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Item Development and validation of instrument for assessing patients’ knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) on uncomplicated malaria management(CrossMark., 2019) Nanloh S. Jimam; Nahlah E. Ismail; Maxwell L. P. DaparObjectives: To develop and validate patients’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice instrument for uncomplicated malaria (PKAPIUM). Material and Methods: A draft PKAPIUM scale was developed after the review of relevant literature and malaria treatment guidelines, and six experts validated its content. Monte Carlo simulation principle was followed in arriving at 300 patients populations whose data were used to reduce the items based on “Kaiser’s eigenevalue-greater-than-one rule.” This was followed by the test of validity and reliability to assess the psychometric properties of the instrument. Results: The items content validity indices (I-CVI) and the scale CVI (S-CVI) using universal agreement (UA) within experts (S-CVI/UA) and average CVI (S-CVI/Ave) approaches were good (0.8–1.00), with absence of items’ floor or ceiling effects. Twenty-one items were retained in the new scale arranged under four factors with average variance extracted (AVE) and square root AVE values of 0.58–0.70 and 0.76–0.84, respectively, suggesting convergent and discriminant validities. The goodness-of-fit results [Chi-square (CMIN/DF) = 3.07, p = 0.00], standardized root mean square residual = 0.070, root mean square error approximation = 0.08 confirmed the hypothesized factor structures of the scale whose internal consistency of Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values were 0.74 and 0.82, respectively, and stability of ICC = 0.92 [95% confidence interval : 0.87–0.95, F = 43 (p = 0.51)]. Conclusion: The validity and reliability of the PKAPIUM were in acceptable ranges.Item Pharmacists’ knowledge and perceptions about herbal medicines: A case study of Jos and environs(Wolters Kluwer - Medknow, 2017) Nanloh S. Jimam; Benjamin N. Joseph; Dooshima C. AgbaBackground: Due to increased health consciousness among the public, the use of herbal products are on the increase on a daily basis. To achieve optimal benefits, there is a need for pharmacists who are the custodians of knowledge on drugs and drugs‑related products to have more understanding and interest in herbal medicine for effective counseling on the products. The purpose of this study was to assess Pharmacists’ knowledge and perceptions regarding herbal medicine use. Methods: Self‑administered questionnaires were administered to 200 pharmacists working within the study areas to fill; after which the collected data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS software programmer, version 20. Results: Only 88.5% of the respondents responded on the questionnaires, and their mean age was 34 years; median year of experience in practice was 8.2 years; and their areas of practice included hospital (56.1%), community (28.1%), academic (8.47%), and industries (4.52%). More than half (76.27%) of them believed that herbal products were more efficacious and safer (61.02%) than orthodox medicines; with almost all of them (94.92%) acknowledging the beneficial effects of incorporating herbal medicines into orthodox medicine practice. However, most of them (72.88%) confessed having little knowledge on herbal remedies, especially drug‑herbs interactions (81.36%), and their main source of information on herbs was from school (56.50%). Conclusions: The result showed poor level of pharmacists’ knowledge on herbal medicine; which might result in poor patients’ counseling on herbal therapy, especially regarding their safety and potential interaction with orthodox medicine.Item Breast cancer in Jos, Nigeria: An audit on knowledge, attitude, and practices(2017-02-21) Nanloh S. Jimam; Shalkur David; Gboluwaga O. EjisunObjectives: The main purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of women concerning breast cancer in Jos and environs. Methods: A semi‑structured questionnaire was administered to 400 respondents within the age of 18 years and above residing in Jos North and South Local Government Areas of Plateau state. The data collected were then analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 software programmer. Results: Out of the 400 study populations, only 395 (98.8%) responded to the study and 209 (53.0%) of them fall within the age 18–27 years while 89 (22.6%) were within 28 and 37 years, with only 17.8% and 6.6% in the age groups of 38–47 and ≥48 years, respectively. Two hundred and twenty (55.6%) were single, 153 (38.8%) married, while 8 (2.3%) divorced/separated, and 11 (2.8%) were widowed. The highest number (172 [43.7%]) of the respondents had secondary certificates as their highest academic qualifications, followed by diploma/ The Nigeria Certificate in Education/Community Health Extension Workers (25.1%) and first degree (20.8%). Nearly 95% of the respondents have heard of breast cancer, with 30.94% of them having knowledge of the risk factors, 59.9% knew the signs and symptoms of the disease, and their main source of information (35.8%) was the media. Most of the respondents had positive attitude toward the disease, but their cancer breast screening practices were generally poor as majority of them (47.1%) had no idea of the right age to initiate self‑breast examination, with majority (28.4%) confessing not practicing self‑breast examination very often, neither visiting medical practitioner for breast cancer examination and care. Conclusion: The result of this study shows positive attitudes of the respondents toward the disease though high percentage of them had poor knowledge on risk factors and average knowledge of the signs and symptoms of the disease, in addition to poor breast self‑examination practices. Key Words: Breast cancer, knowledge, attitudes, and practices, risk factors, self‑breast examinationItem Assessment of the effects of Cucumis metuliferus fruits alkaloids against Newcastle disease virus‑LaSota(2016-12-25) Anne A. Anyanwu; Nanloh S. Jimam; Noel N. WannangObjective: The objective of this study is to investigate the antiviral activity of the Cucumis metuliferus alkaloids against Newcastle disease virus‑LaSota (NDV‑L). Methods: Hemagglutination (HA) test method using embryonated eggs for study. Results: The result showed “nonlethality” of the alkaloids in 10 days old embryonated eggs. Exposure of the alkaloids to NDV‑L infected embryonated eggs showed negative HA test result from varying 2‑fold diluted concentration between 50 and 3.125 mg/ml of the alkaloid, while the concentration between 1.563 and 0.195 mg/ml gave positive HA test. Negative HA response means the alkaloids at that concentration have antiviral activities while positive HA test implies the presence of antibodies production in response to an antigen as seen with the control, meaning that viral replication was not inhibited when the embryonated eggs were exposed to lower doses of the alkaloids. Conclusion: The study showed that the alkaloids of C. metuliferus fruit pulp extract have good margin of safety with a high level of antiviral properties as confirmed by the result of the HA test. Key Words: Alkaloids, antiviral, Cucumis metuliferus, hemagglutination test, Newcastle disease virus