• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Diseases in Nigeria according to Nigeria Living Standard Survey

Nigeria first country to receive new meningitis vaccine

Health issues ( self- reported), whether illness or injuries, are reportedly high in Nigeria, with greater incidence in females than males. The predominant health problems according to the Nigeria Living Standard Survey are malaria, body pains, headaches, ulcer/ stomach pain and catarrh. While there exist health facilities that can be accessed by patients, a number of other factors like travel time, price and quality of care among others are the reasons why these facilities are underutilised.

It is clear from the demographic data pertaining to health, that when the entire male and female populations are appraised separately, 34.9 per cent and 37.4 per cent respectively suffer from one illness or the other, ranging from mild to critical level. The incidence of health-related issues is generally higher in rural areas than urban areas with larger percentage of the female population having more health problems than their male counterparts—36.8 versus 31.3 percent for men and 39.7 versus 33.3 percent for women.

These health issues vary across different age groups, where its incidence in percentage formed a “U-shape”. Although 40 per cent of infants within the ages of 0 and 4 years were recorded to have at least one health issue, we saw a decline of same to about 28 per cent for those between the ages of 10 and 14 years, while about 65 per cent of the elderly from the age of 65 years are sick.

Read also: Nigerian health advocate to receive US award

Malaria is a dominant health issue that people suffer from in Nigeria. More than half (51.7 per cent) of those who reported to have at least one health issue mention malaria as top health concern. In comparison to the number of sick people in the rural areas, malaria illness is common (higher by 1.6 percentage points) among those of the urban areas—52.8 per cent of the sick people therein attest it.

In comparison to other health issues within and across the states, out of the total number of sick people in Zamfara State, majority which represents 65.4 per cent are “malaria-sick”. This means that, out of every 100 persons that have any health issues, about 65 of them are either sick of malaria or have malaria fever as an underlining sickness.

The inhabitants of Bauchi among other states have the least worry on malaria as either the sole reason why someone is sick or as an underlining sickness because about 30.8 per cent of the sick people there suffer from malaria.

Unlike the past centuries where malaria fever was one of the biggest diseases, insecticides and mosquito bed-nets now do the magic. It was seen that about half of the population use insecticide treated mosquito bed-nets.

Jigawa, unlike Lagos State, has about 98 per cent of its entire population reportedly sleeping under an insecticide treated mosquito bed-nets.

Although the health facilities that people have accessed when searching for medical treatment in this survey are hospitals, pharmacy stores, chemists, patent medicine vendors, clinics, maternity and home consultants; the report revealed that out of the total sick people in Nigeria, about 36 per cent of them visited a chemist in search of medical treatment. This is the most frequent health facility visited by sick people even in rural and urban areas; others are hospitals.

While these health facilities can be accessed, about 7.3 per cent of people with health problems chose to self-medicate as they did not seek for any medical consultation from any of the aforementioned options for some of the following reasons:

First, the average consultation time is long. The average consultation time including travel time to any health facility in Nigeria and across the states is estimated at 1 hour and 10 minutes. This threshold is about double the time (about 2 hours and 9 minutes) spent in hospitals and also higher in clinics (1 hour 25 minutes) to reach and receive consultations. However, the time taken to access a pharmacy, chemist, and patent medicine vendor only takes 50 minutes.

Another reason is the severity of the illness and medical cost. While 80 per cent of those who decided not to seek medical treatment for their health problems reported to have had minor illness, around 14 per cent mentioned that the cost of receiving the medical treatment is way too expensive.

Others representing 4.5 per cent and 1.1 per cent complained that distance to the health facilities and the quality of care respectively are other barriers which precluded them from seeking medical help.

Within the last 12 months, 5.75 per cent of the total population were hospitalised/admitted where about 4.9 per cent of men and 6.6 per cent of women reported to have been admitted in hospitals.

While hospitalisation was highest in Delta State, where 25.75 per cent of its population were hospitalised at one time or the other, it was lowest in Zamfara where about 1 per cent of its total population admitted to the hospital within the last 12 months.

Another major health-related issue in Nigeria is disability; this could be accidental, consequential or innate. As reported by households, about 1 in every 100 Nigerians (1.42 per cent of the total population) suffers disability: with more disabled females (1.46 per cent) than males (1.42 per cent), even in urban areas.

Data shows that among other states, the highest number of disabled persons can be seen in Yobe State where more than 5 in every hundred people are disabled (5.2 per cent), which predominantly are females. Whereas, it was least in Kebbi State as it was almost very difficult to find a disabled person there.

Healthy living and access to good healthcare systems are the rights of every Nigerian. The outbreak of the coronavirus in February 2020 showed the state of the already under-developed and underserved healthcare systems we have in Nigeria. Little wonder we have the elites seek medical cares in foreign land, while the poor masses suffer greatly.

For lack of funds, some are left helpless. Some hospitals are overburdened by the inflow of patients, quality and professional care are amiss, bed spaces and equipment are almost constantly lacking, ramshackle or old.

As widespread as the coronavirus is, it often feeds on the underlining health conditions, a reason there are more asymptomatic carriers than symptomatic. A good health and good hygiene save the day from this evil. As rightly said, health is wealth!