ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Healthcare service delivery to refugee children from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Durban, South Africa: a caregivers’ perspective

Background Refugees are generally considered a vulnerable population, with refugee children (newborn and young children) being particularly so. Access to healthcare for this population remains a challenge. The main purpose of this study was to explore refugee caregivers’ perceptions of their children’s access to quality health service delivery to their young children in Durban, South Africa. Methods This study used an explanatory mixed methods design, purposively sampling 120 and 10 participants for the quantitative and qualitative phases, respectively. Participants were administered a self-developed questionnaire that assessed demographic information of participants, socioeconomic status and living standard, medical history of children, satisfaction and experiences with healthcare services and refugees’ networks and social support. A semi-structured interview schedule was developed to elicit in-depth and more detailed information from the participants on the quantitative areas that were investigated. Frequencies were calculated and a χ2 test was used to explore the factors associated with refugees’ satisfaction of the healthcare provided and thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Results The majority (89%) of caregivers were women, with over 70% of them aged between 30 and 35 years. Over 74% of caregivers visited public clinics for their children’s healthcare needs. The majority of caregivers (95%) were not satisfied with healthcare services delivery to their children due to the long waiting hours and the negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviours of healthcare workers, particularly in public healthcare facilities. Conclusion These findings underscore the need to address health professionals’ attitudes when providing healthcare for refugees. Attitudinal change may improve the relationship between service providers and caregivers of refugee children in South Africa, which may improve the health-related outcomes in refugee children.

Source: UG
Healthier lives for all Africans

In their Commission, Irene Agyepong and colleagues (Dec 23, 2017, p 2803)1 provide a comprehensive report on the pathway to healthier lives for all Africans by 2030. As highlighted in the Commission, we have been involved in training family physicians in Africa for the past 20 years within the framework of the Primary Care and Family Medicine Education (Primafamed) network, a South–South cooperation that brings together family medicine, primary care, and public health in more than 20 African countries.2 The participating departments interact electronically, share educational strategies, develop distance learning, and build educational and research capacity through annual workshops, taking advantage of their African Journal for Primary Health Care and Family Medicine. The effects of the network have been documented, both in their development of departments and training programmes3 and regarding their outcomes (namely, better access to and quality of care for local communities).4 African family physicians can strengthen interdisciplinary primary health-care teams in primary care facilities and within communities and, when appropriate, are involved as expert generalists in district hospitals. All African countries are facing the challenge of scaling up availability of family physicians in primary health care to make quality health care accessible, particularly in urban slums and rural and remote areas. This accessibility requires a substantial proportion (40–60%) of graduates from medical schools in Africa to be trained for family medicine.5 More integration between primary care and public health services will be needed to combine facility-based and person-centred care with community-level responsiveness to population needs, and to improve health outcomes.6

Source: UG
Healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults in the phase of a health policy change

Abstract Background Many countries have adopted health policies that are targeted at reducing the risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases. These policies promote a healthy population by encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours. This paper examines healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults by comparing behaviours before and after the introduction of a national health policy. The paper also explores the socio-economic and demographic factors associated with healthy lifestyle behaviour. Method Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate regression techniques were employed on two nationally representative surveys (2003 World Health Survey (Ghana) and 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey) to arrive at the results. Results While the prevalence of some negative lifestyle behaviours like smoking has reduced others like alcohol consumption has increased. Relatively fewer people adhered to consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings per day in 2008 compared to 2003. While more females (7.0%) exhibited healthier lifestyles, more males (9.0%) exhibited risky lifestyle behaviours after the introduction of the policy. Conclusion The improvement in healthy lifestyle behaviours among female adult Ghanaians will help promote healthy living and potentially lead to a reduction in the prevalence of obesity among Ghanaian women. The increase in risky lifestyle behaviour among adult male Ghanaians even after the introduction of the health policy could lead to an increase in the risk of non-communicable diseases among men and the resultant burden of disease on them and their families will push more people into poverty.

Source: UG
Hearing impairment among chronic kidney disease patients on haemodialysis at a tertiary hospital in Ghana

Background: Chronic kidney disease is a major public health challenge, globally. Inadequate excretion of metabolic waste products by the kidneys results in circulation of these toxic materials in the body. This can cause damage to tissues and organ systems including the auditory system which can lead to hearing loss. Aim: The study was aimed at determining the prevalence, degrees and types of hearing impairment among Chronic kidney disease patients on haemodialysis in Ghana. Methods: A case-control study involving 50 Chronic Kidney disease patients and 50 age and gender-matched control group was carried out at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH). A structured questionnaire was administered to obtain basic socio-demographic data and case history of the participants. Audiological assessment was performed using a test battery comprising otoscopy, tympanometry and pure tone audiometry in a soundproof booth. Results: Higher hearing thresholds were recorded across all the frequencies tested among the case group than the control group (p < 0.05) in both ears. Only sensorineural hearing loss was identified among the cases. The prevalence of hearing loss was 32% among the case group and 12% among the control group. No significant association was observed between hearing loss and duration of Chronic kidney disease (p = 0.16), gender of Chronic kidney disease patient and hearing loss (p = 0.88), and duration of Chronic kidney disease and degree of hearing loss (p=0.31). Conclusion: Our study showed that Chronic Kidney disease patients on haemodialysis are at higher risk of experiencing hearing loss.

