Table 1
Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (n = 122)
| Characteristics | Frequency (%) |
|---|---|
| Sex | |
| Male | 75 (61.5) |
| Female | 47 (38.5) |
| Age in years | |
| Mean (±SD) | 27.3 (±5.6) |
| Tribe | |
| Yoruba | 20 (16.4) |
| Hausa | 76 (62.3) |
| Igbo | 7 (5.7) |
| Others | 18 (14.8) |
| Not specified | 1 (0.8) |
| Marital status | |
| Single | 77 (63.1) |
| Married | 40 (32.8) |
| Separated | 3 (2.5) |
| Not specified | 2 (1.6) |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | 24 (19.7) |
| Islam | 96 (78.7) |
| Others | 1 (0.8) |
| Not specified | 1 (0.8) |
| School | |
| UDUS | 65 (53.3) |
| CHOTP | 9 (7.4) |
| SON | 48 (39.3) |
| Level | |
| 1st year | 32 (26.2) |
| 2nd year | 19 (15.6) |
| 3rd year | 6 (4.9) |
| 4th year | 3 (2.5) |
| 5th year | 2 (1.6) |
| 6th year | 60 (49.2) |
| Course of study | |
| Medicine | 65 (53.3) |
| Community Health | 9 (7.4) |
| General Nursing | 48 (39.3) |
[i] SD – Strongly disagree, D– Disagree, U– Undecided, SA – Strongly agree, A – Agree, UDUS – Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, CHOTP – Community Health Officers’ Training Programme, SON – School of Nursing
Figure 1
Sources of information on madness among those respondents that claimed awareness of madness (i.e., a state of severe mental illness) (n = 116)
Table 2
Grouping of Likert-scaled responses (into yes/neutral/no) of respondents, with respect to schools, to the variable: ‘Reading too much can make me run mad’
| School | Reading too much can make me run mad | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No [SD + D] (%) | Neutral [U] (%) | Yes [SA + A] (%) | No response (%) | |
| UDUS | 42 (64.6) | 6 (9.2) | 16 (24.6) | 1 (1.5) |
| [N=65] | ||||
| CHOTP [N = 9] | 3 (33.3) | 1 (11.1) | 5 (55.6) | 0 (0.0) |
| SON [N = 48] | 20 (41.7) | 2 (4.2) | 26 (54.2) | 0 (0.0) |
[i] SD – Strongly disagree, D– Disagree, U– Undecided, SA – Strongly agree, A – Agree
Table 3
Association between respondents’ academic record and their perception of ‘reading too much’ as a cause of mental illness
| Variable | Reading too much can make me run mad | p-value (df) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response | SD | D | U | A | SA | ||
| How many times did you sit for your | Once | 16 | 22 | 4 | 17 | 4 | 0.220 (20) |
| O’level examination before you passed all | Twice | 10 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 2 | |
| the 5 compulsory subjects you needed | Three times | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | |
| to secure an admission into your current course of study? | Four times | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | |
| Five times | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| More than five times | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| How many times did you sit for the | Once | 22 | 21 | 8 | 21 | 8 | 0.267 (16) |
| entrance examination of your school | Twice | 6 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 0 | |
| before securing admission into your | Three times | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | |
| current course of study? | Four times | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Five times | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| So far in your current academic program, | Poor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.397 (16) |
| what is the rating of your academic | Average | 7 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
| performance? | Good | 10 | 13 | 7 | 17 | 3 | |
| Very good | 12 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 2 | ||
| Excellent | 3 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 2 | ||
[i] SD – Strongly disagree, D – Disagree, U – Undecided, SA – Strongly agree, A – Agree