Energy drink: the consumption prevalence, and awareness of its potential health implications among commercial drivers in the Ho municipality of Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Consumption of energy drinks has become an escalating global public health problem. The work schedule and irregular sleeping habits of commercial bus drivers make them highly susceptible to getting fatigued, hence most of them consume energy drinks as a fatigue management strategy. However, consumption of energy drinks produces numerous psychomotor side effects that if consumed among drivers puts the traveling public in danger of road accidents. This study sought to assess the prevalence of energy drink consumption and awareness of associated potential health problems among commercial long-distance bus drivers operating from the Ho municipality. METHODS: The study population comprised about 266 commercial bus drivers. This was a cross-sectional study involving 132 participants who completed a structured questionnaire on the participants' socio-demographic characteristics, frequency of consumption and reasons for consumption. It also included questions to assess the knowledge of the ingredients and side effects of energy drinks. Respondents were selected using a convenience sampling technique. Descriptive analysis and Chi-square test of association were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: A majority (62.1%) of the drivers had more than 10 years of commercial driving experience. A 75% energy drink consumption prevalence was recorded with driving performance enhancement (78.8%) as the predominant reason for consumption. 7-10 bottles per week were consumed by most (32.2%) of the drivers. Also, 72.0% had poor knowledge of the side effects linked with energy drink consumption as well as the ingredients for preparation. CONCLUSION: Energy drinks were consumed by the majority of the drivers at the Ho main bus terminal of which most of the drivers had poor knowledge of the potential health problems linked with the consumption of these drinks. The consumption of energy drinks was observed to be higher among the drivers with lower education levels, higher monthly income and those who worked long hours in a day. The Ghana National Road Safety Commission (GNRC) in collaboration with other private road transport unions in Ghana should organize regular seminars for commercial bus drivers on the potential dangers and effects associated with energy drink consumption.

Maternal profiles and social determinants of malnutrition and the MDGs: What have we learnt?

BACKGROUND: Maternal socio-demographic and health profiles are important determinants of malnutrition in children. In the 1990s, malnutrition was associated with low-birth-weight, young mothers and low maternal socio-economic status at Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital (PML). It is not known how this has changed by efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We examined socio-demographic and health profiles of mothers of children with acute malnutrition and those without the condition to identify risk factors for malnutrition and focus on preventive efforts. METHODS: An unmatched case-control study was conducted in 2013 at PML, the largest facility for treating malnourished children in Ghana in 2013. Mothers of children with moderate and severe acute malnutrition were compared with mothers of well-nourished children. Weight-for-height was used to classify malnutrition. Record forms and a semi-structured questionnaire were used for data collection. An analysis was done with Stata 11.0 software. RESULTS: Altogether, 371 mothers were studied consisting of 182 mothers of malnourished children and 189 mothers of well-nourished children. Mothers of malnourished children were more likely to be unmarried or cohabiting, have lower family incomes, HIV infection and chronic disease. They were less likely to stay with or provide alternative care for their child. Awareness and use of social services, health insurance and a cash transfer programme were low. A remarkable reduction in the number of malnourished children occurred when families earned more than $250 USD a month. Over-nutrition was present in both groups of mothers. CONCLUSION: Low family income, unmarried status and type of child care were the main social determinants of malnutrition. There appears to be a reduction in the number of other poor socio-demographic characteristics in both the study and control groups compared to results from a previous study at the same centre, probably because of efforts toward attaining the MDGs. These findings suggest that prevention and optimum management need to involve multidisciplinary teams consisting of health professionals, social workers and/or key workers to enable families at risk to access social care and social protection interventions (MDG 1). This will make the management of malnutrition more effective, prevent relapse, protect the next child and address maternal over-nutrition.