ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Observations from mortality trends at the children's hospital, accra, 2003-2013

Objective Facility-based studies provide an unparalleled opportunity to assess interventions deployed in hospitals to reduce child mortality which is not easily captured in the national data. We examined mortality trends at the Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital (PML) and related it to interventions deployed in the hospital and community to reduce child mortality and achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4). Methods The study was a cross-sectional review of data on consecutive patients who died at the hospital over a period of 11 years, between 2003 and 2013. The total admissions for each year, the major hospital-based and population-based interventions, which took place within the period, were also obtained. Results Out of a total of 37,012 admissions, 1,314 (3.6%) deaths occurred and admissions tripled during the period. The average annual change in mortality was -7.12% overall, -7.38% in under-fives, and -1.47% in children ô5 years. The majority of the deaths, 1,187 (90.3%), occurred in under-fives. The observed decrease in under-five (and overall) mortality rate occurred in a specific and peculiar pattern. Most of the decrease occurred during the period between 2003 and 2006. After that there was a noticeable increase from 2006 to 2008. Then, the rate slowly decreased until the end of the study period in 2013. There was a concomitant decline in malaria mortality following a pattern similar to the decline observed in other parts of the continent during this period. Several interventions might have contributed to the reduction in mortality including the change in malaria treatment policy, improved treatment of malnutrition and increasing paediatric input. Conclusion Under-fives mortality at PML has declined considerably; however, the reduction in mortality in older children has been minimal and thus requires special attention. Data collection for mortality reviews should be planned and commissioned regularly in hospitals to assess the effects of interventions and understand the context in which they occur. This will provide benchmarks and an impetus for improving care, identify shortfalls and ensure that the gains in child survival are maintained.

Source: UG
Observations on the Authenticity of Bruce's Travels In Abyssinia; In Reply To Some Passages in Brown's Travels Through Egypt, Africa, and Syria. To Which Is Added, A Comparative View of Life and Happiness in Europe and In Caffraria.

MEN, who quit the comforts and allurements of their own country, and the protection of civilized Government, to explore distant parts of the world: who, to infract, amuse and amend Europe, expose themselves to the dubious hospitality of other ' regions; certainly deserve no small portion of our gratitude, and occupy a very distinguished station in the scale of literary eminence. But we are by no means to conceive, that all who travel are equally our benefactors: a great variety of circumstances must coincide, in order to render the labors of travellers really valuable: and we ought to make the difficulties under which they labor a fort of standard in appreciating the merit of their_ works. Success (however cruel or invidious such a requisite may feem) success is undoubtedly a principal ingredient; and one, without which a concurrence of many other claims to public thanks, will loose all its force

Source: UG
Observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa: The Religion, Character Customs of the Natives

With becoming deference, I shall endeavor to illustrate in the following pages, the observations I have personally made upon the Coast of Africa, and to give the information I have obtained from an extended circle of Chiefs, and native Tribes, relative to its Inhabitants, their Religion, Habits and Customs, the natural productions and commercial resources, &c. and attempt to delineate the most eligible grounds upon which the condition of the African may be effectually improved, and our commercial relations be preserved with that important quarter of the glob€!, Though deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and my own incompetency, I obtrude myself upon Public notice; governed by this reflection, that I am stimulated by an ardent zeal for the prosperity of my Country, and am animated by a philanthropic solicitude for the effectual manumission of the African , from his enslaved customs, his superstitious idolatry, and for the enlargement of his intellectual powers.

Source: UG
Obstetric determinants of preterm delivery in a regional hospital, Accra, Ghana 2016

Background: Globally, prematurity is a major determinant of morbidity and mortality contributing 30–40% of neonatal mortality. The consequences of preterm deliveries are enormous with developmental and childhood complications as well as high economic and psycho-social burden on the parents (family) and society. Some risk factors include ever having preterm delivery, multiple births and some medical conditions like sexually transmitted infection and urinary tract infections but these have not been ascertained in our study area. Much research into these risk factors is needed in Ghana. We assessed the obstetric determinants of preterm delivery. Methods: We conducted a 1:2 unmatched case-control study in Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH) -Ridge, a secondary referral facility in Accra, Ghana (from October, 2015 -May, 2016). A case was a mother who delivered between 28 and 36 weeks of gestation (preterm) and a control was a mother who delivered after 37 to 42 completed weeks (term). We used structured questionnaire to collect data, reviewed maternal and foetal records using a checklist. Categorical variables were analysed and expressed as frequencies and proportions. We determined the association between obstetric factors and preterm delivery with multiple logistic regression. Significance level of the strength of association was determined at 95% CI and p-value < 0.05. Results: We recruited 390 mothers, 130 had preterm deliveries (cases) and 260 had term deliveries (controls). Experiencing premature rupture of membrane (aOR: 2.3; 95% CI:1.0–5.5), pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (aOR: 3.4; 95% CI: 1.0–11.9) were found to be associated with preterm delivery. However, four or more ANC visit was protective factor for preterm delivery (aOR: 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1–0.4). Conclusion: Premature rupture of membrane, hypertensive complications and antepartum haemorrhage were found to be risk factors associated with preterm delivery in Ridge Hospital. Health workforce providing ANC services need to identify risk factors and refer these mothers to the doctor for early management and improved outcome decreasing preterm delivery.

