Correlates of Sleep Quality: A Pilot Descriptive Cross-Sectional Survey among Undergraduate Students in a Ghanaian University

Background and Objective: A gap exists in evidence of the association between sleep quality and the academic performance of university students in sub-Saharan Africa. A limited number of studies have been conducted in this regard, which have mainly focused on medical students, thus neglecting the larger population of undergraduate non-medical students. Materials and Methods: This pilot study evaluated the correlates of sleep quality and the academic performance of 500 randomly sampled undergraduate non-medical students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Data was collected using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a demographic questionnaire. The par-ticipants' demographic characteristics, academic performance, and sleep quality were first analyzed, descriptively, using SPSS software. Relationships between participants’ sleep quality and demographic factors, and sleep quality and aca-demic performance were determined using Spearman’s rank correlation. The causation between these variables was then determined using simple linear regression. Results: Poor quality of sleep was prevalent among undergraduate students with a mean (SD) PSQI score of 6.43 (2.78). The respondent’s sleep quality had a weak correlation with their academic performance (rs = -0.146; P = 0.001), although poor quality of sleep was a predictor of academic performance [R2 = 0.022; 95% CI (-0.640, -0.168)]. Conclusion: Health education and sleep promotion interventions should be used to encourage good sleep quality and practices among students. Furthermore, the findings point to the need for further studies using a larger population

Motivations, enablers and barriers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers: Evidence from the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana

This paper examined the prioritized climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers, the motivations of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices, the enablers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, and the barriers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. Specifically, we employed ethnographic research using participatory approaches, including two stakeholder workshops and household surveys with 1061 households in the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. The weighted average index (WAI) and problem confrontation index (PCI) were used to rank smallholder farmers’ perceived enablers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices and the barriers affecting climate-smart agricultural practices, respectively. Results suggest that the majority of the respondents used a suite of climate-smart agricultural practices, including the timely harvesting of produce and storage, emergency seed banking, appropriate and timely weed and pest control, and early planting as practices to build climate resilience. The majority of smallholder farmers primarily employed climate-smart agricultural practices to improve household food security (96.2%), reduce pests and diseases (95.6%), and obtain higher yields and greater farm income (93.2%). Findings also show that secured land tenure system arrangement, understanding the effects of climate change, and access to sustainable agricultural technologies were ranked the first, second, and third most important enablers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices with the WAI values of 2.86, 2.75, and 2.70, respectively. Key barriers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices included incidences of pests and diseases (PCI = 2530), inadequate access to agricultural credit (PCI = 2502), high cost of improved crop varieties (PCI = 2334), and limited government support with farm inputs (PCI = 2296). Smallholder farmers need to be better supported through the provision of appropriate institutional and policy arrangements together with improved land management extension advice to overcome these barriers and facilitate the more effective implementation of climate-smart agricultural practices in Ghana

A Review of the Triple Gains of Waste and the Way Forward for Ghana

The postcolonial waste management practices in Ghana have consistently been identified with the discarding and disposal of waste in open dumps, wetlands, and landfills. These practices have only contributed to the glaring poor sanitation in the cities of Ghana. Insignificant quantity of the waste generated ends up in recycling and/or composting units for reuse. Given the current growth of Ghana’s population, coupled with the emerging industrialisation, the country’s overdependence on hydropower for energy and natural resources for production alone is dangerous. This paper provides a holistic review of the gains from solid waste. The paper reaffirms that, through appropriate technologies, waste possesses the intrinsic potential to generate renewable energy, resources, and income. In recommending, the main objective of waste management practices in Ghana should be about exploring the economic potentials of waste. Thus, waste disposal should be the last resort, and not the first option in waste management practices in Ghana

“The Reality from the Myth”: The poor as main agents of forest degradation: Lessons from Ashanti Region, Ghana

