Care delivery in the context of district mental healthcare plans in Ghana: a qualitative study exploring experiences of primary healthcare workers and service users.

Objective: To explore the perceptions and experiences of mental health service users and healthcare workers regarding the implementation of district mental healthcare plans (DMHPs) in three district demonstration sites in Ghana.

Design: The study employed a qualitative design using reflexive thematic analysis. Interview data were analysed by combining inductive and deductive approaches.

Predictors of Late Antenatal Care Initiation: A Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study in Ghana.

Background: Despite free maternal healthcare, about 50% of pregnant women in Ghana initiate their antenatal clinic (ANC) late.

Aim: This study aimed to identify the factors that contribute to the late initiation of ANC among pregnant women in the Jasikan District, Ghana.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2021 and May 2022 in multiple health facilities.

Effect of maternal migration on under-five mortality in the Navrongo HDSS area.

Introduction: Mortality under five years is an important indicator and a significant index for assessing the health and general wellbeing of a country. Even though global efforts to reduce under-five mortality have yielded some positive results, the rates are still high in most low- and middle-income countries. There is general consensus that migration and its associated remittances alleviate poverty at the rural places of origin.

Evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of integrating mass drug administration for helminth control with seasonal malaria chemoprevention in Ghanaian children: Protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of integrating seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with mass drug administration for helminth control among school-aged children living in communities where the burden of malaria and helminths is high in Ghana, West Africa.

Methods: This cluster randomised controlled trial will enrol 1200 children aged 5-10 years. Eligible children randomised to intervention clusters will receive SMC drugs (sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine) and anthelminthic drugs for soil-transmitted helminths-(albendazole), and for schistosomiasis (praziquantel), while children randomised to control clusters will receive SMC drugs alone.

Identifying WHO global priority endemic pathogens for vaccine research and development (R&D) using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA): an objective of the Immunization Agenda 2030.

Background: To date, global priorities for new vaccine R&D have not been systematically identified for endemic pathogens. As part of Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030), we have systematically identified priority endemic pathogens for new vaccine R&D based on country and regional stakeholder values to address this need.

Methods: MCDA surveys targeting policy makers and immunisation stakeholders in each World Health Organization (WHO) region were used to weight eight criteria for prioritisation.

The effect of Plasmodium falciparum exposure and maternal anti-circumsporozoite protein antibodies on responses to RTS,S/AS01 vaccination in infants and children: an ancillary observational immunological study to a phase 3, randomised clinical trial.

Background: The RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine showed lower antibody response and protective efficacy in infants aged 6-12 weeks compared with children aged 5-17 months (for whom this vaccine is recommended). We aimed to study the effect of previous Plasmodium falciparum exposure on the antibody responses to RTS,S/AS01 vaccination in infants and children, and the mediating effect of baseline (including maternal) anti-circumsporozoite protein (CSP) antibodies.

Methods: In this observational study, we included children and infants from six African countries (Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania) enrolled in the MAL067 immunology ancillary study of the RTS,S/AS01 phase 3 clinical trial from March 27, 2009, to Jan 21, 2011.

Factors influencing vaccination up-take among nomadic population in four regions of Ghana: a qualitative study.

Background: Vaccination has contributed to the reduction in vaccine preventable diseases. Despite, improved global coverage, vaccination among nomadic populations is still low especially in Africa. This study explored factors influencing vaccination uptake among pastoralist nomads in Ghana.

Beyond air pollution: a national assessment of cooking-related burns in Ghana.

Introduction: Household energy transitions have the potential to reduce the burden of several health outcomes but have narrowly focused on those mediated by reduced exposure to air pollution, despite concerns about the burden of injury outcomes. Here, we aimed to describe the country-level incidence of severe cooking-related burns in Ghana and identify household-level risk factors for adults and children.

Methods: We conducted a national household energy use survey including 7389 households across 370 enumeration areas in Ghana in 2020.

UNITY: A low-field magnetic resonance neuroimaging initiative to characterize neurodevelopment in low and middle-income settings.

Measures of physical growth, such as weight and height have long been the predominant outcomes for monitoring child health and evaluating interventional outcomes in public health studies, including those that may impact neurodevelopment. While physical growth generally reflects overall health and nutritional status, it lacks sensitivity and specificity to brain growth and developing cognitive skills and abilities. Psychometric tools, e.

Burden of headaches, eye irritation and respiratory symptoms among females stacking LPG with polluting cooking fuels: Modelling from peri-urban Cameroon, Ghana & Kenya.

