The Practice of Using And/or Cutting the Body With Sharp Objects: a case study of university students’ risk awareness in selected universities in abia state A Case Study of University Students’ Risk Awareness in Selected Universities in Abia State

Introduction: The practices of having extreme and permanent body modifications as in tattoos and scarifications are gaining popularity among youths especially those in the universities. Not minding the unbearable and painful pressure of sharp objects on the tissues and the risk of being infected with blood transmitted infections including HIV, youths still engage in these practices. This study aimed to examine the extent to which university students are aware of the risks of using improperly sterilized and disinfected sharp objects. Materials and method: First year students in three universities, Federal, State and Private Universities were used for the study. A random sample of ninety (90) students made up of 30 students from each of the three universities studied was used. Drama was used as an intervention that will create awareness on risks of utilizing sharp objects in making scarifications. The completed copies of self-administered preand post-drama questionnaire were collected and analyzed quantitatively using Tables and percentages.


Introduction
Evidence has shown that a significant proportion of youths for several reasons, tend to practice tattooing, piercing, scarification and others. In the process, scars are formed by cutting or branding the skin using sharp objects. Scarification which occurs on the dermis, far above fatty tissues and muscles is an illegal practice in some countries including Nigeria [1]. HIV in Nigeria by about 65% [4]. This fete of reducing HIV prevalence was mainly achieved by researchers using educational interventions like drama and role plays to sensitize and create positive behaviour changes among youths. As a result of using drama, youths acted as change agents to their peers [5]. It was also shown that watching individuals performing drama and role plays on the stage, produced holistic approaches that initiated solutions to problems [5,6]. Therefore, drama and role plays were presumed to be veritable intervention strategies capable of reducing the practice of scarifications among youths in institutions of higher learning. This study used drama and role plays to provide emotional and cognitive experiences that created awareness on the risks of scarification.
Historically, in Nigeria, the practice of tribal marks, or scarifications served the purposes of identifying tribes of one's origin as well as eternal membership of fraternity bodies [6]. Tribal marks were also used to identify family members kidnapped during communal conflicts or slave trade. The scars on the faces and other parts of the body of those kidnapped or under slavery helped to identify their heritage. As a result, tribal marks or scarification served as checks on incest and intra marriages among families that are blood related [7][8][9].
In some developing countries including Nigeria, the practice of having marks on the body has been banned because of the resultant social and health risks. However, public outcry against the decision made the ban in some countries to be slightly upturned [4,[10][11][12]. For instance, Nigeria's (2003) Child Rights Act section 24(1) declared that no person shall tattoo or make skin marks on any child. The Child Rights further defined "skin marks" as "any ethnic or ritual cuts on the skin which leave permanent marks that could disfigure and expose the child to infections" (Section. 27 (7).
For instance ,females with disfigurements on the body experience social stigma and discrimination and find it difficult to get suitable suitors [25][26][27]. As a result of this, thoughts of suicide would emanate [27].
Researchers have noted that the presence of peers influence risk taking among youths because they spend substantial amounts of time with their peers, and as such, their decisions are likely to be influenced by peers [28][29][30]. The problem is that a good number of youths appear not sensitive to the risks of some of their decisions especially that of making scarifications during fraternal initiations [31][32][33]. Such youths strongly focus on the anticipated social and material benefits rather than the associated health problems of their actions. They seem to cope well with impulsive situations that are characterized by rapid and unplanned actions that are likely to expose them to negative health consequences [34][35][36]

Materials and Methods
The study used a non-experimental pre-post The students were selected by quota and simple random sampling using balloting without replacement.
The pre-intervention and post-intervention responses collected from the students were analysed quantitatively using percentages and Tables.

Result
Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents  However, students in Rhema University were younger in age than those in MOUA and ABSU respectively. On the whole, a total of 31(34%) males and 59(66%) females between the ages of 20-35years were studied. Majority of the students studied were single. In ABSU, 3(10%) were married, while 2(7%) were separated/divorced In Rhema, 2(7%) of the students were separated/ divorced while in MOUA all the students studied were single. See Table 1 for more details.

School:
The respondents were asked whether they have been approached or coerced by fellow students to belong to any fraternal organization other than village, ethnic or religious organizations in the school. The responses from the students showed that a total of 41 (45.6%) of them in the three universities studied were approached or coerced by fellow students to belong to fraternal organizations. See Table 2 for more details.
From   When the average number of students that approached the students was examined, it was noticed that in MOUA an average of 2 students, in ABSU, average of 5 students, while in Rhema, an average of 9 students approached each student for membership to fraternal organizations.
The sex of students who had marks on the skin either for traditional, aesthetic, fraternal and others was explored in each of the universities studied. The responses are contained in Table 4 The result showed that a total of 28(31%) of students both males and females in MOUA, ABSU, and Rhema had marks (scarification and/ or tattoos) on the body. Out of the 28(31%) of the students who admitted they had marks on the body, 5(18%) of them are females while 23(82%) are males. See Table 4 above for details.
Reasons for scarifications were demanded from the 28(31%) students who admitted they had marks on the body. Table 5 contains the reasons the students gave: From the result in table 5, the reasons majority of the students gave for having marks on the skin include traditional identification , initiation, group identification ,protection and this was more among students in MOUA than in others.

Sharp Objects
Students' knowledge on risks associated with using sharp objects was explored. The students' responses by institutions are contained below.
The responses in Table 6 showed that not all the students are very knowledgeable of the risks of using sharp objects on the skin. From this Table,  scarification.

Discussion
The current study examined the knowledge of university students on the risks of having marks   The fact that in this study, 62(69%) of the students studied had no marks on the body shows that a good proportion of them are protected from the risks of sharing sharp objects. These may be the group who had no interest in being identified with any co-fraternity groups. To this group, the drama intervention provided could go further to fortify their stand on not being coerced into having scarifications for any reason. This is necessary because in this study, both male and female students were coerced into joining co-fraternities in the three universities studied but this was more in Rhema, a private university than in the public universities. The finding that students were coerced into joining confraternity organizations in the private university more than in the public university could be attributed to the fact that in the private universities students are likely to be restricted from freely participating in several activities including social activities, and as a vent, they might be tempted to take risky overtures like belonging to fraternal organizations more than those in the public universities where there may not be restrictions on students' activities. This finding is in contrast with that of [7,11] where students from public schools were found as members of fraternal organizations more than those in private universities.
That the students of MOUA, as a federal university, had more marks(scarification, tattooing and others) on the body more than students from ABSU and Rhema shows the extent to which the students are