Ghana Medical Journal

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the knowledge about physical activity, physical activity levels and waist-to-hip ratio among persons living with diabetes in the Ho Municipality. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observation study. SETTING: The researcher collected data from two diabetes clinics in the Ho Municipality of Ghana. PARTICIPANTS: Consenting persons living with diabetes who attended the diabetes clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants' waist-to-hip ratio, knowledge of the physical activity and level of activity according to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire...

OBJECTIVES: To determine the usefulness of cardiovascular physical examination (CPE) as a screening tool in a low-resource setting for detecting congenital heart disease (CHD) in newborns delivered at the Maternity Unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Accra, Ghana. DESIGN: A hospital-based cross-sectional study with a comparison group component. SETTING: Maternity Unit of the KBTH, Accra, Ghana. PARTICIPANTS: Over eight months, newborns aged 1-14 days delivered at ≥ 34 weeks' gestation at the Maternity Unit, KBTH, were recruited into the study...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the risk of prematurity in Cameroonian children born after in vitro Fertilisation. DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Conducted at the pediatric department of the Hospital Center for Research and Application in Endoscopic Surgery and Human Reproduction (HCRAESHR) in Yaoundé over eight months. PARTICIPANTS: Every newborn born after in vitro fertilisation (exposed group) and those born after spontaneous conception (non-exposed group) from a singleton pregnancy were included...

OBJECTIVE: This study examined factors identified during early neonatal death audits contributing to preventable newborn deaths at the Upper East Regional Hospital. METHOD: Data for this study was collected retrospectively from perinatal death audit forms using three data collectors. Data collection lasted two weeks, from 18th June to 2nd July 2021. The data collectors submitted 113 filled hard copy data collection forms. This was then entered into a designed Excel sheet and exported to STATA software version 15...

UNLABELLED: Electrical storm (ES) refers to a life-threatening condition characterised by three or more episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation (VF), or appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks in 24 hours. We report a case of a 58-year-old man who suffered recurrent episodes of sustained VT despite appropriate defibrillation and antiarrhythmic drug therapy. On stepwise evaluation, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) was considered the most likely substrate for his dysrhythmia...

OBJECTIVE: This study compared patient safety culture among health professionals in tertiary, secondary and primary hospitals. DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among thirteen primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was administered to 1,656 health professionals. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). SETTING: This study was conducted in the Greater Accra, Bono and Upper East regions, representing the southern, middle and northern ecological zones, respectively...

OBJECTIVES: Among the vital measures to effectively curb the incidence of COVID-19 is the use of face masks. Little is known about what people understand and how they perceive and use face masks. This study aimed to determine the community's knowledge, attitude, and practice on the correct use of face masks. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: The study was carried out in Seremban 2, Malaysia using a self-administered questionnaire adapted from validated questionnaires of two previous studies...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of macrovascular and non-ocular microvascular complications and the associated factors among children and adolescents with diabetes mellitus in selected hospitals in southern Ghana. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: The out-patient clinics of the Departments of Child Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, Family Medicine, Ophthalmology, and the National Diabetes Management and Research Centre, all at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, as well as from Cape-Coast Teaching Hospital in the Central Region of Ghana...

UNLABELLED: Endometriosis-associated massive haemorrhagic ascites is rare and poses a diagnostic challenge to the gynaecologist due to its resemblance to malignancies, especially ovarian malignancy. We report a 31-year-old nulligravida with progressive abdominal swelling, worsening dysmenorrhea, weight loss and a family history of ovarian tumour. Pelvic ultrasonography and Computed Tomography scans suggested an ovarian mass suspected to be an ovarian malignancy. Exploratory laparotomy revealed massive haemorrhagic ascites (8...

OBJECTIVE: We determined the incidence of blood culture-related sepsis, causative bacteria, and antibiotics sensitivity among newborn babies with suggestive signs of sepsis admitted at the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga, Ghana. DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional study. SETTING: Newborn Care Unit of the Upper East Regional Hospital, Bolgatanga. PARTICIPANTS: Neonates admitted to the Newborn Care Unit from August 2019 to August 2020 with signs of sepsis...

