ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
The relationship between chitotriosidase activity and tuberculosis

Chitotriosidase, secreted by activated macrophages, is a biomarker of activated macrophages. In this study, we explored whether chitotriosidase could be adopted as a biomarker to evaluate the curative effect on tuberculosis (TB). Five counties were randomly selected out of 122 counties/cities/districts in Hunan Province, China. Our cases were all TB patients who were newly diagnosed or had been receiving treatment at the Centers for Disease Control (CDCs) of these five counties between April and August in 2009. Healthy controls were selected from a community health facility in the Kaifu district of Changsha City after frequency-matching of gender and age with the cases. Chitotriosidase activity was evaluated by a fluorometric assay. Categorical variables were analysed with the χ 2 test. Measurement data in multiple groups were tested with analysis of variance and least significant difference (LSD). Correlation between chitotriosidase activity and the degree of radiological extent (DRE) was examined by Spearman's rank correlation test. The average chitotriosidase activity levels of new TB cases, TB cases with different periods of treatment (&lt;3, 3-6, &gt;6 months) and the control group were 54·47, 34·77, 21·54, 12·73 and 10·53 nmol/h.ml, respectively. Chitotriosidase activity in TB patients declined along with the continuity of treatment. The chitotriosidase activity of both smear-positive and the smear-negative pulmonary TB patients decreased after 6 months' treatment to normal levels (P &lt; 0·05). Moreover, chitotriosidase activity was positively correlated with DRE (r = 0·607, P &lt; 0·001). Our results indicate that chitotriosidase might be a marker of TB treatment effects. However, further follow-up study of TB patients is needed in the future. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015.

Source: UG
The Relationship Between Climate Change, Globalization And Non-Communicable Diseases In Africa: A Systematic Review

Climate change and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are considered the 21st Century’s major health and development challenges. Both pose a disproportionate burden on low- and middle-income countries that are unprepared to cope with their synergistic effects. These two challenges pose risks for achieving many of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and are both impacted by globalization through different pathways. While there are important insights on how climate change and or globalization impact NCDs in the general literature, comprehensive research that explores the influence of climate change and or globalization on NCDs is limited, particularly in the context of Africa. This review documents the pathways through which climate change and or globalization influence NCDs in Africa. We conducted a comprehensive literature search in eight electronic databases—Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Global Health Library, Science Direct, Medline, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. A total of 13864 studies were identified. Studies that were identified from more than one of the databases was automatically removed as a duplicate (n = 9649). Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), guidelines, a total of 27 studies were eventually included in the final review. We found that the impacts of climate change and or globalization on NCDs act through three potential pathways: reduction in food production and nutrition, urbanization and transformation of food systems. Our review contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the impact of climate change and or globalization on human health. We believe that our findings will help enlighten policy makers working on these pathways to facilitate the development of effective policy and public health interventions to mitigate the effects of climate change and globalization on the rising burden of NCDs and goal 3 of the SDG, in particular.

Source: UG
Relationship between clinical governance and hospital performance: a cross-sectional study of psychiatric hospitals in Ghana

Purpose – Clinical governance (CG) is crucial for healthcare quality of care improvement and safeguarding high standards of care. Little is known about CG in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors assessed health workers’ perceptions of CG and hospital performance in Ghana’s psychiatric hospitals. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 230 health workers across two psychiatric hospitals in Ghana. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 23.0. Findings – The majority (59.5%) of the respondents were females. The authors found that less than five in ten respondents felt that the hospitals have adopted measures to promote quality assurance (43.2%) and research and development (43.7%). However, a little above half of the respondents felt that the hospitals have adopted measures to promote education and training (57.7%); clinical audit (52.7%); risk management (50.7%) and clinical effectiveness (68.6%). The authors also found a statistically significant association between CG and hospital performance (p < 0.05). Research limitations/implications – There was a positive relationship between CG and hospital performance. Therefore, investing in CG may help to increase hospital performance. Originality/value – This is the maiden study to investigate CG and hospital performance in Ghana’s psychiatric hospitals and one of the few studies in Africa. This study makes a modest contribution to the global discourse on the subject matter

Source: UG
The Relationship Between CSR And CBBE In Sub-Saharan Africa, The Moderating Role Of Customer Perceived Value

