Pre-and-In-Class Practical Lesson Habits of Selected University Physical Education Students in Ghana: Implications for Health and Physical Education

Habits formed during schooling are probably the strongest that influence individuals throughout life. It is always the intention of curriculum planners that, habits formed by students as a result of schooling be positive to promote healthy lifestyle in the future. However, nothing is documented on the pre-practical physical activity habits of physical education (PE) students in universities in Ghana. The paper focused on common physical activity behaviours exhibited and the food products consumed by the students prior to and during PE practical lessons. We conveniently sampled 112 level 100-300 University of Cape Coast PE students during the 2012/2013 academic year. We developed a questionnaire to gather data for this study. We found that only 24% (n=27) of the students practice three times and over, the techniques taught in class before the next class. Also, 36% (n=40) of the students reported not using appropriate protective gears during practical classes. Beside, 35% (n=39) of the students would not do post-activity stretching without lecturers’ supervision. Of the products consumed, 9% (n=10) and 6% (n=7) take energy drinks prior to and during PE classes, respectively. Other 2% (n=2) take in alcoholic beverages before classes. However, 30% (33) consume nothing prior to morning practical lessons. Many university PE students in Ghana engage in many unhealthy habits that need attention. This paper discusses how this new knowledge can assist professionals in Health and PE to moderate the habits acquired and practiced by students while at school. Key Words: Pre-practical activity, pre-practical food consumption, physical education, physical activity habits

Towards Population Salt Reduction to Control High Blood Pressure in Ghana: Using epidemiological data for Policy Direction

A large body of evidence has shown that excess salt intake is associated with hypertension and nutrition related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Global salt intake is high with populations consuming as much as twice the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommended intake of 5g/day. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately affected due to the nutrition transition taking place in those countries that is associated with an influx of highly processed foods that are becoming more affordable, and accompanied by changing lifestyles and changing dietary preferences. This has increased the availability and intake of energy dense nutrient poor (EDNP) foods that are particularly high in salt in LMICs. This thesis outlines six studies that sought to provide a systematic approach towards finding evidence, building advocacy and developing strategies to curb excess salt intake and rising hypertension in Ghana. Data used in studies that comprise the thesis were collected in the WHO’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (WHO-SAGE); a multi-country longitudinal study conducted in six LMICs namely China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa (SA). Within each country, the WHO-SAGE study has recruited a nationally representative sample of predominantly 50+ year old participants. In the two WHO-SAGE countries from the African continent, namely Ghana and SA, a nested sub sample was additionally selected in Wave 3 to provided 24hr urine samples for the analysis of sodium (Na), potassium (K), creatinine (Cr) and iodine (WHO-SAGE Salt and Tobacco study). This thesis is largely based on data from the salt sub-study, and the PhD candidate was heavily involved in the planning and data collection for the Ghana sub-study. This thesis reports analyses from WHO-SAGE datasets from Ghana for Waves (W) 1 (2007/8), 2 (2015) and 3 (2019) and makes comparisons with corresponding WHO-SAGE data from South Africa Waves, where appropriate

Dietary Sources of Salt in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

Rapid urbanization in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is transforming dietary patterns from reliance on traditional staples to increased consumption of energy-dense foods high in saturated fats, trans fats, sugars, and salt. A systematic literature review was conducted to determine major food sources of salt in LMICs that could be targeted in strategies to lower population salt intake. Articles were sourced using Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and grey literature. Inclusion criteria were: reported dietary intake of Na/salt using dietary assessment methods and food composition tables and/or laboratory analysis of salt content of specific foods in populations in countries defined as low or middle income (LMIC) according to World Bank criteria. Of the 3207 records retrieved, 15 studies conducted in 12 LMICs from diverse geographical regions met the eligibility criteria. The major sources of dietary salt were breads, meat and meat products, bakery products, instant noodles, salted preserved foods, milk and dairy products, and condiments. Identification of foods that contribute to salt intake in LMICs allows for development of multi-faceted approaches to salt reduction that include consumer education, accompanied by product reformulation

Dietary Sources of Salt in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

Rapid urbanization in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is transforming dietary patterns from reliance on traditional staples to increased consumption of energy-dense foods high in saturated fats, trans fats, sugars, and salt. A systematic literature review was conducted to determine major food sources of salt in LMICs that could be targeted in strategies to lower population salt intake. Articles were sourced using Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and grey literature. Inclusion criteria were: reported dietary intake of Na/salt using dietary assessment methods and food composition tables and/or laboratory analysis of salt content of specific foods in populations in countries defined as low or middle income (LMIC) according to World Bank criteria. Of the 3207 records retrieved, 15 studies conducted in 12 LMICs from diverse geographical regions met the eligibility criteria. The major sources of dietary salt were breads, meat and meat products, bakery products, instant noodles, salted preserved foods, milk and dairy products, and condiments. Identification of foods that contribute to salt intake in LMICs allows for development of multi-faceted approaches to salt reduction that include consumer education, accompanied by product reformulation

Towards Population Salt Reduction to Control High Blood Pressure in Ghana: A Policy Direction

