Nigeria's National Health Act: An assessment of health professionals' knowledge and perception.
BACKGROUND
Nigeria's National Health Act 2014 (NHA 2014) was signed into law on October 31, 2014. It provides a legal framework for the regulation, development, and management of Nigeria's Health System. This study assessed the knowledge and perception of the NHA 2014 by health professionals.


METHODS
This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted in December 2015, in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. Data entry and analysis were done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16 (IBM SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) statistical software, with Pearson's Chi-square, which is used to determine the associations between variables. Statistical significance was set at aP< 0.05.


RESULTS
The study population comprised 130 health professionals (medical doctors/dentists, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists, and other health-related professionals) in attendance at a medical conference. The respondents' age ranged from 21 to 75 years with a mean age of 44.53 ± 12.46 years. Medical practitioners accounted for 82.3% of the respondents. Although most (79.2%) respondents had a good perception of the NHA 2014 with majority (86.2%) claiming they were aware of the act, majority (73.8%) exhibited poor knowledge of the act. A little more than half (53.1%) of the respondents believed that the NHA 2014 will help to reduce strike actions in the health sector.


CONCLUSIONS
Although health professionals in Nigeria have good awareness and perception of the NHA 2014, their knowledge of the Act is poor.
Department of Family Medicine, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Ugbowo, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
Osahon
O
Enabulele
Department of Restorative Dentistry, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
Joan Emien
JE
Enabulele
Health professionals; National Health Act 2014; knowledge; perception