ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF HARMATTAN ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SOME RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS IN GWER EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE, NIG

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dc.contributor.authorTYOHEMBA, Abraham
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-07T11:26:32Z
dc.date.available2026-09-07T11:26:32Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionA THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN GEOGRAPHY DEPARMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, FACULTY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
dc.description.abstractIt has long been observed that the incidence of common respiratory tract symptoms increase in Gwer East Local Government Area during the harmattan months of the year. This study assessed the effect of harmattan dust haze on the occurrence of some respiratory tract infectious diseases in Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire and hospital records from 2014-2019 were used as the main instrument for data collection in this study. Frequency distribution tables, pie charts, and linear regression were used in analyzing the data using SPSS version 26.0. Results showed that the respondents of the study area faced some respiratory tract symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, nasal congestion among others which occur regularly during harmattan season of the year. The result showed that 93% of the respondents agreed with the view thatharmattan influences breathing.The perception of occurrence of common respiratory tract symptoms indicated that items like harmattan result to unpredicted respiratory tract symptoms, harmattan dust haze reduces solar radiation, harmattan dust haze increase respiratory tract symptoms, there is high body temperature during harmattan season, harmattan season result to decreased day activities and respiratory tract symptoms subside after harmattan season were found to be above the minimum level of decision 3.00 with an average score of 3.77. Findings revealed that there was significant relationship between the respiratory tract symptoms and the respiratory diseases in the study area with catarrh having the strongest relationship with „r‟ value of 0.821 among all other diseases. Findings confirmed that only 30.30% of respiratory diseases occur in dry season with catarrh having the highest frequency in the study area and 23.83% of cases occur in wet season. About 82.7% of the respondents confirmed that common cold manifests mostly during dry season in the study area. Findings show that 63.1% of the respondents visit hospitals when they are sick during harmattan season and 69% of the respondents agreed that respiratory tract symptoms disappear after harmattan season. The result revealed that 60.30% of respondents use face masks as the best management strategy against harmattan dust and 80% of the respondents agreed that it is effective. About 37.60% of the respondents suggested the use of face mask as the possible way to mitigate the effect of harmattan dust in the study area.The respiratory tract symptoms faced by the people of the area include coughing, sneezing, nasal congestion among others which occur regularly during harmattan season of the year. The use of management strategies such as the wearing of face mask and adjustment of body outfit/ thick clothing during harmattan season should be practiced in the study area.
dc.identifier.urihttps://kubanni.abu.edu.ng/123456789/13214
dc.language.isoen
dc.titleASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF HARMATTAN ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SOME RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS IN GWER EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE, NIG
dc.typeThesis
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