Health Information Literacy in Meeting Primary Health Care Objectives in Nigeria: A Performance Assessment in a Senatorial District

Abstract

The study investigated the performance of the Primary Health Care Programme in Nigeria using a senatorial district as a case study with the instrumentality of health information literacy. The choice of Central Senatorial District, Edo Staten was purposive as all the PHC in the country operates under similar socioeconomic and political conditions. The rationale behind the investigation was to ascertain the extent to which the objectives of PHC programmes have been meant as a fundamental component of the nation’s healthcare delivery systems. In addition, to focus group discussion, copies of the questionnaire being the major instrument for data collection were distributed among286 members of staff that were accidentally sampled from 28 PHC centres. The sampled population comprised 21.3% Community Health Extension Workers, 13.6% Cleaners, 13.6%Security, 5.3% Orderlies, and 5.3% Messengers. The study revealed a shortage of professionals as only 3(1%) were Doctors, 3(1%) Anaesthetic Nurses and 2(0.8%)were Pharmacists. There was a dearth of professional Medical Records Clerks in the PHC underscored the abysmally low health literacy rate among the engaged personnel and those accessing the services as beneficiaries.  The study concluded on the submission that enriched health literacy, adequate funding, and employment of skilled personnel, PHC will record appreciable performance in the future.