Increase Ibukun Adeosun, Abosede Adekeji Adegbohun, Oyetayo Oyewunmi Jeje and Tomilola Adejoke Adewumi
The label of schizophrenia attracts a high level of stigma; consequently, people with schizophrenia are victims of unfair treatment and have limited access to decent livelihood…
Abstract
Purpose
The label of schizophrenia attracts a high level of stigma; consequently, people with schizophrenia are victims of unfair treatment and have limited access to decent livelihood and basic opportunities. However, most studies on stigma have overlooked the experiences of patients with schizophrenia. The purpose of this paper is to assess the experience of discrimination by patients with schizophrenia in Lagos, Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive cross-sectional study. Out-patients with schizophrenia (n=150) were interviewed with the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC 12) at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.
Findings
The majority of the respondents (86.7 per cent) had been avoided by people who knew they had schizophrenia. Unfair treatment was experienced by 71.3 per cent from family members, 62.7 per cent from friends, 32 per cent in social life and 28.7 per cent in intimate relationships, and 38.7 per cent in personal safety. The most commonly reported unfair treatment was inappropriate physical restraint (e.g. chains and ropes) applied by family members and beating. About eight out of ten (79.3 per cent) respondents concealed their illness.
Originality/value
The findings indicate that people with schizophrenia in Nigeria experience high levels of discrimination, some of which contravenes their basic human rights. The unfair treatment experienced within the family context excludes people with schizophrenia from engaging in basic social relationships, education and the pursuit of life opportunities. Legislations should be reviewed to protect patients from unfair treatment and violation of their human rights. There is also need to equip them with strategies to cope with stigma.
Details
Keywords
Deborah Oyine Aluh, Matthew Okonta and Valentine Odili
The purpose of this paper is to assess and compare the knowledge and help-seeking behaviors toward depression among pharmacy students and non-pharmacy students.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess and compare the knowledge and help-seeking behaviors toward depression among pharmacy students and non-pharmacy students.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey and was carried out among undergraduate students of the oldest and largest university in Eastern Nigeria, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Open-ended questions were used to assess the participants’ recognition of depression and their preferred source of help for a vignette character. The open-ended responses were categorized based on the similarity of thematic content and presented as frequencies/percentages.
Findings
A total of 118 out of the 200 pharmacy students sampled responded (59 percent) and 270 students out of the 300 non-pharmacy students surveyed responded (90 percent). A significantly higher proportion of pharmacy students correctly labeled the vignette as depression (61.9 percent) compared to non-pharmacy students (39.6 percent) (χ2=16.57, p=<0.001). Psychologists were the most recommended source of help by both groups of students surveyed. A statistically significant greater proportion of pharmacy students recommended psychiatrists compared to non-pharmacy students (χ2=3.79, p=0.044). There was a significant association between academic level of study and ability to correctly label the vignette among pharmacy and non-pharmacy students [(χ2=18.08, p<0.001), (χ2=10.35, p=0.016)], respectively.
Originality/value
This is the first time the depression literacy of pharmacy students has been surveyed in an African country. The findings from this study are interesting in the context of current efforts to decrease the enormous treatment gap for depression by improving its recognition in community pharmacy settings.
Details
Keywords
Opeoluwa Adeniyi Adeosun, Philip Akanni Olomola, Adebayo Adedokun and Olumide Steven Ayodele
The increasing debate on the viability of broad-based productive employment in stimulating the participatory tendencies of growth makes it instructive to inquire how the African…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasing debate on the viability of broad-based productive employment in stimulating the participatory tendencies of growth makes it instructive to inquire how the African “Big Five” have fared in their quests to ensure growth inclusiveness through public investment-led fiscal policy.
Design/methodology/approach
Time varying structures and nonlinearities in the government investment series are captured through the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag, asymmetric impulse responses and variance decomposition estimation techniques.
Findings
Study findings show that positive investment shocks stimulate growth inclusiveness by enabling access to opportunities through job creation and productive employment for the populace; this result is evident for Morocco and Algeria. However, there is a non-negligible evidence that shocks due to decline in the government investment manifest in insufficient capital stocks and limited investment opportunities, impede access to opportunities by the populace, hinder labour employability and make growth less inclusive. Furthermore, all short-run findings corroborate long-run results regarding the reaction of inclusive growth to positive investment shocks with the exclusion of South Africa; which, unlike its long-run finding, shows that shocks due to increases in investment can foster growth inclusiveness. Also, in respect to short-run negative investment shocks, Nigeria is the only country that does not align its long-run findings.
Practical implications
That public investment shocks make or mar inclusive growth effectiveness shows the need for appropriate fiscal policy consolidation and automatic stabilization guidelines to ensure buffers against shocks and to enhance government investment generation efficiency for a sustainable inclusive growth process that is more participatory in Africa.
Originality/value
This study is the first to accommodate possibilities of shocks in the inclusivity of growth analysis for the five biggest African economies which jointly account for over half of the recorded growth in the continent. As such, there is quantitative evidence that government investment is a potent determinant of growth inclusiveness and it is susceptible to structural changes and time variation of shocks.
Details
Keywords
Olumide Olaoye, Cleopatra Oluseye Ibukun, Mustafa Razzak and Naftaly Mose
The paper analyses the prevalence of extreme and multidimensional poverty in line with the sustainable development agenda. In addition, the paper examines the drivers of extreme…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper analyses the prevalence of extreme and multidimensional poverty in line with the sustainable development agenda. In addition, the paper examines the drivers of extreme poverty while accounting for the potential spillover effect of poverty in the region.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts the pooled OLS with Discroll-Kraay robust standard errors to control for cross-sectional dependence. In addition, given the strong potential for endogeneity of poverty index, the authors also employ the generalized method of moments (GMM), which accounts for simultaneity and endogeneity problems, and the spatial error and lag models to control for all forms of spatial and temporal dependence since the factors that affect poverty disperse across borders.
Findings
The study finds that in addition to the traditional drivers of poverty (unemployment, low per capita GDP growth and public debt), poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is a symptom of a deeper structural problem (lack of access to water and sanitation, high level of corruption and low level of financial development, and frequent economic busts). Likewise, the results from the spatial econometric specification show, consistently across all the specifications, that there is a substantial spillover effect of poverty across the region.
Originality/value
The main novelty of the paper is that the authors investigate the “economic shrinkage hypothesis,” and examined the potential negative spillover effect of poverty in the region.