Assessment of Health Workers’ Concern about COVID-19 Pandemic: Implication for Surveillance Activities among Primary Health Care Workers in Oyo State, South-Western Nigeria

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 has continued to threaten the existence of the human race. The novelty and unstable epidemiologic pattern of the virus had generated so much concern among the global health experts. These concerns were found to be escalated among the frontline health care workers to the extent of impeding the timeliness of the response activities. To slow down the spread of the already established community transmission through the surveillance activities, the concern of the health workers at the community level needs to be addressed. Therefore, this study assessed the concern about COVID-19 pandemic among primary health workers in Oyo State, Nigeria. Methods: This was an online cross-sectional survey conducted among primary health care workers in Oyo State between March and April 2020. Using a two-stage sampling technique, we recruited 284 respondents. A semi-structured questionnaire linked to the Google form was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25;bivariate analysis was done using Chi-square and binary logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of health workers’ concern at 5% level of significance. Results: The mean age of respondents was 45.0 ± 9.0 years. The proportion of the respondents who had good knowledge of COVID-19 was 52.5%. In the domains of concern, 66.9%, 53.2%, 51.4%, and 46.5% of the respondents expressed government-related, self-satisfaction related, work-related and social-status related concerns respectively. Male respondents were less likely to express concern about COVID-19 compared with their female counterparts (aOR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.20 - 0.76). Nurses/midwives (aOR = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.05 - 0.85) had lesser likelihood of expressing concern about COVID-19 while middle staff (aOR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.18 - 5.39) and income earner of ≥N200,000 (aOR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.34 - 3.92) had higher likelihood of expressing concern about COVID-19. Conclusion: The study highlights an average knowledge of COVID-19 among the respondents. Government-related and self-satisfaction related concerns were expressed by the majority of the Primary Health Care (PHC) workers. Now that the second wave of COVID-19 is moving with much more fatality across much of Africa, including Nigeria, it is therefore imperative to address these concerns through a holistic policy that addresses the welfare, safety and capacity building of the health care workers (HCWs).

Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the Civil Service of Oyo State, South-Western Nigeria: An Epidemic with an Unmatched Response

Background: Worldwide, the burden of cardiovascular (CV) risk factors is rising with devastating impacts on the productive workforce. In developing nations, it has further led to an unstable population pyramid as a result of premature deaths of her workforce leading to the continued tapering of the pyramidal apex. Inspite of this, many studies were conducted among the general population neglecting the local government civil servants who are seen as policy implementers. Therefore, the study assessed the pattern of CV risk factors in South-western Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 260 local government workers selected by multistage sampling technique from July to September 2017. A pretested, interviewer-administered questionnaire was administered to obtain socio-demographic and behavioural information. Lipid analysis, anthropometric, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose measurements were done according to protocols. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25;bivariate analysis was done using Chi-square. Level of significance was at 5%. Results: The mean age of respondents was 46.0 ± 6.7 years. The proportion of participants with good knowledge of risk factors was 57.7%. The proportion of respondent with hypertension, visceral obesity, general obesity, diabetes, smoking and physical inactivity was 40.4%, 35.0%, 52.2%, 38.2%, 5.8% and 75.8% respectively. The prevalence of elevated total cholesterol (↑TC), raised low-density lipoprotein (↑LDLc), low high-density lipoprotein (↓HDLc) and elevated triglycerides (↑TGs) was 55.4%, 85.0%, 70.4% and 3.1% respectively. There was a higher proportion of elevated total cholesterol (TC) and LDLc among female respondents (p = 0.002;p = 0.009). Senior cadre staff had a higher proportion of respondents with raised ↓HDLc and ↑TGs (p = 0.031;p = 0.036). Age was associated with hypertension and was highest among respondents in 45 - 54 years age category (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The prevalence of CV risk factors was higher compared with other studies in Nigeria and Africa. The findings illuminated a poor response to the rising burden of CV risk factors despite interventions put in place. This underscores the need for holistic preventive and control strategies with a view to reducing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria.