Street-vended grilled beef sausages as potential vehicles of bacterial and fungal pathogens: An exploratory survey in Ho, the capital city of the Volta Region of Ghana.

Grilled beef sausage is a popular street delicacy in many countries, and Ghana is no exception. This study assessed street-vended grilled beef sausages as a potential vehicle of microorganisms that present food safety risks to the general public in Ho City. Twenty grilled beef sausages were obtained from various vended locations within Ho municipality by convenient sampling and were analyzed by standard microbiological protocols for food safety followed by statistical analysis with a test of significant difference at p < .05. Total aerobic bacteria count of the potential foodborne pathogens ranged from 2.75 × 104 to 1.85 × 107 CFU/g. The microbial species identified included Staphylococcus aureus with a load from 6.15 × 102 to 1.67 × 105 CFU/g, Escherichia coli from 4.2 × 102 to 3.9 × 104 CFU/g, Bacillus cereus from 3.05 × 102 to 7.1 × 104 CFU/g, and Salmonella spp. from 2.8 × 102 to 5.5 × 104 CFU/g. Total fungal counts also ranged from 0.0 to 9.83 × 103 CFU/g, and the species identified included Aspergillus spp. and Rhizopus spp. all of which were within the acceptable limits of the International Commission for Microbiological Specification of Foods. However, for total viable bacteria, 75% of the samples were above the acceptable limits in the guidelines by the Ghana Standards Authority, indicating that the consumption of grilled beef sausages poses serious food safety and hygiene risks to consumers. Hygienic processing of the sausages under sanitary environments, proper handling and preservation procedures, and periodic follow-up visits to the vended areas should be employed to reduce the risk of occurrence of potential pathogens in the products.

The relationship between nutrition and physical activity knowledge and body mass index-for-age of school-aged children in selected schools in Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Nutrition knowledge contributes significantly to the nutritional status and habits of individuals as it influences their food consumption. And body mass index (BMI) of individuals. Recent data suggests a relationship between nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitude, practices, and anthropometric indices of Ghanaian children. OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between nutrition and physical activity knowledge and using BMI-for-age of school-aged children. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving 591 school-aged children (8-13 years) chosen at random from schools in Ghana's Ho Municipality. Socio-demographic information was gathered. Data on nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitude, and practice were also collected using structured questionnaires. BMI was calculated after weight and height were measured. RESULTS: Majority of the participants had poor knowledge on nutrition (46.6%) and physical activity (49.8%) even though more children in private schools (63.3%) had better (good and excellent) knowledge in nutrition than children from public schools (48.2%). Older children (11-13 years) had 'good' knowledge of physical activity (54.7%) as opposed to younger children. Males (59.5%) and children in private schools (66.3%) also had better overall scores in combined nutrition and physical activity knowledge than their female and public-school counterparts, respectively. Physical activity knowledge was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the BMI-for-age categories. Nutrition knowledge (p < 0.05) and total nutrition and physical activity knowledge scores (p < 0.001) were weakly but positively associated with BMI-for-age. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that BMI-for-age of the participants was positively correlated to the nutrition knowledge and the total nutrition and physical activity knowledge (NutPA).

Physical fitness and cognitive function among school-aged children in selected basic schools in the Ho Municipality of Ghana.

Physical fitness is thought to promote cognitive function. Evidence about this is however lacking in the Ghanaian context. This study aimed to investigate the association between physical fitness and cognitive function among basic school children aged 8-13 years. A cross-sectional study involving 591 school children, recruited from 12 randomly selected public and private basic schools was conducted. Physical fitness tests were done using a five-test battery (Fifty metre run, handgrip strength, sit-up, flexibility and standing board jump) following standardized procedures. Cognitive function test using the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) were carried out. More girls (55%), children from 8-13 years old (49.1%) and public school children (66.1%) participated in the study. For fitness, boys performed better than girls in sit ups 3.4 ± 2.2 (mean ± SD), p = 0.012, handgrip 4.3 ± 2.0, p = 0.001 and overall fitness 4.3 ± 2.0, p = 0.007. Children in public schools performed significantly better in forward jump (p < 0.001) while those in private schools did better in 50m run (p < 0.001). For cognition, 46.1% of participants had less than 50% of the total score. Cognitive test score varied for forward jump and handgrip alone and not for sit ups, 50m run and overall score. Mean forward jump score was lowest in poor cognition group (4.9 ± 2.3), followed by good (5.3 ± 2.2) and highest among excellent (5.5 ± 2.3, p = 0.044) cognition group. Similar observation was made for handgrip. Cognition score and hand grip strength were positively but weakly correlated. (r = 0.132, p = 0.026). Although handgrip strength (measuring muscular strength) was significantly associated with cognitive function, this study found no significant association between overall physical fitness and cognitive function. These results indicate that only some components of physical fitness may be associated with cognitive function. This study is however correlational and one cannot infer causality.

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.