Leisure Activities and Recreation
Facilities in Nigeria: Implications
for Wholesome Community Health
Babatunde Abiodun Balogun
1 Introduction: Overview of Community Health
and Health Inequity
Community health has gained prominence as a critical field of public health in recent
times. Having its emphasis on the study of the health characteristics of people who
live or reside in a given geographical area, it seeks to improve health indices of
those people of such municipal localities. The aim of community health, therefore,
is to draw on the concerted efforts of individual and corporate members of such a
community to tackle self-identified challenges that question optimum health status for
every member of that particular community. Creating solutions that could positively
affect community health has become a subject of research for relevant stakeholders
in recent years (Maraccini et al. 2017).
Health inequities are a common phenomenon in Nigeria (Kusimo 2015). Several
communities have huge disparities among the inhabitants due to a myriad of reasons
that are chiefly social, economic and cultural in nature and outside the circle of the
health system itself. These health inequities have exposed the country to numerous
unpleasant health indices such as a high maternal mortality rate, low life expectancy,
rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and endemicity of many
infectious diseases. Adewole and Osungbade (2016), Anekoson (2013), Muhammad
et al. (2017) and Ibama et al. (2015) are among various researchers that provide
evidence of less than impressive health indicators in Nigeria. For the past three
decades, Nigerian communities have adopted the approach of taking care of its
members through the constitutions of community health committees (CHCs) that
uphold and support government interventions in health structures at the local level
(Abimbola et al. 2016). These CHCs focus mainly on the healthcare delivery system
by engaging government agencies frequently to ensure functional primary health care
B. A. Balogun (B)
Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore, India
e-mail: ba.balogun@yahoo.com; khiddids20005@am.students.amrita.edu
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al. (eds.), Handbook of Sustainable Development and Leisure
Services, World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59820-4_4
51
Facilities in Nigeria: Implications
for Wholesome Community Health
Babatunde Abiodun Balogun
1 Introduction: Overview of Community Health
and Health Inequity
Community health has gained prominence as a critical field of public health in recent
times. Having its emphasis on the study of the health characteristics of people who
live or reside in a given geographical area, it seeks to improve health indices of
those people of such municipal localities. The aim of community health, therefore,
is to draw on the concerted efforts of individual and corporate members of such a
community to tackle self-identified challenges that question optimum health status for
every member of that particular community. Creating solutions that could positively
affect community health has become a subject of research for relevant stakeholders
in recent years (Maraccini et al. 2017).
Health inequities are a common phenomenon in Nigeria (Kusimo 2015). Several
communities have huge disparities among the inhabitants due to a myriad of reasons
that are chiefly social, economic and cultural in nature and outside the circle of the
health system itself. These health inequities have exposed the country to numerous
unpleasant health indices such as a high maternal mortality rate, low life expectancy,
rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and endemicity of many
infectious diseases. Adewole and Osungbade (2016), Anekoson (2013), Muhammad
et al. (2017) and Ibama et al. (2015) are among various researchers that provide
evidence of less than impressive health indicators in Nigeria. For the past three
decades, Nigerian communities have adopted the approach of taking care of its
members through the constitutions of community health committees (CHCs) that
uphold and support government interventions in health structures at the local level
(Abimbola et al. 2016). These CHCs focus mainly on the healthcare delivery system
by engaging government agencies frequently to ensure functional primary health care
B. A. Balogun (B)
Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore, India
e-mail: ba.balogun@yahoo.com; khiddids20005@am.students.amrita.edu
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al. (eds.), Handbook of Sustainable Development and Leisure
Services, World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59820-4_4
51