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Background: Breast cancer (BC) remains a significant health burden globally, with high incidence and mortality rates, particularly in Nigeria. Chemotherapy, a common treatment modality for BC, often leads to various physical and psychological side effects, impacting patients' quality of life. Despite the growing use of mobile health (mHealth) interventions to provide psychoeducational support, there is a paucity of evidence regarding their feasibility and acceptability among Nigerian women with BC. Objective: To develop and investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a mHealth psychoeducational intervention (mPEI) named the ChEmo Nurse Breast cancer Application (CENBA) programme. Methods: A multi-centre, assessor-blinded, parallel-group pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Thirty women newly diagnosed with BC and undergoing chemotherapy were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group. The intervention group received the CENBA programme, which included BC education, coping skills training, a discussion forum, and nurse-led consultations, delivered via a mobile application and phone calls over six weeks. The control group received standard care. Feasibility was assessed through consent, attrition, and completion rates, while acceptability was explored via qualitative interviews. Results: The completion rate was 93.3%. Qualitative data indicated that participants found the intervention beneficial, particularly appreciating the educational content and the emotional support provided through the discussion forum and nurse consultations. Conclusion: The CENBA programme was perceived as a feasible and acceptable mHealth intervention for providing psychoeducational support to Nigerian women with BC undergoing chemotherapy. These findings suggest that the CENBA programme could be a valuable tool in addressing the psychoeducational needs of this population, warranting further investigation in a full-scale RCT. Trial registration: This manuscript reports a feasibility study preceding the full trial, which was registered with the United States Clinical Trials registry (number NCT05489354). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Coronavirus disease has rapidly become a public health challenge, with many countries adopting the usage of facemasks as one of the protective strategies against the virus. This study aimed to assess the behavioral risk factors associated with the use of facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period in Nigeria. Methods: The study recruited 500 participants in an online-based survey through a cloud-based platform called Google Forms. The main scales; facemask usage and behavioral risk factors were measured on a 0-27 and 0-24 point rating scale respectively, while the subscales are utilization, prevention, and perceived threats were measured on a 0-16, 0-19, and 0-5 point rating scale. Result: The usage of facemasks accounts for 32.8% (daily), 12.2% (weekly), 38.2% (monthly basis), and 16.8% use facemasks out of necessity. More than half (55.6%) use facemasks because of fear of punishment by the task force while challenges associated with the usage of facemasks include: difficulty breathing (47%) and suffocation (24%). A significant association was found between the use of facemasks and the prevention of COVID-19 (b= 0.029, 95% CI =0.055 - 0.114, p-value 0.049, r2=11.1%). Conclusion: The use of facemasks has become a norm and passed into law in Nigeria, however not a pleasant practice for most people Recommendation: Therefore there is a need for mass awareness and education to improve the use of facemasks in Nigeria.

Aim: To explore the experiences and needs of postgraduate nursing students within the Nigerian context. Design: This qualitative study was conducted using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Method: Data were collected between February and April 2022 using a purposive sampling method and telephone semi‐structured interviews. Colaizzi's method of Qualitative data Analysis was utilized. Twenty‐two Nigerian postgraduate nursing students were interviewed. Results: Three themes emerged: challenges of Nigerian postgraduate students before the pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on postgraduate education, and innovations to improve postgraduate education in Nigeria. The challenges include the burden of physical lectures, lack of infrastructure, and poor mentorship of postgraduate nursing students. The impact of the pandemic on postgraduate education includes abrupt disruption of the academic program, a prolonged academic calendar, and a communication gap between students and their research supervisors. Innovations to improve postgraduate nursing education in Nigeria also include adoption and sustainability of e‐learning, upgrading post‐basic to postgraduate nursing programmes, proper structuring of postgraduate nursing education, commencement of postgraduate nursing programmes in more universities and provision of financial aid for students. Our primary finding is that funding, mentorship and infrastructure were issues peculiar to all the respondents. Conclusion: This study concludes that efforts should be made to maintain a seamless educational program by ensuring an uninterrupted flow of learning through virtual means, thereby enhancing effective teaching and learning. Implications: Graduate nursing studies is one of the suggested solutions in the WHO strategic direction for nursing and midwifery globally to achieve Universal Health Coverage. The reason is that nurses can practice with more and better