The prevailing literature on poverty-environment links mostly presents a rather deterministic view of the nexus between poverty and the environment, revolving around the negative impact of the poor on the environment. Specifically, in Ghana, empirical evidence on the prevalence of forest degradation is sparse because the requisite data are often difficult to obtain. Using a qualitative approach, data collected through in-depth interviews with 45 randomly selected participants and 5 purposively selected key informants (Traditional Authorities) and using a thematic analysis, the poverty-environment, specifically the forest degradation nexus was verified. This cross-sectional study leads the authors to posit that poverty has a minimal negative effect on major forest degradation in Ghana. The study found that the poor were rather conscious, and future-oriented with regard to the environment, specifically forests owing to how their livelihoods and survival are directly linked to their immediate environment. The results suggest that the poverty-environment nexus could be country, or context-specific and varies between geographical and historical contexts. By implication, the seemingly universal assertion that the poor are those who cause major deforestation in communities could be problematic. Henceforth, the study maintains that it would be a fallacy to make generalisations that poverty is the main cause of major forest degradation, since the link between poverty and the environment is very context-specific. We argued on the premise that reduction of poverty in Ghana may not lead to the reduction of forest degradation. Joint implementation of holistic poverty-environment strategies that incorporate both the poor and the rich should be adopted to curb the wanton forest degradation in Ghana

Pregnant women’s perception and attitudes toward modern and traditional midwives and the perceptional impact on health seeking behaviour and status in rural Ghana

This qualitative study was conducted in some selected rural communities within the Birim South District between March to June 2017 with the main aim of teasing out insights into Ghana’s perspective of pregnant women’s attitudes and perceptions about modern and traditional midwives and perceptional impact on health seeking behaviour and status. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first known study in Ghana that has provided empirical evidence on this subject. The study found that pregnant women have good attitudes and perceptions toward traditional midwives based on their personal experiences, beliefs and philosophies. Thus, pregnant women only see the need to seek the service of modern midwives when serious complications occur during childbirth and predominantly have their deliveries supervised by traditional midwives. These results call for, specifically two main policy interventions. First, behavioral change interventions through education, community sensitisation and awareness, is required. This should target family members, especially husbands and mothers in-law who are key household decision makers. This will radically help change the conservative attitudes and perceptions about modern midwives by pregnant women. Second, based on the support offered and willingness showed by the study participants, effective intercultural midwifery system will help maximise the utilisation of our midwifery and health delivery systems. Traditional and modern midwives need to work together to ensure safe birth. We consider collaboration among healthcare providers as critical, especially in the rural areas where the number of modern midwives are limited. Keywords: Traditional midwife, Modern midwife, Intercultural midwifery system, Behavioral change, Rural Ghan

Environmental sanitation unleashed: Effectiveness and challenges of the National Sanitation Day as a community sanitation participatory approach in Aboabo, Ghana

Investment in technical facilities by government alone is not enough to meeting the challenge of providing adequate sanitation services in communities. This study aimed at examining the effectiveness and challenges of the National Sanitation Day (NSD) as a community participatory module towards environmental sanitation in Aboabo, Ghana. Adopting a descriptive and inferential mixed method design, 10 key informants were interviewed using purposive sampling and 180 study participants using systematic sampling techniques. Result indicates an encouraging number of participation during the NSD. Statistically, higher educational attainment was a predictor of respondents’ participation in the exercise. Using respondents’ perception about the extent of environmental sanitation before the NSD exercise and their perception about the current environmental sanitation as benchmarks for assessing the programme’s effectiveness, the exercise was found to be ineffective. In recommendation, if needs be that prominent people are invited to intermittently grace the NSD exercise, their invitations should be to empower the local people to esteem the importance of the programme by making it their own rather than depending on their presence to increase patronage

Perceived synergy between deforestation and/or forest degradation and climate variability and change in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Ghana

