Epidemiological Survey of University of Science and Technology Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Abstract
Epidemiological study of Rivers State University of Science and Technology Port Harcourt, Nigeria was carried out to identify the morbidity pattern in the University community in order to establish the current health status and trends. This study utilized secondary morbidity data sourced from Health Services Department. Data on staff mortality were obtained from the Personnel/Establishment Division. Methods employed for data collection were health records survey and data collection sheets. Morbidity information required were date, sex, age, department, card number and diagnosis of each case. Information required for each mortality case was date, sex, age, department, salary level and the cause of death. Of all cases of morbidity, communicable diseases comprised 17.5%; non-communicable diseases 24.1%, generalized disease symptoms 55.2% and others 3.2%. The study revealed that the leading causes of morbidity in the University were fever/headache/cold (36.9%), hypertension (13.6%), generalized body pain (7.5%), abdominal pain/vomiting (6.7%) and diabetes (4.9%). Hypertension emerged the second major cause of morbidity among the staff and males had higher rate of morbidity compared to females. It was also concluded that although mortality was increasing with time but there was no sex wise significant difference in mortality trend. It was recommended among others that Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension being silent killers should be monitored regularly within the University community. Also the current practice of manual data entry should be replaced with computerized data system for better health records management.
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Introduction
Traditionally Epidemiology is the study of how often diseases occur in different groups of people and why. 1 Epidemiological information is used to plan and evaluate strategies to prevent illness and as a guide to the management of patients in whom disease has already developed.
In recent years there is more urbanization and industrialization and hence migration of workers has also increased. With the migration of workers far away from their homes, habits like alcoholism, smoking, etc is also increased due to factors like loneliness, peer pressure etc. With these changes the workers working in low resource availability are more likely to be affected by the dangers of high technology than their counterparts in developed countries.
Conclusion
This study concluded that there is leading causes of morbidity identified in the population were fever/headache/cold followed by hypertension, generalized body pain, abdominal pain/vomiting and diabetes. Hypertension emerged as first among no communicable disease the second major cause of morbidity among the staff of RSUST. It was also concluded that males had higher rate of morbidity compared to the females. It was also concluded that although mortality was increasing with time but there was no sex wise significant difference in mortality trend.