The Burden of Undiagnosed Hypertension and Associated Risk Factors among Adults in a Rural Community in Imo Sate, South-East Nigeria

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally and hypertension is a major contributor to this burden. Many people with hypertension have poorly controlled blood pressure and up to half of the adults with hypertension are unaware of their hypertensive status due to factors that bother on poor management and poor screening approaches. The implication is that people who have poor access to healthcare especially those in the rural communities are at increased risk of cardiovascular complications and all-cause mortality. Unfortunately, not much has been done to ascertain the burden of undiagnosed hypertension and associated risk factors in rural communities in Nigeria. Methods: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study in a rural community in Imo State, Nigeria, on burden of undiagnosed hypertension with participants recruited via a multi-stage sampling method. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used, and standardized instruments were applied to obtain, process and analyze the data. Tests of association between the independent variables and outcome were conducted using logistic regression. P-value of Results: A total of 380 adults participated in the study. The mean age was 44.2 years. The prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was 35.8%. Logistic regression revealed that age, with the respondents in the age groups 26 - 35 years (OR = 10.647, 1.910 - 59.345, p-value = 0.007), 36 - 45 (OR = 3.680, 1.263 - 10.723, p-value = 0.017), 46 - 55 years (OR = 2.737, 1.114 - 6.727, p-value = 0.039), 56 - 65 years old (OR = 3.384, 1.610 - 7.115, p-value = 0.001);and being married (OR = 3.846, 1.118 - 13.233, p-value = 0.033), were independent risk factors for undiagnosed hypertension. Conclusion: The prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension in the rural population of South-East Nigeria is high. Younger age (26 - 35 years) had the highest odds of risk for occurrence of hypertension. Also being married was identified as a risk factor for undiagnosed hypertension.

Feasibility Study of Assist-Linked Brief Intervention for Substance Use Disorders in a Rural Community of Plateau State, Nigeria

Objective: We studied the feasibility of using Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) linked with Brief Intervention (ALBI) in treating Substance Use Disorder in Nigeria. There is a clear gap in meeting the needs for treatment and care for people with drug use disorders in Nigeria with many users reporting a self-perceived need for treatment and about 40% of them wanting to receive drug treatment but were unable to access such services. Methods: ASSIST questionnaire was used to gather baseline data, and ALBI along with Motivational Interviewing (MI) was used to intervene for 6 weeks following which ASSIST score was repeated and compared with baseline. Results: Majority of the participants were aged 21 - 30 years, mostly males with (61.3%) lacking steady jobs. Lifetime prevalence of any drug use was (88.2%). Three months prevalence was nicotine (72.0%), alcohol (66.7%), cannabis (47.3%), opioids (11.8%) among others. The ASSIST scores were mostly on the severe ranges. ASSIST result after six weeks showed marked reduction. The Mean Difference (MD) in the ASSIST scores after intervention was significant for tobacco, opioids, alcohol, and cannabis. The Cohen’s D effect size was large for tobacco (1.08), alcohol (0.92) and cannabis (0.73) but low for other substances. Conclusion: ALBI along with MI was helpful in combating the menace of substance use.

Medical Morbidity Profile of Adults in a Rural Community in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria: A Cross Sectional Survey

Introduction: People in rural communities are exposed to the risk factors for non-communicable disease as those in urban areas. Correct interpretation and management of symptoms are important in primary care especially in rural communities where diagnostic facilities are not readily available. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out in a village in Enugu South Local Government area of Enugu State. Thorough medical history was taken from all eligible participants who gave their consent. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26. Results: Data from a total of 1019 (64.7%) out of 1576 participants were analysed. Fever was by far the most common presenting complaint 580 (56.9%) of all participants and 67.9% of medical complaints seen in the clinic. This was followed remotely by musculoskeletal problems and neurological problems 15.6% and 3.8% of the participants respectively. Across all age groups, febrile illness was more than non-febrile illness except in those 65 years. Generalized body pains 74 (7.3%), back pains 55 (5.1), headache 33 (3.2%) and abdominal pains 24 (2.4%) were the commonest symptoms presented by the participants. About 15 (1.5%) of the population surveyed had had trauma/surgery in the past. This was twice the number who presented to the clinic with symptoms related to injury and trauma 7 (0.7%). Conclusions: Fever and musculoskeletal pains are the dominant medical complaints presented by adults in a rural community clinic. This may be related to the season of the year and the occupation of the population studied.

Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus among Adult Residents of Tinda Rural Community, Nigeria

Aim: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an emerging disease of public health concern in Nigeria. There has been growing speculation about rural dwellers not being susceptible to this ailment due to their lifestyle. However, this could be attributed to the paucity of data obtained from rural communities. This community-based survey was conducted to provide recent data about the prevalence of DM in a rural community in Northern Nigeria. Subject and Methods: Purposive sampling was used to recruit 78 participants from about 200 adults within the community in September 2019. Consent was obtained to retrieve their blood glucose results and socio-demographic data from an out-patient clinic. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: Over half (55%) of the respondents were male, while majority (88%) were involved in agrarian professions. Majority (69%) of the respondents were between 18 to 35 years, while around 10% were over 50 years. The respondents had an average blood glucose level of 5.20 ± 0.62 mmol/L, with 6.50 mmol/L as the maximum reading. The prevalence of DM was 0.0%, majority (68%) had normal glucose level, while the remainder had pre-diabetes glucose levels. There were no statistically significant associations between the respondents’ blood glucose level and any of their socio-demographic characteristics. However, the oldest respondents, male respondents, and traders had the highest blood glucose levels in their respective categories. Conclusion: The absence of a healthcare center in the community was of concern, as this would impede efforts to monitor the prevalence of non-communicable disease like DM. It is recommended that health interventions to discourage the rural dwellers from embracing adverse urban lifestyles associated with DM should be prioritized.

New Rural Community Planning to Cope with the Coordinated “Threezation”

The paper targets at reasonable planning and construction of new rural communities on the basis of coordinated "three-zation"(new urbanization, industrialization and agricultural modernization, hereinafter referred to as "three-zation"). Through summarizing the connotations of new rural community construction coping with the coordinated "three-zation", and analyzing the role of new rural community in the "three-zation", planning and design of Gaocun Community was taken for example to propose strategies for the planning and construction of new rural communities, and promotion of the coordinated "three-zation".

Increasing Trend of Overweight and Obesity in a Rural Community in South East Nigeria

Background: There is a global trend of increasing obesity, affecting mostly the high-and-middle income countries. Obesity was more prevalent in the urban areas but recent studies have suggested a disproportionate increase in obesity in the rural areas outstripping that of urban areas thus fueling the global obesity epidemic. This cross-sectional community study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of obesity in a rural community in South east Nigeria using Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference and waist-hip ratio. Materials and Methods: Adults (≥18 years) in a rural community in Enugu State were studied in July 2019. The weight, height, waist circumference and hip circumference of the participants were taken. The BMI was calculated from the weight and height and the waist-hip ratio was determined for each participant. Results: A total of 210 participants were studied and analyzed. The prevalence of obesity and overweight by BMI was 10.9% and 28.0% respectively. There was no difference in the prevalence of obesity in males and females (10.9% vs 10.9%) and overweight (27% for males and 28% for females). Significantly more females (40%) than males (7.3%) were obese by sex specific waist circumference (p < 0.001). There was no difference in the proportions of males (49%) and females (53.3%) that were obese by sex specific waist/hip ratio, P-Value 0.575. There was no difference in the BMI between the age groups for males (p = 0.629) and females (p = 0.439). However, middle aged females (40 - 59 years) had higher waist circumference than the younger and older females (p = 0.025), while the older males (60 - 79 years) had higher waist-hip ratio than younger age groups p = 0.002. Conclusions: The result of this study shows an increasing trend of obesity and overweight in a farming rural community in South east Nigeria compared with the prevalence recorded in the region in the past.

Research on Measures to Promote Rural Community Construction Pilot Work

Rural community construction is an important part in the construction of a socialist countryside with Chinese characteristics, and a significant measure to consolidate the foundation of the Party's governance in the rural areas. To further promote the rural community construction pilot work we must develop rural economies to lay a solid industrial foundation for rural community construction, increase farmers' income, enhance the effective cohesive force, foster new types of farmers, cultivate reliable contributors, develop rural cultures, create a good cultural environment, improve the environment, build good ecological conditions, innovate organization and management, provide powerful organizational guarantees, and improve the service system to support good social conditions.

Guidelines for Community-Based HIV/AIDS Stigma Reduction Intervention in a Rural Community

Research encourages evidence-based guidelines for practice. This paper describes the guidelines for HIV/AIDS stigma reduction in the community. These guidelines were developed by the authors based on findings of the study which was conducted to develop and evaluate HIV/AIDS stigma reduction intervention in a rural Namibian community. The developed intervention consisted of three strategies which are recommended as baseline for these guidelines. The three strategies were: education, community involvement and contacts with infected and affected groups that were implemented in this study. These strategies were implemented among the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), their families and community members from the intervention group. The post-intervention results showed significant differences on stigma reduction between the intervention and control groups, therefore these strategies were recommended for future use. Furthermore, the study found that a combination of strategies was more effective than using a single approach. Another strategy that was absent in this study but was recommended in these guidelines for future stigma reduction was: counselling approach, which could be used to address internal stigma. This paper therefore recommends that these combined strategies: education, community involvement, contacts with affected and infected groups and continuous counselling, which will be named ECCC approach might be useful to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma in the community.

