87 research outputs found

    Assessing sanitation conditions and its impacts on the health status of urban dwellers in Abuakwa, Ghana. A Cross sectional survey

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    In recent times, issues on sanitation and urban health have attracted numerous attentions worldwide because of the effect it imposes on human health. The situation is worsened mostly in West African countries especially Ghana where sanitation problems have become a serious problem especially in urban areas. As such, this paper explored the effects of sanitations on health of urban residents of Abuakwa in the Atwima Nwabiagya District, Ghana.  A sample of 120 was selected randomly from the total population of the community. Questionnaires as data collection instrument were employed for the data collection to collect primary data. Sanitation conditions in Abuakwa, as urban community was found to be poor.  Findings from the study revealed that improper disposal of wastes and inadequate toilet facilities were responsible for poor sanitations and sanitation related diseases- cholera, malaria, diarrhoea in Abuakwa. Public toilet facilities which most Abuakwa residents use were found to be poorly managed and inadequate causing people to engage in poor sanitation practices such as open defecation. The study also found that lack of comfortability and privacy, expensiveness of using public toilet facilities, poor management, dirtiness and smelliness of the toilet facilities were the reasons for people’s refusal to pay for accessing public toilet facilities. The study recommends that the people in urban communities should be educated on good sanitation practices and individuals should make an attempt to build toilet facilities in their homes to reduce pressure and congestion on the existing public toilet facilities. Key words: Health, Diseases, Sanitation, Open defecation, Ghan

    Disposing off Solid Waste in Ghana: What are the Challenges and the Strategies? A Cross-sectional Survey

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    Developing country cities are still experiencing rapid population growth, so one element of an integrated solid waste disposal solution has to be how to tackle exponential growth in waste quantities. In this vein, the central objective of the study was to examine the challenges and strategies of solid waste disposal in Ghana. The main data collection instrument used included questionnaires and interview as well as field observation. The Systematic technique was used to sample 148 respondents whereas purposive sampling technique was used to select 2 key informants thus arriving at a sample size of 150. The findings from the study indicate that the challenges of solid waste disposal include insufficient solid waste collection containers, lack of cooperation from residents as well settlement pattern. Strategies such as education, provision of more waste containers and law enforcement were deemed appropriate to contain the challenges. Based on the findings, it is recommended that there should be integrated efforts among the various stakeholders responsible for waste disposal, health and the environment. This is to ensure an effective monitoring system and enforcement of by- laws regulating solid waste disposal in the Municipal. This process requires the full participation of residents and opinion leaders in the community to make it effective. Especially private men and women who use their plots within the neighbourhood as public dump sites. Keywords: Solid waste, strategies, challenges.

    Beyond Rhetoric into Determinants of Municipal Solid Waste Disposals in Ghana

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    The objective of the study was to find out the determinants of poor solid waste disposal in Ghana using Sawaba as the study prefecture. The main data collection instrument used included questionnaires and interview as well as field observation. In all, a sample size of 148 was deemed appropriate for the study. Systematic sampling technique was used to select to recruit 148 respondents. Moreover, additional 2 key informants were selected purposively to take part in the study. The study revealed that though some residents are also contributing to the poor solid waste disposal situation in the area, the Assembly was identified to be responsible for the solid waste disposal situation. It was also revealed in this study that, inadequate solid waste disposal facilities and distance from collection points of some houses cause households solid waste to accumulate in gutters, drains, rear of houses and illegal dumps in the Sawaba community. It has been recommended that there should be procurement and supply of more refuse containers at well designated sanitary sites, provision of standard households’ waste bins at affordable cost for households’ solid waste generated and collected by the service providers on regular basis. It is further recommended that the Assembly should make effective use of the Polluter Pay Principle (PPP), to deter residents from indiscriminately disposing their solid waste at the banks of water channels, gutters, drains and rear of houses. Keywords: Solid waste, determinants, residents.

    Analysing patterns of forest cover change and related land uses in the Tano-Offin forest reserve in Ghana:Implications for forest policy and land management

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    Forest cover change is a major contributing factor to global environmental change. Whereas several studies have focused on the general land use and land cover dynamics, we focus on analysing forest cover change patterns in a protected landscape taking into consideration how other land categories are increasing at the expense of the forest. In this study, we analyse forest cover change patterns and associated proximate land use factors between 1987 and 2017 using Landsat images from the Tano-Offin Forest Reserve (TOFR) in Ghana. Using the Random Forest machine learning algorithm, we classified the images into forest, developed land, and agricultural land. The study finds that forest cover losses are 1.9 and 1.4 times the amount of forest cover gains in 1987–2002 and 2002–2017, respectively. We find that even though the forest cover is more likely to recover from the agricultural land, land developers mostly targeted the agricultural land. The focus of Ghana's Forest and Wildlife Policy and the underlying process of forest cover change in the TOFR suggest that a country's forest policy should focus on a combination of diverse and spatially explicit proximate factors that are likely to threaten the integrity of forests

    Unconventional medical practices among Ghanaian students: A university-based survey

