ABSTRACT Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) are being used as regular contraception even though they should rather be used as a bridge to regular contraception. This could be achieved if pharmacy staff were to dispense ECPs such that clients would be informed and encouraged to access some form of regular contraception. This would involve good history taking as part of assessment prior to ECP provision by pharmacy staff. This study was aimed at assessing the dispensing practice of pharmacy s...
ABSTRACT Background: Hypertension is a common chronic non-communicable disease condition and as such takes a toll on the family and the community. Individuals with hypertension should take responsibility for their condition as this would improve blood pressure control. They should be motivated to adhere to medication, but this is not so. Hence, this study was done to assess how patients with hypertension attending Korle Bu Polyclinic managed their condition. Methods: This was a descriptive c...
ABSTRACT Background Postpartum family planning has the potential to reduce maternal and child morbidity and mortality. A short birth interval of less than two years is associated with adverse health effects for the mother and baby and the society as a whole. The aim of this study was to determine postpartum contraceptive prevalence among young mothers attending child welfare clinics in the Kwaebibirem District, Eastern Region, and explore factors that influence family planning uptake after de...
ABSTRACT Background The 2012 report from the World Health Organization stated that 285 million people have visual impairment and 39 million are blind. Cataract is the main cause of blindness globally, in SubSaharan Africa and in Ghana responsible for 51%, 50%, and 54.8% respectively. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting cataract surgical outcome in the Eastern region of Ghana. Methods A cross-sectional study was employed; data was collected quantitatively ...
ABSTRACT Background Individuals in endemic areas are susceptibility to malaria. Nevertheless, when women become pregnant mostly for the first time, they become more susceptibility to malaria. It is believed that malaria is the cause of persistent mild to severe anaemia, in spite of the fact that malaria in pregnancy may not be seen as a severe illness. In addition, low birth-weight of infants may be a cause of malaria in pregnancy. This happens when there is an obstruction with the maternal-f...
ABSTRACT Background; In most laboratories, Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CoNS) are treated as contaminants and therefore follow ups with regards to species detection and antimicrobial susceptibilities are not done. There is a growing incidence of antimicrobial resistant CoNS across the globe making infections difficult to treat. Data on these resistant pathogens are limited in Africa in general and Ghana in particular. It is therefore important to characterize CoNS with respect to their a...
ABSTRACT Background: Violence against female sex workers (FSWs) is a widespread phenomenon induced primarily by the pervasive worldview that sex work is a contravention of morality. It is however necessary to dismantle the barrier posed by violence against FSWs in order to reach them with HIV services due to the pivotal role they, their clients and partners of their clients play in reinforcing the HIV epidemic. Objective: This study sought to assess the risk factors for violence against FSW...
ABSTRACT Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) aims at integrating surveillance functions at all levels. Ghana as a country decided on 23 communicable diseases and conditions to be targeted as priority diseases for surveillance using the integrated approach. A qualitative research was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the integrated approach to disease surveillance and response strategy in East Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region. A total of twenty (20) key respondent...
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of women’s life circumstances on their health and nutritional status. The study included women of reproductive age (1 5 -4 5 years old) and 74 women took part in the study. I Study-specific semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect dietary, socioeconomic, demographic and workload data. Urinary and random blood glucose determinations were used to test for the prevalence of diabetes mellitus. The subjects had mean (± SD)...
ABSTRACT Diet, serum lipid profile, metabolic and body indices of Type II diabetics compared to non-diabetic subjects among Caucasian-Americans, African-Americans and Ghanaians were studied in this project work. Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and non-diabetic Caucasians, African Americans and Ghanaians were recruited. Data collected include food intake and anthropometric measurement. Blood samples were also taken for glucose, nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) and serum lipid analysis...
ABSTRACT Introduction Labour and delivery are the shortest and most critical period during pregnancy and childbirth because most maternal deaths arise from complications during delivery. In subSaharan Africa skilled delivery coverage is about 46.5%. In Ghana skilled delivery was 45.6% in 2009 and 73 % in 2014 and that of Upper West Region was 53% in 2011 and 63.7% in 2014. This study assessed the factors that account for the low utilization of skilled delivery by pregnant women in the Wa Muni...
ABSTRACT The surge in new cases of HIV infection has assumed significant global concern. The increase has resulted in high trends of patients on anti-retroviral treatment in hospitals, particularly in Sub-Sharan Africa including Ghana where more than 300,000 people are currently on ART. Even though targets, policies and efforts are being implemented to improve patients’ adherence and continuance stay in care, HIV incidence is increasing in Ghana, especially among youth. This problem has bee...
ABSTRACT Background Stillbirths are more common than the death of a baby after birth and remained a serious public health issue in the developing world. Although stillbirths are preventable, there has been a sharp increase in the rate of stillbirths in the Tamale Metropolitan area of Northern Ghana in the last couple of years. Majority of the causes and risk factors remained unknown. This study was conducted to assess the sociodemographic, obstetric and maternal medical related determinants o...
ABSTRACT Background Violence in the healthcare environment is an underreported and a persistent issue that has been endured so long by healthcare providers. Violence against healthcare providers are increasing at an alarming rate around the world. Currently, little is known about violence against healthcare providers in Ghana, yet this information is essential to the success of effective healthcare delivery. The study sought to investigate the form of violence, victims, perpetrators and the ...
ABSTRACT Background: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide. Early detection has an important role on prevention of breast cancer. Early detection is achieved through breast cancer screening. Objective: To assess the knowledge of breast cancer and breast cancer screening practices, and evaluate the health beliefs of the female clinicians in the Ga West and Ga South municipal hospitals. Method: This is a cross sectional study in two municipal hospitals in the...