A Home for the Aged in a Rural Community

Both in their mid-70s, Shan Baorui and his wife are now living at a model home for the aged in north China.The couple lives in a single room with heating in winter and an indoor toilet. Outside is a garden-like compound with flowers colorfully bright in the refresh- ing breeze.

The Regeneration of a Silent Rural Community Case Study onSan Xing Community,Wujie Township,Yilan County

When the government implemented a series of land reform policies,take the“rural land owned by farmers and used as agricultural aims”as the core of agricultural land policy,and exactly make the farmlands to increase the quantity of crops and the peasants have raised their income.But let the rural communities gradually decline and the agricultural output value continued to decline;the rural population moved outwards.When the rural regions are in decline,which tend to experience high rates of unemployment and outmigration,how to develop the agriculture and countryside to maintain the vitality of rural community becomes the focus of government.This article is to explore the vitality of rural communities from the regeneration plan,selecting the Yilan County,Wujie Township,San Xing Community,and interviews with in-path interview about the problems and the view of community.Discuss with the rural community how to overcome the problems of the ever-changing social,economic,environment.In addition,provide some suggestions for the development of the rural community.

Central Government Issues Opinions to Strengthen and Improve Urban and Rural Community Governance

On Jun.12,2017,the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening and Improving the Urban and Rural Community Governance were issued.They put forward an overall goal in which by 2020 a multi-participator and co-governance urban and rural community governance system should have been formed that

Modelling and Simulating Dynamics Efficiency of Rural-Community Banks (RCBs) in Ghana

The present work seeks to develop a model for measuring efficiency of RCBs in Ghana by means of financial key performance indicators pairing macroeconomic indicators. A stochastic differential equation model for predicting the efficiency of RCBs in the future is developed and simulated using gaussian jumps to evaluate the models’ performance in unpredicted situations with four distinct phases of efficiency. Unique solution Exit multiple 4-dimensional stochastic differential equations and Macroeconomic model is proven to be the best-fitting model for the data with the lowest information criterion.

Strengthen the Environmental Sense of Local Community with PRA and MIGIS

It was widely recognized that rural development especially rural development in the poor areas is closely related with environment issue. It is also common bias that farmers in the poor areas lack of environmental awareness, and their production activities directly cause the environment degradation. The study has shown that with appropriate outside facilitation. a poor rural community can not only analyze its environmental problem, but can also make feasible planning to recover the problem.

Human Capital of Family and Social Mobility in Rural Areas-Evidence from China

This research focuses on the impact of family＇s human capital on social mobility in China＇s rural community.Empirical research is conducted based on data from surveying a typical rural community in the past 20 yr.The study indicates that social mobility in rural area is active in the past 20 yr,and the human capital of family,represented by primary labor＇s education level,has played an essential role in mobility of low social class.Meanwhile,socio-economic development and the change of supply and demand in labor market dims the signaling role of degree education,but the impact of occupational training is increasingly remarkable.Therefore,the change from sole degree education to multi-leveled education including occupational education and training is a main way for China＇s rural families in low class to realize social mobility.

Research on the Harmonious Development of New Rural Communities under the Perspective of Balancing Urban and Rural Areas

On the basis of offering a definition of New Rural Communities (NRCs), the paper analyzes the values of New Rural Communities and argues that the construction of NRCs is able to contribute to the enhancement of the comprehensive agricultural production capability as well as the development of social productivity. Meanwhile the incomes of the rural residents can be boosted, which denotes the realization of a harmonious society where the achievements of China's reform and development are shared by each citizen. Moreover, the construction of NRCs facilitates the economization of land use and thus improves the overall living standard of the residents, while helping to cut the administrative cost and promote democracy at the primary level. This paper also points out various problems arising during the construction of NRCS in China: blindly following suit in accordance with the modes of the urban communities; lack of funds, which leads to the absence of the supporting mechanisms of NRCs; vague positioning and the ensuing shortage of impetus for continued development. Finally, the paper raises the corresponding measures and suggestions: first, based on reality, make overall planning and scientific arrangement; second, the government should play the dominant role while respecting the principal position of the rural residents and introducing the market mechanism; third, increase science and technology input and attach equal importance to economic and social benefits; fourth, broaden fund-raising channels while completing the supervision mechanism.