Source: UG
The Hearing Impairment Ontology: A Tool for Unifying Hearing Impairment Knowledge to Enhance Collaborative Research

Hearing impairment (HI) is a common sensory disorder that is defined as the partial or complete inability to detect sound in one or both ears. This diverse pathology is associated with a myriad of phenotypic expressions and can be non-syndromic or syndromic. HI can be caused by various genetic, environmental, and/or unknown factors. Some ontologies capture some HI forms, phenotypes, and syndromes, but there is no comprehensive knowledge portal which includes aspects specific to the HI disease state. This hampers inter-study comparability, integration, and interoperability within and across disciplines. This work describes the HI Ontology (HIO) that was developed based on the Sickle Cell Disease Ontology (SCDO) model. This is a collaboratively developed resource built around the ‘Hearing Impairment’ concept by a group of experts in di erent aspects of HI and ontologies. HIO is the first comprehensive, standardized, hierarchical, and logical representation of existing HI knowledge. HIO allows researchers and clinicians alike to readily access standardized HI-related knowledge in a single location and promotes collaborations and HI information sharing, including epidemiological, socio-environmental, biomedical, genetic, and phenotypic information. Furthermore, this ontology illustrates the adaptability of the SCDO framework for use in developing a disease-specific ontology

Source: UG
Hearing loss in Africa: current genetic profle

Hearing impairment (HI) is highly heterogeneous with over 123 associated genes reported to date, mostly from studies among Europeans and Asians. Here, we performed a systematic review of literature on the genetic profle of HI in Africa. The study protocol was registered on PROSPERO, International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews with the regis tration number “CRD42021240852”. Literature search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, Africa-Wide Information, and Web of Science databases. A total of 89 full-text records was selected and retrieved for data extraction and analyses. We found reports from only 17/54 (31.5%) African countries. The majority (61/89; 68.5%) of articles were from North Africa, with few reports found from sub-Saharan Africa. The most common method used in these publications was targeted gene sequencing (n=66/111; 59.5%), and only 13.5% (n=15/111) used whole-exome sequencing. More than half of the studies were performed in families segregating HI (n=51/89). GJB2 was the most investigated gene, with GJB2: p.(R143W) founder variant only reported in Ghana, while GJB2: c.35delG was common in North African countries. Variants in MYO15A were the second frequently reported in both North and Central Africa, followed by ATP6V1B1 only reported from North Africa. Usher syndrome was the main syndromic HI molecularly investigated, with variants in fve genes reported: USH2A, USH1G, USH1C, MYO7A, and PCDH15. MYO7A: p.(P1780S) founder variant was reported as the common Usher syndrome variant among Black South Africans. This review provides the most comprehensive data on HI gene variants in the largely under investigated African populations. Future exomes studies particularly in multiplex families will likely provide opportunities for the discovery of the next sets of novel HI genes, and well as unreported variants in known genes to further our under standing of HI pathobiology, globally.

Source: UG
Heat Stress Impacts on Lactating Cows Grazing Australian Summer Pastures on an Automatic Robotic Dairy

The objective of this study was to measure the impacts of summer heat events on physiological parameters (body temperature, respiratory rate and panting scores), grazing behaviour and production parameters of lactating Holstein Friesian cows managed on an Automated Robotic Dairy during Australian summer. The severity of heat stress was measured using Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) and impacts of di erent THIs—low ( 72), moderate (73–82) and high ( 83)—on physiological responses and production performance were measured. There was a highly significant (p 0.01) e ect of THI on respiratory rate (66.7, 84.7 and 109.1/min), panting scores (1.4, 1.9 and 2.3) and average body temperature of cows (38.4, 39.4 and 41.5 C), which increased as THI increased from low to moderate to high over the summer. Average milk production parameters were also significantly (p 0.01) a ected by THI, such that daily milk production dropped by 14% from low to high THI, milk temperature and fat% increased by 3%, whilst protein% increased by 2%. The lactation stage of cow had no significant e ect on physiological parameters but a ected (p 0.05) average daily milk yield and milk solids. Highly significant (p 0.01) positive correlations were obtained between THI and milk temperature, fat% and protein% whilst the reverse was observed between THI and milk yield, feed intake and rumination time. Under moderate and high THI, most cows sought shade, spent more time around watering points and showed signs of distress (excessive salivation and open mouth panting). In view of the expected future increase in the frequency and severity of heat events, additional strategies including selection and breeding for thermotolerance and dietary interventions to improve resilience of cows need to be pursued.

