of human life and suffering is enormous. Thousands millions of people fall ill and may die as a result of eating unsafe food.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess food safety knowledge, Attitude, handling practice and associated factors among food handlers of Restaurants in Asosa town, western Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess food safety knowledge and handling practice of food handlers towards safe food handling from July 2017 to January 2018. Total number of restaurants and food handlers was obtained from trade and industry regional beareue. Food handlers by simple random sampling. One cooker and one waiter will be selected by lottery method from each selected restaurant. Structured and Pretested questionnaire will be developed for the purpose of data collection after reviewing relevant literature and views of professionals in the area. Logistic regression was used to analyze the explanatory variables. And the significance of the statistical association will be assured using OR, 95% C.I and p< 0.05.

Result: The level of knowledge among food handlers in this study was (75.8%). The overall practice of food handlers in Asosa town was (67.8%) and the factors that are associated with food safety practice of food handlers are: educational status AOR 3.40(1.90-6.08), Regular Supervision by concerned body AOR 7.25(3.83 13.65), ever had certificate in food safety/hygiene practice AOR 5.28(1.40-19.79) were found to be significantly associated with food safety practice.

This study will have a significant input, in the formulation of appropriate strategy, to modify and facilitate the overall regulatory activity, for program planning and evaluation.

Conclusion: Food safety practice and Knowledge in this group of population was relatively high, but which still needs further intervention.

Mulugeta Admasu* and Wogari Kelbessa


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An Agent-Based Modelling Approach for Scheduling and Management of Elective Surgeries

Efficient elective surgery scheduling is one of the pain points in the current healthcare management and has a serious impact on the overall healthcare delivery. Currently, the health organizations struggle to achieve their elective surgeries/outpatient targets due to clinical and non-clinical reasons. Some of the common factors are day of surgery cancellations, use of medications, and development of unforeseen clinical complexities. Non clinical factors could be surgeon’s schedule and unavailability of the operating rooms or equipment. Overcoming these issues will enable the hospital to increase their efficiency and ultimately serve more patients within the allocated budgets with reduced wait-times for the surgery.

This research presents an in-depth literature review of the elective surgery models, elective health strategies in practice and key enablers for change with regards to the elective procedures. Furthermore, we present a concept of using agent-based model (ABM) to simulate system dynamics of an elective surgery scheduling process. The model is validated by experimentations and altering parameters of the built model. As an outcome, the proposed model is capable of handling hospital resource utilization, time estimation of each case (surgery) from the waiting list and forecasting the scheduling of the surgeons.

Neetta Vasudeo Koli¹, Farhaan Mirza¹, Mirza Mansoor Baig¹* and Ehsan Ullah²