skills in any work setting, thus improving the quality of health care services. Our study provides insights into the experiences of postgraduate students and how these could discourage other nurses who might have thought about furthering their studies. Efforts should be made to provide all the support that these students need, using evidence from this study and similar studies to ensure they have a good learning experience and others can be motivated to learn at the graduate level as well. This will increase the proportion of nurses and midwives honed with better skills to provide more standard quality services that will improve patient care outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2, has been one of the most highly contagious and rapidly spreading virus outbreak. The pandemic not only has catastrophic impacts on physical health and economy around the world, but also the psychological well-being of individuals, communities and society. The psychological and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic internationally have not been well described. There is a lack of international study assessing health-related impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the degree to which individuals are fearful of the pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to (1) assess the health-related impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in community-dwelling individuals around the world; (2) determine the extent various communities are fearful of COVID-19 and (3) identify perceived needs of the population to prepare for potential future pandemics.Methods and analysis This global study involves 30 countries. For each country, we target at least 500 subjects aged 18 years or above. The questionnaires will be available online and in local languages. The questionnaires include assessment of the health impacts of COVID-19, perceived importance of future preparation for the pandemic, fear, lifestyles, sociodemographics, COVID-19-related knowledge, e-health literacy, out-of-control scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe participants’ characteristics, perceptions on the health-related impacts of COVID-19, fear, anxiety and depression, lifestyles, COVID-19 knowledge, e-health literacy and other measures. Univariable and multivariable regression models will be used to assess the associations of covariates on the outcomes.Ethics and dissemination The study has been reviewed and approved by the local ethics committees in participating countries, where local ethics approval is needed. The results will be actively disseminated. This study aims to map an international perspective and comparison for future preparation in a pandemic.

Background: Women experience physical, hormonal, and psychological changes during pregnancy. Similarly, some traditions are prevalent among Javanese women, which could affect their pregnancy. The experiences of first-time pregnant women in this area remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of women during their first pregnancy. Materials and Methods: The qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was conducted in Kesambon village in Malang Regency, Indonesia. Eight women in their third trimester were selected purposively. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews and subsequently open-coded using the NVivo-12 software manufactured by the QS International. Results: The participants were married primigravida women aged 17 to 22 years. Four themes emerged as follows: pregnancy is a positive experience, pregnant women are not independent, belief in pregnancy-related myths and traditions, and pregnancy-related information seeking. Conclusions: During the first pregnancy, pregnant women believed and practiced Javanese traditions regarding pregnancy. Although they were happy, they were still dependent and lacked the motivation to seek pregnancy-related information. Hence, midwives should provide them with adequate pregnancy-related information while addressing harmful myths and misconceptions. This should culminate in a successful pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal health is the mother's state of well being before, during, and after conception. Studies have suggested that the increasing maternal mortality rate is preventable provided maternal health services are accessible during pregnancy. This study explored the association between socioeconomic status and the utilization of maternal health services in the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, Ogun State. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross sectional survey. One hundred and eighty eight pregnant women from the antenatal unit of a tertiary hospital in Southwestern Nigeria were selected using a convenience sampling technique. Data were collected via a pretested, self designed questionnaire. The descriptive statistics were used to analyze the resulting data, and the hypotheses were tested using the Pearson product moment correlation at 0.05 level of significance. Result: From the study, 72 (38.30%) and 58 (30.90%) agreed that their income and occupation influence their maternal health services utilization. Significant relationship (p < 0.05) existed between maternal health service utilization and age and between socioeconomic factors (occupation and income level) and utilization of maternal health services of pregnant women. Conclusions: Overall, this study revealed that the level of utilization of maternal health services among expectant women attending FMC is moderate. As this study has shown that socioeconomic factors influence the utilization of maternal health