Source: UG
Heat tolerance in field grown tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) under semi-arid conditions of west Africa

One major reason for extremely low production of tomato in Ghana is that the length of the growing season last only for a few months due to the high temperature influx during the remaining months. The temperatures recorded during these months are above the optimum for tomato flowering and fruiting and this consequently affects yield. To solve this problem a number management practices may be undertaken such has growing heat tolerant tomato varieties or providing shade to mitigate the devastating effect of high temperatures. Therefore the present study was conducted outside the normal growing season from June to October, which has a mean temperature of 23°C. Heat tolerant tomato cultivars were grown from April to July with a mean temperature of 25°C to evaluate their performance under these conditions and to assess the effect of shading on the production of one of the genotypes. Fruiting percentage was significantly lower in exotic hybrids compared to a local variety. Different genotypes showed no differences in the production of viable pollen. Shading decreased final shoot and root biomass by 67 and 47%, respectively, whiles fruit yield was not affected. Also among cultivars yields were similar.

Source: UG
Heavy Metal Concentrations in Road Deposited Dust at Ketu-South District, Ghana

Increasing air pollution levels due to rapid urbanization and growth in vehicular emission have become a major source of concern. As a result, research on air pollution in urban environments has largely focused on road deposited dust. In the present study, road deposited dust samples collected from the Ketu-South District, Volta Region in Ghana were analyzed for heavy metals (As, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) using energy dispersive XRF. The ranges of metal concentration were: 0.4-18.2 μg/g for As; 284-9106 μg/g for Cr; 18.4-144.1 μg/g for Cu; 233-1240 μg/g for Mn; 12.3-493.2 for Ni; 3.1-67.8 μg/g for Pb; and 18.2-406.5 μg/g for Zn. The highest level of metal contamination was found in the only roadway of an industrial area (cement factory). The lowest contaminated site was noted in a roadway which runs through a host of rural communities. Inter-cities comparison with previous data established that Cr levels in the present study was very high while Pb was very low compared to other cities. Metal contamination assessment status of the metals was made using mathematical models in terms of enrichment factor, geoaccumulation index and contamination factor. All the models agreed that contamination levels is in increasing order of Mn>Ni>Cu>Pb>Zn>As>Cr.

Source: UG
HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE DENSU RIVER BASIN IN GHANA

Physico-chemical and Trace metal analyses were carried out on water and sediment samples from the Densu river in Ghana to ascertain the water quality. The pH values ranged from 6.55 to 7.33 and were within the natural background level of 6.5 – 8.5. The Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) values ranged from 67.1 to 113.0 mg L-1 and were below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended value of 1000 mg L-1. The Electrical Conductivity (EC) values ranged from 150.3 to 223.0 µS cm-1 and were below the acceptable value of 350 µS cm-1 for unpolluted river. The salinity values were generally insignificant. The Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) technique was used for the trace metal analysis. The elemental analysis was done for Cd, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni and Zn. The analysis gave Fe (1.590 – 6.090) mg L-1, Mn (0.039 – 0.661) mg L-1 and Zn (0.005 – 0.021) mg L-1 in the water samples. The concentrations of Cd, Cu, Hg and Ni were below their respective detection limits for the analytical method used. The elemental concentrations in the soil sediments were Cu (6.0 – 46.5) mg kg-1, Fe (11,200 – 47,800) mg kg-1, Mn (143 – 1488) mg kg-1 and Zn (6.5 – 108.0) mg kg-1. Cd, Hg and Ni levels were below their respective detection limits. Enrichment factor computation for the soil sediments revealed that there could be moderate anthropogenic contributions to the levels of Mn and Zn in the sediments.

Source: UG
Heavy Metal Contamination of Soils around a Hospital Waste Incinerator Bottom Ash Dumps Site

Waste incineration is the main waste management strategy used in treating hospital waste in many developing countries. However, the release of dioxins, POPs, and heavy metals in fly and bottom ash poses environmental and public health concerns. To determine heavy metal (Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Ag) in levels in incinerator bottom ash and soils 100m around the incinerator bottom ash dump site, ash samples and surrounding soil samples were collected at 20m, 40m, 60m, 80m, 100m, and 1,200m from incinerator.These were analyzed using the absorption spectrophotometer method. The geoaccumulation (��geo) and pollution load indices (PLI) were used to assess the level of heavy metal contamination of surrounding soils.The study revealed high concentrations in mg/kg for, Zn (16417.69), Pb (143.80), Cr (99.30), and Cd (7.54) in bottom ash and these were above allowable limits for disposal in landfill. The study also found soils within 60m radius of the incinerator to be polluted with the metals. It is recommended that health care waste managers be educated on the implication of improper management of incinerator bottom ash and regulators monitor hospital waste incinerator sites.

