Abstract:

Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States of North-East Nigeria faced violent conflicts since 2010. Violent conflicts of this nature have profound effect on health. Previous studies have documented impact of violent conflicts on some components of healthcare services. The impact of violent conflict on medical laboratory services is yet to be fully understood in Nigeria. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of violent extremism on access and utilization of medical laboratory services in Yobe State, Nigeria. The study employed qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. In-depth interview was conducted with medical laboratory staff to elucidate their opinions on how violent conflicts affected medical laboratory services during the period of study. Quantitative method employed the review of medical laboratory records covering the period 2010 -2016. Thematic content analysis was employed on qualitative data for themes that emerged. Quantitative data was analyzed using both descriptive and analytic methods. The findings from in-depth interview revealed that violent extremism impacted negatively on leadership and governance, workforce, finance, medical technology, records/research and service delivery of medical laboratory in State Specialist Hospital Damaturu (SSHD) and General Hospital Potiskum (GHPTKM). The results of quantitative data revealed that the changes in service uptake contributed by magnitude of documented violent attacks can be explained by 7% in SSHD; and by 4% in GHPTKM. The changes contributed by emergency services on routine tests can be explained by 34% in SSHD and 60% in GHPTKM. The supply gaps for safe blood in SSHD and GHPTKM associated with documented violent attacks was 56% and 61% (R²), respectively. The results showed that magnitude of documented attacks was a major factor influencing supply gaps for safe blood in SSHD. These findings imply that the direct violent attacks over the years exacerbated conditions on livelihoods that affected uptake and utilization of medical laboratory services during violent conflicts. The study recommends the use of the proposed best practice guideline to guide and sustain the provision of medical laboratory services in violent conflicts settings.

Keywords: Medical Laboratory, Service uptake and utilization Violent extremism, Impact.

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