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    AbstractResearch on unconventional medical practices among students has proliferated lately in the global space, hitherto, little is known explicitly in Ghana. This paper teases out insights for recent utilisation patterns of traditional medical therapies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. A sample of 754, randomly selected undergraduates were involved in a retrospective cross-sectional survey. Data were analysed using multivariate logistic regression and Pearson's χ2 test with p < 0.05 as significant. Overall prevalence of traditional therapies consumption was 89.1% in the last 12 months. Herbal-based products (67%), prayer healing (15%) and body-mind therapies (11%) were principally used and, accessed through purchases from pharmacy shops (29%) and encounter with faith healers (26%). Although students' knowledge on traditional therapies was acquired through family members (50%) and media (23%), literary materials remained significant information routes for Science related students compared to the Non-science related counterparts (p < 0.001). Pursuing Non-science-related programme [odds ratio (OR) 6.154 (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.745–10.111; p < 0.001)] and having Christian faith [OR 2.450 (95% CI 1.359–4.415; p = 0.003)] were strongly associated with students' traditional therapies use. Although students exhibited positive attitude towards unconventional therapies, there is an urgent need to validate the quality of traditional therapies through randomised clinical trials and regulatory practices to ensure quality control. Health forces should intensify efforts towards intercultural health care system in Ghana

    Cigarette smoking during breastfeeding in Papua New Guinea: Prevalence and demographic and socio-economic predictors

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    Background Cigarette smoking during breastfeeding is reported to contribute to significant changes in the composition of breast milk not only by reducing its protective features but also affecting infants' response to breastfeeding and breast milk. However, studies on the prevalence of cigarette smoking and associated factors during breastfeeding are limited in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This study estimates the prevalence of cigarette smoking and its association with demographic and economic factors among breastfeeding women in PNG. Methods We used weighted survey data from the 2016-2018 PNG Demographic and Health Survey (PNGDHS). A weighted sample of 3, 822 women who were breastfeeding during the survey were included in the study. The outcome variable in the present study is current cigarette smoking. A multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between current cigarette smoking status and socio-demographic and economic variables of breastfeeding women. The regression analysis results were reported using adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results From the weighted sample, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among breastfeeding women was 21.9%; of which 60.8% smoked daily. The mean number of cigarettes smoked in the last 24 hours preceding the survey was 6.05(SD = 5.99). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that breastfeeding women who were from the Momase (aOR: 2.337, CI: 1.786-3.058, p<0.001) and Highlands (AOR: 1.589, CI: 1.213-2.082, p = 0.001), had no religious affiliation (aOR: 3.665, CI: 1.235-10.877, p = 0.019), and households with daughters as household heads (aOR: 1.901, CI: 1.231-2.935, p = 0.004) and being in more than one union (aOR: 2.374, CI: 1.805-3.123, p<0.001) were significantly more likely to smoke cigarette compared to women from southern region, those affiliated to Anglican church, those with husband as household heads, and being in one union respectively. Conclusion Cigarette smoking among breastfeeding women in PNG is relatively high, and region of residence, religion, relationship to household head, and the number of unions remain independent predictors. Interventions should target the individual socio-economic and cultural contexts within which breastfeeding occurs

    Cigarette smoking during breastfeeding in Papua New Guinea: Prevalence and demographic and socio-economic predictors

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    Background Cigarette smoking during breastfeeding is reported to contribute to significant changes in the composition of breast milk not only by reducing its protective features but also affecting infants’ response to breastfeeding and breast milk. However, studies on the prevalence of cigarette smoking and associated factors during breastfeeding are limited in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This study estimates the prevalence of cigarette smoking and its association with demographic and economic factors among breastfeeding women in PNG. Methods We used weighted survey data from the 2016–2018 PNG Demographic and Health Survey (PNGDHS). A weighted sample of 3,822 women who were breastfeeding during the survey were included in the study. The outcome variable in the present study is current cigarette smoking. A multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between current cigarette smoking status and socio-demographic and economic variables of breastfeeding women. The regression analysis results were reported using adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results From the weighted sample, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among breastfeeding women was 21.9%; of which 60.8% smoked daily. The mean number of cigarettes smoked in the last 24 hours preceding the survey was 6.05(SD = 5.99). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that breastfeeding women who were from the Momase (aOR: 2.337, CI: 1.786–3.058, p Conclusion Cigarette smoking among breastfeeding women in PNG is relatively high, and region of residence, religion, relationship to household head, and the number of unions remain independent predictors. Interventions should target the individual socio-economic and cultural contexts within which breastfeeding occurs

    Perceived neighborhood social cohesion and functional disability among older adults: The moderating roles of sex, physical activity, and multi-morbidity

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    Though the Ghanaian social structure is largely communal in several of its social life and social spaces, the extent to which cohesive neighbourhood affects functional ability of older persons and the moderating factors of the relationship, are unknown in Ghana. This study examines the moderating roles of sex, multimorbidity, and physical activity on the association between neighbourhood social cohesion and functional disability among older people in Ghana. A cross-sectional study of 4,446 people-50 years and older-from WHO's Study on global AGEing and adult health Ghana Wave 2 was employed. Functional disability-WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0-and neighbourhood social cohesion measured with community-level participation, perceived trust and safety were studied. Generalised Logistic regressions with interactional tests were used to examine the associations. A more socially cohesive neighbourhood was significantly associated with a lower functional disability among older people (OR = 0.94, 95%CI: 0.93, 0.94; P<0.001). A similar relationship was found for community-level participation (aOR = 0.94, 95%CI: 0.94, 0.95; P<0.001) and perceived trust (aOR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.99, 1.00; P<0.001). Community-level participation is associated with a lower functional disability among older people who were physically active (aOR = 0.98, 95%CI: 0.96, 0.99; P<0.001). Among the three individual-level measures of neighbourhood social cohesion, only physical activity (OR = 0.98, 95%CI: 0.98, 0.99; P<0.01) moderated the association between community-level participation and functional disability. Community-level participation, along with physical activity, may be relevant in improving functional ability among older people. The results highlight the usefulness of policy to ensure a more socially cohesive neighbourhood for older people in Ghana to improve their quality of life
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