Assessing the association between the degree of pain and socioeconomic status among older persons in Ghana.

OBJECTIVES: The current study sought to examine the association between the degree of pain and socioeconomic status among older male and female Ghanaians. METHOD: Data were drawn from the 2007-08 World Health Organization Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) survey conducted in Ghana (Young adults=803, Adults=1689 and Older adults=2616). This includes bodily aches Ghanaians experienced in the last 30 days. Analyses of the association of pain with predisposing and enabling factors were carried out by means of ordinal logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: In the age-adjusted model, pain was statistically significantly associated with the cohabitating group as its marginal effect suggests that respondents in that category were less likely to experience pain as related to the others in women. CONCLUSION: This study established that Ghanaian men go through more pain than their women counterparts. This article is premier to our knowledge to apply ordered logistic for the degree of pain.

Predicting the timing of second praziquantel treatment and its effect on reduction of egg counts in southern Ghana.

Schistosoma haematobium infection could be associated with morbidity. Generally, the cost of schistosomiasis control is high and it becomes a burden for governments or non-governmental organisations to repeat control programs so as to reduce morbidity. There is therefore, the need to optimise the available meagre resources for its control. From 1993 to 1997 the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research of the University of Ghana carried out a schistosomiasis control program in southern Ghana. Using the generated data, an attempt is made to determine the timing of the second praziquantel treatment and the period needed after the second chemotherapy to have egg counts reduced to low levels in southern Ghana. It was revealed that the second praziquantel treatment in areas 1, 2, and 3 should be administered latest at 13.8, 11.8 and 13.2 months, respectively after the first one. Most importantly, it takes 24.4 months to bring egg counts to zero in area 3 while in area 1, it takes about 29 months after the second praziquantel treatment. Egg counts were not reduced to zero in area 2 after the second chemotherapy. At least passive health education and continuous safe water supply should support the chemotherapy in addition to weed removal at the water contact sites.

Urinary schistosomiasis in southern Ghana: a logistic regression approach to data from a community-based integrated control program.

The data for this analysis are based on the schistosomiasis control project of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana, designed to study the feasibility and effectiveness of an integrated schistosomiasis control program. It embraced chemotherapy and health education for community motivation. The study was carried out from 1993 to 1997. This paper presents observations made 24 months after intervention. Eight communities in southern Ghana were grouped into three areas. Individuals in all the areas received praziquantel after the baseline data collection in 1992-1993. Area 1 had passive while Area 3 received active health education. Area 2 received no education. Prevalence of schistosomiasis was the response variable of interest while age, sex, and area were considered as possible influencing variables. The model for the baseline data indicated no significant difference in prevalence among the three areas. The model 24 months after intervention indicated a significant difference among the three areas, suggesting a possible influence of the health education that motivated community participation in the provision of facilities for the control of schistosomiasis.

Predicting the impact of school-based treatment for urinary schistosomiasis given by the Ghana Partnership for Child Development.

Mathematical models can be used to predict the impact of interventions to control infectious diseases. In this paper, an epidemiological model is used to predict the impact of chemotherapy of school-age children infected with Schistosoma haematobium, in a programme conducted by the Ghana Partnership for Child Development in the Volta Region, Ghana. Existing data were used to validate the predictions of the model, demonstrating convincingly the ability of the model to make correct predictions. Predictions of trends in mean egg count, infection prevalence and prevalence of heavy infection (> 50 eggs/10 mL urine) were then made for the period 1997-1999, and will be compared to the data collected in the programme in the future.