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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The increase in the number of people who are ill in the various health establishments has risen geometrically overtime. Most of these illnesses may be as a result of unhealthy lifestyles and habits. Amongst this various unhealthy lifestyles and habits are smoking, lacks of exercise, weight, poor dietary just to mention but a few. In Nigeria specifically, a lot has been said about smoking and lack of exercise. Smokers as they say are liable to die young, though a lot of publicity has gone out to this regard, most smokers have rather not taken heed to this meaning but have rather seen it as a normal jingle without really pondering over it them to make changes in their life styles and bad habits. Lack of exercise “as deadly as smoking” is now causing as many deaths as smoking in Nigeria and across the world.This has also contributed to the unprecedented rise in illness across Nigeria. Strong evidence shows that lack of exercise which leads to physical inactivity increases the risk of many major adverse health conditions including:

Death (from any cause), coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, metabolic syndrome (including obesity and abnormal blood cholesterol levels), breast and colon cancer, depression etc.

It estimated that overall, physical inactivity which is caused by lack of exercise caused more than 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths that occurred worldwide in 2008 which Nigeria is not excluded. The researchers suggest this is equivalent to the 5 million deaths attributed to smoking in 2000 (Kingsley 2012: 42).

It is generally believed that a regular exercise helps to

-  reduce the risk of falling ill

-  controls your weight

-  Improve your mental health and mood

-  Improve your ability to do daily activities

-  Increase your chances of living longer, etc.

There may also be a relationship between the weight of a person and the propensity to fall ill. This study helps to explore those unique relationship between the various parameters mentioned earlier in this study.

1.2  Aims and Objectives of the Study

The following are the objectives of the study:

1.  To know if there is a relationship between smokers and their weight.

2.  To study the impact of smoking and lack of exercise on health conditions of patients.

3.  To know the nature of relationship between smoking, weight, level of exercise on the medical cost of patients.

4.  To study the relationship between weight and health care cost of patients.

1.3  Significance of the Study

The importance of this study seeks to unveil the impact of smoking, level of exercise, and weight on medical cost of patients in Nigeria. With the view of advising the generality of Nigeria based on the statistical discoveries made from the study. This study also seeks to study the relationship between weight of patients on medical cost of patients, smokers and their medical cost and level of exercise of patients and their corresponding medical cost. All these would assist in advising smokers and people who don’t exercise based on the findings from the study.

1.4. Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is centered on the impact of smoking, less exercising on the weight and health care cost of patients using the federal medical center Owerri Imo state as a case study.

1.5. Limitation of the study

Time constraint: The major limitation of the study is the time constraint; the researcher was inhibited by time as there was no enough time to cover all patients in the hospital.

Financial constraint: Another constraint of this study is financial constraints, lack of adequate finances in printing enough questionnaires for the patients and to equally interview the health practitioners.

1.6. Research Questions

1. Is smoking dangerous to health?

2. Is there a relationship between smoking and poor health condition?

3. Is there a relationship between lack of exercise and poor health condition

4. Do you think that smoking, lack of regular exercise affect the weight and health condition adversely?

5. Suggest ways of making smokers quit smoking.

1.7. Research Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1

Ho: There is no relationship between smoking and medical cost of patients.

Hi: There is a relationship between smoking and medical cost of patients.

Hypothesis 2

Ho: There is no relationship between lack of regular exercise andmedical cost of patients.

Hi: There is a relationship between lack of regular exercise and medical cost of patients.

Hypothesis 3

Ho: There is no relationship between smoking, lack of regular exercise and medical cost of patients

Hi: There is a relationship between smoking, lack of regular exercise and medical cost of patients

1.8  Definition of Terms

Smoking: The activity or habit of smoking cigarettes.

Exercise: A physical or mental activity that you do to stay healthy or become stronger. It can equally be a set of movements or activities that you do to stay healthy

Weight: How heavy somebody or something is which can be measured in kilograms or pounds.

Medical: Connected with illness and injury and their treatment.

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