Abstract Anaemia in pregnancy is an important public health problem especially in developing countries. It is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality, and also has a significant impact on the health of the foetus. The purpose of the current study was to determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with anaemia among pregnant women receiving antenatal care at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital. A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to June, 2015, on 316 pregnant women wh...
ABSTRACT Background: Exposure to indoor biomass smoke is a major global public health issue affecting about half the world’s population. Several studies have associated biomass smoke generated from unvented cook stoves to several diseases including chronic cough, phlegm production, COPD, lung cancer. But very few studies considered women in traditional smokehouses. Objective: This study assesses the prevalence of self-reported respiratory symptoms, exposure indicators of biomass smoke ...
ABSTRACT Background: Growth Monitoring and Promotion (GMP) is a preventive programme that targets the reduction of malnutrition in children in the early periods of their lives. GMP targets the caregiver and family decisions for positive child growth outcomes and has a great potential to contribute to improving child survival if well implemented. For a GMP programme to achieve its intended objective, the following conditions need to be met; proper implementation of GMP activities by skilled ...
Abstract BACKGROUND OF STUDY AREA The South Tongu District is one of the twelve districts in the Volta Region of Ghana. The district lies in the southern section of the region. It is bounded on the north by the North Tongu District, on the east by the Akatsi District, on the South by the Keta District, all in the Volta Region and on the west by the Dangbe East District in the Greater Accra Region. The total land area occupied by the district is approximately 400 square kilometres. The distric...
ABSTRACT Women who survived severe obstetric complications (SOC) have health and well-being issues even up to one year postpartum as far as their quality-of-life (QoL) and well-being were concerned. However, health care professionals do very little to know what their predicaments are. The study objective described the impact of severe obstetric complications on their QoL and well-being. Using the WHO standards for near-miss, twelve (12) women who survived severe obstetric complications wer...
ABSTRACT Community Participation has been identified as a key factor in the improvement of health care delivery in Ghana. The Wa District Health Administration set up a number of community health structures with the intention to get communities more involved/participating in health programmes in order to improve coverage and utilization. Despite these community, health structures and other efforts aimed at improving coverage / utilization in health services, there has not be any significant i...
ABSTRACT Background: Several workforces in the mining industry are exposed to noise in daily doses above 85dBA, which exposes them to the risk of Occupational Noise-induced Hearing Loss (ONIHL). When noise exposure levels of workers is eliminated or lowered, employees risk of Noise-induced hearing loss will be completely reduced (Edelson et al., (2009). Employees have to rely on hearing protection devices (HPD) among which include the use of ear plugs and ear muffs when it becomes evident th...
ABSTRACT This study was conducted to explore the psychological, social, physical and spiritual wellbeing of stroke survivors. An exploratory, descriptive qualitative design was employed and the Quality of life Model by Betty Ferrell, 1999 was used to guide the study. Participants were purposively sampled and saturation was achieved at the 9th participant. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in-depth and data were analyzed using the thematic content analysis approach. Stroke affected the ph...
ABSTRACT Human Papilloma virus (HPV) is the primary cause of cervical cancer and it has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various tumours and clinical entities. HPV infections are acquired through skin abrasions, sexual intercourse and during passage through an infected birth canal. It is clearly known that cervical HPV infection is sexually transmitted. HPV prevalence is high in young, sexually active women with a peak incidence in the age group 15-25 years. In elderly women, HPV preval...
ABSTRACT Malnutrition is a major problem in the world especially in developing countries. It is responsible for over a million direct and indirect causes of death worldwide especially in under-fives. In spite of the abundance of protein in fishing communities, they are not spared of this problem. One successful way of tackling this problem is assessment of nutritional status of populations and coming up with appropriate interventions. The study sought to assess the proportion of children un...
ABSTRACT Promoting the health and well-being of adolescents is a way of fulfilling their fundamental human rights. It is also a right step towards achieving sustainable development. Ensuring that adolescents have access to quality health care is important in their health promotion. However, many adolescents across the globe do not have access to quality health care. In Ghana, negative provider attitudes, inadequate infrastructure and weak community support for adolescent healthcare have been ...
ABSTRACT Background: Physiotherapy is a professionally demanding job, and physiotherapists are prone to develop musculoskeletal disorders. Musculoskeletal disorders are inflammatory and degenerative conditions affecting muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilages, nerves and peripheral blood vessels, and are associated with exposure to risk factors at the work place. Physical risk factors including performing high repetitive movements, maintaining awkward postures while working or sustaining sta...
ABSTRACT In Ghana and other countries of the developing world, men are very influential in deciding whether their partners visit the antenatal clinic (ANC) or not or they deliver in a health facility or not. Generally, there is a high ANC coverage in Offinso and Ghana at large. But as a result of lack of male support during ANC, some pregnant women are not able to deliver at health facilities. This necessitated the conduct of this study to explore the influence of male support during ANC on ...
ABSTRACT Background: Countries all over the world including African countries and Ghana are encouraging the transition of nursing education from hospital based training in colleges to a University based degree level. At the University degree level, the preparation of student nurses involves acquisition of theoretical knowledge and also clinical practice, which if well done can serve as a double edged tool for blending theory and practice. Objectives: The study investigated the ability of uni...
ABSTRACT Background: Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest record of maternal mortality. The World Health Organization defines maternal mortality as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy irrespective of the duration and site of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. In Ghana, maternal mortality rate stands at 319 deaths per 100,000 live births. Trends from the...