services, we recommend that interventions by health workers targeted at improving the utilization of maternal health services should consider these factors when designing such interventions. It is hoped that this will contribute to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in this state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The world battled with children's needs during the pre-COVID-19 era, and their health and educational needs were amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article highlights the reported impact of the pandemic on child health, the inequalities observed, the lessons learnt, and the way forward in the post-COVID era. Method: A narrative literature review was conducted. Articles from Google Scholar and PubMed were searched from 2015 upward. The reference lists of the included articles were also searched for more relevant studies. A descriptive analysis of the included studies was conducted to highlight the reported impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child health. Results: During the pandemic, every child was not affected equally. Inequalities in child physical, mental and social health were observed more in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Similarly, child nutrition was adversely affected as school feeding programs were disrupted. Although the education of children was adversely affected globally, the impact was more in LMICs, where digital learning was not well-developed. This was also worse in insurgent countries with many out-of-school children. Conclusion: Efforts should be geared towards meeting children's physical, mental and social needs during pandemics, with a strong focus on children from developing countries. Similarly, the education of children should not be neglected. As efforts are directed towards meeting the needs of adults post-COVID, inequalities observed in child health during the pandemic should be addressed such that no child is left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A range of psychological issues often accompany breast cancer chemotherapy. Due to their ubiquity, mobile phones have been used to deliver supportive interventions addressing these issues. However, we currently lack sufficient evidence to guide the design of such interventions. Aim: To analyse and synthesise available evidence on the effectiveness of mobile‐phone‐based (mHealth) interventions in alleviating the psychological issues experienced by women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted from 14 relevant databases. Revman 5.4 was used to pool the quantitative results from comparable studies for statistical meta‐analysis. For clinically heterogeneous studies where statistical pooling of results was not possible, a narrative summary was used to present the findings. Results: The review included nine RCTs which covered 1457 patients. The meta‐analysis results indicated a significant improvement in the quality of life (standardised mean difference [SMD] = 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.07, 0.58], p =.01, I2 = 17%). No significant effects were found for anxiety (SMD = −0.01, 95% CI [−0.26, 0.25], p =.96, I2 = 53%) and depression (SMD = 0.02, 95% CI [−0.17, 0.20], p =.87, I2 = 0%). Individual studies suggest reduced symptom prevalence (p =.033, d = 0.27), symptom distress (p =.004, d = 0.34), symptom interference (p =.02, d = 0.51), supportive care needs (p <.05, d = 2.43); improved self‐efficacy (p =.03, d = 0.53), self‐esteem (p <.001, d = 0.87) and emotional functioning (p =.008, d = 0.30). The methodological quality ranged from low to moderate. Conclusion: mHealth interventions might help address certain psychological issues experienced by this population, although the evidence is still being gathered and not yet conclusive. More rigorous trials are warranted to confirm the suitable duration while addressing the methodological flaws found in previous studies. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021224307. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Using chlorhexidine gel for neonates during the first week of life is an important strategy for preventing sepsis and achieving optimal cord care. This study aimed to assess knowledge and practice of cord care and the use of chlorhexidine gel among mothers attending a hospital in southwest Nigeria. Methods: A descriptive survey was carried out, using random sampling to select 184 mothers attending antenatal and postnatal clinics in Lagos State General Hospital, Shomolu, Lagos. Associations between variables were tested using Pearson's correlation at 0.05 significance. Results: Almost two-thirds (64.1%) of participants understood that the soiled umbilical stump should not be cleaned with water and over half (52.7%) disagreed with the use of substances such as methylated spirit, toothpaste and hot water for cord care. In practice, 97.8% cleaned the baby's umbilical cord and 84.8% cleaned the umbilical stump with chlorhexidine gel. Almost a fifth (19%) of participants applied other substances such as alcohol (methylated spirit), herbal preparations or hot water to the umbilical cord. A statistically significant association was found between knowledge and practice of cord care (P<0.001). Conclusions: This study suggests that the use of chlorhexidine gel in cord care among mothers has improved compared to previous studies. More studies are needed to confirm this finding. Some participants used unhealthy cord care practices, including herbal preparations and hot water, implying a need for further interventions to address misconceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]