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Background: Adoption of a life style modification is of critical importance for preventing and managing hypertension. This study determined the adherence to lifestyle modification among hypertensive clients at Juaso district hospital. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted among hypertensive clients at Juaso district hospital, Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. A reviewed-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. A total of 300 respondents were conveniently sampled for the study. Clients diagnosed of hypertension and who regularly met appointment dates at the Out Patient Department (OPD) for at least six months duration were included in this study. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS and p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age (SD) of the participants was 63.6 years (±11.6) and median duration of having hypertension was 4 years. Out of the 300 participants, 72.0% of the participants were adherent to life style modification. The level of education (p < 0.0001), marital status (p < 0.0001) and duration of disease (p < 0.0001) statistically significant influenced the general rate of adherence. Participants who had secondary education [OR = 0.04 (0.005-3.1), p ≤ 0.0001)], tertiary education [OR = 0.8 (0.01-6.3), p = 0.003)], have had hypertension for a duration of 5 - 10 years [OR = 2.9 (1.5-5.8), p = 0.002)] and married [OR = 2.3 (1.1-4.9), p = 0.034)] were significantly associated with high rate of adherence to lifestyle modification. Participants who reported of being educated on the effect of smoking and alcohol consumption [OR = 2.2 (0.8-5.7), p ≤ 0.0001)] and exercise [OR = 58.9 (7.7-449.9), p ≤ 0.0001)] were significantly associated with high rate of adherence to lifestyle modification. Conclusion: The study showed that, the rate of adherence to lifestyle modification among hypertensive patients was high. Socio-demographic factors such as level of education, marital status and duration of disease significantly influenced the general rate of adherence.

Objective The association between unbalanced iron indices and the conditions of schizophrenia are not well understood. Liver dysfunction which has been linked to iron metabolism might be a contributing factor. This case–control study evaluated serum iron indices and liver function in treatment-naïve schizophrenia patients and those already on treatment at the Psychiatric Department of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi-Ghana. Results The mean age of the respondents was 39.6 ± 0.8 years. Increased levels of serum iron, TS, AST, ALT and AST:ALT ratio and lower levels of UIBC, TIBC, Transferrin, and log Ferritin:AST ratio levels were observed among the treatment-naïve group compared to the control. The treatment-naïve and treatment groups showed significantly higher serum AST:ALT ratio, and lower log10ferrtin:AST ratio than the healthy controls. There was a significant correlation between log10ferritin and AST, and log10ferritin and GGT in both treatments (r = 0.343; p = 0.003, and r = 0.502; p = 0.001 respectively) and treatment-naïve groups (r = 0.348; p = 0.002, and r = 0.614; p

The study determined the association of wrist circumference (WrC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) with cardiometabolic risk factors among diabetics in a Ghanaian population. This cross-sectional study involved 384 diabetic patients at Begoro District Hospital, Ghana. Blood pressure, anthropometrics, and biochemical indices were measured. The overall prevalence of dyslipidaemia, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and hypertension was 42.4%, 76.3%, and 39.8%, respectively. The optimum cut-off range of WrC to identify individuals at increased cardiometabolic risk was 17.5 to –17.8 cm for men and 16.0 to 16.7 cm for women while that of WHtR was 0.52 to 0.61 for men and 0.53 to 0.59 for women. WrC for women was a significant independent predictor for MetS [aOR = 3.0 (1.39–6.72), p=0.005] and systolic blood pressure [aOR = 2.08 (1.17–3.68), p=0.012]. WHtR was a significant positive predictor for triglycerides [aOR = 3.23 (0.10–3.82), p=0.001] for women. Using Framingham risk scores, 61% of the subjects had elevated 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), with no significant difference in gender prevalence. WrC [aOR = 6.13 (0.34–111.4), p=0.107] and WHtR [aOR = 2.52 (0.42–15.02), p=0.309] were associated with statistically insignificant increased odds of moderate-to-high risk of developing CVDs in 10 years. The use of gender-specific cut-offs for WrC and WHtR may offer putative markers for early identification of CRFs.