Copyright The Author(s) on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition 2020. Although population salt reduction is considered a best buy in addressing hypertension and cardiovascular disease, Ghana shares a high hypertension burden with a seemingly high salt consumption. This article discusses best practices in reducing population salt intake and provides preliminary data on salt and potassium intake, as well as the process to develop a road map and identification of actions needed to support the development of a strategic national document towards salt reduction in Ghana. In February 2019, a 2-d stakeholder meeting was held with government agencies, researchers, nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, and international partners to deliberate on salt reduction strategies and interventions needed in the face of rising hypertension and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Ghana. Recommendations were developed from the stakeholder meeting and are being considered for inclusion in the revision of Ghana\u27s national NCD policy. Curr Dev Nutr 2020;4:nzaa084

Salt use behaviours of Ghanaians and South Africans: A comparative study of knowledge, attitudes and practices

Salt consumption is high in Africa and the continent also shares the greatest burden of hypertension. This study examines salt-related knowledge, attitude and self-reported behaviours (KAB) amongst adults from two African countries-Ghana and South Africa-which have distributed different public health messages related to salt. KAB was assessed in the multinational longitudinal World Health Organisation (WHO) study on global AGEing and adult health (WHO-SAGE) Wave 2 (2014-2015). Respondents were randomly selected across both countries-Ghana (n = 6746; mean age 58 years old; SD 17; 41% men; 31% hypertensive) and South Africa (n = 3776, mean age 54 years old; SD 17; 32% men; 45% hypertensive). South Africans were more likely than Ghanaians to add salt to food at the table (OR 4.80, CI 4.071-5.611, p \u3c 0.001) but less likely to add salt to food during cooking (OR 0.16, CI 0.130-0.197, p \u3c 0.001). South Africans were also less likely to take action to control their salt intake (OR 0.436, CI 0.379-0.488, p \u3c 0.001). Considering the various salt reduction initiatives of South Africa that have been largely absent in Ghana, this study supports additional efforts to raise consumer awareness on discretionary salt use and behaviour change in both countries

Correlate of safety measures of oil marketing companies and safety behaviours of fuel station attendants in Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis: Correlate of safety measures of oil marketing companies and safety behaviours of fuel station attendants in Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis

Workers of fuel retail industry are exposed to many hazards as result of their job and behaviors. Management’s safety practices are important workplace preventive measures to reducing health and safety hazards. The purpose of this study was to explore the level of safety behaviors among pump attendants and the relationship between attendants’ safety behaviors and safety measures of the companies in the Sekondi-Takoradi. This survey involved 114 pump attendants from four purposively sampled oil marketing companies. Researcher generated questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency reliability of .81 was used to collect data, using SPSS version 16.0 with Pearson correlation as statistical tool. The results indicated that 70% of the respondents disagreed they sometimes ignore safety rules to get their work done quickly, while 86.8% disagreed they sometimes intentionally allow fuel to touch their body. Also, as 60% of the participants agreed they always change into house dresses after work, 78% agreed they always observe safety rules at their stations. Pearson bivariate correlation analysis showed that safety policy enforcement positively correlated moderately (r = 0.6) with attendants’ safety behavior while a low positive relationship was observed between personal protective equipment and safety behaviors of the attendants. The fuel attendants performed their jobs with high sense of safety. Furthermore, provision of appropriate workplace safety measures has positive relationship with the safety behaviors of the participants. Hence, instituting worksite safety policy and enforcing them will positively promote safe work performance among the attendants

Salt and potassium intake among adult Ghanaians: WHO-SAGE Ghana Wave 3

© 2020 The Author(s). Though Ghana has high hypertension prevalence, the country lacks current national salt consumption data required to build and enhance advocacy for salt reduction. We explored the characteristics of a randomly selected sub sample that had valid urine collection, along with matched survey, anthropometric and BP data (n = 839, mean age = 60y), from the World Health Organization\u27s Study on global AGEing and adult health (WHO-SAGE), Ghana Wave 3, n = 3053). We also investigated the relationship between salt intake and blood pressure (BP) among the cohort. BP was measured in triplicate and 24 h urine was collected for the determination of urinary sodium (Na), potassium (K), creatinine (Cr) and iodine levels. Hypertension prevalence was 44.3%. Median salt intake was 8.3 g/day, higher in women compared to men (8.6, interquartile range (IQR) 7.5 g/day vs 7.5, IQR 7.4 g/day, p \u3c 0.01), younger participants (18-49 y) compared to older ones (50+ y) (9.7, IQR 7.9 g/day vs 8.1, IQR 7.1 g/day, p \u3c 0.01) and those with higher Body Mass Index (BMI) (\u3e 30 kg/m2) compared to a healthy BMI (18.5-24.9 kg/m2) (10.04, IQR 5.1 g/day vs 6.2, IQR 5.6 g/day, p \u3c 0.01). More than three quarters (77%, n = 647) of participants had salt intakes above the WHO maximum recommendation of 5 g/d, and nearly two thirds (65%, n = 548) had daily K intakes below the recommended level of 90 mmol. Dietary sodium to potassium (Na: K) ratios above 2 mmol/mmol were positively associated with increasing BP with age. Population-based interventions to reduce salt intake and increase K consumption are needed