Relying on the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) to better understand sub-Saharan African urban marketplaces, this article puts forward a conceptual framework whose objective is to a) investigate the effect of CSR on multiple dimensions of CBBE and b) investigate the moderating role of customer perceived value (CPV). Survey data are from 501 consumers in Ghana and are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings suggest that engaging in CSR unquestionably improves all aspects of brand equity, such as brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, and brand loyalty. We also find that the relationship between CSR and CBBE is moderated by CVP across all CSR-CBBE relationship. These findings are important implications for CSR, branding, international business and marketing in the Ghanaian marketplace

Source: UG
The relationship between dietary intake, body composition and blood pressure in male adult miners in Ghana

Unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits have been associated with the increasing prevalence of diet-related non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disorders and hypertension. The study was a cross-sectional involving 320 underground male miners in the Obuasi municipality. The research was conducted to generate data on the associations between characteristics of underground miners, their nutrition and blood pressure. Cluster and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents from their residential areas. Independent sample t-test and Spearman's correlation (2 tailed) were used to test the significance of associations between selected continuous variables, while Chi-square test was used to test for significance between categorical variables. Logistic regression was used to determine the extent to which significant variables predicted high blood pressure. Results indicated that apart from vehicle ownership (p = 0.02) and length of working underground (p<0.001). All other socio-economic variables did not indicate any significant association with blood pressure. About 41.6% of the respondents were hypertensive. The prevalence of obesity and overweight cases combined were 62.1%. Potassium intake correlated significantly and positively with systolic (r = 0.11, p = 0.04) and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.13, p = 0.02). The risk of developing hypertension increased with age, with persons within the age categories of 30-39 years, 40-49 years and 50-59 years had odds ratios of 2.55 (95% CI: 1.12-5.81), 3.34 (95% CI: 1.45-7.68) and 7.56 (95% CI: 2.91-19.84), respectively. Nutrient intake and blood pressure monitoring must be part of the day-to-day programmes of the underground male miners. © 2011 Asian Network for Scientific Information.

Source: UG
The relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability : evidence from selected Sub-Sahara African countries

Ensuring environmental sustainability amidst the quest to stimulate growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains an issue of great concern. In spite of this, the evidence for SSA is sparse, both at the theoretical and empirical level as literature has not adequately interrogated the effects of economic growth processes on the sustainability of the environment in SSA. Using a panel dataset from 1985-2010 covering 35 Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, this study examined the environmental impact of economic growth and growth-enhancing factors such as trade openness, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and industrialization under the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) framework. The environmental variables employed are CO2 emissions, Adjusted Net Savings (ANS) and energy consumption per capita. Employing the system Generalized Method of Moment, trade openness was found to reduce pollution/degradation through reduced CO2 emissions and energy consumption per capita while at the same time reducing environmental sustainability of SSA through reduced ANS. Industrialization was also found to unambiguously harm the environment while rapid urbanization is revealed to increase pollution/degradation through increased CO2 emissions and energy consumption. FDI is the only component found to be accompanied by a fall in pollution/environmental degradation through reduced CO2 emissions and energy consumption and a rise in environmental sustainability through increased ANS. Finally, while the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) is confirmed for ANS and energy consumption, it is not established for CO2 emissions.

Source: UG
Relationship between educational and occupational levels, and Chronic Kidney Disease in a multi-ethnic sample- The HELIUS study

Background: Ethnic minority groups in high-income countries are disproportionately affected by Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) for reasons that are unclear. We assessed the association of educational and occupational levels with CKD in a multi-ethnic population. Furthermore, we assessed to what extent ethnic inequalities in the prevalence of CKD were accounted for by educational and occupational levels. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the Healthy Life in an Urban Setting (HELIUS) study of 21,433 adults (4,525 Dutch, 3,027 South-Asian Surinamese, 4,105 African Surinamese, 2,314 Ghanaians, 3,579 Turks, and 3,883 Moroccans) aged 18 to 70 years living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Three CKD outcomes were considered using the 2012 KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) severity of CKD classification. Comparisons between educational and occupational levels were made using logistic regression analyses. Results: After adjustment for sex and age, low-level and middle-level education were significantly associated with higher odds of high to very high-risk of CKD in Dutch (Odds Ratio (OR) 2.10, 95% C.I., 1.37–2.95; OR 1.55, 95% C.I., 1.03–2.34). Among ethnic minority groups, low-level education was significantly associated with higher odds of high to very-high-risk CKD but only in South-Asian Surinamese (OR 1.58, 95% C.I., 1.06–2.34). Similar results were found for the occupational level in relation to CKD risk. Conclusion: The lower educational and occupational levels of ethnic minority groups partly accounted for the observed ethnic inequalities in CKD. Reducing CKD risk in ethnic minority populations with low educational and occupational levels may help to reduce ethnic inequalities in CKD and its related complications. © 2017 Adjei et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Source: UG
Relationship between eosinophil cationic protein and infection intensity in a Schistosomiasis endemic community in Ghana

