by Maximila N. Wanzala, J. A Oloo, Gordon Nguka and Vincent Were
Original Research
Introduction: Strong health systems are essential platforms for accessible, quality health services, and population health and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs). Descriptive methods have been used to assess the health systems strength and impact, however, there is inadequate knowledge on methods of analyzing huge number of indices to provide systematic evidence that service readiness is improving or deteriorating over time. Methods: We utilized data from a cross section survey of 71 health facilities in Kakamega County of western Kenya. A total of 151 indices of the health system building blocks were reduced using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) model which generated factor weights for the individual indicators. These included indices from human resources, service delivery, infrastructure, finance, health information systems, commodities and governance. Factors weights were then summed and ranked in order of their relative contribution to better performance. These were then summed and average to rank health facilities. Sum of indicators within each health system block was used as explanatory variables in a linear regression model with overall average of all indicators. Coefficients of the regression was used to assess marginal effects and p-value<0.05 were considered statistics significant. Results: The top ranked indicators were basic service deliver for testing and diagnosis and the lowest ranked were infrastructure such as availability of public taps, water, toilet or privacy. The department that were highly ranked whose indicators performed better in terms of weighting, were service delivery (p<0.0001), health financing (p<0.0001), health workforce (p=0.005) and medical supplies and commodities (p<0.0001) in relation to overall service provision denoted by overall weighting for all indicators. Health governance was not a significant factor influencing service provision. Conclusion:PCA is an essential methodology for assessing health system readiness and preparedness to provide accessible and quality service delivery in resource poor settings.
American Journal of Public Health Research. 2019, 7(1), 27-32. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-7-1-5
Pub. Date: February 15, 2019
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by Ampadu Seth, Azamela John Coffie, Amoako Richard and Sarfo Adu-Yeboah Stephen
Original Research
This paper focused on broadening users and HAMT technology elite knowledge on the adoption of Hospital Administration Management System Technology base on the amalgamation of Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Acceptance Model. In regards to this, 236 questionnaires were distributed to health professionals out of which 200 were recouped. The 200 Health Professionals were from different hospitals and clinics for this paper, the makeup of the population sample consist of Nurses, Doctors, and Administrative staff as they form the majority users of HAMT. Every institution needs reliable information or data to operate successfully, it is, therefore, worthwhile to say that information or data on hand has a significant influence on the outcome of treatment of patients. The results of the study fascinatingly demonstrate the significant factors of HAMT adoption and the impact of each delineated element. The outcomes established that the majority of health workers will adopt HAMT base on their Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Attitude, Subjective Norms and Subjective.
American Journal of Public Health Research. 2019, 7(1), 21-26. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-7-1-4
Pub. Date: February 04, 2019
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by Derick Akompab Akoku, Mbah Abena Tihnje, Elisabeth Oben Tarh, Elvis Enowbeyang Tarkang and Robinson Enow Mbu
Original Research
Background: Although HIV/AIDS negatively affects socio-economic development in many countries, there are limited studies that have applied concepts in cognitive psychology to investigate population level attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. The objectives of this study were to: (1) investigate the affective imagery of HIV/AIDS; and (2) identify the predictors of “worry” about the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS among young adults. Methods: A population-based study was conducted in Kumba, Southwest Cameroon among youth aged 21-35 years. Data were collected from September to October 2016 by trained interviewers using paper-based questionnaires. Respondents were asked the extent to which they were worried about the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS on themselves, family, community, society, current and future generation. Respondents were also asked to identify the first thought/image that comes to their mind when they think of HIV/AIDS. Qualitative data were analyzed by the grounded theory tradition while weighted hierarchical linear regression was used to analyse quantitative data to identify the predictors of worry about the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS. The statistical level of significance was set at p<0.05. Results: The median age of the 767 respondents who participated in the study was 26 years (IQR: 23-29), 58.2% were males while 41.8% were females. 68.1% of respondents had negative feelings about the consequences of HIV/AIDS. Respondents who attained high school education and above (β= 1.12, p<0.001), who had negative feelings about HIV/AIDS (β= 1.11, p=<0.001) and who had a high self-perceived risk of contracting HIV (β= 1.49, p<0.001) were significantly more likely to be worried about the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS. However, males (β=-0.75, p=0.003) compared to females were less likely to be worried about the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS. Most respondents associated HIV/AIDS to death and conjures images such as “death sentence”, “deadly disease”, “disease with no cure” and “killer disease”. This was followed by images associated with fear, sadness and anxiety.Conclusions: Most respondents were worried about the consequences of HIV/AIDS and associated the epidemic to death and fear. These findings underscore the need for the psychosocial and cognitive processes of young adults to be considered during the design of HIV prevention and risk communication messages.
American Journal of Public Health Research. 2019, 7(1), 14-20. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-7-1-3
Pub. Date: January 25, 2019
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by Zannatul Ferdous and Zebunnesa Zeba
Original Research
Early marriage (EM) is a threatened issue for adolescent girls. The direct reproducers for future generations are adolescent girls. Healthy adolescent girl indicate healthy future generation. The health of Bangladeshi adolescent girl is mostly exaggerated by EM. It is prerequisite for adolescent mainly adolescent girls and their family to have knowledge about EM. This study explored the knowledge and perception of EM among adolescent’s girls. A descriptive type of cross sectional study was conducted in a selected community of Rangpur district, Bangladesh where 120 adolescent girls were taken as sample from 10 May to 10 August 2016. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire through face to face interview and analyzed by SPSS 20.0 and excel spread sheet. The present study reported the average age of the participant’s was 15.61±1.79 (mean ±SD) years. There was a statistically significant (X2=7.8, X2=4.28 and X2=5.19 with p≤0.05 respectively) association between participant’s age, education, marital status and level of knowledge about EM. 42.5% participants had sufficient knowledge and remaining (57.5%) had poor knowledge about EM. There is a need for having adequate knowledge and perception about EM especially its negative consequences among adolescent girls which influencing on the overall development of our country.
American Journal of Public Health Research. 2019, 7(1), 9-13. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-7-1-2
Pub. Date: January 23, 2019
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by M. S. Shehu, I. Umaru and B.W. Tukura
Original Research
The analysis of some outdoor atmospheric aerosols such as PM2.5, SO2, CO and CH4 in Federal capital territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria was carried out, the study covered all the six (6) area councils “AMAC, Abaji, Bwari, Kuje, Kwali and Gwagwalada” of the FCT. Analysis was conducted for a cumulative data of one year period (2017-2018) based on monitoring satellite data within altitude of 6 Km from the ground levels, which was collected by National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Abuja, Nigeria. The data came in NETCDF format, extracted by a specialized software called the Arc Map 10.4.1, converted and exported in DBF format which can be read by Microsoft excel. Result of the analysis shows the pollutant various Air Quality Index (AQI) and pollutant mean concentrations (PMC), also the AQI and the maximum concentration of each pollutant in all the study areas were compared with the respective annual standard set by WHO, SO2 was found to be ten thousand (10,000) times above 20 μg/m3, CO is within the safe range, 10 times lower than 0.01 ppm, PM 2.5 was (2) times lower than 10 μg/m³ and CH4 are above the WHO/NIOSH threshold limit value of 1000 ppm with 50 percent increment. The effect varies for a different group of people (sensitive to insensitive), therefore they are said to have a deterministic effect.
American Journal of Public Health Research. 2019, 7(1), 1-8. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-7-1-1
Pub. Date: January 20, 2019
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