Non-communicable diseases in Ghana: risk factors, prevalence and social support systems
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to examine the effects of individual and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) on hypertension, establish an association between non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and disability and examine the role of social support systems in management of NCDs in Ghana. Specific focus is given to the burden of hypertension, diabetes, and stroke. The study is motivated by the scarcity of research on NCD-related risks among women in Ghana. Similarly, there is paucity of academic literature on relationships between NCDs, disability, and social support systems available to people living with these chronic conditions. In examining these issues, a mixed methods sequential explanatory research design is adopted using the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) as a conceptual framework. Specifically, data from the Women’s Health Study of Accra (WHSA-I) and the Ghana Global Ageing on Adult Health Survey (SAGE) are analyzed using multilevel logistic regression and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression respectively. In addition, qualitative interviews were undertaken in two teaching hospitals in Ghana with 33 patients living with NCDs, who were recruited for the study using purposive sampling technique. Results from the quantitative analyses reveal that wealthy women are more likely to be hypertensive compared to poorer women. However, the effects of neighborhood SES/wealth was attenuated after adjusting for individual-level SES/wealth. In addition, respondents with higher education reported higher levels of disability compared to those with no education, while stroke emerge as the major contributor to disability among Ghanaians. Thematic analysis of the interview data further indicate that the nuclear family is the main source of social support for the self-management of NCDs. The results suggests that efforts aimed at the prevention, control and management of hypertension should focus on changing individual behavioral lifestyles. Health promotion programs should also focus individual factors (engaging in physical activity and adoption of healthy diet with an emphasis on fruit and vegetable consumption etc) in the prevention, control and management of hypertension in Ghana. This research also offers innovative contributions to the extant literature by confirming that the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) can be effectively used to classify individuals with disabilities living in Ghana not only based on their medical conditions, but also by their functioning level. This research further demonstrates that the ICF framework can be used within the healthcare setting to promote inclusiveness within the broader community. Finally, the study findings demonstrates that social support can be used as a strategy in the promotion of the physical and mental well-being of these NCD patients.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".