Search

Global warming is a serious threat to human existence. The relatively higher level of global warming in recent times poses higher health risks to humans, both directly and indirectly. The aim of the study was to investigate public knowledge of global warming and its effects on human health. A nationally representative survey of Ghanaian adults ( N = 1130 ) was conducted from November 1, 2018 to February 28, 2019. Results show that 84.4% of the respondents understood the meaning of global warming. Respondents’ perceived causes of global warming include natural processes, deforestation, act of the gods, burning of fossil fuel, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from vehicles and industries. The majority of the respondents (83.4%) indicated that global warming has an impact on human health, while 8.5% indicated that it does not. Majority (78.6%) of the respondents are willing to support efforts to reduce the intensity of global warming. Television (19.1%) and social media (18.6%) were the leading preferred methods for receipt of global warming information. These findings provide useful insights for policy directions. The Government of Ghana and other stakeholders in health should develop a communication strategy to increase and sustain publicity and education of the citizenry on global warming.

Introduction. Personal hygiene is essential to the current paradigm shift towards predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine, which enables the prediction and prevention of infectious disease outbreaks. Objective. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the personal hygiene practices among university students aiming at providing a basis for preventive and predictive medical interventions and to make future efforts improve target interventions for young people. Methods. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional study. Validated instruments that related personal hygiene practices were used to obtain quantitative data from 412 tertiary students from seven universities in Accra, Ghana. The resulting data were analyzed with IBM-SPSS, version 23. Results. There were more female respondents (54.4%) in the study than male respondents (45.6%). Respondents between the age group of 19-24 years constituted majority (59.7%) of the respondents in the study. Respondents from urban areas exhibited good hygiene practice compared to those from urban residences. There was a significant association between residence and hygiene practice (χ2=17.8, P≤0.001). We also observed that those respondents within the upper class in society had a poor hygiene practice, compared to the Lower Class and Middle Class respondents. Lack of education (63.1%) was observed as the main barrier to personal hygiene among the respondents. Future of the society depends on the health of its youth. Conclusion. A significant number of students are not actively practicing good hygiene. There is a need for deployment of preventive medicine interventions targeted at young people. It calls for improvement in methods of hygiene education for young people in tertiary institutions and the inclusion of hygiene in school curricula.

Health workers are prone to burnout, which can have an adverse effect on their person and the patients to whom care is offered. The goal of this paper was to assess the levels of burnout experienced by healthcare workers in Accra, Ghana. The study was conducted using the cross-sectional study design. Questionnaires were used to obtain data from 365 respondents who worked in 12 major healthcare facilities. Data obtained were analyzed with SPSS version 23. Majority of the respondents were females (56.7%) as against males (43.3%). The total score for all burnout variables among health worker groups ranged from good (71.50%), alarming (12.60%), acute crisis (6.02%), and burnout (9.90%). Among the health worker groups, nurses had the highest percentage score values for all burnout variables. There was an association between burnout and these sociodemographic characteristics: age (p<0.001), gender (p=0.003), educational qualification (p<0.001), occupation (p<0.001), years of work experience (p<0.001), marital status (p<0.001), and parenthood (having children) (p<0.001). It is recommended that measures should be put in place in Ghanaian hospitals to assess stress and burnout levels to ensure people who are going through such situations are properly cared and supported.