Practice of Periodic Medical Examination among Hospital Workers in a Nigeria Teaching Hospital

Abstract

A survey conducted to examine the practice of periodic medical examination among health workers was conducted at University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. A total of 74 hospital workers were selected by stratified random sampling from all the departments and units in the hospital and interviewed. More than half (60.9%) of those interviewed were senior staff while 39.1% were junior staff.
Most of the respondents (82.8%) had a medical examination since being employed in the hospital. Among those that had pre-employment medical examination done only 14.1% had the examination done before assumption of duty. Two-thirds of those who did the medical examination did so just to satisfy the hospital management requirement. Only 20.6% of the respondents had ever had periodic medical examination (PME) while on employment of the hospital. Among those that ever had PME the mean number of times that they had periodic medical examination was 2.4. Socio-demographic characteristic of respondents had no significant effect on the practice of PME. It was found that there was a significantly higher level of PME practice among hospital workers who were encouraged to do PME by doctors.
This low practice of periodic medical examination will not allow early detection of diseases. The situation will probably be worse among the general population who have less knowledge of the benefits of PME and reduced access to facilities for PME. It is therefore important to put in place a national policy on periodic medical examination so that diseases can be detected early and through this put in place early management to reduce morbidity and motility.

NQJHM Vol. 14 (3&4) 2004: pp. 206-210