ABSTRACT Dietary Supplements use has been found to be increasing among the adults especially the older adults in the developed countries. However, there are no known studies on dietary supplement use among the elderly in Ghana. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to determine patterns of dietary supplement use and determinants among the elderly in the Keta municipal area, Volta region. This involved a one-time data collection on socio-demographic and health characteristic and al...
ABSTRACT Background: The health implications of infectious diseases affecting children of school going age as a result of low practice of personal hygiene practices and insufficient sanitary facilities in public primary schools is still a concern for worry in most poor and middle income countries. Objective: The objective of the study was to estimate the association between the sociodemographic characteristics and prevalence of hand washing with soap under running water practice among school...
ABSTRACT Severe acute malnutrition is still the main risk factor for children five years and below if not appropriately managed. The Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) has improved over the years as an effective approach in solving the problems of severe acute malnutrition in children below five years. This means that quality health care delivery is required in order for the CMAM approach to achieve the desired outcome. The study explored the perspectives of mothers on t...
ABSTRACT Background: Starting maternal health care services within the first trimester of pregnancy is viewed as a strong determinant of the health status of both the mother and the foetus. However, many pregnant women in developing countries, especially Ghana initiate their antenatal care late (after 12 weeks) thereby missing the benefits associated with antenatal care as some may be unable to attain the minimum visits of eight before delivery. Objective: This study sought to determine the...
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 ...