From aspiration to achievements: Exploring the motivational drives behind female graduate nursing students' pursuit of higher education in Ghana.

Background: The nursing and midwifery professions are predominantly female. In Sub-saharan Africa, especially in Ghana, females have traditionally been perceived as homemakers who do not require higher education to play their roles. This phenomenon perpetuates gender inequality, underutilises talents, and denies women opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Predictive model for genital tract infections among men and women in Ghana: An application of LASSO penalized cross-validation regression model.

To enhance the capacity for early and effective management of genital tract infections at primary and secondary levels of the healthcare system, we developed a prediction model, validated internally to help predict individual risk of self-reported genital tract infections (sGTIs) at the community level in Ghana. The study involved 32973 men and women aged 15-49 years from three rounds of the Ghana Demographic Health Survey, from 2003 to 2014. The outcomes were sGTIs.

Evaluation of tuberculosis surveillance system in a municipality in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: public health surveillance is the ongoing systematic identification, collection, collation, analysis, and interpretation of disease occurrence and public health event data, to take timely and robust action, such as disseminating the resulting information to the relevant people, for effective and appropriate action. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the micro-organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The main objective of this study was to describe the operation and performance of the TB surveillance system in a municipality in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Correction: Hygienic disposal of stools and risk of diarrheal episodes among children aged under two years: Evidence from the Ghana Demographic Health Survey, 2003-2014.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Impact of iron supplementation among anemic voluntary first-time blood donors: Results from the BLOODSAFE pilot trial in Ghana.

Introduction: In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), an adequate supply of safe blood for transfusion is a major developmental challenge. In Ghana, deferral from blood donation for anemia accounts for nearly half of the ineligible blood donors. We conducted a longitudinal two-arm parallel-group non-inferiority trial to test if iron supplementation among blood donors with iron deficiency (ID) or anemia could increase their hemoglobin levels to near those without ID or anemia.

Factors influencing integrated disease surveillance and response system in selected districts in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Background: Ghana adopted the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system, which is an integration of the various programs in the surveillance system and can contain disease outbreaks and pandemics. Implementation of the IDSR is influenced by several factors which can affect its functionality and ability to contain disease outbreaks. This study assessed the factors influencing the IDSR system in selected districts in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

A national audit of facilities, human and material resources for the comprehensive management of diabetes in Ghana-A 2023 update.

Introduction: The human and material resources as well as the systems for managing diabetes in Africa are inadequate. This study or needs assessment, aimed at updating the human and material resources, identifying the gaps and unmet needs for comprehensive diabetes care in Ghana.

Methods: We conducted a national audit of 122 facilities in all 16 administrative regions of Ghana.

The Ghana heart initiative - a health system strengthening approach as index intervention model to solving Ghana's cardiovascular disease burden.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death worldwide, with 80% of these deaths occurring in low-middle income countries (LMICs). In Ghana and across Africa, CVDs have emerged as the leading causes of death primarily due to undetected and under treated hypertension, yet less than 5% of resources allocated to health in these resource-poor countries go into non-communicable diseases (NCD) including CVD prevention and management. Consequently, most countries in Africa do not have contextually appropriate and sustainable health system framework to prevent, detect and manage CVD to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in CVD care through improved Primary Health Care (PHC) with the aim of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in CVD/NCD.

Signatures of adaptation at key insecticide resistance loci in Anopheles gambiae in Southern Ghana revealed by reduced-coverage WGS.

Resistance to insecticides and adaptation to a diverse range of environments present challenges to Anopheles gambiae s.l. mosquito control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.

Food insecurity and associated health and social determinants among older adults in Ghana: Analysis of the WHO's study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), 2014-2015.

This study was conducted to assess the prevalence and factors associated with Food Insecurity (FI) and further quantify its association with unmet need for health services and health-related outcomes among older adults aged 50 years and above in Ghana. The Ghana Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health was used. Body Mass Index (BMI), depressive episodes, functional difficulties (FD), low Quality of Life (QoL), memory decline, and Unmet Needs of Health Services (UNHS) are the the study outcomes.

Determinants of semantic and episodic memory decline among older adults in Ghana: Evidence from the WHO study on global AGEing and adult health Ghana wave 2.

Objective: Determined factors associated with semantic (SM) and episodic memory (EM) among older adults aged 50 years and older in Ghana.

Methods: Data from WHO Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) Ghana Wave 2 was used for this study. Semantic memory (SM) and Episodic memory (EM) were the main study outcomes separately.