Source: UG
Occupational and Environmental Health Effects of Informal Electronic Waste Recycling – A Focus on Agbogbloshie, Ghana

The unregulated and unorganized structure of informal electronic waste recycling worksites exposes workers to numerous occupational hazards. This context also presents research challenges in collecting exposure data to establish linkages with adverse health effects and development of risk-mitigating strategies. This paper presents some findings from a 5-year multinational and multi-institutional collaboration of academic and government partners, which documented extensive occupational and environmental health conditions at the Agbogbloshie electronic waste site in central Accra, Ghana.

Source: UG
Occupational Exposure to HIV and How Health Workers Cope with It at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital

Occupational exposure to HIV by health workers is a major issue globally. It is more prevalent in the low-income countries especially, in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Yet it seems that there is very little information on occupational exposure to HIV by health workers and how they cope in Ghana. The study explored the occupational exposure to HIV and how health workers cope with it. The exploratory descriptive qualitative research design was used to explore and describe the occupational exposure to HIV and coping strategies of health workers. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit study participants. A sample size of 12 participants was used for the study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analysed using the Miles and Huberman’s approach to content analysis. The key findings of the study were that all the health workers occupationally exposed to HIV experienced fear and anxiety. The main causes of occupational HIV exposure were improper disposal of sharps, recapping of used needles and lack of protective clothing. Health workers exposed to HIV experience stress as a result of the fear of being infected with HIV and the side effects of post-exposure prophylaxis. The challenges faced by health workers occupationally exposed to HIV consist of care lapses, side effects of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and lack of support at the workplace after the exposure. These challenges led to under-reporting and non-adherence to the PEP. The effects of the HIV occupational exposure on the health workers consisted of the side effects of the PEP, anxiety, empathy for people living with HIV, increased sense of caution and deterioration in interpersonal relationships with patients, friends, and co-workers. The coping strategies used by the health workers included caring for the site of exposure, reporting HIV exposure, testing for HIV status of the source, adhering to the PEP, anger, guilt, crying, praying, blaming, and denial. The study revealed that health workers coped well with social support from family, friends, and co-workers. Some health workers felt that their health facilities could have done more to support them. It is recommended that standard precaution is enforced. It should be ensured that health workers exposed to HIV received adequate social support, counselling, the source of exposure should be tested for HIV and training on effective coping for all health workers.

Source: UG
Occupational exposure to pesticides: blood cholinesterase activity in a framing community in Ghana

A survey was undertaken to establish the extent of pesticide exposure in a farming community. Cholinesterase (ChE) activity in whole blood was used as a marker for assessing exposure to peticides. Complete data were gathered for 63 farmers at Akumadan (exposed) and 58 control subjects at Tono, both prominent vegetable-farming communities in Ghana, by means of a questionnaire and blood cholinesterase analyses (acetylcholine assay). Although whole-blood ChE was significantly lower in the exposed than the control participants, it was not significantly correlated with either confounders of age, sex, body weight, and height or high-risk practices. The high-risks practices. The high-risks practices revealed during the survey included lack of use of personal protective clothing, short reentry intervals, and wrong direction of spraying of pesticides by hand or knapsack sprayer. About 97% of exposed participants had experienced symptoms attributable to pesticide exposure. The frequent symptoms were reported as weakness and headache. There is the need to review safety precautions in the use and application of pesticides in Ghana.

Source: UG
Occupational Health and Safety and Employee Engagement: Evidence from the SMEs Sector in Ghana

Occupational health and safety and employee engagement literature have been studied independently. However, the need to integrate these streams of literature has now become apparent. This paper therefore seeks to address this gap by empirically testing the impact of occupational health and safety management on employee engagement in the small and medium-scaled enterprises in Ghana. A cross-sectional data from 136 employees were analysed to (dis)confirm our hypotheses. Results of the structural equation model revealed a positive effect of occupational health and safety on intellectual, social and affective engagement. However, among the dimensions of engagement, intellectual engagement was the criterion variable influenced most. The paper suggests that promoters of SMEs, owners and/or managers, should endeavour to treat the health and safety concerns of their employees with utmost priority in order to get the best out of them.