Perceptual studies on the environment and natural resources are important, if unsustainable use of these resources is to be abated. This paper unravels the hitherto unknown drivers of deforestation and/or forest degradation, and the causes of climate variability and change (CVC), by assessing their synergy based on participants self-reported cases in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Ashanti Region, Ghana. Drawing on the criterion and simple random sampling techniques to sample 360 respondents from 4 different communities and adopting the empiricist paradigm to derive trends and patterns in responses, this study demonstrated the bi-directional association between forest degradation and climate change. Results suggested that participants across the various socio-economic status fields were adequately informed, and knowledgeable about changes in climatic variables. Participants’ perceived the loss of forest, extinction of tree species and changing forest to savanna lands as indications of deforestation. Respondents with basic education and/or high school education adequately predicted that CVC factors influence decisions regarding forest removal compared with the uneducated. Removing one hectare of vegetation cover change per year (being it an increase or decrease in the area) (1 ha/year+/-/) or about three hectares (3 ha/year+/-), at a rate of 60%, and forest cover at rates of 57% were perceived as significant drivers of CVC. In recommendation, policies targeted at reducing forest degradation and deforestation and contributing to the fight against CVC in the Municipality should henceforth take into consideration the opinions of the indigenes in addition to scientific evidence in order to ensure the effectiveness of such policies

‘We are nothing without herbs’: a story of herbal remedies use during pregnancy in rural Ghana

Abstract Background Herbal medicine has become the panacea for many rural pregnant women in Ghana despite the modern western antenatal care which has developed in most parts of the country. To our knowledge, previous studies investigating herbal medicine use have primarily reported general attitudes and perceptions of use, overlooking the standpoint of pregnant women and their attitudes, and utilisation of herbal medicine in Ghana. Knowledge of herbal medicine use among rural pregnant women and the potential side effects of many herbs in pregnancy are therefore limited in the country; this qualitative study attempts to address this gap by exploring the perceptions of herbal medicine usage among pregnant women in rural Ghana. Methods A sample of 30, conveniently selected pregnant women, were involved in this study from April 11 to June 22, 2017. Data from three different focus group discussions were thematically analysed and presented based on an a posteriori inductive reduction approach. Results The main findings were that pregnant women used herbal medicine, most commonly ginger, peppermint, thyme, chamomile, aniseeds, green tea, tealeaf, raspberry, and echinacea leaf consistently throughout the three trimesters of pregnancy. Cultural norms and health beliefs in the form of personal philosophies, desire to manage one’s own health, illness perceptions, and a holistic healing approach were ascribed to the widespread use of herbs. Conclusion We recommend public education and awareness on disclosure of herbal medicine use to medical practitioners among pregnant women

Correction to: Religion and health: exploration of attitudes and health perceptions of faith healing users in urban Ghana

It was highlighted that the original article [1] contained a typesetting error in the name of Razak M. Gyasi. This was incorrectly captured as Razak M. Gyasi Mohammed in the original article which has since been updated

Religion and Health: exploration of attitudes and health perceptions of faith healing users in urban Ghana

Abstract Background The main aim of the study was to explore the attitudes and health perceptions of faith healing users in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana. This has become necessary because faith healing practice is an important area but remains neglected in the health care literature. In an age when biowestern medicine is touted as the cure for most diseases, understanding how and why individuals seek alternative treatment, specifically faith healing modalities may help to develop more effective health care interventions. Methods We employed exploratory study design of purely qualitative research approach involving 40 conveniently selected participants from four different purposively selected faith healing centres to get a maximum variation of experiences and opinions on the time of consultation, perceived effectiveness and challenges of faith healing practices in Ghana. In-depth interviews were conducted from 10th June to 30th July, 2017. Data were thematically analysed and presented based on the a posteriori inductive reduction approach. Results The main findings were that faith healers served as the first port of call for disease curing and prevention for most users. Consumers of faith healing perceived their health status to be good due to the perceived effectiveness of faith healing for curing of health problems. However, users faced challenges such as stigmatisation and victimisation in seeking health care. Conclusion This study has provided the first baseline evidence in this important area of inquiry that has been neglected in the scholarly discourse in Ghana. By implication, users’ positive attitudes and perceptions toward faith healing call for integration policies that allow formal medical services to have open idea to faith healing practices in Ghana