Abstract Chronic neurological conditions impose psychosocial problems on caregivers. The objective of this study was to survey and describe caregivers’ psychosocial experiences; beliefs and effects neurological illness have on the family and social life. A purposive sample of 160 parents enrolled using a standard questionnaire to obtain socio-demographic information, beliefs and psychosocial experiences. Data analysis demonstrated that mean stress reported by the caregivers was 69.7 and sta...
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Worldwide, men play critical role in women‘s ability to seek health care, including reproductive health care, even though more often than not, they are ill-informed about women‘s reproductive health needs. Male participation has been shown to yield substantial influence in decisions and health outcomes in several other areas of reproductive health, including abortion and breastfeeding. However, male involvement has been found to be affected by men‘s low knowledge of ...
ABSTRACT Background: Military personnel are high-risk people for parenteral and sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis B virus (HBV). Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases globally. The burden of Chronic Hepatitis B infection in the Ghana Armed Forces is not known. As part of the Ghana Armed Forces Hepatitis Programme, the Forces Liver Health Protection (FLiHP) Project is implementing interventions aimed at reducing the estimated burden of viral hepatitis by 50% b...
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude of teenage pregnancy and identify the factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy in the Cape Coast municipality. Women in the fertile age group (WIFA) who were obviously pregnant and those who had delivered within the last year (April 1996-April 1997) were enumerated through a household survey. Three hundred and two households were surveyed in 21 randomly selected communities based on the population size of the four sub distr...
ABSTRACT Background Although malaria is a preventable, it still remains a major public health problem worldwide, particularly in sub-Sahara Africa where it is associated with high morbidity and mortality especially in pregnant women and children under five. Due to resistance to monotherapy, in 2004 Ghana employed the Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) as first line treatment policy which was also revised in 2014. The revised treatment guideline makes provision for surveillance which ...
ABSTRACT Background: Sanitation is an important foundation for health, economic development and well-being hence waste management (Bartram &Cairncross2010; WSP 2010).The perception of household waste as unwanted material with no intrinsic value has dominated attitudes towards it management. Waste management is therefore defined as the collection, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recycling and final disposal of waste. The study was conducted in the sunyani west district. The obj...
ABSTRACT In recent times, alcoholism has become very common among youth. The growing incidence of alcohol consumption among the youth has become a topical issue within healthcare industry because of its potential negative effects especially on student youth. To address these concerns, this study sought to identify the student youth source of information on alcohol consumption, explore their knowledge level on harmful alcohol consumption, benefits they derived from alcohol consumption and the ...
ABSTRACT Background: The inhabitants of Accra rely largely on sachet water since most consumers perceive packaged drinking water as a safer alternative to other water sources. Despite this however, the chemical qualities of these sachet water sources remain largely unstudied. Objectives: Assessment of the packaging characteristics of sachet water across different vending points, the contamination hazards in production sites, reasons for selecting different water sources and the chemical quali...
ABSTRACT Background: Young people aged 10-24 years represent a significant proportion of the Ghanaian population. Many are sexually active and are at considerable risk of negative health outcomes due to lack of adequate sexual and reproductive health knowledge. Although growing international evidence suggests that parent-child communication about sex has significant positive influence on young people’s sexual behaviours, this subject has been poorly explored among Ghanaian families. Little ...
ABSTRACT Background: Every cell in the body depends on the thyroid hormones for regulation of their metabolism. About 5-10% of thyroid nodules are suggested to be malignant. Many philosophies explain myoma growth through different pathways and most make mention of estrogen as a contributor. Estrogen is known to have influence on thyroid function, and suspected to have a role in formation of thyroid nodules. Estrogen receptors have been found in normal and neoplastic thyroid tissue and have in...
ABSTRACT Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a common haemoglobinopathy that is acquired by inheriting the defective gene from both parents. In recent years, it has become an important public health issue among people of African descent especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, SCD occurs in almost 1 in 50 (2%) of all births annually. The disease is characterised by chronic haemolytic anaemia, vaso-occlusion and inflammation. These events increase the resting energy expenditure o...
ABSTRACT Background: Type II Diabetes (T2D) has been on the rise in recent times all over the world with the worst upsurge occurring in developing countries. In developing countries such as Ghana about half of diabetics are undiagnosed. This high number is found to be associated with the poor utilization of health services which is key in detecting hidden diseases. Health seeking behaviour is found to be directly associated with incidence and prevalence of diseases such that it ensures early ...
ABSTRACT Introduction: Yellow fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegyptii mosquito and is characterized mainly by fever and jaundice. It is endemic in Africa and South America. The possibility of eradicating yellow fever is quite remote but a drastic of disease burden can be attained through vaccination of populations living in or visiting places considered to be high-risk areas in endemic countries. The WHO surveillance case definition for a suspected...
ABSTRACT Introduction The Millennium Development Goal targets for sanitation seems unachievable by the 2015 deadline. Therefore, the 2010-2015 Joint Monitoring Programme strategy requires sustainable and continued efforts at all levels to improve this. However, there are data challenges and limitations from existing Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) survey tools. In most developing countries such as Ghana, data collection is traditional paper based. However, mobile phone use and access is hig...
ABSTRACT Background: Ghana’s increased use of technology has resulted in massive generation of electronic wastes in the country. These wastes contain toxic chemicals which are injurious to human health, yet there is only little information on how these wastes are managed at the informal level in the country. This study, therefore, investigated the informal level e-waste processing activities at Agbogbloshie and described its associated working conditions. Methods: The study used a descripti...