OBJECTIVES: the aim was to compare 2 drops of either 5% chloramphenicol, 1% povidone-iodine or 5% povidone-iodine before cataract surgery on reducing the colonisation of bacterial flora in the conjunctiva. DESIGN: This was a double-blind, randomised clinical trial study. SETTING: Patients referred to Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Yazd, Iran, for cataract surgery were studied. PARTICIPANTS: Totally 260 patients were enrolled...

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the duration of SARS-CoV-2 clearance in persons in Ghana. The research question was whether the duration of virus clearance in Ghana matched the 14 days recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO); this had direct implications for transmission, which was key in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: This was a retrospective analytical study. SETTING: All facilities that submitted clinical specimens to Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis between March to June 2020 were included in the study...

UNLABELLED: The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) has established an annual leadership symposium celebrating innovative leadership in the health sector. The 2022 symposium under the theme "Health Sector Development in Ghana; The Power of Good Leadership" was held in honour of Professor Samuel Ofosu-Amaah (the laureate), an Emeritus Professor of Public Health at the University of Ghana, about his leadership legacy. This article reflects on the leadership challenges in the health sector, the lessons learnt from the symposium, and the way forward...

OBJECTIVES: Association of severity of Erectile Dysfunction (ED) and coronary artery disease (CAD) in type 2 diabetics based on the number of vessels involved. DESIGN: an observational, cross-sectional study. SETTING: tertiary level health care centre. PARTICIPANTS: 104 diabetics, as defined by ADA(American Diabetes Association) criteria, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria of positive coronary angiogram (in the last six months), were selected to participate in the study after obtaining informed consent...

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess the determinants of enrolment in health insurance schemes among people living with HIV. DESIGN: The study was a cross-sectional study. A pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from 371 HIV clients attending the clinic. Chi-square statistic was used for bi-variate analysis, and analytical decisions were considered significant at a p-value less than 0.05. Logistic regression was done to determine predictors of enrolment in health insurance...

OBJECTIVE: The present study assessed the public's perception and Knowledge about COVID-19 and factors that could affect vaccine acceptability in Ghana. DESIGN: We carried out a cross-sectional population-based study. A structured questionnaire was used to capture data on socio-demographic information, knowledge, and the public's perception of COVID-19 infection, as well as COVID-19 vaccine acceptability from consented participants. Factors affecting vaccine acceptability in Ghana were explored...

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the infection rates, degree of encrustation, symptoms, and complications in patients regarding the duration of urethral catheterisation (three weeks, six weeks, and eight weeks). DESIGN: A cross-sectional study with stratified simple random sampling. SETTING: Urology Unit, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and thirty-seven male patients with long-term urinary catheters...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global concern. Reports of insidious asymptomatic variants of the virus raise concerns about the safety of huge numbers of students on university campuses. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to delineate psychological correlates for students' adherence to safety protocols for appropriate context-specific coping intervention designs. SETTING & DESIGN: 751 students from the various colleges of the KNUST were conveniently sampled for this cross-sectional survey...

OBJECTIVE: To identify the determinants of systolic blood pressure variability (SBPV) among Ghanaians. DESIGN: We undertook a secondary analysis of data collected in a prospective study. SETTING: The study involved patients with hypertension and or diabetes receiving care in five hospitals in Ghana. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We assessed determinants of SBPV among 2,785 Ghanaian patients. We calculated the standard deviation (SD) of systolic BP recordings of 3 to 10 visits per patient over 18 months as a measure of SBPV...

OBJECTIVES: This study determined the prevalence of hypertension and its associated factors among patients attending the HIV clinic at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH). DESIGN: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at KBTH. The prevalence of hypertension was estimated among study participants, and socio-demographic, lifestyle, anthropometric, metabolic and HIV/ART-related factors associated with hypertension were determined by logistic regression modelling...