Source: UG
Occupational Health and Safety and Organizational Commitment: Evidence from the Ghanaian Mining Industry

Background: This study seeks to examine the relationship and impact of occupational health and safety on employees’ organizational commitment in Ghana’s mining industry. The study explores occupational health and safety and the different dimensions of organizational commitment. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used for this study. The respondents were selected based on simple random sampling. Out of 400 questionnaires administered, 370 were returned (77.3% male and 22.7% female) and used for the study. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the relationship and impact between the variables. Results: The findings of this study revealed positive and significant relationship between occupational health and safety management, and affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Additionally, the results revealed the significant impact of occupational health and safety on affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Conclusion: Management within the mining sector of Ghana must recognize the fact that workers who feel healthy and safe in the performance of their duties, develop emotional attachment and have a sense of obligation to their organization and are most likely committed to the organization. Employees do not just become committed to the organization; rather, they expect management to first think about their health and safety needs by instituting good and sound policy measures. Thus, management should invest in the protection of employees’ health and safety in organizations.

Source: UG
Occupational Health and Safety and Sustainable Development in Ghana

This paper examines the state of occupational health and safety in Ghana and the role it plays in the sustainable development agenda of the country. It reviews literature on the triple bottom line (people, profits and planets) and how they are affected by OHS policies and the effects of work related hazards on sustainable development. The paper observes the argument that there are three pillars of sustainable development; people, planet and profit. The paper also reveals that OHS has three pillars similar to sustainability; Economy, Environment and Society. It thus recommends that there should be sound OHS policies that will embrace sufficient environmental friendly programmes to ensure that the employees are safe and hence ensure sustainability.

Source: UG
Occupational Health and Safety Dimensions and Work Outcomes in the Mental Hospitals in Ghana: The Moderating Effect of Job Satisfaction

Like high risk industries such as aviation and mining, occupational health and safety issues in the mental hospitals cannot be underestimated. For instance, although some conceptual and empirical studies have focused on patient safety in mental hospitals, the safety and health management of nurses in the mental health sector has largely been ignored. This paper seeks to examine the relationship between occupational health and safety management and two work outcomes such as engagement and turnover intention in a large mental hospital in Ghana. Results of the correlation coefficient indicated a positive relationship between occupational health and safety and engagement, and a negative relationship with turnover intention. The hierarchical regression results revealed a positive influence of safety procedure and safety leadership on mental health nurses engagement. In addition, only safety supervision and safety leadership had negative effect on the mental health nurses’ turnover intention. Finally, job satisfaction of the mental health nurses moderated the relationships between safety supervision and safety leadership, and intention to turnover. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.

Source: UG
Occupational Health and Safety Management and Turnover Intention in the Ghanaian Mining Sector.

Background The mining industry is considered as one of the most dangerous and hazardous industries and the need for effective and efficient occupational health and safety management is critical to safeguard workers and the industry. Despite the dangers and hazards present in the mining industry, only few studies have focused on how occupational health and safety and turnover intentions in the mines. Method The study suing a cross-sectional survey design collected quantitative data from the 255 mine workers that were conveniently sampled from the Ghanaian mining industry. The data collection tools were standardized questionnaires that measured occupational health and safety management and turnover intentions. These scales were also pretested before their usage in actual data collection. Results The correlation coefficient showed that a negative relationship existed between dimensions of occupational health and safety management and turnover intention; safety leadership (r = −0.33, p < 0.01); supervision (r = −0.26, p < 0.01); safety facilities and equipment (r = −0.32, p < 0.01); safety procedure (r = −0.27, p < 0.01). Among these dimensions, safety leadership and safety facility were significant predictors of turnover intention, (β = −0.28, p < 0.01) and (β = −0.24, p < 0.01) respectively. The study also found that turnover intention of employees is heavily influenced by the commitment of safety leadership in ensuring the effective formulation of policies and supervision of occupational health and safety at the workplace. Conclusion The present study demonstrates that safety leadership is crucial in the administration of occupational health and safety and reducing turnover intention in organizations.

Source: UG
Occupational Health and Safety: Key Issues and Concerns in Ghana.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) poor occupational health and reduced working capacity of workers may cause economic loss up to 10-20% of the Gross National Product of a country. In countries like Ghana with fast growing workforce coupled with a growing informal sector, workers have tended to fight for job security neglecting the need for quality work life. It is argued that poor countries and companies cannot afford safety and health measures. However, there is no evidence that any country or company in the long run would have benefited from poor safety and health. This paper examines occupational health and safety (OHS) issues in Ghana and reveals the lack of a comprehensive OHS policy, poor infrastructure and funding, insufficient number of qualified occupational health and safety practitioners, and the general lack of adequate information as among the main drawbacks to the provision of occupational health and safety services.

