On 29th August 2022, the ARUA Centre of Excellence for non-communicable diseases held a meeting for the presentation of Dr Temitope Ilori, one of the recipients of the Centre’s mini-grants. Dr Temitope is a consultant family physician at the university college of Ibadan and a lecturer at the University of Ibadan. Her research areas of interest include NCDs and population nutrition. Her presentation is titled “Effect of motivational interview on salt intake among patients with hypertension in Nigeria and Uganda”.
The Centre director and deputy director, Dr Fred Bukachi and Dr Anne Kamau respectively were present in the meeting. The centre manager, Ms Paschalin Basil was also present, along with Prof. Charles Nzioka and Dr Tom Olewe from the University of Nairobi. Also in attendance were Dr Innocent Besigye, a family physician and senior lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda. His area of research is primary health care. Research areas focus on how health systems can be able to provide care for NCDs and particularly hypertension; Dr Tijani Oseni, a consultant family physician; and Dr Olubukola Salam, a consultant family physician at the University of Lagos. Her areas of research interest are Reproductive Health and NCDs.
The specific objectives of her study were:
- To determine the dietary intake and the level of salt intake in the study population at baseline and also at 6 months.
- To determine the level of blood pressure reading in the study population at baseline and at 6 months.
- To determine the effect of motivational interview which is the intervention we intend to introduce on the level of salt intake and on the blood pressure control in this study population at 6 months.
At the end of the meeting, Dr Temitope was urged to look into the possible confounders of her work, and work on the issues raised on the data analysis. She was also to send the ethical approval. The full proceedings of the meeting can be accessed here.