Source: UG
Heavy metal contaminations in soil and cassava harvested near a cement processing facility in the Volta Region Ghana: Implications of health risk for the population living in the vicinity

Heavy metals concentration of Arsenic, Chromium, Nickel and Lead were determined in fresh cassava crops and the corresponding soils, from which they were harvested, collected in the vicinity of the Diamond Cement Factory (DIACEM) in the Volta Region, Ghana. In addition, similar samples (control) were collected 8km South of DIACEM in an area without charge from industrial influence. The average concentrations of the metals in the cassava were: 0.017μg/g for As, 3.04 μg/g for Cr; 6.76 μg/g for Ni; and 0.86 μg/g for Pb. For the corresponding soils the average concentrations for As, Cr, Ni and Pb were, 0.23, 53.22, 78.35 and 1.37 μg/g respectively. With the exception of Ni, all the metal levels in cassava were higher in the subject samples than in the controls. A similar situation occurred in the case of corresponding soils with Cr replacing Ni as the exception. This observation places much responsibility on the cement plant as the culprit of the higher metals in the samples. All the metal levels in the cassava samples with the exception of As were above permissible levels prescribed by the FAO/WHO for vegetables. The results of the estimated daily intake (EDI) for the metals also observe similar situation when compared to the Provisional Tolerable Daily Intake (PTDI) proposed by FAO/WHO. Values of Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) of heavy metals were calculated to estimate the risk to human health. All the metals values exceeded the safe limit of unity indicating a high human health risk for the population who consume cassava from the area.

Source: UG
Heavy metal mobility, bioavailability, and potential toxicity in sediments of the Korle lagoon in Ghana

This study aimed to identify the mobility, bioavailability, and potential toxicity of heavy metals (HM) in sediments of the Korle lagoon using metal partition. Sediments were analysed using the BCR (Bureau of reference) method. As (60%), Pb (50%), Zn (57%) and Fe (40%) were found in high concentration in the ion exchangeable fraction. The oxidisable fraction was dominated by Cu (51%), Cd (95%), Cr (61%), Ni (63%), As (35%), Fe (21%), Hg (30%), Pb (19%) and Zn (11%). The reducible fraction was dominated by Zn (29%), Pb (24%) and Hg (19%). The residual fraction was dominated by Hg (49%) and Fe (34%). PCA was used to identify pH and organic matter as the most important factors controlling the mobility and bioavailability of HM in the sediments. Arsenic, Pb, Zn and Fe were found to have the highest mobility. Chromium, Cu and Ni have medium mobility. Hg has low mobility. Most of the HM show potential bioavailability and toxicity.

Source: UG
Heavy metal, microbial and pesticides residue contaminations are limiting the potential consumption of green leafy vegetables in Ghana: An overview

Green leafy vegetables (such as cocoyam (Colocasia spp) leaves, spinach (Spinach spp), amaranths (Amaranthus spp), roselle leaves (Hibiscus spp), and lettuce (Lactuca spp)) form a major part of Ghanaian meals providing essential vitamin such as A, B and C and minerals including iron and calcium as well as essential bioactive compounds. However, the practices involved in the pro duction, distribution and handling of these nutrient rich vegetables, by most value chain actors in Ghana, unfortunately pre-dispose them to contamination with pathogens, heavy metals and pesticides residues. These have therefore raised public health concerns regarding the safety and quality of these green leafy vegetables. Understanding the current perspectives of the type of pathogens, heavy metals and pesticide contaminants that are found in leafy vegetables and their health impacts on consumers will go a long way in helping to identify appropriate mitigation measures that could be used to improve the practices involved and thereby help safeguard human health. This review examined reported cases of microbial, heavy metal and pesticides residue contamination of green leafy vegetables in Ghana from 2005 to 2022. Notable pathogenic microorganisms were Ascaris eggs and larvae, faecal coliform, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus Streptococci, Clostridium perfringes, and Escherichia coli. In addition, Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cr), Chromium (Cr), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu) and Manganese (Mn) have been detected in green leafy vegetables over the years in most Ghanaian cities. Pesticides residues from organochlorine, organophosphorus and synthetic pyrethroid have also been reported. Overall, microbial, heavy metals and pesticide residue contamination of Ghanaian green leafy vegetables on the farms and markets were significant. Hence, mitigation measures to curb the contamination of these vegetables, through the food chain, is urgently required to safeguard public health.

Source: UG