Source: UG
Occupational radiation exposure to norms in a gold mine

Preliminary studies have been conducted into the occupational radiation exposure to NORMS from surface and underground mining operations in a gold mine in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. A brief description of the methods and instrumentation is presented. The annual effective dose has been estimated to be 0.26 ± 0.11 mSv for surface mining and 1.83 ± 0.56 mSv for the underground mines using the ICRP dose calculation method. The results obtained are found to be within the allowable limit of 20 mSv per annum for occupational exposure control recommended by the ICRP. © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Occupational Safety and Health and Corporate Social Responsibility in Africa: Repositioning Corporate Responsibility Towards National Development

The objectives of this book are to: 1. Describe how CSR and OHS are executed (or not) in advanced northern countries as well as developing southern countries. There are hardly any such cogent treatments of the two concepts together taking in both advanced and developing contexts. 2. To show or demonstrate the challenges confronting the proper deployment of both notions in the African context. 3. To provide evidence to influence corporate, institutional and public policy. 4. Directly and indirectly to demonstrate how the MDGs, particularly alleviating poverty, may be attained in Africa through clear and focused attention on OHS and CSR by both State and non-State actors as well as by businesses and organisations. 5. Finally offer students, practitioners and researchers a useful resource book.

Source: UG
Occurrence of an Alaskan-type complex in the Middle Tianshan Massif, Central Asian Orogenic Belt: Inferences from petrological and mineralogical studies

The Xiadong mafic-ultramafic complex lies in the central part of the Middle Tianshan Massif (MTM), along the southern margin of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). This complex is composed of dunite, hornblende (Hbl) clinopyroxenite, hornblendite, and Hbl gabbro. These rocks are characterized by adcumulated textures and variable alteration. Orthopyroxene is an extremely rare mineral in all rock units and plagioclase is absent in dunite and Hbl clinopyroxenite. Hbl, Fe-chromite, and Cr-magnetite are common phases. Olivines have forsterite (Fo) contents ranging from 92.3 to 96.6. Clinopyroxenes are Ca-rich, Ti-poor diopsides, and mostly altered to tremolites or actinolites. Chromites display low TiO 2 and Al 2O 3 contents and high Cr# and Fe 2+/(Fe 2++Mg) values. Primary and secondary Hbls show wide compositional variations. These petrological and mineralogical features as well as mineral chemistry are comparable to typical Alaskan-type complexes worldwide, which are widely considered to have formed above subduction zones. The chemistry of clinopyroxene and chromite supports an arc plate-tectonic origin for the Xiadong complex. Its confirmation as an Alaskan-type complex implies that the MTM, with Precambrian basement, was probably a continental arc during oceanic plate underflow and further supports the hypothesis of southward subduction of the Palaeozoic Junggar Ocean. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Source: UG
Occurrence of Carbapenemases, Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases and AmpCs among Beta-Lactamase-Producing Gram-Negative Bacteria from Clinical Sources in Accra, Ghana

The Bacteriology Department aims to improve the quality of life first for Ghanaians and the world at large by conducting research into bacterial diseases of public health importance to Ghana and globally. In addition to working on enteric pathogens and sexually transmitted diseases, the department’s current main focus is on the two most important mycobacterial diseases of public health importance to Ghana, namely Buruli ulcer (BU) and tuberculosis (TB).

Source: UG
Occurrence of cassava mosaic begomovirus associated satellites on cassava in Ghan

Cassava mosaic disease (CMD), arguably the most important viral disease of cassava, an important food security crop has in recent times, been reported to be associated with satellites in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated the status of Cassava mosaic begomovirus and associated satellites in CMD-affected cassava plants in Ghana using polymerase chain reaction. In all, 110 CMD-affected cassava leaf samples collected from cassava fields in Southern Ghana. Africa cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) was detected in 107 (97%) cassava leaf samples, out of which 76 (69%) was in mixed infections with East Africa cassava mosaic virus-Cameroon (EACMV-CM). EACMV (CM) alone was detected in three (3%) cassava leaf samples. Out of the 110 cassava leaf samples affected by cassava mosaic begomoviruses, satIII and satII were detected in 66 (60%) and 47 (43%), respectively. To the best of our knowledge, detection of CMB-associated satellites in Ghana is the first in the country and possibly in West Africa, and has serious epidemiological implications on the management of CMD, thereby requiring further studies and concerted efforts to safeguard cassava production.

Source: UG