ABSTRACT Paediatric patients undergo various painful invasive procedures in paediatric settings which are not managed effectively. The study aimed to explore the perspectives of nurses about invasive procedural pain management among paediatric patients. A qualitative interpretive design was used in this study. Nurses were recruited from the paediatric units at the Regional Hospital, Koforidua and a semi-structured interview guide was used for the data collection. Saturation was achieved at th...
ABSTRACT Background: Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection. The epidemiology of childhood pneumonia is due to various risk factors such as malnutrition, substandard breastfeeding, exposure to biomass fuel for cooking and parental smoking and needs further investigation. Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between pneumonia and nutritional status in children under five at Princess Marie Louise Children’s hospital. Method: An unmatched case-control d...
ABSTRACT Ageing predisposes one to chronic conditions, increased utilization of health facilities, increased dependency, and increased economic burden on governments. Thus, examining the quality of life of the elderly provides information that will help meet the needs of the elderly and their caregivers. The aim of the study was to examine the quality of life of the elderly, the relationship between caregiver psychosocial factors and the quality of life of the elderly. The other aim was to in...
ABSTRACT Improving maternal health is a key concern of the international community due to the unacceptably high maternal mortality rate. Invariably several studies have identified induced unsafe abortions as a major contributory factor to these maternal deaths. Contraceptive use, a cheap and effective preventive method of unplanned pregnancies is rather low. Ghana and for that matter, Kumasi is no exception to the rule of a high incidence of induced abortions and its attendant public health ...
Abstract Diabetes mellitus is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and mortality. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) exerts it deleterious effects through the blood vessel which may lead to hypoperfusion and end organ damage. The ability to characterize the arterial system and derive related biomarkers that can predict the occurrence of CVDs and discriminate high risk subject for management would be of immense importance. Assessment of arterial stiffness and central hemodynami...
ABSTRACT Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity is a major global concern in the public health sector. Overweight, as well as obesity occurs when the rate of metabolism of calories in the body is less than the rate of caloric intake. This condition is likely to continue into adulthood if not addressed. The prevalence and conditions that determine childhood and adolescent obesity have not been widely studied in children and adolescents between the age of 5 and 17 years in Ghana. Knowi...
ABSTRACT Background: Stress has often been related to a multitude of negative human behaviours and many health conditions including cardiovascular diseases. In recent times, several harmful dietary practices such as unhealthy eating patterns have been associated with issues of stress. Work-related stress (WRS) is experienced when the demands of the work environment exceed the employees’ ability to cope with (or control) them. Nursing is generally perceived as a stressful and demanding prof...
ABSTRACT Background With improved survival after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), non-AIDS-related morbidity and mortality have come to the forefront in the management of HIV patients. HAART has been linked to the development of several risks factors for cardiovascular disease including insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia, but its influence on hypertensIon requires further study. The general objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of hyperte...
ABSTRACT Introduction: Medication literacy is the degree to which individuals can acquire, understand, disclose, calculate and process information that is specific to their medication to make informed medication and health related decisions in order to use their medications cautiously and adequately. A low level of medication literacy puts the patient at risk of complications such as medication errors which leads to morbidity and mortality. Medication literacy influences patients adherence to...
Abstract Studies have shown that caring for a child who is intellectually challenged can be very stressful to all members of the family. Currently, care of children with intellectual disabilities is primarily undertaken by mothers who are considered the primary care givers based on the traditional roles they assume which often predispose them to a lot of physical, mental, psychological and economic stress. However, literature about intellectual disability in Ghana is scanty. This study theref...
ABSTRACT Background: Studies have shown that large numbers of women around the world experience maltreatment during pregnancy and childbirth. To date, however, there has been few quantitative estimates of the prevalence of maltreatment of women during facility-based childbirth in Ghana. The objective of this study was to examine maltreatment of women by healthcare providers in Tema General Hospital during childbirth. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional in design using quantitative tools ...
ABSTRACT Social support has been identified as one o f the coping strategies in chronic illnesses especially in HIV/AIDS disease. The purpose of this study was to explore how the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) experience social support in the Accra M etropolitan area of Ghana. An exploratory, descriptive and qualitative method was employed in this study. A purposive sampling was used in the selection of the fourteen participants living with HIV/AIDS. They were interviewed using semi stru...
ABSTRACT Background: Hepatitis B disease is a major threat to public health and its chronic carriers constitute about 5% of the world’s population. Some regions of Africa and the Middle East have a disproportionately higher carrier rate of 10% and 15% respectively. The risk of developing chronic hepatitis B is 95% for infections acquired during the perinatal period compared with 5% for those who acquired during adulthood and a pooled prevalence of hepatitis B infection among pregnant women...
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Mortality among children less than five years is a major public health problem in the developing world which includes sub-Sahara Africa. To develop an appropriate public health intervention, adequate knowledge in the trend and spatial distribution of mortality is required to enable in proper planning and execution of interventions. OBJECTIVE This study analysed the trend and Spatial distribution and clustering of facility-based Under-five mortality from 2013 to 2017 in th...
ABSTRACT Introduction Non-adherence to hypertension medications is a major cause of uncontrolled blood pressure which increases the risk of patients to develop complications. Good health provider and patient relationship is an important indicator of effective health care service delivery which can influence patients' adherence to medications. Little information is a ailable on adherence to treatment among patients attending primary health care clinics such in district hospital and health prov...