Healthcare services utilisation among patients with hypertension and diabetes in rural Ghana

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) remain a global burden and is projected to increase due to aging, rapid urbanization and unhealthy lifestyles. The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in rural districts in the Ashanti region of Ghana and to determine factors that influence utilization of health care services. Setting: Offinso North, Amansie West, Ahafo Ano South, and Asante Akim South. Methods: A population based prospective cross-sectional study comprising of adults aged 18 years and above was carried out from January 2016 to March 2016. A multistage sampling method was employed to select four rural districts in the Ashanti region of Ghana. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from respondents. Results: A total of 684 participants were recruited in the study. The prevalence of hypertension and diabetes was found to be 16.23% and 5.41% respectively. The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension comorbidity was 1.61%. The public hospital was the most preferred choice of facility (52.56%) for patients with NCDs. Educational level significantly decreased the likelihood of seeking healthcare in OTCMS and Health Centre to Hospitals (RRR = 0.1, 95% CI = 0.011­0.917, p = 0.042) and (RRR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.198-0.679, p = 0.001) respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of self -reported hypertension and diabetes observed in this study was relatively lower for hypertension and higher for diabetes as compared to other studies in Ghana. The public hospital is the most preferred choice of health facilities for patients with hypertension and diabetes in the rural districts

Verbal Autopsy: an Analysis of the Common Causes of Childhood Death in the Barekese Sub-District of Ghana

The availability of mortality data for any society plays an essential role in health monitoring and evaluation; as well as in the design of health interventions. However; most resource-poor countries such as Ghana have no reliable vital registration system. In these instances; verbal autopsy (VA) may be used as an alternative method to gather mortality data. In rural Ghana; the research team utilized a VA questionnaire to interview caretakers who were present with a child under the age of five prior to death. The data was given to two physicians who independently assigned the most probable cause of death for the child. A third; blinded physician analyzed the data in the cases where the first two physicians disagreed. When there was agreement between physicians; this was assigned as the cause of death for the individual child. During the study period; we recorded 118 deaths from 92 households. Twenty-nine (24.6) were neonatal deaths with the leading causes of death being neonatal sepsis; birth asphyxia and pneumonia. The remaining 89 (75.4) were post-neonatal deaths with the most common causes of death being pneumonia; malaria and malnutrition. While 63/118 (53.4) deaths occurred in the home; there is no statistically significant relationship between the location of the home and the time of travel to the nearest health facility (P=0.132). VA is an important epidemiological tool for obtaining mortality data in communities that lack reliable vital registration systems. Improvement in health care is necessary to address the large number of deaths occurring in the home