Recent studies have shown the urine filtration and Kato-Katz techniques to significantly underestimate infection intensity in Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mansoni infections, respectively. Infection intensity determination by these methods improves only with increasing number of samples collected per participant. This implies tedious and lengthy periods of sample processing and analysis by microscopy examination, hence the increased chances of experimental errors. This study sought to determine the relationship between levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and infection intensity by egg count both in S. haematobium and S. mansoni single and coinfections. This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Pakro, a periurban community in Ghana, involving a total of 308 participants. Each provided urine and stool samples, which were processed using the filtration and Kato-Katz techniques, respectively. Processed samples were examined by microscopy. Aliquots of urine from 73 participants were analyzed for levels of ECP using an ECP enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. Of the 308 urine samples examined, 59 (19.15%) were positive for S. haematobium. Significant association was observed between sex and S. haematobium infection intensity by egg count (P<0.05) as well as between age and infection intensity (P<0.001). Mean ECP levels were higher in S. haematobium-positive samples than in S. haematobium-negative samples (P<0.001). There was also positive correlation between ECP and infection intensity (Spearman's r=0.73, P<0.001). This study showed that ECP levels are positively associated with infection intensity by egg count in Schistosomiasis infections, even after multivariate adjustment.

Source: UG
Relationship between Exchange Rate Volatility and Interest Rates Evidence from Ghana

This paper examines the effect of interest rates on exchange rate volatilities in Ghana. It utilizes the Quarterly Time Series dataset spanning 2000 Quarter 1 to 2017 Quarter 2 and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model as well as the Vector Error Correction Model to investigate the long-run and short-run relationships between the variables. The results showed that in the long-run model, exchange rate volatility was seen to be influenced by money supply, inflation, Central Bank’s policy rate, and the Ghana Stock Exchange composite index. However, in the short-run model, exchange rate volatility was found to be significantly influenced by its past values and the Central Bank’s policy rate

Source: UG
The Relationship between Firefighters’ Work Demand and Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders: The Moderating Role of Task Characteristics

Background: Emergency workers such as firefighters are cataloged within the most demanding and injurious professions globally. Considering the health and safety implications in firefighting, a lot of research needs to be conducted to examine how firefighters’ task characteristics and their work demand influence the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). This study therefore examines how the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and the development of WMSDs. Methods: Convenient sampling was employed to select 320 firefighters in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression. Results: The findings revealed that work demand and task characteristics have significant positive effects on WMSDs. Again, the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and WMSDs. Conclusion: Since the study shows that task characteristics influences the relationship between work demand and WMSDs, it is vital for managers to constantly modify the nature of tasks performed by and work demand of emergency workers to minimize the development of WMSDs and other industrial health complications.

Source: UG
The Relationship between Firefighters’ Work Demand and Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders: The Moderating Role of Task Characteristics

Background: Emergency workers such as firefighters are cataloged within the most demanding and injurious professions globally. Considering the health and safety implications in firefighting, a lot of research needs to be conducted to examine how firefighters’ task characteristics and their work demand influence the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). This study therefore examines how the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and the development of WMSDs. Methods: Convenient sampling was employed to select 320 firefighters in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression. Results: The findings revealed that work demand and task characteristics have significant positive effects on WMSDs. Again, the task characteristics of firefighters moderates the relationship between their work demand and WMSDs. Conclusion: Since the study shows that task characteristics influences the relationship between work demand and WMSDs, it is vital for managers to constantly modify the nature of tasks performed by and work demand of emergency workers to minimize the development of WMSDs and other industrial health complications. © 2018 The Author