Introduction: Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a clean cooking fuel that emits less household air pollution (HAP) than polluting cooking fuels (e.g. charcoal, wood).

Community-Based Strategies to Improve Health-Related Outcomes in People Living With Hypertension in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Individuals living with hypertension are at an increased risk of cardiovascular- and cerebrovascular-related outcomes. Interventions implemented at the community level to improve hypertension control are considered useful to prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events; however, systematic evaluation of such community level interventions among patients living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is scarce.

Methods: Nine databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster randomized control trials (cRCTs) implementing community level interventions in adults with hypertension in LMICs.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on handwashing practices among community members in the middle belt of Ghana: evidence from a cross-sectional study.

Handwashing is an effective public health intervention for preventing the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Maintenance of clean hands is particularly important during the pandemic, to break the cycle of human-to-human transmission of the virus. This study explored the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the handwashing behaviours of residents before and during the pandemic.

The 2022 symposium on dementia and brain aging in low- and middle-income countries: Highlights on research, diagnosis, care, and impact.

Two of every three persons living with dementia reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The projected increase in global dementia rates is expected to affect LMICs disproportionately. However, the majority of global dementia care costs occur in high-income countries (HICs), with dementia research predominantly focusing on HICs.

Risk factors affecting the feeding site predilection of ticks on cattle in Ghana.

Ticks are important disease vectors affecting animal health and causing substantial economic loss, especially in the tropics and subtropics. To examine the tick burden of cattle and associated risk factors for tick infestation, ticks were collected from 388 cattle within five regions in Ghana. Most of the cattle were males (50.

Digital tools for youth health promotion: principles, policies and practices in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although digital health promotion (DHP) technologies for young people are increasingly available in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there has been insufficient research investigating whether existing ethical and policy frameworks are adequate to address the challenges and promote the technological opportunities in these settings. In an effort to fill this gap and as part of a larger research project, in November 2022, we conducted a workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, entitled 'Unlocking the Potential of Digital Health Promotion for Young People in Low- and Middle-Income Countries'. The workshop brought together 25 experts from the areas of digital health ethics, youth health and engagement, health policy and promotion and technology development, predominantly from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), to explore their views on the ethics and governance and potential policy pathways of DHP for young people in LMICs.

Prenatal Household Air Pollution Exposure and Childhood Blood Pressure in Rural Ghana.

Background: The association between prenatal household air pollution (HAP) exposure and childhood blood pressure (BP) is unknown.

Objective: Within the Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) we examined time-varying associations between ) maternal prenatal and ) first-year-of-life HAP exposure with BP at 4 years of age and, separately, whether a stove intervention delivered prenatally and continued through the first year of life could improve BP at 4 years of age.

Methods: GRAPHS was a cluster-randomized cookstove intervention trial wherein pregnant women were randomized to one of two stove interventions: ) a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove or improved biomass stove, or ) control (open fire cooking).

Inverting the deficit model in global mental health: An examination of strengths and assets of community mental health care in Ghana, India, Occupied Palestinian territories, and South Africa.

Global mental health [GMH] scholarship and practice has typically focused on the unmet needs and barriers to mental health in communities, developing biomedical and psychosocial interventions for integration into formal health care platforms in response. In this article, we analyse four diverse settings to disrupt the emphasises on health system weaknesses, treatment gaps and barriers which can perpetuate harmful hierarchies and colonial and medical assumptions, or a 'deficit model'. We draw on the experiential knowledge of community mental health practitioners and researchers working in Ghana, India, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and South Africa to describe key assets existing in 'informal' community mental health care systems and how these are shaped by socio-political contexts.

Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease and Risk Factors in Ghana: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: The increasing cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden threatens the global population as the major cause of disability and premature death. Data are scarce on the magnitude of CVD among the population in West Africa, particularly in Ghana. This study examined the available scientific evidence to determine the pooled prevalence (PP) of CVD and risk factors in Ghana.

Household concentrations and female and child exposures to air pollution in peri-urban sub-Saharan Africa: measurements from the CLEAN-Air(Africa) study.

Background: Relatively clean cooking fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) emit less fine particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO) than polluting fuels (eg, wood, charcoal). Yet, some clean cooking interventions have not achieved substantial exposure reductions. This study evaluates determinants of between-community variability in exposures to household air pollution (HAP) across sub-Saharan Africa.