Psychiatry as a specialization: influential factors and gender differences among medical students in a low- to middle-income country.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the perception of Ghanaian medical students about factors influencing their career interest in psychiatry and to explore gender differences in these perceptions. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional quantitative survey of 5th and 6th year medical students in four public medical schools in Ghana. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 545 medical students (response rate of 52%). Significantly, more male medical students expressed that stigma is an important consideration for them to choose or not to choose a career in psychiatry compared to their female counterparts (42.7% v. 29.7%, respectively). Over two-thirds of the medical students perceived that psychiatrists were at risk of being attacked by their patients, with just a little over a third expressing that risk was an important consideration for them to choose a career in psychiatry. There were no gender differences regarding perceptions about risk. Around 3 to 4 out of 10 medical students will consider careers in psychiatry if offered various incentives with no gender differences in responses provided. CONCLUSION: Our study presents important and novel findings in the Ghanaian context, which can assist health policy planners and medical training institutions in Ghana to formulate policies and programs that will increase the number of psychiatry residents and thereby increase the psychiatrist-to-patient ratio in Ghana.

Seasonality of rotavirus infection in Ghana.

Human rotavirus (HRV) infection and its seasonal distribution was studied over a 12-month period in Ghana. A total of 561 stool samples, 447 diarrhoea stools and 114 non-diarrhoea stools (controls), were obtained from children attending three polyclinics in Accra. Rotavirus was detected during 10 of the 12 months and showed a seasonal trend. It was high during the relatively cool dry months and low during the wet season. Peaks of infection were in February (26.2%) and September (24.5%). HRV was detected in 67 of 447 of the diarrhoea stools (15.0%) and in eight of 114 controls (7.0%). The HRV isolation rate was highest (20.2%) in the under-18-months age group. The RNA electropherotype of the HRV isolates was predominantly (83.6%) of the long type. Non-group A HRV was detected in 14.9% of the HRV-positive samples.