Source: UG
The relationship between lifestyle variables, blood pressure and dietary habits of male adult miners in Ghana

Hypertension is a major public health problem in both the developed and the developing world and it is mostly associated among individuals, who indulge in unhealthy lifestyles and certain dietary habits. The study was a cross-sectional, involving 320 male miners in the Obuasi municipality. The study was conducted to generate data on the relationship between lifestyle variables, blood pressure and dietary habits of male adult miners. Cluster and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents from their residential areas. Chi-square test was used to test for significance between lifestyle variables (alcohol intake, smoking and physical activity), blood pressure and dietary habits in male adult miners. The results indicated that about 41.6% of the respondents were hypertensive while the prevalence of smoking, alcohol intake and less than 8 h of sleep a day were 42.5, 66.9 and 59.7%, respectively. Less than half of the respondents (32.8 and 12.8%) participated in brisk walking and aerobic exercise, respectively. Physical activity level, alcohol intake and smoking did not indicate statistical association with blood pressure (p>0.05). © 2012 Asian Network for Scientific Information.

Source: UG
The relationship between perceived service quality of antenatal care and use among rural women in Ghana

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to examine rural women’s perceived quality of antenatal care (ANC) and its influence on the extent of ANC in the Amansie Central District in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted with 120 women attending postnatal care at selected public health facilities. Structured interviews were used to obtain data. Crude odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) was generated to determine the odds of women’s utilisation of ANC with their perceived service quality. The association between women’s background characteristics and ANC use was determined and assessed using Pearson’s χ² (2) test. Findings Majority of the women (58.3 percent) utilised ANC for at least four times during pregnancy. Women’s education (p=0.027), religious affiliation (p=0.006), source of income (p=0.012) and insurance status (p=0.023) all had a positive relationship with ANC use. Women who perceived ANC quality as good were three times more likely to have four or more ANC visits than those who perceived quality as poor (OR= 3.042, 95% CI=0.181–0.647, p=0.001). Originality/value Ghana has had numerous policy interventions that address the accessibility and quality of ANC service. However, little is known about the extent to which they are observed and about the quality of service from users’ perspective. Most existing literature on ANC use in Ghana focusses on socio-economic factors that influence utilisation. This paper will be the first to examine the perceived quality of ANC provided, and its influence on the extent of ANC visits among rural women in Ghana.

Source: UG
Relationship between professional development of head teachers and supervision of instruction in Ghanaian basic schools

While a number of training programmes are organized to strengthen the supervisory roles of headteachers in Ghanaian basic schools, research suggests that the quality of instructional supervision remains poor. Employing quantitative research paradigm, this study sought to explore the relationship between professional development and supervision of instruction of headteachers in the basic schools of one educational district in Ghana. The study results showed that while engagement in both formal and informal professional development activities correlated with instructional supervision, only the engagement in informal professional development activities significantly predicted supervision and evaluation of instruction. This suggests that informal learning experiences appear to be valuable than formal professional development activities in the selected district. Educational authorities in Ghana therefore need to coordinate and strengthen the existing informal/on-the-job learning strategies in schools to facilitate the supervisory skills of headteachers.

Source: UG
The relationship between psychological distress and bullying victimisation among school-going adolescents in Ghana: a cross-sectional study

Objective: One of the pervasive problems in schools that has adverse implication on the wellbeing of students, is bullying victimisation. However, within sub-Saharan Africa, only few studies have examined how psychological distress influences bullying victimisation. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between bullying victimization and psychological distress among school going adolescents in Ghana. Results: One hundred and ninety-eight (198) male and female students completed a series of self-report questionnaires measuring psychological distress (anxiety, stress and depression) and bullying victimisation in a cross-sectional survey. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and standard multiple regression were used to analyse the data. Findings revealed that bullying victimisation was positively associated with all the domains of psychological distress: depression (r = 0.35, p < 0.001), anxiety (r = 0.30, p < 0.001) and stress (r = 0.35, p < 0.001). Further analysis found depression to be the only significant predictor of bullying victimisation (β = 0.20; t = 2.01; p < 0.05). Taking into consideration that bullying victimization is a major problem among adolescents in schools, anti-bullying programmes should be implemented as this may promote improved wellbeing of school-going adolescents in Ghana.

Source: UG