Low-Cost Automated PV Panel Dust Cleaning System for Rural Communities

Dust accumulation on photovoltaic (PV) panels degrades PV panels’ performance;leading to decreased power output and consequently high cost per generated kilowatt. Research addressing the severity of dust accumulation on PV panels has been ongoing since the 1940s, but proposed solutions have tended to increase the cost of PV systems either from oversizing or from cleaning the system. The objective of this work, therefore, is to design and implement a low-cost affordable automated PV panel dust cleaning system for use in rural communities of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA);where financial resources are limited and significantly strained in meeting livelihood activities. Complete design and implementation details of a prototype system are provided for easy replication and capitalization on PV systems for sustainable energy needs. The system detects dust based on the innovative use of light-dependent resistors. Testing and observation of the system in operational mode reveal satisfactory performance;measured parameters quantify a power output increase of 33.76% as a result of cleaning dust off the PV panel used in the study.

Design Considerations of a Flexible Biogas Digester System for Use in Rural Communities of Developing Countries

Several challenges are associated with the development, adoption and deployment of biogas digesters in developing countries. Amongst these challenges is a comprehensive and systematic procedure for the design of digesters suitable for rural communities. This paper proposes the Flexible Biogas Digester System (FBDS) as a viable option for rural communities in developing countries and provides a detailed step-by-step procedure for its design. The biogas production process is a function of the digester operating factors which may be grouped into physical, process and performance parameters. The physical design parameters include the digester volume, the volume of the biogas storage tank, and the volume of the installation pit. The process parameters include total solid content of the slurry (TS), organic loading rate (OLR), digester operating temperatures, pH of the slurry inside the digester. The performance parameters include biogas production rate, biogas productivity and biogas quality. The Net Present Value and the Levelised Cost of Energy are presented for simple economic evaluation of the FBDS.

Implementation and Development of Village Merging in Zhucheng City

This article introduces the status quo of implementation of village merging in Zhucheng City of Shandong Province.Owing to thoroughness and originality,the village merging of Zhucheng City has created " Zhucheng Model" and disseminated " Zhucheng experience".By comparing part of annual values concerning the process of rural communitization in Zhucheng City,we use SWOT analysis method to objectively obtain strength,weakness,opportunity and risk of village merging in Zhucheng City,and offer corresponding SO,WO,ST,WT countermeasures.Finally,some proposals are put forward for future work of village merging in Zhucheng City as follows:grasp opportunity to undergird merger achievement;improve the drawback to beef up merger achievement;monitor risk to maintain merger achievement;eliminate hidden trouble to safeguard merger achievement.

Artistic Analysis on Tintern Abbey

As one of the monasteries standing in English history for thousands of years,Tintern Abbey has great research value in religious history,architectural aesthetics,literature,and art.This paper selects the novels and the works of artists such as Wordsworth,Turner to explain that Tintern Abbey symbolizes the passing of the British rural community,the game between kingship and religious power,the natural representation in industrial civilization,and the disappointment of returning to the middle ages.

A community-based survey of Toxoplasma gondii infection among pregnant women in rural areas of Taiz governorate,Yemen:the risk of waterborne transmission

Background:Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic coccidian parasite causing morbidity and mortality.In Yemen,T.gondii infection has been reported among pregnant women seeking healthcare in the main cities.However,no data are available on the prevalence of T.gondii infection and its associated risk factors among pregnant women in the rural communities of the country.Thus,the present study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of T.gondii and identify its risk factors among pregnant women in the rural communities of Taiz governorate,Yemen.Methods:A total of 359 pregnant women living in the rural communities of Taiz governorate were enrolled in this study by house-to-house visits.Data were collected using a pre-designed questionnaire,and blood samples were collected and tested for the detection of anti-T.gondii IgM and IgG antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results:The prevalence of T.gondii infection among pregnant women in this study was 46.2%(166/359).Bivariate analysis identified the age of≥30 years(odds ratio[OR]=1.7;95%confidence interval[CI]=1.09-2.65,P=0.019)and unimproved water sources(OR=2.2;95%CI=1.10-4.55,P=0.023)as factors associated with T.gondii infection among pregnant women.The multivariable analysis,however,identified unimproved water sources as an independent risk factor(adjusted OR=2.4;95%CI=1.16-5.0,P=0.018)associated with T.gondii infection among pregnant women.Conclusions:Pregnant women in the rural communities of Taiz,Yemen are at high risk of contracting T.gondii infection.Unimproved water sources(wells,water streams and water tanks)are significantly associated with T.gondii infection and should be considered in prevention and control strategies,especially among pregnant women.