Agbo Noah, Adeniyi Yetunde, Akpa Onoja Matthew, Omigbodun Olayinka
Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health University of Ibadan Ibadan Oyo State Nigeria.
Department of Psychiatry College of Medicine University of Ibadan Ibadan Nigeria.
Health Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 29;8(5):e70760. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.70760. eCollection 2025 May.
Neurodevelopmental disorders are a set of conditions that appear early in a child's development, usually before they begin school, and are likely to impair personal, social, academic, or occupational functioning. These conditions are the result of disturbances in brain development caused by genetic, environmental, or rather unknown causes. With the increasing prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders in low- and middle-income countries such as Nigeria, it is imperative to understand the level of knowledge of primary healthcare workers who, by virtue of being nearest to the people in the community, are the first point of contact for individuals and families seeking healthcare in the community. This study aimed to assess primary healthcare workers' knowledge level about children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders in Abuja, Nigeria.
This was a cross-sectional study where 274 primary healthcare workers (mean 39.8 ± 10.1 years) were recruited from 17 urban and rural primary healthcare centers (PHCs) in Abuja, Nigeria. The Modified Knowledge and Attitude Towards Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders questionnaire was employed to examine knowledge of and attitudes towards children with disorders (ASD, ADHD, and ID), and the data obtained were analyzed. Percentages and frequencies were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents as well as the knowledge of the respondents in the study. Means and standard deviations were used to present continuous data, while Chi-square was used to investigate the association between categorical variables.
Results from the analysis showed that even with longer working experience of 12.4 ± 6.6 years, respondents had poor knowledge of the identification and management of children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders. A significant majority (68.2%) of the respondents agreed that neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescent is a result of weak genes that were passed down to them by their parents. Similarly, 89.4% of the respondents report that imbecile and moron are types of neurodevelopmental disorders found in children. Further, (43.1%) of the respondents believe that supernatural power can be used to inflict neurodevelopmental disorders on children and adolescents. Of the 274 respondents in this study, 182 were Primary healthcare workers from rural/village PHCs.
Primary healthcare workers demonstrated poor or low knowledge of neurodevelopmental disorders. On-the-job training (including continuing medical education), retraining, and an upgrade to the school of health curriculum are adjustments relevant to increasing the awareness and knowledge level of primary healthcare workers in identifying and managing children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders.
神经发育障碍是一组在儿童发育早期出现的疾病，通常在他们开始上学之前，并且可能损害个人、社交、学业或职业功能。这些疾病是由遗传、环境或原因不明的因素导致的大脑发育紊乱所引起的。随着神经发育障碍在尼日利亚等低收入和中等收入国家的患病率不断上升，了解初级卫生保健工作者的知识水平至关重要，因为他们身处社区，与民众最为贴近，是社区中寻求医疗保健的个人和家庭的第一接触点。本研究旨在评估尼日利亚阿布贾的初级卫生保健工作者对患有神经发育障碍的儿童和青少年的知识水平。
这是一项横断面研究，从尼日利亚阿布贾的17个城乡初级卫生保健中心招募了274名初级卫生保健工作者（平均年龄39.8±10.1岁）。采用《关于儿童和青少年精神障碍的知识与态度修订问卷》来调查对患有疾病（自闭症谱系障碍、注意力缺陷多动障碍和智力障碍）儿童的知识和态度，并对获得的数据进行分析。百分比和频率用于描述受访者的社会人口特征以及研究中受访者的知识情况。均值和标准差用于呈现连续数据，而卡方检验用于调查分类变量之间的关联。
分析结果显示，即使受访者有12.4±6.6年的较长工作经验，他们对患有神经发育障碍的儿童和青少年的识别与管理知识仍很匮乏。绝大多数（68.2%）受访者认为儿童和青少年的神经发育障碍是父母遗传给他们的弱基因所致。同样，89.4%的受访者报告说低能儿和痴愚是在儿童中发现的神经发育障碍类型。此外，43.1%的受访者认为超自然力量可用于使儿童和青少年患上神经发育障碍。在本研究的274名受访者中，182名是来自农村/乡村初级卫生保健中心的初级卫生保健工作者。
初级卫生保健工作者对神经发育障碍的知识掌握得很差或水平很低。在职培训（包括继续医学教育）、再培训以及对卫生学校课程的升级是与提高初级卫生保健工作者识别和管理患有神经发育障碍的儿童和青少年的意识及知识水平相关的调整措施。
