Original Research

Utilisation of the National Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines among health care professionals working in Abuja treatment centres, Nigeria

Lindiwe I. Zungu, Ugbede O. Abu, Gboyega A. Ogunbanjo, Geoffrey K. Setswe
African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine | Vol 1, No 1 | a27 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v1i1.27 | © 2009 Lindiwe I. Zungu, Ugbede O. Abu, Gboyega A. Ogunbanjo, Geoffrey K. Setswe | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 21 January 2009 | Published: 21 July 2009

About the author(s)

Lindiwe I. Zungu, University of Limpopo (Medunsa), South Africa
Ugbede O. Abu, Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria
Gboyega A. Ogunbanjo, University of Limpopo (Medunsa), South Africa
Geoffrey K. Setswe,, South Africa

Full Text:

PDF (643KB)

Abstract

Background: Access to and utilisations of the National Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines (NATG) are valuable factors for effective programme implementation. The objective of this study was to investigate the accessibility of the NATG and their utilisation by health care professionals from five treatment centres in Abuja, Nigeria.

Method: A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted in 2007 using purposively sampled health care professionals. Questionnaires were self-administered to participants who consented in writing to participate in the survey.

Results: 97 health care professionals participated in this study with about equal numbers of men and women: 48 (49.5%) women and 49 (50.5%) men. Of these, 21.6% were unaware of the existence of the NATG in their treatment centres. More than half (51.5%) reported that they did not have access to the NATG as opposed to those (48.5%) who had access to the guidelines. Furthermore, 16.5% of the participants confirmed that they had access to an institutional copy of the NATG while 14.4% indicated that they had individual copies and only 3.1% stated that they had individual copies and access to the hospital copy as well. Regarding utilisation of the NATG, 41.2% rarely used them, 32.9% never used them and only 25.7% often used them. The most frequent use of the NATG was among pharmacists (38.1%) compared to the least frequent use among nurses (20.0%).

Conclusion: Poor accessibility of the NATG may have a negative impact on guidelines utilisation among health care professionals in Nigeria.


Keywords

accessibility; utilisation; National Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines; health care professionals; Nigeria

Metrics

Total abstract views: 5765
Total article views: 4762

 

Crossref Citations

1. Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices of healthcare workers about prevention and control of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis at Infectious Diseases Hospital Kano, Nigeria
Salisu Aliyu Ahmad, Usman Hafsat, Alhaji Bura Haruna, Yahaya Auwalu, Yakubu Umar Nuru
Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology  vol: 12  issue: 1  first page: 30  year: 2020  
doi: 10.5897/JPHE2019.1117