Examining the Utilization of Social Capital by Ghanaians When Seeking Care for Chronic Diseases: A Personal Network Survey.

With limited social security and health protection in Ghana, intergenerational support is needed by those living with NCDs, who incur recurrent costs when seeking NCD care. We measured the level of informal support received by NCD patients and identified factors that influence support provision. We surveyed 339 NCD patients from three hospitals in Ghana, who listed their social ties and answered questions about their relationship and support frequency.

Essential parameters needed for a U-Net-based segmentation of individual bones on planning CT images in the head and neck region using limited datasets for radiotherapy application.

The field of radiotherapy is highly marked by the lack of datasets even with the availability of public datasets. Our study uses a very limited dataset to provide insights on essential parameters needed to automatically and accurately segment individual bones on planning CT images of head and neck cancer patients.The study was conducted using 30 planning CT images of real patients acquired from 5 different cohorts.

Rural-urban and socio-demographic differentials in perceived health state among aging population in Ghana.

Background: The variations in health between rural and urban population have become an increasingly significant public health concern in developing countries including Ghana where urbanization is occurring. Whereas urbanization results in improved access to healthcare services, the concomitant negative consequences of urbanization coupled with unfavorable compositional and contextual attributes can affect the health of populations. The study sought to examine the effect of rural-urban residence and selected socio-demographic factors on perceived health state among aging population by employing a nationally representative data collected by the WHO from 2014 to 2015.

A survey of public perception, knowledge and factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptability in five communities in Ghana.

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.

Clinical characteristics and severity of diabetic ketoacidosis: A cross-sectional study from a tertiary hospital in Ghana.

Objectives: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a common, severe and often fatal complication of diabetes. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and precipitants of DKA, as well as factors associated with DKA severity in Ghanaian patients.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of the medical records of all 70 adult patients >18 years managed for DKA in the adult emergency room of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana from March 2019 to July 2019.

Risk factors for COVID-19 infections among health care workers in Ghana.

Introduction: Health care workers (HCWs) are crucial to the fight against COVID-19 and are at risk of being infected. We sought to determine the risk factors and associations of COVID-19 among HCWs in Ghana during the period of the pandemic.

Materials And Methods: A case-control study was conducted using the WHO COVID-19 HCWs exposure risk assessment tool.

Changes in trends and patterns of glycaemic control at Ghana's National Diabetes Management and Research Centre during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Maintaining optimal glycaemic control (GC) delays the onset and progression of diabetes-related complications, especially microvascular complications. We aimed to establish the trend and pattern of GC, and its associated factors in persons living with diabetes (PLWD), and to examine the influence of COVID-19 on GC.

Methods: A retrospective study involving secondary data from 2,593 patients' physical records from the National Diabetes Management and Research Centre (NDMRC) in Accra, extracted from 2015-2021.

Evaluation of the Ghana Heart Initiative - Design and Rationale of a Pragmatic Mixed-Methods Study from Diverse Perspectives: A Study Protocol.

Background: Rigorous evaluations of health system interventions to strengthen hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD) care remain scarce in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to evaluate the reach, effectiveness, adoption / acceptability, implementation fidelity, cost, and sustainability of the Ghana Heart Initiative (GHI), a multicomponent supply-side intervention to improve cardiovascular health in Ghana.

Methods: This study adopts a mixed- and multi-methods design comparing the effects of the GHI in 42 intervention health facilities (i.

Prevalence of malaria infection and the impact of mosquito bed net distribution among children aged 6-59 months in Ghana: Evidence from the Ghana demographic health and malarial indicator surveys.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of malaria infection and further quantify the impact of mosquito bed net distribution on malaria infection among children aged 6-59 months in Ghana.

Methods: A cross-sectional study using Ghana Demographic Health (GDHS) and Malaria Indicator (GMIS) surveys (2014 GDHS, 2016 GMIS, and 2019 GMIS). The exposure and the main outcomes were mosquito bed net use (MBU) and malaria infection (MI).

Change in glycaemic control with structured diabetes self-management education in urban low-resource settings: multicentre randomised trial of effectiveness.

Background: In high-resource settings, structured diabetes self-management education is associated with improved outcomes but the evidence from low-resource settings is limited and inconclusive.

Aim: To compare, structured diabetes self-management education to usual care, in adults with type 2 diabetes, in low-resource settings.

Design: Single-blind randomised parallel comparator controlled multi-centre trial.